ISSN: 1945-7545
CODEN: GTJODJ
Page Count: 9

Directional Shear Cell Experiments on a Dry Cohesionless Soil

Sture, S
Associate professor and professor, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Budiman, JS
Assistant professor, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois

Ontuna, AK
Civil engineering, Page Engineering Company, Milas Mugla,

Ko, H-Y
Associate professor and professor, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Abstract

The directional shear cell has become an important tool for investigating anisotropic soil behavior, especially effects caused by rotation of principal stress directions during monotonic, cyclic, proportional, and nonproportional loading. This paper describes a newly developed directional shear cell and typical stress-strain response curves from two groups of experiments on a cohesionless soil where the principal stress directions either rotate discretely in a jump-like manner or continuously rotate at constant magnitude. It is shown that stiffness moduli are significantly reduced when principal stresses rotate with respect to the soil fabric and that substantial shear strains occur when principal stresses rotate while their magnitudes remain constant.

Keywords:
cohesionless soil, anisotropy, stress-strain behavior, principal stress rotation, induced anisotropy, directional shear cell, plane strain

Paper ID: GTJ10935J
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ10935J
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