Technique to Avoid Membrane Punching During Triaxial Test of Crushed Aggregate

Purpose In triaxial test, a rubber membrane encloses the specimen. The membrane is specifically thin to a thickness of no influence on the test results. However, testing coarse-grained materials in triaxial test might be challenging due to the occurrence of membrane punching. In trial tests, the angular aggregate easily punches the membrane. Methods A technique was explored to mitigate membrane punching due to sharp edges of angular materials. One method has filter paper inserted between two membranes and another method has aluminium foil instead of filter paper. Results The use of filter paper and aluminium foil as insert materials is successful in preventing the membrane punching. Consequently, the filter paper is not contributing to additional resistance when used as protection between two membranes as compared to aluminium foil. Conclusion This paper investigates the performance of the protection materials by experiments. Essentially, the filter paper had no significant effect on test results; this fact was verified through numerical modelling and comparative tests by using rounded particles material.