Overconsolidation and Cementation in Sands: Impacts on Geotechnical Properties and Evaluation Using Dilatometer Tests

Abstract

Both overconsolidated and cemented soils, which are very common in nature, show very distinctive behaviors (e.g., increased strength and stiffness) compared to normally consolidated (NC) soils, uncemented soils, or both. Therefore, the characterization of soil properties in an overconsolidated/cemented state is important in many geotechnical projects for the safe and economical design and analysis of geostructures. Although there have been many attempts to evaluate overconsolidated or cemented sediments using in situ tests, the complexity of the behaviors of overconsolidated or cemented sands has contributed to the difficulty in interpreting in situ test results. Among the various in situ testing methods, such as the cone penetration test, the dilatometer test (DMT), the standard penetration test, and others, the DMT is very sensitive to the stress history effect and overconsolidation in sand. Therefore, the impacts of overconsolidation and cementation on geotechnical properties of sands are reviewed first in this study, and then the methods for evaluating overconsolidation and cementation in sands using DMTs are reviewed/suggested.