Paper published in:

Z. Ali Rahman, D.G. Toll, D. Gallipoli (2018).

Critical state behaviour of a weakly bonded soil in a drained state.

Geomechanics and Geoengineering

https://doi.org/10.1080/17486025.2018.1454608

Critical state behaviour of a weakly bonded soil in a drained state

Z. ALI RAHMAN1, D. G. TOLL2 and D. GALLIPOLI3

1
School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology,
National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43600 Selangor Malaysia
2
Department of Engineering, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
3 Institut Supérieur Aquitain du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics (école d'ingénieurs)
Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Allee du Parc Montaury, 64600 Anglet, France

Abstract. This paper presents a series of consolidated drained triaxial tests performed on
weakly bonded soil. Samples were artificially prepared by mixing sand and kaolin (87%
sand: 13% kaolin) and firing at 500ºC in a furnace. The weak bond strength is provided
by the fired kaolin. The results are explained according to the critical state concept in
order to interpret the behaviour of the studied soil. Destructured soil was also prepared
and tested in the same manner as the bonded soil but without firing. The bonded samples
showed more pronounced peaks in stress-strain behaviour compared to the destructured
samples. The critical state line (CSL) could not be easily identified as some of the drained
tests show changes in deviator stress and volumetric strain up to the end of tests.
Therefore, careful assessment of stress-strain behaviour, pore-water pressure responses,
stress paths and volumetric changes was made to identify the critical state line. Samples
sheared at low and medium stress levels displayed contraction prior to dilatant behaviour
whilst those samples sheared at higher stresses showed contraction up to the end of
shearing. A “discontinuity” approach was applied to position the critical state on dilatant

1
paths in v-ln p space after considering other stress-strain and volumetric strain curves.
The critical state line (CSL) in v-ln p space for bonded samples plotted above the CSL
for destructured samples but bent down toward the destructured line at higher stress
levels. This clearly indicates the effect of cementation bonds on the CSL for the bonded
samples, as the influence of cementation remains until the stress levels increase beyond
the yield stress of the bonded material. In addition, the effect of bonding can be
visualized from the normalised stress paths of destructured and bonded samples.

Key words. Critical state, bonded soil, stress path; normalisation

1. Introduction

The concept of a critical state was first introduced by Casagrande (1936). The critical
state concept has been applied to explain the behaviour of a wide range of earth materials
(e.g. clay, sand, silty sand and gravelly sand) (Roscoe et al. 1958; Wood 1990). The
critical void ratio of sand has been a subject of intense discussion since Casagrande‟s
work (Cruz et al. 2011). This concept is referred to an ultimate condition where a soil
element will continue to deform without further change in stress and volume in drained
tests (Schofield & Wroth 1968). Many early studies have concentrated on describing the
behaviour of remoulded clays and less attention toward understanding sand behaviour
(Been et al. 1991). This is associated with the difficulty in defining the virgin
consolidation line, and subsequently measurement of the critical state line for sands was
seen as difficult and problematic.
This study uses artificially bonded sample to examine the behaviour of weakly
bonded soil in terms of the critical state concept. Due to heterogeneity and variability in
void ratio and strength of natural soil (Vaughan et al. 1988; Vaughan & Kwan 1984),
artificially bonded soils have been widely used to develop many fundamental frameworks
of natural soils (Bressani 1990; Coop & Atkinson 1993; Haeri et al. 2006; Huang &
Airey 1991; Maccarini 1987). This study follows in that tradition, by testing samples that

2
were artificially prepared by mixing sand and kaolin (87% sand: 13% kaolin) and firing
at 500ºC in a furnace. The weak bond strength is provided by the fired kaolin.
This paper presents a series of consolidated drained triaxial tests performed on the
weakly bonded soil. Destructured soil was also prepared and tested in the same manner as
the bonded soil but without firing. The bonded and destructured behavior are compared in
terms of the stress-strain behavior and the Critical State Line, both in terms q-p’ space
and in the volumetric v-ln p’ plane. The effect of bonding is also examined from the
normalised stress paths of the destructured and bonded samples.

