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Undrained Static Response of Loose and Medium Dense Silty Sand of Mostaganem (Northern Algeria)

  • Research Article - Civil Engineering
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Abstract

Critical undrained shear strength of sandy soils is a fundamental parameter in stability analysis. This will help to evaluate the occurrence of flow deformation under liquefaction phenomena. A precise evaluation of the undrained liquefaction strength is very important for the design of soil structures such as earth dams, building foundations and soil densification process which can avoid catastrophic failure due to soil instability. In this work, laboratory investigation on natural and on reconstituted soil specimens of silica sands was carried out to enable the analysis of its mechanical behavior. Several concepts have been proposed by many researchers in order to characterize instability of silty sands. However, a review of studies published in the literature indicates that no clear conclusions can be drawn as to what manner the variation of fine content affects the mechanical behavior. The present paper is an attempt to experimentally describe mechanical behavior and theoretically justify such response of loose and medium dense sand by means of critical state parameters. Two distinct stress path tendencies have been shown in this study. In undrained conditions, loose samples show amplified contractive phase with fine content ranging from 0 to 30%, while medium dense samples exhibit a contractive phase followed by a dilative phase with fine contents beyond 30%. In this study, it has been shown that the strength of sand fabric of carrying loads becomes weaker and the critical state parameter increases with the increase in fine content leading to the reduction of normalized critical undrained shear strength.

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Abbreviations

B :

Skempton coefficient

CSL:

Critical state line

D r :

Initial relative density

e :

Global void ratio

i :

Starting point of the undrained stress path (A, B or C)

i 1 :

Point at the peak of the undrained stress path (A1, B1 or C1)

i 2 :

Point at the CSL of the undrained stress path (A2, B2 or C2)

e i :

Void ratio at point (i)

e CSL(i):

Void ratio at critical state at point (i)

e max :

Maximum void ratio

e min :

Minimum void ratio

F C :

Fine content (%)

G S :

Specific gravity of soil grain

C u :

Uniformity coefficient

C c :

Coefficient of curvature

p′ :

Effective mean stress

\({p^{\prime}_{\rm C}}\) :

Confining stress

\({p^{\prime}_{{\rm CSL}(i)} }\) :

Effective mean stress at critical state (undrained stress path starting from point i)

q :

Deviatoric stress

\({q^{\prime}_{{\rm CSL}(i2)} }\) :

Deviatoric stress at critical state at point (i2)

q S :

Deviatoric stress at critical state

q yield :

Maximum deviatoric stress

S ucr :

Undrained critical shear strength

S ucr(i):

Undrained critical shear strength (undrained stress path starting from point i)

S ucr(yield) :

Yield shear strength

Δu :

Excess pore water pressure

É› a :

Axial strain

D i :

Grain diameter corresponding to i % finer

σ 1 :

Major principal stress

σ 3 :

Minor principal stress

I p :

Plasticity index

M:

Slope of critical state line in (q, p′) plane

\({\phi_{\rm s}}\) :

Mobilized angle of inter-particle friction at the critical state

\({\psi _{{\rm CSL}} }\) :

State parameter

\({\psi _{{\rm CSL}(i)} }\) :

State parameter at point (i)

λ CSL :

Critical state parameter (shearing–compressibility soil property)

Γ CSL :

Critical state parameter

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, Mostaganem, Algeria

    Fethi Belhouari, Karim Bendani, Hanifi Missoum & Mohamed Derkaoui

  2. Laboratory of Construction, Transports and Environment Protection (LCTPE), University Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, Route de Belhacel, BP 227, Mostaganem, Algeria

    Karim Bendani & Hanifi Missoum

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  1. Fethi Belhouari
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Correspondence to Fethi Belhouari.

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Belhouari, F., Bendani, K., Missoum, H. et al. Undrained Static Response of Loose and Medium Dense Silty Sand of Mostaganem (Northern Algeria). Arab J Sci Eng 40, 1327–1342 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-015-1629-6

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