Stress-strain properties of frozen clay with consideration of major principal stress direction and coefficient of intermediate principal stress

Abstract:

To study mechanical properties of frozen saturated clay (FSC) under complex stress path, a series of directional shear tests were conducted using dynamic hollow cylinder testing apparatus of frozen soils (FHCA-300). Impacts of major principal stress direction and coefficient of intermediate principal stress on the stress-strain property of FSC were investigated through the directional shear tests. The results indicate that the stress-strain curves of FSC all perform as strain hardening under directional shearing, and the torsional shear component dominates the generalized shear stress-strain curves. Under different major principal stress directions, stress-strain curves of FSC have different levels correspondingly. When the coefficient of intermediate principal stress is 0.5 or 1, the level of generalized shear stress-strain curves will decrease with increase of the direction angle of major principal stress. The coefficient of intermediate principal stress has slight influence on the stress-strain property of torsional shear component, but has great influence on axial component and generalized stress-strain property.