• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.71-77
• /
• 2010

Anti-freezing layer does not used in case of non frost heaving in subgrade soils. In this case, the modulus of subgrade soils were varied with freezing and thaw cycles under non frost heaving. That effect should be properly considered in pavement design. Impact resonance test that is nondestructive testing method was used for continuously determining the modulus of subgrade soils during freezing and thaw cycle. The modulus of subgrade soils was identical with freezing and thaw cycles under closed freezing and thaw system which is no water supplement into specimen during testing. There was also no difference in the modulus of subgrade soil between before and after freezing-thaw cycles for all specimens with different water content and density. That is thaw-weakening of subgrade soils do not occur under closed freezing and thaw system. The moduli at freezing conditions are varied with water content and density, but it can be ignored in practical design sense.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.573-582
• /
• 2021

From the effect of bound water, this study aims to seek the potential reasons for difference of mechanical experiment results of subgrades soils. To attain the comparatively test condition of bound water, dry forming (DF) and wet forming (WF) were used in the specimen forming process before testing, series of laboratory tests, i.e., CBR tests, direct shear tests and compaction tests. The measured optimal moisture contents, maximum dry densities, CBR, cohesion c, and internal friction angle 𝜑 were given contrastive analysis. Then to detect the adsorptive bound water in the subgrade soils, the thermal gravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) test were employed under different heating rates. The free water, loosely bound water and tightly bound water in soils were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. It was found that due to the different dehydration mechanics, the lost bound water in DF and WF process show their own characteristics. This may lead to the different mechanical properties of tested soils. The clayey particles have a great influence on the bound water adsorbed ability of subgrade soils. The more the clay content, the greater the difference of mechanical properties tested between the two forming methods. Moreover, in highway construction of southern China, the wet forming method is recommended for its higher authenticity in simulating the subgrade filed humidity.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.8 no.2 s.28
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 2006

To evaluate the deformational characteristics of subgrade soils, four subgrade samples in Korea were tested using the RC and TS tests with various dry unit weight and water content. Both the maximum modulus and normalized modulus reduction curves of subgrade soils were affected by the dry unit weight. The normalized modulus was decreased about 20% with increasing of relative compaction of 5%. It was founded that the variations of modulus of subgrade soils in Korea were over 40% with water content variation of $\pm$2%, and those effects can be estimated by exponential model. However, the normalized modulus reduction curves were almost identical and independent of water content. It was also founded that confining pressure, loading frequency, dry unit weight, and water content have an affect on modulus of subgrade soils independently. Therefore, it can be considered that those effects are independent variables.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.17-23
• /
• 2009

Deformational characteristics of subgrade soils are very important input parameters for pavement design. It is necessary to make an amount of effort to estimate experimentally the modulus of subgrade soils. In case of designing simple (or lower level) pavement section, the estimation of the modulus based on experiments must cause an excessive cost. It has proposed various empirical correlation models to estimate the modulus from basic properties of the materials or more simple alternative tests. Seven subgrade soils in Korea were tested in this study. It was founded that the deformational characteristics of subgrade soils in Korea has a close relation to strength characteristics, the empirical correlation model was proposed. There was a close relation between cohesion value and modulus at low confining stress ($r^2=0.93$). By comparing with the measured modulus and the modulus determined by proposed correlation model from strength characteristics, the value of the coefficient of determination ($r^2$) is 0.75.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2005.03a
• /
• pp.1140-1147
• /
• 2005

The objective of this study was to identify the effect of the degree of saturation on the resilient modulus of cohesive soils as subgrade. Six representative cohesive soils representing A-4, A-6, and A-7-6 soil types collected from road construction sites across Ohio, were tested in the laboratory to determine their basic engineering properties. Resilient modulus tests were conducted on unsaturated cohesive soils at optimum moisture content, and samples compacted to optimum conditions but allowed to fully saturate. The subgrade compacted at optimum moisture content may be fully saturated due to seasonal change. Laboratory tests on fully saturated cohesive soils showed that the resilient modulus of saturated soils decreased to less than half that of soil specimens tested at optimum moisture content. The reduction of resilient modulus would possibly be caused by the buildup of pore water pressure. In resilient modulus testing performed in this study on saturated samples, pore water pressure increases were observed. Pore water pressure and residual pore water pressure gradually increased with an increase in deviator stress.

