Sample Disturbance in Soft and Sensitive Clays: Analysis and Assessment

Despite the sophisticated methods employed to obtain high quality samples, they are prone to disturbance, due to stress release, let apart, due to sampling tools and techniques adopted. Critical reappraisal of different methods suggest that any method of sample quality assessment involving strength and deformation parameters would enable easier implementation and correct other engineering parameters for estimated sample disturbance. In this technical paper, sample disturbance index, using merely the slopes of compression paths, (representing mechanical response), in the pre- and post-yield stress regimes under odeometric loading conditions is proposed. This method is based on single oedometer test results on samples of unknown degrees of disturbance during sampling and handling. The unique feature of this approach is that the ideal rigid plastic material behavior is taken as reference. This eliminates the need for any additional experimental data or any calculations from the relationships formulated with any set of assumptions.     

Characterization of Estuarine Marine Clays for Coastal Reclamation in Pusan, Korea

Large scale reclamation works in coastal areas of the Nakdong River plain are at various stages of progress, since early 1990's on in-situ soft marine clay deposits. These deposits are of the order of 30 to 40 m thick. A realistic rapid characterization of soft ground would ensure success of any reclamation work in this area. In order to cope with the work carried out with different agencies, it is desirable to evolve a systematic methodology. In this study, engineering properties of clays at three coastal areas, Gadukdo, Noksan and Shinho, have been generated. The analysis of data has been done within the framework of classical developments in soil mechanics. Analysis has also been made by making use of the recent developments in dealing with soft clays. The dominant factors, namely, stress, time, and environment influencing the response of clay to loading are identified.     

Optimization and Parametrical Investigation to Assess the Reconstitution of Different Types of Indian Sand Using Portable Travelling Pluviator

By using the air pluviation technique, it is aimed to achieve the desired relative density with uniform void ratio throughout the specimen in order to maintain the homogeneity and to avoid the spatial variability. Further, in order to achieve the maximum deposition intensity, a systematic optimization study has been carried out rigorously in a test tank to determine the diameter of the orifice to be employed for the sieve plates of different porosity and the number of sieve plates to be installed in the diffuser sieve sets. The study has been conducted with four different patterns of sieves with different porosity to achieve a wide range of relative densities for four different uniformly graded Indian sands. The dynamic penetrometer which is considered to be one of the cost effective instruments has been efficiently used to determine the soil resistance at various locations of the test tank for every given height of fall in order to check the uniformity of placement density throughout the sand bed. The study reveals that the sand beds of different relative densities could be achieved using different patterns of diffuser sieves at optimum sand flow rate without compromising the uniformity. The effect of height of fall as well as porosity of diffuser sieves on the relative density of different sands has been studied in detail. The deposition intensity and the relative density obtained from the present study are compared with the values available in the literature.     

Factors influencing undrained strength of fine-grained soils at high water contents

Understanding the undrained strength of fine-grained soils has been of interest to geotechnical researchers from many practical considerations. In several civil engineering applications, water content of soil is quite high being near or above the liquid limit of soils, and understanding the factors responsible for imparting the strength of soil at high water contents is of great significance. Recently, it has been reported in the literature that the shear strength of soils at these limiting water contents has significant variation. However, the reasons and the factors that probably influence for this variation have not been reported in the literature. This experimental investigation is an attempt in the direction of understanding the reasons for the variation in the undrained strength at higher limiting water content, namely liquid limit considering the various influencing factors like clay mineralogy and fine-sand content present in soil used for determining liquid limit. The results from this study are quite revealing and have been explained based on the mechanisms controlling the undrained strength at liquid limit.     

Impact of artificial subsurface drainage on groundwater travel times and baseflow discharge in an agricultural watershed,Iowa (USA)

Pollutant delivery through artificial subsurface drainage networks to streams is an important transport mechanism, yet the impact of drainage tiles on groundwater hydrology at the watershed scale has not been well documented. In this study, we developed a two‐dimensional, steady‐state groundwater flow model for a representative Iowa agricultural watershed to simulate the impact of tile drainage density and incision depth on groundwater travel times and proportion of baseflow contributed by tile drains. Varying tile drainage density from 0 to 0.0038 m^?1, while maintaining a constant tile incision depth at 1.2 m, resulted in the mean groundwater travel time to decrease exponentially from 40 years to 19 years and increased the tile contribution to baseflow from 0% to an upper bound of 37%. In contrast, varying tile depths from 0.3 to 2.7 m, while maintaining a constant tile drainage density of 0.0038 m^?1, caused mean travel times to decrease linearly from 22 to 18 years and increased the tile contribution to baseflow from 30% to 54% in a near‐linear manner. The decrease in the mean travel time was attributed to decrease in the saturated thickness of the aquifer with increasing drainage density and incision depth. Study results indicate that tile drainage affects fundamental watershed characteristics and should be taken into consideration when evaluating water and nitrate export from agricultural regions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low molecular weight polyacrylamide-based polymers as modifiers in phosphate beneficiation

