Dynamic properties of fine-grained soils in pre-sheared sliding surfaces

M. Yoshimine
Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan

R. Kuwano
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

J. Kuwano
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

K. Ishihara
Science University of Tokyo, Chiba, Japan

ABSTRACT: To evaluate the seismic stability of slopes containing pre-sheared surfaces, a series of cyclic loading tests on samples with pre-sheared surface were conducted with a dynamic ring shear apparatus. The effects of the dynamic loading such as the number of cycles and frequency were examined. It was also attempted to find if the dynamic behavior of soil with pre-existing shear surface is correlated with physical properties of the tested materials. 1 INTRODUCTION Slopes of clay and weak mudstone often contain shear surfaces at residual strength which were created by previous landslides or tectonic movements. For evaluating the stability of such slopes during earthquakes, dynamic properties of materials with pre-existing shear surfaces at or close to residual strength should be known. For this purpose, high speed shear tests have been conducted on clayey materials by means of ring shear apparatus (Skempton, 1985, Lemos et al., 1985, Tika et al., 1996 and Tika and Hutchinson, 1999). Based on the relationship between shear resistance of slip plane and the rate of displacement derived from these experiments, Lemos et al. (1994) proposed a method to calculate the displacements of slopes induced by earthquake loading. Although these previous studies addressed dynamic and cyclic properties of pre-existing shear surfaces, only monotonic loading tests have been conduced and cyclic loading tests have not been performed. To directly observe the cyclic behavior of of fine-grained soils in pre-existing shear surface, a dynamic ring shear apparatus was manufactured (Ijuin et al. 1987, Kuwano et al. 1991) and a series of cyclic loading tests on pre-existing shear surface have been carried out. This paper reports on the results of these tests. 2 THE RING SHEAR APPARATUS 3 TESTED MATERIAL AND TEST PROCEDURE The outline of the dynamic ring shear apparatus used in this study is shown in Fig. 1. The outer diameter, inner diameter and height of the specimen are 20cm, Sixteen materials were obtained from some sites of landslides in natural or manmade slopes and tested. 15cm and 2cm, respectively. The torque arm and the load cell for torque-measurement fix the rotation of the loading head and the upper half of the specimen. During displacement-control and monotonic loading tests, the electric motor and the gear system rotates the lower half of the specimen. A shear surface is created at the middle height of the specimen. In case of load-control cyclic tests, the pulley is lifted up by air pressure and fixed to the base platen. Then the gear system is disconnected, and the cyclic load is applied to the lower half of the specimen by air pressure in torque cylinder through the wire-pulley system. This mechanism enabled soil samples to create shear surfaces at residual state in one direction. Then cyclic load was applied on the shear surfaces successively. In the ring shear testing, setting adequate gap between upper and lower rings is necessary for precise measurement of vertical load and torque on the shear surface. The gap controlling system of the Imperial College - NGI type ring shear apparatus (Bishop et al., 1971) is not suitable for dynamic loading, because it is impossible to keep normal stress on the shear plane constant due to the fluctuating vertical friction between upper ring and specimen. To overcome this limitation, the gap is adjusted using the screw on the loading head as shown in Fig. 1. This system is superior also for monotonic loading providing that residual state is achieved and the height of the specimen is constant.

Table 1. List of ring shear tests

Liquid Plasticity Clay limit index fraction (<2m) LL (%) PI (%) CF (%) 1. Ontake 69 9 23 Normal stress (kPa) 98 147 196 245 294 98 147 196 245 49 98 147 196 245 98 147 196 245 49 98 294 98 294 392 98 196 294 392 490 98 196 98 196 294 98 294 98 294 98 196 294 98 294 98 294 98 196 49 98 294

Residual shear strength, r (kPa) [ Rate of displacement (mm/min) ]

0.01 0.1 1 10 100 300

Dynamic strength, d (kPa) [ Sinusoidal loading ] [Earthquake]

