Abstract
The presence of mica is considered to be why the physical and mechanical properties of micaceous soil differ significantly from those of common clay and sand, such as the difficulty in compacting micaceous soil and its high compressibility and resilience. However, despite micaceous residual soil being widespread in transportation engineering, the specific role played by mica in determining its geotechnical properties remains ambiguous, as does the underlying mechanism for doing so. Presented here is a systematic investigation of the compaction, compression, and hydraulic characteristics of residual soil with varying mica content, with scanning electron microscopy used to scrutinize the structural features of mica and the resulting microstructural changes within the soil under different compression stress levels. The findings show that adding mica to residual soil results in coarser gradation, and the distinctive flaky layered structure and interlayer pores of mica particles characterize the residual soil with high compressibility, water retention, swelling potential, and inadequate compaction. The specific effects of particle arrangement between mica and soil particles—such as bridging and ordering—contribute to the high porosity and permeability of soil. Also, the breakdown of the mica stacking structure and the degradation of bridging and ordering effects under high consolidation stresses decrease the resilience and permeability of soil, leading to further compression deformation. This study elucidates the microscopic mechanism whereby mica influences the physical and mechanical properties of micaceous residual soil, thereby contributing to enhanced insights into the compaction, compression, and hydraulic properties of such soils.
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Data availability
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- B :
-
Skempton pore pressure
- c c :
-
Compression index
- c k :
-
Permeability index
- c s :
-
Swelling index
- c v :
-
Consolidation coefficient
- d 50 :
-
Average particle size
- e :
-
Void ratio
- e opt :
-
Optimum void ratio
- F n :
-
Steady state factor
- G s :
-
Specific gravity
- I p :
-
Plasticity index
- k :
-
Permeability coefficient
- M :
-
Compression modulus
- M c :
-
Mica content
- w :
-
Water content
- w L :
-
Liquid limit
- w opt :
-
Optimum water content
- w p :
-
Plastic limit
- ρ d :
-
Dry density
- ρ dmax :
-
Maximum dry density
- σ′ v :
-
Effective vertical stress
- σ′ y :
-
Yield stress
- CRS:
-
Constant rate of strain
- IL:
-
Incremental loading
- MRS:
-
Micaceous residual soil
- SEM:
-
Scanning electron microscopy
- XRD:
-
X-ray diffraction
- XRF:
-
X-ray fluorescence
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Funding
The financial supports of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42177148, 12102312, 42177119, 42307212), Postdoctoral Research Project of Guangzhou (20220402), Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Grant No. 2018363), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M741268), and Opening fund of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Grant No. SKLGP2023K011) are gratefully thanked.
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Writing—original draft preparation: Haodong Gao, Xianwei Zhang, Ran An.
Writing—review and editing: Haodong Gao, Xianwei Zhang, Gang Wang.
Data collection and analysis: Haodong Gao, Xianwei Zhang, Xinyu Liu.
Methodology: Haodong Gao, Xianwei Zhang, Xuewen Lei.
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Gao, H., Zhang, X., An, R. et al. Compaction, compression, and hydraulic characteristics of micaceous residual soil. Bull Eng Geol Environ 83, 57 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-024-03554-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-024-03554-8