Experimental study on triaxial tensile property of compacted clay

A new-type of horizontal triaxial tension-compression apparatus for soil test was developed.It adopts strain-control loading mode and can eliminate the influence of self weight of soil specimen.It has a large axial rigidity and can be used to obtain a full stress-displacement curve of compacted clay in tensile failure under triaxial condition.Application to the triaxial tensile(extensile) test on the core clay materials of the Nuozhadu and Shuangjiangkou high earth-rockfill dams reveals three failure modes,i.e.pure tensile failure under low cell pressure,pure shear failure under high cell pressure,and tensile-shear coupled failure under middle cell pressure.Based on the test results,a joint strength criterion for triaxial tensile failure of compacted clay is proposed.