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s
= 1.34 Ln (SR) + 23.0 (2)
r
= 1.44 Ln (SR) + 43.80
(3)
where
s
= interface friction angle between sand and smooth steel in degrees,
r
= interface friction angle between sand and rough steel in degrees,
SR = shearing rate in mm/min.
Equations (2) and (3) showed that the effect of shearing rate on both smooth and rough steel surfaces is almost the
same. The values of the slope of the straight lines are approximately the same and equal to about 1.40 (average
value) which is slightly lower that that obtained from sand tests (1.50).
Figure 7: Failure Envelopes for Sand and Smooth and Rough Steel Surfaces
Table 2: Values of Friction Angle for Sand and between Sand and Steel
Shearing Rate
mm/min.
Smooth
Surface
s
Rough
Surface
r
Internal Friction
Angle
s
/
r
/
0.0048 16 37 38.7 0.413 0.957
0.048 18.8 38.1 40.1 0.469 0.950
0.08 19.5 40 42.5 0.459 0.941
0.4 21.5 42.3 44.6 0.482 0.948
0.9 23.2 44.5 46.5 0.499 0.957
Average 0.464 0.951
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Normal Stress, kPa
S
h
e
a
r
S
t
r
e
s
s
,
k
P
a
0.9 mm/min.
0.4 mm/min.
0.08 mm/min.
0.048 mm/min.
0.0048 mm/min.
Shearing Rate
Rough
Surface
Smooth
Surface
Al-Mhaidib, A.I / Influence of Shearing Rate on Interfacial Friction between Sand and Steel
Figure 8: Effect of Shearing Rate on Interface Friction Angles between Sand and Steel
3. Ratio of Interface Friction Angle to the Angle of Internal Friction of Sand (/)
The values of the ratio of interface friction angle to the angle of internal friction of sand (/) for the
different surface roughness of steel are presented in Table 2 and plotted against shearing rate in Fig. 9. It can be seen
from this figure that the ratio (/) is independent of shearing rate and the average values for this ratio are 0.464 and
0.951 for smooth and rough surfaces, respectively. Subba Rao et al.[6] proposed a correlation between the ratio of
the peak interface friction angle (
p
) and the peak angle of internal friction of sand (
p
) and the relative roughness
(R) as follows:
p
/
p
= 1.0 - 0.8 exp (-15R
0.54
) (4)
The relative roughness, R, is defined as the ratio of the average roughness, R
a
, to the weighted average
particle size of the soil, D
av
, which is obtained from the area of the grain size distribution curve (D
av
= 0.60 mm from
Fig. 1). By substituting the two values of R into eq. (4), the values of
p
/
p
are calculated as 0.509 and 0.965 for
smooth and rough surfaces, respectively. These values are close to the average values found from the tests which are
0.464 and 0.951 (Table 2).
V. PILE MODEL TESTS
1. Test Setup
All model tests were conducted using the setup shown in Fig. 10, which consists of a soil tank, model pile
and loading machine. The model pile used in this study was a steel pile having a diameter of 25 mm and a length of
550 mm. It has the same surface roughness of the steel plates used in the direct shear tests. The vertical load was
applied to the model pile using a loading machine, which provides a constant rate of vertical displacement. A
proving ring and a deformation dial gauge were used for measuring load and pile displacement, respectively.
Smooth Surface
s =1.34 Ln(SR) +23.0
R
2
=0.992
Rough Surface
r =1.44 Ln(SR) +43.80
R
2
=0.911
0
10
20
30
40
50
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
Shearing Rate ,mm/min
I
n
t
e
r
f
a
c
e
F
r
i
c
t
i
o
n
A
n
g
l
e
,
d
e
g
r
e
e
Engineering Journal of the University of Qatar, Vol. 19, 2006, pp.
Figure 9: Variation of (/) with Shearing Rate
The soil tank was made from steel with dimensions of 50 cm x 80 cm x 70 cm deep. These dimensions
were chosen so that the tank can be put inside the testing machine and there will be no interference between the
walls of the soil tank and the failure zone around the pile. The zone in which the soil will be affected by either
installation of the pile or loading varies with soil density and pile installation method, but it is reported in the range
of 3 to 8 pile diameters[21-23]. Turner and Kulhawy [24] found that the axial compression loads measured in model
tests in sand were much higher than expected. They attributed the overestimation of pile capacity to size and
boundary effects of the testing drum (drum diameter is about 8 shaft diameter). The smallest dimension of the test
tank (50 cm) used in the present study is about 20 pile diameter in the lateral direction and there is about 8 pile
diameter clearance in the vertical direction beneath the base of the model pile. Therefore, it is expected that there
will be a minor boundary effect in this study.
