Effects of Sample Disturbance and Consolidation Procedures on Cyclic Strengths of Intermediate Soils

Sampling and testing of soils to measure engineering properties, such as monotonic and cyclic undrained shear strengths, requires an understanding of the potential effects of sampling disturbance and the selection of appropriate laboratory testing procedures. For clays, past research has provided insights on how sampling methods and laboratory testing procedures can be used in practice to assess and minimize sample disturbance effects. For sands, past research has shown that conventional tube sampling techniques cause excessive disturbance to the soil fabric, such that subsequent measurement of monotonic or cyclic strengths can be greatly in error and misleading. For intermediate soils, the effects of disturbance and consolidation procedures on monotonic and cyclic strengths are not well understood. In the present study, a test protocol was developed to assess the effects that disturbance during sample extrusion, trimming, and mounting have on subsequent measurements of compressibility, monotonic undrained strength, and cyclic undrained strength. Detailed laboratory tests were performed on tube samples from deposits of low-plasticity silty clay, for which conventional sampling and testing were expected to work reasonably well, and low-plasticity clayey sand, for which the effects of sample disturbance were of primary concern. Test results using this protocol for these two soils are presented and discussed.