Experimental and Modeling of Shear Mechanical Behavior of Soil Conditioned With Foaming Agent

Abstract

Chemical foam is being used more frequently with Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) shields to achieve underground works, which present a rising interest in the excavation technique. During tunneling with an Earth Pressure Balance shield in clayey soil, clogging of the clay occurs, leading to blocking the cutting head and clog then the shield chambers. Surfactants are commonly used as conditioning agents to reduce clay stickiness. This treatment leads to a change in the mechanical properties of conditioned soil. This paper aims tostudy the shear strength behavior of foam-conditioned soil basing on triaxial tests in the undrained consolidated conditions. Experimental results are modeled using the finite element code COMSOL Multiphysics with the aim of analyzing the effect of the percentage of foam on the shear strength behavior. The soil mixture made from 40% of kaolinite and 60% of sand was conditioned with a foaming agent based on anionic surfactant. Consolidated undrained triaxial tests have been performed in order to explain the effect of foam. Results show that foam reduces the shear stress thanks to their weak stiffness. Shear strength stress is affected by the percentage of the foam in the mixture before shearing by reduce the shear strength of the conditioned soil. Soil-foam mixture has been modeled as a medium containing spherical pore inclusions with a low stiffness compared to the stiffness of unconditioned soil. Stiffness of bubbles inclusions was identified using one of the known homogenization models for composite materials. Results show that the reduce shear stress strength is affected by the percentage of inclusions in the matrix. It confirms the friction angle of composite material decrease as function of the percentage of gas bubbles inclusion in the matrix.