2. The Critical State in Sandy and Cemented Soils

Many attempts have been made to extend the critical state concept to describe the
behaviour of sand. Earlier work carried out by Castro (1969) and Paolus (1981) defined
the critical state line through undrained stress-controlled triaxial tests on very loose sand.
In these studies, the steady state concept was used instead of referring to the critical state
in assessing the liquefaction potential of granular earth material. Therefore, many
researchers in liquefaction have used undrained tests that involve loose-contractive
samples to determine the steady state line (Castro 1969; Poulos 1981; Poulos et al 1985;
Sladen et al. 1985; Alarcon-Guzman et al. 1988; Ishihara 1993; Riemer & Seed 1997).
On the other side, researchers that concentrated on critical state soil behaviour prefer to
depend on the drained, strain-rate controlled tests in order to determine the critical state
since the critical state strength can be attained at a relatively low global strain level (Lee
1995; Santamaria & Cho 2001). Other researchers that used the critical state concept in
describing the critical state behaviour of sand including Seed & Lee (1967), Vesic &
Clough (1968) and Been & Jefferies (1985). In order to prevent confusion, Casagrande
(1975) in his review paper differentiated the behaviour of contractive (loose) and dilative
(dense) sands with terms of actual liquefaction and cyclic liquefaction, respectively.
However, the differences in determination of the critical state line and steady state line lie
in the methods of measurement and type of samples used. Been et al. (1991) in their
study on Erksak 330/0.7 sand, concluded that both concepts (critical state and steady
state) in fact refer to the same state.

3
 Since constitutive models of sands have been restricted to purely clean sand
(Stroud 1971; Cole 1967; Nova & Wood 1979), the change in direction to understand the
behaviour of sand with fine content becomes essential. The need to investigate the
behaviour of sand with fine fraction has been prompted by the fact that many of
catastrophes related to static and earthquake-induce liquefaction that are associated with
silty sands (Yamamuro & Lade 1998). Related studies found that the present of
significant silt content in sand deposits make them more prone to liquefaction than clean
sands (Lade & Yamamuro 1997; Zlatovic & Ishihara 1997). Investigation of fine and
medium quartzite sand have shown that the critical state line (CSL) can be represented by
scatter values of void ratio (0.01) at lower stress levels but the CSL abruptly curves at a
stress level of 1MPa (Been et al. 1991). The change was associated with the breakage of
some grains that results in different behaviour. Particle breakage was disregarded in early
theories of soil plasticity in e.g. Roscoe et al. (1958), Schofield & Wroth (1958) and
others. A study conducted on quartz and carbonate sands using ring shear tests also
exhibited particle breakage which extended to large strain at higher stress that can be
achieved by triaxial (Luzzani & Coop 1992). Coop & Atkinson (1993) examined the
behaviour of soil treated with gypsum plaster using a critical state concept. They found
that the CSL of cemented sands is lower than for uncemented sand. Coccovillo & Coop
(1999) observed the CSL were coincident in q-p’ space for intact and reconstituted
cemented sandy soil which diverged from the observations of Coop & Atkinson (1993).
Yamamuro & Lade (1998) examined the CSL of silty sand in undrained and drained
states and found the lines were separated at lower stress and coincided at higher stress.
The CS line was clearly represented by a zone of scattered data defined within lower and
upper limits. This is, in fact, consistent with the findings by many other researchers
(Konrad 1990; Mooney et al. 1998; Fourie & Papageorgiou 2001; Hosseini et al. 2005).
These studies have suggested that a unique critical state line is not possible to achieve in
e-ln p’ space due to inevitable changes in initial soil fabric and structure or it might be
related to void ratio error resulted from the measurement. Therefore, it is preferable to
accept a critical state “line” as a zone of lower and upper limits.
Many attempts have been made to study the effect of cementation degradation
which contributes to several constitutive models for cemented soil. Extensive laboratory

