Mr. Eduardo Martin, University of San Juan (San Juan, Argentina)

'Application of the Discrete Element Method to the study of Cyclic Resistance of Gravelly Soils’.

Abstract

The cycle mobility and liquefaction of gravels is a phenomenon often observed in nature, but much less frequently than for sandy and silty materials. the behaviour of gravel under cyclic loading has been investigated so far much less than sands and silts, because of the difficulties involved with the experimental testing of large sized particles. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) has been used to reproduce a series of monotonic undrained triaxial tests and cyclic undrained triaxial tests, performed at the laboratory of the Seismic Research Institute of the National University of San Juan (San Juan, Argentina). Then, a DEM model has been employed to evaluate the influence of three key parameters on the liquefaction resistance and residual strength of gravelly soils: relative density, grain size distribution and shape of the particles.

About The Speaker

Mr.Eduardo Luis Martin received his college degree in Civil Engineering (2008) form the National University of San Juan. After three years working in industry, he is reading for a PhD at the National University of San Juan under the supervision of Dr. Francisco Zabala and Dr. Luciano Oldecop, funded by the Argentinian Committee of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). In 2014 he spent 8 months at the 3S-R Laboratory, Institut National Polytechnique of Grenoble (Grenoble, France), working on DEM simulations of liquefiable gravels under the supervision of Dr. Bruno. Mr. Martin will be a visiting fellow at the University of Warwick for 8 months, working under the supervision of Dr, Stefano Utili, funded by the EU H2020 RISE programme 'GeoRAMP'