Abstract
The engineering characteristics of soils are controlled by the state of the microstructure of soils to a great extent. With the withdrawal of groundwater controlled reasonably, the engineering-environmental effect of the high-rise building group becomes the main cause of land subsidence in Shanghai. This paper studied the microstructure of each soil layer under the building loads in the centrifuge model by the scanning electron microscopy and the mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) for qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, respectively. The shape, size and contact condition of the basic unit of the soil microstructure were analyzed. The pore structure of each soil layer was studied by MIP, and the pore distribution of each soil layer was studied by the fractal theory. The ink-bottle effect exists in the intrusion stage in the MIP test. There are four different fractal dimensions for silty clay of layer No. 4 and clayey soil of layer No. 8 and three different fractal dimensions for silty sand of layer No. 7 and layer No. 9. The micro and macro mechanisms of land subsidence caused by the high-rise building group were analyzed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cetin H, Fener M, Soylemz M, Gunaydin O (2007) Soil structure changes during compaction of a cohesive soil. Eng Geol 92:38–48
Cui ZD (2008) Study on the land subsidence caused by the dense high-rise building group in the soft soil area. PhD Thesis, Tongji University
Cui ZD, Tang YQ (2010) Land subsidence and pore structure of soils caused by the high-rise building group through centrifuge model test. Eng Geol 113(1–4):44–52
Cui ZD, Tang YQ, Yan XX (2010a) Evaluation of the geology-environmental capacity of the buildings based on the ANFIS model of the floor area ratio. Bull Eng Geol Environ 69(1):111–118
Cui ZD, Tang YQ, Yan XX (2010b) Centrifuge modeling of land subsidence caused by the high-rise building group in the soft soil area. Environ Earth Sci 59(8):1819–1826
De Kimpe CR (1984) Effect of air drying and critical point drying on the porosity of clay soils. Can Geotech J 21:181–185
Diamond S (1970) Pore size distribution in clays. Clays Clay Miner 18:7–23
Garcia-Bengochea I, Lovell CW, Altschaeffl AG (1979) Relation between pore size distribution and permeability of silty clay. J Geotech Eng Div ASCE 105(GT7):839–856
Lapierre C, Leroueil S, Locat J (1990) Mercury intrusion and permeability of Louiseville clay. Can Geotech J 27:761–773
Low HE, Phoon KK, Tan TS et al (2008) Effect of soil microstructure on the compressibility of natural Singapore marine. Can Geotech J 45:161–176
Mahamud M, Loperz O, Pis JJ et al (2003) Textural characterization of coals using fractal analysis. Fuel Process Technol 81:127–142
Mandelbrot BP (1983) The fractal theory of nature. Freeman, New York
Mitchell JK (1993) Fundamentals of soil behavior, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 131–160
Moore CA, Donaldson M (1995) Quantifying soil microstructure using fractals. Geotechnique 45:105–116
Moore CA, Krepfl M (1991) Using fractals to model soil fabric. Geotechnique 41:123–134
Moro F, Bohni H (2002) Ink-bottle effect in mercury intrusion porosimetry of cement-based materials. J Colloid Interf Sci 246:135–149
Peitgen HO, Saupe D (1988) The science of fractal images. Springer, New York
Penumadu D, Dean J (2000) Compressibility effect in evaluating the pore-size distribution of kaolin clay using mercury intrusion porosimetry. Can Geotech J 37:393–405
Prapaharan S, White DM, Altschaeffl AG (1991) Fabric of field- and laboratory-compacted clay. J Geotech Eng Div ASCE 117(12):1934–1940
Satya Sai PM, Krishnaiah K (2005) Development of the pore-size distribution in activated carbon produced from coconut shell char in a fluidized-bed reactor. Ind Eng Chem Res 44:51–60
Sean PR, David B, Robin SF (2003) Interpreting mercury porosimetry data for catalyst supports using semi-empirical alternatives to the Washbirn equation. Appl Catal A 238:303–318
Shi B, Wu Z, Chen J, Wang B (1999) Preparation of soil specimens for SEM analysis using freeze-cut-drying. Bull Eng Environ 58:1–7
Sidney D (2000) An inappropriate method for the measurement of pore size distributions in cement-based materials. Cem Concr Res 30:1517–1525
Tan LR, Kong LW (2006) Soil science for special geotechnical engineering. Science Press, Beijing
Tang YQ, Cui ZD (2008a) Model test study of land subsidence caused by the high-rise building group. Bull Eng Geol Environ 67(2):173–179
Tang YQ, Cui ZD (2008b) Application of grey theory-based model to prediction of land subsidence due to engineering environment in Shanghai. Environ Geol 55(3):583–593
Thompson AH, Katz AJ, Krohn CE (1987) The microgeometry and transport properties of sandstones. Adv Phys 36(5):625–694
Washburn EW (1921) Note on a method of determining the distribution of pore sizes in a porous material. Proc Natl Acad Sci 7:115–116
Yamamuro JA, Wood FM (2004) Effect of depositional method on the undrained behavior and microstructure of sand with silt. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 24:751–760
Zhang B, Li S (1995) Determination of surface fractal dimension for porous media by mercury porosimetry. Ind Eng Chem Res 34:1383–1386
Acknowledgments
The work presented in this paper was supported by the research grant (No. 40872178) from National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cui, ZD., Tang, Y. Microstructures of different soil layers caused by the high-rise building group in Shanghai. Environ Earth Sci 63, 109–119 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-010-0673-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-010-0673-5