Fully Softened Shear Strength at Low Stresses for Levee and Embankment Design
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 9
Abstract
Shallow slides in levee and other embankment slopes are usually controlled by effective normal stresses less than 12 kPa (250 psf). For first-time slides in fine-grained soils, the fully softened shear strength is frequently used to model the strength of embankment soils because it represents the shear strength remaining after the effects of overconsolidation, compaction, desiccation, or other strengthening processes have been removed because of wetting, infiltration, stress relief, swelling, and weathering. However, there is limited fully softened strength data at effective normal stresses less than 50 kPa (1,000 psf), so existing correlations in this stress range must be extrapolated. This paper presents new fully softened shear strength data at an effective normal stress of 12 kPa (250 psf) and recommendations for estimating and modeling the stress-dependent fully softened shear strength envelope directly or as a power function in stability analyses.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 9 • September 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 20, 2013
Accepted: May 12, 2014
Published online: Jun 12, 2014
Published in print: Sep 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Nov 12, 2014
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