Saturación de muestras de suelo fino para ensayos triaxiales usando CO₂ Y vacío

Prior to shearing, CU and CD triaxial compression test samples require saturation of the specimens. Usually, saturation is a long and demanding process, especially when dealing with fine-grained soil samples. The most widely used saturation method to date is backpressuring, which was proposed in the mid-twentieth century. Since then, other techniques have been proposed for coarse-grained soils using carbon dioxide (CO2) and negative pore pressures delivered via vacuum. However, literature on the application of these techniques for fine-grained soils is scarce. This article describes the use of a composite technique for applying negative pore pressures followed by CO2 injection in reconstituted samples of fine-grained soil. Results show a significant reduction in the time required for saturation, while meeting the traditional criterion of Skempton's B-parameter equal to or higher than 0.95.