Triaxial simple shear test: TxSS

Abstract

This paper presents a combined triaxial simple shear (TxSS) apparatus developed by the Research Institute of Hydro-Québec (IREQ) in collaboration with the soil dynamics and geotechnical engineering group of the Université de Sherbrooke (Québec, Canada). The TxSS system consists of a simple shear apparatus incorporated in a triaxial cell for the measurements of monotonic and dynamic characteristics of soil samples. A general description as well as some applications and advantages of the TxSS systems over the traditional apparatus are presented. The key application of the TxSS is the evaluation of liquefaction potential of soil under regular or irregular excitations. Test results in terms of monotonic and dynamic characteristics obtained using the TxSS device on different cohesive and cohesionless soil samples are presented to illustrate its capabilities. They are successfully compared to those obtained using reliable design charts available in the literature, conventional apparatus and to those from rigorous numerical analyses.