THE PROPERTIES OF SCALE EFFECT ON THE DENSITY OF ROCKFILL MATERIALS BASED ON FRACTAL THEORY

Document Type : Research Paper

10.22099/ijstc.2015.2767

Abstract

To study the scale effect on the density of rockfill materials, the relative density tests
were carried out by physical tests and numerical tests. Fractal theory was drawn into the grading of
rockfill materials. Then, the fractal properties of scale effect on the density were studied by
physical tests and numerical tests. There are close relations between fractal dimension D and
densities of rockfill materials. The densities are largest when D is the critical value Dc. Further, Dc
is independent of the relative density Dr and the maximum diameter dmax. Truncation error is one
of the main factors of scale effect of densities of rockfill materials. The existing four scale methods
in the standard can all be explained with fractal theory, and a unified formula was suggested. The
achievements in the paper lay a good foundation for further studying scale effect of rockfill
materials with fractal theory.

Keywords