A simple experimental method to regain the mechanical behavior of naturally structured marine clays

Quantitative laboratory studies on the structural behavior of natural intact marine clays require a large number of identical natural samples leading to an expensive and challenging task. This study proposes a simple method to reconstruct an artificial structured marine clay as the state of its natural intact clay at both macro and micro levels. For this purpose, the Shanghai marine clay is selected and mixed with low cement contents (1–6%). The clay-cement slurry is mixed in a container with the ice-covered sides at a low temperature about 0 ± 2 °C to postpone the hydration reactions until consolidation began. The purpose of adding cement is to generate the inter-particle bonding and structure in reconstituted samples. Initially, the reconstituted samples are consolidated under the in situ stress of 98 kPa and then under the pre-consolidation pressure of 50 kPa. Mechanical characteristics such as compression index, yield stress, unconfined compression strength, shear strength ratio, and the stress paths from triaxial tests are compared with natural intact clay accordingly. Scanning electron microscope and mercury intrusion porosimetry analyses are also performed to analyze the microstructure of clays for comparison. Furthermore, the proposed method is also examined by using natural intact marine clays of different locations and characteristics.     

Influence of secondary compression on undrained strength of soft kaolinites

Soft kaolinite deposits of marine origin are encountered as foundation soils in many parts of the world. The well-developed flocculated structure of kaolinite-bearing marine deposits is amenable to alterations from leaching of pore solution salts, loss of overburden, and secondary compression. Secondary compression causes densification of microstructure that may impact the viscous resistance, soil stiffness, and undrained shear strength of kaolinite-bearing marine deposits. This study examines the influence of secondary compression on viscous resistance and constrained stress–strain modulus of soft kaolinites prepared in synthetic seawater and sodium chloride solutions. The impact of secondary compression on undrained shear strength is interpreted from changes in microstructure, percent monovalent cation concentration, viscous resistance, and constrained stress–strain modulus. Kaolinite specimens experience reduction in void space during secondary compression. Breakdown of edge–face (E–F) and edge–edge (E–E) contacts of kaolinite particles during secondary compression and creation of interlocking zones is observed from scanning electron micrograph studies. Breakdown of E–F and E–E contacts is considered responsible for reduction in constrained stress–strain modulus during secondary compression. Concomitant, creation of interlocking zones at particle contacts increases the viscous resistance of microstructure that enhances the undrained shear strength of soft kaolinites.     

Permeability characteristics of lime treated marine clay

An attempt has been made to investigate the lime induced permeability changes in the permeability and engineering behavior of different lime column treated soil systems. Lime columns treated marine clay shows an increase in permeability up to a maximum value of 15–18 times that of untreated soil with time. The shear strength of the treated soil systems show an increment up to 8–10 that of untreated soil within a period of 30–45 days curing. In the case of lime injection systems, the permeability has been increased up to 10–15 times that of untreated soil, whereas the strength of the soil has been higher by 8–10 times that of untreated soil. Further, consolidation tests show a reduction in the compressibility up to 1/2–1/3 of original values. The test results revealed that both lime column and injection techniques could be used to improve the behaviour of underwater marine clay deposits.     

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.     

Improvement of estuarine marine clays for coastal reclamation using vacuum-applied consolidation method

Consolidation occurs in estuarine marine clays for coastal reclamation by dissipation of the excess pore pressure, which is induced by increasing the total overburden stress during conventional mechanical surcharging. The excess pore pressure can be decreased usually by the use of several construction methods such as sand drain and paper drain. Besides the drain methods, vacuum can also be used in the soil mass to consolidate the estuarine marine clays by decreasing the pore pressure as well as increasing the effective stress.The study on vacuum consolidation is devoted so far mainly for laboratory model tests or numerical analysis in Korea. Recently, an instrumentation system was applied to manage the vacuum-applied consolidation on a field, in which a sewage disposal plant was constructed. While vacuum was applied, the behaviors of estuarine marine clays such as the settlement, lateral deformation and pore water pressure have been investigated precisely. The behavior of estuarine marine clays during vacuum-applied consolidation shows some difference from the behavior of estuarine marine clays in the case of conventional preloading. A principal difference is that the lateral deformation corresponding to settlement is smaller than before vacuum application even though the surcharge height has been increased.     

