Abstract
To investigate the effects of hydrogen-ion concentration exponent (pH) on undrained shear behaviour of bentonites, consolidated undrained triaxial compression tests were performed on bentonites with different pH.
As a result, undrained shear strength increases with the decrease in pH and the maximum excess pore water pressure decreases with the decrease in pH. In addition, the diffusion characteristics (cv-values and k-values) increase with the decrease in pH and it shows the bilinear relationship and the intersection point of two straight lines extrapolated from the initial and final portions of the curve is situated at the point of pH=7. The reason for this may be considered that different soil structures are developed with different pH.
