FACTORS INFLUENCING SHEAR BEHAVIOUR OF COHESIONLESS SOIL

Rahul Das1, Chinmoy Kalita2, Sanjeeb Das3 and Malaya Chetia4

1

Under Graduate Student, Assam Engineering College

Under Graduate Student, Assam Engineering College
3
Under Graduate Student, Assam Engineering College
4
Assistant Professor, Assam Engineering College, gogoi_chetia@yahoo.co.in
2

ABSTRACT: One of the most important subjects in geotechnical engineering that has
been evaluated extensively over long period of time is the shear strength of soils. The
bearing capacity of shallow or deep foundations, slope stability, retaining wall design
are all affected by the shear strength of the soil in a slope, behind a retaining wall, or
supporting a foundation or pavement. There are several factors that influences shear
strength of soils. This paper reviews different factors influencing shear strength of
cohesionless materials. The present study attempts to understand the influence of strain
rate and particle shape on shear strength of cohesionless materials. It must be noted that
there are not much studies available in this subject. With this in view experiments were
conducted on two locally available quarry dust and one sand sample using direct shear
test to understand their shear strength behavior. The study indicates that the strain rate
and particle shape have effect on the shear strength of cohesionless materials.
INTRODUCTION
Cohesionless materials include different soils and artificial substances that do not
have the tendency of sticking together among the individual grains of the material. Sand
is the most typical cohesionless granular material. It results from the erosion of rocks
and is globally widespread throughout alluvial lands, deserts, and the seabed. Engineers
frequently face natural sands and crushed aggregates in their work. Improvements in the
understanding of the relationship between the nature of particles and the overall
response of such materials are necessary for various geotechnical applications.
Again, quarry dust or crusher dust is obtained in huge amounts as solid wastes that
create lot of geoenvironmental problems. Several studied have been done regarding its
utilization in different areas. These may be used in replacement of sand and also as
mixes of sand and quarry dust for areas where sand is scarce or is required in huge
amounts, provided its strength and other properties are at par or more than the sand to
which it is added.
The quarry dust or crusher dust is obtained as solid wastes, during crushing of stones
to obtain aggregates. The annual production of quarry dust is roughly around 200
million tones.(Soosan et al., 2005).The disposal of these wastes create a lot of
geoenvironmental problems. Several works have been done regarding the utilization of
this waste for various beneficial engineering purposes. Some of these uses may require

natural dewatering or even drying of quarry fines as these have high moisture contents.
In addition, some of these uses may have specific gradation requirements and may have
limitations on the type of quarry fines to be used. Nevertheless may further research
introduce even more of its potential utilities. Some of the uses of quarry dust is stated as
follows:
(a) Improvement in engineering properties of expansive soils
(b) Application in forest road construction
(c) Replacement of sandbags in flood control measures.
(d) Application of quarry dust as solid waste landfills.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The shear strength of soil is the resistance to deformation by continuous shear
displacement of soil particles or on masses upon the action of a shear stress. The failure
conditions for a soil may be expressed in terms of limiting shear stress, called shear
strength or as a function of principal stresses. All stability analysis in soil mechanics
involve a basic knowledge of the shearing properties and shearing resistance of the soil.
The shear strength is the most difficult to comprehend and the most important of the soil
characteristics. The shearing resistance of a soil is constituted basically of the following
components:
(i)
The structural resistance to displacement of the soil because of the interlocking
of the particles.
(ii)
The frictional resistance to translocation between the individual soil particles at
their contact points, and
(iii) Cohesion between the surfaces of the soil particles.
Factors affecting shear strength of cohesionless soils
Relative density
Volumetric change (dv) during shearing can significantly affect the shear strength
behaviour of the soils. For typical cohesive or cohesionless soils it has been observed
that the soil shear stress ( )varies as the soil strains or deforms during soil shearing.
Selection of the appropriate soil shear strength to be used in design must be compatible
with the deformation or strain that the soil will exhibit under the loading. Medium and
dense sands typically reach a peak shear strength (peak = max) value and then decrease
to a residual shear strength value at large displacements. The volume of medium and
dense sands initially decreases (contractive behaviour) and then increases as the soil
grains dilate (dilative behaviour) with shear displacement until it reaches a point of
almost constant volume (steady state behaviour). The shear stress in loose sands
increases with shear displacement to a maximum value and then remains constant. The
volume of loose sands gradually decreases (contractive behaviour) until it reach a point
of almost constant volume (steady state behaviour).

