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EFFECT OF STRAIN RATE ON SHEAR STRENGTH PARAMETER OF SAND

Conference Paper · December 2015

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 50th INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE
50th
IGC
17th – 19th DECEMBER 2015, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue: College of Engineering (Estd. 1854), Pune, India

EFFECT OF STRAIN RATE ON SHEAR STRENGTH PARAMETER OF SAND

Mamo, B. G., Former PG Student, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Guwahati, bekonga@gmail.com
Banoth, K. K., Former UG Student, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Guwahati, banothkirank@gmail.com
Dey, A.*, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Guwahati, arindamdeyiitk@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The shear strength parameter φ (angle of internal friction) is not an inherent property of sand and is
affected by several factors, especially strain rate applied during the test. There is no conclusive consensus and
different codes suggest use of different strain rates to estimate φ. This article illustrates the effect of varying strain
rate on φ based on direct shear tests conducted on dry cohesionless soil prepared at four different relative densities.
The test results revealed that the peak and residual φ are noticeably affected by variation in strain rate, with more
prominent effect being manifested for loose sands.

INTRODUCTION void ratio), the shear stress-strain behavior is not

The shear strength of soil is of special relevance
amongst various geotechnical soil properties since
it is one of the most essential entities for analyzing
and solving different stability problems such as
evaluation of earth pressure, bearing capacity of
footings and foundations, and slope stability or
stability of embankments and earth dams. Shear
strength of soil describes the maximum shear stress
that a soil can sustain in its incipient failure
condition. The shear resistance is a combinatorial
effect of friction and interlocking of particles (for
granular soils), and possible cementation or
bonding at particle contacts (in the presence of fine
particles). Shear strength is also influenced by the
volumetric changes occurring during shearing
(which is manifested as contractive or dilative
behavior) which result in the augmentation or
attenuation of the net vertical stress on the shearing
plane. Shear stress-strain behavior dense sands
shows a peak strength when the particles are in the
most compact state of arrangement. This condition
marks the near-complete mobilization of the
interlocking resistance of the granular particles.
Due to rearrangement of the constituent particles,
further shearing results in the decrease in the
compactness of the granular media, and the effect
is manifested by the decrement in the stress in
comparison to the peak shear strength.
Conventionally, for loose sands (wherein the initial
arrangement of particles are marked by significant
supposed to reveal any peak shear strength
condition followed by post-peak reduction in
stress; although, the actual behavior would be
largely governed by the test conditions. When
subjected to large shear strains, the stress-strain
relationship (for both dense and loose sands)
assumes a near-asymptotic condition when the
material exhibits zero volume change upon
shearing and the inter-particle bonds are
completely degenerated. Such condition is referred
as the ‘Critical state’ or the ‘Constant volume
shearing condition’ which indicates that state
where the shear stress and density remain constant
while the shear strain increases. This state becomes
independent of the initial relative density of the
sample being tested. Provided the environmental
and test conditions remains the same, sands of
various relative densities is supposed to achieve the
same critical state condition.
Hence, it can be stated that the shear strength of
sands (and, hence, the angle of internal friction),
peak or residual, is governed by several factors
namely soil composition, initial stress state of the
sample, soil structure, specimen size and rate of
loading. Rate of loading (or, strain rate) has been
found to be one of the prominent factors
influencing the obtained shear strength parameter.
It is reported in [1] that triaxial compression tests
were performed on sands at confining pressures
B. G. Mamo, K. K. Banoth & A. Dey
30-90 kPa subjected to strain rates up to 115%/s. It
was concluded that the shear strength of dry sand
increased by approximately 10% from static levels
when tested at high loading rates. A similar
increase in strength by approximately 15–20% was
reported for drained and undrained triaxial shear
tests performed on dense saturated sands at a
confining pressure of 200 kPa with strain rates up
to 1000%/s [2]. It is illustrated in [3] that dense and
loose sands subjected to confining pressures 100-
1,470 kPa and strain rates up to 250%/s exhibited
an enhancement in shear strength by 20% and 7%
respectively, with an increment in the strain rates.
Hence, it is noticed that along with strain rate, the
initial relative density of the sample also played a
contributory role on the obtained results. Drained
and undrained triaxial tests conducted on dense and
loose sands [4] at a confining pressure of 34 MPa
and subjected to varying strain rates revealed a 2%