4
studies have been carried out and several constitutive models have been proposed by
researchers. Lade & Overton (1989) reported that the strength parameters of friction
angle and cohesion of soils increase as result of cement content especially at low stresses.
This suggested that cemented clays behave like over-consolidated soil at low confining
stress. The presence of cementation bonds can provide higher yield stress to cement
treated soil than untreated soil (Kasama et al. 2000; Kamruzzaman et al. 2009;
Horpibulsuk et al. 2010). The increase in the yield stress of cemented treated soil sheared
at lower mean stress levels is associated with formation of cementation bonds. As the
mean stress level increases beyond the yield stress increases, the shear strength of
cemented treated soil decreases due to cracking and cementation degradation (Uddin et
al. 1997). Several studies have also been performed to establish the effect of particle
breakage at higher stress level on the shear strength of cemented soils (Lee & Coop 1995;
Coop et al. 2004; Wang & Leung 2008; Marri et al. 2012).
Recently, a constitutive model for capturing the behaviour of cemented clay in
order to include the effect of cementation degradation has been established by Nguyen et
al. (2017). This model known as the C3 model, incorporates a modified mean effective
stress, a nonlinear failure envelope, a non-associated plastic potential function, and a
general stress-strain relationship to simulate the pre-peak and post-peak deviatoric stress
states, including the softening behavior of cement-treated clay. If mean effective stress
increases beyond the yield stress during isotropic compression of cemented treated clay,
the effect of cementation decreases due to degradation of cementation bonds. Thus the
void ratio of cement treated clay decreases toward the isotropic compression line (ICL) of
reconstituted soil due to considerable breakage of cementation bonds, particularly at high
mean effective stresses.

3. Materials and Experimental Program

3.1 Material and Sample preparation

The preparation of artificially bonded soil in this study aimed to simulate the weakly
structure of natural residual soil. The soil samples were artificially prepared in the

5
laboratory from a mixture of sand and kaolin (87:13, ratio by dry weight). Leighton
Buzzard sand was used which is classified as uniformly medium sand (Figure 1). A small
fraction of kaolin (13% of total mixture) were used in this mixture to establish weak
bonding between sand particles (Maccarini 1987; Malandraki, 1994). The mixture of
sand and kaolin was initially dry mixed in a container before 13 g (8.8%) of distilled
water was added. Then the wet mixture was thoroughly stirred and transferred into a
sample mould lined with filter paper. The mould was designed to achieve a core sample
of 38 mm diameter by 76 mm high for the triaxial tests. In order to achieve uniform
distribution of material across the sample, about 10 g of wet mixture was allocated to
establish each layer with thickness of approximately 5 mm. Gentle tamps were applied to
each layer of soil and levelled before leaving to dry at room temperature. Samples were
then fired for a period of 5 hours at 500oC to establish uniform bond strength (from fired
kaolin).
Destructured samples were also prepared in the same manner as the bonded soil
without firing of the moulded samples. For convenient reference, each test refers to the
type of test, condition of sample and applied effective confining stress. The first two
letters of “cd” refer to a consolidated drained test followed by “b” or “d” meaning either
the soil sample is in a bonded or destructured state. The number refers to the value of
applied effective confining stress (e.g. cdd50, cdb200).
Based on microscopic observation, the fired kaolin clearly establishes bonded
bridges between the sand particles whereas in some part of the section the fired kaolin
tends to coat the whole sand grains (Ali Rahman et al. 2010). It was also found that very
few sand particles have direct grain to grain contacts and voids can be isolated or
connected to form larger voids (Figure 2). Occurrences of fissures were also detected as a
result of firing of kaolin at higher temperature followed by cooling (Bressani 1990).

6
 Figure 1 Particle size distribution of the Leighton Buzzard sand

Figure 2 Microscopic structure of prepared bonded soil

2.2 Experimental Program

The experimental program was carried out as a series of drained triaxial compression
tests involved a total of 13 samples of artificial weakly bonded soils and 13 of the
destructured soil samples. All the studied samples were 38 mm diameter by 76 mm high
with initial void ratio, e of 0.6. Each sample was initially saturated under back pressure
to achieve a B value of at least 0.95. This procedure would normally take only 24 hours

7
due to the high porosity of the studied samples. Then the soil samples were isotropically
consolidated with mean effective stress, (p') ranging between 15 kPa and 1000 kPa. All
soil samples were allowed to consolidate for an hour prior to shearing. Shearing of the
samples in the drained state involved the monitoring of the changes in volume of the
sample. The shearing of the soil samples in drained was performed at a constant rate of
strain of 0.025% min-1. Samples were sheared for up to 35% of strain in order to establish
the behaviour of soils at the critical state.

