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Copyright of Canadian Geotechnical Journal is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The direct simple shear (DSS) device is one of the commonly used laboratory element testing tools to characterize the shear behaviour of soil. The interpretation of results from an element test requires understanding of the degree of stress and strain non-uniformities in a given test specimen. So far, studies on stress and strain non-uniformities in the DSS test have been conducted using direct boundary measurements of stresses in laboratory specimens supported by a continuum based analytical approach. Discrete element modelling now provides a means of modelling the soil behaviour in a realistic manner using a particulate approach. Accordingly, the performance of a DSS specimen was modelled using discrete element modelling with emphasis on assessing stress and strain non-uniformities in the specimen during shearing. The approach allowed for the numerical determination of stresses not only at the boundaries, but also within the DSS specimen. It was shown that mobilised stress ratio distribution throughout the shearing phase for the majority of specimen volume at locations near the central planes parallel and perpendicular to the direction of shearing is fairly uniform. Finally, it was noted that the potential for particle slippage at locations near the specimen centre can result in non-uniform shear strain distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geotechnical Journal is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Geotechnical Journal is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Geotechnical Journal is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An extensive torsional ring shear testing program has been conducted to measure the drained residual shear strength of soils at the wide range of effective normal stress (10 to 700 kPa) usually mobilized in reactivated and first-time landslides. Soils, mudstones and shales of different plasticity and gradation were tested in the program. The effects of the change in nonlinearity of shear strength envelope over the utilized normal stress ranges on slope stability analyses were investigated. Using this data, new empirical residual shear strength correlations were developed as a function of soil index parameters and wide range of effective normal stresses. In essence, the correlations are presented as revised versions of those previously developed for a limited number of normal stresses utilizing the same soil index parameters. Comparisons were made with a considerable amount of back-calculated shear strength data reported in the literature for reactivated landslides as well as results predicted from existing shear strength correlations to verify the increased suitability of the new correlations for use in slope stability analyses. A numerical expression was also introduced to express the residual shear strength correlations for direct incorporation in slope stability software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]