Orthogonal Test on the True Triaxial Mechanical Properties of Frozen Calcareous Clay and Analysis of Influencing Factors
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This article is well written in general. Some improvements are suggested as follows.
- A careful check of grammar, syntax and the meaning of sentences in the whole text.
- The equations mentioned in the text are not aligned with the text, without a numbering. Please check the template of this journal.
However, this paper is similar to the one already published by the same authors " Cao, Y.; Rong, C.; Wang, Z.; Shi, X.; Wang, B.; Long, W. Experimental Study on True Triaxial Mechanical Properties of Frozen Calcareous Clay under the Influence of Multiple Factors. Crystals 2022, 12, 328. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12030328"
which is available at : https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/12/3/328
These articles have several figures and tables in common, as a copy.
Therefore, this paper lacks in originality and should be not published as a copy of the previous article.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript . Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and imporving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. The main comments in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Point 1: A careful check of grammar, syntax and the meaning of sentences in the whole text.
Response 1:I comprehensively checked the grammar and the meaning of the sentence, and made changes in the corresponding places.
Point 2: The equations mentioned in the text are not aligned with the text, without a numbering. Please check the template of this journal.
Response 2: I have reedited the formula of the full text. According to the journal template, by adding a table, and then inserting the formula into the table.
Point 3: However, this paper is similar to the one already published by the same authors. These articles have several figures and tables in common, as a copy. Therefore, this paper lacks in originality and should be not published as a copy of the previous article.
Response 3: This true triaxial test was completed with the help of Cao. We each completed our own papers in different analysis directions. As the process of reviewing his paper was relatively smooth, however, my paper had been waiting for a long time in other journals, and I withdrew the manuscript and submitted it instead, so there were several similar charts mentioned by you. These charts are the presentation of the experimental design and the original data of the experiment, but the later analysis angles are completely different, so I can only quote Cao's article in my manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript describes a set of triaxial tests on frozen calcareous clay under the influence of different factors, including temperature, water content, salt content, confining pressure, and Bishop parameter. The topic of this manuscript is undoubtedly quite important. The subject matter is interesting and suitable to the journal. The paper, generally, is written in a clear way and there are no major problems with regard to the content of its various sections. The authors did a great job presenting their results in nicely done figures and the manuscript was very well-written and easier to follow. However, the paper would benefit from careful language editing as here and there some language related errors were noted. I have only few comments and clarification needed to further improve and I think this manuscript can be considered for publication after addressing these comments.
Line 57: “de-formation of frozen soil is significantly affected by the change in the water and salt con-tents and that the strength increases significantly”- It is not clear from the sentence whether strength increases with increasing/decreasing salt content.
Please remove hyphen from the words like “deformation”, “content”, etc. Please revised the entire manuscript thoroughly.
Line 145-146: Please write the equation/special character in proper format.
It is not clear how salt content influences the shear strength characteristics of frozen soil.
Why the authors have used CaCl2 salt. I think salt type could be another important factor to consider.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript . Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and imporving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. The main comments in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Point 1: Line 57: “de-formation of frozen soil is significantly affected by the change in the water and salt con-tents and that the strength increases significantly”- It is not clear from the sentence whether strength increases with increasing/decreasing salt content.
Response 1: I have made appropriate changes to this part.
Point 2: Please remove hyphen from the words like “deformation”, “content”, etc. Please revised the entire manuscript thoroughly.
Response 2: I have checked the full manuscript and removed some redundant hyphens.
Point 3: Line 145-146: Please write the equation/special character in proper format.
Response 3: I have modified the formula here and reedited all the formulas in the manuscript.
Point 4: It is not clear how salt content influences the shear strength characteristics of frozen soil.
Response 4: How the salt content affects the shear strength characteristics of frozen soil is not the focus of this manuscript, so there is no detailed explanation and analysis of this part in the manuscript. The most intuitive effect of salinity is to change the liquid phase composition of the soil, reduce the freezing temperature, and make it more difficult to freeze. Under the same negative temperature, the unfrozen water content will affect the shear strength of frozen soil. During the freezing process, water migration and solute migration occur, which further complicates the freezing process. I will continue to explore this direction later.
Point 5: Why the authors have used CaCl2 I think salt type could be another important factor to consider.
Response 5: The type of salt is indeed an important factor. I use CaCl2 salt mainly based on the engineering background. CaCl2 solution is used as low-temperature refrigerant in the freezing method construction of coal mine shaft, and many refrigerant leakage accidents occur. Therefore, the influence of calcium chloride salt on the strength of frozen soil is explored.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript deals with understanding the mechanistic response of frozen calcareous clay at different strain levels and its practical application to buried pipes. The reviewer lauds the efforts put in by authors in taking up this practical work which will allow the practicing engineers to better deal with such clays when encountered.
The reviewer is convinced with the design of experiments, logical flow and the reasons provided under different strain conditions. The only possible improvement the reviewer feels that can be incorporated into this manuscript is under "Conclusions Section". The authors are advised to highlight the qualitative and quantitative research findings from the study and provide them in crisp form.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 3 Comments
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript . Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and imporving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. The main comments in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Point 1: The reviewer is convinced with the design of experiments, logical flow and the reasons provided under different strain conditions. The only possible improvement the reviewer feels that can be incorporated into this manuscript is under "Conclusions Section". The authors are advised to highlight the qualitative and quantitative research findings from the study and provide them in crisp form.
Response 1: I have made some changes to the conclusion according to your suggestions.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have improved this paper. However, there are still similarities to the paper "Cao, Y.; Rong, C.; Wang, Z.; Shi, X.; Wang, B.; Long, W. Experimental Study on True Triaxial Mechanical Properties of Frozen Calcareous Clay under the Influence of Multiple Factors. Crystals 2022, 12, 328. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12030328"
Serious concern remains on the originality of this paper.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Thank you for your letter again and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Orthogonal Test on the True Triaxial Mechanical Properties of Frozen Calcareous Clay and Analysis of Influencing Factors” (ID: applsci-1856209).
Point 1: There are still similarities to the paper "Cao, Y.; Rong, C.; Wang, Z.; Shi, X.; Wang, B.; Long, W. Experimental Study on True Triaxial Mechanical Properties of Frozen Calcareous Clay under the Influence of Multiple Factors. Crystals 2022, 12, 328. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12030328"
Serious concern remains on the originality of this paper.
Response 1: As for table 2 and table 3, which are still similar to the papers mentioned by you, since they are data tables about the test design and test results, the data cannot be changed, so I can only slightly change the table form and quote this paper.Thank you again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