Degradation in Cemented Marine Clay Subjected to Cyclic Compressive Loading

The influence of cyclic loading on the strength and deformation behavior of cemented marine clay has been studied. This marine clay is of recent Pleistocene origin and deposited in a shallow water marine environment. Open pits were dug in sheeted enclosures and from these pits, undisturbed samples were taken for strength testing. A series of standard triaxial shear tests and stress controlled one-way cyclic load tests were conducted at consolidation stress ranges below and above the preconsolidation pressure. For the stress levels below the preconsolidation pressure, the cyclic loading has brought about the collapse of the cementation bond through an increase in strains, and at higher pressure ranges, the soil behaves like typical soft clay. This experiment studied the rate of development of strain and pore water pressure and shows that rate is a function of number of cycles, applied stress, and stress history. In addition, soil degradation during cyclic loading is studied in terms of Degradation Index. Attempt has been made to predict stain, pore water pressure, and degradation index through an empirical model.     

Anisotropic Drained Deformation Behavior and Shear Strength of Natural Soft Marine Clay

The deformation behavior and shear strength of soft marine clays subjected to wave or traffic loads are different from that in triaxial loading due to the changes of major principal stress direction β and intermediate principal stress coefficient b. To investigate the anisotropy affected by β and b in natural soft marine clay, a series of drained tests were conducted by hollow cylinder apparatus. The principal stress direction relative to vertical direction were maintained constant under an increasing shear stress, with fixed intermediate principal stress coefficient b. The influence of the b and β on anisotropy of typically Wenzhou intact clay is discussed. It was found that octahedral stress–strain relationships expressed anisotropy with different b and β. The friction angle and deviator stress ratio with different b and β were presented to provide guidance for engineering projects in the coastal zone.     

Anisotropic deformation characteristics of soft marine clay involved the change of b-values and stress direction

In actual engineering, soft clay foundations are in drained or partial drained conditions, it would be useful to establish reasonable constitutive relationship and provide guidance for engineering projects. A hollow cylinder apparatus is used to investigate the anisotropic deformation behavior of natural soft marine clay influenced by intermediate principal stress coefficient b and principal stress direction α. Tests were conducted by maintaining a fixed principal stress direction α relative to the vertical direction, while keeping the intermediate principal stress coefficient b constant. It was found that the anisotropic deformation behavior of natural soft clay is merely influenced by major principal stress direction α, but significantly influenced by intermediate principal stress coefficient b.     

Effect of Pollutants on the Physical and Engineering Behavior of Lime-Treated Marine Clay

Rapid industrial growth and increasing population has resulted in the discharge of wastes into the ocean, wastes which ultimately reach the seabed and contaminate the marine sediments. The soil-contaminants interaction, and their associated physico chemical properties with sediments control the behavior of marine clays. Marine clay deposits of low strength and high compressibility are located in many coastal and offshore areas. There are several foundation problems encountered in these weak marine clays. In this study, experimental work was carried out in the laboratory to stabilize soft marine clays using the lime column technique. Also the lime-induced effects on the physical and engineering behavior of marine clays in sulfate-contaminated marine environment was investigated. Consolidation tests indicate that compressibility of the lime-treated samples was reduced to 1/2-1/3 of the virgin soil after 45 days treatment. The test results also suggest that the lime column technique can be conveniently used to improve the behavior of contaminated marine clay deposits.     

Primary yielding locus of cement-stabilized marine clay and its applications

ABSTRACT

Strength and stiffness properties of materials are widely studied and used in civil engineering practice. However, most studies are based on unconfined conditions, which are different from real status of soil. This study investigated the primary yielding and yield locus for cement-stabilized marine clay. In this study, two types of cement-stabilized soils were studied through isotropic compression, triaxial drained shearing, unconfined compression, and bender element testing. Specimens with 20–50% of cement content and 7–90 days of curing period were used for the tests. Stress–strain behavior and primary yielding were evaluated, followed by construction of the primary yield locus. The characteristics of the primary yield locus and its development with curing time then were studied. The results showed that the properties of the primary yield locus were dependent on the type of stabilized soil, but were independent of the cement content and curing period. Thus, the approach provides a way to estimate the primary yield stress and drained stress path before primary yielding for cement-stabilized soil under confined condition. An empirical function was used to fit the primary yield locus. The primary isotropic yield stress was correlated to unconfined compressive strength or maximum shear modulus. Three indirect methods were proposed to predict the primary yield stress for cement-stabilized marine clay. The results showed that the primary yield stress can be estimated with reasonable accuracy.     

