Journal of Shanghai University(Natural Science Edition) ›› 2017, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (1): 121-127.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1007-2861.2015.01.018

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Shear strength of unsaturated Nanyang expansive soil and its prediction

SUN Hongyun, SUN Dean   

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
  • Received:2015-02-03 Online:2017-02-28 Published:2017-02-28

Abstract:

Expansive soil is a problematic soil with swelling and shrinkage. Compared with ordinary clay, the strength is clearly affected by water content. To investigate the effect of water content on the strength of expansive soil, a series of direct shear tests on Nanyang expansive soil with different water contents were carried out. Relationship between shear strength and water content at the same dry density was obtained. Test results show that the shear strength and cohesion decrease with increasing water content, and the internal friction angle changes little. In addition, by introducing macro saturation into the Bishop’s equation for unsaturated soil, the results show that the modified strength equation can well predict strength of unsaturated expansive soil.

Key words: unsaturated soil ,  shear strength, expansive soil