Effect of moisture content and rock content on the resilient modulus of weathered phyllite fillers

Abstract

Weathered phyllite fillers are easily crushed under water and load, resulting in the rock content change. Therefore, resilient modulus of weathered phyllite fillers is affected not only by moisture content, but also by rock content. With the aim of investigating the effects of moisture content and rock content on the resilient modulus of weathered phyllite fillers, a small-scale indoor resilient modulus testing apparatus was developed, and the resilient moduli of seven groups of rock content with six different moisture content were tested using the indoor test apparatus. In addition, the influence of the moisture content and the rock content on the resilient modulus of weathered phyllite filler were analyzed. Furthermore, fractal dimension was introduced to further explore the relationship between rock content and resilient modulus of weathered phyllite fillers. Results show that the resilient modulus of weathered phyllite fillers increased first and then decreased with the increase of moisture content and rock content, among which the resilient modulus reached maximum at the moisture content of 5% and rock content of 55%. Moreover, the fractal dimension of weathered phyllite fillers after compaction first increased and then decreased with the increase of rock content, while the resilient modulus increased with the increase of fractal dimension of weathered phyllite fillers after compaction. The findings in this paper could provide guidance for the construction of weathered phyllite filling subgrade