Effects of Fines Content and Plasticity on Index Properties and Hydraulic Conductivity of Coarse-Fine Mixtures
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34, Issue 5
Abstract
Ten coarse-fine mixtures (CFM) (intermediate soils) having fines contents (FC) of 0%, 12%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and plasticity indices (PI) of 5% and 15% were prepared in the laboratory by mixing different fractions of gravel, sand, nonplastic silt, kaolin, and bentonite. Index properties, volume change during saturation, specific surface area (SSA), and saturated hydraulic conductivity of CFM were investigated. For compacted CFM, a (for ) and (for ) represent the transition between coarse- and fine-dominant behavior based on intergranular void ratio. The total SSA of CFM may be estimated from the weighted average of SSA determined individually for each soil fraction since the SSA of the cohesive portion was observed to be linearly proportional to the percent fractions of kaolin and bentonite. Hydraulic conductivity estimations based on the SSA of soils proposed by the Kozeny–Carman equation underpredicted the hydraulic conductivity of CFM by one to four orders of magnitude. Alternatively, the formulations from consolidation theory and modified Hazen’s correlation utilizing effective particle size, , and void ratio, e, estimated the hydraulic conductivity within an order of magnitude. Although hydraulic conductivity decreased with the increase of FC and PI, a smaller amount of decrease was observed in low plastic CFM.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Grant No. 117M145. We would like to thank graduate students Muhammet Durmaz and Ömer Can Pamuk for their help in conducting the experimental work.
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Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34 • Issue 5 • May 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 7, 2021
Accepted: Aug 13, 2021
Published online: Feb 16, 2022
Published in print: May 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jul 16, 2022
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