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Effect of Drying-Wetting Cycles on Saturated Shear Strength of Undisturbed Residual Soils

Received: 1 June 2016    Accepted:     Published: 2 June 2016
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Abstract

Due to world-wide distributions and extensively used as construction materials, geotechnical engineers are interested in understanding the mechanical behavior of residual soils which are sometimes referred in the literature as problematic soils. The climatic zones where residual soils occur are often experienced by many drying-wetting cycles due to seasonal variations. This seasonal variation in the water content termed as drying-wetting cycle is regarded as the most destructive environmental factor that may cause many foundation diseases. Considering these, the purpose of this study is to understand the effects of drying-wetting cycles on saturated shear strength characteristics of undisturbed residual soil. A series of consolidated drained (CD) triaxial tests are conducted on multiple drying-wetting soil specimens to analyze the saturated shear strength. The test results indicate that the stress-strain relationships appear to be strain-hardening. The deviatory stress and initial stiffness of saturated soils increase and the volume of soils becomes contractive as the net normal stress increases but decrease with increasing drying-wetting cycle numbers. The cohesion (cd) and internal friction angle (φd) decrease with increasing cycle number (N) but the attenuation rate of φd is less than cd. The variations of cd and φd with respect to drying-wetting cycles can be expressed by exponential function. The saturated shear strength and it’s attenuation rate due to drying-wetting cycles are analyzed. The effect is more significant for the first cycle and decreases with subsequent cycles and finally reaches to a constant state after 4 cycles. Furthermore, a mathematical function is proposed in this paper which can describe the saturated shear strength attenuation rate of drying-wetting cycle samples. Such studies are useful to understand the possible changes in shear strength behavior of residual soils below the engineering structures that are subject to periodic drying and wetting from climatic variations.

Published in American Journal of Civil Engineering (Volume 4, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15
Page(s) 159-166
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Drying-Wetting Cycle, Residual Soil, Shear Strength, Attenuation Rate

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Sayem Hossain Md, Kong Ling-wei, Yin Song. (2016). Effect of Drying-Wetting Cycles on Saturated Shear Strength of Undisturbed Residual Soils. American Journal of Civil Engineering, 4(4), 159-166. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15

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    ACS Style

    Sayem Hossain Md; Kong Ling-wei; Yin Song. Effect of Drying-Wetting Cycles on Saturated Shear Strength of Undisturbed Residual Soils. Am. J. Civ. Eng. 2016, 4(4), 159-166. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15

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    AMA Style

    Sayem Hossain Md, Kong Ling-wei, Yin Song. Effect of Drying-Wetting Cycles on Saturated Shear Strength of Undisturbed Residual Soils. Am J Civ Eng. 2016;4(4):159-166. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15,
      author = {Sayem Hossain Md and Kong Ling-wei and Yin Song},
      title = {Effect of Drying-Wetting Cycles on Saturated Shear Strength of Undisturbed Residual Soils},
      journal = {American Journal of Civil Engineering},
      volume = {4},
      number = {4},
      pages = {159-166},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajce.20160404.15},
      abstract = {Due to world-wide distributions and extensively used as construction materials, geotechnical engineers are interested in understanding the mechanical behavior of residual soils which are sometimes referred in the literature as problematic soils. The climatic zones where residual soils occur are often experienced by many drying-wetting cycles due to seasonal variations. This seasonal variation in the water content termed as drying-wetting cycle is regarded as the most destructive environmental factor that may cause many foundation diseases. Considering these, the purpose of this study is to understand the effects of drying-wetting cycles on saturated shear strength characteristics of undisturbed residual soil. A series of consolidated drained (CD) triaxial tests are conducted on multiple drying-wetting soil specimens to analyze the saturated shear strength. The test results indicate that the stress-strain relationships appear to be strain-hardening. The deviatory stress and initial stiffness of saturated soils increase and the volume of soils becomes contractive as the net normal stress increases but decrease with increasing drying-wetting cycle numbers. The cohesion (cd) and internal friction angle (φd) decrease with increasing cycle number (N) but the attenuation rate of φd is less than cd. The variations of cd and φd with respect to drying-wetting cycles can be expressed by exponential function. The saturated shear strength and it’s attenuation rate due to drying-wetting cycles are analyzed. The effect is more significant for the first cycle and decreases with subsequent cycles and finally reaches to a constant state after 4 cycles. Furthermore, a mathematical function is proposed in this paper which can describe the saturated shear strength attenuation rate of drying-wetting cycle samples. Such studies are useful to understand the possible changes in shear strength behavior of residual soils below the engineering structures that are subject to periodic drying and wetting from climatic variations.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Effect of Drying-Wetting Cycles on Saturated Shear Strength of Undisturbed Residual Soils
    AU  - Sayem Hossain Md
    AU  - Kong Ling-wei
    AU  - Yin Song
    Y1  - 2016/06/02
    PY  - 2016
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15
    T2  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
    SP  - 159
    EP  - 166
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8737
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20160404.15
    AB  - Due to world-wide distributions and extensively used as construction materials, geotechnical engineers are interested in understanding the mechanical behavior of residual soils which are sometimes referred in the literature as problematic soils. The climatic zones where residual soils occur are often experienced by many drying-wetting cycles due to seasonal variations. This seasonal variation in the water content termed as drying-wetting cycle is regarded as the most destructive environmental factor that may cause many foundation diseases. Considering these, the purpose of this study is to understand the effects of drying-wetting cycles on saturated shear strength characteristics of undisturbed residual soil. A series of consolidated drained (CD) triaxial tests are conducted on multiple drying-wetting soil specimens to analyze the saturated shear strength. The test results indicate that the stress-strain relationships appear to be strain-hardening. The deviatory stress and initial stiffness of saturated soils increase and the volume of soils becomes contractive as the net normal stress increases but decrease with increasing drying-wetting cycle numbers. The cohesion (cd) and internal friction angle (φd) decrease with increasing cycle number (N) but the attenuation rate of φd is less than cd. The variations of cd and φd with respect to drying-wetting cycles can be expressed by exponential function. The saturated shear strength and it’s attenuation rate due to drying-wetting cycles are analyzed. The effect is more significant for the first cycle and decreases with subsequent cycles and finally reaches to a constant state after 4 cycles. Furthermore, a mathematical function is proposed in this paper which can describe the saturated shear strength attenuation rate of drying-wetting cycle samples. Such studies are useful to understand the possible changes in shear strength behavior of residual soils below the engineering structures that are subject to periodic drying and wetting from climatic variations.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China; Department of Geological Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

  • State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China

  • State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China

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