Effect of cementitious stabilization on the stress-compressibility characteristics of three different South Florida organic soils were evaluated in this study. The objectives of the research were to (l) determine if the secondary compression characteristics of organic soils and peats can be stabilized with (a) cement only, (b) binary blends of cement/slag (C-S), cement/gypsum (C-G), and cement/cement-kiln-dust (C-CKD) and (c) ternary blend of cement-slag-gypsum in equal proportions; (ll) quantify the effectiveness of cementitious stabilization by evaluating the time-stress-compressibility (t-log σ'v - e) relationship in terms of the Cα / Cc ratio; and (lll) provide some guidelines for selecting optimum dosage of cementitious materials in deep mixing methods when organic soils and peats are encountered. It was concluded that cementitious mixes containing various waste materials is effective in controlling the secondary compression behavior of organic soils, and therefore should be considered in deep mixing methods as a sustainable practice. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis. 1977. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil Engineering. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 381-386. / Sc.D.

Limits of slope stability, limit equilibrium methods, and of the finite element code FEADAM are reached in the application of these methods to the problem of cracked dams constructed on collapsing soils.

In developing a constitutive model that could predict the settlement due to the collapse, several goals needed to be met. These were to gain an understanding of the collapse phenomenon, knowing the soil properties at the natural water content and how they change after collapse, and develop and test the new model. It was felt that laboratory testing could be of use. The types of test conducted included use of the Oedometer, Pressuremeter, and Triaxial tests. The material that was used for the testing was a "generic" soil manufactured out of diatomite. In all of the tests the soil was tested dry and saturated in order to establish state limits of the soil. Next, the soil was loaded dry then inundated which initiated the collapse of the soil. The stress and strains were continually recorded. From the testing it was concluded that there is a stress-strain region where after collapse the soil looses considerable strength. With increasing stress and strain the soil eventually becomes stronger. From the triaxial tests, the stress-strain data from this "region of collapse" was used in a constitutive model. Stress paths from the Oedometer and Pressuremeter tests were then successfully applied to the model. The constitutive model used was an elasto plastic model. The elastic and plastic strain components were provided using functions for yielding, hardening, plastic potential, and failure as proposed by Paul Lade in his work on cohesionless, frictional materials. Results from the conventional triaxial shear tests and isotropic compression tests were used to derive the values of the functions for the model. The end result was three dimensional surfaces for failure, yielding, plastic work and plastic potential for the dry and saturated soil in the zone of collapse.

Forest soils with low bulk densities are often considered less susceptible to compaction than soils with higher bulk densities. The objective of this study was to determine if soil strength controlled the compression of soils with low bulk density. Four soils were selected for this evaluation. Three of these were andic soils with low bulk density and the fourth soil was a more dense, cohesive soil. Undisturbed samples of saturated and partly saturated soil were compressed in a one-dimensional consolidation test apparatus. Measurements with separate samples were at one of 7 normal stresses between 0.033 and 1.96 MPa. Shear strength of saturated soil was measured in direct shear tests. Primary consolidation of saturated soil was completed in less than one minute at all normal stresses. Shear stress and bulk density increased continuously during shear strain. The compression index of the cohesive soil was significantly larger (p<0.05) than that of the andic soils. The shear strength of andic soils (average cohesion intercept of 0.016 MPa and friction angle of 33.3°) was significantly higher (p<0.05) than the cohesive soil (cohesion intercept of 0.028 MPa and friction angle of 28.9°). When saturated, the cohesive soil was more compressible than the andic soils because of lower soil strength. A nonlinear model of soil compression was developed that accurately predicted the compressed density of saturated and partly saturated soil as a function of normal stress, initial bulk density of undisturbed samples, and degree of saturation. As degree of saturation decreased, the compressibility of the cohesive soil decreased more rapidly than it did for the andic soils. As a result, bulk density of dry cohesive soil increased less than it did for dry andic soils. Differences in the compressibility of soils were attributed to texture and clay mineralogy. The differences in the compressibility of these soils were much smaller than were the differences in bulk density. Decreasing water content affected the compressibility of the cohesive soil more than it affected the andic soils. Because soil strength controls the compressibility of these forest soils regardless of bulk density, it will also determine the susceptibility of soils to compaction by machines. / Graduation date: 1991

published_or_final_version / Civil and Structural Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

