Research on in-situ direct shear testing for determining shear strength properties of soils on shallow bank slopes

Abstract

This paper presents the design and application of in-situ direct shear apparatus to determine soil shear strength properties. The apparatus is designed based on the principle of a direct shear box in the laboratory. As a result, a procedure of in-situ direct shear testing is proposed in this study, especially for shallow bank slopes (<30°). The results obtained from the apparatus show that the shear strength properties of soils are reasonable with the friction angles, Φ = 25.8, - 26.92°. For achieving reliability, the calibration of devices is made and fiction errors are eliminated in this study.