• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2015

Triaxial tests on sand-silt mixture specimens under low and high confining pressures were performed to understand their shear behaviors. The fines content in the mixture is lower than the threshold value. A series of tests under different conditions including fines contents (0%, 9.8%, 14.7%, 19.6%), density of specimen (controlled by different compaction energies of $E_c=22kJ/m^3$, $E_c=504kJ/m^3$), confining pressure (100 kPa, 1 MPa, 3 MPa, 5 MPa) were performed to investigate influences of these factors. Based on the test results, the threshold fines content, where the dominant structure of mixture changes from sand-matrix to fines-matrix, decreases with the increase of confining pressure. Under very high confining pressures, as a result of sand particle crushing, the behavior of the dense specimen is similar to that of the loose specimen which shows hardening, compression behavior, and shear strength increases with increase of fines content. In conclusion, silt is granular material like sand, and its influence on shear behavior of sand-silt mixture is very different from that of plastic fines on sand-fines mixture.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2009

Many aspects of the behavior of sands are affected by the content of non-plastic fine particles and these various aspects should be included in a constitutive model for the soil behavior. The fines content affects maximum and minimum void ratios, compressibility, shear strength, and static liquefaction under undrained conditions. Twenty-eight undrained triaxial compression tests were performed on mixtures of sand and fine particles with fines contents of 0, 10, 20, 30, 50, 75, and 100% to study the effects of fines on void ratio, compressibility, and the occurrence of static liquefaction. The experiments were performed at low consolidation pressures at which liquefaction may occur in near-surface, natural deposits. The presence of fines creates a particle structure in the soil that is highly compressible, enhancing the potential for liquefaction, and the fines also alter the basic stress-strain and volume change behavior, which should be modeled to predict the occurrence of static liquefaction in the field. The void ratio at which liquefaction occurs for each sand/fines mixture was determined, and the variation of compressibility with void ratio was determined for each mixture. This allowed a relation to be determined between fines content, void ratio, compressibility, and the occurrence of static liquefaction. Such relations may vary from sand to sand, but the present results are believed to indicate the trend in such relations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2001

Portland cement concrete is made with coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, portland cement, water and, in some cases, selected chemical admixture such as air-entraining agents, water reducer, superplasticizer, and so on, and mineral admixture such as fly ash, silica fume, slags, etc. Typically, in the concrete, the coarse aggregate and fine aggregate will occupy approximately 80 percent of the total volume of the finished mixture. Therefore, the coarse and fine aggregates affect to the properties of the portland cement concrete. As the deposits of natural sands have slowly been depleted, it has become necessary and economical to produce crushed sand(manufactured fine aggregate). It is reported that crushed sand differs from natural sands in gradation, particle shape and texture, and that the content of micro fines in the crushed sand affect to the quality of the portland cement concrete. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of fresh and hardened concrete with higher micro fines. This study provides a firm data to apply crushed sand with higher micro fines.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.97-106
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• 2012

In order to investigate mechanics of mixtures composed of sand and non-plastic silt, various specimens, with sand dominating the soil structure, and with varying fines content, fines content varying were produced. Isotropic consolidation tests were performed using high pressure triaxial test apparatus within high pressure levels where sand grain crushing happened. Experimental results showed that compressive curve of sand after yielding contracts to the NCL due to breakage of sand grains. Moreover, with the increase of fines content, coarse grains are surrounded by fines to form cushion effect, which made the breakage of coarse grains become difficult. Therefore, the maximum inclination of compressive curve became flatter and yield stress increased.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.31-40
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• 2012

In most design codes, soils are classified as either sandy or clayey soils, and appropriate design equations for each soil type are used to estimate their soil behaviour. However, sand-fine mixtures, which are typically referred to as intermediate soils, are somewhere at the middle of sandy or clayey soils, and therefore a unified interpretation of soil behaviour is necessary. In this paper, a series of cyclic shear tests were carried out for three different combinations of sand-fine mixtures with various fines content. Silica-sand mixture and fines (Iwakuni natural clay, Tottori silt, kaolinite) were mixed together with various mass ratios, while paying attention to the changes of void ratios expressed in terms of sand structure. The cyclic shear strengths of the mixtures below the threshold fines content were examined with the increasing fines contents. As a result, as the fines contents increased, their cyclic deviator stress ratios decreased for dense samples while it increased for loose samples. Additionally, cyclic deviator stress ratio of the mixtures was estimated using the concept of equivalent granular void ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.91-100
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• 2007

