Effects of cement content, polypropylene fiber length and dosage on fluidity and mechanical properties of fiber-toughened cemented aeolian sand backfill

Using aeolian sand(AS)for goaf backfilling allows coordination of green mining and AS control.Cemented AS backfill(CASB)exhibits brittle fracture.Polypropylene(PP)fibers are good toughening materials.When the toughening effect of fibers is analyzed,their influence on the slurry conveying performance should also be considered.Additionally,cement affects the interactions among the hydration products,fibers,and aggregates.In this study,the effects of cement content(8wt%,9wt%,and 10wt%)and PP fiber length(6,9,and 12 mm)and dosage(0.05wt%,0.1wt%,0.15wt%,0.2wt%,and 0.25wt%)on fluidity and mechanical properties of the fibertoughened CASB(FCASB)were analyzed.The results indicated that with increases in the three aforementioned factors,the slump flow decreased,while the rheological parameters increased.Uniaxial compressive strength(UCS)increased with the increase of cement content and fiber length,and with an increase in fiber dosage,it first increased and then decreased.The strain increased with the increase of fiber dosage and length.The effect of PP fibers became more pronounced with the increase of cement content.Digital image correlation(DIC)test results showed that the addition of fibers can restrain the peeling of blocks and the expansion of fissure,and reduce the stress concentration of the FCASB.Scanning electron microscopy(SEM)test indicated that the functional mechanisms of fibers mainly involved the interactions of fibers with the hydration products and matrix and the spatial distribution of fibers.On the basis of single-factor analysis,the response surface method(RSM)was used to analyze the effects of the three aforementioned factors and their interaction terms on the UCS.The influence surface of the two-factor interaction terms and the three-dimensional scatter plot of the three-factor coupling were established.In conclusion,the response law of the FCASB properties under the effects of cement and PP fibers were obtained,which provides theoretical and engineering guidance for FCASB filling.

Constitutive model for monotonic and cyclic responses of loosely cemented sand formations

This paper presents a model to simulate the monotonic and cyclic behaviours of weakly cemented sands.An elastoplastic constitutive model within the framework of bounding surface plasticity theory is adopted to predict the mechanical behaviour of soft sandstone under monotonic and cyclic loadings. In this model, the loading surface always passes through the current stress state regardless of the type of loading. Destruction of the cementation bonds by plastic deformation in the model is considered as the primary mechanism responsible for the mechanical degradation of loosely cemented sands/weak rock.To model cyclic response, the unloading plastic and elastic moduli are formulated based on the loading/reloading plastic and elastic moduli. The proposed model was implemented in FLAC2D and evaluated against laboratory triaxial tests under monotonic and cyclic loadings, and the model results agreed well with the experimental observations. For cyclic tests, hysteresis loops are captured with reasonable accuracy.

Single-factor analysis and interaction terms on the mechanical and microscopic properties of cemented aeolian sand backfill

The use of aeolian sand(AS)as an aggregate to prepare coal mine cemented filling materials can resolve the problems of gangue shortage and excessive AS deposits.Owing to the lack of research on the mechanism of cemented AS backfill(CASB),the response surface method(RSM)was adopted in this study to analyze the influence of ordinary Portland cement(PO)content(x_(1)),fly ash(FA)-AS(FA-AS)ratio(x_(2)),and concentration(x_(3))on the mechanical and microscopic properties of the CASB.The hydration characteristics and internal pore structure of the backfill were assessed through thermogravimetric/derivative thermogravimetric analysis,mercury intrusion porosimetry,and scanning electron microscopy.The RSM results show that the influence of each factor and interaction term on the response values is extremely significant(except x_(1)x_(3),which had no obvious effect on the 28 d strength).The uniaxial compressive strength(UCS)increased with the PO content,FA-AS ratio,and concentration.The interaction effects of x_(1)x_(2),x_(1)x_(3),and x_(2)x_(3) on the UCS at 3,7,and 28 d were analyzed.In terms of the influence of interaction items,an improvement in one factor promoted the strengthening effect of another factor.The enhancement mechanism of the curing time,PO content,and FA-AS ratio on the backfill was reflected in the increase in hydration products and pore structure optimization.By contrast,the enhancement mechanism of the concentration was mainly the pore structure optimization.The UCS was positively correlated with weight loss and micropore content but negatively correlated with the total porosity.The R^(2) value of the fitting function of the strength and weight loss,micropore content,and total porosity exceeded 0.9,which improved the characterization of the enhancement mechanism of the UCS based on the thermogravimetric analysis and pore structure.This work obtained that the influence rules and mechanisms of the PO,FA-AS,concentration,and interaction terms on the mechanical properties of the CASB provided a certain theoretical and engineering guidance for CASB filling.