Grain size distribution

Soils are made of mineral grains. The grain size distribution of a soil determines the
governing particle-level forces, inter-particle packing and the ensuing macroscale
behaviour; therefore, grain size distribution plays a central role in soil classification
systems. Efforts were made to study the effect of grain size distribution on the shear
strength behaviour of cohesionless materials with various relative densities. Several
samples with different grain size distributions namely well graded (soils containing
wide range of particle sizes), gap graded (soils formed by several particle sizes) and
uniformly graded (soils having a narrow range of particle size distribution) were
prepared and direct shear test was carried out to determine the shear strength.
Observations have shown that well graded (WG) soils form a denser packing and thus
have a higher value of shear strength as compared to gap graded and uniformly graded
soils because in well graded soils, the finer particles fill the voids formed by the coarse
particles, thereby resulting in a more compacted material, and providing more
interlocking within the material. On the other hand, uniformly graded materials tend to
form loose packing and therefore are weaker than the well graded ones.
Effect of shear box size
Researches have been done to study the effect of shear box size on the strength of
sandy soils using direct shear test results. For this purpose, firuzkuh standard sand was
used which contains angular particle shape and with different silt percentages (10 %,
20% and 30%) and tests performed on specimens in maximum compaction density and
with optimum moisture content. Direct shear tests were performed with two shear box
sizes (100 x 100 mm and 60 x 60 mm), in which the normal pressure and displacement
rates were constant. Results indicate that the peak shear strength decreases as shear box
size increases. Also increasing the silt percentages will cause decrease in the peak shear
strength
Presence of non-plastic fines
Studies and tests were performed to address the effect of non plastic fines on the
shear strength and stiffness of sands. Samples were prepared at different relative
densities and subjected to various levels of effective consolidation stress. Results of
triaxial tests were analyzed to assess both the peak and the critical-state friction angles
of clean and silty Ottawa sands. It was observed that the addition of even small
percentages of silt to clean sand considerably increases both the peak friction angle at a
given initial relative density and the critical-state friction angle. Although small-strain
stiffness drops, peak and critical-state strengths increase with increasing fines content.
This may be interpreted as follows: initially the fine particles are not positioned in a
way to provide optimum interlocking and small shear strains are imposed on the soil

with greater ease than if the fines were not present. As shearing progresses, the fines
reach more stable arrangements and ultimately increase interlocking, dilatancy, and
shear strength. However, the soil response observed in the particular study maybe
strictly applicable only to the silt and sand gradations used in the testing. (R. Salgado,
Member, ASCE; P. Bandini, Student Member, ASCE and A. Karim)
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS
Three cohesionless soils were used in this study, which include a locally available sandy
soil (denoted as S) and two quarry dusts (denoted as D1 and D2). Sand and quarry dust
have been characterized for its specific gravity and grain size distribution by following
the guidelines provided in the literature. According to USCS all the samples are poorly
graded (SP). The results of these characterizations are presented in Table 1. In the Table
1, SLGSDC represents the slope of the grain size distribution curve (GSDC) and it is
determined by using the Eq. 1. From the quarry dust samples, D1and D2, two new dust
samples has been prepared with similar grain size distribution as the sand sample, S and
this new dust sample has been designated as D1sS and D2sS. The grain size distribution
curves of the quarry dust samples are shown in Fig.1.
SLGSDC = (60 % - 10 %)/(Log D60-Log D10)

(1)

where, D60 = a size in mm that 60% of the particles are finer than that size; and D 10 = a
size in mm that 10% of the particles are finer than that size.
120
100
80
% finer

60
S1
40

D2

D1

20
0
0.01

0.1

Particle size (mm)

