Unconfined Compression Test

Group: Gabriel Sedycias

Isaac Rediguez
Keishawn Kirkwood
Matt Milgrom
By: Gabriel Sedyias
Date: 07/06/19
Due Date: 07/13/19
 Introduction
The purpose of the unconfined compression test is to determine the value of cu with σ3 at

failure being equal to zero. The students will utilize a unconfined compression testing device, a

specimen trimmer, a Harvard miniature compaction device , a scale, a balance sensitive to 0.01g,

an oven, and a can to place the soil specimen in to put in the oven. First the students will gather a

soil specimen that meets the requirements for the experiment. Following they will measure its

diameter and length and get the mass, place the soil in the center between the two loading plates

of the unconfined compression test machine, following the professor will come around and give

us the detailed specifics of how to utilize the machine for this experiment. After it is all setup, the

students will turn the machine on, and start recording loads while adjusting the rate of vertical

straight from 0.5-2.0%/min. The students will continue taking readings until the load reaches its

maximum value and then decreases, reaches its maximum value and becomes constant for about

5 readings, or the deformation of the specimen is past 15%. Last section of the experiment is to

unload the specimen, remove it from the machine, draw a free hand sketch to show the failure of

the experiment, and lastly place the specimen in a porcelain evaporating dish to determine the

moisture content.
 Sample Calculations

- Amount of water needed for the sample to be saturated

Water needed = weight of sample x water content

Water needed = 150g x 0.12

Water needed = 18 g or 18 mL

- Corrected area

A0 1.234
Ac = = = 1.237 in2
1−ε 1−0.0025

- Vertical Strain

∆L 0.01
ε= = = 0.0041 in
L 2.435

- Load acting on specimen

P = proving ring dial reading = 0.735 lbs

P = 10 x 0.735 = 13.6 lbs

- Shear strength

qu (lbs) 120.0 lbs

Cu = = = 60
2 (¿ 2) 2 ¿2
 Results
Specimen Vertical Proving Ring Load P Corrected Stress
Deformation Strain ε = Dial Reading Area Ac =
∆L (in) ∆L A0
L 1−ε
0.01 0.0038 13 0.359125 1.332 0.2696

0.02 0.0076 14 0.38675 1.337 0.28926

0.03 0.0115 14 0.38675 1.342 0.28818

0.04 0.0154 15 0.414375 1.348 0.30739

0.05 0.0192 15 0.414375 1.353 0.30626

0.06 0.023 16 0.442 1.358 0.32547

0.07 0.027 29 0.801125 1.364 0.58734

0.08 0.0307 53 1.464125 1.369 1.06948

0.09 0.0346 94 2.59675 1.375 1.8885

0.1 0.0385 141 3.895125 1.380 2.8225

0.11 0.0423 189 5.221125 1.433 3.6435

0.12 0.0462 232 6.409 1.438 4.4569

0.13 0.05 265 7.320625 1.444 5.0697

0.14 0.0538 287 7.928375 1.450 5.44678

0.15 0.0576 302 8.34275 1.456 5.7299

0.16 0.0615 308 8.5085 1.462 5.8198

0.17 0.0654 280 7.735 1.468 5.2691

 Stress vs Vertical Strain
7

6.07
6

5
Stress lbs/in2

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07

Vertical Strain

Strain = 0.05
 Discussion

As any other lab experiment error is inevitable, in this experiment error could have

occurred in many ways. For example, if a student did not clean the molding as instructed by

professor correctly or at all, soil from previous experiments will affect the water content of the

soil specimen. Also, if afterwards a student does not properly or at all scrape the excess soil from

the sample, it will give incorrect data. A common error would be a student miscounting the

number of blows which would affect the later calculations for the moisture content. The error

that would affect the experiment the most I think would be if a student were too add too little/too

much to the soil specimen. If a student adds too much water it will over saturate the soil

specimen, and if it’s too little water the soil specimen will not have the required water content. I

think this was the cause of an error my group faced during the experiment. After mixing the soil

specimen with water, placing it in the machine and giving it the blows; when pushing it out of

the mold the soil broke twice, leading us to have to redo the experiment three times. There are

different types of the direct shear test: Undrained Test and Unconsolidated-Undrained Test.

Students need to graph three conditions: stress vs strain, pressure parameter vs strain, and

pressure vs strain. An important aspect to take note is that the direct shear test is performed

differently than the unconfined compression test, in terms of the equipment in the direct shear

test is completely saturated. With the direct shear test however, one can plot the Mohr’s Circle.
 Conclusion

This experiments results would be an added information for the engineer in charge of this

construction. Our peak compression strength for our testing came out to be qu = 6.0697 lbs/in2.

To achieve the required moisture content, we had to add 10% of the total mass; so, 20 mL of

water was added into the soil specimen and then mixed to begin the experiment. From how the

soil specimen looks after failure, it looks like the type of failure would be General Shear Failure.

“A local shear failure occurs for soils that are in a medium dense or firm state”, which is what

our soil specimen’s state was in.