Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract: The effect of cementation on the deformation characteristics of two cemented calcareous soils was investigated through a series of undrained triaxial tests performed under both monotonic and cyclic loading conditions. Increasing the level of cementation significantly increased the initial stiffness, resulting in the stiffness being more
independent of the confining pressure. The curves of stiffness degradation with strain obtained from both cemented and
uncemented calcareous soils compared with those of other noncalcareous soils revealed that calcareous soil attains a
faster rate of modulus reduction with a higher strain threshold. It was also observed that the pattern of stiffness degradation is very similar in both cemented and uncemented samples. The stiffness degradation curves obtained from cyclic
tests were found to lie within the range defined by the corresponding monotonic tests. The effect of number of cycles
on the stiffness during cyclic loading was also examined and is found to depend on whether the postyield behaviour is
controlled by the cohesive or the frictional response. Examination of the variation of damping ratio with strain revealed
that the observed difference in the stiffness degradation curves between calcareous and noncalcareous soils was also reflected in the damping ratio, with the damping ratio of calcareous soils being below the range defined for
noncalcareous soils.
Key words: calcareous soils, triaxial test, shear modulus, damping ratio, repeated loading.
Rsum : On a tudi leffet de la cimentation sur les caractristiques de dformation de deux sols calcaires ciments
au moyen dune srie dessais triaxiaux non drains raliss dans des conditions de chargement tant cyclique que
monotonique. Laugmentation du niveau de cimentation a augment apprciablement la rigidit initiale, ce qui a rsult
en une rigidit plus indpendante de la pression de confinement. Les courbes de dgradation de rigidit en fonction de
la dformation obtenues sur les sols calcaires tant ciments que non ciments compares avec celles dautres sols non
calcaires rvlent que les sols calcaires atteignent plus rapidement le taux de rduction du module avec un seuil plus
lev de dformation. Il a t galement observ que le schma de dgradation de la rigidit est trs similaire dans les
chantillons tant ciments que non ciments. On a trouv que les courbes de dgradation de rigidit obtenues des essais cycliques se situent lintrieur de la plage dfinie par les essais monotoniques correspondants. Leffet du nombre
de cycles sur la rigidit durant le chargement cyclique a aussi t examin, et dpend du fait que le comportement
post-pic est contrl par la rponse soit de cohsion, soit de frottement. Lexamen de la variation du rapport damortissement avec la dformation rvle que la diffrence observe entre les courbes de dgradation de la rigidit des sols
calcaires et non calcaires se refltait dans le rapport damortissement, le rapport damortissement des sols calcaires
tant sous la plage dfinie pour les sols non calcaires.
Mots cls : sols calcaires, essai triaxial, module de cisaillement, rapport damortissement, chargement rpt.
[Traduit par la Rdaction]
Introduction
The nonlinear stressstrain behaviour of different geomaterials has been investigated extensively in recent years
with the use of different small-strain measuring devices.
This has led to evaluation of the initial maximum stiffness
and stiffness degradation curves for different geomaterials,
which provided guidelines for calculating ground movement
Received 6 March 2003. Accepted 16 June 2004. Published
on the NRC Research Press Web site at http://cgj.nrc.ca on
7 December 2004.
S.S. Sharma and M. Fahey.1 Centre for Offshore Foundation
Systems, School of Civil and Resource Engineering, The
University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway,
Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
1
1151
doi: 10.1139/T04-066
1140
1141
Table 1. Unconfined compressive strength (qucs) and tensile strength (TS) results of CIPScemented samples.
Soil
No. of
CIPS
flushes
di
(kN/m3)
qucs
(kPa)
TS
(kPa)
Percent
calcite added
by weight
df
(kN/m3)
LP
LP
LP
LP
GW
GW
GW
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
12.70
13.20
13.90
12.70
9.81
9.81
9.81
524
590
655
1200
350
600
2500
51
70
91
4.61
3.70
3.52
8.05
15.00
17.00
23.00
13.4
13.7
14.4
13.8
11.3
11.5
12.1
Note: df, unit weight of sample after cementation; di, unit weight of uncemented sample.
all the entrapped air from the sample to aid the subsequent
saturation of the sample. Water was then flushed through the
sample, followed by the CIPS solution. The flushing pressure was maintained equal to 25 kPa in Ledge Point (LP)
soil and 75 kPa in Goodwyn (GW) soil. The seating pressure
applied on the LP and GW soil samples was 50 and
100 kPa, respectively. The flushing time was maintained at
4 and 8 min for the LP and GW samples, respectively. The
larger flushing pressure and more time required in flushing
CIPS through the GW sample is due to the large amount of
fines present in this soil.