FIG. 1. Grain size distribution of S1, D2, D1

10

Table 1. Physical properties and classification of the samples used in this study
Property
Specific Gravity
Particle Size
Characteristics (%)
Sand
(4.75-0.075 mm)
Coarse Sand
(4.75-2 mm)
Medium Sand
(2-0.425 mm)
Fine Sand
(0.425-0.075 mm)
Silt
(0.075-0.002 mm)
Cc
Cu
SLGSDC
USCS Classification

Soil
S
2.67

Quarry dust
D1
2.68

D2
2.62

2.9

1.2

6.8

54.9

38.5

37.6

40.6

49.1

45.3

1.6

11.2

1.8

1.1
2.7
1.2
SP

1.1
5.8
0.66
SP

2.7
4.8
0.74
SP

Shape and mineralogical characterization of the samples were carried out from the
petrographical images. The shape of the sand particles are mainly rounded to sub
rounded whereas the dust particles are mostly angular to sub angular. The direct shear
tests were carried out on dry dust samples and sand under consolidated drained
conditions to obtain the shear parameters of the samples. A strain rate of 1.25 mm/min
was used while performing the direct shear test on all the quarry dust and sand samples.
In addition to this, another strain rate of 0.25 mm/min was used for the quarry dust
sample, D2 during direct shear test.
Table 2. Shape and mineralogical characterization of S1
Minerals
Quartz

Amount (%)
>95

Shape
Rounded to sub-rounded

Biotite
Muscovite
Rock Fragments

1-2
1-2
<1

Flaky
Flaky
Subrounded

Table 3. Shape and mineralogical characterization of D1

Minerals
Quartz
Feldspar

Amount (%)
50
40-42

Shape
Angular to Subangular
Elongated with irregular boundary

Biotite
Homeblende
Rock Fragments

3-4
<1
1-2

Flaky with irregular boundary

Elongated with irregular boundary
Elongated

Table 4. Shape and mineralogical characterization of D2

Minerals
Quartz
Biotite
Muscovite
Feldspar

Amount (%)
20-30
3-4
6-7
60-70

Shape
Round to sub rounded
Rounded with flaky
Rounded with flaky
Angular,Sub angular,Elongated

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The direct shear tests were performed on quarry dust (D1sS, D2sS) and sand (S)
samples in the dry condition in a density range of 1.3 gm/cm 3 to 1.4 gm/cm3. The
displacement vs. shear stress plots of different samples for normal stress of o.5 kg/cm 2,

1.0 kg/cm2 and 1.5 kg/cm2 have been obtained. Figures 2-4 show the displacement vs.
shear stress plots for the samples S, D1Ss and D2sS at strain rate 1.25 mm/min. Fig. 5
shows the displacement vs. shear stress plots for the samples D2sS at strain rate 0.25
mm/min. The maximum shear stress, max vs normal stresses for all the samples used in

this study are plotted in figures 7 & 8 and the corresponding value is calculated.
1.4
1.2
1
Normal Stress 0.5

Normal Stress 1

0.8

Shear strength (kg/cm2) 0.6

0.4
0.2
Normal Stress 1.5

0
0

Displacement (mm)

FIG. 2. Shear stress for sample S for strain rate 1.25

1.4
1.2
1
Normal stress 0.5

0.8

Normal Stress 1

Shear strength (kg/cm2) 0.6

0.4
0.2
Normal Stress 1.5

0
0

Displacement (mm)
FIG. 3. Shear stress for sample D1 for strain rate 1.25

2
1.5
normal stress 0.5

Shear strength (kg/cm2)

normal stress 1

1
0.5

normal stress 1.5

0
0

Displacement (mm)

FIG 4. Shear stress for sample D2 for strain rate 1.25

1.4
1.2
1
normal stress 0.5

normal stress 1.0

0.8

Shear strength (kg/cm2) 0.6

0.4
0.2
normal stress 1.5

0
0

Displacement (mm)
FIG. 5. Shear stress for sample D2 for strain rate 0.25
Effect of strain rate on shear strength of soil.

