scholarly journals Direct Shear Test of Unsaturated Soil

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 183-188
Author(s):  
Peng He ◽  
Liuying Sun ◽  
Zhen Wang

The present study focuses on some tentative laboratory tests using a newly-constructed modified direct shear test apparatus. The single-stage and multistage direct shear tests were performed to determine the shear rate and test scheme of unsaturated shear test. Shear strength parameters of unsaturated soil in different conditions are obtained and the tests indicate good agreement with typical theories of unsaturated soil, the nonlinear matric suction failure envelope is determined. Some shear strength equations are also fitted through the experimental results. 

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Mohammad Afrazi ◽  
Mahmoud Yazdani

Many geotechnical problems require the determination of soil engineering properties such as shear strength. Therefore, the determination of the reliable values for this parameter is essential. For this purpose, the direct shear test, as one of the oldest tests to examine the shear strength of soils, is the most common way in laboratories to determine the shear parameters of soil. There are far too many variables that influence the results of a direct shear test. In this paper, a series of 10 × 10 cm direct shear tests were carried out on four different poorly graded sands with different particle size distributions to determine their shear behaviors. Four different poorly graded sands with a different median diameter or medium value of particle size distribution (D50) (0.2, 0.53, 1.3, and 2.3 mm) has been selected, and about 40 direct shear tests were conducted. It was concluded that a soil’s friction angle is affected by coarse-grained material. Accordingly, sandy soils with bigger particle sizes record a higher friction angle than soils containing small particles. The investigations also showed that sand with bigger particle sizes has a higher dilation angle. In addition, a non-linear regression analysis was performed to establish the exact relationship between the friction angle of the soil and the characteristics of the soil particles. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.


Author(s):  
Khaled Zahran ◽  
Hany El Naggar

Tire-derived aggregate (TDA), a relatively new construction material, has been gaining acceptance as a backfill material for embankments, trenches, and earth-retaining structures because of its lightweight and excellent geotechnical properties. Type A TDA has a basic geometric shape, with particles approximately 12 to 100 mm in size. As a result of the simplicity and accuracy of the direct shear test, most laboratories choose this test in preference to more complex tests. However, TDA requires large-scale direct shear apparatus because of the consistently large size of its particles, and few facilities own this type of apparatus. Depending on the shear box dimensions, the aspect ratio of the particle size to the box dimensions may lead to variations in the shear strength results of the sample being evaluated. This research focuses on studying the effect of TDA sample size on the shear strength results of direct shear tests by using five different shear box sizes. The findings show that the angle of internal friction increases slightly as the dimensions of the shear box decrease. It was found that the maximum variation in the angle of internal friction and the cohesion results of the different shear boxes was only 1.9° and 2.4 kPa, respectively. These differences should be taken into consideration when TDA shear test results are used in the geotechnical design. It is recommended that a shear box with an aspect ratio (W/Dmax) greater than or equal to 4 should be used when evaluating the shear strength parameters of TDA.


Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Ruiqian Wu ◽  
Youzhi Tang ◽  
Shaohe Li ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Ping Jiang ◽  
...  

In order to probe into one simplified method to predict the shear strength of Shaoxing unsaturated silty clay, the test method combining unsaturated soil consolidation instrument and conventional direct shear instrument is used to study the shear strength, and the method is compared and verified with the results of equal suction direct shear test. The research results show that the soil water characteristic curve fitted by the measured data points and VG model has obvious stage characteristics in the range of 0~38 kPa, 38~910 kPa, and 910~10000 kPa. The shear strength of unsaturated soil measured by consolidation meter combined with conventional direct shear test is in good agreement with that measured by equal suction direct shear test in the range of 0~500 kPa. The results show that the shear strength, total cohesion, and effective internal friction angle of soil increase slightly with the increase of matric suction in the range of 0~38 kPa. When the matric suction increases from 38 kPa to 500 kPa, the shear strength and total cohesion force of the soil have similar stage characteristics with the SWCC, which first increases and then tends to be stable, while the effective internal friction angle changes slightly. Finally, taking the air-entry value as the demarcation point, an improved model of unsaturated shear strength is proposed by analyzing the error value. Compared with the measured value, the absolute value of relative error is basically kept in the range of 5%~10%, which is close to the measured value.