Once the flushing of CIPS was finished, both the inlet and
outlet valves were closed and the sample was then left to
cure for 24 h. The same procedure was repeated for the next
flush of CIPS whenever multiple flushes were needed. An
interval of 24 h was always maintained between each successive flush of CIPS. After the last flush, the sample was
left to cure for another 24 h before testing.
A number of advantages of this sample preparation technique were described in Ismail (2000). The key issues with
this procedure, however, were that it controlled both the
density and cementation of the sample and eliminated any
disturbance of the sample during extrusion and during assembling the sample on the triaxial base. Nevertheless, due
care was taken while setting up the samples in the triaxial
machine to avoid any breakage of cementation. All the triaxial tests were carried out under full saturation and with
pore pressure parameter (B) values of at least 0.95.
Depending on the type of soil, initial void ratio, and number of CIPS flushes, samples with different levels of strength
were created. The unconfined compressive strengths (qucs)
and tensile strengths (TS) obtained are as reported in Table 1. The values reported in Table 1 are the averages of at
least two samples. The variation of strength between samples under each condition was less than 5%, which confirms
the reproducibility of these samples. It is worth mentioning
that reproducibility of the CIPS-cemented samples was extensively examined by Ismail (2000) and Sharma (2004) and
was found to be highly reproducible.
The behaviour of cemented samples depends on the
stresscementation histories. Two most common stress
cementation sequences in nature are loading before cementation and cementation before loading (e.g., Fernandez and
Santamarina 2001). It is worth mentioning that the cemented
samples prepared in this study were cemented and cured
inside the mould before loading, and hence the results and
discussion presented in this paper are limited to this particular type of stresscementation history.
Laboratory equipment
The experiments were performed using a computercontrolled triaxial machine designed and fabricated at the
University of Western Australia (UWA). Axial load and displacement were measured using an internal load cell and an
external potentiometer, respectively, both attached to the
loading ram. Internal submersible linear variable differential
transformers (LVDTs) were also used to measure the strains
locally. The LVDTs were fixed in the sample using four aluminium footings implanted in the sample by gluing them
inside the rubber membrane prior to sample preparation
(Sharma and Fahey 2003). The arrangement used to fix the
LVDTs is shown in Fig. 2. This arrangement avoids possible
errors due to the relative slippage between the rubber membrane and sample surface (Tatsuoka and Kohata 1995). This
measuring system can resolve axial strain down to about 1
105 (or 103%).
Terminology used
The stress state is described using Cambridge invariants: deviator stress q = 1 3 and mean effective
stress p = (1 + 2 3 )/3, where 1 and 3 are the major and
minor principal effective stresses, respectively. The shear
strain parameter used is the deviator strain s = 2/3(1 3),
which is equal to 1 for undrained tests, where 1 and 3 are
the principal strains. Tests were performed on both isotropically and anisotropically consolidated samples. Radial
stress paths in qp space with constant stress ratio (=q/p)
were followed during anisotropic consolidation. The stress
ratio at the end of anisotropic consolidation is termed the
consolidation stress ratio (CSR = qo/po ), where qo and po
are the deviator stress (which is zero for isotropically consolidated samples) and mean effective stress at the end of
consolidation, respectively.
The terminology illustrated in Fig. 3 has been adopted to
describe the cyclic loading tests. During cyclic loading tests,
a cyclic shear stress amplitude qcyc is superimposed on the
mean shear stress qmean. Depending on the relative magnitude of qcyc with respect to qmean, the cyclic test is classified
as a one-way (qcyc qmean) or two-way (qcyc > qmean)
test. The initial tangent stiffness Go is obtained from the
monotonic tests. The secant shear modulus for the whole
2004 NRC Canada
1142
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the setup of a sample in the
triaxial apparatus with internal LVDTs.
600, and 1000 kPa show Go(ani)/Go(iso) of 0.83, 0.59, and 0.40,
respectively, where Go(ani) is the Go value obtained from an
anisotropically consolidated sample, and Go(iso) is the initial
maximum tangential stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated samples subjected to similar po .
These observations suggest that it is the level of cementation that controls the initial stiffness of the samples rather
than the mean effective stress, and the degradation of cementation is more likely to occur with increasing deviator
stress than with increasing isotropic mean effective stress.