0.1Hz 0.25Hz 0.5Hz 1Hz EW NS

2. Hokuriku

63

41.6

59

3. Ecuador

70.1

39.6

33

4. Heisyana 5. Kukuno 6. Kamazuka

37.6 61.6 164

18.8 43.9 124

18 34 67

7. Gissar 8. Ochiai 9. Galdian 10.Tonomyo 11.Takeda 12.Uchikawa

32.4 94.5 39.3 86.5 NP 118.7

13 70.3 25.1 53.7 NP 78.3 14.6 26.8 11.7 25.1

9 30 41 28 21 26 22 37 9.6 29

13.Sabigawa1 33.1 14.Sabigawa2 42.5 15.Sabigawa3 35.8 16.Kalabagh 49.5

69 96 126 158 194 49 68 81 96 19 26 32 38 46 52 78 104 120 23 39 85 15 38 49 63 125 184 239 294 37 60 35 59 66 59 147 73 208 26 43 60 31 84 41 107 52 112 29 55 118

66 94 126 157 194 52 68 82 96 21 27 34 41 51 53 81 102 120 23 39 85 15 39 123 183 237

61 88 113 149 171 42 64 77 92 18 30 34 40 58 56 80 101 120 23 39 92 15 44 123 183 237

59 88 116 155 164 45 59 78 84 20 27 35 42 54 57 80 112 119 21 42 98 18 45 127 186 239

57 88 111 150 157 41 56 76 78 22 29 39 43 48 62 91 110 118 22 45 102 20 52 133

49 88 121 144 177 34 42 68 75 16 27 36 46 50 63 89 115 133 23 29 108 20 57 142 210

114 182 230 273 314 59 78 98 121 26 36 43 56 66 65 91 115 137 28 55 106 29 92 173 223 44 49 92

28 108 25 97 220 44 49 104 147 68 121 34 58 77 41 52 142 66 44 85

120 186 251 282 337 61 89 103 133 28 39 46 59 70 67 98 123 143 28 57 123 25 97 168 230 44 49 116 145 69 105 37 59 80 41 53 142 69 44 81 127

129 191 263 294 351 68 92 110 141 31 44 49 62 79 71 101 126 147

132 161 214 245 68 93 115 141 32 47 57 70 80 76 111 132 160 60 119 32 69 33 61 124 32 69 121 225 241 47 77 56 104 135 82 190 91 341 38 60 84 45 124 60 151 80

171 238

102 203 241 45 76 53 104 126 77 186 92 271 38 56 78 42 121 58 149 50 102 140

70 205 26 43 60 32 87 42 110 29 55

70 206 26 43 60 32 89 42 112 29 55

70 206 26 43 62 33 93 43 117 30 59

67 204 23 47 65 39 112 50 135 35 71

63 203 16 46 61 43 121 52 144 6 16

108 32 53 76 40 51 140 69 79 135

100 37 60 43 53 146 65

The physical properties of the materials are summarized in Table 1. Some of these materials were sampled near ground surface, and therefore they might not be exactly the same as the materials causing the landslides in the field. After processing the natural materials through the sieve to remove particles coarser than 2mm, distilled water was added to make the water contents around the liquid limit. Then the material was poured between outer and inner rings and consolidated under the target vertical stress of 49 to 490kPa, but mostly in the range of 98 to 294kPa. Only normally consolidated specimens were tested. First, specimens were sheared at constant rate of 0.01mm/min until residual strength was attained. Very smooth and clear slip surface was created for all of the materials. Second, the shear rate was gradually accelerated up to 300mm/min to study the rate effects during monotonic loading. Third, sinusoidal loading with fixed amplitude were

applied on the residual slip surface to examine the effects of the number of cycles, then sinusoidal loading with increasing amplitude were applied to examine dynamic strength characteristics. Finally, the behavior of the shear plane under earthquake loading was studied. Before each steps of dynamic loading, it was made sure that the slow residual strength, r(0.01mm/min) , was achieved by applying monotonic load. During the final stage of consolidation and the monotonic and dynamic shear process, the gap between upper and lower rings was kept constant around 0.1mm. The test results are also summarized in Table 1. 4 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Slow residual strength Secant residual friction angle at shear rate of 0.01

