Effect of inherent anisotropy on the strength of natural granite residual soil under generalized stress paths

It is universally known that residual soils behave very differently from sedimentary soils. While the latter is widely known as cross-anisotropic, little is known regarding the strength anisotropy of residual soils. This study presents how the inherent anisotropy affects the strength of natural granite residual soils under generalized conditions, where intact specimens were carefully prepared and sheared under triaxial compression, extension, simple shear, and hollow cylinder torsional shear tests. The strength of natural residual soil, in terms of ultimate stress ratio M and undrained shear strength S_u, is found to be significantly anisotropic in a different way from normally consolidated clays with the maximum strength obtained under triaxial compression and the minimum under simple shear or at intermediate principal stress direction. As a result, the existing method failed to measure the anisotropy degree of the studied soil. Two parameters were proposed accordingly to quantify the anisotropic strength under general conditions, taking the special strength anisotropy pattern and cohesive-frictional nature of GRS into account. The proposed parameters enable the direct comparison of strength anisotropy among soils. This study serves as a data set to better understand residual soils regarding their anisotropic behaviors under generalized conditions. Although specific to granite residual soils in China, this study is expected to be more widely applicable to other weathered geomaterials.

     

Use of Surface Waves in Statistical Correlations of Shear Wave Velocity and Penetration Resistance of Chennai Soils

Shear wave velocity (V _s) is one of the most important input parameter to represent the stiffness of the soil layers. It is preferable to measure V _s by in situ wave propagation tests, however it is often not economically feasible to perform the tests at all locations. Hence, a reliable correlation between V _s and standard penetration test blow counts (SPT-N) would be a considerable advantage. This paper presents the development of empirical correlations between V _s and SPT-N value for different categories of soil in Chennai city characterized by complex variation of soil conditions. The extensive shear wave velocity measurement was carried out using Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) technique at the sites where the SPT-N values are available. The bender element test is performed to compare the field MASW test results for clayey soils. The correlations between shear wave velocity and SPT-N with and without energy corrections were developed for three categories of soil: all soils, sand and clay. The proposed correlations between uncorrected and energy corrected SPT-N were compared with regression equations proposed by various other investigators and found that the developed correlations exhibit good prediction performance. The proposed uncorrected and energy corrected SPT-N relationships show a slight variation in the statistical analysis indicating that both the uncorrected and energy corrected correlations can predict shear wave velocity with equal accuracy. It is also found that the soil type has a little effect on these correlations below SPT-N value of about 10.     

Directional properties of small strain shear stiffness in soils

A compiled database of shear wave velocity measurements in a variety of clays, silts and sands shows directional hierarchies between downhole (V_sVH), standard crosshole (V_sHV), and rotary crosshole (V_sHH) tests. The special in situ database has been collected from 33 well-documented geotechnical test sites. Expressions relating the small-strain shear modulus in terms of effective confining stress level, stress history and void ratio are explored for each of these three modes of directional shear wave velocity. The relationships are separated initially into soil groups (intact clays, fissured clays, sands and silts), and then generalised to consider all soil types together.     

近海粘土设计参数与指标特性之间的关系分析

展示了近海粘土指标特性与设计参数之间相关关系的研究结果。该项研究的一个重要目的是建立一个按统一方法测定的高质量的土性测试指标数据库。该数据库由10个场地组成，包括大西洋、挪威北海、挪威海、里海和2个沿海陆上地点。数据库分析表明，前期固结压力pc?与液限指数IL之间存在良好的相关关系，但当液限指数小于0.5时，数据比较分散。同时还发现，前期固结压力与由三轴压缩、三轴拉伸及直剪试验测定的不排水抗剪强度之间均有很好的线性相关关系。由此，以pc?与IL之间的关系为基础，提出了使用这些线性关系式估算近海粘土原位不排水强度su的方法及建议。     

