The Tensile Strength of Compacted Clays

as Aected by Suction and Soil Structure

Rainer M. Zeh1 and Karl Josef Witt2

1
Geotechnisches Institut AG, Hochstrasse 48, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
rainer.zeh@geo-online.com
2
Bauhaus-University Weimar, Geotechnical Engineering, Department of Civil
Engineering, Coudraystr. 11c, D-99423 Weimar, Germany
kj.witt@bauing.uni-weimar.de

Summary. This paper describes the inuence of soil structure and soil suction on
the tensile strength of a compacted clay. Laboratory tensile strength tests were car-
ried out on a medium plastic clay. The soil samples were prepared by compacting a
soil-water mixture of predetermined water content. The soil samples were either wet-
ted or dried to dierent water contents corresponding to several suction levels. The
test results showed an increase in the tensile strength with higher suction values and
that samples compacted at dierent compaction states reach dierent magnitudes
of tensile strength values.

Key words: direct tensile strength tests, dierent compaction states, SWCC, ten-
sile strength, E-modulus, inuence of soil structure and suction

Introduction

The tensile strength of soils is usually not taken into account when solving
typical geotechnical problems. It plays an important role in connection with
the examination of compacted clay cracking (Morris et al. 1992) in landll
liners or in cores of dam embankments, for example.
The tensile strength has relatively often been analysed in literature (e.g.
Tang and Graham 2000, Snyder and Miller 1985, Ajaz and Parry 1975, Satya-
narayana and Rao 1972, Farrell et al. 1967), but the initial states, such as
density or soil structure, were often unequal. In addition, the testing methods
also varied. The tensile strength of soils can be measured by direct or indirect
testing devices, such as bending tests, punch tests, centrifuge or triaxial cell
tests, etc.
In this paper, a method to measure the direct tensile strength of compacted
clays is described. Furthermore, the test results correspond with a number of
investigations (e.g. Nagaraj and Miura 2001, Vanapalli et al. 1999) which

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 220 Rainer M. Zeh and Karl Josef Witt

have shown that soil-water interaction and soil structure generally have a
great inuence on soil properties.

Soil Structure

It is known that the engineering properties of ne grained (clayey) soils are

closely related to the soil-water interaction (e.g. Nagaraj and Miura 2001,
Mitchell 1993). A number of investigations indicated that the water (content)
absorbed by the clayey soils (clay aggregates and particles) correlates to other
soil properties like shear strength or compressibility.
Figure 1a shows a sketch with a typical structure of ne grained soils
sand, silt, clay aggregates (clusters) and pores with dierent sizes. The clay
aggregates (e.g. Fig. 1b) consist of clay particles which are formed by face to
face (parallel), edge to edge (normal) or mixed orientations size between 0.01
to 1 m. The orientation depends on the clay type, water content, soil prepa-
ration, etc. Clays compacted wet of Proctor optimum have a dispersed struc-
ture (parallel), with small inter-aggregate pores, compacted dry of Proctor

a) c)

wet of Proctor optimum

Proctor optimum

b)
dry of Proctor optimum

Fig. 1. a) ne grained soil structure 1: intra-aggregate pores, 2 (3): inter-aggregate

(large enclosed) pores, b) possible micro fabric of clays (modied from Nagaraj and
Miura 2001), c) orientation of clay particles

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 The Tensile Strength of Compacted Clays 221

optimum a meta-stable occulated structure (normal), with larger and more

inter-aggregate pores, and compacted at Proctor optimum a mixture of both
structures (Fig. 1c). Therefore, the number and the size of pores as well as
aggregates are strongly inuenced by the conditions during compaction.
Depending on the denition of pores (Cuisinier and Laloui 2004, Nagaraj
and Miura 2001, Diamond 1971), intra-aggregate pores (1 in Fig. 1a) have a
maximum diameter of 0.002 to 0.01 m. The size of the inter-aggregate pores
is 0.01 to 0.1 for the small pores, large enclosed pores are up to 10 m (2 and
3 in Fig. 1a).
The water trapped in intra-aggregate pores is mainly inuenced by particle
surface forces. The inter-aggregate pore water is dominated by capillary forces.
In relation to shear or tensile strength of soils, the number and size of the
pores conduct dierence magnitudes of strengths. In general, soils with only
small pores exhibit higher strengths than soils with large pores or soils with
dierent pores. The particle orientation also governs the obtainable strength.
Parallel soil fabrics (dispersed structures), as in the case of clays compacted
wet of Proctor optimum, have preponderant small pores and exhibit higher
shear or tensile strength values by increasing suction values.

Test Procedure and Soil Characteristics

Tensile Strength Tests

The samples were prepared in a Proctor mould with constant conditions for
each series (3 layers, 25 blows, standard hammer, Proctor optimum or 97%
wet/dry of Proctor optimum) which created a cylinder of 150120 mm. There-
fore, the initial soil structure per series remained the same. The cylindrical
soil samples were cut in 3 slices, which had been individually prepared to hol-
low cylinders of 90 24 mm (inner diameter 8 mm) by carefully trimming the
slices and drilling a hole (Fig. 2). The hollow-cylindrical samples were stored
for about 48 h to ensure homogeneous conditions. The samples were slowly and
regularly air-dried or wetted (spray bottle) between they were always stored
in waterproof bags until the designated water content value (or correspond-
ing suction) was obtained (about 14 to 21 days). Finally, the samples were
weighed and coated in wax to detect the volume by dip-weighing. The centre
of the inner hole was later lled with a lter textile and a modied dowel was
glued in both sample ends with epoxy resin. Two small hooks drilled in the
dowels were used to apply the tensile forces in the sample.
The tensile strength tests were run in a modied triaxial apparatus by
measuring the tensile force and the strain. The samples were normally torn
apart with v = 0.001 mm/s until rupture occurred. Besides, the water content
at the rupture zone was measured to determine the suction level by using the
SWCC of the soil (Zeh 2006).

