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Soil arching effect, which relates to the load transfer and stress redistribution in a soil mass, exists commonly in various geotechnical situations. Many researchers have conducted trapdoor tests and theoretical analyses to study the soil arching and its development in recent years. However, little attention has been paid to the interaction between soil arching and seepage flow, both occurring during the tunnelling of a seabed tunnel. To study the influence of the seepage flow on soil arching, a series of two-dimensional trapdoor tests were carried out considering different fill heights and water level heights. Two subvertical slip surfaces were observed during the tests using the PIV technique. It was found that seepage flow increased the displacement of the particles and the effective vertical stress acting at the top of the trapdoor. However, there was little difference in the development of slip surfaces between the seepage condition and the saturated/no-seepage condition. In addition, a nonuniform distribution of vertical stresses at the top of the trapdoor was observed. The effective earth pressure measured along the centreline of the trapdoor was larger than that on the two edges of the trapdoor. But this nonuniformity decreased with an increasing water level height in the test chamber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behaviour of granular soils subjected to internal erosion involves complex coupling between solid–fluid interaction, skeleton deformation and microstructural evolutions. This paper presents a micro–macro investigation on suffusion in idealized gap-graded and well-graded soils using the coupled computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method. The interaction between soil particles and seepage flow is modelled via momentum exchange between two phases. The progressive loss of fine particles subjected to upward seepage flow at various hydraulic gradients is investigated. The fines content, volumetric contraction and void ratio are monitored to identify the changes of macroscopic states of the soil skeleton. In addition, the microstructural evolution is tracked via particle-scale descriptors such as coordination numbers and force chain statistics. Several clogging–unclogging events which are responsible for the sudden changes of fines content and skeleton response are observed during suffusion. A parametric study indicates that the initial fines content and the hydraulic gradient significantly affect the kinetics of suffusion. Microstructural analyses reveal that the removal of fines is accompanied by the reduction in weak contact pairs and particles with low connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]