Technical Note

Stress-Strain Behavior of Granular Soils

Subjected to Internal Erosion
C. Chen 1; L. M. Zhang, F.ASCE 2; and D. S. Chang, A.M.ASCE 3

Abstract: Internal erosion is a major cause of dam or dike failures and incidents. In this study, laboratory tests were conducted to investigate
the deformation of two gap-graded soils during internal erosion and the stress-strain behavior of the soils that experienced loss of fine particles
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due to internal erosion. An erosion-controlled experimental method was adopted to achieve a designated loss of fine particles during internal
erosion by adding a predefined amount of salt into the soil sample during sample preparation and dissolving the salt in water under a con-
trolled stress condition. Both the radial and axial deformations during erosion were measured using a photographic method. Subsequently,
drained triaxial compression tests were performed to study the stress-strain behavior of the soils that had lost different amounts of fine
particles. The peak friction angle and critical friction angle of the soil decreased with the loss of fine particles. After a significant loss
of fine particles, the stress-strain behavior changed from the initially dilative behavior to a more contractive behavior. DOI: 10.1061/
(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001561. © 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Soil erosion; Shear strength; Stress strain relations; Dam failures; Dam safety; Granular media.

Introduction
Approximately one-third of the failures of modern earth dams were
attributed to internal erosion, which can be initiated by concen-
trated leak erosion, backward erosion, soil contact erosion, or suf-
fusion (ICOLD 2012). The loss of fine particles in an earth structure
during the erosion process will induce grain rearrangements and
affect the contacts between soil particles, leading to a coarser
and more permeable structure, significant settlement, and a higher
possibility of downstream slope instability or even failure of the
structure (Wan and Fell 2008; Ke and Takahashi 2015; Chang
and Zhang 2013). This research studies the stress-strain behavior
of granular soils after losing certain amounts of fine particles
through suffusion.
Several researchers have studied the mechanical behavior of
soils subjected to internal erosion by controlling the hydraulic gra-
dient to simulate the erosion process (e.g., Chang and Zhang 2011;
Ke and Takahashi 2015). In such a method, the erosion amount
cannot be controlled easily. Another method was developed to
achieve the designated degrees of erosion by using salt to replace
some soil particles. By using this method, Fam et al. (2002), Shin
and Santamarina (2009), Truong et al. (2010), Kelly et al. (2012),
and McDougall et al. (2013) studied the one-dimensional soil de-
formation during internal erosion. Kelly et al. (2012) further stud-
ied the mechanical behavior of the soil after subject to internal
erosion under a one-dimensional stress condition.
1
Ph.D. Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineer-
ing, Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong
Kong. E-mail: cchenaj@connect.ust.hk
2
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong
Univ. of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong
(corresponding author). E-mail: cezhangl@ust.hk
3
Research Engineer, AECOM Asia Company Ltd., 138 Shatin Rural
Committee Rd., Hong Kong. E-mail: Dongsheng.Chang@aecom.com
Note. This manuscript was submitted on September 9, 2015; approved
on April 19, 2016; published online on July 8, 2016. Discussion period
open until December 8, 2016; separate discussions must be submitted
for individual papers. This technical note is part of the Journal of Geotech-
nical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, © ASCE, ISSN 1090-0241.
The main objectives of this research are (1) to study the defor-
mations of soil induced by internal erosion under a controlled tri-
axial stress condition and (2) to study the shearing stress-strain
behavior of the same soils after the loss of designated amounts
of fine particles.
Experimental Program and Procedure
Testing Apparatus
The experimental setup consists of a triaxial system, a water supply
and collection system, and a data collection system. A computer-
controlled triaxial apparatus was used to control the stress state of
the soil, introduce seepage through the soil, and conduct triaxial
compression tests on the soil. A hollow base pedestal with a perfo-
rated plate with a 1-mm-diameter hole was designed to introduce a
uniform flow of deaired water from the bottom to the top of the
sample. The water collection system is a vacuum system that main-
tains a pressure difference so as to provide a constant water flow
across the sample during saturation. A more detailed description of
this setup is presented by Chang and Zhang (2011).
During internal erosion, the vertical and lateral deformations
were measured using a photographic method with a resolution of
0.10 mm. Photos were taken at a fixed measuring distance and a
fixed camera angle. The horizontal and vertical displacements of
the soil sample were obtained by converting the displacements on
the photos using calibrated vertical and horizontal scaling factors.
Material Properties
The soil in this research was obtained by mixing different sizes of
completely decomposed granite particles from 0.09 to 5.0 mm with
a gap between 0.15 mm and 1.18 mm. According to the Unified
Soil Classification System (ASTM 2012), two types (soil A and
soil B) of poorly graded sand with the same gap ratio of 7.87 were
used and their grain size distribution curves are shown in Fig. 1.
The gap ratio is the ratio of the maximum particle size over the
minimum particle size of the severely under-represented portion
of soil. In this paper, the soil particles in the grain size range of

© ASCE 06016014-1 J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng.

