Abstract
This paper reports the main results of an experimental study on the mechanics of intensely fissured natural clays, extending our previous studies on scaly clay from Santa Croce di Magliano. While previous work focused on the influence of the orientation of fissures with respect to the loading direction, the present investigation specifically explores an additional, important variable: the stress level. The combined effect of fissure orientation and confining pressure was studied by setting up a large campaign of plane strain compression experiments, in which different combinations of these two variables were tested. Conventional global stress–strain measurements were complemented by measuring displacement and strain fields through two-dimensional digital image correlation. Such rich information provided a clear and consistent picture of the interplay between fissure orientation and stress level and revealed complex deformation patterns, which cannot be ignored for a proper interpretation of the material response.
Highlights
Fissured clays are widespread in chain areas, due to tectonism, and are often the source of severe geotechnical engineering problems (e.g. [8])
This paper reports the main results of an experimental study on the mechanics of intensely fissured natural clays, extending our previous studies on scaly clay from Santa Croce di Magliano
Based on a large number of plane strain compression tests and measurements linking global and local behaviour, the main conclusion from these previous studies was that when the fissures are oriented normal to the major principal stress, the deformation processes in fissured clays are essentially similar to those observed in intact clays (Fig. 1a)
Summary
Fissured clays are widespread in chain areas, due to tectonism, and are often the source of severe geotechnical engineering problems (e.g. [8]). Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, 3SR, F-38000 Grenoble, France 4 Division of Solid Mechanics - LTH, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 5 Lund Institute of Advanced Neutron and X-ray Science (LINXS), Lund, Sweden shear strength strongly depends on the level of fissuring (often referred to as fissuring intensity), as well as the orientation of the fissures with respect to the loading direction. This has been investigated in a series of experimental studies On the contrary, when fissures are parallel or inclined at about 45
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