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 222 Rainer M. Zeh and Karl Josef Witt

Soil Characteristics

In this paper, test results of a medium plasticity clay called Plessa (Pl) are
presented. The soil properties are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Soil properties of clay Plessa (Pl)

Parameters Values
Clay/silt/sand content 46.4/52.8/0.8%
Liquid/plastic limit wl /wp 49.7%/21.3%
Plasticity index Ip 28.4%
Specic gravity s 2.676
Proctor density/water content at optimum 1.696 g/cm3 /17.7%
at wet (97%) of optimum 1.645 g/cm3 /21.5%
at dry (97%) of optimum 1.645 g/cm3 /14.3%

Shear strength 25.0

Cohesion c 16.8 kN/m2

To convert the water contents into suction values, shrinkage curves and
soil-water characteristic curves (SWCC) were necessary as described before
(Zeh and Witt 2005a,b). Figure 3 represents the SWCC of clay Plessa, Proctor
compacted (called p18100o) with a tting curve by Fredlund and Xing (1994).
The curves of samples compacted wet or dry of Proctor optimum (called p21
97f and p1497tr) also show strong similarities. The SWCCs were determined
by the well-known axis-translation technique and chilled-mirror hygrometer
measurements (Leong et al. 2003).

dried

wetted

Proctor compacted cut in slices trimmed in cylindrical sample torn apart

Fig. 2. Schema sample preparation

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 The Tensile Strength of Compacted Clays 223

0,40
344
0,35
volumetric water content [m/m]

0,30

0,25

0,20

0,15 axis-trans.-techn.

chilled-mirror-hygrom.
0,10
Fitting Fredlund & Xing
137600
0,05 air-entry value

residual value
0,00
0,1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
suction [kN/m]

Fig. 3. Soil-water characteristic curve of clay Plessa, compacted at Proctor opti-

mum, tted with Fredlund and Xing (1994)s equation

1000
p21-97f
900
p18-100o

800 p14-97tr
compacted wet of
Proctor optimum
700
tensile strength [kN/m]

600
compacted at Proctor
500 optimum

400

300

200

100 compacted dry of

Proctor optimum
0
100 1000 10000 100000
suction [kN/m]

Fig. 4. Tensile strength of clay Plessa in dependence on the soil structure and the
suction

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 224 Rainer M. Zeh and Karl Josef Witt

Test Results
Figure 4 presents the results of the suction versus tensile strength relationships
of all samples tested in the study. As can be seen in Fig. 3 until suction
values of about 600 kN/m2 all samples show a similar development of the
tensile strength. Beyond this value, the samples compacted dry of Proctor
optimum have a much smaller increase in the tensile strength than the samples
compacted wet of optimum or at Proctor optimum. The samples compacted
wet of optimum and at Proctor optimum have also a similar tensile strength
increase up to a suction of about 1150 kN/m2 ; beyond this value, the wet
samples exhibit higher tensile strength values.
A comparison of the obtained tensile strength at a suction value of about
11,000 kN/m2 , as an example, represents very well their dierence as well
as the big inuence of the soil structure (and pore sizes) as described above.
The dry densities (determined by the tensile strength tests) as shown in Fig. 5
verify the smaller dierence in tensile strength of the samples compacted wet of
optimum or at Proctor optimum and the greater one of the samples compacted
dry of Proctor optimum, respectively.
However, the inuence of the soil structure is hardly visible in Fig. 6 which
represents the E-modulus in dependence on the suction. The values scatter
very distinctively. The E-modulus is calculated by strain and stresses during
the tensile strength tests a secant modulus of 80% and 15% stresses or rather
strains at failure.

2,05
p21-97f
2,00 p18-100o
p14-97tr
1,95 Proctor curve
Sr=0,70
1,90
dry densitiy [g/cm]

Sr=0,85
Sr=1,00
1,85

1,80

1,75

1,70

wet (97%) of Proctor optimum (21,5%, 1,65kg/cm)

1,65 compacted at Proctor optimum (17,7%, 1,70kg/cm)
dry (97%) of Proctor optimum (14,3%, 1,65kg/cm)

1,60
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
gravimetric water content [%]

Fig. 5. Dry density (determined by the tensile strength tests) and Proctor curve of
clay Plessa

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 The Tensile Strength of Compacted Clays 225

250
p21-97f compacted wet of
Proctor optimum
p18-100o
200 p14-97tr
E-Modulus [MN/m]

150

compacted dry of compacted at Proctor

Proctor optimum optimum
100

50

0
100 1000 10000 100000
suction [kN/m]

Fig. 6. E-modulus (clay Plessa) in dependence on the soil structure and the suction

Conclusions

The direct tensile testing method presented is very appropriate for examining
the tensile strength of compacted clays (or other ne grained soils) exposed to
dierent suctions (water contents). The test procedure is quite simple, whereas
the sample preparation needs some practice.
The results of the tensile strength tests clearly showed the eect of soil-
water interaction on the tensile strength and the E-modulus. Besides, the soil
structure has surprisingly an inuence only on the tensile strength. These
results and tendencies described have to be veried on further soils and soil
structures, respectively.

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 226 Rainer M. Zeh and Karl Josef Witt

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