J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 06016014

 100
90 G
Group A
Percentage passing by weight (%)
80 G
Group B
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
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0
10 1 0.1
Particle diameter (mm)
Fig. 1. Grain size distributions of group A and group B before internal
erosion
0.09–0.15 mm are termed fine particles, which differ from the term
fines, which are smaller than 0.075 mm (ASTM 2012).
The salt in this experimental program was a type of table salt
which has a fast dissolving rate and an approximately uniform size
distribution. It was used to replace designated amounts of fine par-
ticles of the soil, as shown in Table 1.
Soil Specimen Preparation
For each triaxial test, a test sample was prepared by moist tamping.
The soils were sieved and mixed according to the designated grain
size distribution curve and oven dried at 105°C for 24 h. After
cooling inside a desiccator for another 24 h, the soil was mixed
with deaired water thoroughly to the optimum moisture content
(5.5% for soil A and 6.5% for soil B). The well-mixed wet soil
sample was then kept inside a zipped plastic bag for moisture
equalization for about 24 h in a humidity- and temperature-con-
trolled room. The salt was added into the soil and uniformly mixed
before compaction. The mixed soil sample was then statically
compacted to the desired dry density at a rate of 1.25 mm=min.
The soil was compacted in 10 layers, and each layer was 15-mm
thick. The under-compaction procedure proposed by Ladd
(1978) was adopted in order to prevent excessive densification
of the underlying layers during the compaction of the succeeding
layers.
Testing Procedure
Dissolving Salt to Simulate Internal Erosion
After consolidation under an isotropic confining pressure of
50 kPa, the saturation process proceeded in three steps: air displace-
ment by carbon dioxide, deaired water saturation, and back pres-
sure saturation. Carbon dioxide was injected into the sample, which
increased the degree of saturation of the test soil as the dissolving
capability of carbon dioxide was higher than that of air. After a
2-h carbon dioxide saturation, deaired water was introduced into
the soil sample and the dissolution of salt began, which created
an artificial soil sample that is internally eroded. A uniform inflow
of deaired water was maintained at a very small hydraulic gradient
(i.e., 0.1) for a sufficiently long time (i.e., 36 h) to ensure com-
pletely homogenous saturation. The complete dissolution of salt
© ASCE
J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 06016014
Table 1. Test Identifier and Designated Erosion Rates of Soil Specimens
Erosion rate
Fine (percent of particles
Group Test content by mass replaced by salt)
number identifier (%) (%)
A A1 20 0
A2 20 5
A3 20 10
A4 20 15
B B1 35 0
B2 35 10
B3 35 20
B4 35 30
0.01
inside the soil specimen was verified by frequently checking
the salt concentration of the outflow water. Salt would precipitate
when an outflow water sample was evaporated in an oven. The
saturation process would continue until no salt precipitated after
water evaporation in the check test. After salt dissolution, backpres-
sure saturation started and lasted approximately 4 h. The Skempton
pore pressure coefficient B, which is the ratio of the change of pore
pressure over the change of cell pressure, was checked to measure
the degree of saturation during the saturation process. Photos were
taken before and after the internal erosion process to measure the
total deformations induced by internal erosion. However, the soil
deformations during the process of salt dissolution were not con-
tinuously monitored, which is a limitation of this study.
Drained Shearing Test
After the saturation process, drained shearing tests were performed
to investigate the stress-strain behavior of the soil after the loss of
different amounts of fine particles due to internal erosion. The
shearing test was conducted at an axial strain rate of 0.05%=min
and an isotropic confining stress of 50 kPa. The confining stress for
all the tests was kept constant (i.e., 50 kPa), while the axial stress
was increased gradually. During the shearing test, the volumetric
and vertical strains and the applied stress were recorded through
the computerized data acquisition system.
Experimental Results
Soil Deformation Induced by Loss of Fine Particles
The soil fabric changed after erosion. As Fig. 2 shows, the amount
of fine particles decreased and the mass fraction of the coarse
particles increased. The height and diameter of each soil sample
were measured using a digital imaging method, which was used
to calculate the axial, radial, and volumetric strains.
The relations between the strains and the loss of fine particles
are shown in Table 2. In general, the radial strains are larger
than the axial strains, which means the remolded specimens
may have initial anisotropic characteristics induced by cycles of
loading and unloading during the static compaction. A preferred
distribution of inter-particle contacts could form in the horizontal
direction. With increasing loss of fine particles, the contacts be-
tween the soil particles decreased and the strong force chains
might collapse, leading to substantial deformations, particularly
in the radial direction.
The soil skeleton in soil group B with 35% of fine particles is
controlled by its fine content, with the medium-size and coarse
particles floating in the fine particles (Chang and Zhang 2013;
Skempton and Brogan 1994). Thus, after a certain amount of fine
particles was lost, a significant change in the soil microstructure
06016014-2 J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng.
 100 180
0% salt
160
5% salt
Percentage passing by weight (%)

