STRESS-STRAIN BEHAVIOUR OF COMPACTED RESIDUAL SOIL IN DIRECT SHEAR TEST

Mohd. Raihan Taha1, Syed Abdul Mofiz2 and Md.Kamal Hossain3

ABSTRACT This paper reports the shear strength and deformation characteristics of compacted residual granite soil. Nine series of tests were conducted using computer control direct shear box apparatus with normal stress level ranging between 0.05 to 0.4 MPa. The influence of moisture content on the shear strength properties is specifically discussed. A relationship between the angle of internal friction and moisture content for residual soil is also proposed. Test results are then used to calculate the non-linear (hyperbolic) model constants and analyse the stress-strain response of the compacted residual soil under direct shear loading. Comparison of numerical predictions and results of direct shear tests are made for verification of the model parameters. It is observed that the predicted stress-strain behaviour using model constants showed fairly reasonable agreement compare to that of the laboratory test results. INTRODUCTION In tropical or semi-tropical area compacted residual soil has been widely used as fill material for different geotechnical structures such as road pavements, embankments, retaining structures, land reclamation and landfills. The assessment of the properties and prediction of the behaviour of such fills have often been based on limited information. In spite of various semi-empirical test methods developed to correlate engineering experience, proper design and construction uncertainty still remains. The variation of strength parameters and compressibility of residual soils are mainly caused by differences in moisture contents, which are most likely to occur in such soils. Because of the seasonal variations in rainfall, the degree of saturation changes throughout the year. This results in seasonal variation in strength, which have considerable influence on the geotechnical structures. Still, the failure mechanism, effect of moisture on shear strength, and dilation-contraction behaviour of tropical soil composites are not yet well understood due to limited studies. This paper describes the experimental results of nine series of direct shear test on compacted granite residual soil. The effect of moisture contents on the cohesion intercept, angle of internal friction and volume change properties are specifically discussed. The test results are then used to evaluate the non-linear elastic model parameters. Finally, these model constants are used to evaluate the mechanical stress-strain characteristics of the residual soil in direct shear test. Comparisons between model prediction and laboratory test results are also discussed. PROPERTIES OF SOIL The soil used in this study was obtained from a granite soil formation. The soil is reddish in colour. It is classified as CH in Unified Soil Classification (USC) system with liquid limit LL= 73%, plastic limit PL=39% and particle specific gravity Gs=2.63. It contains 64 % silt and clay, 36% sand and no gravel. The maximum dry density, d = 14.42 kN/m3 and optimum moisture content, wopt=24.6% were found from the standard compaction test.
1

Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor Malaysia. 2 Research Assistant, Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor Malaysia. 3 Research Assistant, Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor Malaysia

SAMPLE PREPARATION The soil was first dried under laboratory air dry conditions, then ground and passed through 2 mm sieve. The dry powder was carefully wetted with a spray gun to the standard optimum moisture content. The moist soil was then stored in sealed plastic bags in moist room for about a week before use. The moist residual soil was then compacted in the shear box mould through machine compaction procedure to the desired height, moisture content and unit weight. TEST PROGRAM The experimental program consists of nine series of direct shear test using a 100-mm x 100-mm standard shear box. The soil specimens were prepared at moisture contents between 18 to 34 percent. In this study four tests were conducted with moisture content on the dry side of the optimum moisture content and other five tests on the wet side. Each series of tests were carried out at normal pressure varying between 0.05 0.40 MPa. During shearing, the machine strain rate was set at 0.10 mm/min. The vertical displacements, shear displacements and shear force were monitored using linear variable differential transducers (LVDT) and proving ring with LVDTs. A computer control data acquisition system was used to record the shear force, vertical and shear displacements. HYPERBOLIC MODEL In this study, the non-linear elastic (hyperbolic) model (Duncan and Chang 1970; Clough and Duncan 1971) has been used to simulate shear stress and shear deformation behaviour of the granite residual soil. The frictional resistance and relative shear displacement relationship at any normal pressure is expressed as

hs 1 h + s E si ult

(1)

where is the frictional shear resistance, hs is the horizontal shear displacement, Esi is the initial shear tangent stiffness, and ult is the asymptotic value of shear at infinite displacement of the hyperbolic curve. The initial tangent shear stiffness is related to the normal pressure and can be determined as

