The initial shear modulus, Gmax, of soil is an important parameter for a variety of geotechnical design applications. This modulus is typically associated with shear strain levels about 5*10^-3% and below. The critical role of soil stiffness at small-strains in the design and analysis of geotechnical infrastructure is now widely accepted.
Gmax is a key parameter in small-strain dynamic analyses such as those to predict soil behavior or soil-structure interaction during earthquake, explosions, machine or traffic vibration where it is necessary to know how the shear modulus degrades from its small-strain value as the level of shear strain increases. Gmax can be equally important for small-strain cyclic situations such as those caused by wind or wave loading and for small-strain static situations as well. Gmax may also be used as an indirect indication of various soil parameters, as it, in many cases, correlates well to other soil properties such as density and sample disturbance. In recent years, a technique using bender elements was developed to investigate the small-strain shear modulus Gmax.
The objective of this thesis is to study the initial shear stiffness for various sands with different void ratios, densities, grain size distribution under dry and saturated conditions, then to compare empirical equations to predict Gmax and results from other testing devices with results of bender elements from this study.
Physicochemical forces are responsible for the swelling pressure development in saturated bentonites. In this paper, the swelling pressures of several compacted bentonite specimens for a range of dry density of 1.10–1.73 Mg/m3 were measured experimentally. The clay used was a divalent-rich Ca-Mg-bentonite with 12% exchangeable Na+ ions. The theoretical swelling pressure–dry density relationship for the bentonite was determined from the Gouy-Chapman diffuse double-layer theory. A comparison of experimental and theoretical results showed that the experimental swelling pressures are either smaller or greater than their theoretical counterparts within different dry density ranges. It is shown that for dry density of the clay less than about 1.55 Mg/m3, a possible dissociation of ions from the surface of the clay platelets contributed to the diffuse double-layer repulsion. At higher dry densities, the adsorptive forces due to surface and ion hydration dominated the swelling pressures of the clay. A comparison of the modified diffuse double-layer theory equations proposed in the literature to determine the swelling pressures of compacted bentonites and the experimental results for the clay in this study showed that the agreement between the calculated and experimental swelling pressure results is very good for dry densities less than 1.55 Mg/m3, whereas at higher dry densities the use of the equations was found to be limited.
Central point of this study is to evaluate stiffness properties of pavement, specifically the E or G- modulus determined by different testing methods. Stiffness of soil is both stress and strain dependent property and otherwise different methods usually affect the material in different ways. The Young’s modulus E0 and shear modulus G0 correspond to the very small strain level are regarded as the initial or maximal stiffness of the relevant stress-strain curves of a given material. The modulus decay curve is called the degradation curve, which also reviewed in this study. With the results of different measurement methods applied for a reclaimed mining site in Klettwitz for determining of stiffness parameter of subsoil, author have tried to find a unification between the results considering the relationship between stiffness parameter and the range of strain levels. The testing methods executed at plant S9 in Klettwitz-Südfeld are: laboratory oedometer test, static plate load test, dynamic plate load test, and seismic testing methods (spectral analysis of surface wave, SASW). Some results getting from this study are: one receives different absolute values of stiffness parameter from different testing methods. The reason is different testing methods produce different range of strain levels in soil during their execution. Conventional and non-destructive testing methods should be combined together for investigating of subsoil characteristics. This means, the soil parameters must be adjusted to the current range of strain level. Especially for settlement calculation it is recommended that different values of stiffness modulus, Es, resulted by different testing methods should be simultaneously utilized along the depth beneath loading surface. Accuracy for determining of stiffness degradation curves depends a lot on the determination of maximal stiffness parameters (E0, G0) at the range of very small strain level, and it still requires much further studies.
The hydraulic properties of the polymer-enhanced bentonite-sand mixtures (PEBSMs) investigated in this study consisted of the water retention behaviour (or the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC)) and the saturated and unsaturated coefficients of permeability. The SWCCs of the compacted polymer-enhanced bentonite-sand mixtures were measured using two techniques; namely, axis-translation technique and vapour equilibrium technique. The results obtained from both methods were combined to establish a single SWCC for each specimen. The saturated coefficient of permeability of the material was measured using the constant-head flexible wall permeameter method. The unsaturated coefficient of permeability was computed from the SWCCs and the saturated permeability values using the statistical model. The study revealed that the wetting curves for the PEBSM and clay are above the drying curves. The fact is thought be due to the specimens being not saturated before starting the drying tests. Since the specimens are expensive soil such a trend can be expected. The permeability deduced from the oedometer test data over-estimates the actual water flow rate resulting in a higher computed saturated coefficient of permeability compared to the measured values. The nets of polymer and bentonite clusters are thought to retard the flow of water during the direct measurement. However, the net of polymer and bentonite clusters are compressed during loading and rebound during unloading. Hysteresis effect was found for the PEBSMs in the permeability versus degree of saturation curve. This is due to possible difference in the spatial distribution of water in the specimens depending whether the specimens were on drying or wetting path.
In this paper we evaluate 2D models for soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), that incorporate the hysteretic nature of the relationship between volumetric water content Θ and suction Ψ. The models are based on nonlinear least squares estimation of the experimental data for sand. To estimate the dependent variable Θ the proposed models include two independent variables, suction and sensors reading position (depth d in the column test). The variable d represents not only the position where suction and water content are measured but also the initial suction distribution before each of the hydraulic loading test phases. Due to this the proposed 2D regression models acquire the advantage that they: (a) can be applied for prediction of Θ for any position along the column and (b) give the functional form for the scanning curves.