Elastic shear stiffness anisotropy and fabric anisotropy of natural clays

Natural clays usually show anisotropic stiffness due to their deposition process and anisotropic in situ stress state. The stiffness anisotropy depends on both of the stress anisotropy and fabric anisotropy, while the latter can be quantified by the stiffness anisotropy at isotropic stress states. This paper measures the K₀ value (i.e., stress anisotropy) and elastic shear stiffness anisotropy of natural Shanghai clay in a triaxial apparatus with horizontal and vertical bender elements. The results show that the K₀ value of Shanghai clay lies in the range of 0.40–0.66, and an empirical equation is proposed to estimate the K₀ value based on the plasticity index and initial void ratio. The fabric anisotropy of natural Shanghai clay lies in the range of 1.2–1.4 with a stronger fabric in the horizontal plane. Moreover, the experimental data of the stiffness anisotropy and fabric anisotropy of different clays in the literature are reviewed and analyzed. It reveals that the stiffness anisotropy generally increases, while the fabric anisotropy remains nearly the same during K₀ consolidation. For normally consolidated clay, the fabric anisotropy generally lies in the range of 1.1–1.7. For overconsolidated clays, the fabric anisotropy generally increases as the overconsolidation ratio increases. Empirical equations are proposed to approximately estimate the fabric anisotropy of clays based on its stress normalized elastic shear stiffness.

     

Variations in shear wave velocity and soil site class in Kolkata city using regression and sensitivity analysis

The detrimental effects of an earthquake are strongly influenced by the response of soils subjected to dynamic loading. The behavior of soils under dynamic loading is governed by the dynamic soil properties such as shear wave velocity, damping characteristics and shear modulus. Worldwide, it is a common practice to obtain shear wave velocity (V _s in m/s) using the correlation with field standard penetration test (SPT) N values in the absence of sophisticated dynamic field test data. In this paper, a similar but modified advanced approach has been proposed for a major metro city of eastern India, i.e., Kolkata city (latitudes 22°20′N–23°00′N and longitudes 88°04′E–88°33′E), to obtain shear wave velocity profile and soil site classification using regression and sensitivity analyses. Extensive geotechnical borehole data from 434 boreholes located across 75 sites in the city area of 185 km² and laboratory test data providing information on the thickness of subsoil strata, SPT N values, consistency indices and percentage of fines are collected and analyzed thoroughly. A correlation between shear wave velocity (V _s) and SPT N value for various soil profiles of Kolkata city has been established by using power model of nonlinear regression analysis and compared with existing correlations for other Indian cities. The present correlations, having regression coefficients (R ²) in excess of 0.96, indicated good prediction capability. Sensitivity analysis predicts that significant influence of soil type exists in determining V _s values, for example, typical silty sand shows 30.4 % increase in magnitude of V _s as compared to silt of Kolkata city. Moreover, the soil site classification shows Class D and Class E category of soil that exists typically in Kolkata city as per NEHRP (Recommended provisions for seismic regulations for new buildings and other structures—Part 1: Provisions. Prepared by the Building Seismic Safety Council for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Report FEMA 450), Washington, DC, 2003) guidelines and thereby highlighting the seismic vulnerability of the city. The results presented in this study can be utilized for seismic microzonation, ground response analysis and hazard assessment for Kolkata city.

     

Interface creep behavior of grouted anchors in clayey soils: effect of soil moisture condition

This study aims at investigating the influence of moisture conditions on interface shear behavior of element-grouted anchor specimens embedded in clayey soils. The tests involved comparatively short embedment lengths and a device that was specially designed to facilitate moisture conditioning. Rapidly loaded pullout tests as well as pullout tests under sustained (creep) loading were conducted to characterize both the short-term and long-term ultimate shear strength of anchor–soil interfaces. Both values of the interface shear strength were found to decrease exponentially with increasing moisture content values, although their ratio was found to show a linearly decreasing trend with increasing moisture content. The interface shear creep response under pullout conditions was characterized by a rheological hybrid model that could be calibrated using experimental measurements obtained under increasing stress levels. The accuracy of the hybrid model was examined by evaluating the stress-dependent prediction model as well as its governing parameters. This investigation uncovers the coupled impact of soil moisture condition and external stress state on the time-dependent performance of grouted anchors embedded in clayey soils by correlating the interface shear strength with soil moisture content and associating the creep model with stress levels applied to the grout–soil interface.

     