- / Calcium salts are known as compounds and minerals and they have been extensively studied due to their rich morphology and applications. They are known as biominerals, cement additives. fillers, food additives etc. In the oil and gas production calcium sulfates, carbonates and silicates form tenaciously adhering scale deposits which may stop production if the problem is not tackled timely. The motivation for this work was the well known problem of sand production during oil recovery, which occurs when the production rate exceeds a critical value. The aim has been an attempt to develop an inexpensive and environmentally friendly method to consolidate soil and sand for building purposes. The work included in this thesis, is focused in the investigation of the physico-chemical conditions at which calcium salts precipitate acting as consolidating material for soil and sand. The marked differences in the physicochernical properties of the precipitating salts enabled us to investigate the relative efficiency of three different classes of calcium salts: sulfates, carbonates and phosphates. As a result. the present thesis is divided in three parts. In the first one, the spontaneous precipitation of calcium sulfate from supersaturated solutions and the inhibition by water soluble polymers was examined. Two kinds of polymers: three polyacrylates (PAA) with different molecular weights (2.000 (PAA1), 50,000 (PAA2) and 240.000 (PAA3)) and one co-polymer of polyacrylic with polystyrene sulfonate (PAA-PSS) were tested. Very low concentrations of all polymers tested, down to 6ppm, increased markedly the induction period preceding precipitation at supersaturations in which, in the absence of additives the precipitation was spontaneous. The “kinetic Langinuir” equation based on the assumption of Langmuir - type adsorption of the additives on the precipitating calcium sulfate dihydrate, gave satisfactory fit of the kinetic data. From the fit according to this model, the affinity constants for the polymer-gypsum surfaces were calculated. The order of the affinity was PSS>PAA3>PAA1>PAA2. The precipitation of calcium sulfate dihydrate in the presence of sand grains, resulted in crystals which formed weak bridges among the grains and the material in which precipitation took pace was rather poorly consolidated. The second part reports on the precipitation of calcium carbonate through the enzymatic production of carbonate ions. This newly proposed method is based upon the slow evolution of the supersaturation with respect to calcium carbonate in an aqueous environment, in which one of the components of the supersaturated solution (in our case carbonate) is slowly released by a source through the action of enzymes present in the aqueous medium. The work done concerning the development of the methodology of enzyme mediated calcium carbonate formation in aqueous media involved the following steps: (i) Investigation of the mechanism of urea (substrate) decomposition in the presence of jack bean urease (enzyme) through conductivity measurements. Urease exhibited a bell- shaped activity profile as a function of temperature with optimum value at 50CC. The reaction of urea decomposition in the presence of urease followed Michaelis-Menten type kinetics up to a concentration of about 250 mM. At concentrations exceeding 250 m.M, the reaction rate decreased as the carbonate source concentration increased, suggesting substrate inhibition. (ii) The effect of various parameters, such as temperature, enzyme and salts concentrations, the presence of sand etc. was studied upon the rate of precipitation and the morphology of the precipitate. The rate of precipitation increased with increasing temperature up to the optimum temperature of the enzyme activity. The experimental conditions identified through a series of batch type experiments were optimized for the consolidation of granular materials. Lab experiments done in loose sand packs have shown that consolidation may be achieved through bridges of calcium carbonate formed enzymatically. The consolidation efficiency was found to be strongly dependent on urease quality. Crude jack bean