Fracture Toughness of Compacted Cohesive Soils Using Ring Test
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 120, Issue 5
Abstract
Testing procedures and methods of analysis for determining the fracture toughness of soils using the ring test are described and values of fracture toughness measured for 132 compacted specimens of two cohesive soils are presented. The critical mode I stress‐intensity factor, the critical integral, and the tensile strength can be determined simultaneously from a single ring‐test specimen. The critical integral was approximately equal to the energy‐release rate computed from the critical mode I stress‐intensity factor measured for the same specimen. A strong correlation between fracture toughness and ring‐specimen tensile strength was found. Effects of material type, water content, soil‐placement conditions, rate of loading, and specimen size have been studied, and values of fracture toughness measured by bending tests are compared to ring‐test results. Test results show that fracture toughness of cohesive soils is affected significantly by material type and water content at time of fracture. In contrast, effects of material‐placement conditions, molding water content, and molding compactive effort are relatively unimportant.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 120 • Issue 5 • May 1994
Pages: 872 - 891
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 27, 1993
Published online: May 1, 1994
Published in print: May 1994
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