Available online at www.humg.edu.

vn

ESASGD 2016
GAG IPE (2016) 164173

Conference Title: International Conference on Geology and Geo-resources (GAG)

Effect of Shear Rate on Residual Shear Strength of Over-

consolidated Cohesive Soils
Motoyuki Suzuki1, Inoue Yuho1 , Nguyen Thanh Duong11
1
Graduate school of Science and Technology for Innovation, Yamaguchi University, Japan

Abstract

The residual shear strength of soil is an important strength parameter for the prediction and analysis of the stability of reactivated
landslides, and for the design of remedial measures. Several previous test results on cohesive soils revealed that the residual
strength is related to the shear rate, while the stress history (over-consolidation ratio (OCR)) is unrelated to the residual strength.
However, the effect of combined shear rate and OCR on residual strength has not been studied sufficiently. The aim of this study
was to explain the effect of the shear rate on the residual shear strength of cohesive soil under different OCRs using a ring shear
apparatus. A series of ring shear tests were carried out on the reconstituted kaolin clay samples with artificial OCRs of 1, 4, and
6. The shear displacement rate applied in the ring shear test was varied in the range of 0.02 mm/min to 20 mm/min.
Consequently, the following conclusions were made: 1) the shear displacement rate has a significant effect on both normally
consolidated (NC) and over-consolidated (OC) soils; 2) the shear displacement rate has a higher effect on the residual strength of
NC soils than that on OC soils.

Keywords: Residual strength; ring shear test; rate of displacement; OCR.

1. Introduction

The residual shear strength of cohesive soils is one of the most important strength parameters for evaluating and
predicting the stability of slopes that contain a pre-existing sliding surface (Skempton, 1964, 1985). The residual
strength is generally defined as the minimum drained shear strength after a large shear displacement. The drained
residual strength is often significantly lower than the peak strength. For normally consolidated (NC) clays, the
drained post-peak strength loss is due to the orientation of the clay particles in a direction parallel to the shear
surface. For over-consolidated (OC)clays, the drained peak strength loss is caused by an increase in water content
because of dilation and the orientation of clay particles parallel to the direction of the shearing surface (Skempton,
1970). The residual shear strength can be determined by a reversal direct shear test, ring shear test, and triaxial test.
However, the ring shear test apparatus is considered as the most suitable method for measuring the residual strength
because the cross-sectional area remains constant during the shear process and unlimited horizontal displacement
(Bishop et al., 1971; Lupini et al., 1981; Skempton, 1985; Stark and Eid, 1997; Tiwari and Marui, 2005; Meehan et
al., 2000; Nakamura et al., 2010; Vithana et al., 2012). In geotechnical literature, it has been noted that the residual
shear strength is a fundamental characteristic of soil. It is mainly affected by normal effective stress, clay mineral,
plasticity characteristics, particle shape, the pore water chemistry, and shear rate; however, it is independent of
stress history or OCR (Skempton, 1964; Lupini et al., 1981; Stark et al., 2005; Vithana et al., 2012). Stark et al.
(2005) stated that the soil structure, stress history (OCR), and particle interference would have no effect at a large
displacement in a particular direction. La Gatta (1970) carried out a series of experiments on remoulded samples of

* Nguyen Thanh Duong. Tel:+81-070-4403-4483

E-mail address: nguyenthanhduong@yucivil.onmicrosoft.com
165 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong/ International Conference on Geology and Geo Resources 00 (2016)

Pepper shale and crushed samples of Cucaracha shale; the study revealed that the residual strength of Pepper shale
increases with increasing OCRs. However, a conclusion regarding the effect of OCRs on the residual strength could
not be drawn because of limited test results.

