Evaluation of Modulus of Soils Using Various Laboratory Tests

다양한 실내시험을 이용한 지반의 탄성계수 평가

It is very important to evaluate the reliable nonlinear modulus characteristics of soils not only in the analysis of geotechnical structures under working stress conditions but also for the soil dynamic problems. For the evaluation of modulus characteristics of soils, various tests have been mostly employed in laboratory. However, different testing techniques are likely to have different ranges of reliable strain measurements, different applied stress level, and different loading frequencies, and the modulus of soils can be affected by these variables. For reliable evaluation, therefore, those effects on the modulus need to be considered, and measured values should be effectively adjusted to actual conditions where the soil is working. In this paper, to evaluate the modulus characteristics of soils, laboratory testing such as free-free resonant column (FF-RC), resonant column (RC), torsional shear (TS), static TX, and cyclic M/sub R/ tests were performed. The effects of strain amplitude, loading frequency, loading cycles, confining pressure, density, and water content on modulus were investigated. It is shown that the FF-RC test, which is simple and inexpensive testing technique, can provide a reliable estimation of small strain Young's modulus (E/sub max/), and the modulus evaluated by various laboratory tests are comparable to each other fairly well when the effects of these factors are properly taken into account.