urease was more effective than refined one, due to impurities which promote calcitic rhombohedra to precipitate. Increasing the number of solution injections resulted in increased strength and reduced permeability, as expected. Resistance to uniaxial strength was found to be inversely proportional with temperature. The highest values were obtained for precipitates formed on sand grains at 25:C. The initial concentration of the supersaturated solutions were also found to affect the degree of consolidation, because of the different precipitation rates (higher at higher supersaturations) and of the amount of the material precipitated on the grains, which again was more, the higher the solution supersaturation with respect to calcium carbonate. Next, the heterogeneous nucleation and growth of calcite was investigated both in unstable and stable solutions at supersaturations sufficiently low to allow for the measurement of induction times preceding the onset of precipitation. In the unstable regions the induction times were inversely proportional and the rates of precipitation increased with the solution supersaturation. The high order dependence of the rates of precipitation on the solution supersaturation suggested a polynucleation mechanism. Fit of the induction time-supersaturation data according to this model yielded a value of 49 mJ/m2 for the surface energy of the calcite nucleus forming. In the stable domain of the supersaturations, seeded growth experiments showed a second order dependence on the rates of crystal growth of calcite seed crystals, while quartz seed crystals failed to induce nucleation. Raising supersaturation to reach the unstable domain showed interesting features: calcite seed crystals yielded crystal growth kinetics compatible with the polynucleation model, without any induction time contrary to the quartz seed crystals that triggered secondary nucleation. The kinetics data in the latter case were consistent with the polynuclear model and the surface energy for the newly forming embryo was calculated equal to 13 mJ/m2, confirming the fact that the process is dominantly heterogeneous. In the third part of this dissertation an attempt is presented to apply the idea of enzymatic precipitation of salts to the case of calcium phosphate formation. For this purpose, two kinds of phosphatases were tested for their PO4/3 release capacity from polyphosphates. Each type of the enzyme functioned at a different pH, so that a wide pH-range was covered (5.50-9.80). A seven-fold increase in the enzyme concentration resulted in the increase of the hydrolytic substrate decomposition percentage from 38% to 82% at pH 5.50. At pH 9.80, increasing the amount of alkaline phosphatase by a factor of five, the percentage of hydrolytic decomposition increased from 800o to 100%. The temperature dependence of the enzymes’ activity allowed for the determination of the maximum rate and the Michelis-Menten constant. At 25oC, Rmax and Kmwere calculated equal to 3.2x104 mol/h and 2.15x l0 mol/l for acid phosphatase, while the values for alkaline phosphatase were 5.9x10 mol/h and 4.26x10-3 mol/l, respectively. The activation energies were calculated to be 31 and 74 kJ/mol for acid and alkaline enzymes respectively. In terms of precipitation, the enzymic hydrolysis method is applicable for concentrations of the substrate and of the cation of the precipitating salt lower than 0.05 mol/l. For higher concentrations, insoluble complexes of Ca-substrate were formed and the precipitation of calcium phosphate was not favored. The presence of sand promoted both precipitation and hydrolysis when acid phosphatase was used, while with alkaline phosphatase the effect of the presence of sand was negligible. Consolidation experiments conducted in loose sand packs indicated that this method may be applicable only to stabilize sand with a few applications of the working solution, since the amount of the precipitate is small for the concentration levels suggested by the results of the present work. For strong consolidation, and for the composition of the solutions suggested in this work, a large number of injections is needed.

