Abstract
Although the vane shear test has become a widely used site investigation method for saturated soft clays, its shear mechanism is very complicated and consequently the significance of the resulting vane strength is not necessarily clarified.In this paper, the shear mechanism of vane test in soft clays is investigated, mainly focussing the stress states on the vertical shear plane. Two types of laboratory vane tests are carried out for the normally K0-consolidated clays, involving total stress and pore water pressure measurements around shear plane. Also, finite element analysis of vane test is carried out, using a technique of multi-dimensional elasto-plastic consolidation analysis developed by the authors elsewhere.Based on both the experimental and analytical results, some important implications for the vane shear mechanism are shown through considerations of stress distributions and stress path behaviors.
