Abstract
An elaborate triaxial testing system has been newly developed to investigate deformation of clay over a wide strain range in the laboratory. In this system, a digital servo-motor having a high-resolution is driven by a personal-computer by which the axial deformation as well as the axial stress acting on the clay specimen can be altered with time over a wide range of strain rate. Since the control of confirming pressure as well as the data acquisition is also fully automated, the capability of this triaxial testing system is grossly enhanced by enabling us to perform a wide range of tests such as K0-consolidation, monotonic compression/extension tests (strength tests), cyclic deformation test etc in a single apparatus. In this paper, the hardware of this systme is in detail described, the capability of this system is also demonstrated by showing the results of various kinds of tests described above. In addition, the performance can be evaluated in an attempt to measure elastic Young's modulus of clay at very small strains by examining the effects of drainage conditions, stress history and strain rate.