Degradation of stiffness
As it has been observed that increasing the consolidation
deviator stress has a tremendous effect on the initial stiffness
of the samples, it is worth investigating the pattern of stiffness degradation with strain during monotonic shearing. To
examine this, normalized curves of stiffness degradation
with strain are plotted for different monotonic tests in
Figs. 510. The shear modulus considered in these figures is
the secant shear modulus normalized using the initial maximum shear modulus values (Go) reported in Fig. 4.
Figure 5 shows the modulus reduction curve obtained
from uncemented GW samples consolidated to confining
pressures (po ) of 200 and 600 kPa. This figure clearly shows
that confining pressure has a significant effect on the position of the modulus reduction curve, which is similar to
what is often observed for other cohesionless soils. To examine how the modulus reduction curves of uncemented GW
soil compare with those of other cohesionless soils, the
range of modulus reduction curves obtained by Seed and
Idriss (1970) is also shown in Fig. 5. Although the qualitative pattern of modulus reduction with strain is similar, calcareous soil attains a faster rate of modulus reduction with a
higher strain threshold.
Figure 6 shows the modulus reduction curves obtained
from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples with
qucs of 0.6 MPa. There is not much difference in these three
curves, but there is nevertheless an indication that increasing
the confining pressure from 600 to 1000 kPa gives more
rapid reduction in stiffness, although increasing the confining pressure from 200 to 600 kPa gives a trend of decreasing
rate of modulus reduction with increase in strain. This suggests that although confining pressure has a negligible effect
on the initial stiffness of cemented samples, it can affect the
pattern of stiffness reduction with strain. In particular, the
faster rate of stiffness degradation observed at the smallest
confining pressure (po = 200 kPa) may be due to the increasing brittleness in the stressstrain response resulting
from the localized failure of the sample.
To facilitate comparison between uncemented and cemented samples, the range of modulus reduction curves obtained from Fig. 5 are replotted in Fig. 6. It can be observed
from Fig. 6 that, within the range of confining pressures
used in this study, the stiffness degradation curves obtained
from cemented samples lie within the range of the uncemented samples, although some difference can be observed if tests at similar confining pressures are compared.
Since the influence of consolidation history on the initial
stiffness is significant, it is useful to examine how the CSR
affects the pattern of modulus reduction. Cemented samples
with qucs of 0.6 MPa were tested at different CSRs and con-
1143
Fig. 5. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated uncemented GW samples.
Fig. 6. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs = 0.6 MPa).
1144
Fig. 7. Degradation of stiffness obtained from anisotropically
consolidated cemented GW samples (po = 200 kPa, qucs =
0.6 MPa).
2.5 MPa were tested and their corresponding modulus reduction curves are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. Superimposed on these figures is the range of modulus reduction
curves obtained from uncemented samples presented in
Fig. 5. Although there is some scatter, it can be observed
that, within the range of po examined in this study, the
modulus reduction curves obtained from cemented samples
with different levels of cementation, and even with higher
po , lie within the range of curves for uncemented samples.
This is because, unlike the case for uncemented samples, cemented samples showed faster rates of modulus reduction
due to the rapid breakage of cementation, even at higher po .
To further examine curves of stiffness degradation with
strain obtained from different conditions, all the curves of
stiffness degradation with strain presented for different conditions in Figs. 610 are replotted together, and the range
Fig. 10. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs = 2.5 MPa).
Fig. 12. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented LP samples (qucs = 0.5 MPa) compared with
range of curves for cemented GW samples.
1145
Fig. 13. Effect of loading rate on the degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented LP samples
(qucs = 0.5 MPa).
It can be observed that, although the initial stiffness is independent of loading rate, increasing the loading rate results in
a slight reduction in the rate of stiffness degradation.
1146
Fig. 14. Degradation of loop stiffness with number of cycles obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples
with qucs = 0.6 MPa and po = 200 kPa (after Sharma and Fahey
2002b).
Fig. 15. Degradation of loop stiffness with number of cycles obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented LP samples
(qucs = 0.5 MPa, po = 600 kPa): (a) qmax:qmin of 600:10 and
600:100 kPa; (b) qmax:qmin of 800:10 and 1200:10 kPa.
1147
Fig. 17. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from
anisotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs =
0.6 MPa, CSR = 0.5).
1148
Fig. 19. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from
isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs =
2.50 MPa).
Damping ratio
The hysteresis loops obtained at different numbers of cycles, from which the shear moduli of cemented GW soils
were determined in previous sections, were also used to calculate the damping ratio. The results obtained from all the
tests are plotted in Fig. 22. Superimposed on the same figure
is the range of damping ratios proposed by Seed and Idriss
(1970) for silica sands. It can be observed that the differences previously noted in stiffness degradation curves are
also reflected in the damping ratio, with the damping ratio
being smaller at a particular strain level in cemented calcareous soils compared with that in uncemented noncalcareous
soils.
