Impact of consolidation pressure on contaminant migration in clay liner

Consolidation deformation occurs in clay liners under the self-weight of wastes at a simple garbage dump or dredged sediment dump, which leads to a decrease in the porosity. However. the migration of contaminants in clay liners is influenced by the porosity. Thus, the impact of consolidation deformation of clay liners on the migration of contaminants cannot be ignored. Based on Biot＇s consolidation theory, the contaminant migration theory, and consideration of the three kinds of migration mechanisms of convection, diffusion, and adsorption, a one-dimensional migration model of contaminants in deforming porous media was established, and the finite difference method was adopted to obtain the numerical solutions for an established initial-boundary value problem. The impact of consolidation pressure on the migration law of a contaminant was studied. The results show that, regardless of adsorption modes, different consolidation pressures have similar impacts on the migration law of the contaminant. Namely, over a certain migration time, the greater the consolidation pressure is, the smaller the migration depth of the contaminant. The results also show that, while the migration time increases, the impact of a certain increment of consolidation pressure on the variation of contaminant concentration with the depth increases gradually and, while the migration depth increases, the impact of a certain increment of consolidation pressure on the variation of the contaminant concentration with time increases gradually.

Test on Muddy Soil Reinforcement by Negative Pressure and Electro-Osmosis Inside Cover-Bearing-Type Bucket Foundation for Offshore Wind Turbines

Cover-bearing-type bucket foundation for offshore wind turbines has been paid more and more attention due to its low cost and great bearing capacity. In order to ensure the cover-bearing mode, the muddy soil inside the bucket foundation should be reinforced by some soil consolidation methods, such as negative pressure and electro-osmosis. Firstly, tests were conducted to obtain the reasonable current density. Meanwhile, to improve the electro-osmotic speed and effectiveness, other factors such as intermittent power and layout of electrode, were also studied in the tests. Then, the soil reinforcing tests by negative pressure combined with electro-osmosis were performed for the muddy soil consolidation inside the bucket foundation. The results showed that soil reinforcement by negative pressure was quicker and more obvious during the early phase, and electro-osmotic method can affect more range of soil by rational arrangement of electrodes. Compared with negative pressure, the electro-osmotic method was a continuous and relatively slow process of reinforcement, which was complementary to the negative pressure method. The voltage value of electro-osmosis had little effect on the muddy soil reinforcement inside the bucket foundation, and 1.5 A was chosen as the most reasonable current value for scale model testing in the electro-osmotic method.

Experimental study on pore water pressure dissipation of mucky soil

Pore water pressure has an important influence on mechanical properties of soil.The authors studied the characteristics of pore water pressure dissipating of mucky soil under consolidated-drained condition by using refitted triaxial instrument and analyzed the variation of pore pressure coefficient with consolidation pressure.The results show that the dissipating of pore water pressure behaves in different ways depends on different styles of loading.What is more,the pore water pressure coefficient of mucky soil is less than 1.As the compactness of soil increases and moisture content reduces,the value of B reduces.There is a staggered dissipating in the process of consolidation,in which it is a mutate point when U/P is 80%.It is helpful to establish the pore water pressure model and study the strength-deformation of soil in process of consolidation.

Experimental research on unloading properties of clay under high stress

Abstract： Mechanical properties of clay under high stress are quite different from those under low stress. It is necessary to investi- gate unloading properties of clay under high stress for the design and construction of deep underground engineering projects. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the unloading properties of clay under high confining pressures by using a SKA-1 high pressure consolidation instrument designed by us. The stress versus strain relationship and the way that K0 values of clay change during the loading-unloading process were discovered. The results show that there are clear differences in the state of stress and deformation behavior of the clay along different unloading paths.

Coefficient of consolidation by end of arc method

One of the most important issues in geotechnical engineering is excess pore pressure caused by clay soil loading and consolidation. Regarding uncertainties and complexities, this issue has long been the subject of attention of many researchers. In this work, a one-dimensional consolidation apparatus was equipped in a way that pore water pressure and settlement could be continuously read and recorded during consolidation process under static loading. The end of primary consolidation was obtained using water pressure changes helping to present a new method for determining the end of primary consolidation and consolidation coefficient. This method was then compared with two classical theory methods of lg t and t. Using Terzaghi's theory, the way of pore pressure dissipation for lg t, t and the new method was found and compared with experimental results. It is concluded that the new method has better results.

Laboratory investigation of axisymmetric single vacuum well point

Vacuum well point is a new but faint soft ground treatment method. This work focuses on the consolidation behavior of a reconstituted soft clayey specimen under vacuum well point combined with surcharge loading. The laboratory test was conducted through a vacuum-surcharge consolidation apparatus, and the vacuum loading scheme was adopted for vacuum pressure application to investigate the vacuum effect on soil consolidation. In the testing process, some key parameters such as vacuum pressure, pore water pressure and settlement deformation were timely recorded. Furthermore, the water content, void ratio and permeability coefficient of samples collected after loading were measured to reflect the consolidation characteristics. By comparing with the membrane system and membraneless system, something different was found for the vacuum well point method. The results indicate that the consolidation behavior of an axisymmetric single vacuum well point is almost identical to the behavior of vacuum preloading combined with prefabricated vertical drain(PVD), except for the distribution of the vacuum pressure along the well drain due to the structure of the vacuum well point. And the vacuum well point method may be useful for the improvement of soft clayey deposit in a certain depth.