Shear strength of clayey soils from the vicinity of Gorlice and Ciężkowice

Abstract The work presents results of maximum and residual strength tests of six clayey soils from the landslide areas near Gorlice and Ciężkowice. The tests were carried out in a direct shear apparatus on samples of dimensions 60 × 60 mm that were sheared at least three times. A shearing strain rate was equal 0.1 mm·min–1, and the range of horizontal deformation of the samples was equal 20%. The results of the tests revealed that multiple shearing of the soil caused a significant decrease of its shear strength, resulting in significant changes in cohesion, and the smaller changes in the angle of internal friction. It was shown that the three-time shearing reduced the initial shear strength of about 50%, and further three series of shearing decreased it approximately 15% more. The study also showed that by using a Coulomb-Mohr shear strength linear equation, the analyzed soils had a little residual cohesion. Therefore, to describe the characteristics of the residual strength, there were used two non-linear equations proposed by Mesri and Shanien (2003) and Lade (2010), which led to the same results. It was also shown that the use of non-linear characteristics of the residual strength at low values of the normal stresses gave more unfavourable results of stability calculations in relation to the method based on the linear strength characteristic taking into consideration the presence of the residual cohesion.