40

Sample thickness dial gauge Torque arm Torque load cell Loading head Confining rings Base platen Pulley

Ring gap dial gauge Screw for adjusting ring gap

35 30 25 20 15

Displacement rate = 0.01 mm/min

(a)

Porous stone

10 5 Skempton (1985) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

r (degrees)

Specimen

0 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Clay fraction, CF (%<2 m)

Secant residual friction angle,

Torque air cylinder

Wire

Torque air cylinder

(b)
Voight (1973)

Air pressure for pulley air-clutch system Rotation angle transducer Vertical Electric load cell motor and giar system Vertical load air cylinder

Normal stress n=49 kPa 98 kPa 147 kPa 196 kPa 245 kPa >294 kPa

Kanji (1974) 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

40 35 30 CF=9% 10 CF<20%, n=100kPa 18

Plasticity index, PI (%)

CF=23% 29 59 CF=28%

Figure 1. The dynamic ring shear apparatus

(c)

mm/min is displayed in Fig. 2. Skempton (1964), Voight (1973), Kanji (1974), Lupini et al. (1981), Skempton (1985) and Tika et al. (1999) pointed out that the residual friction angle of clay decreases with increasing plasticity index or clay fraction. Fig. 2(a) and (b) indicate the same tendency, although the measured residual friction angle was somehow larger than the previous studies. Stark and Eid (1994) reported that the residual friction angle was a function of liquid limit, clay fraction and overburden pressure. The same trend may be seen in Fig. 2(c), though more scatters were detected. 4.2 Rate effect in monotonic loading

25 20 15 10 5 0 0

33 37 29 34 59 CF=30% CF=22% 41 29 34 CF=33% 41 Stark and Eid (1994) 33

CF=26% CF=67%

CF>50%, n=700kPa 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Liquid limit, LL (%)

Figure 2. Slow residual strength

1.6 1.4

r / r (0.01mm/min)

r (300mm/min) / r (0.01mm/min)

Fig. 3(a) shows the shear rate effect on residual strength. Generally, shear resistance increases with higher speed, but in some cases the resistance dropped with increasing the rate of displacement, especially when the rate reached 300 mm/min. It should be noticed that the shear resistance of Kalabagh clay at high rate of displacement was less than half of the slow residual strength. Skempton (1985) and Tika et al. (1996, 1999) also reported such negative rate effects especially for Kalabagh soils. Pore pressure on the slip surface was not measured in this study. Skempton (1985) pointed out that intermediate soils that had clay fraction of 20 to 30% could exhibit negative rate effects. The same trend may be seen from Fig. 3(b). 4.3 Effect of the number of cycles in dynamic loading tests

1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.01 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Normal stress n=49 kPa 98 kPa 147 kPa 196 kPa 245 kPa >294 kPa

(a)

0.1

10

100

Rate of displacement (mm/min)

(b)

Clay fraction, CF (%<2 m)

70

80

Figure 3. Effect of displacement rate on residual strength

4.0 Displacement (cm)

Displacement (cm)

Kukuno clay
Sinusoidal loading (0.5Hz)

6.0

Galdian clay
Sinusoidal loading (0.5Hz)

0 25

n = 294kPa r = 85kPa 0 / r = 0.7

0 160

n = 294kPa r = 66kPa 0 / r = 0.7

(kPa)

(kPa)

cyc

-25 0 55 (kPa)

cyc
-160 0 200 (kPa)

Time (sec)

15

Time (sec)

27

cyc + 0

cyc + 0
-120 0 0

Displacement (cm)

4.0

Displacement (cm)

6.0

Figure 4. Sinusoidal loading test (fixed amplitude)

200 180

Figure 5. Sinusoidal loading test (increased amplitude)

Galdian clay, Sinusoidal loading (0.5Hz) d = 145(kPa)

160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

n = 294kPa r = 66kPa 0 / r = 0.7

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Displacement in one cycle (mm)

180 160

Kalabagh clay, Earthquake loading (EW)

n = 294kPa

cyc + 0 (kPa)

