Experimental Study on Migration Behavior of Sandy Silt under Cyclic Load
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 5
Abstract
This paper presents experimental investigation into the effects of particle size distribution of subgrade soil on mud pumping. The results show that subgrade soils with higher fine contents do not necessarily lead to more serious mud pumping. A soil with a higher silt content tends to cause the formation of a less permeable interlayer at the bottom of the ballast, which effectively reduces the particle migration magnitude. Increasing the median particle size () or reducing the coefficient of uniformity () of the studied sandy silt promotes the migration distance of particles. While mud pumping is essentially an internal erosion problem caused by cyclic loads, existing filter theories do not directly apply to mud pumping. The findings from this study can help selecting proper rail embankment fills to reduce mud pumping.
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Data Availability Statement
Data generated during the study is available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
This research was financially supported by the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 51722812), the International (Regional) Cooperation and Exchange (ICE) Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2017YFE0119500), and Central South University autonomous exploration project (Grant No. 2019zzts293).
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 5 • May 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 27, 2021
Accepted: Jan 25, 2022
Published online: Feb 28, 2022
Published in print: May 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jul 28, 2022
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