Hydromechanical behavior of unsaturated expansive clay under repetitive loading

摘要

Compacted layers of expansive soils are used in different engineering projects,such as subgrades,engineered clay barriers,and buffers for radioactive waste disposal.These layers are exposed to a variety of stresses and wetting conditions during field serviceability.Coupling between hydraulic and mechanical repeated loading provides insight understanding to the induced progressive deformation of expansive clay.This study was conducted to investigate the hydromechanical behavior of unsaturated compacted expansive clay under repeated loadingeunloading(RLU)conditions.Two series of onedimensional(1D)oedometer tests were conducted under controlled matric suction up to 1500 kPa using the axis translation technique(Fredlund soil-water characteristic curve device,SWC-150).The first test series was carried out at different levels of controlled matric suction for non-repeated loading eunloading(NRLU)cycles.RLU cycles were applied in the second test series at different repetitivestress levels and under different levels of matric suction.The results indicated increasing axial wetting strainε_(a)(s),axial swell pressure ss(s),compression index C_(c)(s),and swell index C_(s)(s)with suction reduction.The estimated loadecollapse(LC)curves obtained from NRLU series(LCN)and RLU series(LCR)indicated increasing yield stress sy(s)with increasing suction.This is attributed to the developed apparent cohesion between soil particles,which in turn rigidifies the material response.Applying repetitive loading induced a notable reduction of compression index C_(c)(s)at the same level of suction,whereas swell index C_(s)(s)seems to be independent of repetitive loading.Finally,repetitive loading exceeding initial yield stresses results in plastic hardening and,hence,enlargement of yield stress locus(i.e.LCR curve).