The effect of shear rate on residual shear strength of cohesive soils has been thoroughly investigated for many
years. It has been observed that shear strength at the residual state may or may not depend on different shearing
speeds of both natural and pure mineral soils. (Kenny, 1967; La Gatta, 1970; Ramiah et al., 1970; Skempton, 1985;
Fukuoka and Sassa, 1991; Wedage, 1995, 1998; Parathiras, 1995; Tika et al., 1996, 1999; Anayi et al., 1988; Suzuki
et al., 2001, 2007, 2012; Saito et al., 2006; Toyota et al., 2006; Khosravi et al., 2013; Kimura et al., 2013). Among
them, Tika et al. (1996) presented the test results from a laboratory investigation regarding the effect of fast
displacement rates on the residual strength of the soil using the ring shear test. A shear zone was formed at the
residual state by shearing at slower rates of displacement, and the soil was then subjected to a higher rate of
displacement. Three types of variation in the fast residual strength with increasing rate of displacement have been
identified: neutral, negative, and positive. Some soils show that shear strength at the residual state is higher than the
residual shear strength, when shearing is observed at a higher rate (positive rate effect). Some soils show a
significant reduction in the residual strength as compared to the slow drained residual value, when shearing is
observed at faster rates (negative). Some soils exhibit a constant residual strength irrespective of the rate of
displacement (neutral) (see Fig.1).

Slow rate Fast rate Slow rate

Slow peak
Fast peak

Threshold Positive effect

Shear strength

Fast residual

Slow residual Neutral effect

Negative effect

Shear displacement

Fig1. Summary of rate-dependency of residual strength (Tika et al., 1996)

Tika et al. (1996) also pointed out that the rate effect on the residual strength of cohesive soils depends on the
mechanism of shear behaviour. Soils with a turbulent mode of shear typically show either a neutral or negative rate
effect, and this depends on the magnitude of normal stress. For normal stresses that are greater than 450 kPa, the
shear rate has no significant effect on residual strength (it exhibits a constant rate effect); however, at lower normal
stress levels, the residual strength value tends to decrease as the displacement rate increases. On the other hand, for
soils with a sliding mode of shear, the rate effect will show either negative or positive; for soils with a transitional
mode, a negative rate effect is typically observed.
Suzuki et al. (2001) performed tests on kaolin clay and mudstone at a shear rate varying from 0.02 mm/min to 2
mm/min. The test results indicated an increase in residual strength with the increasing shear rate (positive rate
effect). Skempton (1985) revealed that the increase in the residual strength is significant when shearing at a rate
exceeding 100 mm/min. On the other hand, Tika (1999) carried out tests on soil from the Vaiont landslide and found
that the residual friction angle decreases with the increasing shearing rate (negative rate effect). Notably, for
shearing rates in excess of 100 mm/min, the fast residual strength reduced by 40 % as compared to the slow residual
strength. Saito et al. (2006) suggested that the residual strengths of illitesand and sandbetonies mixtures decrease
with the increase in the shearing rates in a range of 0.6 to 600 mm/min, especially for a sandbetonies mixture.
However, La Gatta (1970), Kenny (1967), Ramiah et al. (1970), Suzuki et al. (2012), and Chen and Liu (2013)
reported that there is no significant rate effect on the residual shear strength.
The rate effect on residual strength has also been studied in correlation with other parameters. Kimura (2013) has
examined the rate effect on the residual strength in terms of effective normal stress. He suggested that the tendency
of increasing the negative rate effect on the residual strength with decreasing effective normal stress is significant in
the slow shearing rate range. Suzuki et al. (2001) also investigated the displacement rate effect on the residual
strength of cohesive soils in terms of normal stress, plasticity index, activity, and clay fraction. The test results
indicated that the variation in the residual strength with the shear displacement rate seems to be dependent on the
type and content of the clay minerals.
166 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong/ International Conference on Geology and Geo Resources 00 (2016)

