Strength Sensitivity of Marine Ariake Clays

ABSTRACT

Natural Ariake clays are characterized by high sensitivity. In this study, the mechanism and the factors controlling undrained shear strengths of both undisturbed and remolded Ariake clays are discussed. A series of unconfined compressive tests were performed on undisturbed samples of natural Ariake clays. The remolded undrained shear strength is predicted using a quantitative expression derived from extensive data of remolded undrained shear strength for a number of soils compiled from resources in the literature. The sensitivity of natural Ariake clays derived from the ratio of half of unconfined compressive strength for undisturbed samples to remolded undrained shear strength is found to be affected by both natural water content and normalized water content that is defined as the ratio of natural water content to liquid limit. The smaller the natural water content, the higher the sensitivity is at the same normalized water content. At the same natural water content, the larger the normalized water content, the higher the sensitivity is.     

Remolded Undrained Strength of Soils

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Gravitational Sedimentation Behavior of Sensitive Marine Ariake Clays

It has been well documented that natural marine Ariake clays are sensitive clays. In this study, extensive data of marine Ariake clays are obtained to investigate the gravitational compression behavior for sensitive clays. Analysis results indicate that the compression behavior of remolded Ariake clays is not different from that of other remolded/reconstituted soils. But natural Ariake clays do not follow the gravitational compression pattern reported by Skempton (1970) for natural sedimentary soils. At a given value of effective overburden pressure, the void ratios of natural Ariake clays are almost independent of liquid limits. Most natural Ariake clays lie above the sedimentation compression line proposed by Burland (1990). When the liquid limit is larger than 90% and the ratio of natural water content over liquid limit ranges 0.8-1.1, the natural Ariake clays lie around the sedimentation compression line. In addition, the natural Ariake clay with higher value of the ratio of natural water content over liquid limit lies above the natural Ariake clay with lower value of the ratio of natural water content over liquid limit. Salt removal is the most probable cause for such a phenomenon.     

Mechanisms Controlling the Undrained Strength Behavior of Remolded Ariake Marine Clays

The soft clay of Ariake Bay, in western Kyushu, Japan covers several hundred square kilometers. Ariake clay consists of the principal clay minerals namely smectite, illite, kaolinite and vermiculite, and other minerals in lesser quantity. The percentage of the principal clay mineral can vary significantly. The percent clay size fraction and the salt concentration can also vary significantly. In view of the importance of undrained shear strength in geotechnical engineering practice, its behavior has been studied with respect to variation in salt concentration. Basically two mechanisms control the undrained strength in clays, namely (a) cohesion or undrained strength is due to the net interparticle attractive forces, or (b) cohesion is due to the viscous nature of the double layer water. Concept (a) operates primarily for kaolinitic soil, and concept (b) dominates primarily for montmorillonitic soils. In Ariake clay, different clay minerals with different exchangeable cations and varying ion concentration in the pore water and varying nonclay size fraction are present. In view of this while both concepts (a) and (b) can coexist and operate simultaneously, one of the mechanisms dominates. For Isahaya clay, concept (a), factors responsible for an increase in level of flocculation and attractive forces result in higher undrained strength. Increase in salt concentration increases the remolded undrained strength at any moisture content. For Kubota and Kawazoe clays, concept (b) factors responsible for an expansion of diffuse double layer thickness, resulting in higher viscous resistance, increase the undrained shear strength, that is, as concentration decreases, the undrained strength increases at any moisture content. The liquid limit of Isahaya clay increases with increase in ion concentration and a marginal decrease is seen for both Kubota and Kawazoe clays, and their behavior has been explained satisfactorily.     

