Influences of low fines content and fines mixing ratio on the undrained static shear strength of sand–silt–clay mixtures

Abstract

Clay and silt have complicated effects on the undrained behaviour of sands. To study the influences of low clay and silt contents on the undrained behaviour of sands in the clay–silt–sand mixtures, sands with three different fine contents (0%, 5% and 10%) and three different fines mixing ratios were investigated based on the consolidated-undrained test by a strain-controlled triaxial testing system. The test results show that the static liquefaction takes place in clean sands under static loading; the undrained behaviours of the specimens are found to differ for the same fine content and different fine mixing ratios. The fines can simultaneously influence filling, bonding and soil skeleton characteristics of sand particles, and the extent of the influence on each characteristic varies depending on the clay and silt contents.

Keywords:

• Clay–silt–sand mixtures
• fine content
• fine mixing ratios
• undrained behaviour
• shear dilation
• shear contraction
• strain hardening
• strain softening

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work presented in this paper was part of research sponsored by Key Program of National Natural Science Funds under Grant No. 51639002, National Key Research & Development Plan under Grant No. 2018YFC1505305.