Critical state of sand matrix soils.

Aminaton Marto,Tiong Kung Leong,Choy Soon Tan,Ahmad Mahir Makhtar

doi:10.1155/2014/290207

Aminaton Marto, Tiong Kung Leong + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/290207

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Journal: TheScientificWorldJournal	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
Citations: 7	License type: CC BY 3.0

Affiliation: University of Technology Malaysia

Abstract

The Critical State Soil Mechanic (CSSM) is a globally recognised framework while the critical states for sand and clay are both well established. Nevertheless, the development of the critical state of sand matrix soils is lacking. This paper discusses the development of critical state lines and corresponding critical state parameters for the investigated material, sand matrix soils using sand-kaolin mixtures. The output of this paper can be used as an interpretation framework for the research on liquefaction susceptibility of sand matrix soils in the future. The strain controlled triaxial test apparatus was used to provide the monotonic loading onto the reconstituted soil specimens. All tested soils were subjected to isotropic consolidation and sheared under undrained condition until critical state was ascertain. Based on the results of 32 test specimens, the critical state lines for eight different sand matrix soils were developed together with the corresponding values of critical state parameters, M, λ, and Γ. The range of the value of M, λ, and Γ is 0.803–0.998, 0.144–0.248, and 1.727–2.279, respectively. These values are comparable to the critical state parameters of river sand and kaolin clay. However, the relationship between fines percentages and these critical state parameters is too scattered to be correlated.

Highlights

Recent field evidences of ground failure in sand with limiting percentages of fines during strong earthquakes have highlighted the need to better characterize the stress-strain behaviour of saturated soils in a broader range, from pure sand to sand matrix soils
This paper aims to discuss the development of the critical state line and corresponded critical state parameters for the investigated material, sand matrix soils using sand-kaolin mixtures
An experimental study with undrained monotonic triaxial compression test has been conducted on sand-kaolin mixtures and the results were used to establish the critical state of the soils together with corresponding critical state parameters

Summary

Introduction

Recent field evidences of ground failure in sand with limiting percentages of fines during strong earthquakes have highlighted the need to better characterize the stress-strain behaviour of saturated soils in a broader range, from pure sand to sand matrix soils. In the absence of a fundamental understanding of the seismic behaviour of sand matrix soils, the usability of the currently used liquefaction susceptibility assessment criteria, the Modified Chinese Criteria that solely relies on the interpretation of few earthquake events, is questionable [1,2,3]. The research approach in geotechnical field is to lump together those related postreconnaissance data to formulate new empirical assessment criteria, without capturing their true characteristic through fundamental soil mechanics interpretation. Without implicitly considering the fundamental basis of soil mechanics, applicability of these empirical guidelines which is nonuniversally applicable is arguable. These empirical data only provide limited insight to existing state of art

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Conclusion