The Effect of Moisture and Fine Grain Content on the Resilient Modulus of Sandy Clay Embankment Roadbed
Received: 29 March 2021 | Revised: 8 April 2021 and 13 April 2021 | Accepted: 14 April 2021 | Online: 12 June 2021
Corresponding author: N. A. Tuan
Abstract
This paper studies the effect of moisture and fine grain content on the resilient modulus of sandy clay embankment roadbed in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The study analyzed the grain content of 30 soil samples on the annually flooded routes of the Mekong Delta according to the AASHTO T88-97 standard. The triaxial compression test at room temperature was used to estimate the resilient modulus of the samples belonging to 6 moisture levels. The experiments were conducted using 3 levels of lateral pressure, 0, 21, and 41kPa. Five deflection stress tests of 14, 28, 41, 55, and 69kPa, were conducted for each lateral pressure. The results showed that as the percentage of grains finer than 0.075mm increased, the variation ratio of the resilient modulus also increased. The content of grains finer than 0.075mm was between 54.1%-93%, while the variation ratio of the resilient modulus ranged between 53.7% and 89.1%. Moreover, as the percentage of grains finer than 0.075mm increased, water absorption capacity increased and resilient modulus decreased. As moisture and fine grain content influence the resilient modulus of the roadbed, this study’s results will help to limit and prevent the erosion of sandy clay embanked roadbeds, especially on frequently flooded areas such as the Mekong Delta.
Keywords:
moisture content, fine grain content, roadbed, in situ plate loading test, resilient modulusDownloads
References
M. K. Elfino and J. L. Davidson, "Modeling Field Moisture in Resilient Moduli Testing," in Resilient Moduli of Soils: Laboratory Conditions, David. J. Elton, Ed. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA: ASCE, 1989, pp. 31–51.
E. C. Drumm, Y. Boateng Poku, and T. Johnson Pierce, "Estimation of Subgrade Resilient Modulus from Standard Tests," Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 116, no. 5, pp. 774–789, May 1990. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1990)116:5(774)
E. C. Drumm, J. S. Reeves, M. R. Madgett, and W. D. Trolinger, "Subgrade Resilient Modulus Correction for Saturation Effects," Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 123, no. 7, pp. 663–670, Jul. 1997. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(1997)123:7(663)
L. N. Mohammad, H. H. Titi, and A. Herath, "Evaluation of Resilient Modulus of Subgrade Soil by Cone Penetration Test," Transportation Research Record, vol. 1652, no. 1, pp. 236–245, Jan. 1999. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3141/1652-30
D. G. Kim, "Development of a constitutive model for resilient modulus of cohesive soils," Ph.D. dissertation, Civil Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA, 2004.
D. C. Hai and X. T. Nguyen, Road Design. Education Publisher, 2012.
V. T. Phan and T. T. H. Nguyen, "Elastic and Deformation Characteristics of MSWI Bottom Ash for Road Construction," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 6389–6392, Dec. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.3817
A. H. Bhutto et al., "Mohr-Coulomb and Hardening Soil Model Comparison of the Settlement of an Embankment Dam," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 4654–4658, Oct. 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.3034
H. L. Wang et al., "Effects of inclusion contents on resilient modulus and damping ratio of unsaturated track-bed materials," Canadian Geotechnical Journal, May 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2016-0673
Y. H. Huang, Pavement analysis and design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall, 1993.
D.-S. Kim and S. Drabkin, "Accuracy improvement of external resilient modulus measurements using specimen grouting to end platens," Transportation Research Record, no. 1462, pp. 65–71, 1994.
T. Y. Chu, S. N. Chen, S. S. Guram, R. L. Stewart, and W. K. Humphries, "Soil Moisture as a Factor in Subgrade Evaluation," Transportation Engineering Journal of ASCE, vol. 103, no. 1, pp. 87–102, Jan. 1977. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/TPEJAN.0000625
G. B. Thadkamalla and K. P. George, "Characterization of subgrade soils at simulated field moisture," Characterization of subgrade soils at simulated field moisture, no. 1481, pp. 21–27, 1995.
R. P. Elliott and S. I. Thornton, "Simplification of subgrade resilient modulus testing," Transportation Research Record, no. 1192, pp. 1–7, 1988.
R. Pezo and W. R. Hudson, "Prediction Models of Resilient Modulus for Nongranular Materials," Geotechnical Testing Journal, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 349–355, Sep. 1994. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ10109J
J. M. Burczyk, K. Ksaibati, R. Anderson-Sprecher, and M. J. Farrar, "Factors infuencing determination of a subgrade resilient modulus value," Transportation Research Record, no. 1462, pp. 72-78, 1994.
