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Assignment I
Assignment I
SUMMARY
OBJECTIVE OF PAPER
METHODOLOGY APPLIED
Summary of the proposed approach is shown and explained in the flowchart below.
The undrained shearing strength obtained
from triaxial compression (TC) and the The undrained secant Young’s
undrained strength of the direct simple modulus at stress equal to 50 % of
shear (DSS) test adopted for undrained strength is required in
Input Parameters are Atterberg determination of modulus of rigidity. the deformation analysis in many
Limits (L.L, PL, natural water These strength values are related to finite element packages and
content, Specific gravity) effective friction angle, OCR and effective determined from G assuming
vertical stress by following formulas Poisson ratio value 0.5
3. The proposed approach has been validated by using data of different well-
reported case studies for sites comprising fine-grained soils. The statistical
performance of the proposed formulation is evaluated using the predicted and
measured shear wave velocity and corrected vane shear undrained strength for the
six validation case studies. For the presented case studies, these two parameters
have the most data points making them suitable for statistical analysis. Fig. 1 and
table summarizes the comparison between the predicted and the measured data.
Table 1
Location Soil Shear wave Undrained Effective Lateral earth Small strain
velocity Shear Friction pressure shear
Strength Angle modulus
Comparison of predicted and measured values
Figure 1
OBJECTIVE OF PAPER
1. The review article under discussion analyzes various consistency limit
parameters including percussion-cup liquid limit, thread-rolling plastic limit
along with various fall-cone and other approaches employed for consistency limit
determinations on fine grained soils. The paper reviews the significance of
differences in the strain rate dependency on the mobilized fall cone shear
strength and recommends standardization of international codes. Use of fall
cone approach has also been appropriated for soft to medium-stiff clays in
establishing variability of shear strength with changing water content and further
index parameters.
METHODOLOGY APPLIED
2. STRAIN RATE EFFECTS From review of previous studies it has been
explained that the value of cone factor depends on the strain rate (strain rate
dependence) as well as the cone’s physical characteristics. It has generally been
taken that LLFC corresponds to a fixed undrained strength value; for example, from
theory su FC = 2.66 kPa for the 30º-80 g fall cone at LL FC (Koumoto & Houlsby 2001)
although this undrained strength value seems rather high with the Casagrande LL
value normally taken on average as 1.7 kPa (Worth & Wood 1978). However, the
Plot of ζ (ratio of static suFC to fall cone dynamic sud undrained strength values)
against the rate dependence parameter determined from numerical analysis of
the fall-cone test (smooth 30º cone) demonstrates that even for a given fall-cone
set-up, the su FC (LL) value mobilized for different soils can vary relatively significantly
and will also vary between set-ups having different cone characteristics and
penetration depths used in defining the LL FC. Moreover, displacement controlled
devices offer a more reliable approach in determining undrained strength and
PL100 values because adjustments for strain-rate effects are not necessary.
GEOTECHNICAL CORRELATIONS
3. It has been demonstrated that the precise LL and PL values obtained for any
given soil depend substantially on the techniques used to measure them. Analysis of
correlation between LLFC and LL cup values has been carried out in order to account
for the discrepancies between the different LL measures when these are substantial.
The analysis yields following info:
a. Comparison of the Fall-Cone LL and Casagrande
(1) Higher LL values being obtained for the Casagrande cup device
compared to the fall cone for high-LL materials as in order to
measure a specific strength (i.e undrained strength divided by
soil density) whereas LLFC corresponds to fixed reference
undrained strength value independent of soil density,
(2) For soil having low LL, the LL cup deduced for hard base cu and
the LLFC deduced for the 30º - 80g fall cone produce broadly
comparable results
(3) For low to medium LL soils commonly used in engineering
works, LLcup is generally slightly lower than LLFC
(4) Inconsistencies may also arise for fall-cone LL testing of fine-
grained soils having high silt and sand contents which may be
taken into account when changing the standard method of
testing