Relationship between pore size distribution and compressibility of a lateritic soil

de Oliveira Kühn, Vinícius and de Carvalho Faria Lima Lopes, Bruna and Rodrigues Borges, Camilla and Saniele Massocco, Narayana and Porfirio Cordão-Neto, Manoel (2021) Relationship between pore size distribution and compressibility of a lateritic soil. Geotechnique Letters, 11 (4). pp. 1-7. ISSN 2045-2543 (https://doi.org/10.1680/jgele.21.00063)

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between pore-size distribution and compressibility of a lateritic soil. Soil fabric was analysed under different conditions of preparation: compacted, reconstituted and intact, by means of mercury intrusion porosimetry tests on loading to different stress levels. The results show that all samples present bimodal pore distribution. However, the conditions of preparation and loading affected macropores more intensely, with subtle effects on micropores. This behaviour was attributed to the presence of aggregations with cementation. The compression curve of macro and micropores were determined and it was observed that the compression curve of macropores is very similar to the compression curve of the samples. In addition, it was observed that the fabric parameter regarding the uniformity of macro and micropores changed during loading. The new fabric parameter proposed captures the change in pore uniformity with loading. This parameter appears to be related to the soil compressibility, indicating that the most compressible samples also show greater changes in the uniformity of macropores.

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