Interpreting Measurements of Small Strain Elastic Shear Modulus under Unsaturated Conditions

Hasan, A. M. and Wheeler, S. (2016) Interpreting Measurements of Small Strain Elastic Shear Modulus under Unsaturated Conditions. In: 3rd European Conference on Unsaturated Soils (E-UNSAT 2016), Paris, France, 12-14 Sept 2016, 09006. (doi: 10.1051/e3sconf/20160909006)

Abstract

Bender element testing of unsaturated isotropically compacted speswhite kaolin samples was used to investigate the variation of small strain elastic shear modulus G under unsaturated conditions. Testing was performed in a suction-controlled triaxial cell and involved combinations of isotropic loading and unloading stages and wetting and drying stages. Analysis of the experimental results indicated that the variation of G could be represented by a simple expression involving only mean Bishop’s stress p* and specific volume v, with the only significant mismatches between measured and predicted values of G occuring at the end of final unloading. No significant improvement of fit was achieved by incorporating additional dependency on degree of saturation Sr or a bonding parameter ζ. The proposed expression for G reverts to a well-established form for saturated soils as Sr tends to 1.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hasan, Mr Ahmed Mohammed and Wheeler, Professor Simon
• Authors: Hasan, A. M., and Wheeler, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
• Journal Name: E3S Web of Conferences
• ISSN: 2267-1242
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in E3S Web of Conferences 9(2016):09006
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License