Characterization of a cemented sand with the pulse-velocity method

2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahid Khan ◽  
Anwar Majid ◽  
Giovanni Cascante ◽  
D Jean Hutchinson ◽  
Parsa Pezeshkpour

The effect of variation in cement content, initial water content, void ratio, and curing time on wave velocity (low-strain property) and unconfined compressive strength (large-strain property) of a cemented sand is examined in this paper. The measured pulse velocity is compared with predictions made using empirical and analytical models, which are mostly based on the published results of resonant column tests. All specimens are made by mixing silica sand and gypsum cement (2.5–20% by weight) and tested under atmospheric pressure. The wave velocity reaches a maximum at optimum water content, and it is mostly affected by the number of cemented contacts; whereas compressive strength is governed not only by the number of contacts but also by the strength of contacts. Experimental relationships are developed for wave velocity and unconfined compressive strength as functions of cement content and void ratio. Available empirical models underpredict the wave velocity (60% on average), likely because of the effect of microfractures induced by confinement during the testing. Wave velocity is found to be a good indicator of cement content and unconfined compressive strength for the conditions of this study.Key words: wave velocity, low-strain stiffness, cemented sands, elastic moduli, unconfined compressive strength.

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (11) ◽  
pp. 1699-1713 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.H. Cai ◽  
Y.J. Du ◽  
S.Y. Liu ◽  
D.N. Singh

Soil electrical resistivity has been used quite extensively for assessing mechanical properties of chemically treated soils in the recent past. One of the most innovative applications of this technique could be in the field of ground improvement wherein carbonated reactive magnesia (MgO) is employed for treating soils. With this in view, a systematic study that targets the application of electrical resistivity to correlate physical and strength characteristics of the carbonated reactive MgO-admixed silty soil is initiated, and its details are presented in this manuscript. To achieve this, reactive MgO-admixed soils were carbonized by exposing them to CO2 for different durations, and subsequently their electrical resistivity and unconfined compressive strength were measured. In this context, the role of a parameter, the ratio of the initial water content of the virgin soil to reactive MgO content (designated as w0/c), has been highlighted. It has also been demonstrated that w0/c is able to correlate, uniquely and precisely, with the physicochemical parameters of the soils (viz., unit weight, water content at failure, porosity, degree of saturation, and soil pH), electrical resistivity, and unconfined compressive strength at various carbonation times. In addition, microstructural properties have been obtained from the X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and mercury intrusion porosimetry analyses. These properties have been used to substantiate the findings related to the carbonation of the reactive MgO-admixed soils.


2014 ◽  
Vol 955-959 ◽  
pp. 2809-2812
Author(s):  
Zhang Hong ◽  
Guo Chao ◽  
Li Liang ◽  
Zhi Qiang Liu

Aimed at the common problems of small backfill space, hard to backfill, difficult to guarantee compaction quality in engineering, development law of fluidity and mechanical properties (unconfined compressive strength and cleavage strength) is analyzed by changing mix ratio of cement, fly ash and water. Fluidity is mainly controlled by water content. Range of fluidity is significantly different when water content is around 60%.Considering the effect of economy and strength, 4% cement content will be recommended.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Van Quan Tran

Stabilized dredged sediments are used as a backfilling material to reduce construction costs and a solution to environmental protection. Therefore, the compressive strength is an important criterion to determine the stabilized dredged sediments application such as road construction, building construction, and highway construction. Using the traditional method such as empirical approach and experimental methods, the determination of compressive strength of stabilized dredged sediments is difficult due to the complexity of this composite material. In this investigation, the artificial neural network (ANN) model is introduced to forecast the compressive strength. To perform the simulation, 51 experimental datasets were collected from the literature. The dataset consists of 4 input variables (water content, cement content, air foam content, and waste fishing net content) and output variable (compressive strength). Evaluation of the models was made and compared on training dataset (70% data) and testing dataset (30% remaining data) by the criteria of Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The results show that the ANN model can accurately predict the compressive strength of stabilized dredged sediments with low water content. The cement content is the most important input affecting the unconfined compressive strength. The important input affecting the unconfined compressive strength can be in the following order: cement content > air foam content > water content > waste fishing net.


2013 ◽  
Vol 689 ◽  
pp. 324-328
Author(s):  
Xin Shan Zhuang ◽  
Can Zhao ◽  
Xu Min Wang

Unconfined compressive strength tests and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) quantitative chemical tests are conducted on artificially cemented sand which have different cement ratio (Cv) and curing time (t). Through the analysis of experimental results, the unconfined compressive strength (qu) of cemented sand are affected by curing time (t), cement ratio (Cv) and void ratio (η). Test results show that the longer the curing time (t), the lower the void/cement ratio (η/Cv) and the higher calcium carbonate/calcium hydroxide content ratio (CaCO3/Ca(OH)2 ratio or mC/mH), the higher the unconfined compressive strength (qu) of cemented sand. It is established the compressive strength equation based on the variables of cement ratio (Cv), void ratio (η) and curing time (t). By mC/mH-qu curve analysis, it is obtained the quantitative relation of chemical composition and mechanical strength.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 04021
Author(s):  
SHAO Yong ◽  
LIU Xiao-li ◽  
ZHU Jin-jun

