Sulphate Attack in Lime-Treated Marine Clay

The use of lime to improve the properties of soft clays is not new. Recently the deep lime mixing technique has been extended to coastal regions for improving the behavior of weak marine clays. But lime treatment technique should be approached carefully for clay containing a high percentage of sodium sulphate. The presence of sulphate in lime-treated clays may result in high swelling due to the formation of the expansive mineral, ettringite. A limited study of lime-treated marine clays has shown a need to further explore the formation of ettringite and its stability with time. In this article, a laboratory investigation was carried out to examine the influence of sodium and calcium sulphates on the behavior of lime column treated marine clay. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to identify the formation of various reaction products, including ettringite. Test results indicate that the formation of ettringite in the lime-sodium sulphate-clay system adversely affects the engineering behavior of the marine clay, whereas the addition of calcium sulphate significantly improves the engineering characteristics of the soil.     

Modelling chemo‐hydro‐mechanical behaviour of unsaturated clays: a feasibility study

Effective capabilities of combined chemo‐elasto‐plastic and unsaturated soil models to simulate chemo‐hydro‐mechanical (CHM) behaviour of clays are examined in numerical simulations through selected boundary value problems. The objective is to investigate the feasibility of approaching such complex material behaviour numerically by combining two existing models. The chemo‐mechanical effects are described using the concept of chemical softening consisting of reduction of the pre‐consolidation pressure proposed originally by Hueckel (Can. Geotech. J. 1992; 29 :1071–1086; Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. 1997; 21 :43–72). An additional chemical softening mechanism is considered, consisting in a decrease of cohesion with an increase in contaminant concentration. The influence of partial saturation on the constitutive behaviour is modelled following Barcelona basic model (BBM) formulation (Géotech. 1990; 40 (3):405–430; Can. Geotech. J. 1992; 29 :1013–1032). The equilibrium equations combined with the CHM constitutive relations, and the governing equations for flow of fluids and contaminant transport, are solved numerically using finite element. The emphasis is laid on understanding the role that the individual chemical effects such as chemo‐elastic swelling, or chemo‐plastic consolidation, or finally, chemical loss of cohesion have in the overall response of the soil mass. The numerical problems analysed concern the chemical effects in response to wetting of a clay specimen with an organic liquid in rigid wall consolidometer, during biaxial loading up to failure, and in response to fresh water influx during tunnel excavation in swelling clay. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

固体潮与矿井坍崩事故

矿井是人类的重要资源和环境。从矿井内的宏观前兆、象力理论和引潮力的影响讨论了矿井灾害的预测问题。     

Factors influencing determination of shale classification indices and their correlation to mechanical properties

The influence of sample preparation procedure on the measured classification indices such as clay-size fraction, liquid limit, and plastic limit of shales was investigated. Shale samples covering a wide range of composition and plasticity were tested using standard and modified preparation procedures to yield quantitative data required for this investigation. The study specifies the range of shale plasticity in which the measured values of clay-size fraction and liquid limit are sensitive to hydrometer specimen size and rehydration time, respectively. The study also revealed that the degree of shale particle disaggregation has an important influence on the measured clay-size fraction and liquid limit. This influence is maximized for shales with intermediate plasticity and can be interpreted in terms of particle size and shape. Correlations were established between classification indices derived from standard and modified sample preparation procedures. It is recommended to use these correlations to adjust shale classification indices derived from standard sample preparation procedures usually utilized by commercial laboratories. Such correlations help in creating a universally followed procedure for better estimation of shale engineering properties and reliable interpretation of case histories involving shale formations.     

Evaluation and Prediction of the Swelling Characteristics of Nigerian Black Clays

The swelling characteristics of black clays from two major areas of occurrence in Borno State, Nigeria, were investigated in the laboratory. Clay samples derived from lagoonal clay deposits showed high swelling tendencies while those samples derived from Olivine basalts showed medium to high swelling tendencies. Although interparticle swelling was the dominant swelling mechanism, soil samples with higher clay contents exhibited higher swelling tendencies. The developed predictive models show that the free swell percentage as well as the swelling pressure can be predicted from measured values of electrical conductivity, specific gravity, clay content and plasticity index. On the other hand, swell percent can be predicted from measured values of electrical conductivity and specific gravity only.     

