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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1474754

Mechanical and Particle Breakage Characteristics of Calcareous Sand under Triaxial Drained Tests

Provisionally accepted
Junzhou Huang Junzhou Huang 1*Mingxing Luo Mingxing Luo 1*Jun Yan Jun Yan 2*Lei Wang Lei Wang 3*Yani Lu Yani Lu 1*Cai Wu Cai Wu 1
  • 1 Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, China
  • 2 Wuhan Bohong Construction Group Co., LTD, Wuhan, China
  • 3 Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute (CRSRI), Wuhan, Hubei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Calcareous sand is a special type of soil material formed through physical, chemical, and biochemical processes from organic residues of coral, it exhibits low particle strength and is prone to fragmentation. To investigate the effect of particle breakage on the mechanical properties of calcareous sand, drained triaxial compression tests were conducted under six different confining pressures for three relative densities of calcareous sand, with comparisons made against results from quartz sand. The results indicate that with the confining pressure increasing, calcareous sand exhibits greater shear strength than quartz sand, with differing trends. For both sands, the dilation ratio at peak stress ratio decreases linearly with peak stress ratio, unaffected by relative density, providing a theoretical basis for establishing a dilation equation. Calcareous sand has a critical stress ratio of 1.48, whereas quartz sand has a critical stress ratio of 1.37. The phase transformation stress ratio of calcareous sand exceeds its critical stress ratio, whereas the opposite holds true for quartz sand, due to the interlocking and particle breakage characteristics of calcareous sand. The peak friction angle correlates exponentially with relative breakage. Maximum average effective principal stress and maximum deviatoric stress are linearly related to relative breakage rate, independent of relative density. Thus, the shear strength of calcareous sand can be estimated via relative breakage or by estimating the shear strength through relative breakage rate, which is related to volumetric strain. Relative fragmentation can be broadly categorized into two stages based on a 3.5% relative breakage threshold, considering its impact on volumetric strain. This study provides a theoretical foundation for comprehensively understanding the mechanical properties and particle breakage characteristics of calcareous sand.

    Keywords: calcareous sand, Mechanical Properties, Particle breakage, Quartz sand, drained triaxial compression tests

    Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 27 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Huang, Luo, Yan, Wang, Lu and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Junzhou Huang, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, China
    Mingxing Luo, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, China
    Jun Yan, Wuhan Bohong Construction Group Co., LTD, Wuhan, China
    Lei Wang, Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute (CRSRI), Wuhan, 430010, Hubei Province, China
    Yani Lu, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.