Viscous Properties of Granular Materials Having Different Particle Shapes in Direct Shear

The viscous properties of air-dried relatively poorly-graded granular materials having different particle shapes were evaluated by performing a series of direct shear (DS) tests. The applied loading histories include repeated step changes in the shear displacement rate (s) or repeated sustained loading stages during otherwise monotonic loading (ML) at a constant s under constant vertical stress. Test results of an angular gravelly soil (i.e., Chiba gravel-a) obtained from the present study and those of a wide variety of poorly-graded granular materials (i.e., glass beads and natural sands including Toyoura, Hostun, Silica No. 6a, Ticino, Silver Leighton Buzzard, Ottawa, Albany and Monterey sands) previously obtained by the authors are analysed. The viscous properties of granular materials can be adequately described by three basic parameters: i.e., the rate-sensitivity coefficient, the residual rate-sensitivity coefficient (or their ratio, i.e., the viscosity-type parameter) and the decay parameter. These parameters, as well as the viscosity type (i.e., Isotach, Combined, TESRA and P&N), are strongly affected by particle shape as quantified in terms of the degree of particle angularity while being rather independent of particle size. The creep deformation that takes place by sustained loading increases with an increase in the shear stress level, and it also increases with changes in the viscosity type associated with an increase in mainly the particle angularity and partly the coefficient of uniformity. The various viscous property types and transitions among them can be described by a single general equation incorporating these parameters. A non-linear three component model incorporating this general equation can simulate very well all of the various viscous responses observed in the DS tests referred to in the paper.