Geomechanics and Engineering

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Hydro-mechanical behavior of compacted silt over a wide suction range

  • Chen, Bo (College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Quzhou University) ;
  • Ding, Xiuheng (Shanghai Civil Engineering Co. LTD of CREC) ;
  • Gao, You (School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ningbo University) ;
  • Sun, De'an (College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Quzhou University) ;
  • Yu, Haihao (Laboratory of Geomechnics and Geotechnical Engineering, Guilin University of Technology)
  • Received : 2019.10.13
  • Accepted : 2020.07.05
  • Published : 2020.08.10
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Abstract

To achieve a wide suction range, the low suction was imposed on compacted silt specimens by the axis translation technique and the high suction was imposed by the vapor equilibrium technique with saturated salt solutions. Firstly, the results of soil water retention tests on compacted silt show that the soil water retention curves in terms of gravimetric water content versus suction relation are independent of the dry density or void ratio in a high suction range. Therefore, triaxial tests on compacted silt with constant water content at high suctions can be considered as that with constant suction. Secondly, the results of triaxial shear tests on unsaturated compacted silt with the initial void ratio of about 0.75 show a strain-hardening behavior with a slightly shear contraction and then strain-softening behavior with an obviously dilation. As the imposed suction increases, the shear strength increases up to a peak value and then decreases when the suction is beyond a special value corresponding to the peak shear strength. The residual strength increases to fair value and those at high suctions are almost independent of imposed suctions. In addition, the contribution of suction to the strength of compacted silt would not diminish even in a high suction range.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors express their gratitude for the grants provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41902279), the Public Welfare Technology Research Projects of Zhejiang Province (No. LGG19E080002), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Nos. LQ19E080006), Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo (2018A610430).

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