1991 Volume 53 Issue 3 Pages 57-66
The effect of moisture content and cell pressure on soil failure and soil volume change were studied in this paper. These effects were determined by an undrained quasi-static triaxial compression test. Unsaturated silty loam and sandy loam soils were used for testing. Test results showed two types of soil failures namely plastic flow and brittle failure. The failures were found to be a strong function of soil moisture contents and cell pressures. In brittle failure, two behaviours were observed during the tests, general shear failure and fragmentation.
The soil volume change depended upon the relative values of moisture contents and cell pressures. It was observed that soil specimens were broken and expanded in volume during fragmentation than the general failure. The amount of energy used in breaking soil specimens were found to be a function of soil moisture contents. It clearly showed the optimum range of moisture contents for minimum energy requirement during soil failurs