Although the mechanism of rate effect on residual strength of cohesive soils has not been clarified, two general
hypotheses have been suggested to explain the displacement-rate dependency of residual strength value: 1) negative
pore water pressures are generated at the shear zone due to an increase in the shearing rate, which leads to a
decrease in the residual strength (Skempton, 1985); 2) a change in residual strength at increasing rate of
displacement can be attributed to the shear mode at the shear zone (Tika et al., 1996). However, for the former
hypothesis, Tika (1996) and Bhat (2013) have indicated that the change in pore water pressure may not cause a
change in residual shear strength. Therefore, the determination of residual strength at different rates may produce
different values and will affect the stability assessment of landslides; the influence of the shearing rate on the
residual strength of different soils should be carefully considered in its determination. Furthermore, the influence of
shear rate on the residual shear strength of OC soils has been scarcely examined. Therefore, it is necessary to
explain the relationship between residual strength and OCRs at different shear rates.
In this study, a conventional ring shear test was used to investigate the variation of residual strength. A series of
ring shear test was performed on reconstituted kaolin clay with different OCRs. The main objective of this study is
to examine the degree of variation in the residual strength of OC cohesive soils at different shearing rates and their
relationship with OCRs. Accordingly, one normal consolidation (OCR=1) and two levels of over-consolidation
(OCR= 4, and 6) were created on reconstituted soil samples by application of a pair of normal effective stresses.

2. Ring shear test with different displacement rates and OCRs

2.1. Material and sample preparation

In this study, the kaolin clay in the form of powder is used. The physical properties of samples were as follows:
specific density s=2.645 g/cm3; clay fraction (<5 m) CF=70 %; liquid limit W L=77.5 %; plasticity index Ip=42.1;
activity index A=0.60
The kaolin clay powder was mixed with distilled water to form a slurry that is two times its liquid limit and kept
for 24 h for consistency in limit measurement. The slurry was then poured into a large one-dimensional
consolidation tank (Fig.2). The slurry was stirred again to release air bubbles that were entrapped during the pouring
process, and a vacuum of 60 kPa was maintained until the air bubbles were removed from the slurry. The slurry in
the tank was consolidated through vertical pressure applied from the top by a piston inside the wall of the tank. To
minimize the friction between the piston and the inner walls of the tank, a thin layer of petroleum jelly was pasted to
the wall prior to adding the slurry. Water was drained from the tank through the base. The consolidation process
would be complete, when the primary consolidation was confirmed based on the 3t-method.After completing
consolidation under the required pressure, the specimens to be used in the ring shear tests were cut from the pre-
consolidated samples. The weight of the kaolin slurry in the tank was adjusted to ensure that the initial height of the
sample after the pre-consolidation was more than 2 cm.

Fig. 2. Consolidation tank for pre-consolidation of slurry

2.2. Test apparatus

167 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong/ International Conference on Geology and Geo Resources 00 (2016)

In this study, a conventional ring shear apparatus was used. The ring shear apparatus is similar to the Bishop-type
apparatus (Bishop et al., 1971).In this apparatus, the inner diameter, the outer diameter, and the height of the sample
are 6 cm, 10 cm, and 2 cm, respectively (Fig. 3a). The detailed features of the apparatus are given in Fig. 3b.

a) b)

Fig.3. (a) Size of specimen; (b) Ring shear test apparatus

2.3. Test procedure

The specimen was cut from the reconstituted samples to produce the annular samples with outer diameter, inner
diameter, and height as 10 cm, 6 cm, and 2 cm, respectively. The specimen was then placed in the ring shear box. A
series of experiments using a ring shear test were carried out on reconstituted kaolin clay with OCRs of 1, 4, and 6.
The OCR is theoretically defined as the ratio of maximum pre-consolidation pressure recorded in the stress history
of a soil mass to the current pressure.
In order to create the OC conditions for OCR 4 and 6, the specimens were first consolidated at a given
consolidation pressure (c) to reach the primary consolidation. The time to reach the primary consolidation was
calculated by the 3t method. The duration of primary consolidation by 3t-method for kaolin was 15 min. In this
study, the time to reach the primary consolidation was set at 60 min (1 h). Subsequently, the load was decreased,
and the specimens were reconsolidated at a lower effective normal stress, and later sheared at this normal stress. The
OCRs of 4 and 6 consists of 400/100 kPa and 600/100 kPa stress combinations, of which the former value of each
combination represents the consolidation pressure and the latter represents the normal stress at shear. The specimens
were sheared at a shear rate in the range of 0.02 mm/min to 20 mm/min until the accumulated shear displacement
became a sufficient value to obtain the residual condition. To prevent the specimens from drying out during testing,
distilled water was immediately poured into the water bath after applying the consolidation pressure. To mitigate the
friction between the upper and lower shear boxes and minimize the extrusion of soil from the shear surface, the gap
between the upper and lower halves of the ring box was set at 0.1 mm. The net normal stress applied on the surface
of the samples should be calculated by subtracting a measured frictional force generated between the ring and the
soil due to dilatancy. The frictional force acted upward in the case of a negative dilatancy (contraction), or
downward in the case of a positive dilatancy. After setting the gap between the upper and lower rings before starting
shear test, changes in the frictional force along the circumference of the rings were recorded for modifying normal
stress accordingly. Shear force, normal stress, frictional force, shear displacement, and vertical displacement were
measured automatically during the shearing process.

