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Bh. Koti Reddy, Research scholar, Dept. of civil engg, Jadavpur University,Kolkata kotireddy68@gmail.com
R. B. Sahu, Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. rbsahu_63@yahoo.co.in
S. Ghosh, Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. sghosh56@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT: Organic soils which are more compressible than mineral soils exist in Kolkata region at various
depths with varying percentage of organic contents. Disturbed samples were collected from Howrah maidan and
Jadavpur in Kolkata. These soils have in-situ water contents 65 90 % and organic content up to 30 %. An attempt
has been made to investigate effect of strain rate on consolidation behavior of organic soil by conducting constant
rate of strain (CRS) tests at strain rates 0.01, 0.04, 0.10 and 1.0 %/minute along with conventional IL tests for
comparison. The results indicate that higher strain rate yield higher effective stress and also generate higher pore
water pressure. Further, it is observed that CRS and IL test results may yield comparable results if the strain rates
are selected judiciously depending on the type of soil. Increase in organic content suggests selection of slower
strain rates to obtain comparable results with IL test. The study also revealed that under a given effective stress,
coefficient of consolidation, cv, as well as vertical permeability, kv, increase with the increase in strain rate.
INTRODUCTION
Organic soils are generally referred as problematic Normal Kolkata Deposit. Their study revealed that
soil on account of its poor strength and stiffness the consolidation behavior of the organic soil
characteristics and pose significant problems to mainly depends on percentage of organic content
design engineers. Generally organic soils have high and is comparable to that of soft soils. Santagata et
void ratio, high water content, high plasticity and al. [4] investigated one dimensional compression
more compressibility when compared to mineral or behavior of soil with high OC (4060 %) by
inorganic soils [1]. Dastidar and Ghosh [2] conducting IL and CRS tests and demonstrated
presented a general and broad view with respect to highly variable properties with the variation in OC.
stratification and engineering properties of Normal The investigation indicated that relatively small
Kolkata Deposit for a large number of sites in difference in the OC translate into significant
Kolkata region. The study found that there is a thin changes in the engineering properties of a given
fibrous soft and highly compressible peat (organic) soil. Mesri et al. [5] studied compression behavior
layer at mean sea level. Benarjee and Sen [3] of different types of soils including highly organic
studied the depositional history of Bengal basin soils, like, peat.
and its impact on geotechnical properties. Their The natural viscosity of organic clayey soils causes
study also revealed occurrence of organic layers at the strain rate dependency and has strong influence
different depths in the deposit. Organic soils exist on the consolidation behavior of such soils.
in Kolkata region at various depths and the Therefore strain rate effect has a strong impact on
percentage of organic content also widely varies the mobilized stress-strain characteristics and also
from one location to other. Generally first organic the strength of the soil [6]. Therefore, study of the
layer follows the top desiccated brown silty clay/ strain rate effect on consolidation behavior is
clayey silt layer and extends from few centimeters useful in designing geotechnical projects. Studies
to 1.5 m in the form of horizontal bands [2]. Koti made by Crawford [7] identified the vast
Reddy et al. [1] presented one dimensional differences in field rate of settlements and rates
consolidation behavior of the organic soils with occurring in conventional IL test. These
varying organic content (OC) (14 -28 %) found in observations thrown light on constant rate of strain
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Bh. Koti Reddy, R.B. Sahu, S. Ghosh
(CRS) consolidation test, but initially it was used to know at which strain rate the parameters from
for rapid determination of pre-consolidation these tests are comparable.
pressure and also to draw compression curves (e- MATERIAL
log v). Smith and wahls [8] and Wissa et al. [9] The organic soil used in this study was collected
published analytical solutions to interpret effective from two locations, one in Jadavpur, where a
stress, v, coefficient of consolidation, cv, and subway below the railway track was under
vertical permeability, kv. Lee [10, 11] tried to construction and the other was at Howrah maidan,
answer issues in selecting strain rate and Thomas where a massive excavation was undergoing for
and Patrick [12] validated CRS theory by reducing the construction of East-West metro project.
the data using two different methods, Wissas non- Jadavpur is located in south Kolkata and Howrah
linear theory and isochrones method. maidan is on the other side of River Hooghly.
Experimental and theoretical study made by Disturbed soil samples were collected from a depth
Gonzalez [13] evaluated parameters that effects the of 3.5 m at Jadavpur (JDPT) and 5 m at Howrah
CRS test results. CRS method is now gaining maidan (HWPT). The depth of water table is 3 m at
popularity and many countries like Norway, Jadavpur and below sampling depth at Howrah
France, Japan, United States of America etc. have maidan and organic matter present in both soils
incorporated this as standard test to evaluate the was fully decomposed. Locally available disturbed
consolidation parameters. The CRS test method inorganic clay sample was used for study. The
and analysis proposed by Wissa et al. [9] is widely purpose of testing clay sample is to compare the
used and incorporated in ASTM standard D4186- parameters with that of organic soil.