Analysis of pressuremeter geometry effects in clay using critical state models

The conventional interpretation methods of pressuremeter testing effectively approximate pressuremeter membranes as infinitely long. As a result, the effects of the two‐dimensional geometry of pressuremeters are ignored, leading to an overestimation of soil shear strength by pressuremeter testing, as demonstrated in several previous studies. This paper presents results of a numerical study of two‐dimensional geometry effects on self‐boring pressuremeter tests in undrained clay. The results are obtained using critical state soil models with an effective stress formulation. This is in contrast to most (if not all) existing studies on pressuremeter geometry effects, which were based on perfectly plastic soil models (e.g. Yu (Cavity expansion theory and its application to the analysis of pressuremeters. DPhil Thesis, The University of Oxford, 1990), Yeung and Carter (Proc. 3rd Int. Symp. on Pressuremeters, 1990), and Houlsby and Carter (Géotechnique, 1993; 43 (4):567–576)). The present study suggests that the overestimation of soil strength due to the neglect of finite pressuremeter length is significantly affected by the soil model used in the calculations. It is found that for clays with a high overconsolidation ratio (OCR) the strength overestimation predicted using critical state soil models could be considerably smaller than that predicted using perfectly plastic soil models. The main conclusion of this numerical study is that care must be exercised before directly applying any numerically determined pressuremeter geometry correction factors in practice. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formulation of a unified constitutive model for clays and sands

This paper presents a new generalized effective stress model, referred to as MIT-S1, which is capable of predicting the rate independent, effective stress–strain–strength behaviour of uncemented soils over a wide range of confining pressures and densities. Freshly deposited sand specimens compressed from different initial formation densities approach a unique condition at high stress levels, referred to as the limiting compression curve (LCC), which is linear in a double logarithmic void ratio, e, mean effective stress space, p′. The model describes irrecoverable, plastic strains which develop throughout first loading using a simple four-parameter elasto-plastic model. The shear stiffness and strength properties of sands in the LCC regime can be normalized by the effective confining pressure and hence can be unified qualitatively, with the well-known behaviour of clays that are normally consolidated from a slurry condition along the virgin consolidation line (VCL). At lower confining pressures, the model characterizes the effects of formation density and fabric on the shear behaviour of sands through a number of key features: (a) void ratio is treated as a separate state variable in the incrementally linearized elasto-plastic formulation: (b) kinematic hardening describing the evolution of anisotropic stress–strain properties: (c) an aperture hardening function controls dilation as a function of ‘formation density’; and (d) the use of a single lemniscate-shaped yield surface with non-associated flow. These features enable the model to describe characteristic transitions from dilative to contractive shear response of sands as the confining pressure increases. This paper summarizes the procedures used to select input parameters for clays and sands, while a companion paper compares model predictions with measured data to illustrate the model capability for describing the shear behaviour of clays and sands. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of Biochar Produced from Mesquite on the Compaction Characteristics and Shear Strength of a Clayey Sand

Biochar is a carbon-rich and low microbial degrading material obtained after pyrolysis of biomass in the absence or limited content of oxygen. The impact of biochar on hydraulic properties of soil is extensively studied in agricultural and geotechnical or geoenvironmental engineering for potential application in bioengineered structures. While a little study is conducted to assess its effect on soil mechanical properties, especially shear strength. However, the effect of biochar on the combined shear strength and compaction characteristics of soil is not studied. The shear strength of biochar amended soil is thought to be related to the compaction characteristics. In addition, the effect of biochar on the shear strength of the soil is soil and biochar specific. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate and better understand the effect of biochar on the shear strength and compaction characteristics of a clayey sand for potential application in bioengineered structures. Standard proctor, direct shear and unconfined compression tests were conducted on bare soil and soil amended with 5, 10 and 15% (w/w) biochar. The experimental results revealed that the amendment of biochar from 5 to 15% (w/w) decreased the dry density and increased the shear strength parameters such as cohesion (c) and angle of internal friction (ϕ) of the soil. While it decreased the undrained shear strength (c_u) at higher compaction density (> 0.95MDD) and increased at lower compaction density (< 0.9MDD). Thus, in undrained condition, the initial compaction density has a strong influence on the shear strength of biochar amended soil. In addition, the increased c and ϕ and decreased dry density in biochar amended soil is observed to increase the stability of slopes (hypothetical). The increase of c and ϕ is believed to be due to the roughness and active chemicals (functional groups) present on the surface of the biochar. The decreased c_u at higher density is believed to be due to the lubricating effect by the higher water content.

     

Water Content Ratio: An Effective Substitute for Liquidity Index for Prediction of Shear Strength of Clays

Undrained shear strength of saturated clays is a very important property in geo-technical engineering practice. Since the collection of undisturbed samples and testing the same is difficult task and time consuming process, any attempt to obtain correlations between shear strength and consistency limits would be highly desirable. Several attempts have been made in the past to correlate shear strength with Liquidity index. The computation of Liquidity index involves the value of plastic limit determined by Casagrande thread rolling method; but the determination of the same is relatively a difficult task in geotechnical engineering practice especially so in less plastic soils. It has been shown that a good linear correlation exists between log of shear strength and water content ratio (ratio of water content to liquid limit). With the help of numerous experimental results, it could be established that water content ratio could replace the well-known parameter liquidity index to predict shear strength. This enables to eliminate the determination of the plastic limit. The relation between water content ratio and liquidity index depends on the liquid limit to plastic limit ratio, irrespective of the geological origin of the soil.     

