Effect of Specimen Size on Undrained and Drained Shear Characteristics of Granular Soils

Abstract

An internal friction angle, which is one of strength parameters of granular soils, can be obtained from direct shear tests or triaxial tests. The result of traixial tests can be influenced by various experimental conditions such as confining pressure, shearing rate, specimen diameter and height, and end constraint. In this study, undrained and drained shearing behaviors of Nakdong River sand were investigated for loose (Dr = 40%) and dense (Dr = 80%) specimens with 5, 7, and 10 cm in diameter. Friction angles such as undrained total stress friction angle, undrained effective stress friction angle, and drained friction angle obtained from Mohr's stress circle slightly increased and then decreased as a diameter of a specimen increased from 5, 7 to 10 cm, regardless of relative densities. The difference between friction angles caused by different specimen size was at maximum 4.5 degrees for undrained total stress friction angle of dense specimen.In most cases, there was little difference between friction angles of large and small specimens, which was less than 2 degrees. The difference between an effective friction angle from undrained tests and a drained friction angle from drained tests was at maximum 7 degrees for loose samples but negligible for dense samples.