Shear Strength and Pore-Water Pressure Characteristics during Constant Water Content Triaxial Tests
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 3
Abstract
Shear strength parameters used in geotechnical design are obtained mainly from the consolidated drained (CD) or consolidated undrained (CU) triaxial tests. However in many field situations, soils are compacted for construction purposes and may not follow the stress paths in CD or CU triaxial tests. In these cases, the excess pore-air pressure during compaction will dissipate instantaneously, but the excess pore-water pressure will dissipate with time. Under this condition, it can be considered that the air phase is drained and the water phase is undrained. This condition can be simulated in a constant water content (CW) triaxial test. The purpose of this paper is to present the characteristics of the shear strength, volume change, and pore-water pressure of a compacted silt during shearing under the constant water content condition. A series of CW triaxial tests was carried out on statically compacted silt specimens. The experimental results showed that initial matric suction and net confining stress play an important role in affecting the characteristics of the shear strength, pore-water pressure, and volume change of a compacted soil during shearing under the constant water content condition. The failure envelope of the compacted silt exhibited nonlinearity with respect to matric suction.
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Acknowledgments
The research is supported by Research Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDRG 7/99 from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The first writer acknowledges the research scholarship received from NTU, Singapore.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 3 • March 2006
Pages: 411 - 419
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 24, 2005
Accepted: Jul 28, 2005
Published online: Mar 1, 2006
Published in print: Mar 2006
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