Practical Estimation of Compression Behavior of Clayey/Silty Sands Using Equivalent Void-Ratio Concept
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
Clayey/silty sands are widespread as naturally sedimentary soils such as marine deposits in estuaries and offshore locations. They belong to a unique class of gap-graded soils featuring a deficiency of certain range of particle sizes and behave differently from those containing pure sand aggregates. The fines improve the stiffness of host sands, which reduces the postconstruction settlement and arching effect of foundations and dams. In this study, a simple yet effective compression model is proposed for clayey/silty sands using the equivalent void-ratio concept. A structure parameter is incorporated into the model to denote the contribution of fines on the effective force chains of gap-graded mixtures. The structure parameter is affected by the particle-size distribution and basic features of sand aggregates. It can be approximated by a constant value, which represents a combination effect of the influence factors. The limit (inactive) void ratio of clayey/silty sands decreases linearly with the increase of fine content and the structure parameter. The proposed model contains only three model parameters, all of which have clear physical meanings and can be readily calibrated based on two conventional compression tests. Simulations using the newly proposed model revealed that it is versatile to capture key features of gap-graded mixtures, including the effect of initial void ratio, interaggregate void ratio, and fine content. The performance of the proposed model is verified with tests data for six clayey sands and five silty sands (or sandy gravel). The differences between the test data and model predictions for both clayey sands and gap-graded granular mixtures are marginally small. The model can be practically useful for predicting the deformation of clayey/silty sands.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository or online in accordance with funder data retention policies:
1.
Compression data of clayey sand (Mun et al. 2018). http://gcf-conf.ust.hk/unsat2018/paper/pdf/1a-19.UNSAT2018_389.pdf
2.
Compression data of clayey sand (Cabalar and Hasan 2013). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013795213002068
3.
Compression data of clayey sand (Ford 1985, cited from Georgiannou 1988). https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/7367/1/Vasiliki_Nikolaou_Georgiannou-1989-PhD-Thesis.pdf
4.
Compression data of clayey sand (Shipton and Coop 2012). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038080612000789
5.
Compression data of clayey sand (Monkul and Ozden 2007). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013795206002833
6.
Compression data of decomposed granite (Ham et al. 2010). https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/%28ASCE%29GT.1943-5606.0000370
7.
Compression data of silty sands (Yang. 2004, cited from Chang et al. 2017). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11440-017-0598-1
8.
Compression data of silty sands (Carrera et al. 2011). https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/full/10.1680/geot.9.P.009
9.
Compression data of silty sands (Carrera et al. 2011). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mehrashk_Meidani/post/Does_anyone_know_the_void_ratio_of_Toyoura_sand_with_fines/attachment/59d646b8c49f478072eae95e/AS:273836770037775@1442299181733/download/%5B1995+Zlatovic+and+Ishihara%5D+on+the+influence+of+nonplastic+fines+on+residual+strength.pdf
10.
Compression data of silty sands (Cabalar et al. 2010). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013795210000050
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request: Simulations of the proposed model, data in Figs. 2–5.
Acknowledgments
This study was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51679207 and 51908193) and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (RGC/GRF Grant Nos. 16210017, 16207319, and 16201419; TBRS Grant No. T22-603/15N; and CRF Grant No. C6012-15G). The first author appreciates the funding support from VPRG Office of HKUST for his Research Assistant Professor (RAP) position.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • June 2020
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©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 13, 2019
Accepted: Jan 20, 2020
Published online: Apr 14, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 14, 2020
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