Experimental Validation of Suction Stress Characteristic Curve from Nonfailure Triaxial Consolidation Tests
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Volume 139, Issue 9
Abstract
In recent years, the suction stress characteristic curve (SSCC) has been shown to represent a key constitutive relationship for defining effective stress in variably saturated soils. The SSCC can be deduced either from shear strength tests under variably saturated conditions or from soil water retention tests. This paper provides an alternative way to obtain the SSCC by conducting nonfailure consolidation tests. Multiple remolded specimens from two different granitic residual soils, a silty sand (SM) and a clayey sand (SC), were evaluated in suction-controlled triaxial tests under conditions. The results from these tests show that the stress paths for remolded specimens with different initial suction values differ during consolidation when plotted in terms of the net normal stress, but follow a single path when plotted in terms of the effective stress defined using the SSCC. This observation confirms the validity of the effective stress principle before failure. Further, the results of the shear strength tests under different matric suctions show that the failure envelope can be uniquely defined by the effective stress representation, a reconfirmation of the validity of the effective stress principle in describing the shear strength behavior of soils. The results obtained from the consolidation tests also reveal that (or the horizontal to vertical stress ratio) defined by effective stress is invariant to matric suction, whereas defined by the total stress varies greatly with matric suction. These results provide a further confirmation of the validity of the effective stress principle. Because the SSCCs deduced independently in this study from shear strength tests, soil water retention tests, and consolidation tests compare favorably with each other, the SSCC-based effective stress can be used to describe the consolidation and shear strength behavior of unsaturated soils.
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Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by a grant from Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) (11-RTIP-D04) and Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) (20103020070080) to SO and a grant from the National Science Foundation (CMMI-0855783) to NL, which are greatly appreciated.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 9 • September 2013
Pages: 1490 - 1503
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 11, 2012
Accepted: Dec 17, 2012
Published online: Dec 19, 2012
Published in print: Sep 1, 2013
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