140 120 100 80 60 40 0 5 10 15 20

n = 98kPa

load equal to 70% of the slow residual strength (0 = r 0.7) was applied to the shear surface. Hence, the movement during cyclic loading was observed mostly only in the same direction as the initial static loading. Fig. 4 shows that the deformation was negligibly small when stress level was smaller than a threshold value. Sudden increase in plastic deformation started when stress level became larger than the threshold value in each cycle. Another prominent feature of the behavior of residual slip surfaces shown in Fig. 4 is the fact that displacement in one cycle was nearly constant for any cycles. This means that the number of cycles did not influence the cyclic behavior, i.e. no hardening or softening occurred during cyclic loading on residual slip surfaces. 4.4 Definition of Dynamic strength

cyc + 0 (kPa)

n = 49kPa
25 30

Displacement in one set of earthquake loading (mm)

Figure 6. Dynamic stress versus displacement

A typical example of the result of sinusoidal loading test with fixed amplitude was shown in Fig. 4. Before all of the cyclic loading, including sinusoidal and earthquake loading described below, initial static

Fig. 5 shows a typical example of the sinusoidal loading tests with increasing amplitude. Based on the finding that the cyclic stress - displacement behavior was not much affected by the previous cycles, peak stress of cyclic loading (0+ cyc) and displacement in each cycle was plotted in Fig. 6 (a). One may see from this figure that when the cyclic stress level reached to some level, the stressdisplacement curve became nearly flat and large

3.0 Displacement (cm)

Kalabagh clay
Earthquake (EW)

4.6 Dynamic strength characteristics Cyclic loading test results were summarized in Fig. 9. In this figure, the ratio of dynamic strength to slow residual strength was plotted against clay fraction of each material to see if the dynamic behavior of pre-existing shear surface is correlated with the physical properties of the tested materials. The dynamic response of materials that had larger clay fraction was more ductile and the ratio of dynamic strength to slow residual strength tended to be higher, but scatter of data was considerably large. From Fig. 9, it may be seen that, in general, the dynamic strength was 1.2 to 2.0 times larger than the slow residual strength. 5 CONCLUSIONS Sixteen materials, ranging from low plastic silt to very high plastic clay, were tested by means of dynamic ring shear apparatus. In the first series of the tests, sinusoidal cyclic stress with fixed amplitude was applied on pre-existing shear surface in the specimen at residual state. It was found that the number of cycles showed almost no influence on the stress-displacement behavior, i.e. no hardening or softening occurred during cyclic loading. Sinusoidal cyclic stresses with increasing amplitude were loaded on the shear surfaces to study the relationship between dynamic stress ratio and the magnitude of deformation in one cycle. The increase in the loading frequency from 0.1Hz to 1.0Hz resulted in the increase in the dynamic strength by 5
1.4

0 84

n = 98kPa r = 54kPa 0 / r = 0.7

(kPa)

cyc
-84 0 108 (kPa)

Time (sec)

120

cyc + 0
-49 0

Displacement (cm)

3.0

Figure 7. Earthquake loading test (Hachinohe EW)

4.5 Frequency and random loading effects Fig. 8 (a) shows the frequency effect in sinusoidal loading. It may be seen that, in the majority of the cases, dynamic strength of residual shear surface increased around 5 to 20% when the frequency of sinusoidal loading became 10 times in the range of 0.1Hz to 1.0Hz, though opposite frequency effects appeared in some cases. Dynamic strength against the earthquake loading (four times extended in time scale) was nearly the same level as 1.0Hz sinusoidal loading as shown in Fig. 8 (b). The relationship between the frequency effect and physical properties of the material was hardly detected as shown in Fig. 8 (c).

d / d (0.1Hz)

deformation developed. This stress level, d, was defined as the dynamic strength in this study. In addition to the sinusoidal loading tests, EW and NS components of acceleration record acquired at Hachinohe Port during Tokachi-oki Earthquake, Japan (1964) was used. Due to the frequency limitation of the pneumatic loading system, the time scale was four times as the reality. Fig. 7 is an example of earthquake loading tests. The dynamic strength for earthquake loading was defined in the same manner as sinusoidal loading tests as shown in Fig. 6 (b).

