Viscous property of dried clay

Abstract

One dimensional and triaxial compression tests of air-dried and oven-dried Fujinomori clay and Pisa clay were carried out. Water content is less than 4.5% and 1.0% for air-dried and oven-dried clay specimens, respectively. In all tests, axial strain rate was changed stepwise many times and drained creep tests were performed several times during monotonic loading at a constant strain rate. Global unloading (and also reloading in some tests) was applied during which creep loading tests were performed several times. Cyclic loading with small stress amplitude and several cycles was also performed to calculate the modulus of elasticity of the clay in tests. Local displacement transducer was used in triaxial compression test to increase measuring accuracy of axial strain. The results show that air-dried and oven-dried clay have noticeable viscous properties; during global unloading, creep deformation changes from positive to negative, i.e. there exist neutral points (zero creep deformation or no creep deformation point) in global unloading part of strain-stress curve; viscous property of Fujinomori clay decreases when water content decreases, i.e. viscous property of air-dried Fujinomori clay is more significant than that of oven-dried Fujinomori clay.