Slaking and deformation behaviour Available to Purchase

Slaking is a mechanical–hydraulic process in which geomaterials disintegrate or crumble when subjected to wetting and drying cycles; mudstone is particularly susceptible to this process. This paper explores the slaking behaviour of geomaterials derived from several kinds of mudstone and the mechanical consequences using a comprehensive set of experimental data obtained through accelerated slaking tests and newly developed one-dimensional compression slaking tests. These data confirm that slaking in crushed mudstone is accompanied by a variation in the particle size distribution during wetting and drying cycles, and a variation in grading results in an irreversible change in mechanical characteristics, such as the reference packing density. Significant compression is also found to occur without any change in effective confining stress. The results of X-ray fluorescence analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy are also used to elucidate the effects of mineralogy and particle texture on the slaking characteristics of crushed mudstone. Finally, it is also mentioned that constitutive modelling can take slaking into consideration by describing the evolution of an appropriate grading index due to slaking, and then linking this to reference packing density.