Effects of fines content on void ratio, compressibility, and static liquefaction of silty sand

Many aspects of the behavior of sands are affected by the content of non-plastic fine particles and these various aspects should be included in a constitutive model for the soil behavior. The fines content affects maximum and minimum void ratios, compressibility, shear strength, and static liquefaction under undrained conditions. Twenty-eight undrained triaxial compression tests were performed on mixtures of sand and fine particles with fines contents of 0, 10, 20, 30, 50, 75, and 100% to study the effects of fines on void ratio, compressibility, and the occurrence of static liquefaction. The experiments were performed at low consolidation pressures at which liquefaction may occur in near-surface, natural deposits. The presence of fines creates a particle structure in the soil that is highly compressible, enhancing the potential for liquefaction, and the fines also alter the basic stress-strain and volume change behavior, which should be modeled to predict the occurrence of static liquefaction in the field. The void ratio at which liquefaction occurs for each sand/fines mixture was determined, and the variation of compressibility with void ratio was determined for each mixture. This allowed a relation to be determined between fines content, void ratio, compressibility, and the occurrence of static liquefaction. Such relations may vary from sand to sand, but the present results are believed to indicate the trend in such relations.