ANALYSIS OF ARAQUARI SAND BEHAVIOR THOUGHT NUMERICAL MODELING OF TRIAXIAL TESTS

Resumo

The present paper describes the numerical evaluation of triaxial tests to assess the constitutive model of
better adaptation to a set of laboratory data. The data considered is part of an experimental campaign carried out on
samples of sandy composition, from the Araquari/SC experimental testing site. To model the triaxial data, an
axisymmetric representation of the triaxial specimen was designed in the finite element software Plaxis. Applications
of the Mohr Coulomb (MC) and the Hardening Soil Model (HS) were evaluated by a direct comparison between
laboratory results and numerical predictions. Considering different confining pressures, both models were able to
predict with good accuracy the maximum bearing load. The greatest discrepancy was observed in the prediction of
strain behavior: as expected, the hardening soil model was more adequate to represent the non-linear behavior of the
sand. As the main scope of the research developed at the Araquari Experimental Testing Site is the investigation of
the complex pile-soil interaction mechanisms, after the analysis of the constitutive model that better represents the
triaxial tests, the hardening model was used to predict the behavior of a reference pile.