A H M 531 Triaxial Shear test By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

Objective:

¾ To measure the shear strength parameters using the tri-axial test.

General discussion:
Generally three types of stresses may occur on soils in field; which are:

1. Confining or ambience stress σ3

2. Axial stresses σ1

3. Pore water pressure U

Using the tri-axial test, all these stresses can be applied

on the soil sample as preferred.

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A soil sample of 36mm in diameter and 76mm height is encased within
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impervious rubber membrane’ placed into a plastic chamber that is filled
with the confining fluid that provides the confining stress σ3.
Axial stress is then applied to the specimen till failure occurs by a vertical
loading ram, the stress this axial load provides is called the deviator stress
σd.

Tri-axial test can control circumstances of consolidation and draining of

water when applying the loads by means of connectors in the device,
according to the field circumstances and project demands.
Tri-axial test can be classified into the following:

1. Consolidated – Drained test (S-Test)

In which the connection of drainage in the apparatus of the test is

opened during the whole test, so hat the sample is allowed to
consolidate under the confining pressure σ3 and when the deviator
stress σd is applied water is allowed to drain. That way the pore
water pressure provided because of confining stress and deviator
stress is zero.
In this test only one failure shear envelope will exist as the total

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A H M 531 Triaxial Shear test By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

stresses are the same as the effective ones.

2. Consolidated – Undrained test (R-Test)

In which the connection of drainage is only opened till the

application of the deviator stress, so that consolidation occur under
σ3 and the pore water pressure due to it is zero. But when applying
the deviator stress σd there will be no drainage allowed and pore
water pressure exist due to this stress.
In this test two different failure shear envelopes can be plotted
depending on whether the total stresses or the effective ones are to
be used.

3. Unconsolidated – Undrained test (Q-Test)

In this test the drainage connection remains closed during the

whole test, so that water is not permitted to drain during the
application of either or σd.
The failure shear envelop in this test is a straight horizontal line, as
the failure deviator stress will be constant regardless the confining
pressure.
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In the test the confining stress σ3 is provide by fluid pressure such as
water, which is measured by pressure gauge connected to a piston for
control. The deviator stress is measured by using a loading ring with a
known LRC.

Test results:

Our target from the tri-axial test or any shear test is to plot the failure
shear envelope. In the tri-axial test this line is drawn be considering the
Mohr’s circle of three tested samples and then the failure shear envelop
will be the tangent of the Mohr’s circle.

Drawing the Mohr’s circles is done normally by

considering the sample having a Bi-axial stress
state which is a special case of the plane stress
state. In this stress state the principle planes are
the vertical and the horizontal planes, and so
the principle stresses are σ1 and σ3, where;
σ1= σ d + σ3

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A H M 531 Triaxial Shear test By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

and is considered to be the major stress

And when graphing the Mohr’s circles for at least three samples, the
tangent line is drawn for all of them to represent the failure shear
envelope.

Sample identification:

¾ Brown cohesive clay

Equipments:
1. Tri-axial test apparatus

2. Rubber membrane

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3. Membrane stretcher

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Calipers.

Procedures:

1. The dimensions of the sample were measured.

2. The sample was placed into the rubber membrane.

3. As the test done was Q-Test, the sample was placed on an

impervious base inside the plastic chamber.

4. Then the chamber was filled with water under a known pressure,
and axial load was applied on the sample at a constant load.
Reading of the loading ring was taken at sequence of time till the
sample fails or the strain was 20% of the sample.

5. The sample after failure was weighed wet and the place into the
oven for 24 hours and then measured for its dry weight.

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A H M 531 Triaxial Shear test By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

Calculations:

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A H M 531 Triaxial Shear test By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

Discussion and results:

We were supposed to test three samples, but because of obstacles we

faced such as broken membrane, we could only do one sample.
That was ok, as we applied the Q-Test where the shear failure envelope is
straight horizontal line.
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