Effect of Coarse Materials Percentage in the Shear Strength

Abstract

There are several factors that affecting the shear strength and shear strength parameters (i.e. cohesion and friction angle). In this study, the effect of coarse material percentage was tested. Six different mixtures of soils (clay and sand) with different coarse material percentages (i.e. from 80% to 30% of coarse material percentage) were tested via using direct shear test under different moisture content percentage. The results indicated that the shear strength and friction angle were decreased by the increment of the percentage of coarse materials (sand). However, the cohesion results showed unique behavior. The cohesion (at every moisture content values) increased with the increment of the percentage of coarse materials until specific point then it started to decrease with the increment of the percentage of coarse materials.