(a)
1.3 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8

(b)

0.1Hz

0.25Hz

0.5Hz

1.0Hz

EW

NS

Sinusoidal loading
1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0 10 20 30 40 50

Earthquake loading (c)

d / d (0.1Hz)

0.25Hz 0.5Hz 1.0Hz

NS EW 60 70 80

Clay fraction, CF (%<2 m)

Figure 8.

Effects of frequency and random loading on dynamic strength of residual slip surfaces

Dymanic strength / Slow residual strength, d / r (0.01mm/min)

2.2 Earthquake loading (EW) 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0 10 20 30 40 50 2.2 Sinusoidal loading (0.1Hz) 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 60 70 80

2.2 Earthquake loading (NS) 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0 10 20 30 2.2 Sinusoidal loading (0.5Hz) 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 70 80 0 10 20 Clay fraction, CF (%<2 m) 30 40 50 60 70 80 40
Normal stress n=49 kPa kPa 50 60 9870 80 147 kPa 196 kPa 245 kPa >294 kPa Approximate trend

Figure 9. Dynamic strength characteristics and physical property of tested material

to 20%. In addition, the dynamic response to the random loading simulating earthquakes was examined. Using these test results, it was attempted to find if the dynamic behavior of pre-existing shear surface is correlated with the physical properties of the tested materials such as clay fraction. Though scatter of data was very large, it seemed that the higher the clay fraction, the larger the ratio of dynamic strength to slow residual strength. In most of the cases, the dynamic strength was 20 to 100% larger than slow residual strength. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The ring shear tests on the material No. 8 to 16 (Table 1) were performed by Mr. Y. Kamegai (Chubu Electric Power Co.), Mr. K. Sato (Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.) and Mr. K. Amano (Shimizu Corporation). REFERENCES
Bishop, A.W., G.E. Green, V.K. Garga, A. Andresen & J.D. Brown 1971. A new ring shear apparatus and its application to the measurement of residual strength. Gotechnique 21(4): 273-328. Ijuin, R., K. Ishihara & J. Kuwano 1987. Residual strength and dynamic strength of pre-existing sliding surface. Proc. 42nd Annual Conf. of JSCE 3: 148-149 (in Japanese).

Kanji, M.A. 1974. The relationship between drained friction angles and Atterberg limits of natural soils. Gotechnique 24(4): 671-674. Kuwano, J., K. Ishihara, R. Kuwano & M. Yoshimine 1991. Dynamic strength of cohesive soils from landslide sites. Proc. 1st Young Asian Geotechnical Engineers Conf.: 207-216. Bangkok. Lemos, L.J.L., A.W. Skempton & P.R. Vaughan 1985. Earthquake loading of shear surfaces in slopes. Proc., 11th Int. Conf. Soil Mech. And Found. Engrg. 4: 19551958. Lemos, L.J.L., A.M.P. Gama & P.A.L.F. Coelho 1994. Displacements of cohesive slopes induced by earthquake loading. Proc., 13th Int. Conf. Soil Mech. And Found. Engrg. 3: 1041-1045. Lupini, J.F., A.E. Skinner & P.R. Vaughan. 1981. The drained residual strength of cohesive soils. Gotechnique 31(2): 181-213. Skempton, A.W. 1964. Long-term stability of clay slopes. Gotechnique 14(2): 77-102. Skempton, A.W. 1985. Residual strength of clays in landslides, folded strata and the laboratory. Gotechnique 35(1): 3-18. Stark, T.D. & H.T. Eid 1994. Drained residual strength of cohesive soils. J. of Geotech. Engrg., ASCE 120(5): 856871. Tika, TH. E., P.R. Vaughan & L.J.L. Lemos. 1996. Fast shearing of pre-existing shear zones in soil. Gotechnique 46(2): 197-233. Tika, TH. E. & J.N Hutchinson. 1999. Ring shear tests on soil from the Vaiont landslide slip surface. Gotechnique 49(1): 59-74. Voight, B. 1973. Correlation between Atterberg plasticity limits and residual shear strength of natural soils. Gotechnique 23(2): 265-267.