Effect of Pollutants on the Physical and Engineering Behavior of Lime-Treated Marine Clay

Abstract

Rapid industrial growth and increasing population has resulted in the discharge of wastes into the ocean, wastes which ultimately reach the seabed and contaminate the marine sediments. The soil-contaminants interaction, and their associated physico chemical properties with sediments control the behavior of marine clays. Marine clay deposits of low strength and high compressibility are located in many coastal and offshore areas. There are several foundation problems encountered in these weak marine clays. In this study, experimental work was carried out in the laboratory to stabilize soft marine clays using the lime column technique. Also the lime-induced effects on the physical and engineering behavior of marine clays in sulfate-contaminated marine environment was investigated. Consolidation tests indicate that compressibility of the lime-treated samples was reduced to 1/2–1/3 of the virgin soil after 45 days treatment. The test results also suggest that the lime column technique can be conveniently used to improve the behavior of contaminated marine clay deposits.     

Critical State Sedimentation Line of Soft Marine Clays

The compression behavior responsible for unity sensitivity is very valuable in quantitative assessment of the effects of soil structure on the compression behavior of soft marine sediments. However, the quantitative assessment of such effects is not possible because of unavailability of the formula for the compression curve of marine sediments responsible for unit sensitivity. In this study, the relationship between the remolded state and the conventional critical state line is presented in the deviator stress versus mean effective stress plot. The analysis indicates that the remolded state is on the conventional critical state line obtained at a relatively small strain. Thus, a unique critical state sedimentation line for marine sediments of unit sensitivity is proposed. The comparison between the critical state sedimentation line proposed in this study and the existing normalized consolidation curves obtained from conventional oedometer tests on remolded soils or reconstituted soils explains well the     

Enhancing the mechanical properties of marine clay using cement solidification

Abstract

The use of soft clay and dredged marine clays as the construction material is challenging. This is because the high water content, high compressibility and low permeability of the clay causing the instability of ground and structure. This detrimental effect of soft clay can be improved by the cement solidification process, which is relatively cheap and efficient. This paper mainly focuses on the study of improvement on the mechanical behavior of cement mixed marine clay. The soil is reconstituted by using ordinary Portland cement of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by its mass. The study reveals that cementation of clay significantly improves the peak and residual strength of soil. Similarly, the primary yield stress of the soil is also improved from 16 to 275?kPa as cement content increases from 5% to 20%, respectively. By using statistical tools, the relationships between various parameters are established, which are very important to define the mechanical behavior of the clay. This study reveals that the yield surface of the solidified marine clay is not a smooth elliptical surface. Rather it is composed of two linear surfaces followed by a log-linear surface which can be modeled by using simple parameters obtained from triaxial tests.     

Microfabric, chemical and mineralogical study of Indian marine clays

Marine clay deposits are encountered in the coastal regions of the world. They are soft in consistency with low shear strength and are highly compressible. The properties of these deposits are complex and diverse, and they mainly depend on the minerals present and microstructural arrangement of constituent particles. In the present investigation, the physico-chemical properties of the sediment samples obtained from marine deposits of east and west metropolitan coastal cities of India are discussed, and the test results obtained are compared with the synthetic samples such as bentonite and kaolinite. Mineralogical and fabric studies were carried out using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction techniques. Several consolidation and strength tests were carried out to study the engineering behaviour of these deposits. The strength and compressibility (Cc) values of these deposits varies from 27 to 45 kN/m² and 0.37 to 0.81 respectively. XRD studies confirm the presence of highly compressible clay minerals such as smectite, vermiculite, chlorite and traces of the low swelling mineral, kaolinite. The fabric studies indicate that the constituent particles were arranged in an open network, or flocculated structure resulting in a high void ratio.     

海洋井架结构非线性分析

根据海洋钻井井架实际结构特点,建立弹性基础上的三维有限元模型.按9种工况对某井架的有限元模型进行加载,并且在传统线弹性理论基础上加以改进,考虑非线性P-△效应的影响.应用有限元分析软件StruCAD进行分析计算,给出可靠的计算结果;并且系统分析结构的受力特点和影响因素,得出对于井架这类高耸结构应该考虑P-△效应的影响.     

Predictions of the OCR from Piezocone Tests in Quaternary Clays

As indicated by the profile of overconsolidation ratio (OCR), the stress history of a soil deposit is one of the dominant factors that influence the engineering behavior of soils. A commonly used method to obtain the parameter is the laboratory oedometer test, which is of low accuracy and time consuming because of inevitable sample disturbance. These difficulties can be overcome by in situ pizeocone penetration test, which provides continuous measurement of cone resistance, sleeve friction, and pore water pressure induced during the penetration. Though many methods have been proposed to estimate the preconsolidation pressure and overconsolidation ratio of clay deposits, their validity still needs to be proved. In this study, existing empirical methods for interpreting stress history of clays through piezocone tests are briefly reviewed. It is shown that regional correlations are valid. Piezocone tests utilizing a Vertek-Hogentogler CPTU truck that have been completed at different sites in the Jiangsu province of China. Existing correlations are compared with these field test data. It is shown that the correlation based on normalized net tip resistance is pretty accurate for determining the overconsolidation ratio of Quaternary clay deposits.     

