Use of a differential pressure transducer for the monitoring of soil volume change in cyclic triaxial test on unsaturated soils

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel experimental setup using a differential pressure transducer to monitor soil volume changes during cyclic triaxial tests on unsaturated soils, demonstrating its effectiveness and influence of water content.

Contribution

A new differential pressure transducer-based system was developed and validated for monitoring volume changes in cyclic triaxial tests on unsaturated soils, with insights into water content effects.

Findings

System effectively monitors volume changes during cyclic loading.

Water content significantly affects cyclic behavior of loess.

Calibration confirms system's suitability at 0.05 Hz frequency.

Abstract

A new experimental set-up using a differential pressure transducer was developed, that enables the monitoring of volume changes in cyclic triaxial tests on unsaturated soils. Calibration tests were performed in order to analyze the performance of the set-up, especially in terms of loading frequencies. Based on calibration results, a low frequency of 0.05 Hz was adopted for the tests carried out on the unsaturated loess from northern France. Five water contents were considered in the tests. The obtained results have confirmed the efficiency of the new system for volume change monitoring under cyclic loading. The effect of water content on the cyclic behavior of loess was clearly evidenced. Finally, some suggestions were made to improve the accuracy of the system.