3. Test results and discussions

3.1. Determination of residual shear strength

To determine the residual shear strength, the hyperbolic approximation method was applied. In this method, the
relationship between, /(/), and shear displacement angle () was plotted. Hyperbolic approximation parameters,
a and b, are given by the segment, and the gradient of the straight line is fitted to the measurement of the
168 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong/ International Conference on Geology and Geo Resources 00 (2016)

relationship between /(/) and by the least square method. If the approximated hyperbola is in good agreement
with the measurement, (r/) is given as the inverse of b. The validity of the data fitting can be assessed using the
correlation coefficient, R. The application of this method was based on the test results of kaolin and natural clays
under various test conditions (Suzuki et al., 1997). The shear strength of cohesive soils at the residual state includes
the cohesion force (cr) and residual friction angle (r). However, at the residual state, cr, is nearly equal to zero
(Skempton, 1964; Stark, 2005). Therefore, the residual shear strength could be represented by only a residual
friction angle.
Stress ratio after peak strength

Hyperbolic curve
p/
(>p) Fitting line
a b.
/(/)=b+a)
(/)

b
1

/(/)
Measured points
Measured points
r 1

b
p a
0
Shear displacement angle, (rad) Shear displacement angle, (rad)
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram for determining the residual strength by a hyperbolic curve approximation(Suzuki et al., 1997)

Table 1 shows the cases and test results of the ring shear test. In this table, D is the rate of shear displacement
(mm/min); w0, d , Sr0, and e0, are the water content, wet density, degree of saturation, and void ratiorespectivelyat
the initial condition; and ec is the void ratio after consolidation.
169 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong/ International Conference on Geology and Geo Resources 00 (2016)

Table 1. Test cases, initial conditions, and test results of reconstituted kaolin clay