• Advances in Computational Design
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.201-212
• /
• 2018

Decrease in availability of suitable subbase and base course materials for highway construction leads to a search for economic method of converting locally available troublesome soil to suitable one for highway construction. Present study insights on evaluation of benefits of stabilization of subgrade soils in term of extension in service life (TBR) and layer thickness reduction (LTR). Laboratory investigation consisting of Atterberg limit, Compaction, California Bearing Ratio, unconfined compressive strength and triaxial shear strength tests were carried out on two types of soil for varying percentages of stabilizers. Vertical compressive strains at the top of unstabilized and stabilized subgrade soils were found out by elastoplastic finite element analysis using commercial software ANSYS. The values of vertical compressive strains at the top of unstabilized and stabilized subgrade, were further used to estimate layer thickness reduction or extension in service life of the pavement due to stabilization. Finite element modeling of the flexible pavement layered structure provides modern technology and sophisticated characterization of materials that can be accommodated in the analysis and enhances the reliability for the prediction of pavement response for improved design methodology. If the pavement section is kept same for unstabilized and stabilized subgrade soils, pavement resting on lime, fly ash and fiber stabilized subgrade soil B will have service life 2.84, 1.84 and 1.67 times than that of unstabilized pavement respectively. The flexible pavement resting on stabilized subgrade is beneficial in reducing the construction material. Actual savings would depend on the option exercised by the designer for reducing the thickness of an individual layer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.61-68
• /
• 2008

Resilient modulus has been used for characterizing the stress-strain behavior of subgrade soils subjected to traffic loadings. With the recent release of the M-E Design Guide, highway agencies are further encouraged to implement the resilient modulus test to improve subgrade design. The subgrade design for the trackbed, however, is primarily relying on the static test results such as $K_{30}$ and deformation modulus, Ev. Therefore applicability of the resilient modulus for the design of trackbed needs to be evaluated. In this study, physical property tests, unconfined compressive tests and resilient modulus tests were conducted to assess the resilient and permanent strain behavior of 14 cohesive subgrade soils. A predictive model for estimating the resilient modulus is proposed based on the results of unconfined compressive tests and tangent elastic modulus, unconfined compressive strength, failure strain, secant modulus at peak, and yield strain. The predicted resilient moduli using the predictive models compared satisfactorily with measured ones. Although the permanent strain occurs during the resilient modulus test, the permanent behavior of subgrade soils is currently not taken into consideration.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.53-64
• /
• 2006

This study presents the laboratory properties on the frost heave under various moisture contents and compaction efforts in pavement subgrade soil. Many researches were conducted on the frost heave. However, the researches with the domestic soils have not been so active until now. In particular, the evaluation of the frost heave in pavement subgrade soils was not established by many researchers. The problems relating with the frost heave have been serious causes in the distresses of pavements. The study was performed using an appropriate field simulation. The research results revealed that the drainage conditions in earth work should be treated cautiously.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.57-63
• /
• 2004

The range of stresses experienced in subgrade soils and subbase materials in pavement under working stress conditions is below about 150㎪. Therefore, the deformational characteristics of soils at low confining pressures are important properties in the analysis and design of pavement system. Subgrade soils and subbase materials were collected from the actual pavement projects for testing. To evaluate the effect of confining pressure on modulus of those materials at low confining pressures, RC and FFRC tests were performed. Interestingly, the relationship between modulus of soils and confining pressure is more appropriate in linear space than in logarithm space at low confining pressure. Based on those results, new model fur evaluating the effects of confining pressure on modulus at low confining pressures was proposed.

• International Journal of Railway
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.91-93
• /
• 2014

In these days, use of proper soils for construction materials become more limited, but wasted soils are abundant; therefore, the method which can use wasted soil such as soft clay has been investigated. Air-foamed stabilized soil has been used widely, but never been used as a subgrade material. The aim of this study is to verify the use of air-foamed stabilized soil as the subgrade construction material. Several wasted soils such as soft clay was selected to make air-foamed stabilized soil mixtures. The air-foamed stabilized mixture design was conducted to find the optimum quantity of stabilizing agent (cement) and air-foamed, and the effect of cement quantity and air-foamed quantity on strength of air-foamed stabilized soil mixtures base on the test results of unconfined compression test was investigated. As the quantity of cement is increased, the strength is increased, but the quantity of air-foamed is increased and the strength is decreased. Elastic moduli based on unconfined compression strength were obtained to use as subgrade of railway track design.