Collapse behavior and microstructural evolution of loess soils from the Loess Plateau of China

Xie, Wanli; Li, Ping; Zhang, Maosheng; Cheng, Tian-E.; Wang, Yong

doi:10.1007/s11629-018-5006-2

Cited by 84 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Loess deposits are known to be characterized by low density, high porosity, and high collapsibility when they become wet; however, these properties can be improved by dense compaction, prewetting, or chemical stabilization in engineering practice [4,5]. erefore, loess has been extensively used as a cheap filling material or foundation soil in various man-made infrastructures such as buildings, highways, railways, airfields, and hydroengineering projects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Study on Electric Resistivity Characteristics of Compacted Loess under Different Loads and Drying‐Wetting Cycles

Zhou

et al. 2021

Advances in Civil Engineering

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Densely compacted loess foundations of many man-made infrastructures are often exposed to various loads and extreme weathering processes (e.g., drying-wetting cycles), which significantly deteriorate their mechanical properties. Traditional methods applied to characterize soil engineering properties are primarily based on visual inspections, point sensors, or destructive approaches, the results of which often have relatively high costs and cannot provide large-area coverage. The electrical resistivity method is a reasonable alternative that provides a nondestructive, sensitive, and continuous evaluation of the soil physical properties. Thus, the relationships between electrical resistivity and soil strength should be understood, particularly for scenarios in which soils undergo significant loads and cycles of drying and wetting. In this study, a suite of laboratory tests simulating loads (consolidation tests, unconfined compression tests, and uniaxial cyclic unloading-reloading tests) and seasonal field conditions (drying-wetting cycle tests) were conducted to quantitatively assess their deterioration effects on the geophysical and geotechnical properties of compacted loess. The experimental results indicated that electric resistivity decreases with the increase in stress and then approaches a stable value after the stress becomes 200 kPa. During the uniaxial compression process, the electric resistivity corresponds to both the stress and strain of loess in real-time. The electrical resistivity of loess reflects plastic damage under uniaxial unloading-reloading tests, but it is deficient in representing the dissipated energy of loess. The electrical resistivity of loess samples increases as the number of drying-wetting cycles increases but decreases with increasing cycle numbers after stabilization under consolidation load. The electrical resistivity can effectively characterize the mechanical and deformation characteristics of loess samples under loads and drying-wetting cycles, exhibiting a certain potential for long-term monitoring of soil engineering properties.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Study on Electric Resistivity Characteristics of Compacted Loess under Different Loads and Drying‐Wetting Cycles

Zhou

et al. 2021

Advances in Civil Engineering

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“…Many conceptual models have been proposed to elucidate the origin of loess collapsibility [25]. e contribution of the microstructure to the strength of compacted loess after soaking was explored [40], and the relationship of the collapse potential versus the microstructural parameters of the loess was qualitatively studied [41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Research and Characterization of the Loess Microstructure in the Bai Lu Tableland, Shaanxi Province, China

Deng

Fan

Liu

et al. 2020

Advances in Civil Engineering

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Loess is a special geotechnical material with strong structural properties, and the microstructural characteristics of loess significantly influence its macroscopic physical features, mechanical properties, and catastrophic behavior. In this paper, serial samples were extracted from the continuous loess and paleosol strata of the Bai Lu tableland; with these samples, the optical microscopy-based serial sectioning method was adopted to study the quantitative characterization and variation in the loess microstructure. Three-dimensional characteristics and quantitative parameters of the particles, pores, and throats of the loess were obtained. The results indicate that the volume, Eq-Radius, and major-minor axis ratio of the loess particles satisfy third-order, third-order, and second-order Gaussian distributions, respectively. The Eq-Radius of the loess pores and throats satisfies a first-order Gaussian distribution, and the throat channel length satisfies a gamma distribution. With increasing stratum depth, the particles become more flattened, the throat radii become larger and the pore channels become slenderer. The variation in fitting parameters and the correlations between the macrophysical and mechanical properties of loess were then explored. The study of the microstructure of loess contributes to a better understanding of the catastrophic behavior of loess and the physical mechanism of geologic hazards in this area.

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“…At the same time, the strength will suddenly decrease drastically and the deformation will be greatly accelerated, which may lead to various geological disasters. (Liu et al, 2015;Xie et al, 2018;Lal, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DEM analyses of true triaxial and wetting tests on unsaturated structural loess

Jiang

Wang

Lei

et al. 2020

JGS Special Publication

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Three-dimensional DEM (discrete element method) simulations of the true triaxial and wetting tests were conducted to study the macroscopic and microscopic mechanical properties of unsaturated structural loess under complex stress state. The simulation results were analyzed in terms of stress-strain relationships, void ratio responses and bond breakage number with water content. It is shown that collapsing failure occurs when the deviatoric stress approaches or exceeds the peak shear strength of the corresponding saturated structural loess sample. There is little difference in the axial strain between the quick wetting (QW) method and gradual wetting (GW) method, and the volumetric strain of the samples wetted by QW are larger than that by GW specimen. The bond breakage number of the sample wetted by QW is slightly higher than that by GW. However, the bond breakage number of the sample wetted by the two wetting methods is slightly higher than that of the saturated structural loess sample subjected to the same stress state.

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Collapse behavior and microstructural evolution of loess soils from the Loess Plateau of China

Cited by 84 publications

References 25 publications

Experimental Study on Electric Resistivity Characteristics of Compacted Loess under Different Loads and Drying‐Wetting Cycles

Experimental Study on Electric Resistivity Characteristics of Compacted Loess under Different Loads and Drying‐Wetting Cycles

Quantitative Research and Characterization of the Loess Microstructure in the Bai Lu Tableland, Shaanxi Province, China

DEM analyses of true triaxial and wetting tests on unsaturated structural loess

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