Experimental Study on Mechanical Behavior of a New Backfilling Material: Cement-Treated Marine Clay

Abstract

Backfilling mining method is an overlying strata control way, which is widely used in underground coal mine. This method is effective in preventing and controlling geological disasters such as surface subsidence, mine water inrush, rock burst, and other disasters. Cement-treated marine clay (CMC) is a typical porous media, which has abundant reserves and can be used as a new backfilling material. Therefore, the mechanical characteristics of CMC are very important for overlying strata control in coal mine. To investigate stress-strain behavior of CMC, isotropic consolidated drained (CID) triaxial test and isotropic compression test (ICT) were conducted with different confining pressures in the range of 50–800 kPa. Stress-strain behavior was found similar to those of the overconsolidated stress-strain behavior as well as the pore water pressure versus strain. Stress versus strain curves under lower confining pressure 50–250 kPa presented shear dilatancy. The result shows that the peak strength increased linearly with increasing confining pressure. The internal friction angle and cohesion are 48° and 590 kPa, respectively. Before the confining pressure reaches 727 kPa, which is the primary yielding point, the secant modulus E1 (the secant modulus at 1% axial strain) and the secant modulus E50 (corresponding to the 50% of the peak point) increase initially and decrease afterwards with the increasing of confining pressure. Afterwards, the two parameters increased with increasing confining pressure. The yielding stress occurred in the stage, generating a dramatic decrease in tangent modulus. This study can be a theoretical basis for engineering application of this new backfilling material.