3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Stress-Strain Behaviour

The stress-strain curves of destructured and bonded samples exhibited a linear increment
in deviator stress, q at early strains (Figure 3a and 3b). As the applied confining stresses
were increased, the maximum deviator stress, qmax values achieved by the samples were
also higher. All samples showed increase in deviator stress, q up to peak values before
the curves either levelled off or decreased with increasing axial strain, εa.
For destructured samples that were sheared at lower stress levels (p’), the deviator
stress, q values linearly climb up before the increment of q gradually decreases until qmax
value is reached. Then the q values level off with the axial strain, εa as illustrated by
cdd15 to cdd200 curves (Figure 3a). For the destructured samples sheared at higher
stress, samples experience strain softening after qmax values are reached, hence q
continues to decrease to the end of shearing. Strain softening was observed to involve the
development of a shear surface in the sample.
Similar behaviour was also exhibited by the bonded samples. However the peak q
was more distinct if compared to that of destructured samples (Figure 3b). The peak in q
value is seen in samples sheared at stress levels, p’ < 700 kPa. For samples sheared at
higher p’ ( 700 kPa), no noticeable peak can be observed. It is noticeable that after
reaching qmax values, these samples also show strain softening, as occurred for those
destructured samples sheared higher stress levels. It was also found that samples sheared

8
at lower stresses between 15 kPa and 200 kPa, the q values levelled off with strain after
qmax values were achieved.
The effect of cementation is clearly seen from the stress-strain curves. At lower
confining stresses, shearing takes place until the strength of the cemented material is
reached, which results in a strong peak. The post peak behaviour starts with the breaking
down of bonds which no longer dominates the behaviour. As the confining stress level
increases, the bonds break down in isotropic compression, prior to shearing, and the
behaviour is almost dominated by frictional characteristics. This behaviour has been well
established and reported in cemented sand studies (Huang & Airey 1993; Cuccovillo and
Coop 1999; Asghari et al. 2003; Haeri et al. 2005; Consoli et al. 2013).

3.2 Volumetric Strain Behaviour

The behaviour of volumetric strains, εv for destructured and bonded samples is shown in
Figure 4a and Figure 4b. Shearing of the samples is associated with changing of volume.
Positive and negative volume changes correspond to compression and dilation of
samples, respectively during the shearing stage. It is well known that dilative volume
changes are most pronounced for dense sand at low confining pressure and high stress
levels approaching failure (Lade & Ibsen 1997).
The destructured samples that were sheared at lower stress levels (p’  200 kPa),
exhibit a small contraction at the beginning of shearing then followed by strong dilation
(Figure 4a). As the stress level, p’ increased the contraction was more apparent while on
the other hand the degree of dilation became smaller. Shearing samples at higher stresses
of p’ ≥ 700 kPa exhibited virtually no dilation (Figure 4a). Most of the samples except
cdd20, cdd50 and cdd200 samples showed no significant change in volume toward the
end of shearing (> 20% strain) suggesting that the tests achieved their critical state.
However, the stress-strain curves for cdd20, cdd50 and cdd200 (Figure 3a) indicated
constant q up to the end of tests suggesting that the criteria for critical state were fulfilled.
The volumetric strain behaviour of bonded samples presents similar behaviour to
that observed for destructured samples. Samples sheared at lower stress level were
associated with an initial small contraction then followed by strong dilation, while for

9
higher stress, the dilation is almost unnoticeable (Figure 4b). At low stress levels, lower
than the yield stress, the role of bonds is dominant because the effect of cementation
degradation is insignificant as indicated by Kamruzzaman et al. (2009) and Nguyen et al.
(2017). Thus, the effect of bonds for samples sheared at low stress levels was reflected by
higher dilation curves. As the stress levels increased, particle breakage might happen that
results in deterioration of stress-strain behaviour through the impairment of dilatancy of
soil (i.e. become more contractive) (Yu 2017). Shen at al. (2012) reported that the
damage caused by the growth of microcracks contributed to inelastic behaviour due to
plastic deformation beyond the yield stress.
Most of bonded samples exhibited no apparent change in volume towards the end
of the tests, except samples cdb30 and cdb50. However by referring to Figure 4a, it can
be seen that the q values were constant toward the end of tests. This suggests that both
tests had achieved their critical state, even though the volumetric response showed further
dilation. It was also found that the bonded samples showed higher dilation behaviour if
compared to that of the destructured samples. The higher dilation characteristic in bonded
samples is caused by the presence of cementation material as reported previously in
literature (Asghari et al. 2003; Haeri et al. 2005; Consoli et al. 2013). The more the
amount of cementation material added, the greater the amount of dilation of the sample
(Schnaid et al. 2001; Asghari et al. 2003; Marri et al. 2012). On the contrary, the increase
in stress levels contributes to suppression of dilation behavior, moving it towards a more
contractive response.

