Influence of compaction history on shear strength behaviour of kaolin- compaction through consolidation

The shear strength is the ability of soil to overcome the shear stresses on the soil (Helwany, 2007). In this project, the main target is to analyze the shear strength of clay---kaolin. For testing the plastic limit and liquid limit, the fall cone method, rolling method and the Casagrande method are used. The PL of Kaolin is 35% and the LL is 80% and the fall cone method is more accurate and easy for the plastic limit but the Casagrande method is more accurate for the liquid limit. Moreover, the different compaction methods are designed to be used to treat kaolin, for example the manual compaction with the normal water or salty water, the consolidation and the dehydration. By using these 4 different methods, the kaolin will show the different performances on resistance the shear stresses. However, this project will focus on the process of manual compaction with Kaolin. At the same water content, these samples with 4 different treatments show the different strength of resistance the shear stresses. By analysing the different samples and comparing the microstructure of compacted kaolin, the history of compaction will influence the shear strength of soil because of the different microstructure. Therefore, the different compaction history will affect the shear strength of Kaolin regardless the density and water content