Repository logo
 

The Use of Sodium Pyrophosphate to Improve a Translucent Clay Simulate

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Conference Object

Change log

Authors

Beemer, RD 
Shaughnessy, E 
Ewert, KR 
Boardman, N 
Biscontin, Giovanna  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4662-5650

Abstract

In the ever expanding quest to understand the nature and behavior of soil, translucent and even transparent media have been developed to serve as soil simulates. These artificial soils can be used in experimental models to make visual measurement of phenomena such as geosystem kinematics, soil mass movement, soil particle motion, and pore fluid flow that would be nearly impossible to obtain in natural opaque soils without expensive equipment or boundary effects. One successful type of translucent clay simulate is lithium sodium magnesium silicate (LNM silicate); however, it’s low density/high void ratio results in higher than typical permeability, low undrained shear strength, and extremely long consolidation times. Until now, translucent soil simulates of only 4.5% by mass LNM silicate to total mass have been possible. This paper provides a method for creating mixtures of translucent LNM silicate gel/glass as high as 15% by mass with the additions of an emulsifier, sodium pyrophosphate decahydrate (SPP), which impedes gelation so additional silicate powder can be added. Further, digital image processing techniques are used to present a relationship between LNM silicate, SPP, and translucency and an analysis of the modified simulate’s permeability and consolidation properties, with comparisons to natural clays, is also included.

Description

Keywords

4005 Civil Engineering, 40 Engineering, 4019 Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

Journal Title

Geotechnical Special Publication

Conference Name

Geo-Chicago 2016

Journal ISSN

0895-0563

Volume Title

Publisher

American Society of Civil Engineers
Sponsorship
The lead author would like to acknowledge the excellent work of the undergraduate researchers on this project: Elliese Shaughnessy for the laboratory work and MATLAB programming necessary to create the Laponite-SPP curve, Kristen Ewert for conducting and interpreting the consolidation experiments, Nicholas Boardman for mixing the testing specimens and conducting the permeability experiments, and Tom Anderson for assisting with the permeability experiments. We would also like to thank Dr. Cassandra Rutherford for her assistance on the project. This research was funded through the National Science Foundation, Award Number: 1041604.