Gradation and shear characteristics of four cohesionless soils

Comparison of typical results from drained triaxial tests carried out at confining pressures of 50 and 350 p.s.i. (3.52 and 24.61 kg/cm2) on four cohesionless soils are presented.The effect of gradation at constant relative density is explored, and it is concluded that there is an optimum gradation in terms of both high ultimate strength and high mobilized strength. Uniform coarse gravel is shown to have poor mobilized strength, but at confining pressures high enough to cause particle crushing the improvement in gradation and packing leads to a high ultimate strength, although large axial strains are necessarily induced. The optimum gradation is shown to be close to Fuller's curve for maximum density. The effect of increasing the confining pressure from 50 to 350 p.s.i. (3.52 to 24.61 kg/cm2) leads to a decrease in [Formula: see text] peak of 6 to 10°, but modifications for dilatancy lead to [Formula: see text] parameters that are sensibly constant for any one material.