E si = k w n P a

(2)

where k is the shear stiffness number, w is the unit weight of water, n is the shear stiffness exponent number, and Pa is the atmospheric pressure. The different constants in above equation are obtained by conducting direct shear tests at varying normal stress and following the procedures of Duncan et al. (1980). The values of k and n are determined by plotting the experimental data of Eis/w vs n/Pa on a log-log scale. Differentiating shear strength equation with respect to hs and using the Mohr-Coulomb strength equation, the tangent shear stiffness can be calculated as

Rf d E ts = = 1 d hs c + n tan

E is

(3)

This relationship can be used to calculate the value tangent shear modulus for any normal stress condition if the values of the parameters k, n, c, , and Rf are known. The value of stress ratio, Rf, can be written by the following equation

Rf =

f ult

(4)

where f is the shear stress at failure, and ult is the ultimate shear stress. These parameters should be determined from the shear stress measured during the travelling shear displacement of the shear box in a direct shear test. The ultimate shear stress is the asymptotic value of the shear stress and is calculated using the shear stress, , and horizontal shear displacement, hs, at 70 and 95 percent of f. It can be expressed by the following equation

ult =

hs 95 hs 70 hs95 hs 70 95 70

(5)

Equations 4 and 5 provide a mean for estimating Rf from direct shear test results instead of assuming a value of 0.85 as suggested by Clough and Duncan (1969). This procedure is similar to that outlined by Duncan et al. (1980) for determining Rf from triaxial tests except the shear displacement and shear stress are used instead of axial strain and deviator stress. Initially, efforts were made to normalise the horizontal displacement using the length of the direct shear specimen. This might have provided a better correspondence between a triaxial stress-strain curve and the shear stress-displacement curve. Hence, the direct shear test results provide a value of Rf that is higher than the value of 0.85 proposed by Clough and Duncan (1969). Therefore, it is recommended that Rf be determined directly from direct shear test results. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The shear stress and shear displacement curves for two representative series of direct shear test, one on the dry side and the other on the wet side, are shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, respectively. The results indicate that the shear displacement corresponding to maximum stress increases with normal interface pressure. In terms of vertical strain, the soil in the dry side exhibits a dilation behaviour for the small normal stress and gradually decreasing dilation properties for higher normal stress (Fig. 1). On the wet side, contraction behaviour is more pronounced (Fig. 2). This contraction property may be due to the increasing of moisture content and vertical settlement, which developed after the application of normal stress on the soil specimens. It is also observed from the figures that the compacted soil has a strain softening behaviour on the dry side and strain hardening on the wet side. The shear strength parameters in terms of cohesion intercept and angle of internal friction were determined by using best-fit straight-line failure envelope. The failure envelopes with different moisture contents is shown in Fig. 3. The results show that the shear strength parameters of the residual soil gradually decreases with increasing moisture content. Fig. 4 shows the cohesion intercept versus moisture content and it indicates on the dry side the cohesion intercept gradually increases up to the optimum moisture content, and then gradually decreases on the wet side. This behaviour is similar to the standard compaction curve. The angle of internal friction versus moisture content (Fig. 5) shows that the angle of internal friction decreases with the increases of moisture contents. This may due to the fact that the soil particle looses its bonding upon increase in moisture content. During shearing the soil particles becomes more and more slippery and hence the angle of internal friction reduces. A proposed relationship between angle of internal friction and the moisture content variation is such that:

=A(w)b

(6)

where is the angle of internal friction, w is the moisture content in percent, constants A = 690; and b = -0.9933.

400 350 Shear stress (kPa) 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Shear displacement (mm) 14 w = 26 % n = 0.4 MPa n = 0.35 MPa Dilation (mm) n = 0.3 MPa n = 0.25 MPa n = 0.2 MPa n = 0.15 MPa n = 0.1 MPa n = 0.05 MPa

1.5 1.2 0.9 0.6 0.3 0.0 -0.3 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Shear displacement (mm) 14 Normal Stress 0.05 MPa 0.15 MPa 0.25 MPa 0.35 MPa 0.10 MPa 0.20 MPa 0.30 MPa 0.40 MPa

Figure 1: Shear stress vs shear displacement and dilation vs shear displacement of the compacted residual soil (w = 26% ).
200 n = 0.40 MPa n = 0.35 MPa n = 0.30 MPa Dilation (mm) n = 0.25 MPa n = 0.20 MPa n = 0.15 MPa n = 0.10 MPa n = 0.05 MPa w = 34 % 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 Shear displacement (mm) 12 14 1.5 1.2 0.9 0.6 0.3 0.0 -0.3 -0.6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Shear displacement (mm) 14 0.05 Mpa 0.15 Mpa 0.25 Mpa 0.35 Mpa 0.10 Mpa 0.20 Mpa 0.30 Mpa 0.40 Mpa

Shear stress (kPa)

150

100

50

Figure 2: Shear stress vs shear displacement and dilation vs shear displacement of the compacted residual soil (w = 34% ).

