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

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.