1149
Fig. 22. Damping ratio with cyclic strain obtained from all tests
performed on cemented GW samples.
Acknowledgements
The work presented in this paper forms part of the
research activities of the Centre for Offshore Foundation
Systems (COFS), established and supported under the Australian Research Council Research Centres Program. The
first author was supported by an International Postgraduate
Research Scholarship (IPRS) and a Geomechanics Group
Studentship. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The
collaboration of Dr. Edward Kucharski and Mr. Bob Middle 2004 NRC Canada
1150
ton from Lithic Technology (who provided the CIPS solution) is also appreciated.
References
Airey, D.W. 1993. Triaxial testing of naturally cemented carbonate
soil. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, 119(9): 1379
1398.
Airey, D.W., and Fahey, M. 1991. Cyclic response of calcareous
soil from the North-West Shelf of Australia. Gotechnique,
41(1): 101121.
Alarcon-Guzman, A., Chameau, J.L., Leonards, G.A., and Frost,
J.D. 1989. Shear modulus and cyclic undrained behaviour of
sands. Soils and Foundations, 29(4): 105119.
Allman, M.A., and Poulos, H.G. 1988. Stressstrain behaviour of
artificially cemented calcareous soil. In Engineering for Calcareous Sediments: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference
on Calcareous Sediments, Perth, Australia, 1518 March 1988.
Edited by R.J. Jewell and M.S. Khorshid. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Vol. 2, pp. 5158.
Baig, S., Picornell, M., and Nazarian, S. 1997. Low strain shear
moduli of cemented sands. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, 123(6): 540545.
Carter, J.P., and Airey, D.W. 1994. The engineering behaviour of
cemented marine carbonate soils. In Geotechnical engineering emerging trends in design and practice. Edited by K.R.
Saxena. Oxford and IBH Publishing Company, New Delhi.
Chapt. 3, pp. 65101.
Coop, M.R. 1990. The mechanics of uncemented carbonate sands.
Gotechnique, 40(4): 607626.
Coop, M.R., and Atkinson, J.H. 1993. The mechanics of cemented
carbonate sands. Gotechnique, 43(1): 5367.
Fernandez, A.L., and Santamarina, J.C. 2001. Effect of cementation on the small-strain parameters of sands. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 38: 191199.
Houston, W.N., and Herrmann, H.G. 1980. Undrained cyclic
strength of marine soils. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, 106(GT6): 691712.
Hyodo, M., Hyde, A.F.L., and Aramaki, N. 1998. Liquefaction of
crushable soils. Gotechnique, 48(4): 527543.
Ismail, M.A. 2000. Strength and deformation behaviour of calcitecemented calcareous soils. Ph.D. thesis, University of Western
Australia, Crawley, Australia.
Ismail, M.A., Joer, H.A., and Randolph, M.F. 2000. Sample preparation technique for artificially cemented soils. ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal, 23(2): 171177.
Ismail, M.A., Joer, H.A., Sim, W.H., and Randolph, M.F. 2002a.
Effect of cement type on shear behaviour of cemented calcareous soil. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, 128(6): 520529.
Ismail, M.A., Joer, H.A., Randolph, M.F., and Meritt, A. 2002b.
Cementation of porous materials using calcite. Gotechnique,
52(5): 313324.
Jewell, R.J., and Andrews, D.C. (Editors). 1988. Engineering for
Calcareous Sediments: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Calcareous Sediments, Perth, Australia, 1518 March
1988, Vol. 1. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Jewell, R.J., and Khorshid, M.S. (Editors). 1988. Engineering for
Calcareous Sediments: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Calcareous Sediments, Perth, Australia, 1518 March
1988, Vol. 2. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Kaggwa, W.S. 1988. Cyclic behaviour of carbonate sediments.
Ph.D. thesis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
List of symbols
Aloop area of the hysteresis loop in an unloadingreloading
cycle
B pore pressure parameter
D damping ratio
G secant shear modulus for monotonic tests and loop shear
modulus for cyclic tests
Gloop secant shear modulus for the whole loop
Gloop-1 secant shear modulus for the whole loop corresponding
to the first cycle
2004 NRC Canada
1151
qmean
qmin
qo
qpeak
qucs
qyield
TS
1, 3
s
scyc
df
di
1, 3