Strength–dilatancy and critical state behaviours of binary mixtures of graded sands influenced by particle size ratio and fines content

Binary granular soil mixtures, as common heterogeneous soils, are ubiquitous in nature and man-made deposits. Fines content and particle size ratio are two important gradation parameters for a binary mixture, which have potential influences on mechanical behaviours. However, experimental studies on drained shear behaviour considering the whole range of fines content and different particle size ratios are scarce in the literature. For this purpose, a series of drained triaxial compression tests was performed on dense binary silica sand mixtures with four different particle size ratios to investigate systematically the effects of fines content and particle size ratio on the drained shear behaviours. Based on these tests, the strength-dilation behaviour and critical state behaviour were examined. It was observed that both fines content and particle size ratio have significant influence on the stress–strain response, the critical state void ratio, the critical state friction angle, the maximum dilation angle, the peak friction angle and the stress–dilatancy relation. The underlying mechanism for the effects of fines content and particle size ratio was discussed from the perspective of the kinematic movements at particle level.