Mechanical behavior of a clay soil contaminated with glycerol and ethanol

Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effect of pore fluid contamination on the shear strength and stress–strain behaviour of a clay soil. A series of one-dimensional consolidation and (consolidation undrained) triaxial tests were conducted on samples with pore fluid as water and organic materials (glycerol and ethanol with concentrations of 10, 25 and 40%). The results showed that the compression index is reduced when the pore fluid is organic and its reduction is a function of the concentration of the organic pore fluid. Furthermore, the shear strength and friction angle are increased with organic pore fluid and the variations of them are functions of type of organic fluid and its concentration. The results also indicated that the slope of critical state line in the space of p′:q is not the same for different pore fluids and its value is dependent on the organic fluid and its concentration.