Shear Strength Characteristics of Horizontal Layer Number in Composite Specimen

Abstract

We conducted triaxial compression tests using clay and sand materials to elucidate effects of the number of alternations of horizontal soft and hard layers on shear strength characteristics of a composite specimen. When the number of alternations in the horizontal soft clay layer and horizontal stiff clay layer was 1, the local deformation in the horizontal soft clay layer was strong. However, as the number of alternations became greater, the influence of heterogeneity was slight. Moreover, the shear strength characteristics of the composite specimen of horizontal soft clay layer and horizontal stiff clay layer tended to resemble that of homogeneous specimen with soft clay. Compared with the composite specimen with clay, the influence of heterogeneity in the composite specimen of the horizontal loose sand layer and horizontal dense sand layer was slight. The shear strength characteristics of the composite specimen of horizontal loose sand layer and a horizontal dense sand layer tended to resemble the average shear strength characteristic of each homogeneous specimen with loose sand or dense sand. Additionally, it was possible to express the process of concentrating maximum shear strain as combining an experimental photograph with the shear strain distribution calculated using few target points.