Search

Water and salt migration properties are important in many disciplines, including engineering construction, natural disaster prevention, agricultural irrigation and wastewater disposal. Relevant research into unsaturated loess caters to the development needs of the cities located on it. The objective of this study is to identify the water flow dynamics and consequent salt migration and redistribution (as well as their influence on microstructure alteration of the soil) during long-term seepage in unsaturated loess. In this experimental study, a long-term and one-dimensional seepage simulation test is conducted in a loess column. Probes are buried at different depths along the vertical profile to monitor and record the variations of volume water content and electrical conductivity. After the seepage test, soils at different depths are analyzed with different methods to make further investigation, including use of a pressure-plate apparatus to obtain soil-water characteristic curves, ion chromatography to determine the soluble salt components, and scanning electron microscopy to observe the microstructure changes. Good consistency between the different tests is obtained. Based on those results, the water and salt migration patterns and their influence on loess are analyzed and concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• PVA-treated soil is confirmed to prevent water-salt capillary rise. • Effectiveness of 1.0% PVA-treated soil is best. • Interface effects are proposed to explain experimental phenomena. • Capillary rise of layered soil is described by modified Green-Ampt model. In the loess region of northwest China, the accumulation of soluble salt in the soil due to the capillary rise of water often damages earthen buildings. Thus, studies on the cutting off of the capillary-rise path are vital. As a hydrophobicity inducer, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution with water as the solvent has the potential to function as a barrier. This study mainly aims to evaluate the feasibility of using PVA-treated soil as a waterproof layer to prevent water-salt capillary rise through soil column experiments, and the effects of the waterproof layer thickness, waterproof layer position, PVA content, ambient temperature, and type of salt solution on the capillary action. The results indicate that a 1.0% PVA-treated soil with extreme water repellency (i.e. dried at 20 °C) can perfectly prevent the water-salt from migrating to the top of the sample, regardless of the waterproof layer position, waterproof layer thickness, and type of soluble salt. For a 0.5% PVA-treated soil dried at 20 °C, the lower waterproof layer prevents the water-salt capillary rise, while the middle and upper layers exhibit less effectiveness. However, the PVA-treated soil that loses its hydrophobicity after a treatment at 100 °C cannot prevent the water-salt capillary rise, confirming that the prevention of capillary rise is due to the soil hydrophobicity. The waterproof layer thickness and type of soluble salt are less significant than the waterproof layer position, PVA content, and ambient temperature. This study proposes a modified Green-Ampt model to describe the capillary rise, and the hydraulic conductivity and pore size are obtained using the modified model. These parameters and the interface effect are used to explain the experimental results. Finally, the application of PVA-treated soil as a waterproof layer to inhibit water-salt capillary rise is illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Static liquefaction can make the loess unstable when the shear stress subjected to a monotonic loading exceeds the undrained peak shear strength of undisturbed saturated loess. It is a phenomenon in the failure of soil deposits caused by a sudden increase of pore water pressure accompanied by large deformations and loss of effective stress that can make soils behave like flowing liquids. In general, the static liquefaction is influenced by confining pressure, microstructure and particle size of the undisturbed loess. The composition and particle size of loess are not easy to be changed, but it is not the case for microstructure during the earthquake. A few scholars focused on the characteristics of static liquefaction when the natural loess was disturbed by pre-dynamic loading. The deviator stress, pore pressure, effective confining pressure of undisturbed loess will respond differently to liquefaction if the loess experienced pre-dynamic loading. This study examined static liquefaction phenomenon in saturated undisturbed loess considering the effects of pre-dynamic loading and confining pressure. Pre-dynamic loading tests with different peak ground acceleration (PGA) showed that the cumulative strain is in the range of 0.019–0.189% under the conditions of PGA = 0.15g, PGA = 0.30 g, PGA = 0.40 g, respectively. Undrained static triaxial compression tests at three different confining pressures (100, 150, and 200 kPa) were implemented on undisturbed loess samples. Static liquefaction was observed at confining pressures of 100 kPa and 150 kPa with different pre-dynamic loadings, and the liquefaction potential of the undisturbed loess decreased with the increases of confining pressure. Loess specimens treated with pre-dynamic loading were easier to liquefy than the samples without pre-dynamic loading treatment. Samples treated with pre-dynamic loading exhibited higher excess pore water pressure than those without pre-dynamic loading treatments. Therefore, the internal friction angle and cohesive force were 5.13%∼15.04% and 26.44%∼82.04% lower than untreated loess. It reveals that the normalization between the maximum and the minimum principal stresses can be used to quantify the liquefaction potential of undisturbed loess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquakes occur frequently in the Loess Plateau area, which result in damage to loess due to the disturbance of multiple cyclic loading. In this paper, the historical earthquake process is simulated by pre-dynamic loading treatment on undisturbed loess samples. Then cyclic tests are carried out on these treated samples to study the later liquefaction responses with different initial water content. The undisturbed sample is relative to the remold sample instead of the samples without disturbance. Results show that the axial deformation and pore pressure