Monotonic simple shear response of fine grained silts under different saturation condition

Abstract

Simple shear test is a specialized laboratory test to determine shear strength parameters of soils. Most of simple shear devices do not have capacity to measure pore water. Alternatively, constant volume test has been employed to simulate the truly undrained condition. Due to the fact that identical response of saturated constant volume test and undrained test was previously proved, there is a belief among geotechnical engineers indicating that the response of constant volume dry test is identical to undrained response. The applicability of constant volume test for partial saturated fine grained materials is of significant importance. This paper aims to investigate the similarity of the response of constant volume dry or partial saturated tests to the response of constant volume saturated test and therefore undrained simple shear tests. It was found that the responses of constant volume dry and partial saturated specimen at same void ratio are identical to the response of saturated constant volume test. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.