Engineering behavior of uplifted Smectite‐rich Cochin and Mangalore marine clays

Abstract

The present study aims to assess whether the smectite‐rich Cochin and Mangalore clays, which were deposited in a marine medium and subsequently uplifted, exhibit consistency limits response typical of expanding lattice or nonexpanding (fixed) lattice‐type clays on artificially changing the chemical environment. The chemical and engineering behaviors of Cochin and Mangalore marine clays are also compared with those of the smectite‐rich Ariake Bay marine clay from Japan. Although Cochin, Mangalore, and Ariake clays contain comparable amounts of smectite (32–45%), Ariake clay exhibits lower consistency limits and much higher ranges of liquidity indices than the Indian marine clays. The lower consistency limits of the Ariake clay are attributed to the absence of well‐developed, long‐range, interparticle forces associated with the clay. Also, Ariake clay exhibits a significantly large (48–714 times) decrease in undrained strength on remolding in comparison to Cochin and Mangalore clays (sensitivity ranges between 1 and 4). A preponderance of long‐range, interparticle forces reflected in the high consistency limits of Cochin and Mangalore clays (w_L range from 75 to 180%) combined with low natural water contents yield low liquidity indices (typically <1) and high, remolded, undrained strengths and are considered to be responsible for the low sensitivity of the Indian marine clays.     

Comparison of Remolded Shear Strength with Intrinsic Strength Line for Dredged Deposits

Chandler proposed the intrinsic strength line to correlate the undrained shear strength of samples one-dimensionally consolidated from slurry with the void index proposed by Burland. The undrained shear strength on the intrinsic strength line is different from the remolded undrained shear strength that is an important parameter for design and construction of land reclamation. The void index is used in this study for normalizing the remolded strength behavior of dredged deposits. A quantitative relationship between remolded undrained shear strength and void index is established based on extensive data of dredged deposits available from sources of literature. Furthermore, the normalized remolded undrained shear strength is compared with intrinsic strength line. The comparison result indicates that the ratio of undrained shear strength on the intrinsic strength line over remolded undrained shear strength increases with an increase in applied consolidated stress.     

基于流变仪测试海底浅表层软黏土不排水强度研究

鉴于海底浅表层软黏土强度测试精细化程度不足的现状,引入流体测试中的流变仪,对青岛海域海底浅表层软黏土开展多组原状和重塑试样的不排水剪切强度试验,通过对比静力触探和微型十字板测试结果,验证了流变仪测试方法的有效性。基于流变仪试验结果,揭示了海底软黏土原状和重塑状态下不排水剪切破坏模式,探讨了海底软黏土不排水剪切强度和灵敏度随埋深及液性指数的发展演变趋势,评价了软黏土的结构性特征。最后,引入含水率与液限之比对海底浅表层软黏土重塑不排水剪切强度进行了归一化分析,为近海海洋开发活动提供技术支撑。     

Gravitational Sedimentation Behavior of Sensitive Marine Ariake Clays

It has been well documented that natural marine Ariake clays are sensitive clays. In this study, extensive data of marine Ariake clays are obtained to investigate the gravitational compression behavior for sensitive clays. Analysis results indicate that the compression behavior of remolded Ariake clays is not different from that of other remolded/reconstituted soils. But natural Ariake clays do not follow the gravitational compression pattern reported by Skempton (1970) Skempton, A. W. 1970. “The consolidation of clays by gravitational compaction”. In Q. J. Geol. Soc 373–411.  [Google Scholar] for natural sedimentary soils. At a given value of effective overburden pressure, the void ratios of natural Ariake clays are almost independent of liquid limits. Most natural Ariake clays lie above the sedimentation compression line proposed by Burland (1990) Burland, J. B. 1990. On the compressibility and shear strength of natural clays. Gèotechnique, 40: 329–378. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. When the liquid limit is larger than 90% and the ratio of natural water content over liquid limit ranges 0.8–1.1, the natural Ariake clays lie around the sedimentation compression line. In addition, the natural Ariake clay with higher value of the ratio of natural water content over liquid limit lies above the natural Ariake clay with lower value of the ratio of natural water content over liquid limit. Salt removal is the most probable cause for such a phenomenon.     

