Abstract
As the macroscopic mechanical properties of soil are closely related to its microstructure, and loess historically played an important role in engineering construction, the effect of compaction on the microstructure of compacted loess was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) in this study. The SEM imaging results showed that as compaction degree increased, the loess microstructure evolved from an overhead weak into an interlocking semi-cementation, and then into a dispersion-strong cementation. Correspondingly, the pore characteristics mainly exhibited a transformation from macropores (diameter > 32 μm) to mesopores (diameter between 8 and 32 μm) and then to small pores (diameter between 2 and 8 μm). The MIP test results showed that the content volume of intragranular pores (diameter between 1.8 and 70 μm) decreased with increasing loess compactness, whereas the contents of intra-particle, interparticle, and intergranular pores were stable, indicating that the compaction of loess was mainly caused by compression of the intragranular pores. Additionally, the variation interval of the dominant pore type (intragranular pore) observed by the MIP test was consistent with the comprehensive variation interval of the pore types (macropore, mesopore, and small pores) observed by SEM imagery. These findings are helpful to explain the linkage law between loess structure, engineering characteristics, and catastrophic effects.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the reviewers who participated in the review and MJ Editor (www.mjeditor.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.
Funding
The present work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42202311, 41931285, 42007184, and 41790441), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2022M710480), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, CHD (Grant No. 300102292901), the Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (Grant No. B08039), and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students (Grant No. S202210710364). Their support is gratefully acknowledged.
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Xu, P., Qian, H., Chen, J. et al. New insights into microstructure evolution mechanism of compacted loess and its engineering implications. Bull Eng Geol Environ 82, 36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-022-03058-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-022-03058-3