06 [14]
Further, high quality data is available on Index properties
consolidation behavior of fibrous peats / highly Experiments conducted to characterize the soil
organic soils but little is known about the behavior included common physical tests like, determination
at low to medium organic contents (OC < 30%). of water content, specific gravity, grain size
Particularly, data on the effect of strain rate on distribution, liquid limit, plastic limit etc. Organic
organic soil is scarce. So an attempt has been content was determined by igniting soil in muffle
made to evaluate one dimensional consolidation furnace at 450 and keeping the sample until no
parameters of organic clay by conducting significant weight loss was observed with time.
incremental loading (IL) and constant rate of strain Physical properties of soils under consideration are
(CRS) tests on remolded samples keeping special presented in Table 1. It is observed that with
focus on effect of strain rate on consolidation increase in organic content from Jadavpur soil to
parameters which are believed to help the Howrah soil, Atterbergs limits as well as plasticity
geotechnical engineers to understand and interpret were increasing and the specific gravity was
the behavior of these soils. The parameters decreasing.
obtained from CRS and IL test are also compared
Table 1 Physical properties and characterization of soil
Sample Depth Water Organic Liquid limit Pl Pl Sp. Dry unit Classific
content content (%) limit Index gravity weight ation
(m) w (%) (%) Air Oven (%) air dry G d symbol
dry dry
(%) (kN/m3)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Clay 2.1 38 0 46 40 28 18 2.64 13.95 CI
JDPT 3.5 65 14 72 56 34 36 2.43 10.13 CH
HWPT 5.0 83 27 95 65 41 54 2.13 7.28 OH
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Strain rate effect on consolidation behavior of Kolkata organic soil
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Bh. Koti Reddy, R.B. Sahu, S. Ghosh
2
= . . (3.5)
3
02
= (3.6)
2
Where,
= sec
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of CRS test equipment kv is obtained from Eq. 3.4
Cheng and Yin [17]
Selection of strain rate
Initially Tv was found from Wissas plot but now
the modified simple solutions are available [12] to Results obtained from CRS test depend on rate of
determine Tv which is given as follows strain at which the deformation taken place making
selection of strain rate as an important parameter.
= 4.78(3)3 3.21(3)2 + 1.653 If the strain rate is fast, very high pore water
+ 0.0356 (3.2) pressure will be generated which may lead to
transient or unsteady conditions. On the other hand
For Tv < 0.50, Transient state condition is if the selected rate is slow, there will be no
considered and coefficient of consolidation, cv, and significant pore water pressure generation which
vertical permeability, kv, are obtained as follows may lead to unsatisfactory results.
The selection of strain rate based on liquid limit,
02 maximum allowable ratio of excess pore pressure
= (3.3)
and applied pressure (ub/v) and based on the value
of dimension less parameter (r h0/cv) are
= (3.4) available in the literature [8,9,10, 11]. In this study
the ratio of pore water pressure and applied
Where pressure has been kept below 0.30 as
recommended by ASTM (D4186 06) [14]. Four
= strain rates were selected for conducting CRS test
and they are 0.01,0.04, 0.10 and 1.0 % /minute.
=
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Strain rate effect on consolidation behavior of Kolkata organic soil
0.1 1.0 10.0 100.0 1000.0 10000.0 0.1 1.0 10.0 100.0 1000.0
0 0
5 5
10 10
15 15
1% strain rate
35 35
Fig. 2a Stress-strain-strain rate relation for JDPT Fig. 2b Stress-strain-strain rate relation for HWPT
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS -strain curves of JDPT and HWPT are strain rate
CRS tests were conducted with four different strain dependent. Faster strain rates produces higher
rates (0.01, 0.04, 0.1 and 1 % /min) on all three effective vertical stress, v, while slow rates
selected soils and results were discussed with produce smaller effective vertical stress.
respect to stress-strain behavior, pore water Interestingly, at 0.01% strain rate the behavior is
pressure response, pre-consolidation pressure. different. Though, initially this stress strain curve
Strain rate effect on consolidation parameters like is located below 0.04%/ min strain rate curve it
coefficient of consolidation, cv, and vertical violates the trend and gradually traces above that of
permeability, kv, was also studied higher strain rates which may be due to effect of
thixotropy and is consistent with other studies in
Stress-strain-strain rate behavior the literature [18].
The relation between effective vertical stress,
vertical strain and strain rate for both JDPT and Pore water pressure response
HWPT are presented in Fig. 2a and Fig. 2b. Figure It is observed from test results that the pore water
3a and 3b it is observed that the behavior of stress pressure is very much strain rate dependent.
Relation between pore water pressure and effective
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Bh. Koti Reddy, R.B. Sahu, S. Ghosh
Pre-consolidation pressure, p
Pore water pressure,ub(kPa)
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Strain rate effect on consolidation behavior of Kolkata organic soil
Soil type Coefficient of consolidation, cv m/sec from CRS test at selected cv from IL test
strain rate (m2/sec)
0.01 % /minute 0.04 % /minute 0.1 % /minute 1 % /minute
1 2 3 4 5 6
-7 -7 -6
1.63 x 10 - 1.05 x 10 - 1.00 x 10 - 1.07 x 10 -5 - 1.03 x 10 -7 -
Clay 1.75 x 10 -8 3.04 x 10 -8 5.33 x 10 -8 9.26 x 10 -7 6.90 x 10 -8
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Bh. Koti Reddy, R.B. Sahu, S. Ghosh
Soil type Vertical permeability, kv m/sec from CRS test at selected strain rate kv from IL test
0.01 % /minute 0.04 % /minute 0.1 % /minute 1 % /minute (m/sec)
1 2 3 4 5 6
-10 -9 -9
6.75 x 10 - 1.10 x 10 - 1.00 x 10 - 1.20 x 10 -8 - 1.78 x 10 -10 -
Clay 3.80 x 10 -12 8.03 x 10 -12 1.50 x 10 -11 6.80 x 10 -11 8.90 x 10 -11
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