DEM study on effects of fabric and aspect ratio on small strain stiffness of granular soils

The effects of initial soil fabric and aspect ratio (AR) on the small-strain stiffness (G0) of granular soils are studied by employing discrete element method (DEM) numerical analysis. Elongated clumps composed of subspheres were adopted, and the G0 values were obtained by DEM simulations of drained triaxial tests under different densities and initial confining pressure (p0). The DEM simulations indicate that the initial soil fabric has an insignificant effect on G0. The effect of the AR on G0 is related to the initial density. Namely, for dense specimens, G0 first increases with increasing AR, reaching a plateau value when the AR ≥1.5. However, for loose specimens, G0 gradually increases as the AR increases. Microscopic examination reveals that G0 uniquely depends on the coordination number of the particles (CN-particle) rather than the subspheres (CN-sphere) at the particulate level for the effects of initial soil fabric and AR. Finally, Poisson's ratio v0 is also determined by CN-particle. In addition, based on data in literature and this study, v0 can be fitted as v0 = 5.920(G0/( p0)1/3)-0.99, which can be used to predict v0 of granular soils based on the measured G0.