increase in shear strength for drained samples,
while an increase of 7% for undrained samples. In
addition, the test data indicated that an increase in
strain rate diminished the tendency for instability
(liquefaction) because of increasing dilatant
tendencies. In contrast to the above findings, a
contradictory result is presented in [5], where it is
shown that the strain rate have minimal influence
on the shear strength of sand.
Hence, it is noted that there is no conclusive
consensus about the effect of strain rate on the
shear strength of sand. Based on this deficiency, a
detailed laboratory investigation had been
conducted to evaluate the shear strength parameter
of Barmihat river bed sand under varying
conditions of initial relative density and subjected
to varying strain rates. Based on the results
obtained from a conventional small-box direct
shear test, this article reports the effect of strain
rate on the obtained peak and residual angles of
internal friction of sand present in different states
of initial relative densities.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES AND SOIL
PROPERTIES
The soil used for the present study is Red sand
obtained from Barmihat river of Kamrup district of
Assam state. A typical particle size distribution
(PSD) curve for the specified soil is shown in Fig.
1. The PSD was estimated following the procedure
as stated in [6]. As a greater percentage of the
coarse fraction passes through 4.75 mm sieve, the
soil is considered to be sand. It is observed that less
than 2% of the soil passes through the 75 micron
sieve, and hence, it can be stated that the soil
sample is nearly devoid of fine content. Important
parameters obtained from PSD is enlisted in Table
1 where D10, D30 and D60 are the average diameter
of the particles which is finer than 10%, 30% and
60% of the soil sample used in the investigation.
Fig. 1 Particle size distribution for the Red sand
used in the study
Table 1 Results of grain size analysis
Parameters D10 D30 D60 CU CC
Values from
0.18 0.28 0.35 1.9 1.24
experiment
A direct shear box of dimension 60 mm x 60 mm x
30 mm was used for the present study. Direct shear
tests were performed as per [7]. Three different
strain rates namely 1.4 x 10-5/s, 6.9 x 10-5/s and
3.47 x 10-4/s were used. The specimens were tested
under three different normal stresses; 50kPa,
100kPa and 150kPa. Dial gauges (Least count
0.01mm) were fixed with the test apparatus in
order to take measurements of horizontal and
vertical displacement, and proving ring (Least
count 8.85N) was used to record the horizontal
force applied on the specimen. The test setup is
shown in Photograph 1.
 50th INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE
50th
IGC
17th – 19th DECEMBER 2015, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue: College of Engineering (Estd. 1854), Pune, India
Photograph 1 Test set up for the direct shear test
Relative Density
Relative density is an important parameter that has
been invariably used to assess the engineering
behaviour of coarse-grained soil deposits. Relative
density provides an idea about the degree of
looseness or denseness of the coarse grained
deposits and provides an indication about the
relative state of compaction of the particles. In
order to determine the maximum and minimum
relative densities of the test material a relative
density test has been conducted as per [8] and [9]
respectively. The maximum and minimum dry unit
weights of the sand are found to be 17.12 kN/m3
and 14.47 kN/m3. The relative density of the sand
sample is expressed as follows:
    d ,min
Dr  d ,max . d (1)
 d  d ,max   d ,min
Based on the relative density to be achieved, the
corresponding dry density of the sample was
calculated. A prior knowledge of the volume of the
mould in which shear test would be carried out
would aid in the subsequent estimation of the
volume of sand sample to be utilized
corresponding to the desired relative density of the
shearing sample. In the present study, four
different relative densities for the small shear box
test had been used namely, 40%, 55%, 70% and
85%.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Typical Results
Figure 2a exhibits a typical stress-strain curve for
the sandy specimen with 40% relative density
subjected to varying normal stresses (50, 100 and
150 kPa) at a strain rate of 0.0014 %/s.
Fig. 2a Shear stress-strain of sand of relative
density 40% subjected to strain rate 0.0014 %/s
Figure 2b shows the volume change of the sand
sample recorded during the course of the test.
Several tests were conducted at each particular test
conditions, and the error margins shown in the
above-mentioned set of figures indicate the
variations recorded during the repetitions of the
tests. A smaller error margin indicates closer
agreement of the results obtained from different
repetitions, while the bigger error margin indicates
otherwise. Hence, a smaller error margin provides
a better reliability of the results obtained from the
B. G. Mamo, K. K. Banoth & A. Dey

conducted tests. indicating that more precision have to be

confirmed while measuring the vertical
displacement by the vertical dial-gauge as used in
the experiment. Figure 2c shows the Mohr-
Coulomb (MC) failure envelope used to obtain the
peak angle of internal friction, while Fig. 2d
utilizes the MC stress envelope to obtain the
critical angle of internal friction.

