Publication: Simple shear tests on offshore sediments
Date
2012
Authors
Tan, Kevin Wei Jin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
Offshore soils are soils which are located deep within the seabed and are expensive due to the depth. With the rapid improvement of technology, more lands are required to construct structures for the civilization of mankind. Therefore, offshore construction has been one of the alternatives to solve this problem. Simple shear tests have been conducted in this study to determine the offshore soil's parameters and shear strength values for future references and comparison for future development in offshore construction. Furthermore, the test also determines the effect of the amount of water content and the lateral loadings that are applied onto the offshore soil samples. The data obtained from the simple shear test includes the shear strength, cohesion and friction angle of the offshore soil sample. 27 numbers of tests were conducted to determine these parameters. A study has been conducted mainly to establish the geotechnical properties of marine clay from the central west coast region of Malaysia. Marine clay from central west coast of Malaysia have high natural moisture content which reaches up to 125%. Other physical parameters such as the liquid limit are between 50 to 125%, unit weight is at the range of 13 to 18 kN/m3 and the average specific gravity is 2.6. The strength parameters are also established; the friction angle is in the range of 15 to 25° and the effective cohesion is 2 to 20 kPa. The moisture content variables used in this tests are 30%, 50% and 70% while the lateral loadings are 50 kPa, 100 kPa and 150 kPa. Shear strength values obtained for the variables of water content and lateral loadings were found to be at the range of 52 kPa to 69 kPa. Other properties were determined in this project which are the natural moisture content, the plastic limit, liquid limit, cohesion and friction angle of the offshore soil sample. It has been determined that the natural moisture content is 30% to 55%, the cohesion to be at 7 kPa to 18 kPa, friction angle to be at 17° to 33°, liquid limit to be at 53% and the plastic limit to be at 48%. Based on the values of the plastic limit and liquid limit, the soil sample has been classified as clayey soil with high plasticity.
Description
TA417.7.S5 K48 2012
Keywords
Shear