ISSN: 1945-7545
CODEN: GTJODJ
Published Online: 5 May 2011
Page Count: 9

A Slurry Consolidation Approach to Reconstitute Low-Plasticity Silt Specimens for Laboratory Triaxial Testing

Wang, Shuying
Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO

Luna, Ronaldo
Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO

Stephenson, Richard W.
Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO

(Received 27 October 2010; accepted 23 March 2011)

Abstract

Silt specimen reconstitution using a slurry consolidation approach is commonly used for laboratory testing. This paper presents a new slurry consolidation approach to reconstitute silt specimens for use in triaxial testing. Silt specimens were reconstituted in a split vacuum mold mounted on a special experimental setup. The uniformity of the reconstituted specimens was verified by measuring the water content and grain size distribution throughout the specimens. The testing program was expedited using a special sample handling technique to move the specimen from the special experimental setup to the triaxial chamber base platen. The handling process did not disturb the specimens to a measurable degree. Further, the replicas of the reconstituted specimens were verified by submitting them to basic volumetric measurements followed by static and cyclic triaxial tests. The triaxial test results reported very small differences.

Keywords:
low-plasticity silt, reconstituted specimens, specimen translation, slurry consolidation, specimen uniformity, testing replicas

Paper ID: GTJ103529
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ103529
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