Experimental study on the tensile strength of gravelly soil with different gravel content

In recent years, the crack accidents of earth and rockfill dams occur frequently. It is urgent to study the tensile strength and tensile failure mechanism of the gravelly soil in the core for the anti-crack design of the actual high earth core rockfill dam. Based on the self-developed uniaxial tensile test device, a series of uniaxial tensile test was carried out on gravelly soil with different gravel content. The compaction test shows a good linear relationship between the optimum water content and gravel content, and the relation curve of optimum water content versus maximum dry density can be fitting by two times polynomial. For the gravelly soil under its optimum water content and maximum dry density, as the gravel content increased from 0% to 50%, the tensile strength of specimens decreased from 122.6 kPa to 49.8 kPa linearly. The peak tensile strain and ultimate tensile strain all decrease with the increase of the gravel content. From the analysis of fracture energy, it is proved that the tensile capacity of gravelly soil decreases slightly with the increasing gravel content. In the case that the sample under the maximum dry density and the water content higher than the optimum water content, the comprehensive tensile capacity of the sample is the strongest. The relevant test results can provide support for the anti-crack design of the high earth core rockfill dam.