Table 2 enumerates the peak and critical friction

angle obtained from the tests conducted with
varying strain rate and relative density. It can be
observed that both strain rate and initial relative
density of sand have a significant influence on the
Fig. 2b Vertical deformation of sand of relative assessed peak and internal friction angles.
density 40% subjected to strain rate 0.0014 %/s
Table 2 Peak and critical angle of internal friction
Relative Strain rate
φpeak () φcritical ()
Density (%) (%/s)
0.035 29.5 20.8
40 0.0069 36.8 27.2
0.0014 31.4 25.8
0.035 32.9 21.7
55 0.0069 38.6 27.7
0.0014 37.3 24.7
0.035 33.2 18.3
70 0.0069 40.1 28.4
0.0014 36.9 24.7
Fig. 2c Peak strength of sand of relative density
0.035 38.3 21.9
40% subjected to strain rate 0.0014 %/s
85 0.0069 41.6 26.8
0.0014 40.6 23.7

Variation of Peak Angle of Internal Friction

Fig. 2d Critical strength of sand of relative density
40% subjected to strain rate 0.0014 %/s
It can be observed that the records of volume
change possess relatively higher error margins than
that observed for the stress-strain records, thus
with Strain Rate
Figure 3 shows the variation of peak angle of
internal friction with strain rate. Initially, the peak
angle of internal friction increases with strain rate.
However, with further increase in strain rate the
peak angle of internal friction decreases. At a strain
rate of around 0.01%/s, the curve attains its
maximum value, beyond which, the angle of
internal friction decreases. This phenomenon is
explained as follows: At a lower strain rate, the
sandy soil particles get ample time to rearrange
themselves in a more compacted and denser state,
thus allowing development of more interlocking
between the particles manifested by the increase in
the angle of internal friction. However, with further
 50th INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE
50th
IGC
17th – 19th DECEMBER 2015, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue: College of Engineering (Estd. 1854), Pune, India
increase in the strain rate, the cohesionless particles
does not get enough time to mobilize full inter-
particle locking before they are thrust into a kinetic
motion, which renders the lowering of the angle of
internal friction. Fig. 3 reveals that even under the
same loading conditions, strain rate can
significantly affect the value of angle of internal
friction. Therefore, it is always important to
specify the deformation rate used during laboratory
direct shear tests together with the observed value
of angle of internal friction. This may help
designers to take consideration of the values of
angle of internal friction in correspondence with
the rate of deformation expected to act on the
embankment or slope to be designed. In addition,
Fig. 3 indicates that the curves get flatter as the
relative density increases from 40% to 85% which
indicates that the variation of peak angle of internal
friction with strain rate decreases with increasing
relative density. It is, hence, implied that a densely
compacted sample would lessen the effect of strain
rate on the shear strength parameter owing to the
high initial compaction of the sample rendering a
high initial interlocking of the particles.
Fig. 3 Variation of peak friction angle of with
strain rate for various relative densities
Relative density is one of those factors which
affect the estimated shear strength parameters. This
is mainly due to the state of compaction is directly
related to the strength property of soil. Peak angle
of internal friction is also found to vary with
relative density. Figure 4 shows the relationship
between peak angle of internal friction and relative
density in terms of logarithmic fit. For all the strain
rates employed in this study, the results revealed
that peak angle of internal friction increases with
increasing relative density. However, the rate of
change of peak angle of internal friction decreases
with increasing relative density. There is a
relatively larger variation in the peak angle of
internal friction in the looser state than the denser
state.
Fig. 4 Variation of peak angle of internal friction
with relative density for varying strain rate
Variation of Critical Angle of Internal Friction
with Strain Rate
Figure 5 shows the variation of critical angle of
internal friction with the strain rate for varying
initial relative density of the sample. Critical state
is reached when dilatancy vanishes, either due to
volume change in drained shear or effective
pressure change in undrained shear. The strength of
sand is usually characterized by the peak friction
angle φpeak and the critical state friction angle
φcritical. It is generally realized that the peak friction
angle depends not only on density but also on the
stress path, including differences between plane
strain and triaxial testing conditions. However,
since the critical angle of internal friction is
realized during the shearing under constant
volume, this parameter remains invariant of the
initial relative density of the sandy sample being
tested. It can be observed from Fig. 4 that the
values of critical angle of internal friction
estimated for various relative densities are nearly
identical to each other.
B. G. Mamo, K. K. Banoth & A. Dey

stress-strain behaviour is more concave showing

peak strength at a particular strain.

