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Undrained strength prediction for fine-grained soils with various diatom microfossil contents
Fine-grained soils containing diatom microfossils exhibit unique geotechnical behavior due to their biological origins, but their strength properties controlled jointly by diatom content (DC) and stress history remain to be revealed. In this study, reconstituted diatomaceous soil was prepared by mixing pure diatom and kaolin powders in different proportions. These mixtures were subjected to undrained consolidated triaxial shear tests performed using the Stress History and Normalized Soil Engineering Properties (SHANSEP) procedures, revealing how the DC and stress history affect the soil strength. Adding diatoms improved the mixture strength, and a critical DC of approximately 20% was determined, beyond which the normalized undrained strength of the soil was considerably higher than that of common clay without diatoms. Also, a DC higher than 20% associates with the dilatancy of the studied soil with high OCR. Improving the strength of diatomaceous soil by adding diatoms differs essentially from the case of common clay because the plasticity index of the former remains almost unchanged. New formulas incorporating DC and OCR are proposed for predicting the strength of diatomaceous soil, and data for several well-studied soils confirm their validity. This study improves the understanding of fine-grained soils with biological origins and provides important data regarding the mechanical behavior of diatomaceous soil.
Undrained strength prediction for fine-grained soils with various diatom microfossil contents
Fine-grained soils containing diatom microfossils exhibit unique geotechnical behavior due to their biological origins, but their strength properties controlled jointly by diatom content (DC) and stress history remain to be revealed. In this study, reconstituted diatomaceous soil was prepared by mixing pure diatom and kaolin powders in different proportions. These mixtures were subjected to undrained consolidated triaxial shear tests performed using the Stress History and Normalized Soil Engineering Properties (SHANSEP) procedures, revealing how the DC and stress history affect the soil strength. Adding diatoms improved the mixture strength, and a critical DC of approximately 20% was determined, beyond which the normalized undrained strength of the soil was considerably higher than that of common clay without diatoms. Also, a DC higher than 20% associates with the dilatancy of the studied soil with high OCR. Improving the strength of diatomaceous soil by adding diatoms differs essentially from the case of common clay because the plasticity index of the former remains almost unchanged. New formulas incorporating DC and OCR are proposed for predicting the strength of diatomaceous soil, and data for several well-studied soils confirm their validity. This study improves the understanding of fine-grained soils with biological origins and provides important data regarding the mechanical behavior of diatomaceous soil.
Undrained strength prediction for fine-grained soils with various diatom microfossil contents
Zhang, Xianwei (author) / Liu, Xinyu (author) / Wang, Gang (author)
Marine Georesources & Geotechnology ; 43 ; 305-311
2025-02-01
7 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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