The sand deposit was prepared using a special raining device designed to obtain a uniform deposit with the
desired density. The device consists of steel frame, upper container with the dimensions of 50 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm
deep and a driving electrical motor. The unit weight of the sand deposit in the raining method depends primarily on
the drop height and the discharge rate of the sand [24]. The height of the free fall of the sand can be controlled by
adjusting the location of the raining device with respect to the sand tank. The discharge rate of the sand can be
controlled by changing the size of the opening of the upper raining container. Sand deposits were prepared while
the sand tank resting on the loading platen of the testing machine so that the sand deposit was not disturbed and
hence the desired unit weight of the sand is not altered. After filling the upper sand container of the raining device
with sand, and selecting the appropriate size of the opening and drop height, the sand was poured into the sand tank
by moving the upper sand container back and forth using the electrical motor at a specified speed. The average unit
weight for the deposit was obtained by dividing the weight of sand in the tank by the tank volume. The calculated
value of the unit weight was 16.50 kN/m
3
corresponding to a relative density of about 64% same as that used in the
direct shear tests.
The model pile was installed during sand deposit preparation. Sand raining was terminated temporarily
after the height of the sand in the tank was 200 mm, where the pile was held vertically in place at the center of the
testing tank where its tip was in contact with the underlying sand. Thereafter, the sand raining was resumed until the
specified height of the sand in the tank was reached, at which the raining was terminated and the sand surface was
leveled. This method of pile installation was selected to eliminate inconsistencies produced by driving or pushing
the pile into the sand and also to reduce the effect of boundary conditions of the soil tank. After leveling the sand
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
Shearing Rate ,mm/min
Smooth Surface
Rough Surface
Al-Mhaidib, A.I / Influence of Shearing Rate on Interfacial Friction between Sand and Steel
surface with a straight edge, the head of the model pile was connected to the proving ring, which also was connected
to the rigid support at the top of the frame of the testing machine (Fig. 10). Thereafter, the pile was subjected to axial
uplift load pile at one of the five different rates same as those used in the direct shear tests. All model piles were
tested with embedded length of 500 mm.
Figure 10: Schematic Diagram of the Pile Model Test Setup
2. Results of Model Pile Tests
A total of ten model pile tests were conducted, five tests for piles with smooth surface and other five tests
for piles with rough surface. The load-displacement curves for the model pile tests are shown in Figs. 11 and 12 for
piles with smooth and rough surfaces, respectively. It can be seen from these figures that the load-displacement
curves have peak values from which the pile load reduces with further displacement and the maximum load (uplift
capacity) increases as the loading rate increases. The displacement needed to mobilize the ultimate uplift loads was
between 2 mm and 3 mm which is about 10% of pile diameter.
500 mm
Model pile
Soil tank
(500 mm x 800 mm)
7
0
0
m
m
Proving ring
Load gauge
Displacement
gauge
Sand
Control unit
for applying
loading rate
Loading
platten
Plate
Engineering Journal of the University of Qatar, Vol. 19, 2006, pp.
Figure 11: Load-Displacement Curves for Piles with Smooth Surfaces
3. Estimation of Interface Friction Angle from Model Pile Tests
The values of the interface friction angles (
s
and
r
) were back-calculated from the measured uplift
capacity in the model pile tests. The uplift capacity of a vertical straight-shafted pile in sand is calculated from the
well-known equation:
Q
u
= Q
p
+ Q
s
+ W
p
(5)
where
Q
u
= uplift capacity of the pile
Q
p
= end-bearing resistance
Q
s
= side resistance, and
W
p
= weight of the pile
The end-bearing resistance is often assumed to be zero for piles in uplift [25].
The side resistance is calculated from:
Q
s
= A
s
* f
s
= A
s
*
k
v
tan = (*D*L) *
0.5*k**L*tan (6)
where
A
s
= embedded surface area of the pile
f
s
= average shear stress
v
= average effective vertical stress
k = coefficient of lateral earth pressure
= unit weight of sand
D = diameter of pile
L = embedded length of pile, and
= interface friction angle
0.00
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Pile Movement,mm
L
o
a
d
,
k
N
0.9 mm/min.
0.4 mm/min.
0.08 mm/min.
0.048 mm/min.
Loading Rate
Al-Mhaidib, A.I / Influence of Shearing Rate on Interfacial Friction between Sand and Steel
Figure 12: Load-Displacement Curves for Piles with Rough Surfaces
There are two factors which have significant influence on the computed uplift capacity from eq. (6). These
are the coefficient of lateral earth pressure (k) and the interface friction angle (). The selection of an appropriate k
value is not straightforward due to wide range of recommended values in the literature [26]. Several factors affect
the value of k such as: the friction angle of the soil, the surface roughness and diameter of the pile, as well as the
method of pile installation [27].
From eqs. (5) and (6), the interface friction angle () can be calculated as follows:
=tan
-1
[(Q
u
-W
p
)/0.5*D*L
2
*k] (7)
Substituting the values of D = 0.025 m, L = 0.5 m, = 16.50 kN/m
3
, and assuming k = 0.8 as recommended
by the American Petroleum Institute (API) code [28] into eq. (7);
s
and
r
are computed and presented in Table 3.
Table 3: Comparison of Values of Interface Friction Angles from Model Pile Tests and Direct Shear Tests
Smooth Surface
s
Rough Surface
r
Shearing Rate
mm/min.