The phosphate industry currently uses several natural polymers such as starch and guar as modifiers to achieve better separation of phosphate from silicates and carbonates. These natural products have many drawbacks: poor selectivity, low performance/dosage ratio, instability and sensitivity to aging, batch variability in composition, and deleterious down-stream effects. Several new, synthetic, low molecular weight polymers have recently been developed as cost-effective alternatives to natural products. These polymers have not only overcome many of the problems associated with natural products, but also have high activity and selectivity.The approach used in designing the synthetic polymers was to incorporate functional groups that would adsorb selectively on the mineral surface thereby rendering it hydrophilic. The phosphate modifier (depressant) developed recently is a low molecular weight polyacrylamide containing both hydroxyl and carboxylic acid functional groups. This polymer has provided excellent selectivity in the separation of apatite from siliceous gangue. The role of this and related polymers in the selective cationic flotation of quartz from apatite is discussed in this paper. The structure-activity relationships have been studied by determining the modifier activity of a range of polyacrylamides containing hydroxyl, carboxyl or carboxymethylol groups.     

Seismic Passive Earth Pressure Behind Non-vertical Retaining Wall Using Pseudo-dynamic Analysis

This paper shows a detailed study on the seismic passive earth pressure behind a non-vertical cantilever retaining wall using pseudo-dynamic analysis. A planar failure surface has been considered behind the retaining wall. The effects of soil friction angle, wall inclination, wall friction angle, horizontal and vertical earthquake acceleration on the passive earth pressure have been explored. Unlike the Mononobe–Okabe method, which incorporates pseudo-static analysis, the present analysis predicts a nonlinear variation of passive earth pressure along the wall. The results have been thoroughly compared with the existing values in the literature.     

Estimation of Raft Settlement Based on Linear Elastic Finite Element Analysis

Geotechnical and Geological Engineering - A detailed parametric study based on linear-elastic three-dimensional finite element (FE) analysis with proper raft–soil interaction is performed for...     

The Euro-Atlantic Circulation Response to the Madden-Julian Oscillation Cycle of Tropical Heating: Coupled GCM Intervention Experiments

Abstract

Intervention experiments using the Coupled Forecast System model, version 2 (CFSv2), have been performed in which various Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) evolutions were added to the model’s internally generated heating: Slow Repeated Cycles, Slow Single Cycle, Fast Repeated Cycles, and Fast Single Cycle. In each experiment, one of these specified MJO evolutions of tropical diabatic heating was added in multiple ensemble reforecasts of boreal winter (1 November to 31 March for 31 winters: 1980–2010). Since in each experiment, multiple re-forecasts were made with the identical heating evolution added, predictable component analysis is used to identify modes with the highest signal-to-noise ratio. Traditional MJO-phase analysis of total model heating (dominated by internally generated heating) shows that the MJO-related heating structure compares well with heating estimated from observed fast and slow episodes; however, the model heating is larger by a factor of two. The evolution of Euro-Atlantic circulation regimes indicates a clear response due to the added heating, with a robust increase in the frequency of occurrence of the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO?) after the heating crosses into the Pacific and a somewhat less robust increase in the positive phase of the NAO (NAO+) following Indian Ocean heating. In the Fast Cycle experiments, the model response is somewhat muted compared with the Slow Cycle experiments. The Scandinavian Blocking regime becomes more frequent prior to the NAO? regime. The two leading modes in the predictable component analysis of 300?hPa height (Z300), synoptic scale feedback (DZ300), and planetary wave diabatic heating in all experiments form an oscillatory pair with high statistical significance. The oscillatory pair represents the cyclic response to the particular MJO signal (Fast or Slow, Single, or Repeated Cycles) in each case. The period is about 64 days for the Slow Cycle and 36 days for the Fast Cycle, consistent with the imposed periods. The time series of one of the leading modes of Z300 is highly anti-correlated with the frequency of occurrence of the NAO– in the Repeated Cycle experiments. A clear cycle involving the Z300 and DZ300 leading modes is identified.