Water Displacement
OCR Initial water Initial wet Initial Degree of Shear r content requires
Test No (= c/ N) content density void Saturation c (kPa) ec N(kPa) rate D p (kPa) p / N r/N (kPa) after to reach the
w0 (%) d (g/cm3) ratio Sr0 (%) (mm/min) failure peak
e0 wf (%) strength
(mm)
1-1 66.4 1.55 1.840 95 1.582 98 0.02 52.8 0.539 0.235 23.3 54.7 5.46
1-2 68.8 1.55 1.880 97 1.578 98 0.2 50.2 0.512 0.238 23.4 58.5 6.48
1-2 66.6 1.58 1.789 99 1.531 98 0.5 56.9 0.581 0.267 26.2 56.6 6.57
1-3 1 68.3 1.57 1.835 98 98 1.581 98 2 42.6 0.435 0.274 26.8 57.7 7.49
1-4 69.5 1.56 1.874 98 1.597 98 5 40.5 0.413 0.289 28.4 61.2 10.63
1-5 66.6 1.54 1.861 95 1.602 98 10 36.0 0.367 0.328 33.2 57.5 18.22
1-6 71.7 1.54 1.949 97 1.624 98 20 36.7 0.374 0.340 33.5 59.6 14.17
2-1 55.6 1.63 1.525 96 1.280 98 0.02 61.2 0.624 0.285 27.3 4.07
2-2 55.9 1.63 1.530 97 1.300 98 0.2 75.6 0.771 0.291 28.5 4.05
2-3 53.8 1.64 1.480 96 1.204 98 0.5 62.7 0.640 0.292 28.0 53.2 2.53
2-4 4 53.3 1.63 1.488 95 392 1.301 98 2 61.2 0.624 0.299 29.4 51.5 2.23
2-5 51.7 1.65 1.436 95 1.131 98 5 62.7 0.640 0.317 31.2 53.4 2.02
2-6 57.3 1.64 1.537 99 1.190 98 10 78.4 0.800 0.349 33.2 55.1 2.02
2-7 53.8 1.65 1.465 97 1.147 98 20 73.8 0.753 0.360 35.5 54.5 6.07
3-1 53.1 1.67 1.425 99 1.110 98 0.02 56.9 0.581 0.214 20.7 52.8 2.43
3-2 52.7 1.65 1.448 96 1.210 98 0.05 59.8 0.610 0.228 22.0 52.1 2.54
3-3 55.4 1.61 1.553 94 1.246 98 0.2 59.3 0.605 0.236 23.1 56.8 3.24
3-4 58.5 1.62 1.588 97 1.300 98 0.5 65.7 0.670 0.211 20.6 56.0 1.51
6 588
3-5 57.9 1.61 1.594 96 1.214 98 2 70.5 0.719 0.227 22.7 54.5 3.04
3-6 56.8 1.59 1.608 93 1.189 98 5 65.2 0.665 0.259 25.3 55.9 1.52
3-7 56.2 1.64 1.519 98 1.104 98 10 66.0 0.673 0.272 27.1 55.3 2.06
3-8 55.7 1.63 1.526 97 1.194 98 20 68.3 0.697 0.277 26.8 55.3 4.05

*r, r/N: Residual strength and stress ratio at residual state were determined by hyperbolic curve
approximation
170 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong / International Conference on Geology and Geo-resources (GAG)

Shear-normal stress ratio, r / N

1. 0 1. 0
Shear-normal stress ratio, / N
a) O C R = 1 a) O C R = 1
0.02mm/ min 5.0mm/mi n : Peak
N =9 8 kP a 0.2mm/mi n 10mm/mi n
0. 8
N =98 kPa :Res idual s tate
0. 8 0.5mm/mi n 20mm/mi n
2.0mm/mi n
0. 6 0. 6

0. 4 0. 4

0. 2 0. 2

0. 0 0. 0
0 50 10 0 15 0 20 0 25 0 30 0 35 0 0.01 0.1 1 10 10 0
Shear dis placem ent (mm) Shear rate (mm /min )
Shear-normal s tres s ratio, / N

Shear-normal s tres s ratio, r / N

1. 0 1. 0
0.02mm/min 5.0mm/mi n b) O C R = 4
b) OC R = 4
0.2mm/mi n 10mm/min N =9 8 kP a
0. 8 N =98 kPa 0. 8
0.5mm/mi n 20mm/min
2.0mm/mi n
0. 6 0. 6

0. 4 0. 4

0. 2 0. 2 : Peak
:Residual state
0. 0 0. 0
0 50 10 0 15 0 20 0 25 0 30 0 35 0 0.01 0.1 1 10 10 0
Shear displacem ent (mm) Shear rate (mm /min )
r/ N
Shear-normal s tres s ratio, / N

1. 0 1. 0
0.02mm/min 2.0mm/min c) OC R = 6
c) OC R = 6
N =9 8 kPa 0.05mm/ min 5.0mm/min
0. 8
N =9 8 kPa
0. 8
S h e a r - n o r m a l s tr e ss ra ti o ,

0.2mm/min 10mm/mi n
0.5mm/min 20mm/min
0. 6 0. 6

0. 4 0. 4

0. 2 0. 2
:Peak
:Residual state
0. 0 0. 0
0 50 10 0 15 0 20 0 25 0 30 0 35 0 0.01 0.1 1 10 10 0
Shear displacem ent (mm) Shear rate (mm /min )

Fig.5. Relationship between shear-normal stress ratio and Fig. 6. Relationship between shear-normal stress ratio and
shear displacement with different OCRs
shear rate with different OCRs
Fig. 5 (a) to (c) show the relationships between the shear-normal stress ratio at peak and residual state, i.e.
p/N, r/N, and the shear displacement. Fig. 6 (a) to (c) show the relationships between the shear-normal stress
ratio and shear rate with different OCRs.

