High velocity ring shear tests on sand

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Morgenstern, N. R.
  • Hungr, O.

• Ring shear tests on sand materials have been carried out to show whether there is a change in the behaviour of these materials at high shearing rates and normal stresses. This question is relevant to the problem of the mobility of large rock avalanches (stürzstroms), but is also of more general academic interest. A ring shear apparatus of unusual, although simple, design has been constructed, capable of achieving circumferential velocities of 2 m/s at normal stresses of up to 200 kPa. Tests were carried out on two types of coarse sand, wet or dry, sand-rock flour mixtures and polystyrene beads. Perfect frictional behaviour was observed in all the tests, uninfluenced by either velocity or normal stress over the entire range of these variables. Change in frictional behaviour due to high rate of shearing therefore cannot be used to explain the high observed mobility of stürzstroms.

• Date created

  1984

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Sand
  • Ring shear tests

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3PK07451

• License

  © 1984 Thomas Telford. The original author(s) and source must be cited. Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees.