Stress Dependence of Shear Strength in Fine-Grained Soils and Correlations with Liquid Limit
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 10
Abstract
The undrained strengths and friction angles of a variety of natural fine-grained soils are investigated over an effective stress range of 0.1 to 10 MPa. The resedimentation technique was used to produce identical saturated samples for laboratory shear testing. The majority of the results presented are derived from -consolidated undrained triaxial compression tests, although behavior under direct simple shear and triaxial extension modes of shear is also presented for a single soil. Normalized shear stress-strain responses, undrained strength ratios, and critical state friction angles are found to vary considerably and consistently at each overconsolidation ratio when viewed over a significant effective stress range. Correlations are developed that allow the undrained strength and friction angle of a fine-grained soil, as well as the variation in these properties with stress level, to be estimated effectively from liquid limit, together with an evaluation of the in situ stress history of the sediment. Liquid limit is an easily measured index property that reflects the clay mineralogy and clay fraction of a soil.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The results presented in this paper rely heavily on laboratory work carried out by several MIT graduate students over the past few years. In particular, the authors gratefully acknowledge the talented work of Naeem Abdulhadi, John Grennan, Cullen Jones, and Nick Kontopoulos. The authors are also very appreciative of Professor Emeritus Charles C. Ladd and two anonymous reviewers for their most helpful comments and suggestions. This work was funded by the UT Geofluids consortium, comprising Anadarko Petroleum, BP, BHP Billiton, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Hess, Schlumberger, Shell, Statoil, and Total.
References
Abdulhadi, N. O., Germaine, J. T., and Whittle, A. J. (2012). “Stress-dependent behavior of saturated clay.” Can. Geotech. J., 49(8), 907–916.
Ahmed, I. (1990). “Investigation of normalized behavior of resedimented Boston blue clay using Geonor Direct Simple Shear.” S.M. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
ASTM. (2011). “Standard practice for classification of soils for engineering purposes (Unified Soil Classification System).” D2487, West Conshohocken, PA.
Burland, J. B. (1990). “On the compressibility and shear strength of natural soils.” Geotechnique, 40(3), 329–378.
Casey, B. (2011). “The significance of specimen end restraint in high pressure triaxial testing of cohesive soil.” S.M. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Grace, H., et al. (1957). “Discussion on Airport Paper No. 35: The planning and design of the new Hong Kong Airport.” ICE Proceedings, 7(2), 305–325.
Grennan, J. T. (2010). “Characterization of a low plasticity silt.” S.M. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Gutierrez, M., Nygard, R., Hoeg, K., and Berre, T. (2008). “Normalized undrained shear strength of clay shales.” Eng. Geol., 99(1–2), 31–39.
Jones, C. A. (2010). “Engineering properties of resedimented Ugnu clay from the Alaskan North Slope.” S.M. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Kontopoulos, N. S. (2012). “The effects of sample disturbance on preconsolidation pressure for normally consolidated and overconsolidated clays.” Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Ladd, C. C. (1991). “Stability evaluation during staged construction.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 117(4), 540–615.
Ladd, C. C., and Foott, R. (1974). “New design procedure for stability of soft clay.” J. Geotech. Eng. Div., 100(7), 763–786.
Ladd, R. S. (1978). “Preparing test specimens using undercompaction.” J. ASTM Geotech Test., 1(1), 16–23.
Mesri, G., and Olson, R. E. (1970). “Shear strength of montmorillonite.” Geotechnique, 20(3), 261–270.
Moniz, S. R. (2009). “The influence of effective consolidation stress on the normalized extension strength properties of resedimented Boston blue clay.” M.Eng thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Olson, R. E. (1963). “Shear strength properties of a sodium illite.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 89(1), 183–208.
Petley, D. N. (1999). “Failure envelopes of mudrocks at high confining pressures.” Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ., 158, 61–71.
Quirós, G. W., Little, R. L., and Garmon, S. (2000). “A normalized soil parameter procedure for evaluating in-situ undrained shear strength.” Offshore Technology Conf., Houston, TX.
Roscoe, K. H., and Burland, J. B. (1968). “On the generalized stress-strain behavior of ‘wet’ clay.” Engineering plasticity, J. Heyman and F. A. Leckie, eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 535–609.
Schofield, A. N., and Wroth, C. P. (1968). Critical state soil mechanics, McGraw Hill, London.
Seah, T. H. (1990). “Anisotropy of resedimented Boston blue clay.” Sc.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Seed, H. B., Woodward, R. J., and Lundgren, R. (1964). “Fundamental aspects of the Atterberg limits.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 90(SM6), 75–105.
Sheahan, T. C. (1991). “An experimental study of the time-dependent undrained shear behavior of resedimented clay using automated stress-path triaxial equipment.” Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Sheahan, T. C., Ladd, C. C., and Germaine, J. T. (1996). “Rate-dependent undrained shear behavior of saturated clay.” J. Geotech. Eng., 122(2), 99–108.
Soil mechanics design manual 7.01. (1986). Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Alexandria, VA.
Skempton, A. W. (1957). “Discussion on Airport Paper No. 35: The planning and design of the new Hong Kong Airport.” Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers, 7(2), 305–307.
Terzaghi, K., Peck, R. B., and Mesri, G. (1996). Soil mechanics in engineering practice, 3rd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Walbaum, M. (1988). “Procedure for investigation of sample disturbance using the direct simple shear apparatus.” S.M. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Whittle, A. J., and Kavvadas, M. (1994). “Formulation of the MIT-E3 constitutive model for overconsolidated clays.” J. Geotech. Eng. Div., 120(1), 173–198.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 10 • October 2013
Pages: 1709 - 1717
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 1, 2012
Accepted: Jan 16, 2013
Published online: Jan 18, 2013
Published in print: Oct 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.