Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Soil
Unbonded granular material topsoil ~ top 1m soil
Variable, so often consider only as a surcharge for deep / large foundations But NZ houses often founded in top 300mm
Origins
Mostly breakdown of rocks Some organic (e.g. peat) Modified by
breakdown process (chemical, biological, mechanical) Transportation
Geotechnical Engineering
Some typical geo terms:
dams pavements / roading Geotechnical engineer Geologist tunnels Engineering geologist Geoenvironmental engineer foundations slopes Geomechanics Soil mechanics retaining walls Rock mechanics landfills Geotextiles; ground engineering; ground improvement; geo-remediation; foundation engineering
Transportation
None => residual soils Ice: glacial (moraine) => till fluvial glacial => drift deposits
Powrie: 7-10
Powrie: 10-16
Mineralogy 1
Most soils are silicates Clay minerals are phyllosilicates or sheet silicates (Si4O10)4 E.g. kaolinite, illite, montmorillonite (sometimes called smectite and used as bentonite) & others Different structures can lead to very different mechanical behaviour!
Mineralogy 2
Non-clay minerals
Quartz, SiO2 (most abundant, framework crystal silicate, hard & stable) Feldspars (some Si replaced by Al, less hard, can be easily cleaved) Micas (Si4O10)4-, phyllosilicates (flakey and can be flexible) Mechanical behaviour of non-clay soils (i.e. silts, sands, gravels) mostly governed by particle size and packing
(SiO44-)
Illite
Montmorillonite
Photos 2&3 courtesy Stewart Mccallum (2006) & University of New Hampshire (2007)
Phase relationships
Soil is made up of
Solid particles (skeleton / matrix) with Spaces or voids filled with air and/or water
Phase relationships
Volumes Masses Va Vw Ma = 0 Mw
Particle
Void
Total volume VT
Volume voids VV
Volume solids VS
Vs
Ms
There are a number of volumetric and mass relationships that are useful:
Phase relationships
Voids ratio e:
e= VV VS
Typical values for sands/gravels: 0.4 - 1.0 Typical values for clays: 0.3 - 1.5
Phase relationships
Specific volume V:
V=
V +V VT = S V =1 + e VS VS
Porosity n:
n=
V VV e = V = VS + VV 1+ e VT
Theoretically 0 - 1.0 (if e varies from 0 to ), Reported as percentage or decimal: e.g. 50% or 0.5
Phase relationships
Saturation ratio Sr:
Sr =
More definitions
VW VV
Lies between 0 and 1.0 Dry soil: Sr = 0; fully saturated soil Sr = 1 If 0 <Sr <1, call partially saturated or unsaturated M w= W Moisture (or water) content w: MS Ranges from 0 up to 5.0 (500%), Commonly w < 1.0 in most natural soils Cant measure Sr and w directly. Need to weigh soil sample with water then dry to find dry weight of soil & water see example
Powrie: Example 1.1
Specific gravity:
GS =
S W
Where s is density of solids, w is density of water For pure quartz sands, Gs ~ 2.65 Overall, Gs ~ 2.6 2.8
Unit weights:
(units: kN/m3)
Useful concept connecting mass & volume sides of phase diagram More useful than because can calculate stresses in ground directly ( includes gravity g!)
More definitions
Unit weight water:
W = W g
w ~ 9.81kN/m3 (can use 10kN/m3)
More definitions
There are special cases for saturated and dry unit weights of soil: Saturated unit weight (Sr=1): Dry unit weight (Sr=0): Buoyant unit weight:
( = w )
W (GS + S r e )
GS W (1 + w) 1+ e
sat =
dry =
'=
W (GS + e )
1+ e
1+ e
W GS
1+ e
1+ e
It is more complicated Includes solids & voids either filled with air or water (or both) We can derive this equation (Powrie & Aysen)
Powrie: 19-22
W (GS 1)
Particle size
Soil Type Clay Silt Sand Gravel Cobbles Boulders BS & NZ 0.002-0.06mm 0.06-2mm 2-60mm 60-200mm >200mm Measure by
hydrometer sieving looking!
<0.002mm (<2m)
The particle or grain size distribution (PSD) is very important to how soil behaves
Affects how water flows through soil
Smaller the pore size, the harder it is & longer it takes for water to flow through
We plot PSD on a semi-log plot with particle size on log x-axis and percentage passing or percentage finer by weight on linear y-axis
Powrie: 29-30
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
?
