Abstract
Mineral dissolution and solid-liquid phase change may cause settlement or affect the bearing capacity of shallow foundations. The effect of gradual grain dissolution on small-scale shallow foundation behavior is investigated using the discrete element method. Results show that dissolution is most detrimental during early stages, as initially contacting particles shrink and force chains must reform throughout the medium. Porosity tends to increase during dissolution and force chains evolve into strong localized forces with a honeycomb topology. Higher settlements are required to mobilize bearing resistance in postdissolution sediments than in pre-dissolution ones. Subsurface mineral dissolution beneath a footing under load is the worst condition; in fact, settlements in such cases are higher than when a foundation load is applied on a sediment that has already experienced dissolution. © the author(s) or their institution(s).
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1353-1357 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Canadian Geotechnical Journal |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 10 2016 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: Support for this research was provided by the Department of Energy Savannah River Operations Office led by B. Gutierrez. Additional support was provided by the Goizueta Foundation. F.J. Santamarina edited the manuscript. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.