Non-Linear Elasto-Plastic Behaviour of Lacustrine Clay

The paper presents the experimental investigation and analysis of the non-linear elasto-plastic stress-strain behaviour of normally consolidated lacustrine clay. Drained triaxial stress path tests were performed on natural block samples of Swiss lacustrine clay. Data were analysed using plasticity theory and the shape and extent of kinematic yield and bounding surfaces were determined and found to be elliptical but not congruent. Cross-anisotropic elasticity was used to quantify elastic strains to permit plastic strain increment vectors and hence a plastic potential surface to be define

Economic Sampling and Extraction of Undisturbed, High Quality Samples in Normally Consolidated Lacustrine Clays Using a Large Diameter Tube

This paper describes the development, design and use of a large diameter sampling tube. High quality test specimens are essential for the investigation of mechanical properties of a soil for high risk projects and when complex and expensive testing methods are to be used. Block sampling is recommended to give the highest sample quality for clayey soils, however, extracting blocks of normally consolidated lacustrine silty clay without excessive disturbance was challenging due to the inherent structure of the soft varved silty clay and difficulty in maintaining Ko conditions, as well as no vertical strain, in the sample. A new sample tube, with an inner diameter of 196mm, an area ratio of 4% and an outer cutting-edge angle of 11° was designed to offer a larger cross sectional area than conventional thin walled sampling tubes, to provide the necessary side support and to prevent water ingress at the sides of the sample. The length-diameter aspect ratio was 1.275 to optimise the amount of clay sampled for subsequent testing and in an attempt to minimize the pressure in front of the tube. Samples were taken in initially newly excavated trenches at a depth of c. 1m with this new sampler and with conventionally sampled soil specimens, prior to the main testing programme with samples from 6m depth. A comparative study was then performed including preliminary unconsolidated unconfined compression tests followed by anisotropically consolidated undrained triaxial compression tests. It was important to establish whether this approach had led to an improvement in sample quality prior to embarking on an extensive triaxial stress path testing programme on this varved soil (Messerklinger, Non-linearity and small strain behaviour in lacustrine clay, 2006; Messerklinger and Springman, Geotech Test J 30(6), 2007; Messerklinger and Springman, Geotech Geol J, 2008). The results showed that the undrained shear strength of the specimens from the new sampler was consistently around 20% higher than that of specimens extruded from conventional thin walled tube samplers. This confirmed that samples with a significantly higher quality could be extracted from normally consolidated, fine grained, varved lacustrine deposits with this large diameter ‘block' sampling tub

Optimal Foraging By Bacteriophages Through Host Avoidance

Optimal foraging theory explains diet restriction as an adaptation to best utilize an array of foods differing in quality, the poorest items not worth the lost opportunity of finding better ones. Although optimal foraging has traditionally been applied to animal behavior, the model is easily applied to viral host range, which is genetically determined. The usual perspective for bacteriophages ( bacterial viruses) is that expanding host range is always advantageous if fitness on former hosts is not compromised. However, foraging theory identifies conditions favoring avoidance of poor hosts even if larger host ranges have no intrinsic costs. Bacteriophage T7 rapidly evolved to discriminate among different Escherichia coli strains when one host strain was engineered to kill infecting phages but the other remained productive. After modifying bacteria to yield more subtle fitness effects on T7, we tested qualitative predictions of optimal foraging theory by competing broad and narrow host range phages against each other. Consistent with the foraging model, diet restriction was favored when good hosts were common or there was a large difference in host quality. Contrary to the model, the direction of selection was affected by the density of poor hosts because being able to discriminate was costly.Integrative Biolog

Shear strength of an unsaturated silty sand

This paper presents a series of direct shear tests performed on a silty sand at three different gravimetric water contents. The soil was sampled from test pits south of Ruedlingen in North East Switzerland, where a landslide triggering experiment was carried out on a 37°-40° steep forested slope through infiltration of extreme artificial rainfall. The aim of this work was mainly to establish a correlation between the degree of saturation and slope stability. Direct shear tests were performed on reconstituted samples with a direct shear apparatus under undrained conditions for the water phase. Three of the samples were saturated after the shear phase in order to analyse the effect of wetting on shear strength. The results were interpreted with the assistance of a soil water retention curve (WRC) and an analytical slope stability analysis was performed to apply the laboratory results to the field experimen

Mechanical characterisation of lacustrine clay by interpreting spatial variability in CPTU measurements

