Comparison of Shear Strength of Coarse Materials Measured in Large Direct Shear and Large Triaxial Shear Tests

Since the particle sizes of the coarse materials used in dam or harbor constructions are much larger than those of typical soils, it is desirable that large shear testing apparatuses are used when performing shear tests on the coarse materials to obtain as accurate results as possible. Two large-scale shear testing apparatuses, large direct shear testing apparatus and large triaxial shear testing apparatus, are commonly used. Currently in Korea, however, there have not been many cases in which shear tests were done using the large apparatus due to mainly difficulties in manufacturing, diffusing, and operating them. In present study, both large direct shear tests and large triaxial shear tests were performed on the coarse materials, which are used as dam fill materials, for 6 test cases in which particle sizes, specimen sizes, vertical pressure (confining pressure) conditions were little different, and then, the shear strength characteristics of the materials were compared with the two different shear tests. The test results showed that, by the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, overall the shear strength obtained by the large direct shear tests was larger than that by the large triaxial shear tests. Moreover, the shear strength under the normal stress of 1,000 kPa was about 10 to 70% larger for the large direct shear tests than for the large triaxial shear tests, revealing the larger differences in the coarse materials, compared to typical soils.