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    Bromhead,E.N.(1979) Artigo da revista Ground engineering, vol.12, Nº4 pp.40-44

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    A simple ring shear apparatus

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    Bromhead,E.N.(1979) Artigo da revista Ground engineering, vol.12, Nº4 pp.40-44

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf
    62 views3 pages

    A Simple Ring Shear Apparatus

    Uploaded by

    Custódio Miguens
    Bromhead,E.N.(1979) Artigo da revista Ground engineering, vol.12, Nº4 pp.40-44

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    Asimple ring shear apparatus by EN. BROMHEAD*, MSc, DIC, BSc, CEng, MICE THE HITHERTO EXPENSIVE and time. consuming nature of ring shear tests to determine the residual strength of soils hes prevented the test from becoming a outine procedure in commerdial labora Tories. This has had the result thet the ideal “shree-pronged aiteck” on landsip problems by. (2) Bock enalysie, (©) ring. shear teste on represertetive strata, and (e) diet shear tests on actual slip sur faeae, |s rarely fully developed, Since a number of studies have shown chat the fing shear tests may possibly provide the lower bound atrongthe in any invostigation, thie Comission Is of concern However, ring shear testing cannot be come # routine procedure outside the re ‘pearen laboratory until 2 simpla, robust inexpensive apparatus which hes a faily large potential through-out of tests in me working werk is developed. This Paper ‘desenboe auch 9 dovice, which hae 10 cently been Built and cvalusted et the School of Civil Enginoering, Kingston Poly teenric and whien in its fully developed form ie row available commoveialy, Description and general principle Zo annular, soil semple Brim thick with inner ond outer clamotore of 7omm ne ODmm respectively ts contned radi fly between concentri¢ rings. It is com fpraseod vertically between porous bronze Toading plotens by meana of a lever Ioed ing system and doad weights In the prototype this Iover system was faded trom a proprietary 5:1 rario hanger fyatem completo with lover levelling jack originally part of a direct shear apparatus ‘This system wes, howover, doleted trom thar marulacturars range along with the machin in quostion and roplaced by now Machine with @ 10:1 ratio councerwoightoc system. Accordingly, the production mach ines were adapted to uso the now com: ‘A rotation is imporied to the bese plete ‘and lower platen by means of a vanable Speed motor and gearbox driving through a'worm dive, The cauzee the sampla to Shear, the shear surfece forming close to the Upper platen (which. is artificially roughened 10 prevent slip at the platen/ Soll interiace) ‘Tho settlement of the upper platen dur Ing consoldation or shear ‘can be mon! tored by means of a sorstive dial aauae bearing on the top of the load hanger "Terque transmitted through the. sample Is reacted by a pair of matched load mea suring devices (sensitive proving rings in the prototyoe) bearing on a crost arm Ground Enginsoring Fig. 1 shows both the prototype and pro duction sheer cells ia partly, sectioned blevation Sample proparation The lower porous platsn and _confin ing rings are assombled and remoulded Samal kneaded into. the annular cavity Tho top of tho sample i tren struck off level with the top of the confining “ings, and. the upper pleten placed In_positon located on the centting ain, which is well With tho watar bath (which is 2 Bt over the ‘O"ring seal) in position, the sample Is flooded with distileg water Ifa vary soft sample has bean prepared i ig quite important 10 allow timo for it (0 come into equilibrium under the toed of the upper platan and tien under the load of each item of the levor loading sys- tam, singe f too much load te applied too quickly there may be excessive ‘squeeze Or Toss of sell through the clearance be- ‘ween the upper platen anc confining ngs. However, with coma. solls, may be preferable to get c load on to the sampe to prevent swelling, The sample is then consolidated under loads which prevde tha desired normal sffoetive atreae on horizontal planaa, ard he coefficient of consolidation can be evaluated by monitoring the. vertical set Hement When tha sail iz fully consol doted it may be shsered ot the appropriate Developments from the prototype Te was fourd that tho absense of 3 clutch mechanism in the prototype led 10 con siderable dificulty Being experienced wih Setting up and with gear changing. The Iaok’ of manvol Sentral over the. rotation was another souree of annoyance. A pin whoel clutch and handwheol wore there Tore added to the worm drive in the pro duction device. Daring the inital tials, it was found that with the original “butt us" design for the Contin tings, platens ard eentirg pie, Te was elmost inevitable that cumulative ‘manufacturing tolorancas gave rise to an bSocontreity in olignmont. Aaverdingly, the reduction machines ere built eround the ‘ential drive shaft and this problem does rot arse. The opportunity was taken to Combina tho confining rnge and lowar platen end also to improve the genersl frairage ducts, This composite sssombly is postively located on the central shaft and halé down by knurled nute. Samplo preparation is aided by the simplicity with ‘ier the platen/continng ring assembly fan be removed trom the water bath For teste at low normal stassos te tor que transmitted through the somple. may bbe quite small'ard i Was found that the proving rings lacked suficiont. sensitvity ‘The