2011 ◽  
Vol 368-373 ◽  
pp. 3230-3235
Author(s):  
Zhao Yun Xiao ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Yan Sheng Deng ◽  
Fan Tu

The interface of non-woven geotextile and HDPE geomembrane based on direct shear test has an obvious softening behavior. This paper adopts displacement-softening model that proposed by Esterhuizen and conducts secondary development by using ABAQUS and its embedded FRIC subroutine, making further efforts to conduct numerical simulation of interface of non-woven geotextile and HDPE geomembrane based on large-size direct shear tests. Results show that the developed interface friction model can simulate the characteristics of interface softening of certain materials better, thus providing a method when study the interface softening characteristic of materials.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Ping Jiang ◽  
Jian Qian ◽  
Na Li

The resource utilization of iron tailings is of great significance for all countries in the world. Considering the particle composition and physicochemical characteristics of iron tailings, fiber and lime were used to modify iron tailings. The fiber content was 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1%, and the lime content was 0%, 2%, 4%, 8%, and 10%, respectively. Through a direct shear test, the shear stress displacement (τ-δ) curves and shear strength of modified iron tailings, under the action of a 0 freeze-thaw cycle and 1 freeze-thaw cycle, were tested. As statistics have shown that there are uncertainty factors associated with direct shear tests, the shear strength index cohesion c and internal friction angle φ of the modified iron tailings were analyzed using the Monte Carlo method. The results show that the τ-δ curve of the fiber-modified iron tailings is a hardening-type curve and that of the lime-modified iron tailings is a softening-type curve. In the direct shear tests, the main uncertain factors are the specimen diameter, vertical force, and horizontal force. The diameter of the sample obeys a normal distribution, and the vertical and horizontal forces obey a uniform distribution. The results of the Monte Carlo simulation show that both c and φ obey a normal distribution. Under a 95% confidence condition, the effect of fiber on the cohesion on iron tailings is obvious, but the effect on the internal friction angle is not obvious. However, the values of c and φ of the iron tailings are clearly improved by lime. Additionally, the iron tailings modified by a fiber content of 1% and those modified by a lime content of 8% have the best frost resistance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 12003
Author(s):  
Leila Maria Coelho de Carvalho ◽  
Michelé Dal Toé Casagrande

Inclusion of natural fibers (sisal, curauá, coco fiber and others) for soil improvement has been the study object in diverse geotechnical areas and it is a topic of growing interest, within the research area of new geotechnical materials. The state of the art in this subject highlights excellent results as soil strength parameters improve and post-cracking strength (toughness) increase. Soil reinforcement technique with fibers is established in the technology of composite materials, this being a combination of two or more materials presenting properties that the component materials do not possess on their own. The aim of this paper is to study the mechanical behaviour of sand-fiber composite by inserting natural curauá fibers into a sandy matrix, with different fiber contents. The fibers were randomly distributed in the soil mass. The experimental program included physical and mechanical characterization of the composites, using full-scale direct shear tests, with samples measuring 30 x 30 cm and 15 cm high. Direct shear tests were carried out using fibers with 25 mm length and 0.5 and 0.75% fiber content (relative to the soil dry weight). The specimens also presented a relative density of 50% and moisture content of 10%. It was sought to establish a pattern behaviour so that the addition of curauá fiber influence can be explained, thus, comparing with the sandy soil shear strength parameters. Inclusion of natural curauá fibers as soil reinforcement presented satisfactory results, as an increase in the soil shear strength parameters was observed when compared with sandy soil results.


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