In most design codes, soils are classified as either sand or clay, and appropriate design equations are used to represent their behavior. For example, the behavior of sandy soils is expressed in terms of the relative density, whereas consistency limits are often used for clays. However, sand-clay mixtures, which are typically referred to as intermediate soils, cannot be easily categorized as either sand or clay and therefore a unified interpretation of how the soil will behave at the transition point, i.e., from sandy behavior when fines are low to clay behavior for high fines content, is necessary. In this study, active natural clays are mixed with sand, and the fines content varied in order to produce different structures, ranging from one state where only sand particles form the soil structure to another where the matrix of fines make-up the structure. While paying attention to the granular void ratio in order to clarify the shear properties of sand-clay mixtures with increasing fines content monotonic, shear tests were performed on isotropically, and anisotropically consolidated specimens. From the test results, it was observed that the monotonic shear strength of sand-clay mixtures is dependent on the granular void ratio.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.219-226
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• 2020

Unconfined compression test (UCT) is widely conducted in laboratories to evaluate the mechanical behavior of frozen soils. However, its results are sensitive to the initial conditions of sample creation by freezing as well as the end-surface conditions during loading of the specimen into the apparatus for testing. This work compared ice samples prepared by three-dimensional and one-dimensional freezing. The latter created more-homogenous ice samples containing fewer entrapped air bubbles or air nuclei, leading to relatively stable UCT results. Three end-surface conditions were compared for UCT on ice specimens made by one-dimensional freezing. Steel disc cap with embedded rubber was found most appropriate for UCT. Three frozen materials (ice, frozen sand, and frozen silt) showed different failure patterns, which were classified as brittle failure and ductile failure. Ice and frozen sand showed strain-softening, while frozen silt showed strain-hardening. Subsequent investigation considered the influence of fines content on the unconfined compression behavior of frozen soil mixtures with fines contents of 0-100%. The mixtures showed a brittle-to-ductile transition of failure patterns at 10%-20% fines content.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2008

In this study, cyclic shear characterics of sand-clay mixtures were analyzed. In order to perform cyclic triaxial tests on sand clay mixtures, natural clays with activity and silica sand were mixed variously to reproduce soils with wide range of grain size compositions. Test specimens with various fines contents were prepared by the moisture compaction and pre-consolidation methods, while paying attention to the void ratio expressed in terms of the sand structure and clay structures, and undrained cyclic shear tests were performed. In the test results, cyclic shear strength decreased with increasing of sand granular void ratio below 20% of fine contents. When the granular void ratio of the test specimen exceeded the maximum void ratio of the silica sand, the clay matrix dominated the soil structure, and soil structures were not influenced by compaction energy. It was observed that, the matrix structure of the coarse particles has great effect on the undrained cyclic shear strength characteristics for sand-clay mixtures, and therefore, it is more appropriate to pay more attention to the density of the sand structure, rather than to the fines content.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2024

Understanding the behavior of soil under cyclic loading conditions is essential for assessing its response to seismic events and potential liquefaction. This study investigates the effect of non-plastic fines content (FC) on excess pore pressure generation in medium-density sand-silt mixtures subjected to strain-controlled cyclic direct simple shear (CDSS) tests. The investigation is conducted by analyzing excess pore pressure (EPP) ratios and the number of cycles to liquefaction (Ncyc-liq) under varying shear strain levels and FC values. The study uses Jumunjin sand and silica silt with FC values ranging from 0% to 40% and shear strain levels of 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5%, and 1.0%. The findings indicate that the EPP ratio increases rapidly during loading cycles, with higher shear strain levels generating more EPP and requiring fewer cycles to reach liquefaction. At 1.0% and 0.5% shear strain levels, FC has a limited effect on Ncyc-liq. However, at a lower shear strain level of 0.2%, increasing FC from 0 to 10% reduces Ncyc-liq from 42 to 27, and as FC increases further, Ncyc-liq also increases. In summary, this study provides valuable insights into the behavior of soil under cyclic loading conditions. It highlights the significance of shear strain levels and FC values in excess pore pressure generation and liquefaction susceptibility.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.11-14
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• 2009

This paper is interested in the incorporation of crushed sand and desert sand in the composition the self compacting concretes (SCC). Desert dune sand, which has a fine extra granulometry, and the crushed sand, which contains an important content of fines, can constitute interesting components for SCC. Part II consists in studying the behaviour of SCC containing various sands with different origins. These sands, with different sizes, consist of several combinations of rolled sand (RS), crushed sand (CS) and desert sand (DS). The study examines the influence of the granular combination of sands on the characteristics in the fresh and the hardened state of SCC. The results of the experimental tests showed an improvement of the workability of the fresh SCC by combining sands of varied granulometry. The addition of the DS to CS or to RS allowed the increase of the mixture viscosity but decreased the mechanical strengths. Furthermore, the CS-RS combinations increased the compressive and the tensile strengths of the studied SCC. The optimized formulations of sands gave the highest performances of the SCC.