Critical state soil mechanics analysis of the constant cell volume triaxial test

Abstract

SummaryWe have developed a critical state, stress‐strain analysis that predicts the entire sequence of states from start to the end of a constant cell volume triaxial test in p‐q‐v‐ɛz, space, where p is the spherical stress, q is the deviator stress, v is the specific volume and ɛz is the axial strain. The analysis requires five soil properties to be specified, these being the critical state properties (M, λ and κ) and two elastic properties (any two of E, η, G and K—all four can be found from any two).In order to test the analysis, properties taken mostly from one series of constant cell volume triaxial tests are used to simulate the behaviour in a second test series. In both series the two soils (a sand loam and a clay loam) were tested at several different water contents. The first (property estimation) series of tests was performed using large samples, whereas the second (verification) series involved small samples. The behaviour is quite different in the two series. The elastic property E was not determined in the first series of tests but was estimated from the second series. Furthermore, for three very wet samples, λ had to be estimated by fitting the analysis to the data. The verification was not therefore fully independent of the input test data, particularly for the three wet samples. The stress strain analysis simulated the behaviour of both series of tests in all four dimensions of the p‐q‐v‐ɛz space. The match in p‐q‐v space was good for all samples. On a q‐ɛz plane, the value of q was under‐estimated for several samples, but for most of the samples the match was good on this plane. The analysis was generally as good as, and sometimes better than, a previous analysis that deals only with the end point of the test in p‐q‐v space. The previous analysis did not take account of the elastic properties. The stress‐strain analysis therefore seems to offer a useful framework for parameter estimation from constant cell volume triaxial tests. This extends the usefulness of the test itself, as the elastic properties may now be accounted for. The success of the analysis also strengthens the record of success of the critical state concept for unsaturated soils.