400 w = 24 %

150 Cohesion intercept (kPa) 125 100 75 50 25 Dry Side Wet Side

Shear Stress (kPa)

300

w = 26 % w = 28 % w = 30 %

200

w = 32 % w = 34 %

100

0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 Normal Stress (kPa)

16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 Moisture content, w ( %)

Figure 3:Best fit failure envelope of residual soil with different moisture content.

Figure 4: Variation of cohesion intercept with different moisture content

50 45 Dilation angle, Friction angle 40 35 30 25 20 15 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 Moisture content w (%)

30 25 w = 18 % w = 22 % w = 26 % w = 30 % w = 34 %

= A (w) A = 690 b = -0.9933

b

20 15 10 5 0 -5 0

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 Normal stress, n (kPa)

Figure 5: Relationship between angle of internal friction with different moisture

Figure 6: Dilation characteristics of residual soil in direct shear test under different normal stress.

Test results also show that the dilation angle decreases with the increase in normal stress (Fig.6). From this figure it can also be observed that the dilation characteristics are more pronounced for samples with less moisture contents. The non-linear elastic model parameters for the compacted residual soil were then determined from these tests. The effective stress hyperbolic and Mohr-Coulomb strength parameters using the procedure outlined by Duncan et al. (1980) are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary of the non-linear model constants for direct shear test. Parameters Normal stress range n Shear stiffness number k Shear exponent number n Cohesion intercept c Friction angle parameter Failure ratio Rf Value 0.05 to 0.40 MPa 17067 0.96 0.1006 MPa 29.03 o 0.98

Analysis was made to verify the model parameters by comparing numerical predictions with the experimental test results for the compacted soil on the dry side of optimum. The measured and predicted stress-displacement curve is shown in Fig.7. In general, the predicted results indicated fairly good agreement with the experimental results. However, it is obvious that it could not predict overconsolidation behaviour and it could only handle strain-hardening materials as assumed in the non-linear model. Nevertheless, the non-linear elastic model using the model parameters obtained from the direct shear test is sufficiently accurate for modelling and analysis of different types of horizontal shear governing geotechnical structures under expected working loads.

400 350 300 S he a r s tre ss (kP a ) 250 200 150 100 M e a s ure d V a lue 50 0 0 2 4 6 8 S he a r displa c e m e nt (m m ) 10 12 14 P re dic te d V a lue n = 0.40 M P a n = 0.35 M P a n = 0.30 M P a n = 0.25 M P a n = 0.20 M P a n = 0.15 M P a n = 0.10 M P a n = 0.05 M P a

Figure 7: Measured and predicted response of shear stress-shear displacement of residual soil

CONCLUSIONS Nine series of direct shear tests were carried out and a large data base was developed to evaluate the shear strength and deformation of compacted residual soil. The test results showed that the stressdeformation characteristic changes in a significant manner with changes in moisture content. The soil specimen exhibit strain softening behaviour when the moisture content in the specimens are on the dry side and strain hardening on the wet side of optimum. During shearing the specimens having moisture content on the dry side also exhibit dilatant behaviour but degree of dilatantcy being dependent on the interface normal stress. The cohesion intercept behaves like the compaction curve in which its increases up to the optimum moisture content and decreases beyond that. The angle of internal friction however continuously decreases with the increases in moisture content. A simple exponential relationship between the angle of internal friction and the moisture content was proposed. Numerical analysis using non-linear model indicates fairly good agreement with the laboratory results. REFERENCES Clough, G. W. and Duncan, J. M. (1969). Finite element analysis of Port Allen and old river locks. Report No.TE 69-3, University California, Berkeley, September, pp. 265. Clough, G. W. and Duncan, J. M. (1971). Finite element analysis of retaining wall behaviour. Journal of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Division, ASCE, vol. 97, No SM12, pp. 1657-1673. Duncan, J.M., and Chang, C.Y. (1970). Non-linear analysis of stress and strain in soils. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, vol. 96, No 5, pp. 1629-1653. Duncan, J.M., Byrne, P., Wong, K.S., and Mabry, P. ( 1980). Strength, stress-strain and bulk modulus parameters for finite element analysis of stresses and movements in soil. Geotechnical Engineering Research Report: UCB/GT/80-01, Department of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley.