• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.448-456
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• 2010

The mechanical behavior of granular soils is affected by particle bonding including natural cementation. This study addresses a simple model of small strain stiffness and salt concentration based on wave measurements of salt-cemented particulate media. Published models of artificially cemented soils with different curing methods and several types of cementation agents are reviewed. Glass beads with the median diameter of D50 = 0.5mm are prepared in rectangular cells using the water-pluviated method in salt water with different concentrations. Piezo disk elements and bender elements embedded in the cell are used for the measurements of compressional and shear waves. The relationships between elastic wave velocities and salt concentration show an exponential function. The measured small strain stiffness matches well the predicted small strain stiffness based on micromechanics for simple cubic monosized sphere particles. This study demonstrates that the salt concentration in salt-cemented specimen may be evaluated by using elastic wave velocities.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2010

Salt cementation, a typical naturally-cemented phenomenon, may occur due to water evaporation under the change of climate. Capillary force may influence the distribution of cement in granular soils. This study addresses the effect of capillary force on salt cementation using five different techniques: cone penetration test, electrical conductivity measurement, photographic imaging technique, nondestructive imaging technique, and process monitoring by elastic wave. Glass beads modeling a particulate media was mixed with salt water and then dried in an oven to create the cementation condition. Experimental results show that salt cementation highly concentrates at the top of the small particle size specimens and at the middle or the bottom of the large particle specimens. The predicted capillary heights are similar to the locations of high salt concentration in the cemented specimens. Five suggested methods show that the behavior of salt-cemented granular media heavily depends on the capillary force.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.75-86
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• 2009

Salt, one of the most common soluble materials in engineering soil, may have an effect on mechanical behaviors of soils under its cementation process. In order to investigate this natural phenomenon, non-soluble material by using glass beads is mixed with salt electrolyte and cemented by using oven to evaporate water. Three different sizes of glass bead particles, 0.26, 0.5, and 1.29 mm, with different salt concentration, 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0M, are explored by using P- and S-waves, excited by bender elements and piezo disk elemets, respectively. The velocities of the P-wave and S-wave of the particulate medium cemented by salt show three stages with the degree of saturation: 1) S-wave velocities increase while P-wave velocities reduce with degree of saturation changing from 100% to 90%; 2) Both velocities are stable with degree of saturation varying from 90% to 10%; 3) The velocities change enormously when the specimens are nearly dry with degree of saturation from 10% to 0%. Besides, the resonance frequencies of S-wave show similar stages to the S-wave velocities. This study demonstrates meaningful trends of elastic wave characteristics of geo-materials according to the cementation of dissolved salt.