Experimental Study of the Effect of Grain Size and Grain Size Distribution Curve on Creep and Stress Relaxation in a Beach Sand

In order to obtain a greater qualitative understanding of the mechanisms behind the inverse phenomena of creep and stress relaxation in sand as well as yield parametric data for the future calibration of models that quantitatively predict their scope, intensity and magnitude, 9 24-hour creep and 9 24-hour relaxation studies were conducted on various blends of Virginia Beach sand. The artificially formulated blends were purposefully varied along two independent variable dimensions consisting of 3 different maximum grain sizes and 3 different degrees of gradation uniformity thereby forming a 3x3 blend matrix consisting of 9 different blend type elements. The experimental results are validated against 8 regular triaxial compression tests conducted separately, one on each blend. By conducting comparative analysis along the blend matrix meridians and parallels, the effects of varying each independent variable on creep and relaxation phenomena were demonstrated and fresh insights on both phenomena were gained.