Analysis of the vane test considering size and time effects

An analysis of the vane test using an Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation within a finite element framework is presented. This is suitable for soft clays for which the test is commonly used to measure in situ undrained shear strength. Constitutive laws are expressed in terms of shear stress–shear strain rates, and that permits the study of time effects in a natural manner. An analysis of the shear stress distributions on the failure surface according to the material model is presented. The effect of the constitutive law on the shear band amplitude and on the position of the failure surface is shown. In general, the failure surface is found at 1–1·01 times the vane radius, which is consistent with some experimental results. The problem depends on two dimensionless parameters that represent inertial and viscous forces. For usual vane tests, viscous forces are predominant, and the measured shear strength depends mainly on the angular velocity applied. That can explain some of the comparisons reported when using different vane sizes. Finally, the range of the shear strain rate applied to the soil is shown to be fundamental when comparing experimental results from vane, triaxial and viscosimeter tests. Appart from that, an experimental relation between undrained shear strength and vane angular velocity has been reproduced by this simulation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear genetic-based simulation of soil shear strength parameters

New nonlinear solutions were developed to estimate the soil shear strength parameters utilizing linear genetic programming (LGP). The soil cohesion intercept (c) and angle of shearing resistance (ϕ) were formulated in terms of the basic soil physical properties. The best models were selected after developing and controlling several models with different combinations of influencing parameters. Comprehensive experimental database used for developing the models was established upon a series of unconsolidated, undrained, and unsaturated triaxial tests conducted in this study. Further, sensitivity and parametric analyses were carried out. c and ϕ were found to be mostly influenced by the soil unit weight and liquid limit. In order to benchmark the proposed models, a multiple least squares regression (MLSR) analysis was performed. The validity of the models was proved on portions of laboratory results that were not included in the modelling process. The developed models are able to effectively learn the complex relationship between the soil strength parameters and their contributing factors. The LGP models provide a significantly better prediction performance than the regression models.     

Determination of ultimate capacity of driven piles in cohesionless soil: A Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline approach

The determination of ultimate capacity (Q) of driven piles in cohesionless soil is an important task in geotechnical engineering. This article adopts Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline (MARS) for prediction Q of driven piles in cohesionless soil. MARS uses length (L), angle of shear resistance of the soil around the shaft (?_shaft), angle of shear resistance of the soil at the tip of the pile (?_tip), area (A), and effective vertical stress at the tip of the pile as input variables. Q is the output of MARS. The results of MARS are compared with that of the Generalized Regression Neural Network model. An equation has been also presented based on the developed MARS. The results show the strong potential of MARS to be applied to geotechnical engineering as a regression tool. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of analytical models to estimate the increase in pile capacity with time (pile setup) from soil properties

This paper presents the analyses of twelve prestressed concrete (PSC) instrumented test piles that were driven in different bridge construction projects of Louisiana in order to develop analytical models to estimate the increase in pile capacity with time or pile setup. The twelve test piles were driven mainly in cohesive soils. Detailed soil characterizations including laboratory and in situ tests were conducted to determine the different soil properties. The test piles were instrumented with vibrating wire strain gauges, piezometers, pressure cells that were monitored during the whole testing period. Several static load tests (SLTs) and dynamic load tests were conducted on each test pile at different times after end of driving (EOD) to quantify the magnitude and rate of setup. Measurements of load tests confirmed that pile capacity increases almost linearly with the logarithm of time elapsed after EOD. Case pile wave analysis program was performed on the restrikes data and was used along with the load distribution plots from the SLTs to evaluate the increase in skin friction capacity of individual soil layers along the length of the piles. The logarithmic linear setup parameter “A” for unit skin friction was calculated of the 70 individual clayey soil layers and was correlated with different soil properties such as undrained shear strength (S_u), plasticity index, vertical coefficient of consolidation (c_v), over consolidation ratio and sensitivity (S_t). Nonlinear multivariable regression analyses were performed, and three different empirical models are proposed to predict the pile setup parameter “A” as a function of soil properties. For verification, the subsurface soil conditions and setup information for additional 18 PSC piles collected from local database were used to compare the measured versus predicted “A” parameters from the proposed models, which showed good agreement.