3.2. Effects of shear rate on peak strength and residual strength

It can be seen from Figure 6 that for the case of OCR 1 (NC soils), p/N decreases with increasing the shear
rate in the range of 0.02 mm/min to 20 mm/min. The result is in agreement with previous results (Suzuki et al.,
2000, 2001). This trend may be caused because of the generation of excess pore water pressure near the shear
surface. During fast shear rate, the pore water does not have sufficient time to dissipate; therefore, its pressure
increases immediately and leads to reduction in the peak shear strength. In the cases of OCR 4 and OCR 6, p/N
fluctuates (increases or decreases) around the value of 0.7, but the trend is upward. The increase in the shear
strength of OC soils with the increasing shear rate can be explained by dilation behaviour. The test data of OC
soils have shown that soil near the shear surface tends to dilate in the initial stage. The dilation of soil near the
171 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong/ International Conference on Geology and Geo Resources 00 (2016)

shear surface during the initial stage of shear will lead to increase in the void ratio, and soil will change from
saturated to unsaturated condition. This process will lead to an increase in negative pore water pressure, and the
effective stress will increase subsequently. The increase in the effective stress will result in the increase of the
peak shear strength.
For all the OCRs of 1, 4, and 6, r/N shows an increase trend with shear rates from 0.02mm/min to
20mm/min. However, for OCR of 1 (for NC soils), r/N is practically constant in the slow shear rate from 0.02
mm/min to 0.5 mm/min, and then it increases with increasing the shear rate above 0.5 mm/min. For OCRs of 4
and 6 (OC soils), the values of, r/N, are nearly constant with the slow shear rate from 0.02 mm/min to 2.0
mm/min. It then increases slightly with increasing the shear rate above 2.0 mm/min. These results are in
agreement with the results of previous studies (Ramiah et al., 1970; Suzuki et al., 2001, 2012; Bhat, 2013) (see
Fig 7). During shearing at the slow shear rates, it should be allowed a fully drained condition, sincethere is less
possibility for excess pore water to develop on the shear surface. Moreover, at slow rates of strain the orientation
of particles is more oriented and the shear mode is dominated by sliding. Therefore, the strength remained
mostly constant at the slow shear rates. By contrast, during shearing at fast shear rates, particles or grains within
the shear zone will lose their orientation, and the change mode of shearing from sliding to turbulent, results in
the increase of the shear strength. The increase of the residual strength at faster shear rates could be also induced
by viscosity and generation of negative pore water pressure caused by dilation. However, measurements of
sample thickness after shearing did not show any dilation; hence, dilation does not contribute to the increase in
the residual strength and can be excluded. The decreasing trend in sample thickness change is due to extrusion of
soil during the test. Therefore, in case of fast shear rate, the most significant effect on residual shear strength
change of OC cohesive soils results from the change of mode of shearing and viscosity rather than from pore
water pressure change.
Furthermore, the residual friction angles of NC soils are increased by 6 when the shear rate increases from
0.02 mm/min to 20 mm/min, while that of OC soils with OCRs 4 and 6 are increased by 4.3 and 3.6 ,
respectively. This implies that the higher value of OCR is, the smaller change in the residual strength is. This
result may be attributed to the density of soil. Table 1 shows that the void ratio before shearing of OC soils is
smaller than that of NC soils. This is an evidence that OC soils are denser than NC soils, and the density of soil
will increase with increasing OCRs. For high density, it may be a difficulty to change the mode of shear from
sliding to turbulent; hence, the residual shear strength hardly increases.
Stre s s ra tio in re s idu a l s ta te , r / N

