Peak states - The Mechanics of Soils and Foundations - page 158

Figure 10.20 Normalized peak states of a soil - Example 10.1.

Example 10.2: Curved peak state envelope A further set of four shear tests was car-
ried out in addition to those described in Example 10.1 and the results are given in
Table 10.2. The peak states are plotted in Fig. 10.21 together with the data from
Table 10.1. The points fall close to two curved lines, although at large, stresses,
for which the data are those given in Table 10.1, the lines are very nearly straight.
As before, the stresses can be normalized with respect to the equivalent stress σ c .

The normalized stresses are given in Table 10.2 and plotted in Fig. 10.22(a). The data

Table 10.2 Peak states of a soil - Example 10.2

τ p (kPa) σ p (kPa) σ c (kPa) τ p / σ c σ p / σ c Sample e p

J 63 60 1.03 300 0.21 0.20

L 30 15 1.03 300 0.10 0.05

H 156 180 0.89 606 0.26 0.30

K 84 60 0.89 606 0.14 0.10

Figure 10.21 Peak states of a soil - Example 10.2.