Journal Published Online: 20 February 2018
Volume 41, Issue 3

Miniature Centrifuge Modeling for Conventional Consolidation Test

CODEN: GTJODJ

Abstract

Consolidation parameters are usually determined in the laboratory with oedometer tests in earth gravity conditions (1 g). However, performing the test is very time-consuming. Although dynamic approaches in which higher accelerations are applied have been developed as an alternative to the static approaches to reduce the duration of consolidation tests, these methods are expensive and require huge centrifuges. Moreover, the focus for these centrifuges is more on research than on practical applications. This study discusses the applicability of a small-sized centrifuge device in consolidation tests. The particular device developed for this study is a very small centrifuge compared to other examples around the world. The results revealed that employing this device in the tests reduced test duration to a couple of hours. Identical soil samples with a zero disturbance were prepared in the laboratory and used in the experiments. A new parameter, equivalent centrifuge load (Wce), was defined to correlate the results from the proposed approach with the conventional consolidation-test results. An empirical relationship was developed to transform the axial strain (ϵ)–equivalent centrifuge load (Wce) dataset obtained from the centrifuge tests to ϵ–effective stress (σ′) data pairs. The empirical relationship could predict the virgin compression line with a high level of accuracy while it predicts the preconsolidation stress (σp) with moderate accuracy. These relationships were applied to natural soil samples, and the findings are very promising.

Author Information

Balci, Mehmet C.
Department of Civil Engineering, Batman University, Batman, Turkey
Kayabali, Kamil
Department of Geological Engineering, Ankara University, Golbasi, Ankara, Turkey
Asadi, Ramin
Department of Geological Engineering, Ankara University, Golbasi, Ankara, Turkey
Pages: 11
Price: $25.00
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Details
Stock #: GTJ20160297
ISSN: 0149-6115
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ20160297