Deviatoric stress, q (kPa)

80 10% salt 140
15% salt 120

60 100

80

40 60
0% loss of particles
40
5% loss of particles
20 10% loss of particles
20 15% loss of particles
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
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0 (a) Axial strain, a (%)

10 1 0.1 0.01
-3.0
(a) Particle diameter (mm)

100 -2.0

Volumetric strain (%)

0% salt
10% salt -1.0
Percentage passing by weight (%)

80 20% salt
30% salt 0.0

60 1.0
0% loss of particles
2.0 5% loss of particles
40 10% loss of particles
15% loss of particles
3.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
20 (b) Axial strain, a (%)

Fig. 3. Stress-strain relationships with loss of different amounts

0 of fine particles in group A: (a) deviatoric stress versus axial strain;
10 1 0.1 0.01
(b) volumetric strain versus axial strain
(b) Particle diameter (mm)

Fig. 2. Grain size distributions of test soils after internal erosion:

(a) group A; (b) group B The loss of fine particles will cause the loss of some lateral support
to prevent buckling of the strong force chains but will cause a less
apparent change in the soil structure. Hence, the volumetric strains
of the group A samples are smaller than those of the group B
occurred. Table 2 shows that after the loss of 10% of the particles, samples given the same amount of loss of fine particles.
there is a substantial increase in the volumetric strain of the group B Samples A1 and B1 without salt still experienced some limited
samples and the volumetric strain reaches 19% when fine particles wetting deformation. According to results from Zhao and Zhang
of 30% of the total soil mass are lost. While for the group A sam- (2014), soil specimens made of completely decomposed granite
ples containing 20% of fine particles, the soil skeleton is formed by (CDG) with a fines content of 32% had a maximum wetting-
both coarse particles and fine particles (Chang and Zhang 2013). induced volumetric strain and axial strain of about -0.47%

Table 2. Changes in Void Ratio and Strains during Internal Erosion

Mass of Volume of Volume
Change in Final Final Final
solid soil solid of void
Salt volume of Change in volume radial axial
(g) (cm3 ) (cm3 ) Void ratio
Test content soil solid void volume strain strain strain
identifier (%) Initial Final Initial Final (cm3 ) Initial Final (cm3 ) Initial Final (%) (%) (%)
A1 0 1,120 1,120 429.1 429.1 0.0 197.6 197.6 0.0 0.461 0.461 0 0 0
A2 5 1,226 1,165 469.7 446.3 −23.5 216.3 229.4 13.1 0.461 0.514 1.51 0.26 0.99
A3 10 1,255 1,129 480.8 432.7 −48.1 221.4 247.8 26.4 0.461 0.573 3.09 1.07 0.99
A4 15 1,198 1,019 459.2 390.3 −68.9 211.5 251.4 39.9 0.461 0.644 4.32 1.60 1.19
B1 0 1,307 1,307 500.6 500.6 0.0 188.9 188.9 0.0 0.377 0.377 0 0 0
B2 10 1,301 1,171 498.5 448.6 −49.8 188.1 213.4 25.3 0.377 0.476 3.58 1.31 1.00
B3 20 1,308 1,046 501.2 400.9 −100.2 189.1 209.7 20.6 0.377 0.523 11.54 4.60 2.81
B4 30 1,308 915 501.0 350.7 −150.3 189.0 207.8 18.8 0.377 0.593 19.06 7.88 4.62
Note: Negative sign means that the volume of soil decreased during the internal erosion test.

© ASCE 06016014-3 J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng.

