Prediction of resilient modulus on unsaturated geomaterials via DEM modeling

Soil suction and the degree of saturation influence the resilient modulus, which should be considered when designing road and railway foundations. To reasonably account for these factors, a suction stress model incorporating both suction and degree of saturation was established for application in transportation design. In this study, the suction stress was considered by categorizing water into bulk and meniscus water and applying cyclic loading to the samples. The soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) was generated using discrete element method (DEM) analysis. Additionally, the resilient modulus was observed to vary with both deviator stress and the degree of saturation. The trends observed in this study are consistent with the results of laboratory tests conducted by other researchers. These findings demonstrated that the water division and cyclic loading algorithm effectively represented the unsaturated soil state. Furthermore, DEM analysis revealed that the suction stress was influenced the resilient modulus, with the resilient modulus increasing as suction stress increased.