Characterizing the geotechnical properties of natural, Israeli, partially cemented sands

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Israel's coastal region consists, mainly, of Pleistocene and Holocene sands with varying degrees of calcareous cementation, known locally as "kurkar". Previous studies of these materials emphasized the difficulty in their geotechnical characterization, due to their extreme variability. Consequently, it is difficult to estimate construction stability, displacements and deformations on, or within these soils. It is suggested that SPT and Menard pressuremeter tests may be used to characterize the properties of these materials. Values of elastic modulus obtained from pressuremeter tests may be used for displacement analyses at different strain levels, while accounting for the geometric dimensions (length/diameter ratio) of the test probe. A relationship was obtained between pressuremeter modulus and SPT blow count, consistent with published data for footing settlements on granular soils. Cohesion values, for a known friction angle, are estimated, by comparing field pressuremeter curves to curves from numerical (finite element or finite difference) analyses. The material analyzed in the paper is shown to be strain-softening, with the initial cohesion degrading to zero on development of plastic shear strains.