10
 2400

2200

2000

1800

1600

1400
cdd1000
Deviator stress, q: kPa

1200
cdd900
1000 cdd800
cdd700
800 cdd600
cdd500
600
cdd400
400 cdd300
cdd200
200 cdd100
cdd50cdd20
0 cdd15
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Axial strain, a: %

(a)
2400

2200

2000

1800

1600

1400
Deviator stress, q: kPa

1200 cdb900 cdb1000

1000
cdb800
800 cdb700
cdb600
cdb500
600
cdb400
400 cdb300
cdb200
200 cdb100
cdb50
cdb15 cdb30
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Axial strain, a: %

(b)
Fig. 3: The stress strain curves for (a) destructured and (b) bonded samples

11
 4,00

3,00

cdd1000
2,00 cdd800
cdd600
1,00 cdd900
cdd700
cdd500cdd400
0,00
Volume strain, v: %

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 cdd10040
cdd300
-1,00 cdd200

-2,00
cdd50

-3,00 cdd15

-4,00 cdd20

-5,00

-6,00
Axial strain, a: %

(a)
4,00

3,00

2,00
cdb900 cdb1000
1,00 cdb800
cdb700
0,00
Volume strain, v: %

cdb600
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
cdb500 40
-1,00 cdb400
cdb300
cdb200
-2,00

-3,00 cdb100

-4,00

-5,00 cdb50
cdb15
-6,00 cdb30

Axial strain, a: %

(b)
Fig. 4: The volumetric strain curves for (a) destructured and (b) bonded samples

12
3.3 Peak Strength, Bounding Surface and Phase Transformation Line

The peak stress ratio q/p’ corresponds to the rate of dilation, as indicated by Schofield
and Wroth (1968), which was extended Taylor‟s equation and proposed the following
equation; ⁄ ⁄ . This equation was used for qualitative purposes in this

study. The plot of maximum deviator stress, qmax values of the effective stress path for
destructured and bonded samples is shown in Figure 5. As shown in this figure, the
higher the stress levels applied to the samples, the higher the maximum deviator stress,
qmax values achieved. As expected, the bonded samples show that the values of maximum
deviator stress, qmax exhibit slightly higher values at low and medium range of stresses
but almost coincided at higher stresses.
From Schofield and Wroth‟s equation, the M is the gradient of critical state line

when the rate of volume change is constant (where ⁄ ). This suggests that the

maximum q/p’ is achieved when the sample expands at the maximum rate of dilation,

⁄ during shearing. The points of maximum q/p’ were identified, and from these

the corresponding values of deviatoric stress, q were determined for construction of the
bounding surface in q-p’ space as shown in Figure 6. The line representing the
destructured samples can be best fitted with a straight line with q/p’ equals to 1.27 or
angle of friction,  of 32⁰. For the bonded samples, the line is represented by some
curvature at stress levels of 700 kPa > p’ > 1300 kPa (Figure 6). At lower stress levels (p’
< 300 kPa), the bounding surface is slightly higher than the destructured sample for the
same stress level. This behaviour is similar to results of the effect of bonding (Malandraki
& Toll 2000; Marri et al. 2012). The effect of bond contribution to the shear strength of
bonded soils at lower stress levels (p’ < 300 kPa), can be estimated to be about 40 kPa
from the q-p’ space as shown in Figure 6 (Suebsuk et al. 2010; Nguyen et al. 2017).
Bonded samples can sustain higher limiting stress ratios compared to those of
destructured samples. At high stress levels in the bonded sample, the bounding surface
line curves down and coincides to the bounding surface line for the destructured samples.
By increasing the stress level, the bond strength decreases as a result of bonds breaking,

13
until at high stresses where the strength attributed to the bonds are almost destroyed and
the behaviour becomes close to the destructured materials (Vaughan et al. 1988; Leroueil
& Vaughan 1990; Huang & Airey 1993). Kamruzzaman et al. (2009) and Nguyen et al.
(2017) identify this behaviour as the effect of cementation degradation once the applied
stress levels increase beyond the yield stress of the bonded soil.

