Laboratory experiments on the improvement of rockfill materials with composite grout

Dam deformation should be strictly controlled for the construction of 300 m-high rockfill dams, so the rockfill materials need to have low porosity. A method of using composite grout is proposed to reduce the porosity of rockfill materials for the construction of high rockfill dams. The composite grout is a mixture of fly ash, cement and sand with the properties of easy flow and post-hardening. During the process of rolling compaction, the grout admixture sprinkled on the rockfill surface will gradually infiltrate into the inter-granular voids of rockfill by the exciting force of vibratory roller to reduce the porosity of rockfill. A visible flowing test was firstly designed to explore the flow characteristics of composite grout in porous media. Then, the compressibility, shear strength, permeability and suffusion susceptibility properties of composite grout-modified rockfill are studied by a series of laboratory tests. Experimental results show that the flow characteristics of composite grout are closely related to the fly ash content, the water-to-binder ratio, the maximum sand size and the content of composite grout. The filling of composite grout can effectively reduce the porosity of rockfill materials, as well as increase the compression modulus of rockfill materials, especially for loose and gap-graded rockfill materials. Composite grout-modified rockfill tends to have greater shear strength, larger suffusion erosion resistance, and smaller permeability coefficient. The composite grout mainly plays the roles of filling, lubrication and cementation in rockfill materials.