Resilient behavior of fi ne grain soils

Abstract

This work determined the resilient modulus for two types of soils (CL and MH), which are useful as sub-grade material. Samples in natural and compact state were tested, in order to determine the variation on the resilient modulus and the deformation under cyclic loads, applied by a servo controlled piston on a cyclic tri-axial chamber with different water contents. The Instituto Nacional de Vías INV E 156 standard was used and sometimes no lateral stress was applied in order to study the response of the soil on a critical state. Tests to determine the physical and static mechanical properties were also performed. With the last ones the collapsibility of the soil was determined, using a simple compression test on a sample with natural water content and another on saturated state, resulting on a 10 times drop of the shear strength on the saturated sample, on a silty soil. The resilient modulus of the silty soil showed high values and a wider range was found on clayey soil, but in both cases the material showed good properties for its use as sub-grade material, in both natural and compact states with natural water content or 100% saturation.