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ABSTRACT: Lateritic soils are used extensively in Nigeria for various construction purposes such
as highway, foundation and earth dam construction. Hence for optimum and effective use of the
soil, its shear strength parameters and the factors that affect them need to be established. The
objective of this study is to determine the effect of moisture content, compactive effort and the rate
of strain on the shear strength properties of soil within the Bauchi metropolis. The study shows
that there is an increase in cohesion and deviator stress at failure with an increase in compactive
effort. However, the effect of moisture content on the shear strength parameters did not show a
defined trend. Increase in rate of strain showed a higher peak deviator stress as well as a higher
cohesion and a reduction in the angle of internal friction.
Keywords: Lateritic soils, Shear strength parameters, compactive effort
1 INTRODUCTION
Lateritic soils are highly weathered residual soils, which are usually reddish to reddish brown in
colour. They are predominantly found in the tropics such as Malaysia, India and various parts of
Africa etc. Over the years, laterites have been used extensively in various types of construction
such as roads, foundation and earth dam construction. Compacted laterites are also used for sub
base and base construction for highways and airfields. Nigeria is situated in the tropics hence
there is an abundance of laterites in various parts of the country.
Shear strength characteristics of lateritic soils have been the subject of some considerable
study over the years. The investigations on compacted lateritic soils have produced slightly
contrasting results. Whereas Terzaghi(1958) and Clare and OReilly(1960) did not obtain any
effect of moisture content on strength parameters and unconfined compressive strength
respectively on the sasumua clays of Kenya. Matyas (1969) and Baldovin(1969) on the other
hand obtained a significant effect of placement moisture content on the cohesion and strength
envelopes of sasumua clays and Cameroonian soils respectively. In Nigeria, Nwaiwu(1994)
established that theres a considerable effect of strain rate on the undrained shear strength
characteristics of lateritic soils obtained in areas within Lagos. Very little information on the
characteristics of lateritic soils found in northern Nigeria has been documented. The aim of this
paper is to examine the influence of compactive effort, moisture content and rate of strain on the
shear strength properties of some compacted lateritic soils.
Investigation Of The Shear Strength Properties Of Some
Compacted Lateritic Soils
Emeso B. Ojo
Affiliation 1 Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Abuja Nigeria
eojo@nbbri.gov.ng +234(0)8033909574

International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering. 2013


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2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
Soils used for this study were obtained from two borrow pits used for road construction within
Bauchi town in Bauchi state, Nigeria. The pits, designated A and B were located at different areas
within the town. Sample A was collected at a depth of 30cm from the surface and on observation
was found to be reddish to reddish brown in colour. The second sample, sample B was collected at
a depth of 20cm from the surface and on observation was found to be dark brown in colour and
constituted of large lumps.
The results of the preliminary tests describing the physical properties of the samples are
summarized in the table below. Sample A is observed to be non-plastic while sample B has a
plasticity index of 24%. Based on the AASHTO classification, sample A belongs to the A-2 -4
group while sample B belongs to the A-7 group.
Table 1: Physical properties of samples

Sample A Sample B
Silt (0.06mm - 0.002mm) 15.4% 65%
Sand (2.0mm 0.06mm) 60.4% 26.8%
Gravel (fine) 24.1% 8%
Liquid limit 19% 45%
Plastic limit Non-plastic 21%
Plasticity index 19% 24%
Maximum dry density N/A 12.7%
Optimum moisture content 1.92g/cm3 1.77g/cm3

Proctor and heavy compactions were carried out on all the soil samples at three different moisture
contents: 1% dry of the OMC, at the OMC and 1% wet of the OMC. The proctor compaction was
carried out on 3 equal layers. The compactive effort corresponding to the proctor compaction was
obtained to be 27 blows of the 2.5 kg rammer dropping from a height of 300mm above the soil.
The heavy compaction on the other hand was carried out as specified by BS 1377(1990).
The corresponding compactive effort was obtained by applying 62 blows on 5 equal layers using
4.5kg rammer dropped from a height of 450mm above the soil.
After compaction, 3 specimens were extruded from the proctor mould and 6 specimens from
the CBR mould using specimen tubes after which the required dimensions of 38mm diameter and
76mm height were obtained using a split mould.
The obtained test specimens were subjected to Unconsolidated-undrained tests were carried out
in the standard 38mm diameter triaxial cell, without the measurement of pore pressure. The tests
were run at two strain rates: 0.5mm/min and 1.5mm/min.
3 RESULTS
The stress-strain curves obtained were typical of those obtained from undrained tests and
compared favorably with undrained tests on partially saturated compacted soil sample (Bishop &
Henkel 1962, Wesley 2010). The initial portions of the stress-strain curves were straight lines
indicating a linear relationship between stress and strain within this range.








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Table 2: Deviator stress at failure


Moisture
content
Rate of
strain mm/min
50KN/m2 150KN/m2 300KN/m2



A-2
Heavy
compaction
WET
0.5 316 712 1402
1.5 511 599 902
OMC
0.5 338 485 1120
1.5 411 678 1141
DRY
0.5 325 730 1424
1.5 730 897 1414



A-7
Heavy
compaction
WET
0.5 699 789 1064
1.5 792 809 887
OMC
0.5 326 760 1122
1.5 704 741 813
DRY
0.5 809 1133 1594
1.5 1080 1272 1591



A-7
Light
compaction
WET
0.5 375 569 681
1.5 298 383 522
OMC
0.5 332 584 1059
1.5 325 582 680
DRY
0.5 400 545 905
1.5 409 640 954




There were some observed deviations from this trend and this was probably as a result of sample
disturbance during the preparation of specimens or while running the tests. Table 2 shows the
deviator stress at failure for all the test specimens at the different cell pressures. The peak deviator
stress ranged from 316KN/m2 to 1402KN/m2 for sample A with heavy compaction. It ranged
from 326 KN/m2 to 1594KN/m2 for sample B with heavy compaction and ranged from
298KN/m2 to 1059KN/m2 with light compaction. Table 3 shows the cohesion and angle of
internal friction obtained from the Mohr failure envelopes for the samples.


