FACTORS AFFECTING THIXOTROPIC HARDENING OF DHAKA CLAYS

摘要: When dealing with soft clays, thixotropic effects will generally be beneficial. The effects of disturbance will decrease with time adding some element of safety to a project where remolding cannot be avoided. In order to investigate the presence of thixotropy in Bangladesh soils, fall cone test, using different cone weights is conducted. As moisture content is one of the factors affecting thixotropy, samples were prepared at moisture contents both above and below the liquid limits. At constant moisture content and volume, as time passes the penetration depth reduces. This variation in penetration depths are in turn related to the shear strength. Significant increase in thixotropic strength for the soil samples prepared at moisture content below liquid limit was noticed. Slight decrease in activity and linear shrinkage caused pronounced increase in thixotropic strength. The research also indicates that initial moisture content less than liquid limit is compulsory for significant thixotropic hardening to take place.