Measurement of soil strength in simple shear tests

During a simple shear test the axes of stress rotate and, in a conventional apparatus in which the only stresses measured are the normal and shear stresses on horizontal planes, it is not possible to define the stress state completely. As a result, the measured failure stresses may not represent the true strength of the soil. Examination of possible Mohr's circles for soils at failure in simple shear tests demonstrates that the measured strength for a given soil depends on, among other things, the ratio of the horizontal and vertical effective stresses at failure. Results of laboratory tests on Cowden Till and on blue London Clay show the differences between strengths measured in simple shear and triaxial tests. A consequence of the conventional interpretation of the simple shear test is that effective stress failure envelopes have a false cohesion intercept with friction angles smaller than those measured in triaxial tests. Key words: clays, laboratory equipment, shear strength, shear tests, triaxial tests.