Fig. 5 Variation of critical friction angle of with

strain rate for various relative densities
Fig. 6 Variation of critical angle of internal friction
It can be observed from the figure that the critical with relative density for varying strain rate
angle of internal friction varies with strain rate.
The critical angle of internal friction increases up
to the intermediate strain rate, although a further
increase in strain rate results in decrease in critical
angle of internal friction. The variation of critical
angle of internal friction with strain rate is
comparatively smaller than that shown for peak
angle of internal friction. Unlike the peak angle of
internal friction which shows a large variation with
strain rate for loose sands, the critical angle of
internal friction varies almost similarly for both
loose and dense sands. It can be observed that the
variation of relative density does not pose any
influence on the variation of critical angle of Fig. 7 Stress-strain behaviour of sand subjected to
internal friction with the strain rate. The same is 50 kPa normal stress
revealed from Fig. 6.
However, for 85% sand there is a specific peak
Variation of Critical Angle of Internal Friction strength value for 50 kPa normal stress, which is
with Strain Rate primarily attributed to the higher density of the
Figures 7, 8 and 9 illustrate the variation of the packed sand specimen which allows for more
stress-strain response with relative density for a interlocking of the particles, and upon shearing
particular normal stress. As indicated on the stress- more resistance needs to be exceeded. As shown in
strain curves in Fig. 7, the looser state i.e. RD = Fig. 8, for 100 kPa normal stress, the stress-strain
40% does not show a defined peak value for 50kPa curves show a peak value for all densities shown in
normal stress. The result is coherent with the the figures although for 40% density the curve is
theory that loose sands do not show a specific peak still not as prominent as compared to the curves
strength value owing to the gradual readjustment of shown for 55% and 85% relative densities.
the particles experienced throughout the period of However, for 150 kPa normal stress (Fig. 9), all the
shearing. Loose sands gradually achieve residual densities from the loosest to the densest show a
strength without showing any peak strength at a peak value which manifests that even loose sands
particular strain level. This scenario gets changed under a high confining stress show peak strength
relatively for the 55% sand as the curvature of the values at a particular strain level. This behavior is
 50th INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE
50th
IGC
17th – 19th DECEMBER 2015, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue: College of Engineering (Estd. 1854), Pune, India
attributed to the high confining stress applied on
the sandy specimen, subjected to which even the
loose sands exhibit the characteristics of a dense
medium. Similar observation can be found in [11].
Fig. 8 Stress-strain behaviour of sand subjected to
100 kPa normal stress
REFERENCES
Fig. 9 Stress-strain behaviour of sand subjected to
150 kPa normal stress
CONCLUSIONS
The present study aimed to investigate and
understand the effects of strain rate and relative
density on the shear stress-strain characteristics,
volumetric deformations, and peak and critical
shear strength parameters of dry cohesionless soil.
A series of direct shear tests have been conducted
on dry samples in a small direct shear box. Based
on the test results discussed in the previous section,
the following conclusions are enlisted:
 The peak and critical angle of internal friction
are significantly affected by the variation in
applied strain rate and relative density of the
sample.
 The peak and critical angle of internal friction
is found to be maximum at an intermediate
strain rate (amongst those chosen for the
study) owing to the optimum interlocking of
sand particles.
 The effect of strain rate on the variation of
peak angle of internal friction is found to be
more pronounced for loose cohesionless sand
specimens than denser ones.
 Critical angle of internal friction is found to be
influenced by strain rate and is observed to be
nearly independent of the initial relative
density of the sample. The constant volume
(or critical state) shear strength is said to be
intrinsic to the soil, and independent of the
initial density or packing arrangement of the
soil grains as stated in critical state theory by
Roscoe (1958).
 Irrespective of the relative density of the
sample, shear stress-strain characteristics
obtained from the direct shear tests exhibit
peak strength and post-peak characteristics,
although the manifestation is comparatively
lesser for sands of low relative density
subjected to lower normal stress.
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B. G. Mamo, K. K. Banoth & A. Dey

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10. Roscoe, K.H. (1970), Tenth Rankine
Lecture: The Influence of Strains in Soil
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11. Lambe, T.W. and Whitman, R.V. (1969),
Soil Mechanics, Wiley, USA.

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