Industrial alkali slag is the discharge waste in the process of alkali production. About one million tons of alkali slag is discharged in China in one year. It is a burden on the environment, whether it is directly stacked or discharged into the sea. If we can realize the use of resources, it is a multi-pronged move, so alkali slag is used to improve solidified marine soft soil in this paper. The test results show that the alkali residue can effectively improve the engineering properties of marine soft soil. Among them, the unconfined compressive strength and compressive modulus are increased by about 10 times, and the void ratio and plasticity index can all reach the level of general clay. It shows that alkali slag has the potential to improve marine soft soil and can be popularized in engineering.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0247599
Author(s):  
Yingjun Jiang ◽  
Jiangtao Fan ◽  
Yong Yi ◽  
Tian Tian ◽  
Kejia Yuan ◽  
...  

The vertical vibration compaction method (VVCM), heavy compaction method and static pressure method were used to form phyllite specimens with different degrees of weathering. The influence of cement content, compactness, and compaction method on the mechanical properties of phyllite was studied. The mechanical properties of phyllite was evaluated in terms of unconfined compressive strength (Rc) and modulus of resilience (Ec). Further, test roads were paved along an expressway in China to demonstrate the feasibility of the highly weathered phyllite improvement technology. Results show that unweathered phyllite can be used as subgrade filler. In spite of increasing compactness, phyllite with a higher degree of weathering cannot meet the requirements for subgrade filler. With increasing cement content, Rc and Ec of the improved phyllite increases linearly. Rc and Ec increase by at least 15% and 17%, respectively, for every 1% increase in cement content and by at least 10% and 6%, respectively, for every 1% increase in compactness. The higher the degree of weathering of phyllite, the greater the degree of improvement of its mechanical properties.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Ateş

Soil stabilization has been widely used as an alternative to substitute the lack of suitable material on site. The use of nontraditional chemical stabilizers in soil improvement is growing daily. In this study a laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of waterborne polymer on unconfined compression strength and to study the effect of cement grout on pre-venting of liquefiable sandy soils. The laboratory tests were performed including grain size of sandy soil, unit weight, ultrasonic pulse velocity, and unconfined compressive strength test. The sand and various amounts of polymer (1%, 2%, 3%, and 4%) and cement (10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) were mixed with all of them into dough using mechanical kneader in laboratory conditions. Grouting experiment is performed with a cylindrical mould of  mm. The samples were subjected to unconfined compression tests to determine their strength after 7 and 14 days of curing. The results of the tests indicated that the waterborne polymer significantly improved the unconfined compression strength of sandy soils which have susceptibility of liquefaction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangfeng Lv ◽  
Xiaohui Yang ◽  
Hongyuan Zhou ◽  
Shuo Zhang

In this study, the specimens of cemented sand were prepared by reinforcing it separately with different contents (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%) of three different polymer fibers (polyamide, polyester, and polypropylene) prepared as filaments of different lengths (6, 9, and 12 mm). Then, these specimens were tested, and the improvement effects of the three fibers on the engineering-mechanical behavior of the cemented sand were analyzed and compared. The different microstructures and chemical compositions of the fiber-reinforced cemented sand specimens were investigated using electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Compression tests were performed to obtain the stress-strain curves of the specimens. Comparative analysis was performed on the variation patterns of the mechanical parameters (such as unconfined compressive strength and peak strain) of the specimens. Quantitative analysis was performed on the effect of fiber content and fiber filament length on the failure mode of the specimens. It was shown that the inclusion of fibers led to a change from brittle failure to ductile failure. The macro- and microexperimental results revealed that polypropylene fiber had the best improvement effect on the mechanical behavior of the cemented sand, followed by polyester fiber and polyamide fiber. In particular, the cemented sand specimen reinforced with 1.5% polypropylene fiber prepared as 9 mm length filaments had a brittleness index of 0.0578, exhibited ductile failure (in contrast to the brittle failure of the nonreinforced cemented sand), and yielded the highest unconfined compressive strength and shear strength among the specimens.


2019 ◽  
Vol 814 ◽  
pp. 399-403
Author(s):  
Anuchit Uchaipichat

This paper presents the relationship between the dynamic cone penetration (DCP) test results and the unconfined compressive strength of lateritic cemented soils. A series of DCP tests and unconfined compressive strength was performed on lateritic cemented soil. The soils sample used in this study was lateritic soil. The test results for the DCP tests are presented in terms of penetration index. It can be observed that the penetration index decreased with increasing curing period and cement content. Moreover, the unconfined compressive strength of cemented soils increased with curing period and cement content. The relationship between unconfined compressive strength and penetration index is presented. A unique relationship for unconfined compressive strength can be obtained.


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