Feasibility study on artificial preparation of structured loess

Abstract

Abstract Structure collapse and subsidence are non-negligible geotechnical problems in loess areas. Within this framework, homogeneous and undisturbed samples are critical for effective research on loess structure. Hence, a novel method for preparing artificial structured loess (ASL) was proposed. The calcium oxide (CaO) was added to air-dried natural loess (NL) to form calcium carbonate (CaCO3) cementation and the ASL samples with various densities were successfully prepared. Further, the microstructure test, shear test, and collapsibility test were conducted on the NL and ASL samples for feasibility analysis. Results show that compared with the NL, enough CaCO3 could also be generated in the ASL samples with effective cementation among loess particles; the ASL presented similar compositional and structural characteristics and higher shear strength. The collapsibility of ASL was affected by its density: collapse would not occur when the density exceeded a certain threshold.

Keywords

• Microstructure
• CaCO3 cementation
• Collapsibility
• Shear strength