Effect of depositional method on the undrained behavior and microstructure of sand with silt

• Published in: Soil dynamics and earthquake engineering (1984) Vol. 24; no. 9; pp. 751 - 760
• Main Authors: Yamamuro, Jerry A, Wood, Fletcher M
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2004; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Deposition; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Earthquakes, seismology; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Engineering geology; Exact sciences and technology; Fabric; Fines; Internal geophysics; Liquefaction; Natural hazards: prediction, damages, etc; Reconstitution; Sand; Scanning electron microscopy; Silt; Stress–strain; Undrained testing; United States; Nevada; USA, Nevada; Stress–strain; Scanning electron microscopy; Fines; Sand; Liquefaction; Undrained testing; Silt; Reconstitution; Fabric; Deposition; strain; scanning electron microscopy; stress; density; testing; fine-grained materials; liquefaction; air; silt; North America; electrons; sedimentation; sand; Stress-strain; fabric; microstructures; compression; particles; soils
• ISSN: 0267-7261; 1879-341X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.soildyn.2004.06.004

It has been known for many years that depositional method plays an important part in the results of laboratory testing of clean sands. In this paper, undrained triaxial compression tests were performed on specimens composed of Nevada sand with 20% non-plastic silt content using a variety of depositional methods that include slurry deposition, water sedimentation, air pluviation, mixed dry deposition, and dry funnel deposition. It was found that there was a marked difference in the undrained behavior even though the density and stress conditions were identical. The conclusion was that the soil fabric was responsible for this result. Using the scanning electron microscope, a method was developed to examine and quantify the microstructure of silty sand. These results appear to indicate that there are internal particle structures in sand with silt and their relative quantities correlate with the observed macroscopic undrained behavior.