Table 3: Cohesion and angle of internal friction
Moisture Content WET OMC DRY
Rate of strain mm/min 0.5 1.5 0.5 1.5 0.5 1.5
A-2
Heavy
compaction
C KN/m2 38 115 34 89 22 153
I 38 29 42 30 43 34
A-7
Heavy
compaction
C KN/m 199 332 108 285 166 280
I 25 9 33 10 37 30
A-7
Light
compaction
C KN/m2 173 92 47 188 55 94
I 16 18 37 14 39 31


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4 DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Effect Of Compactive Effort
From the results obtained, it was observed that a peak deviator stress of 1594KN/m 2 was obtained
for the A-7 soil sample compacted with the AASHTO compaction. On the other hand, when the
same soil sample compacted at the same moisture content but with the proctor compaction, a peak
deviator stress of 957KN/m2 was obtained. Hence, it can be deduced that an increase in
compactive effort improves the shear strength properties of the soil. This may be explained as
follows: the behaviour of soils such as laterites depends on the structural arrangement of the soil
particles and the degree of compaction determines the structural arrangement.
From the results of the Mohr failure envelopes, there was an appreciable increase of over 50%
in cohesion values when the heavy compaction was carried out as against light compaction. This
shows that a higher degree of cohesion between the particles is obtained with a heavier
compactive effort. However, the angles of internal friction obtained from the samples
compacted with the heavy compaction were significantly lower than that compacted with the light
compaction


Figure 3 Figure 1: Effect of degree of compaction on peak deviator stress (A-7 soil)
















Figure 2: Effect of compactive effort on angle of internal friction for A-7 sample at 1.5mm/min strain rate


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4.2 Effect Of Moisture Content

Results obtained for the variation of moisture content did not show a uniform trend. However,
most of the results showed a general decrease of peak deviator stress while moving from the dry
side to the wet side of the optimum moisture content. This was predominant for the heavily
compacted A-7 soil. Other values showed a decrease in peak deviator stress with a decrease in
moisture content. Past research has shown the peak deviator stress increases with an increase in
moisture content up to the OMC then decreases on the wet side of the optimum. Although a
number of values showed this trend, majority did not. This is probably due to the drying up
of sample during compaction and extrusion or simply as a result of variation in the location of the
samples tested.
From the results, it can also be deduced that a 1% decrease in moisture content within the range
of the omc results in an increase of angle of internal friction.





Figure 3: Effect of moisture content on cohesion for A-7 (Heavy compaction)

















Figure 4: Effect of moisture conent on angle of internal friction of A-7 (heavy compaction)



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4.3 Effect of rate of strain
The results show a general trend of higher peak deviator stress values at the higher strain rate.
This is because the behaviour of soils such as laterites depends on the structural
arrangement of the soil particles. Shear strains by aligning soil particles, tend to destroy some of
the differences in structure built up during compaction. The soil structure tends to break down
further when loads are left on the soil sample for longer period of time. Consequently, there is
increase in the build up of pore water pressure and this corresponds to a decrease in the value of
the peak deviator stress. The more rapid strain rates correspond to shorter durations of loading
(Nwaiwu 1994). This trend compares favourably with results obtained on saturated remoulded fat
clay soils (Richard and Whitman 1963) as well as laterite soils from Ojota area in Lagos,
Nigeria (Nwaiwu 1994). From the table 3, we observe a general increase in cohesion with an
increase in the rate of strain for all samples. However, there was a reduction of angle of internal
friction with increase in rate of strain. The latter trend did not agree with results obtained by
Nwaiwu on the laterites obtained in Lagos.


Figure 5: Effect of rate of strain on cohesion of A-7 sample (heavy compaction)















Figure 6: Effect of rate of strain on angle of internal friction of A-7 sample (heavy compaction)



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5 CONCLUSION
A series of undrained shear tests were carried out on two samples of laterite soils obtained within
the Bauchi metropolis. The soils were compacted using both heavy and light compaction at three
different moisture contents and sheared at two strain rates.
The results of the test can be summarized as follows:
- The structure of a soil is improved by compaction. Hence the degree of compaction has a
considerable effect on its shear strength properties
- Effect of moisture content was not uniform, however most of the results show a decrease of
peak deviator stress on the dry side of the OMC and then an increase on the wet side of the
OMC
- Peak deviator stress increases with a higher rate of strain
- Increase in compactive effort brings about an increase in the cohesion but a reduction in the
angle of internal friction for the samples
- Decrease in moisture content causes an increase in the angle of internal friction
while its effect on cohesion was not defined
- Increase in rate of strain causes and increase in cohesion with a reduction in the angle of
internal friction.
From the results presented in this study, it can be seen that laterite soil from the area under study
i.e. Bauchi town may be slightly structure sensitive since the angle of internal varied with different
strain rates applied and moisture content at compaction. Within the range of parameters varied, it
can be said that there is a considerable effect of these parameters on the shear strength properties of
lateritic soils. Therefore, it is pertinent in the use of lateritic soils, that the optimum of these
parameters be determined for the effective use of the soil.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research formed part of the authors B.Engr thesis. Valuable advice and encouragement was
received from Dr. J.A Egwurube and other civil engineering lecturers at the Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa University, Bauchi.
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