M. R. Thompson and Q. L. Robnett, "Resilient Properties of Subgrade Soils," Transportation Engineering Journal of ASCE, vol. 105, no. 1, pp. 71–89, Jan. 1979.
G. Rada and M. W. Witczak, "Comprehensive evaluation of laboratory resilient moduli results for granular material," Transportation Research Record, no. 810, pp. 23-33, 1981.
D. Li and E. T. Selig, "Resilient Modulus for Fine‐Grained Subgrade Soils," Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 120, no. 6, pp. 939–957, Jun. 1994. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1994)120:6(939)
D. G. Fredlund, A. T. Bergan, and P. K. Wong, "Relation between resilient modulus and stress conditions for cohesive subgrade soils," Transportation Research Record, no. 642, pp. 73-81, 1977.
R. Zhang, T. Ren, M. A. Khan, Y. Teng, and J. Zheng, "Back-Calculation of Soil Modulus from PFWD Based on a Viscoelastic Model," Advances in Civil Engineering, vol. 2019, p. e1316341, Nov. 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/1316341
W. T. Oh and S. Vanapalli, "Modelling the stress versus displacement behavior of shallow foundations in unsaturated coarse-grained soils," Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials, pp. 821–828, 2011.
S. K. Vanapalli and F. M. O. Mohamed, "Bearing Capacity of Model Footings in Unsaturated Soils," in Experimental Unsaturated Soil Mechanics, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, 2007, pp. 483–493. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-69873-6_48
W. T. O. T. Oh, S. K. V. K. Vanapalli, and A. J. P. J. Puppala, "Semi-empirical model for the prediction of modulus of elasticity for unsaturated soils," Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Jul. 2009.
W. V. Ping and L. Ge, "Field Verification of Laboratory Resilient Modulus Measurements on Subgrade Soils," Transportation Research Record, vol. 1577, no. 1, pp. 53–61, Jan. 1997. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3141/1577-07
Y. Yao, J. Qian, J. Li, A. Zhang, and J. Peng, "Calculation and Control Methods for Equivalent Resilient Modulus of Subgrade Based on Nonuniform Distribution of Stress," Advances in Civil Engineering, vol. 2019, Sep. 2019, Art. no. e6809510. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6809510
L. Raad and B. A. Zeid, "Repeated load model for subgrade soils: model development," Transportation Research Record, no. 1278, pp. 72-82, 1990.
M. R. Thompson and Q. L. Robnett, "Resilient Properties of Subgrade Soils," Transportation Engineering Journal of ASCE, vol. 105, no. 1, pp. 71–89, Jan. 1979. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/TPEJAN.0000772
L. N. Mohammad, H. H. Titi, and A. Herath, "Intrusion technology: An innovative approach to evaluate resilient modulus of subgrade soils," presented at the Application of Geotechnical Principles in Pavement Engineering, Proceedings of Sessions of Geo-Congress 98American Society of Civil Engineers, Boston, MA, USA, 1998.
A. M. Rahim and K. P. George, "Automated Dynamic Cone Penetrometer for Subgrade Resilient Modulus Characterization," Transportation Research Record, vol. 1806, no. 1, pp. 70–77, Jan. 2002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3141/1806-08
K. P. George, "Prediction of resilient modulus from soil index properties," Department of Civil Engineering, University of Mississipi, Final report FHWA/MS-DOT-RD-04-172, Aug. 2004.
R. F. Carmichael III and E. Stuart, "Predicting resilient modulus: a study to determine the mechanic properties of subgrade soils (abridgment)," Transportation Research Record, no. 1043, pp. 145–148, 1985.
Standard Specification for Classification of Soils and Soil-Aggregate Mixtures for Highway Construction Purposes, AASHTO M 145- 91, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 1991.
Standard Method of Test for Resilient Modulus of Subgrade Soils, AASHTO T274-03, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials,2003.
Standard Method of Test for Resilient Modulus of Subgrade Soils and Untreated Base/Subbase Materials – SHRP Protocol P46, AASHTO T294-03, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2003.
Determining the Liquid Limit of Soils, AASHTO T89-07, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2007.
Determining the Plastic Limit and Plasticity Index of Soils, AASHTO T90-10, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2010.
Standard Method of Test for Particle Size Analysis of soils, AASHTO T88-04, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2004.
Standard Method of Test for Moisture–Density Relations of Soils Using a 4.54-kg (10-lb) Rammer and a 457-mm (18-in.) Drop, AASHTO T180-01, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2001.
Standard Method of Test for Laboratory Determination of Moisture Content of Soils, AASHTO T265-04, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2004.
Standard Method of Test for Unconfined Compressive Strength of Cohesive Soil, AASHTO T208-05, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2005.
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