Modeling Virgin Compression of Reconstituted Clay at Different Initial Water Contents

The observations on compressibility of reconstituted clays show that the compression line with a higher initial water content lies above the compression line with a lower initial water content for a given clay. Hence there exists additional void ratio due to initial water contents among virgin compression lines (VCLs) of reconstituted clays. In this paper, the difference in void ratio caused by different initial water contents is investigated based on the empirical equation proposed by Liu and Carter (2000) for describing the differential void ratio at the same stress between natural and reconstituted clays. The mechanism of compressibility of reconstituted clays, when the stress level is larger than the remolded yield stress, is also discussed.     

Strength evaluation of marine clay stabilized by cementitious binder

Abstract

Evaluation of the strength of cement-treated clay with a broad range of mix ratios and curing periods was conducted using unconfined compression tests (UCTs). The influence of cement content, total water content, and curing period on the unconfined compressive strength of cemented clay are investigated. It is found that, at constant total water content, higher cement content results in higher unconfined compressive strength, while the total water content has an opposite effect. A power function can be used to correlate the unconfined compressive strength with the cement content or the total water content. For a fixed mix ratio, the unconfined compressive strength of cement-stabilized clay increases with the curing period, the effect of which can be characterized by a semi-log formula. Also, a strength-prediction model that considers both mix ratios and curing periods for cement-admixed marine clay is developed and validated; the model can capture the effect of clay type by considering the plastic index of untreated soils. It is also proved that the proposed framework for strength development is also applicable for other cement types.     

Laboratory and Field Observations for Golden Horn Marine Clay

Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and one of the major metropolitan areas in the world, cleaned one of its environmentally polluted areas—Golden Horn—by dredging 5 million m³ of the bottom sediments and pumping the resulting sludge to a storage area behind a dam built at an abandoned rock quarry site in Alibey district. The reclamation of the land that formed over the storage area of Golden Horn dredged material is socially and economically very desirable. In this paper, results from experimental studies that are focused on determining the shear strength behavior of the dredge material and undisturbed soil are presented. Slurry consolidometer test, large model tests and small model tests are used to consolidate the dredged soil samples from Halic to simulate the natural consolidation behavior of these soils. Shear strength parameters are determined by laboratory vane tests; unconfined compression tests; undrained-unconsolidated (UU) and consolidated-undrained (CU) triaxial tests on samples that are obtained through in situ undisturbed samples and laboratory model tank and slurry consolidation. Moreover, the effects of fly ash and lime additives on the undrained shear strength were determined by mixing the materials with the dredged clay from Golden Horn during the model experiments conducted in the laboratory. Based on these findings, equations are proposed that govern the relationships between undrained shear strength and water content value.     

Applicability to Korean Marine Clay of the Mobilized Undrained Vane Shear Strength Using Correction Factors

The undrained shear strength normalized by the yield consolidation pressure, su/pc', is presented for four coastal sites: Busan/Gwangyang and Incheon/Gunsan, having the characteristics of high and low plasticity, respectively. The field vane shear strengths, su(FVT), were compared with unconfined compressive strength, qu/2 which has been used as a representative testing method in Korea. Many researchers have suggested that the undrained shear strength normalized by the yield consolidation pressure, su/pc', depends on Ip. However, the undrained shear strength normalized by the yield consolidation pressure, su/pc' is in the range of 0.25–0.35, independently of the plasticity index, Ip except for su/pc' using qu/2 values in the case of soils having a low plasticity, such as Incheon and Gunsan intermediate soils.

Bjerrum's correction factor has been commonly applied to evaluate mobilized undrained shear strength using the field vane test in Korea. However, the corrected undrained shear strengths using Bjerrum's correction factor, including Morris and Williams' method, were considerably underestimated for Korean marine clay when compared with the qu/2 values that have been used as the mobilized undrained shear strength for practical design in Korea.     

