Resilient Modulus Testing of Six Granular Soils
Principal Investigator:
Joseph Labuz, Professor, Civil Engineering
Co-Investigators:
- Andrew Drescher, Professor, Civil Engineering
- Bojan Guzina, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering
Project Summary:
In this reseach project, esilient modulus, shear strength, dielectric permittivity, and shear and compressional wave speed values were determined for 36 soil specimens created from six soil samples. These values show that the soils had larger stiffnesses at low moisture contents. It was also noted during testing that some non-uniformity was present within the axial displacement measurements; larger levels of non-uniformity were associated with low moisture contents, possibly due to more heterogeneous moisture distributions within these specimens. Lastly, the data collected during this study was used to recommend a relationship between granular materials' small strain modulus and their resilient modulus. This relationship was given in the form of a hyperbolic model that accurately represents the strain-dependent modulus reduction of the base and subgrade materials. This model will enable field instruments that test at small strains to estimate the resilient modulus of soil layers placed during construction.
Sponsor:
Project Details:
- Start date: 05/2003
- Project Status: Completed
- Research Area: Infrastructure
- Topics: Pavements