Effect of drainage and saturation on undrained shear strength for compacted sandy soils

Abstract

Collapses of embankments have occurred due to heavy rainfall. It is very important to understand the strength properties under various unsaturated, partially saturated and fully saturated conditions of compacted materials. So, a series of unsaturated and saturated triaxial compression tests for compacted soils have been conducted to understand the effects of drainage and saturation on undrained strength. Soil samples were collected from several road embankments to carry out the experiments. The undrained (CU) strength of compacted material decreased with increase in the degree of saturation. Especially, the strength decreased from partially saturated condition to fully saturated condition was remarkable. The decrease of the materials with volume contractive behaviour was appeared clearly.