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Active and passive arching stresses outside a deep trapdoor

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Abstract

The classic trapdoor configuration has been useful to examine the changes in stresses expected on buried structures. However, the primary focus of previous studies has been on investigating the loads on the surface of the trapdoor, while stresses outside the trapdoor boundaries have generally been overlooked. This paper presents and discusses results of three-dimensional laboratory model tests conducted to investigate changes in the vertical soil pressure measured at various locations within a granular soil mass surrounding a deep rectangular trapdoor acting in both active and passive modes. The study aimed at investigating stress changes within the portion of the soil mass beyond the boundaries of the trapdoor. Redistributions of soil pressure were found to occur in a large zone of the soil outside the trapdoor under both active and passive conditions. Results indicate that active conditions induced the development of an unloading region in the soil, which includes the collapsing mass above the trapdoor and a portion of the soil surrounding the trapdoor. A stable load-transfer region could be identified in farther portions of the backfill. In passive conditions, the development of a load-transfer region above the trapdoor and an unloading region extending to farther zones in the backfill was also identified. The soil relative density, soil confinement and trapdoor shape were found to affect soil pressure distributions outside the trapdoor limits.

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Abbreviations

B :

Width of the trapdoor or buried structure (m)

D r :

Soil relative density (%)

E s :

Young’s modulus of the soil (kPa)

H :

Height of soil above the trapdoor (m)

H e :

Vertical distance from the trapdoor (m)

L :

Length of the trapdoor or buried structure (m)

q :

Applied surface pressure (kPa)

x :

Horizontal distance from the center of the model (m)

\( \delta \) :

Trapdoor vertical displacement (m)

\( \psi \) :

Dilatancy angle of the soil (°)

\( \varepsilon_{1} \) :

Axial strain change

\( \varepsilon_{\text{v}} \) :

Volumetric strain change

\( \nu_{\text{s}} \) :

Poisson's ratio of the soil

\( \sigma_{3}^{\prime } \) :

Effective confining pressure (kPa)

\( \sigma_{\text{v}} \) :

Vertical pressure in the soil (kPa)

\( \sigma_{\text{vo}} \) :

Vertical pressure prior to yielding of the buried structure (kPa)

\( \phi_{\text{cr}} \) :

Critical state friction angle of the soil (°)

\( \phi^{\prime } \) :

Internal friction angle of the soil (°)

\( \phi_{p}^{\prime } \) :

Peak friction angle of the soil (°)

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Acknowledgements

The authors dedicate this paper to Prof. Benedito S. Bueno, who actively participated in this research and, unfortunately, passed away on August 1, 2015. Prof. Bueno was an enthusiast researcher in geosynthetics and underground structures. He was greatly admired by his students and colleagues for his competence and character. His legacy includes the Laboratory of Geosynthetics of the University of São Paulo at São Carlos, Brazil, which he founded in 2001. We gratefully acknowledge his vital contributions to this research. The authors also express their gratitude to the Brazilian Research Agency Fapesp for the financial support provided for this research (Grant No. 00/09397-0), the Geotechnical Engineering Department of the University of São Paulo at São Carlos, Brazil, and the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, where the first part of this investigation was conducted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Av. Sen. Salgado Filho, 3000, Natal, RN, 59072-970, Brazil

    Yuri D. J. Costa

  2. Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, E. Dean Keeton St., Stop C1792, Austin, TX, 78712-1174, USA

    Jorge G. Zornberg

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Correspondence to Yuri D. J. Costa.

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Costa, Y.D.J., Zornberg, J.G. Active and passive arching stresses outside a deep trapdoor. Acta Geotech. 15, 3211–3227 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-020-00969-x

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