Study on Shear Strength Experiments Base on the Modified Direct Shear Apparatus for Unsaturated Soils
The unconsolidated-undrained fast shear tests of saturated-unsaturated remolded soil samples under different moisture content which is 1.1%, 10.1%, 14.9%, 19.9%, 24.2%, 29.9%, 37.7% respectively, and normal stress which is 50kPa, 100kPa, 200kPa, 300kPa, 400kPa respectively, were studied by the modified SDJ-1-type strain direct shear apparatus and U.S. Lab VIEW data acquisition system. The shear strength parameters of unsaturated soil samples, i.e. general cohesion and general internal friction angle were obtained based on Mohr-Coulomb strength theory. The test results showed that the general cohesion firstly increased and then reduced with the moisture content increasing, and the general internal friction angle increased with the moisture content decreasing. The function between the general shear strength parameters and the moisture content was studied. The concept of general shear strength parameters was proposed in the paper, and would provide a simple and practical method to obtain the strength parameters for engineering practice.