NEHRP Clearinghouse

Title
An Evaluation of Laboratory Testing Techniques in Soil Dynamics.
File
PB82215849.pdf
Author(s)
Saada, A. S.; Fries, G.; Ker, C. C.
Source
National Science Foundation, Washington, DC., March 1982, 71 p.
Abstract
An extensive soil testing program was conducted on clay and sand materials using three different devices: the standard triaxial; the N.G.I. simple shear device; and the thin long hollow cylinder. Both monotonic and cycling loadings were used and led to results emphasizing the influence of the boundary conditions present in each device. The use of the simple shear test to simulate the conditions that prevail during landslides or earthquakes is found to lead to erroneous results when compared to the thin long hollow cylinder. For both static and dynamic tests, the triaxial test is definitely an improvement over the simple shear one. The thin long hollow cylinder is shown to be the most desirable configuration to be used in the soils laboratory for studies related to strength and stability under both static and earthquake situations.
Keywords
Landslides; Ground motion; Earthquake engineering; Clays; Earthquakes; Shear tests; Soil dynamics; Cyclic loads; Test equipment; Sands; Triaxial tests; Soil tests