Abstract
To investigate the shear strength and creep behavior of red-clay, laboratory experiments were conducted and the experimental results were compared with available theoretical creep models. Based on the consolidated-drained (CD) triaxial tests results, internal friction angle and cohesion of the red clay soil were 21.5° and 61.1 kPa, respectively. Three different confining pressures were set up to conduct the creep tests using multi-stage loading. The overall creep curves exhibited stepped stress-strain behavior. The creep behaviors were remarkably different for the soils tested with three different confining stresses. The post-creep failure mode of all the red clay samples exhibited drum shaped parabolic bulging with predefined shear planes. The experimental results were compared with three different types of creep models used in practice. Among the verified results, the Burger’s Model showed better fitting with the experimental data compared to the other models. An experimental result based empirical equation has also been developed, which fits well with the experimental results obtained from the tested red clay samples. The results of this study will be helpful to evaluate the long-term shear strength and deformation of red clays subjected to various structural loadings.
Highlights
Under the hot and humid climate in the south of China, limestone, dolomite and other carbonate rocks undergo long-term physical and chemical weathering and reddening that formed a kind of high plastic clay with colors of brown red, purple red, and brown yellow
This study focused on the creep behavior of red clay abundantly available in Chongqing, China, through laboratory experiments and theoretical analysis
The results indicates that curves of all five steps fit well with the correlation coefficient R of 0.99, proving that the empirical model is more suitable for describing the red clay creep behavior
Summary
Under the hot and humid climate in the south of China, limestone, dolomite and other carbonate rocks undergo long-term physical and chemical weathering and reddening that formed a kind of high plastic clay with colors of brown red, purple red, and brown yellow. Red clay owns a large natural water content and a small liquid index, which is mainly in a hard-plastic state. This material belongs to a medium low compressibility soil when considering its property of void ratio and compressibility Its internal friction angle is small, but its cohesion is large, and its bearing capacity is high, which indicates that red clay has good engineering characteristics (Li et al, 2019). It is of great engineering significance to study the creep characteristics of red clay
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