Interface Behavior of Sands from Constant Normal Stiffness Direct Shear Tests

This paper reports an experimental study concerning the frictional behavior of sand-solid structure interfaces. The study was performed using a constant normal stiffness (CNS) direct shear box. Three natural silica sands and four aluminium plates with different roughnesses were investigated. A comparison between constant normal load (CNL) and CNS tests is reported. The influence of the main factors controlling the frictional behavior of the investigated materials such as constant normal stiffness, roughness of solid surface, particle size, and relative density, and initial effective normal stress are analyzed and discussed.