ratio of treated loess samples with initial water content of 5% are larger than those without treatment. For samples with initial water content of 10% and 15%, the cycle number required for liquefaction increases after treatment, but pore pressure ratio is between 0.18 and 0.36, which is less than the 5% water content samples. It means that liquefaction will have been formed before the excess pore pressure increases to large values. Combined with microstructural analysis, it is found that pre-dynamic treatment causes earthquake damage zone in loess with water content of 5%, which results in lower liquefaction stress ratio than non-treated ones. As for samples with water content of 10% and 15%, the internal voids become smaller and fine particles move into the gaps between large particles after treatment, resulting in denser structure which is hard to be liquefied. However, the increasing dynamic stress will aggravate the deterioration of loess at the water content from 5 to 15%. The changes of microstructure of loess samples are vulnerable to the dynamic stress amplitude and water sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal loess is a special loess deposit that is distributed around the Bohai Sea. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the physical index, mineralogical characteristics and collapse potential of coastal loess. The secondary objective was to survey the effect of fine silt particles (particle size 5–10 μm, 6.64–7.64φ) on the collapse process. We tested the specific gravity, moisture content, dry density, Atterberg limits, grain size distribution, mineralogy, and collapsibility characteristics in a laboratory; generated scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images; and performed Mercury intrusion porosometry (MIP) tests. The results of this investigation indicated that coastal loess has a moderately severe collapse potential. The collapsibility coefficient decreases with an increase in the initial water content; it initially increases and then decreases with an increase in vertical pressure. As revealed by the MIP test, the collapse produces a smaller porosity, and the middle pores are primarily responsible for the collapse. The relationship of the collapsibility coefficient and particles with a diameter < 10 μm reveals that fine silt particles (particle size 5–10 μm, 6.64–7.64φ) and clay particles (particle size < 5 μm, >7.64φ) have the same tendency in terms of their effect on collapse. These results and analyses are important to improve the engineering construction safety in coastal zone loess areas and achieve a better understanding of loess properties compared with loess from a typical loess-paleosol section. • Surveyed the particle and pore size distribution, Atterberg limits and mineralogical characteristics of Coastal loess. • Obtained the collapsibility of Coastal loess, and proposed the relationship between collapsibility coefficient and micro indexes based on the results of SEM and MIP tests. • Discussed the effect of fine silt particles (5-10 μm) on the collapse process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the small-strain stress-strain properties during cyclic loading of Lanzhou loess deposits, characterized by a very high void ratio (>0.9). Torsional resonant column (RC) tests are performed in order to investigate the effect of water content, confining pressure, consolidation time and soil structure strength on the small-strain stiffness ( G 0 ) and damping (D min ) of loess. It is proved that shear modulus G 0 at low strain levels is very sensitive to water content while the effect of water content on small-strain damping D min is relatively small. As water content W approaches the plastic limit PL, there is a dramatic decrease of G 0 compared to drier loess specimen; G 0 has the tendency to reach a stable or constant value with further increase of water content which is more than the PL of loess. The small strain damping D min decreases continuously with water content for unsaturated loess and then tends to increase slightly for almost fully saturated loess. A linear relationship between G 0 and confining pressure σ′ m in log-log coordinates for different water contents is observed for Lanzhou loess. Similarly, D min decreases linearly with σ′ m . A power function is proposed to describe the relationship between G 0 and confining pressure σ′ m where the exponent m varies with the water content of loess. G 0 is also affected by the consolidation duration and a power function is proposed between normalized G 0 and normalized consolidation time. G 0 is finally strongly affected by the structure of loess and the type of specimen. For undisturbed loess samples, G 0 is always higher than reconstituted ones and the difference decreases with the degree of saturation; for fully saturated samples the influence of the structure strength between undisturbed and reconstituted samples becomes insignificant. Likewise, D min of undisturbed loess is higher than that for remolded loess under the same confining pressure and the difference between them reduces with the degree of saturation as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loess is a kind of world-recognized problematic soil and, as a consequence, it is a major hazard in geotechnical engineering. This study examines the small to medium strain dynamic properties of Lanzhou intact and recompacted loess through a set of resonant column (RC) tests. The influence of soil structure on the small-strain shear modulus G 0 , the variations of G / G 0, and damping ratio DT(%) with shear strain γ were analyzed and discussed. The test results show that the structure has an important influence on the dynamic properties of dry loess at small and medium strain, whereas, with the increase of moisture, its effect weakens. It is proved that a normalized correlation between G / G 0 and γ/γ 0.7 is practically identical for undisturbed and recompacted loess in Lanzhou, irrespective of soil structure, which may be useful in practical applications. • The small to medium strain dynamic properties of Lanzhou loess with metastable structure were examined. • Structure effect reduces the ductility in dynamic response for Lanzhou loess. • The correlations between G / G 0 and γ/γ 0.70 could be normalized well for Lanzhou loess, irrespective of structure effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]