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A novel multifunctional apparatus for testing unsaturated soils

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Abstract

There are limited studies in the development of testing apparatus on unsaturated soils due to the complex structure, tedious calibration process, and large demands on test time and skills. In this study, a novel multifunctional apparatus (MFA) has been designed and manufactured for testing the unsaturated soils. This state-of-the-art testing apparatus is based on modular design and can be configured to conduct a variety of tests such as pressure plate test, oedometer test, direct shear test, and triaxial creep test under suction-controlled conditions. This apparatus has a high-grade stainless-steel chamber which is used to measure the total volume changes of an unsaturated soil specimen in triaxial creep tests. Based on the calibration results, the creep coefficient for MFA is about half of the coefficient for a typical double-cell system. Additionally, the MFA is designed in a manner to enable testing specimens with different dimensions and to control soil suction based on different techniques. Typical calibration results, test procedures, and experimental results obtained from this apparatus are presented and discussed in detail. Finally, the performance of this apparatus is well verified by the experimental results. It is found that the MFA is capable of and reliable for performing above-mentioned tests and accurately investigating engineering behaviour of both saturated and unsaturated geomaterials.

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Acknowledgements

The work in this paper was supported by General Research Fund (GRF) (PolyU 152209/17E, PolyU 152179/18E, PolyU 152130/19E) and a Research Impact Fund (R5037-18) from Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government of China. The work was also supported by grants (ZVNC and ZDBS) from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China. We also acknowledge the supports by Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Center for Urban Geohazard and Mitigation of Faculty of Construction and Environment of PolyU. The helpful discussions with Mr. Jia-Feng Mao from the Nanjing Soil Instrument Factory Co., Ltd., are also gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Kai Liu, Wen-Bo Chen & Jian-Hua Yin

  2. Department of Ocean Sciences and Engineering, The Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Wei-Qiang Feng

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, 453552, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Lalit Borana

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  1. Kai Liu
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  2. Wen-Bo Chen
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  5. Lalit Borana
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Correspondence to Wen-Bo Chen.

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Liu, K., Chen, WB., Yin, JH. et al. A novel multifunctional apparatus for testing unsaturated soils. Acta Geotech. 16, 3761–3778 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01399-z

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