#Does quicksand exist free#

A person can easily float in it with about one-third of his body out of quicksand. Quicksand cannot support the weight of man or animal and it behaves like a liquid with a unit weight about twice that of water. The soil behaves as a liquid having no shear strength. If a weight is placed on the surface of the soil, it sinks down. The discharge suddenly increases due to an increase in the coefficient of permeability occurred in the process. During this stage, a violent and visible agitation of particles occurs. The quick condition is also known as boiling condition. If the critical gradient exceeds, the soil moves upward, and the soil surface appears to be boiling. head causing the flow is equal to the length of the specimen. Thus, the effective stress becomes zero for the soil with above values of G and e, when the hydraulic gradient ‘i’ is unity, i.e. G=2.67, and e=0.67, the result of equation 9 is equal to one. The value of submerged unit weight in terms of void ratio: So, equation 5 may be expressed as follows: Plugging components of equation 2 results in the following expressions: The terminologies of equation 2 are explained and illustrated in fig. The effective stress is given by the following expression: Fig. The shear strength of cohesionless soil depends on the effective stress. The soil that experiences quicksand condition would lose shear strength and bearing capacity. The result is that the soil has no capability to support a load. Quicksand condition occurs when seepage pressure, which acts in the upward direction, overcomes the downward direction pressure due to submerged weight of soil, and the sand grains are forced apart.

#Does quicksand exist free#

Practically, boiling condition may occur when excavations are made below the water table and water is pumped out from the excavation pit to keep the area free from water. Quicksand condition is not a type of soil but a flow condition that occurs in cohesionless soils.

As sand boiling occurs, the bearing capacity and shear strength of the cohesionless soil decrease and the agitations of soil particles become apparent. Quicksand condition is the floatation of particles of cohesionless soil, like fine gravel and sand, due to vertical upward seepage flow.