Assessment/Monitoring: Innovative inspection techniques (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy)

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

Before designing and constructing any structural project, the proposed site soil must be investigated, and its geotechnical parameters should be determined. The design stage and construction process are steered and based on the gathered soil data. Since soil parameters are decisive for long lasting building structure , both standardized laboratory and in-situ tests have to be developed. However, some of these tests are costly, timeconsuming, or tedious to perform. Therefore, tests based on empirical models have to be developed to assess these soil parameters. Considering this fact, this proposed study aims to develop an empirical model using the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to assess some mechanical parameters of soils. The need for the usage of LIBS is ascribed to its simplicity and instantaneity, and it is used in both laboratory and in-situ investigations. LIBS has many applications in soils related to their soil chemical analysis, such as contaminants detection, pH, and other metallic and non-metallic elements measurements. However, LIBS has not been commonly used for the assessment of the physical and mechanical properties of soil, and this area has not been investigated in the literature so far. Therefore, this study is proposed to investigate the elemental composition of soil so as to be compared and correlated with its mechanical and physical properties. This will be accomplished by relating the soils elemental composition obtained from LIBS with the results of standardized soil tests, such as the unconfined compression test and direct shear test in order to assess the quality and strength of the soil. The proposed mechanical parameters in this study will include the unconfined compressive strength, bulk density, angle of friction, and cohesion. Further, these parameters will be assessed for both natural soils and stabilized soils using cement and lime with varying dosages. The correlation will be based on finding the dominant element(s) in each type of soil and correlate their concentrations with the standardized test values. After developing the empirical correlations, the model(s) will be validated with the control specimens. Finally, a statistical analysis will be carried out to investigate the accuracy of the developed models in order to arrive at the best reliable models that can be used by practicing engineers.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/07/2131/12/22

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