Impact of shell content on shear strength of reclamation sand

Due to scarcity of land, Singapore has depended on imported sand for land reclamation. These imported sand contained variable amount of shells and corals (shell content) which will affect the engineering properties of the sand. In land reclamation, shear strength is important as it affects the granular material's susceptibility to failure. The objective of this project is to study the impact of shell content on shear strength of sand used for land reclamation. To investigate the shear strength of the sand, direct shear tests were conducted on three different sources of reclamation sand at different relative densities and at various shell contents. Triaxial tests (UU) were also conducted on the three sand sources at dense relative density at zero shell content. Carbonate content tests were conducted to determine the amount of calcium carbonate contained in the sands and shells content. Results from carbonate content tests by BS1377-3 (1990) and BS6463-2 (1984) were in good agreement. From the direst shear test results, both the increase in relative density and increase in amount of shell content increased the friction angle of the granular material. However, the effect of relative density is more significant than the effect of shell content on the friction angle.Bachelor of Engineering (Civil