production unite hava the. proving rings mounted in curets with quick releose ‘lamps so thet the effective lengin of the Torque arm can be changed at will end the torque erm was redesigned with es tive steps at two positions so that the ings could be Brough io bear at senile racli without measurement. These turets also allow a vanoty of load calle to bo fitted, and they swing out of the way for sample preparation ‘Other’ etal desion imoroverents_in- elude a more compact drive (again iden foal with that for the. sppropriate pro pristary cirect. shear machine) and the Brovision of a scale of degrees so that ihe mount of rotation can be seen ata ‘lane. Fig. 2 ie @ photograph showing tho fenerel_ arrangement, Fig, 1, Partly sectioned general elevations comgering the prototype and eroduction models Interpretation of rasults Bishop et al. (1972) discuss the influence of a vanety of alstibutions of shear stress ‘cross the semple in a ring shear test.on tho measured torque and hares on the angle of shearing. resistance colculated assuming @uniiorm stear stress dist- bution. in some cases, errors of about 10°. may arise. kis, howaver, much moro like Ty thet the distribution’ is close to the Upiform one partiewarly where. the som plo is narrow in comaarson to ts dia. Conventionally, we take a uniform sheer suess when residual strength has Deen teacted and hence the torque T transmit ‘ed through the sample is given by T= $5 (RS-RA7 where R, and R, are respectively inner and outer aempla radi [lt should be noted that the non-uniform strain distribution grestly eneoureges pro- gressive failure in brttle sols and it is thorafore unlikely that any ring shose ap- pratue will give a reliable posk shear Strength. The” brittleness indox cannot therefore be fully defined on the basis of ring shear tess alone) Binco the torque is given by the mean load'on the proving rings (ot load cells) mulplied by'the distence beween them te THF, + FOU Thus: BF FRDL (Aye = 89) The nowmel effective stress 0’ is given by. e where F is the total vertical oad Hence: 3(F 4A) (RE —RyAYL rio! = tony’ = 4 (88 P Sources of error The errors that can arise in the use of ‘his apparatue do 20 from: (a) insceuracies in load meesurement, (0) frevien on the centring pin, {c) binding between the “upper platen and the confining ringe due to tilting. oF squsczed” soll bocoming trapped, (@) Side ‘ricton it te stip surace toms below tha’ top piaten/soll interface, and (e} the possible non-uniform mobilisation Of shear stress across the. sample. The apparatus was originally designed to use commercial grade proving rings and thesp ere of course quite edequate for mast purposes. Their accurecy Is. fairly Fmited at low loads and for teste en very weak mavofisie or at very low normal at fective stroes it may be necessary te resort (o more sensitive electrical 'oad eas, Out an altemetive method of overcoming the problem is to adjust the proving rings 29 that they reect closer tothe exis of the evice. Tis Increases the loads to be car. Tied and brings them into a better part of the proving ring’s working range Ground Eag'nesring Fig 2. Phoragraph showing general arargemont of produstion machines Differences in the stifnesses. of the proving. ringe can throw ‘an unbalanced foad onto the centring pin and cause fic: tion. This wil also be aflectea by uneven settlement of the loading platen. How: fever, such friction will hav two eompon fonts — one tending to reduce the normal Toad carried by the soll sample ond the ‘ther tarding to increase the toraue trans mitted % the proving rags. The. afacte Gre therefore largely s-it-comperauting, os In tact are all the similar types of side friction noted as (6) and (¢) above, Fur. thermore, the likely unbalanced leads wi fonly give rice to amell omounis of torcue ‘due 10 tiction the certeng pin is ignt ly greased and of an appropriate diamator ‘The possibilty of tilling and ite resulting cffeote is roducod by the prasones of the entring pin. In the protoiype the tape (f the loading platen was. designed to Prevent ‘squsezed soil fram being tapped but was found to be an unnecsssery re finerneat, Sell exirvded trom the ouside (f the sample can of course be removed during the tast with a soft brush of a Jet fof water fram a wash battle, In plactice it is found that the main slip ‘surfase forms close to. the upper platen, but that other slip surfaces ean and do form moro doeply in the seit kr soome un key, therelore, that side friction on the Contig rings tsa significant factor. ‘Smear type ring shear dovices, particu. larly ese of vary simple. construction fre" epperently more. subject to these re Tatively unguantitable effects than the Imperial College device, However. 2 sys tematie study by Lz Gatta (1970) showed that the largest potential source of err ‘was in the assumption of uniferm modi lisation of shear stress on the slip suriace, and this is ao found to be so in the Present cose Selection of appropriate strain rate In thie apparatus, the sample ie eo thin (2nd double drained) that extremely rapid ‘ates of shoer aro possible while sil ale ‘owing full drainage to occur. However, higher rates. of shear may induce theo: logical Sr viscous shear strength alamenis, ‘One mathod of ensuring that the re sults aie obtained in terms of effective Stresses is to test so slovily that the som- lb is fuly drained’ at all tes through tho pose (whieh is of course a remouided peak since even if en “undisturbed” sam- le is used, 1s unper surface is remoulded ‘uring. preparation) and on to. the. res: