Effect of pre-shearing/suction histories on residual shear strength of unsaturated soils

2013 ◽  
pp. 377-382
2020 ◽  
Vol 195 ◽  
pp. 03024
Author(s):  
Laureano R. Hoyos ◽  
Jairo E. Yepes ◽  
Claudia L. Velosa ◽  
Anand J. Puppala

An experimental program has been undertaken to assess both peak and residual shear strength parameters of statically compacted, moderate plasticity clayey soil under suction-controlled conditions, resulting in a defined set of suction-dependent peak and residual failure envelopes over a relatively wide range of suction states, from 0 to 300 kPa. The experimental program was accomplished in a servo/suction-controlled ring shear apparatus, which is suitable for testing unsaturated soils under large deformations via the axis-translation technique. Test results substantiate the crucial role that has been observed to be played by the imposed matric suction on the residual shear strength of compacted clayey soils. For the range of net normal stress (0-200 kPa) and matric suction (0-300 kPa) states investigated, the increase in either peak or residual shear strength, with increasing matric suction, was found to be manifestly nonlinear. Furthermore, a distinct correspondence was observed between the nonlinearity of the peak shear strength envelope, with respect to increasing matric suction, and the soil-water retention properties of the clayey soil. Results, in general, suggest that a conceptual residual shear strength framework for unsaturated soils, similar to that postulated for peak shear strength, can eventually be formulated as more experimental evidence of this kind is made available.


2014 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laureano R. Hoyos ◽  
Claudia L. Velosa ◽  
Anand J. Puppala

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisham T. Eid ◽  
Ruslan S. Amarasinghe ◽  
Khaled H. Rabie ◽  
Dharma Wijewickreme

A laboratory research program was undertaken to study the large-strain shear strength characteristics of fine-grained soils under low effective normal stresses (∼3–7 kPa). Soils that cover a wide range of plasticity and composition were utilized in the program. The interface shear strength of these soils against a number of solid surfaces having different roughness was also investigated at similar low effective normal stress levels. The findings contribute to advancing the knowledge of the parameters needed for the design of pipelines placed on sea beds and the stability analysis of shallow soil slopes. A Bromhead-type torsional ring-shear apparatus was modified to suit measuring soil–soil and soil–solid interface residual shear strengths at the low effective normal stresses. In consideration of increasing the accuracy of assessment and depicting the full-scale field behavior, the interface residual shear strengths were also measured using a macroscale interface direct shear device with a plan interface shear area of ∼3.0 m2. Correlations are developed to estimate the soil–soil and soil–solid interface residual shear strengths at low effective normal stresses. The correlations are compared with soil–soil and soil–solid interface drained residual shear strengths and correlations presented in the literature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (12) ◽  
pp. 2067-2076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marie Konrad ◽  
Marc Lebeau

A number of investigations have shown that the shear strength of unsaturated soils can be defined in terms of effective stress. The difficulty in this approach lies in quantifying the effective stress parameter, or Bishop’s parameter. Although often set equal to the degree of saturation, it has recently been suggested that the effective stress parameter should be related to an effective degree of saturation, which defines the fraction of water that contributes to soil strength. A problematic element in this approach resides in differentiating the water that contributes to soil strength from that which does not contribute to soil strength. To address this difficulty, the paper uses theoretical considerations and experimental observations to partition the water retention function into capillary and adsorptive components. Given that the thin liquid films of adsorbed water should not contribute to effective stress, the effective stress parameter is solely related to the capillary component of water retention. In sample calculations, this alternative effective stress parameter provided very good agreement with experimental data of shear strength for a variety of soil types.


Author(s):  
Tuan A. Pham ◽  
Melis Sutman

The prediction of shear strength for unsaturated soils remains to be a significant challenge due to their complex multi-phase nature. In this paper, a review of prior experimental studies is firstly carried out to present important pieces of evidence, limitations, and some design considerations. Next, an overview of the existing shear strength equations is summarized with a brief discussion. Then, a micromechanical model with stress equilibrium conditions and multi-phase interaction considerations is presented to provide a new equation for predicting the shear strength of unsaturated soils. The validity of the proposed model is examined for several published shear strength data of different soil types. It is observed that the shear strength predicted by the analytical model is in good agreement with the experimental data, and get high performance compared to the existing models. The evaluation of the outcomes with two criteria, using average relative error and the normalized sum of squared error, proved the effectiveness and validity of the proposed equation. Using the proposed equation, the nonlinear relationship between shear strength, saturation degree, volumetric water content, and matric suction are observed.


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