A 300-mm-Diameter Triaxial Cell with a Double Measuring Device

A large-diameter triaxial cell (φ 300 mm) is presented. Its uniqueness lies in the double measuring system of all parameters: axial strain, volumetric strain, and pore pressures. Owing to this system, accurate measurements can be taken, enabling the determination of the soil constitutive relationships from very small strains (elastic behavior) to failure strains. The cell can be used either under quasistatic monotonic or cyclic dynamic loadings. The apparatus has been used to evaluate the accuracy of the measurements and the influence of sample size on elastic Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and variation of secant modulus with strain.

Preliminary results show that, as opposed to conventional testing, significantly improved results are obtained with the double measuring system.