Fig. 5: The stress paths of the destructured and bonded samples

14
 2500

Bonded samples

Destructured samples
2000

1500
q: kPa

q/p’=1.27

1000

C=40 kPa

500

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
p': kPa

Fig.6: The bounding surfaces for destructured and bonded samples

The phase transformation term was introduced by Ishikari et al. (1975) to define a
state at which a solid behaviour of sand transforms into a state of liquefied sand in
undrained conditions. In undrained tests, the state represents the beginning of decrease in
pore water pressure but in drained test, it signifies the beginning of dilation after initial
contraction. For clean sand, the state that represents the transition from contraction to
dilation is located on a line through the stress origin (Lade & Ibsen 1997). The phase
transformation state is reached at small strain for dense sands or sand at low confining
stresses. Moreover, the phase transformation line plays a similar role as the plastic
potential surface.
Samples sheared at low stress, p’ < 700 kPa showed compression before changing
to dilation behaviour with the increase in p’ (Figure 4). Samples sheared at low stress
levels of both bonded and destructured samples were also associated with more
pronounce dilative behaviour after contraction. The effect of cementation in bonded

15
samples caused greater dilative behaviour as reported previously (Asghari et al. 2003;
Haeri et al. 2005; Consoli et al. 2013). Meanwhile, those samples sheared at p’ ≥ 700 kPa,
no dilation was noticed and samples experienced contraction up to the end of shearing.
Therefore, the points involved samples that were sheared at initial confining stresses of
less than 700 kPa were considered in plotting the phase transformation line. The phase
transformation lines for destructured and bonded samples are shown in Figure 7. It can be
seen that the phase transformation line of the bonded samples is situated above that of the
destructured samples as the cementation effect is still dominant at low stress levels. It
might be assumed that the bonded samples would come closer to destructured samples as
the stresses reach at higher level, however there are no data available to support this,
since the samples at high stress levels were associated with compression throughout the
tests. The destructured and bonded samples can be represented by linear lines equivalent
to the q/p‟ ratio of 1.27.

Fig. 7: The phase transformation line for the destructured and bonded samples

16
3.4 Critical State Assessment

Defining the true critical state is not always straightforward. Shearing of medium and
dense sand samples will be associated with non-homogeneous deformation before critical
state is achieved (Chu 1995). Samples sheared at high stress levels might be associated
with particle breakage that may represent a change in soil behavior (Hardin 1987; Been et
al. 1991). Therefore, defining the critical state from drained tests in this study was
carried out through careful assessment on the stress-strain, stress path and e – ln p’ (or v –
ln p’) space.

As seen in the stress-strain curves, some of the tests, mainly for samples sheared
at high stress levels, exhibited a continuous change in deviator stress, q and volumetric
strain, εv toward the end of tests (Figure 3 & 4). Thus, the void ratio paths in v – ln p’
space were assessed to define the critical state in drained test samples (Figure 8).
Assessment of the v – ln p’ curve indicated two types of response. Shearing the samples
between low and medium stress levels, exhibited behaviour associated with contraction
before switching to dilatant behaviour. For samples that were sheared at high stress
levels, soils associated with contraction behaviour was observed up to the end of
shearing. Hence, selection of the critical state should be taken into account these two
types of soil responses. For samples showing contracting and dilatant behaviour, the
positions of the critical state were selected at the point where a “discontinuity” could be
seen on the dilatant path. This approach was used to identify a sudden change that would
be associated with shear surface formation. At this stage, the behaviour of sample is taken
to be the critical state and the change in volume after this is termed a “discontinuity” as a
result of strain localization. For samples that exhibited contracting behaviour, the critical
state was defined at the point where the specific volume, v path started to deviate to the
left of the plot as shown in Figure 8. At these points, the void ratio of the soils
experienced further reduction as the mean effective stress, p’ dropped significantly
toward the end of shearing.