Mechanical Characteristics of Light-Weighted Soils Using Dredged Materials

This study investigates the mechanical characteristics of light-weighted soils (LWS) consisting of expanded polystyrene (EPS), dredged clays, and cement through both unconfined and triaxial compression tests. The mechanical characteristics of the compressive strength of LWS are analyzed with varying initial water contents of dredged clays, EPS ratio, cement ratio, and curing pressure. In the triaxial compression test, it is found that the compressive strength of LWS associated with EPS is independent on the effective confining pressure. When both EPS ratio is less than 2% and cement ratio is more than 2%, the compressive strength rapidly decreases after the ultimate value. This signifies that the compressive strength-strain behavior is quite similar to that of the cemented soil. The ground improved by LWS has the compressive strength of 200 kPa associated with the optimized EPS ratio of 3-4% and initial water content of 165-175%. The ultimate compressive strength under both triaxial and unconfined compression tests is almost constant for a cement ratio of up to 2%.     

Mechanical Characteristics of Light-Weighted Soils Using Dredged Materials

This study investigates the mechanical characteristics of light-weighted soils (LWS) consisting of expanded polystyrene (EPS), dredged clays, and cement through both unconfined and triaxial compression tests. The mechanical characteristics of the compressive strength of LWS are analyzed with varying initial water contents of dredged clays, EPS ratio, cement ratio, and curing pressure. In the triaxial compression test, it is found that the compressive strength of LWS associated with EPS is independent on the effective confining pressure. When both EPS ratio is less than 2% and cement ratio is more than 2%, the compressive strength rapidly decreases after the ultimate value. This signifies that the compressive strength-strain behavior is quite similar to that of the cemented soil. The ground improved by LWS has the compressive strength of 200 kPa associated with the optimized EPS ratio of 3–4% and initial water content of 165–175%. The ultimate compressive strength under both triaxial and unconfined compression tests is almost constant for a cement ratio of up to 2%.     

Experimental study on strength characteristics and microscopic mechanism of marine soft clays

Abstract

The effect of microstructure on shear strength of saturated marine clays was investigated by conducting a series of consolidated-drained (CD), consolidated-undrained (CU) triaxial shear tests and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) tests on undisturbed and reconstitute specimens. The valuable findings from the experimental study are follows: (1) The shear strength of undisturbed specimens is lower than that of corresponding reconstituted specimens due to larger void ratio at the same confining pressure. However, undisturbed specimens have higher strength than reconstituted specimens when their void ratios are the same. (2) The main reason for the lower shear strength of reconstituted specimens with the same void ratio as undisturbed specimens is that more volume of inter-aggregate pores exists in the reconstituted specimens according to the MIP test results. And the difference in shear strength between undisturbed and reconstituted specimens is mainly caused by the difference in soil fabric. (3) The shear test results dealt with a reference void ratio, as a fabric index, show that there is a unique linear relation between strength and void ratio at failure to the reference void ratio. Moreover, the linear relation is suitable for other marine clays from the literature. Therefore, the reference void ratio can be used as a soil fabric index to normalize the strength characteristics of marine soft clays.     

Effect of Sample Disturbance on Unconfined Compression Strength of Natural Marine Clays

1 .IntroductionCoastalstructuresoftenencountersettlementandstabilityproblemsofsoftmarinefoundation (Liuetal.,1 999;Zhouetal.,2 0 0 0 ;Liuetal.,2 0 0 3) .Manyresearchershaveillustratedthatnaturalmarineclaysaregenerallysubjectedtotheeffectsofsoilstructureduringtheirdepositionalandpost depositionalprocesses (Zhangetal.,1 995;Hongetal.,2 0 0 3a ;2 0 0 3b) .Thesoilstructureofnat uralmarineclaysiseasilydamagedduringsamplingandhandlingbecausenaturalmarineclaysgeneral lyhavehighwatercontentandlowsti…     