dual stots. This ie 0 fairly slow process fen in the present device. ‘An alternative and more rapid procedure is as follows: (i) Consolidate the sample to the fir normal jose, and monitor settlement {To dotormins the time Tor ful eonsoli- darion (t,) (i) Shose the sample undrained for about 5 revolutiors to form shear surface: feleese the torque, ii) Reeanselidete ta ‘rid the sample of unsirained pare water proseuree from {if ‘aboves the velue for f, can be updated trom. this stage in some (in) Select @ ehoaring rato and. choar the sample-on the pre-formed sp surlace ‘A flat topped stress sirsin curve us- ually results and providing thet the Sample ie shearod for @ tine at least 5 long a8 f, and the measured shear stress. Coes not chenge we can be sure that the sample is fully drained Tho shoar rete can be changed at thie point to invesligate. viscous effects, (0) The sample is then re-consolidated to the next normal fective sass Providing a new. velua for ty, and the procedure of step (iv) followed This process +s quite simply explained to tochriciens wth minimal skis and hes been found by experience to give raeulis, ‘dortical with those of the first method He, pent conere wens FR Kigestos Foiytecnic tens stouirarnoe rem eregaceten ia, 3. Comparison of results of ring shear tests on Gault clay (trom the formation at Falkostone Warren) in tho Imporial Colloga and the prozort machinoe Volume changes during shear Settlement of the unper loading platen (which may be monitored by moare of tho single sensitive ‘vertical dial gouge) hes two componenis: the dilation er contrac- tion of the soil cue to shear and the loss of material due to squeeze’. in preciies itis impossible to separate these two, Practical experience Proving tests have been carried out on a ‘number of soils, mainly. clays, trom southern England. An interosting compar: son between the present mactine and the Imperial Colleg> ring shear machine des eribed by Bishop et af. (1871) was pro- vided by tosts on the high and low liguid limit Geutt Clay sampies (rom Folkestone Warren (Hutchinson et al, 1978) ‘where it wae only possible to separate the twa sete of results by plotting them to a large scale on ihe dorianding 4," ¥s. nor mal effective stress diagram (Fig. 3) Tn the past it has been felt that ring chase tant route tonded to underestimate the feld mobilised shear strength. It ‘would certainly appear to be 0 trom the limited numberof published records. Howover, with the expensive and lengthy process of establishing a Tull ring. shear strength envelope in the laboratory is fare for mare than a single ring sear ‘est tobe cariad out, usually on # eempia selected to have the highest liquid limit ‘would rightly be recognised a3 aosura lo correlate field conditions with 2 sin gle traxisl test, oF for that matter with ny single soi! test, due to the natural Yariation ot sol propartios over any site anda similar situation in relation to. ting hoch toate should bo recognied. It ie surely time to accord the ring shear fost equal eatment. Two tests over s range of four er five normal siresses can. us- Ually bo eavried cut within 5 normal work ing week. “Tne protoiype was constructed trom mild steel and although a variety of par ings including passivated cadmium and nigkel were tied, the components suffered {om some corsion, This is beng over come by the use of flat chromed brass, Bronze ‘or stainless steal ax sppropriats Ground Enginearing thas boon founa shat the roughness of the upper platen is @ significant facror IT the soll hasan aoprecsable sik fraction, bt for clays is of uch loeser impartence Conclusions “This new fing. shear appsratus is sim ple in design ard inexpensve in construe Bon. Tosts on bots remoulled and. "un cisturbed’ samples con be made quite Rapidly and the results are comparable with those obteined from’ much more Sophisticated ‘oquipment ‘Comparing he earstruction with a gir fet shear (sheer box) apparatus, it will be seen thai they Have much in common Altnough the ring shaar has some extra components, the 2apitel seats for the we devices are broadly ssnilar, and dve to the Simplicity of operation of the fing shear, running tosis raed not be excessive Th viow of this it's expected thet ring shear testing (0 delermine the residual strength parameters of soils wil become 4 routine operation in commercial ‘esting Inboratories, Acknowledgements: “The provotype was. built in the Schoo! ‘of Civil Engineering, Kinasion Polytachnic largaly by Me_R. Stevens, Senior Techs! ion, ond 9 number of the proving tests were performed by Mr, A. Halts, Me FB Higginson and Mic ND. Lambert The author is grateful to. Me J) F Lupin and Profecsor J. N. Hutchinson of Impor Tat College for petmission to quote the results of tho comparative tesi, He would Tice to acknowledge the help of the design stall of Wykokam Ferrance. Engineering Lid. especially inst of Mir, G, Paling References Ancreien An Brom, 4B.” (ST OA re ioe rai en Pca rey) meatier Bree SA ee tre! Maditoraebsaryatins” eh Ra Pa terial a Failure planes adjacent to pile shafts (continued from page 38) stress on AC ie appliod, thon in tho limit as the shear siress tends to zero the Gloment ACOB may be regarded as being in aninepiant state of falure, The incipi- nt state is reprosented by the falure cicle with centre O" end Tellure point Fein Fig. 1b, Its clear that for this case IK is equal to K,. the coaficient of pass- ve serth prascu K=K, where Myr = tan? (48 + 6'/2) ‘The bounds for K ere therefore 1

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