Macroscopic and microscopic investigation of the structural characteristics of artificially structured marine clay

Abstract

Artificial structural soil is the best medium for simulating the structural characteristics of undisturbed soil, which is a unique property of undisturbed soil. To figure out the macroscopic and microscopic structural properties of artificially structured soil, this study proposed a method of disposing artificial structural soil to simulate in situ marine clay. In addition, a series of one-dimensional compression tests considering three influencing factors—the initial void ratio, interparticle cementation strength (determined by cement content) and pore size distribution (determined by initial salt content)—were conducted to explore the macroscopic structural properties of artificially structured marine clay. Then, SEM and MIP tests were performed to investigate the microstructure properties of artificially structured marine clay. With respect to the macro-scale experiment, the results show as the initial void ratio increases, the yield stress decreases while the compressibility increases in postyield stage. The pore size distribution mainly affects deformation, which increases with the quantity of relatively large pores. In terms of the micro-scale test, we found that the general microstructure is composed of aggregates of small clay platelets, some of which are either attached to the aggregates or linked to the surrounding aggregates with cemented bridges crossing the interaggregate pores. The most and least common pore space types feature entrance pore diameters of 1 ∼ 17 μm and larger than 17 μm, respectively. An increase in cement content causes increases in intra-aggregate pore space and interparticle cementation strength. Initial salt particle content exerts an influence predominantly in the pores with entrance diameters of 0.3 ∼ 1 μm and 1 ∼ 17 μm.