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Adequate saturation of the High Air Entry (HAE) ceramic disc is important in order to perform a Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) test as it provides higher accuracy to the determination of the water volume changes. Saturation of the HAE disc allows a direct contact between the water in the soil pores and the water underneath the disc. In this way, water can move freely, under differential pressure, through the disc. In contrast, air cannot pass the HAE disc if it has a pressure lower than the Air Entry Value of the disc.

This document provides the most common practice for the installation of on-sample transducers to a Triaxial soil specimen. The following is a guide only; modifications to the procedure are up to the user.

 

An Introduction to Direct Simple Shear (DSS) Testing

Clisp Studio version 2.10.1.0 is the final revision released to the public in 2020. This update to Clisp Studio includes the introduction of new testing standards, bug fixes and some feature upgrades.

There are several laboratory and in situ tests that can be done to estimate the permeability of the soil and every test has its own advantages and disadvantages. The two most common are “the constant head permeability method” and “the falling head permeability method”.

 

Bender Element is a non-destructive test performed in soil specimens to determine the small-strain shear modulus (Gmax) of the soil. Gmax is an important soil property which helps us to understand the elastic behaviour of the soil and to evaluate its response to dynamic loading, such as earthquakes, passing vehicles and vibrations. Figure 1 presents the various tests available to determine the shear modulus, G, of a soil. Shear modulus gets its maximum value (Gmax) at very small values of strain (within the elastic deformation field and usually at shear strains less than 10-3 %) which can be achieved only with a bender element test. This makes them very popular tests in soil mechanics. Moreover, due to its nature, a Bender Element test can be combined with another, main soil test on the same specimen (e.g. Triaxial or Consolidation) and can give estimations of the shear modulus at various stages of the main test. The Bender Element test can be performed multiple times on the same spec ...

This Blog covers sample assembly for the Dynamic Simple Shear with Confining Pressure System. This includes undisturbed and remoulded specimens for both confining pressure tests, and confining ring tests.

This system is used for repetitive situations such as offshore wind turbines, where the structure has to withstand the varying strength of wave motion.

Dynamic Triaxial testing is performed on soils when it is necessary to evaluate their strength and deformation properties under cyclic loading conditions. These conditions might include dynamic loading coming from earthquakes, passing vehicles and trains, sea waves, wind, vibration machines etc. There are many variations of Dynamic Triaxial tests and the user should select the one that is most accurately simulating the conditions in the field.