TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental study on the monotonic mechanical behavior of completely decomposed granite soil reinforced by disposable face-mask chips
AU - Xu, Wangqi
AU - Yin, Zhen Yu
AU - Wang, Han Lin
AU - Wang, Xiang
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was financially supported by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSARG) of China (Grant No.: R5037-18F ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/6/10
Y1 - 2022/6/10
N2 - In response to the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), a staggering amount of personal protective equipment, such as disposable face masks, has been used, leading to the urgent environmental issue. This study evaluates the feasibility of mask chips for the soil reinforcement, through triaxial tests on samples mixed with complete decomposed granite (CDG) and mask chips (0%, 0.3%, 0.5%, 1%, 5% by volume). The experimental results show that adding a moderate volumetric amount of mask chips (0.3%–1%) improves the soil strength, especially under high confining pressure. The optimum volumetric content of mask chips obtained by this study is 0.5%, raising the peak shear strength up to 22.3% under the confining stress of 120 kPa. When the volumetric content of mask chips exceeds the optimum value, the peak shear strength decreases accordingly. A limited amount of mask chips also increases the elastic modulus and makes the volumetric response more dilative. By contrast, excessive mask chips create additional voids and shift the strong soil-mask contacts to weak mask-mask contacts. The laser scanning microscope (LSM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images on the typical samples demonstrate the microstructure of mask fibers interlocking with soil particles, highly supporting the macro-scale mechanical behavior.
AB - In response to the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), a staggering amount of personal protective equipment, such as disposable face masks, has been used, leading to the urgent environmental issue. This study evaluates the feasibility of mask chips for the soil reinforcement, through triaxial tests on samples mixed with complete decomposed granite (CDG) and mask chips (0%, 0.3%, 0.5%, 1%, 5% by volume). The experimental results show that adding a moderate volumetric amount of mask chips (0.3%–1%) improves the soil strength, especially under high confining pressure. The optimum volumetric content of mask chips obtained by this study is 0.5%, raising the peak shear strength up to 22.3% under the confining stress of 120 kPa. When the volumetric content of mask chips exceeds the optimum value, the peak shear strength decreases accordingly. A limited amount of mask chips also increases the elastic modulus and makes the volumetric response more dilative. By contrast, excessive mask chips create additional voids and shift the strong soil-mask contacts to weak mask-mask contacts. The laser scanning microscope (LSM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images on the typical samples demonstrate the microstructure of mask fibers interlocking with soil particles, highly supporting the macro-scale mechanical behavior.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Face masks
KW - Microstructure
KW - Reinforced soil
KW - Triaxial test
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128835473&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131528
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131528
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85128835473
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 352
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
M1 - 131528
ER -