J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 06016014

 200 1.8

1.6

1.4
Deviatoric stress, q (kPa)

150
1.2

Stress ratio, q/p’

1

100 0.8

0.6 A1 (0%)
A2 (5%)
0.4
0% loss of particles A3 (10%)
50
10% loss of particles 0.2 A4 (15%)
20% loss of particles 0
30% loss of particles -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
0 (a)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
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(a) Axial strain, a (%) 1.8

1.6

-1.0 1.4

1.2

Stress ratio, q/p’

0.0 1

0.8
Volumetric strain (%)

1.0 0.6 B1 (0%)

0.4 B2 (10%)
B3 (20%)
0.2
2.0 B4 (30%)
0
0% loss of particles -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
3.0 10% loss of particles (b)
20% loss of particles
30% loss of particles
4.0 Fig. 5. Stress-dilatancy plots: (a) group A; (b) group B
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
(b) Axial strain, a (%)

Fig. 4. Stress-strain relationships with loss of different amounts of

fine particles in group B: (a) deviatoric stress versus axial strain;
(b) volumetric strain versus axial strain
(negative sign represents increase of soil volume) and 0.09% re-
spectively, which are much smaller than the maximum erosion-
induced volumetric strain and axial strain of the group A samples
(i.e., εv;max ¼ 4.32% and εa;max ¼ 1.19%) and the group B samples
(i.e., εv;max ¼ 19.06% and εa;max ¼ 4.62%) in this research. There-
fore, the wetting deformations of the samples could be ignored for
simplicity in interpreting the test results.
With the progression of salt dissolution, both the soil mass and
the soil volume decreased, but the net effect was the increase of the
void ratio (Table 2) or the soil became looser as the fine particles
eroded. Numerical analyses by Wood and Maeda (2008) and Wood
et al. (2010) also indicate that the removal of fine particles will
increase the void ratio by a decreased volume of solids and an in-
creased volume of voids, and form a looser structure that will
compress more under external stresses.
Effect of Loss of Fine Particles on Stress-Strain
Behavior
Stress-Strain Relationships
The stress-strain relationships of the specimens subjected to loss
of fine particles are presented in Figs. 3 and 4 for groups A
and B, respectively. The soil volume decreases in the initial stage
of shearing but increases later due to dilation. The two benchmark
tests (A1 and B1) without erosion exhibit an obvious strain-
softening behavior. With an increasing percentage of eroded fine
particles, the stiffness of the soil becomes smaller, the volume com-
pression before dilation becomes larger, and the dilation tendency
becomes weaker.
Fig. 5 shows the stress-dilatancy relationships during shearing.
The dilation tendency of the samples without erosion (i.e., A1
and B1) is much stronger than that of the samples subjected to ero-
sion, and the degree of compression increases with the loss of soil
particles.
The state parameter can be used to explain the stress-strain
behavior of soil by accounting for both void ratio and stress level.
With the loss of fine particles, the void ratio increases, the soil grad-
ing changes and the critical state line shifts. Table 3 presents the
detailed calculations of the state parameter and Fig. 6 shows the
changes in void ratio during shearing. The final state parameter
(ψnew , after erosion) is a combination of the old state parameter
(ψold , no erosion), increment of void ratio (en − e0 ), and a shift
of the critical state line (Δecs ). In calculating the critical state void
ratio, a slope of the critical state lines of 0.034 was adopted, which
was obtained from tests on the same type of completely decom-
posed granitic soil by Zhao and Zhang (2014). In Table 3, the soil
behavior becomes less dilative as the state parameter increases with
an increasing amount of eroded fine particles.
Wood (2007) proposed a grading state index, I G , which is a
scalar characteristic of the soil fabric and describes the relationship
between changing grading and the critical state line. The symbol,
I G , is the ratio of the area of the current particle size distribution and
the area of a limiting (fractal) distribution. In this study, the particle

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J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 06016014

