Transparent Amorphous Silica to Model Clay
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 128, Issue 3
Abstract
The fundamental premise of this research is that transparent synthetic materials with geotechnical properties similar to natural soils can be used in model tests to study three-dimensional deformation and flow problems using nonintrusive optical visualization techniques. The transparent “clays” discussed in this paper were made by consolidating suspensions of amorphous silica in a pore fluid with a matching refractive index. Conventional triaxial compression, consolidation, and permeability tests were performed to study the behavior of the material under normally consolidated and overconsolidated conditions. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of producing a family of transparent materials, which can be customized to exhibit shear-strength, pore-pressure, volume-change, and permeability characteristics that are consistent with the behavior of natural clays.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 128 • Issue 3 • March 2002
Pages: 262 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 11, 2000
Accepted: Aug 1, 2001
Published online: Mar 1, 2002
Published in print: Mar 2002
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