ACTA GEOTECHNICA SLOVENICA, cilt.10, sa.1, ss.33-40, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
Post-liquefaction settlement characteristics of micaceous sands are not well investigated topic. Currently available charts relating post-liquefaction volumetric strain to relative density were developed for clean sand. Estimation of post-liquefaction settlement of micaceous sands, therefore, may stay on the unsafe side, since there is evidence indicating that mica grains could increase volume change tendency. Influence of mica content on post-liquefaction volumetric strain of sand-mica mixtures is studied in this article. Soil samples were prepared at various relative densities. Influence of fine content that could be present in the field was also investigated on tamped natural field samples recovered from boreholes drilled in a highly populated alluvial site known as the Old Gediz River Delta of Izmir. It was found that increasing mica content at a certain relative density resulted in higher volumetric strains as compared with the data on clean sands. It is deduced that influence of mica grains on sand behavior depends on initial void ratio of sand. Effects of mica grains decrease with increasing of relative density. Simple empirical relationships were derived relating mica content and relative density to volumetric strain. It was also noticed that fine content accelerated and increased post-liquefaction volumetric strains.