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Swelling and behavioral transformation of magnesia-sand mixtures: experimental characterization of physical properties and undrained shear strength

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 December 2022

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Abstract

Magnesia-based refractories (magnesia) are the second most used refractories worldwide and are generally discarded in landfills after their service life even though they are highly expansive when in contact with water. Thus, to ensure the safe disposal of magnesia and to enable the use of landfill areas as future construction sites, it is important to investigate the physical and mechanical behavior of magnesia-containing soil. In this study, the physical properties, swelling characteristics, and undrained shear response of magnesia–sand mixtures at various magnesia contents were measured and compared before and after hydration. After hydration, the behavior of the magnesia changed from a sand-like behavior to a clay-like behavior, where the change in behavior was accompanied with a reduction in the particle size and an increase plasticity. In addition, the swelling strain (SS) and swelling pressure of the magnesia-sand mixtures increased with an increase in the magnesia content in the mixture, showing high expansivity (SS > 25%) compared to that of natural expansive soil. Before hydration, the magnesia content had no significant effect on the average normalized peak shear strength (Su/σ′c = peak shear strength/confining pressure) of the magnesia–sand mixture. However, after hydration, the average Su/σ′c of magnesia–sand mixture decreased with an increase in the magnesia content. Particularly, the average Su/σ′c of pure hydrated magnesia was comparable to that of normally consolidated clay.

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Funding

This research was supported by research funds from the Korean Society of Civil Engineers and by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (2018R1A2B6000973).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, South Korea

    Boyoung Yoon, Jihwan Lee & Woojin Lee

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 04762, South Korea

    Hyunwook Choo

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 61186, South Korea

    Changho Lee

  4. Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Jihwan Lee

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  1. Boyoung Yoon
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  2. Jihwan Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Woojin Lee.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The above article was published with error in author name. Jihwan Lee is the correct name instead of Jiwhan Lee. This is now updated here.

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Yoon, B., Lee, J., Choo, H. et al. Swelling and behavioral transformation of magnesia-sand mixtures: experimental characterization of physical properties and undrained shear strength. Bull Eng Geol Environ 81, 46 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02547-1

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