Undrained monotonic triaxial loading behaviors of a type of iron ore fines

Concerning on the static liquefaction properties of an industrial cargo, iron ore fines (IOF), undrained monotonic behaviors of a type of IOF are revealed through conducting triaxial compression tests. It is found that IOF exhibits some similar behaviors as those of common sandy soils, while some very unusual behaviors are also observed. All IOF specimens with compaction degree of 84%-95% and confining pressure of 50 kPa -200 kPa exhibit dilative behavior from the beginning of the axial loading until the deviator stresses reached their peaks (qpk), then the dilative behavior transforms to the contractive one, and the contractive behavior continues until reaching the residual stress without observation of phase transformation and quasi steady state. These behaviors may rarely observed or only observed partially on certain density conditions for common sandy soils. More studies may be very necessary since these unusual behaviors imply that flow failure, similar to the undrained monotonic behavior of very loose sand, may be triggered regardless of density of IOF. In addition, this study also establish the relationships of IOF between its initial conditions, peak stress conditions as well as residual conditions by employing classical knowledges developed for sandy soils.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author