Influence of ethanol/water mixture on the undrained shear strength of pure clays

Spagnoli, Giovanni and Stanjek, Helge and Sridharan, Asuri (2012) Influence of ethanol/water mixture on the undrained shear strength of pure clays. In: BULLETIN OF ENGINEERING GEOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, 71 (2). pp. 389-398.

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Abstract

The mechanical properties of clays are highly dependent not only on the stress/strain ratio to which the material is subjected but also on the chemistry of the pore fluids which in turn affects the intergranular or the effective stresses. Atterberg limits and vane shear tests were performed with different pore fluids in order to observe how the fine-grained material mechanically responded. The diffuse double layer theory has been used to interpret the data of vane shear tests in order to explain the variation of geotechnical responses with the different clays. Van der Waals forces and double layer forces were obtained and capillary forces calculated. The results show that while for kaolinite and illite the chemistry of the pore fluids has no influence on the water content and hence on the mechanical behaviour of the material, Na-smectite shows a strong correlation between the dielectric constant of the pore fluids and an increase in undrained shear strength. The data obtained extends an understanding of the influence of the dielectric constant (epsilon) of the pore fluids on the geotechnical properties of fine-grained materials.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	BULLETIN OF ENGINEERING GEOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Publisher:	SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to the
Keywords:	Clays;Geotechnical investigations;Pore fluids;Diffuse double layer;Dielectric constant;Undrained shear strength
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Civil Engineering
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2012 10:13
Last Modified:	25 Jul 2012 10:13
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/44866

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