     

Prediction of Enhanced Soil–Anchored Geogrid Interactions in Direct Shear Mode Using Gene Expression Programming

Design of reinforced soil structures is greatly influenced by soil–geosynthetic interactions at interface which is normally assessed by costly and time consuming laboratory tests. In present research, using the results of large-scale direct shear tests conducted on soil–anchored geogrid samples a model for predicting Enhanced Interaction Coefficient (EIC) is proposed enabling researchers/engineers easily, quickly and at no cost to estimate soil–geosynthetic interactions. In this regard well and poorly graded sands, anchors of three different size and anchorage lengths from the shear surface together with normal pressures of 12.5, 25 and 50 kPa were used. Artificial Intelligence (AI) called the Gene Expression Programming (GEP) was adopted to develop the model. Input variables included coefficients of curvature and uniformity, normal pressure, effective grain size, anchor base and surface area, anchorage length and the output variable was EIC. Contributions of input variables were evaluated using sensitivity analysis. Excellent correlation between the GEP-based model and the experimental results were achieved showing that the proposed model is well capable of effectively estimating soil–anchored geogrid enhanced interaction coefficient. Sensitivity analysis for parameter importance shows that the most influential variables are normal pressure (σ_n) and anchorage length (L) and the least effective parameters are average particle size (D₅₀) and anchor base area (A_b).

     

南阳膨胀土的工程地质特征和填筑适宜性

施工阶段的工程地质调查发现,宁（南京）西（西安）铁路内乡-镇平段南阳膨胀土成因类型上不仅有第四系冲积洪积粘土,而且发育上第三系湖相沉积粘土。不同成因的膨胀土具有不同的空间分布特征和工程性质,X射线衍射测试表明,南阳膨胀土的主要膨胀性粘土矿物是伊利石/蒙脱石混层矿物。物质组成和物理化学性质差异导致击实土在含水量变化条件下膨胀力和膨胀变形有明显的差别;对同一种膨胀土材料,其击实含水量越小,膨胀性越强,甚至含水量降低1 %～2 %,膨胀力就可以增加到200 %以上;击实膨胀土的直剪强度受到钙质结核含量的影响,对于膨胀势为高或强的膨胀土,结核含量小于15 % 时,经过干湿循环后直剪强度衰减量为40 %～65 %,结核含量为25 %～30 % 的强膨胀土直剪强度衰减量则低于30 %;对膨胀土的地质特征、工程性质、击实土的膨胀性和直剪试验结果进行分析,探讨其用于填筑铁路路基的适宜性,进行了填筑适宜性分级。依据研究成果制定的路基施工工艺取得了比较理想的工程效果     

用似水灰比对水泥土无侧限抗压强度的预测

对以连云港地区的海相软土为原料的水泥土进行了一系列物理、强度试验,分析了含水量、水泥用量和龄期对水泥土强度的影响,提出了似水灰比的概念用于水泥土强度的预测。采用提出的水泥土强度预测公式,根据某一似水灰比、龄期28 d某种的水泥土室内试验强度,可以预测不同含水量、不同水泥用量和不同龄期的水泥土室内试验强度。通过比较分析发现,得出水泥土强度预测公式可以很好地应用于其他研究者已经发表的水泥土试验数据,进一步验证了所提出的强度预测公式的有效性。     

Effect of lime and fly ash on swell,consolidation and shear strength characteristics of expansive clays: a comparative study

Expansive soils swell on absorbing water and shrink on evaporation thereof. Because of this alternate swelling and shrinkage, civil engineering structures founded in them are severely damaged. For counteracting the problems of expansive soils, different innovative techniques were suggested. Stabilization of expansive clays with various additives has also met with considerable success. This paper presents, by comparison, the effect of lime and fly ash on free swell index (FSI), swell potential, swelling pressure, coefficient of consolidation, compression index, secondary consolidation characteristics and shear strength. Lime content (weight of lime/weight of dry soil) was varied as 0%, 2%, 4%?and 6%?and fly ash content (weight of fly ash/weight of dry soil) as 0%, 10%?and 20%. A fly ash content of 20%?showed significant reduction in swell potential, swelling pressure, compression index and secondary consolidation characteristics and resulted in increase in maximum dry density and shear strength. Swell potential and swelling pressure decreased with increase in lime content also. Further, consolidation characteristics improved. Compaction characteristics and unconfined compression strength improved at 4%?lime and reduced at 6%?lime.