Discussion of 'Elastoplastic Deformation Characteristics of Gravelly Soils' by Meng-Chia Weng, Bin-Lin Chu, and Yu-Ling Ho

摘要

The authors are commended for exploring the elastoplastic deformation behavior of gravelly soils though a series of large-scale triaxial compression tests. They concluded that (1) the elastic shear modulus increases with increasing hydrostatic pressure, (2) the influence of confining pressure on plastic deformation is insignificant, (3) gravelly soils follow the nonassociated flow rule, and (4) the plastic potential surface contains an approximate horizontal line and an elliptical surface. The discussers agree with these conclusions except for the second conclusion. Granular soil may show volumetric expansion at a smaller confining pressure and it may present volumetric contraction behavior at a higher confining pressure because of high particle breakage. Therefore, the confining pressure may lead to a variation in the deformation style (i.e., expansion or contraction) of granular soils.