Experimental Study of Drained Creep Behavior of Sand

The experimental techniques pertaining to accurate measurement of creep in sand are explained in detail. Triaxial compression and proportional loading tests were performed in a triaxial setup for which special procedures were developed to maintain constant temperature, constant confining pressure, and constant axial load, whereas the axial and volumetric deformations were measured using two types of mechanical measurement systems, both free of zero drift. Special attention was paid to the avoidance of air and water leakage through the membrane in the long-term tests. The experiments show that the nature of creep strains is similar to that of plastic strains. They may be predicted from the framework provided by the hardening plasticity theory. In particular, the potential surface determined for the prediction of plastic strains may also be used for the prediction of time-dependent creep strains. From the experiments it also appears that the yield surface and the plastic potential surface move out together, and the point at which to evaluate inelastic strain increment directions is the current location of the yield surface and the accompanying plastic potential surface.