17
 Fig. 8: The stress paths of the destructured and bonded samples in v – ln p’ spaces with the
critical state (CS) points

After assessment on the v – ln p’ curves for destructured and bonded samples, the
critical state points identified are plotted in Figure 9. As expected, the critical state points
do not show a unique line (Figure 9). It would be preferable to accept a “zone” instead of
a unique single line as stated by previous researchers (Fourie & Papageorgiou 2001;
Hosseini et al. 2005). They found that the scatter can be attributed to either error in void
ratio and/or variation in soil fabric and structure (Hamidi & Haeri 2005). Cruz et al.
(2011) added that the higher data scattering observed in the v – ln p’ spaces might be
attributed to the composition heterogeneity of samples, difference in micro-fabric and
distribution of cement. However, for this type of cemented, single-sized sand, the initial
fabric would be the same in all samples (Toll & Ali Rahman 2017). Error analysis

18
suggested the maximum error in void ratio is 0.008. As clearly seen from the figure, the
critical state points for the destructured samples can be best fit with a straight line
represented by equation; . For the bonded samples, the critical
state points showed some scattering and non-linearity especially at higher stress levels.
As seen in Figure 9, the critical state in a v – ln p’ space from bonded samples
exhibited differences to the destructured samples. At lower stress levels, it might be
expect that some cementation bonds create „clumps‟ of particles that still survive shearing
without being broken down, resulted in a more open fabric (more „granular‟) at critical
state. At this stage, the role of cementation on shear strength is dominant since the effect
of cementation degradation is still insignificant (Nguyen et al. 2017). However, the effect
of cementation degradation becomes important as stress levels increase beyond the yield
stress, causing break down of the cementation bonds. This behaviour was also reported
by Cruz et al. (2011) after examining the critical state of uncemented and cemented
samples under drained conditions.
The critical state lines in q– p’ are plotted from destructured and bonded samples
in Figure 10. The critical state points for the destructured samples are fairly well
represented by a straight line with slope, M equal to 1.26 which is equivalent to a critical
state angle of friction, ’ of 31.4⁰. This is essentially coincident with the bounding
surface shown in Figure 6. The bonded samples show almost similar behaviour to the
destructured material, showing that the differences in fabric observed in Figure 9 have
little effect on the shear resistance at critical state. However, there are small differences.
At lower stress levels, the critical state points are located slightly above the critical state
line of destructured samples. However, as the stress levels increase, the critical state
points almost coincide with the destructured samples.

19
 Fig. 9: The critical state line (CSL) of destructured and bonded samples

3.5 Normalization of Stress Path

Normalization was carried out to compare the results from the different tests. In this
study, samples with very similar void ratios were sheared at different stress levels. A
similar approach was conducted by Hosseini et al. (2005) to describe the behaviour of
gravelly sand. Three approaches were described by Atkinson and Bransby (1978) and
Atkinson (1993) for normalization of stress path. The three techniques apply either p’e the
equivalent stress on the normal compression line, p’c, the equivalent stress on critical
state line or v, the equivalent specific volume intercept. Since the studied sample can be
classified as a coarser material, option p’e is not possible due to the difficulty in
establishing the position of the normal consolidation line (NCL). The second approach of

20
using p’c which relates the effective stress with the void ratio on the critical state line
(CSL) is considered but it has to be recognized that a unique CSL is impossible to define
for the studied material. A single p’c cannot be simply defined for any void ratio to be
used in normalization of the stress paths. As the critical state is defined by a zone, a
refinement of the second approach was adopted. In this procedure, the values of p’c were
assessed for each test as part of the assessment of the critical state points, as defined
earlier. The normalization of the stress path based on the critical state value of p’c by
definition should end with p’/p’c = 1 and q/p’c = M.