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
0 0.001
Clay
F
Silt
M C F
Sand
M C F
Gravel
M C
Cobbles
Boulders
However, a single particle size does not describe many soils well, particularly if a range of sizes is present
D U = 60 D10
Coefficient of Curvature, CZ or Z
For 1 Z<3 typical for well-graded Z<1 or Z>3 can mean gap-graded, but use with care!
Sometimes terms like poorly graded, are used (USCS) for gap-graded, but try not too as can be confused with geologists terms like poorly sorted (which means well graded!) etc.
D10 = 0.05mm, D30 = 0.1mm, D60 = 0.9mm U=18, Z=0.22 D10 = 10mm, D30 = 20mm, D60 = 35mm U=3.5, Z=1.14
D10 = 0.004mm, D30 = 0.5mm, D60 = 4mm U=1000, Z=15 Well-graded clayey sandy GRAVEL; w.g. gravelly SAND, some clay?
Soil classification
Systematic classification used in NZ is a hybrid of USCS and BS systems, follows BS divisions but some terms from USCS Initially determine soil type based on particle size, then further classify:
If coarse, use PSD, colour, shape If fine, use index tests
Example classification: Sub-rounded coarse SAND with platey mica Angular medium GRAVEL
For granular soil (silt, sand, gravel), soil packing (how dense) depends on how soil was deposited and loaded Theoretical maximum and minimum void ratios, emax and emin can be found for a particular soil emax and emin depend on:
PSD Particle shape
1.5
1
12 gravelly sands
(PG = 17-36 %, F < 6 %) C
0.5
30 gravels
12 coarse sands
(ASTM & non-standard procedures) (non-standard procedures)
3 layers soil in mould (with collar) of known volume & mass. Vibrate on vibrating table with weight on top between each of 3 layers. (Wet?)
1.5
Repeat at least once with different soil batch and take lowest value for emin
Powrie: 19
Plastic limit, wPL, is water content below which fine soil behaves brittle and crumbly Liquid limit, wLL, is water content above which fine soil behaves as a liquid Plasticity index: IP = wLL - wPL
IL =
Standard fall-cone
w wPL wLL w PL
To determine wPL:
Determine moisture content, w, of a clayey soil by weighing, oven drying and then weighing again (e.g. Powrie Example 1.1) IL analogous to ID (relative density) for granular soils If IL = 1.0, w=wLL, clay at liquid limit (runny like a liquid) If IL = 0.0, w=wPL, clay at plastic limit (dry, brittle and hard)
Powrie: 43-44
Casagrande apparatus
Pictures courtesy Verruijt (2001)
Compaction
wPL = 22%, wll = 65%, IP = 43% CH: High plasticity CLAY wPL = 25%, wll = 29%, IP = 4% ML: Low plasticity SILT
Soils are often used as a structural material in the construction of embankments, land reclamation, backfills and earth dams. Dense soils have superior engineering properties to loose soils: - Higher stiffness - Higher strength Smaller deformability Improved stability
Compaction methods
Specially designed equipment is used to compress or densify soils. All equipment uses one or more of the following techniques:
Sheepsfoot roller
pressure (the most important factor) - impact load (dynamic component) - vibration (15-60 Hz; enhances compaction) - complex loads involving shearing
Portable equipment
It is necessary to compact the soils in the field and compress them into a smaller volume (reduce the volume of the voids) to increase strength.
Steel-wheel roller
Selection of equipment depends on the type of the soil, size of the project and compaction requirements
The test is carried out on at least 5 samples, each prepared at a different water content.
Calculation procedure
1. Trim the sample and then weigh it: Mms 2. Calculate the mass density of the sample, (since we know the volume Vm and mass of the mould Mm):
Compaction curve
Compaction curve
M ms M m Vm
w= Mw Ms
Sometimes is expressed as:
d =
1+ w
d = d g
Optimum water content (wo)
- The Proctor test result is not directly applicable to field conditions - Usually field compaction will lie between the Standard and Modified Proctor Test results
Ground investigation
Soil strata may be of variable thickness May be discontinuous soil lenses & cavities
Powrie: 56-60
Soil Classification
Identification of material, composition and intrinsic properties (can used disturbed soil)
Soil Description
In situ properties of material (prefer to use undisturbed soil)
Try to infer 3D picture from relatively few holes! Cannot eliminate risk but can reduce it by good planning Better to spend $ earlier than $$$ later
Ground investigation
Boreholes are usually 150mm diameter, drilled to depths up to 30m Trial pits are typically 2m deep by 2m wide holes
Ground investigation
Soil samples can be taken for lab testing:
Strength, compressibility, permeability Stress-strain behaviour, classification, etc.
Borehole core
Borehole log