1.0 P e p p e r s h a l e
C u c a r a c h a s h a l e (L a G a t t a , 1 9 7 1 )
L o n d o n c l a y
0 .8 K a o li n
(S u z u k i e t a l , 2 0 0 1 )
M u s to n e
T e r a n o s o i l
(S u z u k i e t a l , 2 0 1 2 )
H i g a s h i- T a k e z a w a A
0 .6 K a o li n , O C R = 2 ( B h a t , 2 0 1 3 )
5 0 % b e n to n i te + 5 0 % k a o l i n ( S a i t o , 2 0 0 9 )
S a n d - b e n t o n i t e
(S u z u k i e t a l , 2 0 1 2 )
0 .4 S a n d - b e n t o n i t e - c e m e n t
R a m i a h e t a l 1 9 7 1
S il i c a s a n d - 2 0 % i l li t e
+ S i l i c a s a n d - 2 0 % b e n to n i te (S a i t o e t a l, 2 0 0 6 )
0 .2 S il i c a s a n d - 2 0 % b e n t o n i t e
T h i s s tu d y ( O C R = 1 )
T h i s s tu d y ( O C R = 4 )
T h i s s tu d y ( O C R = 6 )
0 .0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 100 0
Shear rate (mm/min)
Fig.7. Effect of shear rate on residual strength of various soils
3.3. Effect of OCRs on peak and residual shear strength

It can be seen from the Fig 8 that the peak strength of OC soils is higher than that of NC soils. This supports
the hypothesis that negative pore water pressure may have developed during the initial phases of shearing, and
the pore water pressure should become more negative with increasing OCR. This result is in agreement with the
result of Skempton (1985).
However, the dependency of the residual shear strength on OCR is not clear (Fig.9). This may indicate that
the residual shear strength is independent of OCR. The result is in good agreement with previous studies
(Skempton, 1964; Lupini et al., 1981; Stark et al., 2005; Vithana et al., 2012). Hence, the effect of OCR on peak
strength is greater than that on residual strength.
Moreover, it is seen from Fig.10 that the shear displacement required to reach the peak strength of OC soils is
much lower than that of NC soils. It is evident that greater values of OCR will lead to smaller shear
172 Motoyuki Suzuki, Inoue Yuho, Nguyen Thanh Duong/ International Conference on Geology and Geo Resources 00 (2016) 000000

displacement to reach the maximum shear strength during the initial stage of shear. It has also indicated that the
failure of OC soils is more brittle than that of NC soils.
The amount of horizontal shear displacement becomes mostly constant for OC samples with OCRs of 4 and
6. It indicates that the disturbances of the shear surface structure may have been caused by the dilation effects.
(Vithana, 2012).

1. 0 1. 0

0. 8 0. 8
p / N

p / N
0. 6 0. 6

0. 4 0. 4
0.02m m/m in 5.0mm/mi n 0.02m m/m in 5.0mm/mi n
0.2mm/mi n 10mm/mi n 0.2mm/mi n 10mm/mi n
0. 2 0.5mm/mi n 20mm/mi n 0. 2 0.5mm/mi n 20mm/mi n
2.0mm/mi n 2.0mm/mi n
0. 0 0. 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
O CR O CR

Fig.8. Relationship between peak strength and OCRs Fig.9. Relationship between residual strength and OCRs
Shear displacement to reach peak strength, mm

20
18
0 . 0 2 m m / m in
16 0 . 2 m m / m in
14 0 . 5 m m / m in
2 . 0 m m / m in
12 5 . 0 m m / m in
10 1 0 m m / m in
2 0 m m / m in
8
6
4
2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
OCR

Fig. 10. Variation of horizontal shear displacement at the maximum shear strength

4. Conclusions

The main conclusions are summarized as follows:

1. The residual shear strength of both NC and OC cohesive soils is significantly influenced by the shear
displacement rate.
2. The rate effect on the residual shear strength of NC soils is negligible for shear rates from 0.02 mm/min to
0.5 mm/min, while for OC soils, it is insignificant for shear rates from 0.02 mm/min to 2 mm/min. It then
increases with the increase in the shear rate. The effect of shear rate on the residual strength of OC soils is
smaller than that on NC soils.
3. OCR has a greater effect on peak strength rather than on residual strength. The failure mechanism of OC
soil shows a brittle behaviour while NC soil shows a non-brittle behaviour.

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