Transportation infrastructure is common in highly populated areas near the major lakes in the Swiss 'Mittelland', where extensive deposits of normally consolidated post glacial clays have formed. Construction on, or in, such soils requires careful consideration during the design process due to their compressibility, low permeability and sensitivity. Achieving a satisfactory engineering characterisation requires a range of field and laboratory tests, which may be evaluated using statistical tools. The Intraclass ratio RI and the modified Bartlett method have been employed for interpreting the variability of the undrained shear strength su from continuous CPTU measurements at the Wauwil site. Finally, comparison between measurements from two cone dimensions, of cross sectional areas of 10 cm2 and 5 cm2, has been undertaken with respect to their capacity of profile detailing based on the normalised cone penetration resistanc

The effects of hydraulic properties of bedrock on the stability of slopes

The transient process of rain infiltration in the soil and the effect of geometry and drainage properties of the bedrock on the pore pressure distribution and the stability of a slope are investigated. The simulated slope is a test field in northern Switzerland, where landslide triggering experiments were carried out. From geological point of view, the experimental site is located in the Swiss Molasse basin. The lithological units in the area are composed of horizontally layered and fractured sandstones intersected by marlstone. The stability of the slope is monitored at different stages of the infiltration using the limit equilibrium method of slices. Several cases were compared to study the effect of the fissures in the shallow bedrock on the stability of the slope. The approximate location and size of the fissures in the bedrock were determined by monitoring of spatial and temporal changes of electrical resistivity during rainfall and also geological investigations of the bedrock before and after the failure

Fractal fragmentation of rocks within sturzstroms: insight derived from physical experiments within the ETH geotechnical drum centrifuge

An investigation of the behaviour and energy budget of sturzstroms has been carried out using physical, analytical and numerical modelling techniques. Sturzstroms are rock slides of very large volume and extreme run out, which display intensive fragmentation of blocks of rock due to inter-particle collisions within a collisional flow. Results from centrifugal model experiments provide strong arguments to allow the micro-mechanics and energy budget of sturzstroms to be described quantitatively by a fractal comminution model. A numerical experiment using a distinct element method (DEM) indicates rock mass and boundary conditions, which allow an alternating fragmenting and dilating dispersive regime to evolve and to sustain for long enough to replicate the spreading and run out of sturzstroms without needing to resort to peculiar mechanism. The fragmenting spreading model supported here is able to explain the run out of a fluid-absent granular flow beyond the travel distance predicted by a Coulomb frictional sliding model. This, and its strong relation to internal fragmentation, suggests that a sturzstrom constitutes a landslide category of its own. This study provides a novel framework for the understanding the physics of such sturzstrom

A laboratory investigation on an undisturbed silty sand from a slope prone to landsliding

A laboratory investigation is presented for undisturbed samples of a silty sand under saturated conditions. The soil was sampled from test pits south of Rüdlingen in North–East Switzerland, where a landslide triggering experiment was carried out on a steep forest slope. The aim of the work was to characterise the behaviour of the soil in triaxial tests, in the light of the possible failure mechanisms of the slope. Conventional drained and undrained triaxial tests were conducted to detect critical state conditions as well as peak shear strength as a function of confining pressure. Soil specimens were also exposed to stress paths simulating in situ water pressure increase to study the stress–strain response and to enhance the ability to predict failure conditions more accurately in the future. Possible unstable response along the stress paths analysed was investigated by means of second order work and strain acceleration. The results show that temporary unstable conditions may be encountered for this soil at stress ratios below ultimate failure and even below critical state line, depending on void ratio, drainage conditions and time dependent compressibility. A modified state parameter is explored as a potentially useful tool to discriminate conditions leading to eventual collapse

A laboratory investigation on an undisturbed silty sand from a slope prone to landsliding

A laboratory investigation is presented for undisturbed samples of a silty sand under saturated conditions. The soil was sampled from test pits south of Rüdlingen in North-East Switzerland, where a landslide triggering experiment was carried out on a steep forest slope. The aim of the work was to characterise the behaviour of the soil in triaxial tests, in the light of the possible failure mechanisms of the slope. Conventional drained and undrained triaxial tests were conducted to detect critical state conditions as well as peak shear strength as a function of confining pressure. Soil specimens were also exposed to stress paths simulating in situ water pressure increase to study the stress-strain response and to enhance the ability to predict failure conditions more accurately in the future. Possible unstable response along the stress paths analysed was investigated by means of second order work and strain acceleration. The results show that temporary unstable conditions may be encountered for this soil at stress ratios below ultimate failure and even below critical state line, depending on void ratio, drainage conditions and time dependent compressibility. A modified state parameter is explored as a potentially useful tool to discriminate conditions leading to eventual collaps