Attenuation Rate of Unconfined Compressive Strength Due to Drying-Wetting Cycle of a Clayey Soil

Abstract

There are different climatic regions of soil that are often influenced by a lot of drying-wetting cycles due to seasonal variations. Such seasonal disparity in water content is termed as a drying-wetting cycle. It can be considered as the most critical factor for soil strength. Due to the world-wide dissemination of soils that are largely used as construction element, geotechnical engineers are attracted in determining the mechanical behaviour of soils. The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of the attenuation rate of strength of the soil due to the various drying-wetting cycle. The unconfined compression strength test was carried out on a number of undisturbed samples of clayey soil attained from Godagari, Rajshahi which was subjected to various drying-wetting cycle. Unconfined compressive strength values were acquired for the 0, 2, 4 and 8th drying – wetting cycles. The results mean that the peak stresses diminish with increasing drying-wetting cycles. The reduction is more noticeable in the 2nd cycle and cuts with subsequent cycles and lastly reaches to a constant state after 8th cycles. Again, a calculated function is offered in this study that can measure the shear strength reduction degree of samples from the drying-wetting cycle.