Review of Proposed Stress-dilatancy Relationships and Plastic Potential Functions for Uncemented and Cemented Sands

Stress-dilatancy relationship or plastic potential function are crucial components of every elastoplastic constitutive model developed for sand or cemented sand.This is because the associated flow rule usually does not produce acceptable outcomes for sand or cemented sand.Many formulas have been introduced based on the experimental observations in conventional and advanced plasticity models in order to capture ratio of plastic volumetric strain increment to plastic deviatoric strain increment(i.e.dilatancy rate).Lack of an article that gathers these formulas is clear in the literature.Thus,this paper is an attempt to summarize plastic potentials and specially stress-dilatancy relations so far proposed for constitutive modelling of cohesionless and cemented sands.Stress-dilatancy relation is usually not the same under compression and extension conditions.Furthermore,it may also be different under loading and unloading conditions.Therefore,the focus in this paper mainly places on the proposed stress-dilatancy relations for compressive monotonic loading.Moreover because plastic potential function can be calculated by integration of stress-dilatancy relationship,more weight is allocated to stress-dilatancy relationship in this research.

Effect of Sand Content on Strength and Pore Structure of Cement Mortar

The effects of four sand contents on the compressive, flexural and splitting-tensile strength of cement mortars were evaluated. Moreover, we experimentally investigated the pore structure of cement mortar brought about by changing the sand content and water/cement ratio. The changes in the pore structure were quantified by measuring the porosity and pore size distribution obtained by using mercury intrusion porosimetry（MIP） technique. The test results show that the strengths of cement mortar increase with increasing sand content. It is also suggested that the traditional water/cement ratio law can be applied to cement mortar with different sand contents, provided that a slight modification is introduced. Sand content is an important parameter influencing the pore structure of cement mortar. Moreover, there is a good relationship between the pore structure and strength of cement mortar.

The Cemented Material Dam： A New, Environmentally Friendly Type of Dam

The first author proposed the concept of the cemented material dam （CMD） in 2009. This concept was aimed at building an environmentally friendly dam in a safer and more economical way for both the dam and the area downstream. The concept covers the cemented sand, gravel, and rock dam （CSGRD）, the rockfill concrete （RFC） dam （or the cemented rockfill dam, CRD）, and the cemented soil dam （CSD）. This paper summarizes the concept and principles of the CMD based on studies and practices in projects around the world. It also introduces new developments in the CSGRD, CRD, and CSD.

A borehole stability study by newly designed laboratory tests on thick-walled hollow cylinders

At several mineral exploration drilling sites in Australia, weakly consolidated formations mainly consistof sand particles that are poorly bonded by cementing agents such as clay, iron oxide cement or calcite.These formations are being encountered when drilling boreholes to the depth of up to 2 0 0 m. To studythe behaviour of these materials, thick-walled hollow cylinder （TWHC） and solid cylindrical syntheticspecimens were designed and prepared by adding Portland cement and water to sand grains. The effectsof different parameters such as water and cement contents, grain size distribution and mixture curingtime on the characteristics of the samples were studied to identify the mixture closely resembling theformation at the drilling site. The Hoek triaxia! cell was modified to allow the visual monitoring of graindebonding and borehole breakout processes during the laboratory tests. The results showed the significanceof real-time visual monitoring in determining the initiation of the borehole breakout. The sizescaleeffect study on TWHC specimens revealed that with the increasing borehole size, the ductility ofthe specimen decreases, however, the axial and lateral stiffnesses of the TWHC specimen remain unchanged.Under different confining pressures the lateral strain at the initiation point of boreholebreakout is considerably lower in a larger size borehole （2 0 mm） compared to that in a smaller one（10 mm）. Also, it was observed that the level of peak strength increment in TWHC specimens decreaseswith the increasing confining pressure.

Structure and Property Characterization of Oyster Shell Cementing Material

Oyster shell powder was used as the admixture of ordinary portland cement.The effects of different addition amounts and grinding ways on the strength and stability of cement mortar were discussed and proper addition amount of oyster shell powder was determined.The structure and property changes of cementing samples with different oyster shell powder contents were tested by XRD and SEM means.The results revealed that compressive and rupture strengths of the sample with 10% oyster shell powder was close to those of the original one without addition.Stability experiment showed that the sample prepared by pat method had smooth surface without crack and significant expansion or shrinkage after pre-curing and boiling,which indicated that cementing material dosed with oyster shell powder had fine stability.XRD and SEM observation showed that oyster shell independently exists in the cementing material.

Research review of the cement sand and gravel(CSG)dam

The cement sand and gravel(CSG)dam is a new style of dam that owes the advantages both of the concrete faced rock-fill dam(CRFD)and roller compacted concrete(RCC)gravity dam,because of which it has attracted much attention of experts home and abroad.At present,some researches on physic-mechanical property of CSG material and work behavior of CSG dam have been done.This papcr introduces the development and characteristics of CSG dam systematically,and summarizes the progress of the study on basic tests,constitutive relation of CSG material and numerical analysis of CSG dam,in addition,indicates research and application aspect of the dam.