Influence of the Sample Preparation on the Mechanical Characteristics of Hostun Sand

Abstract

The paper assesses the effect of sample preparation on the small and large strain characteristics of Hostun sand that has been widely used for many years in model tests and researches. For approaching to this goal, experimental efforts were conducted on fully saturated samples prepared using the dry air pluviation (AP) and moist tamping (with various initial water contents) (MT) methods. The experiments were conducted using bender elements for small strain level (e.g. the maximum shear modulus Gmax) and triaxial device for large strain level. The results show that the initial fabric of specimens can be affected by sample preparation. For an example, loose specimens prepared by the AP method show larger maximum shear modulus in comparison with those prepared by the MT method. On the other hand, dense specimens compacted using the AP method show less maximum shear modulus in comparison with those compacted using the MT method. However, the experiments showed the negligible effect of sample preparation on the large strain characteristics of the adopted sand under drained condition. The experiments revealed that the dry deposition method provides samples with the more isotropic fabric in comparison with those prepared by the moist tamping. This effect can be obviously seen in dense samples.