Fig. 10: The critical state points of bonded and destructured samples in q– p’ spaces with
reference to the CSL of destructured samples

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 The normalized stress paths in p’/p’c ‒ q/p’c spaces were initially examined for the
destructured samples (Figure 11a). It can be seen that the stress paths reach different
values of q/p’c. Therefore, a further refinement for each test for q/p’c was considered by
re-normalization of the end value of q/p’c where (q/p’c)/(p’/p’c) equal to M. This forces the
stress path values for p’/p’c and q/p’c/M to end at (1, 1) which represents the critical state
(Figure 11b). From this refined plot, a clear boundary surface for destructured materials
can be defined. Those samples on the dense side of critical state (p’/p’c < 1) climb to the
limiting surface (the Hvorslev surface) to reach the critical state. For the samples on the
loose side (p’/p’c > 1), they are limited by the Roscoe surface and turn toward to critical
state.
A comparison of re-normalized stress plots between the destructured and bonded
samples is shown in Figure 12. In the p’/p’c ‒ q/p’c/M space, the bonded samples at lower
p’/p’c show little difference to the destructured surface. However, at higher p’/p’c (> 0.7)
the bonded samples go well beyond the Roscoe surface. This suggests the effect of
bonding and can be clearly presented on the normalized stress path. Coop and Atkinson
(1993) stated that presence of bonded structure allows the soil to achieve unstable peak
state outside the boundary surface followed by rapid strain softening, and this is shown
very clearly in Figure 12.

22
 (a)

(b)
Fig. 11: The normalized stress paths on destructured samples in (a) p’/p’c ‒ q/p’c and (b)
p’/p’c ‒ q/p’c/M spaces

23
 Fig. 12: The normalized stress paths for both samples in p’/p’c ‒ q/p’c/M spaces showing
clear surface boundaries of Hvorslev and Roscoe surfaces

4 CONCLUSIONS

A series of drained tests on destructured and bonded samples were performed to establish
the stress-strain behavior and the critical state of a weakly bonded soil. It was found that
the bounding surface representing the destructured sample could be defined as a straight
line with q/p’ equals to 1.27 and angle of friction,  of 32⁰. In contrast, for the bonded
samples, the bounding surface presents some curvature but curves back close to the
bounding surface for destructured samples at higher stress levels. This indicates the effect
of bond strength causing the soil to have higher strength until bonds are gradually broken
down. At low stress levels, the influence of the bonds on shear strength is significant
since the applied stresses are lower than the yield stress of the samples. As stress levels
increase beyond the yield stress, the effect of cementation degradation become

24
noticeable. At higher stress level, the strength attributed to bonds is completely destroyed
and the behaviour of the bonded soil approaches that of the destructured material.
Defining the critical state required applying a “discontinuity” approach to identify sudden
change that might be associated with shear surface formation. The critical state in v – ln
p’ space displayed curvature of the critical state line (CSL) for bonded samples toward
the line represented by the destructured material. This suggested that the effect of
cementation diminishes as stress levels go beyond the yield stress of bonded samples.
The CSL for destructured samples can be best represented by q/p‟ equal to 1.26 or an
angle of friction, ’ of 31.4o. Refinement of normalization with the end value of q/p’c
where (q/p’c)/(p’/p’c) = M define a clear boundary surface. Samples on the dense side of
the critical state are limited by the Hvorslev surface (dilative behaviour) while samples
on the loose side are bounded by the Roscoe surface. At lower p’/p’c, bonded samples
show little difference with the destructured surface. However, they go beyond the Roscoe
surface at higher p’/p’c (> 0.7). This proves the influence of bonding on the behaviour of
soil that can be clearly visualized by normalization of their stress paths.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank to Public Service Department of Malaysia and National University
of Malaysia (UKM) for granting the author funds while studying at Durham University,
England. This work was also supported by Durham University in terms of providing
facilities for sample preparation and testing facilities.

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Z. Ali Rahman
Faculty of Sciences and Technology
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi
Selangor MALAYSIA
Email: zarah1970@ukm.edu.my

D. G. Toll
School of Engineering
University of Durham
South Road Durham DH1 3LE
England UK
Email: d.g.toll@durham.ac.uk

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D. Gallipoli
Institut Supérieur Aquitain du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics (école d'ingénieurs)
Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Allee du Parc Montaury, 64600 Anglet,
FRANCE

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