Microstructure of compacted low-plasticity soils: the initial fabric and its evolution on stress and suction paths

Soils used in earthworks undergo different hydro-mechanical paths due to the compaction and construction process, the change in climatic conditions or the groundwater level oscillations. Their hydro- mechanical behaviour is greatly affected by their initial microstructure set on compaction that evol...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: González Blanco, Laura|||0000-0003-3800-3007, Romero Morales, Enrique Edgar|||0000-0002-4105-8941, Pinyol Puigmartí, Núria Mercè|||0000-0002-1878-1365, Alonso Pérez de Agreda, Eduardo|||0000-0003-2472-3951
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/406491
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/406491
https://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202338211003
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Soil mechanics
Plasticity
Clay soils
Mecànica dels sòls
Sòls--Compactació
Argila
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria civil::Geologia
Descrição
Resumo:Soils used in earthworks undergo different hydro-mechanical paths due to the compaction and construction process, the change in climatic conditions or the groundwater level oscillations. Their hydro- mechanical behaviour is greatly affected by their initial microstructure set on compaction that evolves differently in compliance with the stress paths. The current study investigates the differences in the initial microstructure in a low-plasticity clayey silt compacted at the dry and wet of the optimum. The microstructure was characterized by mercury intrusion porosimetry. The definition of a microstructural void ratio (¿¿¿¿) inside the soil aggregates and its ratio to the total void ratio (¿¿¿¿/¿¿) allowed plotting contours of equal ¿¿¿¿ and ¿¿¿¿/¿¿ in the Proctor compaction plane for the as-compacted states. Additionally, the evolution of the initial microstructure along different stress and suction paths was evaluated. The microstructural void ratio reached after the hydro-mechanical paths did not reproduce the contours of the as-compacted states in the compaction plane. In fact, the microstructural void ratio inside saturated soil aggregates follows Terzaghi’s effective stress through a microstructural compressibility parameter, which provides a straightforward approach for predicting the evolution of the microstructure of compacted low-plasticity soils subjected to different stress-suction paths.