No description available.

Orientadores: Zigomar Menezes de Souza, Edson Eiji Matsura / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T04:49:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Araujo_FernandoSilva_D.pdf: 5020372 bytes, checksum: af978a8271ef4c982fd82d0d223e486b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: É crescente a demanda global por fontes de energia renováveis, tais como o etanol, o qual no Brasil, possui como principal matriz energética a cultura da cana-de-açúcar. Neste contexto faz-se necessário a incorporação de novas tecnologias, como a mecanização da colheita, para o uso racional das áreas manejadas com cana-de-açúcar. O acúmulo superficial de resíduos vegetais da cana-de-açúcar na superfície do solo promove o enriquecimento das camadas superficiais com matéria orgânica bem como o incremento do intervalo hídrico ótimo, mitigando os efeitos da compactação do solo causados pelo tráfego de máquinas no sistema de cana colhida mecanicamente sem queima. Portanto, o objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar as alterações no comportamento físico e mecânico de um Latossolo Vermelho produzido pelo enriquecimento do conteúdo de matéria orgânica e, ainda, a capacidade dos resíduos vegetais acumulados na superfície do solo dissiparem cargas aplicadas sobre o mesmo, em áreas cultivadas com cana-de-açúcar colhidas com e sem queima. O projeto foi desenvolvido em três áreas cultivadas com cana-de-açúcar: 1- cana-de-açúcar sem queima e corte mecanizado, desde 1996 (com 16 anos de implantação do sistema de cana crua); 2- cana-de-açúcar sem queima e corte mecanizado, desde 2004 (com 8 anos de implantação do sistema de cana crua); 3- cana-de-açúcar com queima e corte manual, desde 1973 (cana queimada). Os atributos físicos avaliados foram: análise granulométrica, consistência do solo, densidade do solo, estabilidade de agregados, porosidade do solo e resistência do solo à penetração nas profundidades de 0,00-0,10 m, 0,10-0,20 m e 0,20-0,30 m. Determinou-se ainda o intervalo hídrico ótimo para desenvolvimento das plantas. Foram avaliadas as relações entre o teor de matéria orgânica e a compressibilidade do solo, as relações entre teor de matéria orgânica do solo e a umidade crítica para a compactação e as relações entre quantidade de resíduos vegetais na superfície e a densidade do solo obtida pelo teste Proctor. Os atributos de solo estudados apresentam estrutura de dependência espacial. O intervalo hídrico ótimo e ?p mostraram-se sensíveis as alterações ocorridas no solo em detrimento dos sistemas de manejo estudados. A área sob colheita manual da cultura da cana-de-açúcar apresentou menor valor de densidade crítica para o intervalo hídrico ótimo, sendo que a maior produtividade da cultura concentrou-se nas regiões de maior amplitude do intervalo hídrico ótimo e maior capacidade suporte de carga do solo / Abstract: An increasing global demand for renewable energy sources such as ethanol, which in Brazil, has as its primary energy matrix culture of sugar cane. In this context it is necessary to incorporate new technologies, mechanization of the harvest, for the rational use of managed areas with cane sugar. The accumulation of surface plant residues of sugar cane on the soil surface promotes the enrichment of the surface layers with organic matter as well as increasing the optimal water, mitigating the effects of soil compaction caused by machinery traffic on the system cane mechanically harvested without burning. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study the changes in physical and mechanical behavior of soil produced by enriching the content of organic matter, and also the ability of plant debris accumulated on the soil surface dissipate loads applied on it, in cultivated areas sugar cane harvested with and without burning. The project was developed in three areas cultivated with sugar cane: 1 - harvested with manual cutting and burning since 1973; 2 - mechanically harvested without burning since 2004 (8 years of implantation of sugarcane), 3 - mechanically harvested unburned since 1996 (16 years of implantation of sugarcane). The physical attributes were: particle size analysis, soil consistency, soil bulk density, and aggregate stability, soil porosity and soil resistance to penetration depths of 0.00 to 0.10 m, 0.10-0.20 me 0.20-0.30 m. It was determined the optimal water yet to identify the critical limits of soil density where resistance to penetration and aeration porosity are restrictive to plant development. We evaluated the relationship between the organic matter content and soil compressibility, the relationships between organic matter content and soil moisture critical for the compression and the relationship between the amount of crop residue on the surface and soil density obtained by the Proctor test. The soil attributes have studied the spatial dependence structure. The least limiting water range and ?p were sensitive to changes in the soil instead of studied treatments. The area under cultivation of manual harvesting cane sugar showed a lower value of the critical density for optimal water, and the greater crop concentrated in regions of higher altitude and lower load-bearing capacity / Doutorado / Agua e Solo / Doutor em Engenharia Agrícola

Thesis (Sc.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references. / by George Bouckovalas. / Thesis (Sc.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1982.