Modified Equivalent Radius Approach in Evaluating Stress-Strain Relationship in Torsional Test

Determination of stress-strain relationship in torsional tests is complicated due to nonuniform stress-strain variation occurring linearly with the radius in a soil specimen in torsion. The equivalent radius approach is adequate when calculating strain at low to intermediate strains, however, the approach is less accurate when performing the test at higher strain levels. The modified equivalent radius approach was developed to account for the problem more precisely. This approach was extended to generate the plots of equivalent radius ratio versus strain using modified hyperbolic and Ramberg-Osgood models. Results showed the effects of soil nonlinearity on the equivalent radius ratio curves were observed. Curve fitting was also performed to find the stress-strain relationship by fitting the theoretical torque-rotation relationship to measured torque-rotation relationship.