膨胀土胀缩性评价中有关问题的研究

膨胀土吸水膨胀、失水收缩,产生地表变形,进而导致建筑物破坏。本文就现行膨胀土胀缩性指标试验及地基变形量评价计算中有关问题进行了研究,认为以天然含水量为起始含水量测定土样胀缩率是不合适的,建议以缩限为起点进行膨胀试验,以胀限为起点进行收缩试验,采用加荷膨胀量（而非卸荷膨胀量）参加有荷载下的膨胀率计算。膨胀土地基勘察必须结合场地条件分析可能影响土体含水量变化的因素,对同一工程采用几种方法评价,互相对比、参照。     

Rates and patterns of bedrock denudation by coastal salt spray weathering: A seven-year record

Rapid surface lowering of bedrock is taking place in the supratidal zone by salt spray weathering. A seven-year run of data demonstrates a mean rate of lowering of 0·625 mm a^?1. Considerable variation exists in annual point lowering values within measurement sites, although between-site variation is not significant. Aggregate year to year variations in surface lowering are not significant. Spatial variation in individual point values may be compensated by temporal variation over an 11-year period. There is a marked summer maximum in surface lowering rate, and this is strongly correlated with monthly air temperature. Spatially and temporally episodic swelling of the rock surface is demonstrated. This does not correlate statistically with any available climatic variable and is deemed to be a real and largely stochastic phenomenon. It is interpreted as rock bursting at the granular scale due to haloclasty. The processes most likely to be responsible for the observed rapid denudation are crystallization and thermal expansion of halite, both of which are enhanced by high summer temperatures.     

Thermomechanical model of hydration swelling in smectitic clays: I two-scale mixture-theory approach

A thermomechanical theory of hydration swelling in smectitic clays is proposed. The clay is treated as a three-scale swelling system wherein macroscopic governing equations are derived by upscaling the microstructure. At the microscale the model has two phases, the disjoint clay platelets and adsorbed water (water between the platelets). At the intermediate (meso) scale (the homogenized microscale) the model consists of clay particles (adsorbed water plus clay platelets) and bulk water. At the macroscale the medium is treated as an homogenized swelling mixture of clay particles and bulk-phase water with thermodynamic properties defined everywhere within the macroscopic body. In Part I, the mesoscopic model governing the swelling of the clay particles is derived using a mixture-theoretic approach and the Coleman and Noll method of exploitation of the entropy inequality. Application of this procedure leads to two-scale governing equations which generalize the classical thermoelastic consolidation model of non-swelling media, as they exhibit additional physico-chemical and viscous-type terms accounting for hydration stresses between the adsorbed fluid and the clay minerals. In Part II the two-scale model is applied to a bentonitic clay used for engineered barrier of nuclear waste repository. The clay buffer is assumed to have monomodal character with most of the water essentially adsorbed. Further, partial results toward a three-scale thermomechanical macroscopic model including the bulk phase next to the swelling particles are derived by homogenizing the two-scale model with the bulk water. A notable consequence of this three-scale approach is that it provides a rational basis for the appearance of a generalized inter-phase mass transfer between adsorbed and bulk water. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

HYDRATION SWELLING OF WATER-ABSORBING ROCKS: A CONSTITUTIVE MODEL

Water-absorbing rocks are formed from minerals that can hold water in their crystal structure or between grain boundaries. Such water absorption is often accompanied by a change in the crystal dimension that manifests itself as a swelling of the rock. Swelling is particularly pronounced in rocks containing phyllosilicates because of the ease with which these minerals hydrate; it is thus of geological and geotechnical relevance in shales, clay-rich soils and zeolitized tuffs. The model of hydration swelling that we present here is based on extended versions of the equations of poroelasticity and Darcy's transport law, which we derive using a non-equilibrium thermodynamics approach. Our equations account for the hydration reaction under the assumption that the reaction rate is fast in comparison with the rate at which hydraulic state changes are communicated through the rock, i.e. that local physico-chemical equilibrium persists. Using a finite-element scheme for solving numerically the governing equations of our model, we simulate the creep of shales during a routine swelling test and calculate the stress and strain distributions around wellbores drilled in shale formations that undergo swelling. We show that swelling effects promote tensile failure of the wellbore wall.     

蒙脱石中性化改性实验研究

使用表面活性剂HDTMAB对含有蒙脱石等粘土矿物的膨润土进行不同程度的有机改性,并利用自由膨胀率的实验方法定量描述改性膨润土在水以及甲苯介质中的膨胀规律。对实验结果进行数学分析后发现,随着改性剂用量的加大,改性膨润土在水介质中的自由膨胀率明显降低,而在甲苯介质中的自由膨胀率显著上升,当改性剂用量约为15%时,改性膨润土在水以及甲苯介质中都没有发生剧烈膨胀。依照上述膨润土的改性方法,对胜利油田提供的岩心样品进行了有机改性,并得到了相同的规律。由此得出,严格控制改性剂用量可以实现蒙脱石的中性化改性。利用这一规律,将适量的改性剂注入地下,既能够缓解油气田储层中蒙脱石的水敏膨胀危害,又不会造成过量的油脂分子吸附于矿物表面。