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Undrained torsional shear tests on gravelly soils

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Abstract

Slope instability and landslides are frequently triggered during heavy rainfalls in mountainous areas. Geomaterials that are subject to this type of failure normally include coarse grains, which are made by weathering of mother rocks. These materials are called sandy gravel or gravelly sand in soil mechanics, depending upon the amount of gravelly components. This situation suggests a need for laboratory investigations that aim to understand the shear behavior of sand with gravel toward failure. Another feature of this type of failure is a quick rate of slope failure that is reasonably considered as an undrained process of shear distortion. Hence, the present study investigated by means of experiments the undrained shear behavior of sand with gravel. The torsion shear tests on hollow cylindrical specimens concerned the effects of gravel content on the undrained shear behavior. The tests revealed that the effect of gravel content is twofold. When the gravel content is relatively small, the effects of the sandy component are more important. Hence, the relative density of the sandy matrix among gravels has a predominant influence. In this situation, therefore, the overall relative density is a less important index to account for the shear behavior. In contrast, when the gravel content exceeds a threshold value, the amount of gravel comes to have a more predominant influence than the sandy matrix. This is probably because gravel particles start to have contact with each other to form a structural matrix of gravel grains that governs the overall stress–strain behavior. These results were summarized in three-dimensional diagrams that related the strength properties of gravelly sand varying with the density of sand matrix or the density of sand–gravel mixtures as well as the gravel content.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Mines, Government of Bhutan, G.P.O. 173, Thimphu, Bhutan

    Karma Kuenza

  2. Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-Ku, 113-8656, Tokyo, Japan

    Ikuo Towhata

  3. Chief Research Engineer, Chuo Kaihatsu Corporation, 3-13-5 Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku-Ku, 169-8612, Tokyo, Japan

    Roland P. Orense

  4. Graduate student, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bukyo-Ku, 113-8656, Tokyo, Japan

    Talib H. Wassan

Authors
  1. Karma Kuenza
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  2. Ikuo Towhata
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  3. Roland P. Orense
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  4. Talib H. Wassan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ikuo Towhata.

Appendix

Appendix

Figure 13 shows a general view of the hollow, cylindrical torsional (HCT) shear apparatus. Figure 14a, b shows photographs of the 60% sand–gravel composite sample before and during the torsional shear loading.

Fig. 13
figure 13

General view of the HCT shear apparatus

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Fig. 14a
figure 14

Specimen before shearing. b Specimen after shearing

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Kuenza, K., Towhata, I., Orense, R.P. et al. Undrained torsional shear tests on gravelly soils. Landslides 1, 185–194 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-004-0023-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-004-0023-3

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