A New Apparatus for Testing the Bearing Capacity of Calcareous Sand in Laboratory

Abstract

Calcareous sand, widely spread on coral reefs in Nansha Islands, South China Sea, will be used as backfill material in oceanic engineering, but its engineering property is still elusive. It's difficult and extremely costly to conduct in-situ plate load tests to investigate the bearing capacities of calcareous soils foundation because the coral reefs are too far from the mainland and located in tidal zone. In order to study the bearing capacity and deformation behavior of calcareous soils, the authors designed an apparatus to carry out laboratory tests. The apparatus has the advantages as listed: (1) estimating the bearing capacity and deformation of soil foundation; (2) measuring the soil pressures and settlements at diffirent depths; (3) investigating the load transmission depth. Test results of calcareous sand indicate that the apparatus is suitable to test the engineering behavior of soil in laboratory.

Keywords:

• calcareous soils
• Nansha islands
• plate load test
• soil mechanics
• South China Sea

Acknowledgement

In particular, the authors greatly appreciate the two anonymous reviewers for their critical and constructive comments.

Notes

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