Effect of artificial cementation on cone tip resistance and small strain shear modulus of sand

Abstract

A series of cone penetration and bender element tests were performed on sands artificially cemented with gypsum in a calibration chamber to investigate the effect of cementation on the cone tip resistance (q c) and small strain shear modulus (G max) of sand. It was found that both the q c and G max of cemented sand are significantly affected by the degree of cementation while the effects of stress and density are reduced due to the cementation bonds. As the degree of cementation increases, the relationship between the $$ q_{{\text{c}}} {-}D_{{\text{R}}} {-}\sigma _{{\text{v}}}^{\prime } $$ of cemented sand is observed to be similar to that of quartz sand with low compressibility. As the density and stress level affect q c more significantly than G max, the G max/q c of cemented sand decreases with increasing q c. However, as the cementation causes a larger increase in G max than q c, the G max/q c ratio of cemented sand increases as the gypsum content increases. It was also observed from the $$ G_{{\max }} /q_{{\text{c}}} - (q_{{\text{c}}} /p_{{\text{a}}} )(p_{{\text{a}}} /\sigma _{{\text{v}}}^{\prime } )^{{0.5}} $$ relation that the G max/q c ratio of cemented sand locates above the upper bound suggested by previous studies.