ABSTRACT
Understanding the geotechnical properties of Calcareous sand is essential to develop ocean engineering construction in South China sea. Therefore, a series of one-dimension compression tests were carried out on calcareous sand obtained from the South China sea to investigate its compressive property and particle breakage during compression. The results show that calcareous sand has normal consolidation line (NCL). Sample with relatively uniform gradation has smaller compressibility. The single particle strength plays an important role in compression properties, sample with larger particle size has smaller yield stress. Hardin’s relative crushing theory was applied to quantitate the particle breakage during testing. It can be seen that particle breakage occurred at low stress region, and continues to occur to high pressure region with a nearly linear trend. The particle breakage is corresponding to particle size distribution. Under the same vertical stress, sample with uniform distribution and small particle size has less particle breakage.