 Table 3. Calculation of State Parameter and Grading State Index
Void ratio Void ratio Void ratio Change in void ratio Change in
Sample before after erosion at critical during shearing critical void
identifier erosion e0 (before shearing) en state ecs Δeshear ¼ ecs − en ratio Δecs ψold ψnew ¼ ψold þ en − e0 − Δecs IG
A1 0.461 0.461 0.480 0.019 — −0.037 −0.037 1.00
A2 0.461 0.514 0.519 0.005 0.039 −0.022 −0.008 0.94
A3 0.461 0.573 0.573 0.000 0.093 −0.016 0.003 0.88
A4 0.461 0.644 0.642 −0.002 0.162 −0.013 0.008 0.82
B1 0.377 0.377 0.384 0.007 — −0.028 −0.028 1.00
B2 0.377 0.476 0.464 −0.012 0.08 −0.010 0.009 0.90
B3 0.377 0.523 0.516 −0.007 0.132 −0.013 0.001 0.80
B4 0.377 0.593 0.578 −0.015 0.194 −0.004 0.018 0.70
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size distributions of nondissolvable soil samples (i.e., A1 and B1)
can be regarded as the limiting distributions of the rest of the sam-
ples in group A and group B, and the particle size distributions after
erosion can be taken as the current distributions of the soils. Wood
found that the location of critical state line changes in the compres-
sion plane as the grading changes. The critical state line rises as the
grading index decreases. Table 3 presents the detailed calculations
of the grading state index. Indeed, the grading state index decreases
obviously and the corresponding critical state rises substantially
with an increasing loss of soil particles in the same testing group.
This is also presented in Fig. 6.
The observation that soils subjected to erosion experience
large volumetric strains and deform in a less dilative way was
also made by Scholtes et al. (2010) through numerical studies.
0.75
Critical state
Reference critical state line
= state parameter A4 (15% loss of particles), IG =0.822
0.65
Void ratio
They applied a multiscale approach to study the relation between
the removal of soil particles and its subsequent mechanical behav-
ior. It was found that the shearing behavior of a granular assembly
subject to axisymmetric triaxial loading will change from dilatant
behavior to contractive behavior after the loss of soil particles be-
cause of the volumetric-strain induced rearrangements of the soil
microstructure.
Peak Friction Angle and Critical Friction Angle
The changes in the peak friction angle and the critical-state friction
angle with the loss of fine particles are presented in Fig. 7. Both the
peak friction angle and the critical friction angle decrease with an
increasing amount of loss of fine particles. In group A, the peak
friction angle goes down from 38.7° (A1) to 34.6° (A4), which de-
creases by 12%. For group B, the peak friction angle decreases by
10% from 40° (B1) to 36.1° (B4). In general, samples in group A
show a more dilative tendency and experience a larger drop of peak
shear strength due to internal erosion. Compared with the peak fric-
tion angle, the changes in the critical friction angle with the loss of
fine particles are rather small.
The true critical state might not have been achieved at the end

of the tests when the axial strains were 30% and 23% for the soil
0.55 A3 (10%), IG =0.881
samples in group A and group B, respectively, as the volumetric
A2 (5%), IG =0.940 strain continued to change in Figs. 3 and 4. However, the rate
of increase of volumetric strain was small toward the end of the
0.45
A1 (0%), IG =1 tests. Thus, the critical state was assumed to have been reached.
The error caused by this assumption should be noted as the critical
state void ratio could be underestimated and the critical friction
0.35
10 100 1 0 00 angle overestimated.
(a) Mean effective stress, p’ (kPa)
45
0.75
Critical state
Reference critical state line 40
= state parameter
0.65
Friction angle ( )

B4 (30% loss of particles), IG =0.698

35
Void ratio

0.55

B3 (20%), IG =0.799 30
Peak friction angle of soil B
0.45 B2 (10%), IG =0.899 Critical friction angle of soil B
25 Peak friction angle of soil A
B1 (0%), IG =1 Critical friction angle of soil A
0.35
20
10 100 1000 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
(b) Mean effective stress, p’ (kPa) Loss of particles by weight (%)

Fig. 6. Rising of critical states with increasing loss of fine particles: Fig. 7. Variations of peak and critical friction angle of test soil with loss
(a) group A; (b) group B of fine particles

© ASCE 06016014-5 J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng.

J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 06016014

 Summary and Conclusions
A series of experiments was conducted on two gap-graded soils to
investigate soil deformations caused by internal erosion and the in-
fluence of the percentage of loss of fine particles on the stress-strain
behavior of the soils subjected to internal erosion. The following
conclusions can be drawn based on the experimental study:
• With the increasing loss of fine particles, both the soil mass and
the soil volume decrease but the net effect is the increase of the
void ratio, the soil becoming looser as the fine particles erode.
Substantial axial strain, radial strain, and volumetric strain occur
during the internal erosion process and the strains can be cap-
tured by a photographic method. The large soil deformations
occur as a result of rearrangements of the soil microstructure
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as the fine particles erode.
• During the drained triaxial shearing test, soils with a smaller loss
of fine particles showed a more dilative response. The shear
strength decreases with the increasing amount of eroded fine
particles. For the group A samples, the peak friction angle de-
creases by 12% from 38.7° (A1) to 34.6° (A4) as 15% of par-
ticles by weight are lost. For group B samples, the peak friction
angle decreases by 10% from 40° (B1) to 36.1° (B4) as 30%
of the particles by weight are lost. For both groups, the critical
friction angle does not decrease significantly. There is a clear
trend of rising critical states, reduced dilative tendency and de-
creased soil stiffness during shearing with the increasing amount
of erosion.
Acknowledgments
This research was substantially supported by the Construction
Industry Council Hong Kong (Grant No. CIC15EG02) and the
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR (Grants No.
C6012-15G and No. T622-603/15-N).
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