Geo-Congress 2020
Practical Guidelines for Assessing Undrained Shear Strength from Triaxial Compression with Isotropic and Anisotropic Consolidation
Publication: Geo-Congress 2020: Modeling, Geomaterials, and Site Characterization (GSP 317)
ABSTRACT
Selection of shear strength parameters for geotechnical analyses is often informed by laboratory testing of compacted and undisturbed soil samples. Laboratory tests commonly used to characterize peak shear strength include direct shear tests, direct simple shear tests, and triaxial compression tests. Consolidated-undrained triaxial compression tests with pore-pressure measurements are particularly useful and common, because the test results allow for interpretation of both drained and undrained strength parameters. Even though stress conditions in the field are generally anisotropic, samples for consolidated-undrained triaxial compression tests are most often isotropically consolidated. For cases where strength interpretation requires that the in situ stress conditions be considered, empirical and theoretical correlations between undrained shear strength from these differing consolidation-stress conditions are available to understand the potential differences in shear strength parameters. This paper presents an overview of previously proposed empirical and theoretical correlations. The methods are evaluated using a shear strength database of soils for which both isotropically and anisotropically consolidated-undrained triaxial compression tests were performed. Based on a review of the predicted and measured shear strengths, practical recommendations are made for use in engineering practice.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2020: Modeling, Geomaterials, and Site Characterization (GSP 317)
Pages: 398 - 406
Editors: James P. Hambleton, Ph.D., Northwestern University, Roman Makhnenko, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Aaron S. Budge, Ph.D., Minnesota State University, Mankato
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8280-3
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Feb 21, 2020
Published in print: Feb 21, 2020
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Compression tests
- Compressive strength
- Consolidated soils
- Engineering fundamentals
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Laboratory tests
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials engineering
- Shear strength
- Shear tests
- Soil compression
- Soil dynamics
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Soil strength
- Soils (by type)
- Strength of materials
- Tests (by type)
- Triaxial tests
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