Experimental study of the effect of fines content on dynamic compaction grouting in completely decomposed granite of Hong Kong

This paper addresses the effects of fines contents on the mechanical behavior of CDG (completely decomposed granite) during dynamic compaction grouting. The first set of tests involved adding different amounts of kaolin clay into CDG to study the effects of fines contents on the compaction characteristics, permeability, consolidation behavior and shear strength of soils. It is found that, as the fines content increases, the dry density decreases, however the optimum water content increases. In addition, the permeability decreases due to reduction of void ratio, and the coefficient of consolidation increases with higher fines content. Furthermore, with increasing fines contents, the shear stress tends to be constant after it reaches the peak strength. However, when reaching the peak value, the shear stress reduces with further adding of fines content. In the second set of tests, the dynamic compaction grouting tests are carried out to study the effect of fines content on the compaction efficiency of Hong Kong CDG. It is found that, the compaction efficiency increases with increasing fines content, and reaches the peak compaction efficiency when the fines content reaches 6%, and then the compaction efficiency drops abruptly from a peak value of 0.55–0.25 when the fines content increases from 6% to 8%. However, when the fines content increases from 8% to 41%, the compaction efficiency decreases very slowly.