• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.5
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• pp.607-619
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• 2023

This study, it was tried to evaluate the asphalt behavior under tensile loading conditions through indirect Brazilian and direct tensile tests, experimentally and numerically. This paper is important from two points of view. The first one, a new test method was developed for the determination of the direct tensile strength of asphalt and its difference was obtained from the indirect test method. The second one, the effects of particle size and loading rate have been cleared on the tensile fracture mechanism. The experimental direct tensile strength of the asphalt specimens was measured in the laboratory using the compression-to-tensile load converting (CTLC) device. Some special types of asphalt specimens were prepared in the form of slabs with a central hole. The CTLC device is then equipped with this specimen and placed in the universal testing machine. Then, the direct tensile strength of asphalt specimens with different sizes of ingredients can be measured at different loading rates in the laboratory. The particle flow code (PFC) was used to numerically simulate the direct tensile strength test of asphalt samples. This numerical modeling technique is based on the versatile discrete element method (DEM). Three different particle diameters were chosen and were tested under three different loading rates. The results show that when the loading rate was 0.016 mm/sec, two tensile cracks were initiated from the left and right of the hole and propagated perpendicular to the loading axis till coalescence to the model boundary. When the loading rate was 0.032 mm/sec, two tensile cracks were initiated from the left and right of the hole and propagated perpendicular to the loading axis. The branching occurs in these cracks. This shows that the crack propagation is under quasi-static conditions. When the loading rate was 0.064 mm/sec, mixed tensile and shear cracks were initiated below the loading walls and branching occurred in these cracks. This shows that the crack propagation is under dynamic conditions. The loading rate increases and the tensile strength increases. Because all defects mobilized under a low loading rate and this led to decreasing the tensile strength. The experimental results for the direct tensile strengths of asphalt specimens of different ingredients were in good accordance with their corresponding results approximated by DEM software.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6C
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• pp.395-406
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• 2006

Drilled shafts are a common foundation solution for large concentrated loads. Such piles are generally constructed by drilling through softer soils into rock and the section of the shaft which is drilled through rock contributes most of the load bearing capacity. Drilled shafts derive their bearing capacity from both shaft and base resistance components. The length and diameter of the rock socket must be sufficient to carry the loads imposed on the pile safely without excessive settlements. The base resistance component can contribute significantly to the ultimate capacity of the pile. However, the shaft resistance is typically mobilized at considerably smaller pile movements than that of the base. In addition, the base response can be adversely affected by any debris that is left in the bottom of the socket. The reliability of base response therefore depends on the use of a construction and inspection technique which leaves the socket free of debris. This may be difficult and costly to achieve, particularly in deep sockets, which are often drilled under water or drilling slurry. As a consequence of these factors, shaft resistance generally dominates pile performance at working loads. The efforts to improve the prediction of drilled shaft performance are therefore primarily concerned with the complex mechanisms of shaft resistance development. The shaft resistance only is concerned in this study. The nature of the interface between the concrete pile shaft and the surrounding rock is critically important to the performance of the pile, and is heavily influenced by the construction practices. In this study, the influences of asperity characteristics such as the heights and angles, the strength characteristics and elastic constants of surrounding rock masses and the depth and length of rock socket, et. al. on the shaft resistance of drilled shafts are investigated from elasto-plastic analyses( FLAC). Through the parametric studies, among the parameters, the vertical stress on the top layer of socket, the height of asperity and cohesion and poison's ratio of rock masses are major influence factors on the unit peak shaft resistance.