Effects of Particle Size and Soil Bed on the Shear Strength of Materials in the Direct Shear Test

Abstract

Generally, direct shear apparatus is used to determine the shear strength parameters of soil and rock for designing a geotechnical engineering structure. However, the size of the shearing box and the soil sample is key for evaluating the shear strength parameters of test materials, and also testing conditions in the laboratory are different from site conditions. This research aimed to focus experimentally on the effect of particle size and the property of subgrade materials that were necessary keys for installing apparatuses for the direct shear test. According to the experimental results based on a 5 x 5 cm shear box, an increase in average particle size and coefficient of curvature could provide higher shear strength in terms of internal friction angle of the sample, but not for the case of higher value of the uniformity coefficient. Using both 5 x 5 cm and 30 x 30 cm shear boxes, a large B/Dmax ratio is not the key for determining appropriate parameters when testing with samples that have a nearly uniform size. Samples varied in thickness of both the ballast and subgrade layers, were investigated and observed by a large shear box. It was found that good properties of subgrade materials affected the shear strength of ballast materials, and they provided underestimates of strength when the bottom of the shearing box was rigid. The modified parameter of ballast materials on the subgrade layer is suggested for obtaining strength parameters reflecting the ballasted track system.