Modified Direct Shear Test for Anisotropic Strength of Sand
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 9
Abstract
This paper presents a simple method to estimate the directional dependency of granular soil strength using a modified shear box and a special specimen preparation procedure. This method is used to investigate the strength anisotropy of granular materials with particle shapes varying from spherical to angular. The experimental results show that the friction angle of granular materials varies with the orientation of shear plane relative to the bedding plane, and the degree of anisotropy is affected by particle shape. Comparison of the data from direct shear tests in this study with those of plane strain and torsional simple shear tests in the literature shows that direct shear using the modified direct shear box can reasonably capture the directional dependency of the friction angle for cohesionless materials.
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Acknowledgments
Funding provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged. The writer is also grateful to Mr. Chandan Pujapanda for performing a part of the laboratory tests. Last but not least, the reviewers’ constructive comments on the original manuscript are greatly appreciated.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 9 • September 2008
Pages: 1311 - 1318
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 20, 2007
Accepted: Jan 8, 2008
Published online: Sep 1, 2008
Published in print: Sep 2008
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