Effect of Microfabric on Shear Behavior of Kaolin Clay
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 3
Abstract
The influence of geometric arrangement of platelets (microfabric) on the mechanical behavior of kaolin clay is investigated using lubricated end triaxial testing on solid cylindrical specimens. A series of compression and extension tests under drained and undrained conditions were performed on clay specimens with different microfabric for overconsolidated ratio values of 1 and 10. The solid cylindrical specimens with dispersed and flocculated microfabric were produced in the laboratory using slurry consolidation technique under condition. Based on the experimental observations, it is evident that microfabric strongly affects the mechanical behavior of kaolin clay, such as its stress–strain relationship, effective stress ratio, shear strength, excess pore-pressure evolution, and volumetric response. The influence of confining pressure on clay specimens with dispersed and flocculated microfabric is also studied in this research. This study shows that the microfabric can change the basic nature of clay. For example the normally consolidated kaolin clay shows its dilative nature during shearing for dispersed microfabric and contractive nature for flocculated microfabric.
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Acknowledgments
Partial financial Support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Grant Nos. NSFCMS-9872618 and NSFCMS-0296111 is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 3 • March 2007
Pages: 306 - 318
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 19, 2005
Accepted: Aug 24, 2006
Published online: Mar 1, 2007
Published in print: Mar 2007
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