Shear Bands in Biaxial Tests on Dry Coarse Sand

• Published in: SOILS AND FOUNDATIONS Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 118 - 132
• Main Authors: Han, Chunhua, Drescher, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Elsevier B.V 01.03.1993; The Japanese Geotechnical Society; Japanese Geotechnical Society
• Subjects: deformation; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Engineering geology; Exact sciences and technology; failure; laboratory tests; sand (IGC: D6); deformation; laboratory tests; failure; sand (IGC: D6); equations; sedimentary rocks; models; sand; kinematics; clastic sediments; laboratory studies
• ISSN: 0038-0806; 0385-1621
• DOI: 10.3208/sandf1972.33.118

A series of plane-strain biaxial compression tests on dry coarse sand is described in which the state of shear-band formation, shear-band orientation, and shear-band growth are investigated. The results show that both the shear strain at shear banding and the shear-band orientation depend on the confining pressure. The experimental results are compared with the theoretical predictions of equilibrium bifurcation theory for a number of local and non-local incremental constitutive equations. Significant deviation between the experimental results and theoretical predictions for local constitutive equations involving the Mohr-Coulomb yield condition is observed at higher confining pressures. Much better agreement is obtained if a yield function possessing a corner is introduced. The analysis of the shear-band growth beyond the onset of localization reveals that simple purely kinematic models cannot describe adequately the observed evolution in the shear-band thickness.