Study on Micro-structure Rebuild of Clay in Process of Consolidation

Vacuum freeze drying method is applied to prepare samples for SEM from one-dimensional consolidation clay which respectively suffered 5 grade pressures from original remolded state. And then simple and synthetical micro-structure parameters of SEM photos obtained from horizontal, 45 degrees inclined and vertical section are studied to uncover relation between macroscopical mechanics properties and micro-structure. Study on simple parameters indicated that grain area ratio and perimeter increase with consolidation pressure while other parameters have no constant tendency. The synthetical parameters are derived from the two data analysis methods namely principal component analysis and pedigree cluster. It is clearly shown that the first principal component approximately linear increases with consolidation pressure. Samples can be exactly clustered into several families according to the grade of consolidation pressure and inner distance of a family nonlinearly increases with pressure. It is distinct that the synthetical parameters are superior to the simple parameters in construction soil mechanics relation because the former can reflect the whole micro-structure qualities, but the latter can not.