Acta Geotechnica最新文献

The presence of abundant clay components and microporous structure in shale results in its high hydrophilicity, making a water-rich environment inevitable in petroleum exploration projects. Therefore, it is crucial to consider the influence of bedding structure, moisture content, confining pressure, and their combined effects on the geomechanical properties of shale. This article aims to investigate the mechanical properties of deep shale under varying water content conditions, elucidate the failure mode and failure mechanism of shale in actual engineering scenarios, and explores the interplay between stress, structure, moisture content, and other factors on its mechanical properties. The evaluation of wellbore stability and fracture propagation effects is proposed based on laboratory experiments using triaxial stress and strain data, along with the application of energy evolution theory. The experimental procedures encompass an analysis of shale's microscopic components and structure, as well as anisotropic shale triaxial compression tests conducted under different moisture contents and confining pressures. The results demonstrate that shale exhibits dense pores in its microstructure and displays pronounced anisotropic characteristics in its macrostructure. The presence of water within these pores, combined with the in situ stress within the formation, significantly influences the mechanical properties of shale. This anisotropy decreases with increasing moisture content, but the mechanical performance still decreases. Under triaxial compression conditions, the increase in confining pressure to some extent enhances the anisotropy of shale's deformation characteristics, which is related to the failure modes of shale. However, the detrimental effect of moisture content on shale's mechanical properties still persists. In order to quantify the impact of these factors, this study utilizes the elastic modulus as an indicator of the coupling effect. It combines the triaxial strain curve obtained from laboratory tests and proposes an evaluation index for shale mechanical properties based on the energy evolution theory. This index is suitable for assessing wellbore stability (the stability index called SI_r) and crack expansion (the brittleness index called BI_r). The calculation results reveal that, during the wellbore drilling process, excavating parallel to the direction of shale bedding while maintaining low moisture content and high confining pressure yields a higher SI_r value, indicating better wellbore stability. On the other hand, during reservoir fracturing, fracturing perpendicular to the shale bedding direction and maintaining low confining pressure and moisture content result in a smaller BI_r value. This approach is more beneficial for the expansion of shale fracture network in engineering.

Marine plastic pollution has become a major concern as it threatens marine life and human health. Most of the plastic that enters the ocean is either consumed by animals and/or trapped in sediments. However, there is little information on how sediment properties might be affected. In this article, we explore the impact of microplastic inclusions in marine settings by using PVC plastic chips and two soil samples as analogues. We conducted a comprehensive experimental study to investigate changes in compressibility, strength, stiffness, thermal and hydraulic conductivity, and particle migration by varying plastic content. Results show that as low as 1% of plastic content by volume can lead to irreversible consequences in sediment behavior while coarse particles display a heightened sensitivity than pure fines. As plastic content in sediment increases year-by-year, we anticipate significant repercussions in marine life, the future landscape of the seafloor and subsurface phenomena.

A tank test was performed simulating two-dimensional planar flow conditions at a meter scale to evaluate the effectiveness of microbial-induced desaturation and precipitation (MIDP) in stratified soil conditions. The tank setup (116.5 cm tall, 122 cm wide, and 5.25 cm thick) was filled with two layers of fine sand (a target layer of 40 cm and nontarget layer of 21 cm above) that were confined by silt layers above (6 cm), between (9 cm) and below (9 cm) the sand layers. Multiple flushes of substrate solution, containing calcium, nitrate, and acetate, were injected into the lower sand layer to stimulate indigenous nitrate-reducing bacteria to produce biogenic gas, biominerals, and biomass. Embedded sensors were used to measure the changes in electrical conductivity, volumetric water content, and pore pressure in both the target and nontarget sand layers during and between treatment cycles. Time-lapse camera images were used to determine flow velocity distributions in the target layer and identify modes of gas migration. At the end of the test, hydraulic conductivity, calcium carbonate content, and soil–water characteristic curves (SWCCs) were measured on intact samples of the treated material. The results showed that most of the reaction products were formed in the targeted sand layer. During the first treatment cycle, the degree of saturation in the target sand layer decreased to 75% within 5–12 days, at which point it started to migrate upwards until it got trapped and formed a lens underneath the silt layer above. During the second and subsequent treatment cycles, seepage velocity increased due to the entrapment of biogenic gas, the reaction rate increased due to the accumulation of biomass, and the gas formed channels through the silt and migrated further upwards into and through the upper sand and silt layers by irregular venting events. After 4–5 cycles, an equilibrium condition was reached at which the degree of saturation fluctuated from 65 to 80% when gas was being produced and vented to 80–90% when substrates were depleted. The CaCO₃ content after 10 cycles over 12 weeks ranged from 1.6% close to the inlet to 0.5% close to the outlet, with an average of 0.68%. The formation of biomass and CaCO₃ had a relatively large impact on the saturated hydraulic conductivity but a very limited impact on the SWCC.

The soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC) is the most fundamental relationship in unsaturated soil mechanics, relating the amount of water in the soil to the corresponding matric suction. From experimental evidence, it is known that SWCC exhibits hysteresis (i.e., wetting/drying path dependence). Various factors have been proposed as contributors to SWCC hysteresis, including air entrapment, contact angle hysteresis, ink-bottle effect, and change of soil fabric due to swelling and shrinkage; however, the significance of their contribution is debated. From our pore-scale numerical simulations, using the multiphase lattice Boltzmann method, we see that, even when controlling for all these factors, SWCC hysteresis still occurs, indicating that there is some underlying source that is not accounted for in these factors. We find this underlying source by comparing the liquid/gas phase distributions for simulated wetting and drying experiments of 2D and 3D granular packings. We see that during wetting (i.e., pore filling) many liquid bridges expand simultaneously and join together to fill the pores from the smallest to the largest, allowing menisci with larger radii of curvature (lower matric suction). Whereas, during drying (i.e., pore emptying), only the limited existing gas clusters can expand, which become constrained by the size of the pore openings surrounding them and result in menisci with smaller radii of curvature (higher matric suction).

In the realm of constructing urban underground spaces, it is imperative to address the impact of tunnel leakage on the surrounding environment. This paper introduced a theoretical analysis to investigate the localized water leakage's influence on adjacent pile foundations. A pore pressure distribution function, accounting for localized leakage water, was formulated. Integrated with the seepage control equation, this function facilitated the calculation of additional stress imposed on piles due to tunnel localized water leakage. Employing the Pasternak foundation model, an analytical solution was developed to assess the lateral performance of adjacent piles under localized water leakage conditions. This approach was compared with numerical simulations to validate the reliability of soil seepage fields and pile lateral performance resulting from localized tunnel leakage at different positions. Through comprehensive parameter analysis, it was observed that the width of the leakage joint significantly influenced pile lateral responses, manifesting in three distinct stages: linear increase, nonlinear gradual augmentation, and stabilization. Different positions of the lining leakage joint yielded varying effects on adjacent piles' lateral responses, with closer proximity intensifying the impact on the pile. When leakage joints were situated near the pile toe, a pronounced negative bending moment was generated. Furthermore, this study summarized the influence range of tunnel localized leakage adjacent to piles. It established that the maximum pile-tunnel horizontal distance inducing lateral pile responses due to tunnel localized leakage was set at 8 times the pile diameter (8 D_p). Additionally, tunnel leakage influences should be considered when the pile length exceeded 0.6 times the depth of the tunnel axis.

The pressure infiltration of fresh and salty bentonite slurries against a medium-fine sand has been investigated in a laboratory setup. In the tests, two series of salty bentonite slurries were used: non-pre-hydrated salty slurry, for exploring what will happen if directly salty water is used to make bentonite slurry, and pre-hydrated salty slurry, for identifying the consequence of pre-hydrated fresh bentonite slurry mixing with the salty water in the soil pores. The salty water employed was a mixture of different percentages of freshwater and seawater. Experimental results show that the test with non-pre-hydrated salty slurry exhibited a significantly faster and shorter (time) mud spurt, or even no mud spurt at all, compared to the test with fresh or pre-hydrated salty slurry. The influence of salty water on the pre-hydrated fresh bentonite is less than on the non-pre-hydrated slurry and depends on the seawater content in the salty water. Compared with the test with fresh bentonite slurry, a slower and shorter (time) mud spurt could be seen in the test with the pre-hydrated salty slurry when the seawater content was not more than 20%. As seawater content exceeded 20%, a faster mud spurt showed up; however, the timespan of the mud spurt may be shorter or longer, mainly depending on the viscosity and sedimentation behavior of the bentonite. A model to estimate the slurry infiltration distance during mud spurt is introduced, which agrees well with the experimental results using the measured input parameters. After the mud spurt, a filter cake would form in each test. The permeability of the filter cake increased with the increase in seawater content. Directly mixing salty water remarkably increased the permeability of the filter cake, while the pre-hydration of bentonite could reduce this increase. For instance, with the salty water containing 10% seawater, the permeabilities of the filter cakes formed by fresh bentonite slurry, non-pre-hydrated salty slurry, and pre-hydrated salty slurry with the 50 g/L bentonite concentration were 1.69 × 10⁻⁹ m/s, 2.26 × 10⁻⁸ m/s, and 3.23 × 10⁻⁹ m/s, respectively.