Assessment of Compressibility Behavior of Naturally Cemented Soft Clays

It Naturally cemented soft clays have components of strength and stiffness, which cannot be accounted for by classical soil mechanics (Leroueil and Vaughan 1990). This stems from the influence of structure caused by cementation due to environmental factors. It is necessary to evaluate the cementation bond strength at preyield and postyield stress levels of loading, to understand comprehensively the observed response from micromechanic considerations. This helps to better understand and evolve approaches to model the constitutive behavior in a consistent manner, according to the physical phenomenon of formation of cementation as an additional component to what is otherwise normally regarded as frictional behavior arising only from particulate nature of clays. Comparing the behavior of deep deposits of Pusan soft clays under stress with corresponding response of the same clay in its remolded state, it has been possible to take into account particulate and nonparticulate responses. The evolution of cementation bonding is modeled for different Pusan clays with the yield stress in oedometer compression as a normalizing parameter for obtaining the generalized relationship of cementation bonding with increase in stress. The already established model for determining the remolded behavior is appropriately modified to assess the behavior influenced by cementation. The model proposed consists of parameters, which are determined in routine investigations.     

Assessment of Compressibility Behavior of Naturally Cemented Soft Clays

It Naturally cemented soft clays have components of strength and stiffness, which cannot be accounted for by classical soil mechanics (Leroueil and Vaughan 1990). This stems from the influence of structure caused by cementation due to environmental factors. It is necessary to evaluate the cementation bond strength at preyield and postyield stress levels of loading, to understand comprehensively the observed response from micromechanic considerations. This helps to better understand and evolve approaches to model the constitutive behavior in a consistent manner, according to the physical phenomenon of formation of cementation as an additional component to what is otherwise normally regarded as frictional behavior arising only from particulate nature of clays. Comparing the behavior of deep deposits of Pusan soft clays under stress with corresponding response of the same clay in its remolded state, it has been possible to take into account particulate and nonparticulate responses. The evolution of cementation bonding is modeled for different Pusan clays with the yield stress in oedometer compression as a normalizing parameter for obtaining the generalized relationship of cementation bonding with increase in stress. The already established model for determining the remolded behavior is appropriately modified to assess the behavior influenced by cementation. The model proposed consists of parameters, which are determined in routine investigations.     

Microfabric,chemical and mineralogical study of Indian marine clays

Marine clay deposits are encountered in the coastal regions of the world. They are soft in consistency with low shear strength and are highly compressible. The properties of these deposits are complex and diverse, and they mainly depend on the minerals present and microstructural arrangement of constituent particles. In the present investigation, the physico-chemical properties of the sediment samples obtained from marine deposits of east and west metropolitan coastal cities of India are discussed, and the test results obtained are compared with the synthetic samples such as bentonite and kaolinite. Mineralogical and fabric studies were carried out using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction techniques. Several consolidation and strength tests were carried out to study the engineering behaviour of these deposits. The strength and compressibility (Cc) values of these deposits varies from 27 to 45 kN/m² and 0.37 to 0.81 respectively. XRD studies confirm the presence of highly compressible clay minerals such as smectite, vermiculite, chlorite and traces of the low swelling mineral, kaolinite. The fabric studies indicate that the constituent particles were arranged in an open network, or flocculated structure resulting in a high void ratio.     

Constitutive model for predicting stress-strain behavior of fine-grained sediments using shear-wave velocity

Abstract

The mechanical response of a sediment to an applied stress is significantly affected by variations of material properties, state conditions, and stress states. These stress state and conditions are utilized to infer input parameters for advanced soil constitutive models. Parameters such as void ratio and effective stresses have been readily inferred from shear-wave velocities under low-strain conditions. Thus, this research aimed to develop a shear-wave velocity-based constitutive model within a critical state soil mechanics framework to predict the undrained triaxial behavior of fine-grained sediments. Laboratory tests were performed for sediment samples ranging from silt-predominant to clay-predominant sediments. As result, a new two-term power function was developed that determined mean effective stress as a function of shear-wave velocity. By virtue of this new power function, the Original Cam Clay and Modified Cam Clay critical state models were adapted to estimate the stress-strain behavior and stress paths under undrained conditions, in terms of shear velocity. In addition, correlations were developed using the state and material properties to predict the input model parameters. The developed correlations allow broad application of the proposed framework to different sediment types in which clay and silt are the dominant deposits.