Modeling the behaviour of alluvial and blasted quarried rockfill materials

Two types of modeled rockfill materials were collected from Renuka dam site, Himachal Pradesh, India and Salma dam site, Afghanistan. The rockfill material collected from Renuka dam site is rounded to sub-rounded in shape and the rockfill material collected from Salma dam site is angular to sub-angular in shape. The prototype gradation rockfill material consists maximum particle size larger than 1,000 mm. Therefore, for carrying out laboratory testing and modeling the bahaviour, the prototype rockfill material is scaled down to the maximum particle size (d max ) of 25, 50 and 80 mm for both projects material using parallel gradation technique. Triaxial compression and Index properties tests were conducted on both project rockfill materials and are presented. From the triaxial behaviour, it is observed that the stress–strain behaviour is non-linear, inelastic and stress dependent for both the materials. The material compresses during the initial shearing and shows dilation effect with further shearing. It is observed that the ϕ-value for alluvial rockfill material increases with increase in d max and reverse trend is observed for blasted quarried rockfill material which shows the importance of the type of material. The stress–strain-volume change behaviour of both projects modeled rockfill material was predicted by using hierarchical single surface (HISS) model based on elasto plasticity and compared with the laboratory test results. From the comparison, it is observed that both results match closely. It is, therefore, suggested that the behaviour of both types of rockfill materials can be characterized successfully using HISS model.