Practical Determination of Critical Shear Stress in Cohesive Soils
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 10
Abstract
In comparison to sand and gravel, cohesive soils, and clays in particular, present significant challenges when critical entrainment thresholds and erosion rates are to be determined for a particular basin or modeled in the laboratory. A wide variation in cohesive soil characteristics and behavior is usually encountered, even within relatively short reaches of river and creek beds. It is, therefore, evident that assessing the erodibility of such beds requires analysis of a large number of locations within reach, resulting in a costly and time-consuming undertaking. The objective of this paper is to introduce a practical procedure and test device designed to allow a fast and accurate determination of the critical shear stress of cohesive (and some noncohesive) soils, both in laboratory samples and in the field. The device, herein referred to as the erosionometer, is based on physical shearing of the soil surface. Initial calibration of the device showed a very good correlation with critical shear stress values for particle entrainment measured in a laboratory flume.
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Acknowledgments
The authors offer many thanks to the City of Ottawa, and in particular Darlene Conway, for supporting the project; to Mr. Mark Lapointe for his valuable assistance in fabrication of lab and field setups; and to Nicholas Zorn, Benjamin Lambert, Alain Kayitaba, Andre Smith, Derek Eden, and Carlo Zaro Custodio for assisting in field and laboratory work.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 10 • October 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 26, 2016
Accepted: Apr 27, 2017
Published online: Aug 7, 2017
Published in print: Oct 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jan 7, 2018
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