On Physical and Mechanical Behavior of Natural Marine Intermediate Deposits

Coastal structures may be built on natural sedimentary intermediate grounds, which mainly consist of silty soils and fine sandy soils. In this study, extensive field and laboratory tests were performed on the nattwal marine intermediate deposits to demonstrate the difference in behavior between natural marine clayey soils and natural marine intermediate deposits. The natural intermediate deposits have almost the same miles of natural water content to liquid limit as those of the soft natural marine clays, but the former have much higher in-situ strength and sensitivity than the latter. The research results indicate that grain size distributions of soils affect significantly tip resistance obtained in field cone penetration tests. The mechanical parameters of natural marine intermediate deposits are also significantly affected by sample disturbance due to their high sensitivity and relatively large permeability. Unconfined compression shear tests largely underestimate the strength of natural marine intermediate soils. The triaxial consohdated compression shear tests with simulated insitu confined pressure give results much better than those of uncomfined compression shear tests.     

Modified approach to evaluation of undrained shear strength from piezocone tests in soft clays

This paper proposes a modified-theoretical approach to interpreting the undrained shear strength from piezocone tests in clays. Assuming the shear and normal stresses on the cone face to be the friction at the cone–soil interface and the ultimate expansion pressure, respectively, an expression of the tip resistance is first derived at force equilibrium. The undrained shear strength is then determined by combining the derived expression of tip resistance with the formulation for pore pressure at the cone shoulder position. Many factors, such as the penetration rate and the cone roughness, are considered in this model. Different shaped model penetrometers, including cone- and ball-shaped ones, are adopted in centrifuge tests to investigate the validity of the proposed method. The undrained shear strength estimated from the piezocone test is found to agree well with that from ball penetrometer test. Case studies are also presented to show the application of the proposed method. Comparisons between the predicted and measured values of undrained shear strength indicate that the proposed approach is generally applicable for nonfissured clays, especially intact clays.     

Sensitivity of Salt-leached Clay Sediments in the Ariake Bay Area,Japan

This study aims to determine whether the principle that “divalent cation predominance in the pore water precludes quick clay development” applies to the Ariake Bay sediments. The chemical and geotechnical properties of an Ariake clay sediment are presented, and sensitivity is discussed with a focus on pore-water salinity and cation composition. In recent years, reduction of pore-water salinity has occurred due to permeation of river water through the sediments because of overpumping of groundwater. Sodium remains the dominant pore-water cation in an upper zone, whereas divalent cations are dominant in the deeper zone. Divalent cation domination in the deeper zone is ascribed to Ca release from nearby cement-stabilized sediments and to Mg increase in response to a change in river water quality. The upper zone's sensitivity ranged from 15 to 77, and the remolded strength was mostly <0.5 kPa, such that quick clay was present over much of its depth. In contrast, the deeper zone's sensitivity was <40, and its remolded strength exceeded 0.5 kPa; quick clay was not present despite the <2 g/L salinity. The absence of quick clay is ascribed to the high remolded strength caused by the pore-water divalent to monovalent cation ratio being greater than 0.25.     

Laboratory Studies on Property Changes in Surrounding Clays Due to Installation of Deep Mixing Columns

This paper has identified six major factors causing property changes in surrounding soils during and after installation of deep mixing columns: soil thixotropy, soil fracturing, cement penetration and diffusion, cementation, consolidation, and heating. Laboratory tests were performed to investigate the effects of soil thixotropy, soil fracturing, and cementation in a soft marine clay, Ariake clay. Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate property changes in surrounding clays due to installation of deep mixing columns. Test results showed that an influential zone of property changes existed in surrounding clay ranging from the edge of the columns to the distance of about twice the radius of the columns. Within this influential zone, water content decreased as samples neared the columns, while pH values and electric conductivity increased. Test results also showed that undrained shear strengths of the surrounding clays decreased during mixing but regained after a 7-day curing period and continued increasing during 28 days in this study.