Model pile tests
Direct shear
tests
Model pile tests Direct shear tests
0.0048 18.6 16 56.7 37
0.048 22.4 18.8 59.7 38.1
0.08 24.0 19.5 60.3 40
0.4 26.3 21.5 62.3 42.3
0.9 28.5 23.2 63.9 44.5
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Pile Movement,mm
L
o
a
d
,
k
N
0.9 mm/min.
0.4 mm/min.
0.08 mm/min.
0.048 mm/min.
0.0048 mm/min.
Loading Rate
Engineering Journal of the University of Qatar, Vol. 19, 2006, pp.
The computed interface friction angles are plotted versus shearing rate in a semilogarithmic format in Fig.
13. Similar to the results of the direct shear tests, the relationship between the interface friction angles and the
shearing rate can be approximated by a straight line on a semilogarithmic plot which is represented by the following
equations:
s
= 1.85 Ln (SR) + 28.38 (8)
r
= 1.34 Ln (SR) + 63.78
(9)
Equations (8) and (9) shows that both the interface friction angles (
s
and
r
) increase as the shearing rate
increases. This behavior is similar to what is obtained from the direct shear tests. However, the values of the slope of
the straight lines are slightly different.
The values of the ratio of interface friction angle to the angle of internal friction of sand (/) for the
different surface roughness of steel are also plotted against shearing rate in Fig. 14. It can be seen from this figure
that the ratio (/) is independent of the shearing rate similar to the results of the direct shear tests.
It can be observed from Table 3 that the back-calculated values of
s
and
r
for both smooth and rough pile
surfaces are higher than the corresponding interface friction angles obtained from direct shear tests. This is in
agreement of the findings of Reddy et. al [7]. The high values of
s
and
r
is due to the increase in radial stress on
pile surface, at failure, because of the interface slip dilation. The radial stress along the pile surface can be higher
than the initial radial stress used in the computations, due to the phenomena of interface slip dilation [7].
Reddy et. al [7] stated that the interface slip dilation is predominant in small diameter piles and will reduce
with the increase in pile diameter. They suggested that the interface friction angles obtained from soil-pile-slip tests
(pile diameter ranges from 12.7 mm to 38.1 mm in their study) can approach those obtained from direct shear tests
for large pile diameters (about 1.7 m).
Figure 13: Effect of Shearing Rate on Interface Friction Angles between Sand and Steel from Model Pile
Tests (k = 0.8)
Smooth Surface
s =1.85 Ln(SR) +28.38
R
2
=0.992
Rough Surface
r =1.34Ln(SR) +63.78
R
2
=0.995
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
Shearing Rate ,mm/min
I
n
t
e
r
f
a
c
e
F
r
i
c
t
i
o
n
A
n
g
l
e
,
d
e
g
r
e
e
Al-Mhaidib, A.I / Influence of Shearing Rate on Interfacial Friction between Sand and Steel
Figure 14: Variation of (/) with Shearing Rate from Model Pile Tests (k = 0.8)
VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Direct shear tests were conducted to investigate the influence of shearing rate on interface friction angle
between sand and steel. The tests were performed under three values of normal stress on smooth and rough steel
surfaces. Samples were sheared at five different rates. In addition, uplift model pile tests were conducted using the
same materials and under the same loading rates. The values of the interface friction angles were back-calculated
from the measured uplift capacity in the model pile tests and compared with the corresponding interface friction
angles obtained from direct shear tests. From the test results the following conclusions are drawn:
The internal friction angle () of the sand increases with increasing the shearing rate.
The interface friction angle () between sand and steel with different surface roughness increases as the
shearing rate increases.
The relationship between the angles and , and the shearing rate can be represented by a straight line on a
semilogarithmic plot. The values of the slope of the linear relationships range from about 1.40 for and 1.50 for
from the direct shear tests. The average value of this slope is about 1.60 for the pile model tests.
The ratio of interface friction angle to the angle of internal friction of sand (/) for the different surface
roughness of steel is independent of the shearing rate from the results of both the direct shear tests and the pile
model tests.
The calculated interface friction angles from the measured uplift capacity in the model pile tests are higher than
the corresponding interface friction angles obtained from direct shear tests due to the interface slip dilation.
NOMENCLATURE
A
s
embedded surface area of pile
C
c
coefficient of curvature
C
u
coefficient of uniformity
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
Shearing Rate ,mm/min
Smooth Surface
Rough Surface
Engineering Journal of the University of Qatar, Vol. 19, 2006, pp.
D diameter of pile
D
av
weighted average particle size of soil
D
r
relative density of sand
D
10
effective size (diameter of particles corresponding to 10% finer)
e
max
maximum void ratio
e
min
minimum void ratio
e
test
void ratio at test
f
s
average shear stress
k coefficient of lateral earth pressure
L embedded length of pile
Q
p
end-bearing resistance
Q
s
side resistance
Q
u
uplift capacity of pile
R relative roughness
R
a
average roughness
SR shearing rate
W
p
weight of pile
interface friction angle
p
peak interface friction angle between sand and steel
r
interface friction angle between sand and rough steel
s
interface friction angle between sand and smooth steel
angle of internal friction
p
peak angle of internal friction
unit weight
dmax
maximum dry unit weight
dmin
minimum dry unit weight
dtest
dry unit weight at test
v
average effective vertical stress
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