In soft soil layers, piles are frequently loaded laterally by horizontal soil movements. In many cases, the lateral pressure acting on piles due to horizontal soil movements is calculated with empirically or analytically based approaches, respectively. However, most of these design approaches do not consider possible influences on the resulting pile loads. This paper presents the results of model tests and numerical simulations on single piles and pile groups in cohesive soil subjected to lateral loads which were carried out to overcome limitations of available design approaches. Based on extensive small-scale 1 × g-model tests and numerical investigations with the finite element method, influencing factors on the lateral pressure, such as the roughness of the pile–soil interface, the pile size, the pile shape and the pile spacing were identified. A parametric study with the numerical model quantified the most relevant factors influencing the development of lateral pressure on piles due to adjacent surface loads and lead to the development of a simplified analysis approach.

The paper focuses on the identification of the 3D failure envelope of a shallow foundation on soft soil reinforced by rigid inclusions. A nonlinear 3D finite element model is first validated against literature results and novel centrifuge experimental data. The failure envelope, defined in the vertical force (V), bending moment (M) and horizontal force (H) space, is then constructed using numerical swipe tests. Analytical formulas are introduced to describe the 3D failure envelope shape and inclination, considering the influence of the coverage area, the thickness, and the friction angle of the load transfer platform. Finally, the efficiency of a rigid inclusion foundation is highlighted by comparing its failure envelope to that of the same foundation without rigid inclusions. The proposed analytical failure envelope can be used by engineers to quantify the bearing capacity of rigid inclusion foundations and by researchers to develop novel macroelements submitted to complex coupled loads.

The water retention behavior—a critical factor of unsaturated flow in porous media—can be strongly affected by deformation in the solid matrix. However, it remains challenging to model the water retention behavior with explicit consideration of its dependence on deformation. Here, we propose a data-driven approach that can automatically discover an interpretable model describing the water retention behavior of a deformable porous material, which can be as accurate as non-interpretable models obtained by other data-driven approaches. Specifically, we present a divide-and-conquer approach for discovering a mathematical expression that best fits a neural network trained with the data collected from a series of image-based drainage simulations at the pore-scale. We validate the predictive capability of the symbolically regressed counterpart of the trained neural network against unseen pore-scale simulations. Further, through incorporating the discovered symbolic function into a continuum-scale simulation, we showcase the inherent portability of the proposed approach: The discovered water retention model can provide results comparable to those from a hierarchical multi-scale model, while bypassing the need for sub-scale simulations at individual material points.

High-accuracy deformation monitoring is crucial for investigating landslide–pipeline interaction problems, in which the fiber optic nerve system (FONS) holds enormous potential. This paper presents a theoretical framework for interpreting landslide–pipeline interactions using the FONS and proposes a novel method for calculating characteristic parameters of pipe–soil interfaces based on distributed strain measurements. The feasibility of this method is validated through a full-scale model test, and its application for studying pipeline behaviors is demonstrated in the Xinpu landslide, situated in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, China. The field monitoring results reveal that short-duration, high-intensity rainfall events triggered immediate acceleration of landslide movements, leading to pipeline elongation and flexure. Strain measurements of the underground pipeline allow for the identification of the local slipping interface of the landslide. Furthermore, the relationships between reservoir water level (RWL) fluctuations, rainfall events, landslide deformation, and the structural response of the pipe are analyzed. The findings suggest that the deformation of the landslide in the leading and middle parts exhibits high correlations with the combined effect of rainfall and RWL drawdown.