Influence of different strain rates on hydro-mechanical behaviour of reconstituted unsaturated soil

Abstract

The hydro-mechanical behaviour of a reconstituted unsaturated soil under different suctions and strain rates was studied through various rate-controlled unsaturated/undrained triaxial tests. The fully saturated reconstituted specimens were desaturated to four different initial suctions (s0 = 0, 100 kPa, 200 kPa and 300 kPa) and then triaxially sheared (conventional triaxial compression) at three different strain rates in undrained conditions ( $$\dot{\varepsilon }_{1} = 0.001$$ h−1, 0.01 h−1, and 0.1 h−1). The observed hydro-mechanical behaviour during shearing including the volumetric strain, deviatoric stress, degree of saturation and suction is presented and discussed in this paper. The results indicate that when the strain rate rises at the given initial suctions (or pore water pressures), the maximum deviatoric stress (qmax), critical net stress ratio (M) and critical state suction (sc) increase but the degree of saturation (Src) and volumetric strain at the critical state (evc ) reduce. The critical effective stress ratio (M′) is not dependent on the strain rate for saturated and unsaturated samples. The critical state lines for unsaturated soils with the constant strain rates are parallel with each other in the e − lnp′ space.