Open Access

ARTICLE

Study on Triaxial Mechanical Properties and Micro Mechanism of Fly Ash Reinforced Cement Calcareous Sand

by Ben Li¹, Na Li^1,*, Chulei Fang¹, Jun Hu^2,*, Rong Yu³, Longxin Shu¹, Kai Yao³, Fang Zhang¹

1 School of Civil Engineering, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, 312000, China
2 College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China
3 School of Qilu Transportation, Shandong University, Jinan, 250002, China

* Corresponding Author: Jun Hu. Email:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2022, 10(6), 1693-1710. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2022.018475

Received 27 July 2021; Accepted 01 September 2021; Issue published 20 January 2022

Abstract

In order to study the mechanical properties and micro-mechanism of industrial waste fly ash-reinforced cement calcareous sand (FCS), the triaxial unconsolidated undrained (UU) test and scanning electron microscope tests (SEM) were carried out on it. The results of UU test show that the peak stress and energy dissipation of the FCS sample first increase and then decrease with the increase in fly ash content. Fly ash enhances the cement calcareous sand by increasing both the cohesion and internal friction angle, and adding 10% content of fly ash gives the largest values. The SEM test results shows that the hydration products of cement and fly ash filled the pores and cracks on the surface of the calcareous sand, which increased the compactness and structure of the FCS samples. The porosity of cement calcareous sand can be reduced from 27.6% to 12.8% by adding 10% fly ash. A brittleness evaluation index based on energy dissipation is proposed to quantitatively characterize the brittleness of FCS samples. The results show that when the content of fly ash is 5%, the brittleness of FCS samples is the lowest. This study shows that the mechanical properties of cement calcareous sand can be effectively enhanced by adding the appropriate amount of fly ash.

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Keywords

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