Mechanical Characterization of an Artificial Clay
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 2
Abstract
Glyben is an artificial soil comprising bentonite mixed with glycerin that has been used recently in scaled model tests to study seismic soil structure interaction. In spite of recent interest in glyben, factors affecting the dynamic properties of this material have not been well established. This paper presents the results of vane shear tests, cyclic triaxial tests, resonant column tests and bender element tests undertaken to characterize the dynamic properties of glyben. The results show that the modulus ratio of glyben decreases with increasing shear strain amplitude similar to that observed for natural clays. However, there are significant thixotropic changes in the properties of glyben after mixing bentonite with glycerin. In addition, glyben exhibits time-dependent volumetric compression after the application of isotropic consolidation pressure, the damping ratio of glyben is higher than that of natural clays and the dynamic properties of glyben are strongly influenced by temperature. These factors should be considered when interpreting the results of scaled physical model tests using glyben.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper has been funded by grants from the National Research Council of Canada and the University of Western Ontario Academic Development Fund.
References
Arango-Greiffenstein, I. (1971). “Seismic stability of slopes in saturated clay.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Biscontin, G., and Pestana, J. M. (2001). “Influence of peripheral velocity on vane shear strength of an artificial clay.” Geotech. Test. J., 24(4), 423–429.
Blaney, G., and Mallow, W. (1987). “Synthetic clay soil for dynamic model pile tests.” Proc., Dynamic Response of Pile Foundations—Experiment, Analysis, and Observation, Geotech. Spec. Pub. 11, T. Nogami, ed., ASCE, Reston, Va., 127–148.
Bray, J. (1990). “The effects of tectonic movements on stresses and deformations in earth embankments.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Burr, J., Pender, M., and Larkin, T. (1997). “Dynamic response of laterally excited pile groups.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 123(1), 1–8.
Cai, Y. Q., and Liang, X. (2004). “Dynamic properties of composite cemented clay.” J. Zhejiang Univ., Sci., 5(3), 309–316.
D’Onofrio, A., Silvestri, F., and Vinale, F. (1999). “Strain rate dependent behaviour of a natural stiff clay.” Soils Found., 39(2), 69–82.
Dorsey, N. E. (1940). Properties of ordinary water-substance, Reinhold, New York, 184.
Drnevich, V. P., Hardin, B. O., and Shippy, D. J. (1978). “Modulus and damping of soils by resonant-column method.” Special Technical Publication No. 654, Symp. on Dynamic Geotechnical Testing, ASTM, West Conshohocken, Pa., 91–125.
Huck, J. R., Noyel, G. A., and Jorat, L. J. (1988). “Complex permittivity and relaxation time of supercooled aqueous dielectrics.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Dielectric Materials, Measurements and Applications, Canterbury, U.K., IEEE, 21–24.
Ishibashi, I., and Zhang, X. (1993). “Unified dynamic shear moduli and damping ratios of sand and clay.” Soils Found., 33(1), 182–191.
Iskander, M. G., Liu, J., and Sadek, S. (2002). “Transparent amorphous silica to model clay.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 128(3), 262–273.
Jovicic, V., Coop, R., and Simic, M. (1996). “Objective criteria for determining Gmax from bender element tests.” Geotechnique, 46(2), 357–362.
Kenny, M. J., and Andrawes, K. Z. (1997). “The bearing capacity of footings on a sand layer overlying soft clay.” Geotechnique, 47(2), 339–345.
Kim, D. S., Stokoe, K. H., and Hudson, W. R. (1991). “Deformational characteristics of soils at small to intermediate strains from cyclic tests.” Research Rep. No. 1177-3, Center for Transportation Research, Bureau of Engineering Research, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, Tex.
Ko, H., Atkinson, R., Goble, G., and Ealy, C. (1984). “Centrifugal modeling of pile foundations.” Proc., Analysis and Design of Pile Foundations, J. R. Meyer, ed., ASCE, New York, 21–40.
Kovacs, W. D. (1968). “An experimental study of the response of clay embankments to base excitation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Lazarte, C. (1996). “The response of earth structures to surface fault rupture.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Lee, J. S., and Santamarina, J. C. (2005). “Bender elements: Performance and signal interpretation.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 131(9), 1063–1070.
Leroueil, S., and Vaughan, P. R. (1990). “The general and congruent effects of structure in natural soils and weak rocks.” Geotechnique, 40(3), 467–488.
Matešić, L., and Vucetic, M. (2003). “Strain-rate effect on soil secant shear modulus at small cyclic strains.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 129(6), 536–549.
Mayfield, B. (1963). “The performance of a rigid wheel moving in a circular path through clay.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K.
Meymand, P. J. (1998). “Shaking table scale model tests of nonlinear soil-pile-superstructure interaction in soft clay.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Morris, D. V., and Delphia, J. C. (1992). “Resonant column testing of dynamic rock properties.” Proc., 9th Conf. on Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Reston, Va., 527–530.
Moss, R. E. S., Rawlings, M. A., Caliendo, J. A., and Anderson, L. R. (1998). “Cyclic lateral loading of model pile groups in clay soils.” Proc., 3rd Conf. Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, ASCE, Reston, Va., 494–505.
Nunez, I., and Randolph, M. (1984). “Tension pile behavior in clay—Centrifuge modelling technique.” Proc., Symp. on the Application of Centrifuge Modelling to Geotechnical Design, Manchester, Balkema, 87–102.
Rayhani, M. H. T., and El Naggar, M. H. (2006). “Characterization of Glyben for seismic applications.” Rep. No. GEOT-3-06, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ont., Canada.
Seah, T. H. (1990). “Anisotropy of resedimented Boston blue clay.” Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Seed, H. B., and Clough, R. (1963). “Earthquake resistance of sloping core dams.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., 89(1), 209–244.
Stokoe, K. H., Hwang, S. H., Lee, J. N.-K., and Andrus, R. D. (1995).“Effects of various parameters on the stiffness and damping of soils at small to medium strains.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Pre-Failure Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials: Pre-Failure Deformation of Geomaterials, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 785–816.
Sultan, H. A., and Seed, H. B. (1967). “Stability of sloping core earth dams.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., 93(4), 45–67.
Sutherland, H. B. (1988). “Uplift resistance of soils.” Geotechnique, 38(4), 493–516.
Tavenas, F., Roy, M., and La Rochelle, P. (1973). “An artificial material for simulating champlain clays.” Can. Geotech. J., 10(3), 489–503.
Teachavorasinskun, S., Thongchim, P., and Lukkunaprasit, P. (2002). “Shear modulus and damping of soft Bangkok clays.” Can. Geotech. J., 39(5), 1201–1208.
Turan, A., Hinchberger, S. D., and El Naggar, M. H. (2006). “Mechanical and thermal behavior of glycerin bentonite mixture.” Rep. No. GEOT-2-06, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ont., Canada.
Viggiani, G., and Atkinson, J. H. (1995). “Interpretation of bender element tests.” Geotechnique, 45(1), 149–154.
Vucetic, M., and Dobry, R. (1991). “Effect of soil plasticity on cyclic response.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 117(1), 89–107.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 2 • February 2009
Pages: 280 - 290
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 14, 2006
Accepted: May 2, 2008
Published online: Feb 1, 2009
Published in print: Feb 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.