1.4

f(x) = 1.35x

1.2
1
Strain Rate 1.25

=42.73

Max shear strength, max (kg/cm2)

Strain rate 0.25

0.8
0.6
0.4

=40.13

0.2
0
0 f(x)
0.5 =1 1.5 2
Normal stress, n (kg/cm2)

FIG. 6.

values for strain rate 1.25 and 0.25

Discussions

From the above observations we can see that value for strain rate 1.25 mm/min is
42.73O and that for strain rate 0.25 mm/min is 40.13 O. So we can say that shear strength
decreases with decrease in strain rate and vice-versa. This is because of the fact that
there may be crushing of the quarry dust particles at low rate of shearing that leads to the
reduction in shear strength of quarry dust.

Effect of shape on shear strength of soil.

1.6

f(x) = 1.38x
1.52x

1.4
1.2
S1

=39.14

D1

1 =42.3

D2

Max shear strength, max (kg/cm2) 0.8

0.6
0.4
=42.74

0.2
0
0 f(x)
0.5= 1 1.5 2

Normal stress, n (kg/cm2)

FIG. 7. values of S1, D1 and D2 for strain rate 1.25

Discussions
From the above curve we get the value for S as 39.14 D1 as 42.3 and D2 as 42.74.
So we can see that value for dust samples is greater than sand sample because of
presence of more angular and sub-angular particles. But value in case of Dust sample
D2 is more because it has more amounts of angular or sub-angular particles as
compared to D1.
So we observe that shear strength increases with amount of angular and sub-angular
particles.
CONCLUSIONS
Efforts have been made in this study to understand the factors influencing shear
strength behavior of cohesionless soils using one sand sample and two quarry dust
samples. The physical properties of the samples are found and their shearing behavior is
determined by carrying out direct shear tests. Following are the conclusions observed
from the present study.
From petrographic images of the original samples, the shapes of most of the
constituent grains of the sand sample S1 are observed as rounded to subrounded while
those of the quarry dust samples D1 and D2 are observed as angular to subangular.
The maximum shear stress resisted by the collected quarry dust samples D1 and D2
are higher than that resisted by the collected sand sample S1 under the same normal

stresses. This might be the effect of the angularity of the particles of the dust samples,
compared to the sand samples. However, with increased normal stress, the difference in
the maximum shearing stress for sand and quarry dust samples tend to decrease owing
to the crushing of the angularities of grains at higher normal stresses. The tests have
been done in dry conditions.
Maximum shear stress offered by dust sample D2 under different strain rate 1.25 and
0.25 are also studied and it had been observed that shear strength of soil decreases with
decrease in strain rate. This may be because of the fact that there may be crushing of the
quarry dust particles at low rate of shearing that leads to the reduction in shear strength of
quarry dust.

REFERENCES
Soosan, T.G., Sridharan, A., Jose, B.T. and Abraham, B.M. (2005), Utilization of quarry
dust to improve the geotechnical properties of soils in highway construction,
Geotech. Test. Jl., ASTM, 28(4), Page count: 10.
Saghafi, B., Nageim, H.A. and Atherton, W. (2013), Mechanical behavior of a new base
material containing high volumes of lime stone waste dust, PFA, and APC residues,
Jl. of Mater. Civ. Engineering, ASCE, 25(4), 450-461.
Soosan, T.G., Jose, B.T. and Abraham, B.M. (2001), Strength behavior of lateritic soilquarry dust mixes, Jl. of New Building Materials and Construction World, 7, 46-52.
Nwaiwu, C.M.O., Mshelia, S.H. and Durkwa, J.K. (2012), Compactive effort influence
on properties of quarry dust-black cotton soil mixtures, Int. Jl. of Geotech.
Engineering, 6, 91-101.ASTM D 854-06 (2006), Standard test method for specific
gravity of soil solids by water pycnometer, Vol. 04.08, Annual Book of ASTM
Standards, ASTM International, West Conshohocken.
ASTM D 422-63 (2007), Standard test method for particle-size analysis of soils, Annual
Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04.08, ASTM International, West Conshohocken.
ASTM D 2487-06 (2008), Standard practice for classification of soils for engineering
purposes (Unified Soil Classification System), Annual Book of ASTM Standards,
Vol. 04.08, ASTM International, West Conshohocken.
ASTM D 3080-11 (2011), Standard test methods for direct shear test of soils under
consolidated drained conditions, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04.08,
ASTM International, West Conshohocken.