ENGINEERING BEHAVIOR OF PARTIALLY SATURATED SOILS.
Abstract
The shear strength and volume change behavior of a partially saturated cohesive soil is assessed as a function of the degree of saturation. All samples consisted of an 80 percent ground quartz - 20 per cent kaolinite mixture compacted dry of optimum water content. Special shear and compression equipment were developed to enable measurements of total volume, water content, total stress, pore air pressure and pore water pressure simultaneous ly. The test data showed that the effective stress equation s s - ua x(ua - uw) wherein x should vary between 0 and 1.0 for degrees of saturation between 0 and 100 percent was inconsis tent on two counts: (1) The shear tests at maxi mum stress difference yielded x values greater than unity (1.01 to 1.36) for degrees of satura tion between 65 and 73 percent; (2) Compression samples under a constant applied pressure of 6 kg/square cm reduced in volume, i.e. 'col lapsed', when the capillary pressure and hence effective stress was decreased, thus yielding negative values of x. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0413026
Entities
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology