Mechanics of Completely Decomposed Granite: Example of Transitional Behavior
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 9
Abstract
A completely decomposed granite (CDG) soil containing a significant amount of sand and silt was tested on a triaxial apparatus to determine whether it complies with the critical state framework or shows a transitional behavior. The test results revealed that the parallel normal consolidation lines (NCLs) and the critical state lines (CSLs) can be identified in the volumetric plane, whose position depends on the initial specific volume of soil at the time of its creation. Various stress paths, including drained preshearing before undrained tests, did not alter this behavior. The distance between each NCL and its corresponding CSL was found to be fixed. However, a unique CSL was found in the q−p′ plane with a gradient of 1.38, and the stress ratios of soils at the end of the test did not show a clear trend with the initial density. The paths of undrained tests showed dilative tails, and even preshearing failed to eliminate these tails. This is another feature of this transitional soil, which may be due to initial fabric. In addition, the compression characteristics and shear behaviors of some other CDG and completely decomposed volcanic (CDV) soils in the previous studies were compared with those of the CDG soil in this study to show the similarities and differences.
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International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21 • Issue 9 • September 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 27, 2019
Accepted: May 11, 2021
Published online: Jul 5, 2021
Published in print: Sep 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Dec 5, 2021
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Cited by
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