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A New Computer Controlled Hollow Cylinder Torsional Shear Apparatus Un

nouvel appareil d'essai de cisaillement torsionel sur cylindre creux

Conference Paper · March 2018

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A New Computer Controlled Hollow Cylinder Torsional Shear
Apparatus
Un nouvel appareil d’essai de cisaillement torsionel sur cylindre creux

João P. Bilé Serra

Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, Portugal; biles@lnec.pt

Patrick Hooker
GDS Instruments Ltd, United Kingdom

KEYWORDS: Hollow Cylinder, Torsional shear, Cyclic test, Test apparatus, Computer control, Sand.

ABSTRACT: A new hollow cylinder torsional shear apparatus, the GDS HCA, is introduced. It is a
fully computer automated closed-loop feedback system which provides accurate control of the loads,
displacement, rotation, calculated stresses and strains. It allows the performance of monotonic, slow
cyclic and dynamic tests on soil specimens in the laboratory. In order to illustrate the apparatus
capabilities some results of a cyclic shear test on a dense sandy sample are presented.

RESUME: Un nouvel appareil d’essai de cisaillement torsionel sur cylindre creux, le GDS-HCA a été
développé. Il s’agit d’un système servo-contrôlé par logiciel qui permet de contrôler les forces, le
déplacement, la rotation et, parmi les variables calculées, les contraintes et les déformations. Des
essais monotones, cycliques lents et dynamiques peuvent être réalisés avec cet appareil. Un essai de
cisaillement cyclique effectué sur un échantillon de sable dense illustre l’usage de l'appareil.

1 INTRODUCTION

It is a matter of fact that test devices and test methods are not currently available to satisfy the broad
range of requirements related to those situations of interest in geotechnics which may produce shear
strains varying by more than five orders of magnitude.
Torsional shear testing devices have become the devices of choice to study the monotonic and
cyclic behaviour of soils especially when used with a hollow cylinder specimen.
The arguments for hollow cylinder specimens torsional testing include (Saada, 1988): minimal
effects of end platens, ease of testing with anisotropic stress conditions, and complete definition of the
state of stress, which can be accurately measured.
As a consequence, in recent years, increasing attention has been given to the laboratory testing of
soils in torsional shear, particularly with regard to cyclic behaviour. Given the recognized limitations
of the cyclic triaxial test, the benefits of torsional shear testing make it clear that performing tests with
torsional shear devices has much to offer the practice of geotechnical engineering and soil mechanics.
References to the existence of hollow cylinder torsional devices go back as far as 1965, (Broms and
Casbarian, 1965). After that landmark a long list of hollow cylinder torsional apparatuses have been
described, the most recent references are: (Hight et al., 1983), (Alarcon et al., 1986), (Ampadu and
Tatsuoka, 1993), (Huang et al. 1994).
A new hollow cylinder torsional shear apparatus, the GDS HCA, is introduced here. It is a fully
automated system combining advanced triaxial testing features with advanced torsional shear
capabilities.
A computer-automated closed-loop feedback system provides accurate and independent control of
the load, torque, vertical displacement, rotations, pressures and calculated stresses and strains.
Anisotropy in granular materials is caused either by the arrangement of particles, such as occur in
natural deposits in which the grains may have their major axis on the bedding plane, or by spatial
distribution of contacts and contact forces. Further to this so-called inherent anisotropy (Arthur and
Menzies, 1972) induced anisotropy is caused in the specimen by the non-reversible strain increments
during the follow up of stress path. Only through carefully designed and controlled tests is it possible
to clarify the influence of the stress path followed by the soil on the strength and deformability. The
importance of experimental studies is further emphasized by the path dependence of strain behaviour.
With the GDS HCA fully automated control of generalized total stress path, i.e. in the (p, q, b, α)
stress space, is made possible. Several imposed strain path tests such as the simple shear test and the
plane strain test may also be carried out in this apparatus.
In addition to the tests on hollow cylindrical test specimen described above the system can also be
used for carrying out advanced triaxial compression and extension tests. These triaxial tests can be
executed under stress or strain control with independent control of the axial and torsional modes of
operation.
The use of this apparatus is illustrated by a stress controlled undrained torsional shear test of a sand
specimen. The specimen was prepared using a new automatic sand pluviator (Bilé Serra, 1999).
During the test four stress cycles of low amplitude were followed by four extra cycles of medium
amplitude thus enabling two distinct patterns of stress-strain behaviour to be observed: the first is in
the small strain domain with no pore pressure build-up and the second occurs in the medium amplitude
range in which the joint effect of dilatancy and compaction tendency causes the pore pressure to
increase with an oscillatory pattern and the shear strain amplitude to rise.

2 TORSIONAL SHEAR TESTS

In a torsional shear apparatus the combination of axial and torsional loadings leads to principal
stresses that are inclined on the axes of symmetry of the material. The use of different inner (inside the
hollow cylinder test specimen) and outer pressures causes a general average state of effective stress
described by the following effective stress tensor:
 σ 'r 0 0 
 
σ' =  0 σ 'θ τθz  (1)
0 τz θ σ 'z 

Each component in this tensor represents the average value over the sample volume of the
corresponding stress field. While σ 'θ and σ 'z are deduced based on equilibrium conditions, the
definition of the remaining components depends on the basic assumptions about the stress field. In the
present paper the definitions as in (Hight et al., 1983) were used.
The ability to control each of the components is only possible by independent advanced control
over the axial force, torque, inner and outer pressures. These features are available in the present
apparatus thus making possible generalized stress path testing.
The assumed average strain tensor is given by
ε r 0 0 
ε = 0 εθ εθ z 
 
 0 εz θ εz 
where the strain components are those proposed in (Hight et al., 1983).
On the one hand, controlling the axial strain ε z and the off-diagonal component ε zθ may be
straightforward, since they are, respectively, expressed as a direct function of the axial displacement
and of the torsional rotation, respectively. On the other hand, advanced strain path testing (e.g. plane
strain testing mode) requires very precise servo-control of the confining pressures.
3 DESCRIPTION OF HCA

The HCA consists of a combined cell and actuator. A schematic drawing of the HCA is shown in
Figure 1.

A C

B
D

H
K
I
J

Figure 1 – Schematic drawing showing layout of Hollow Cylinder Apparatus.

The cell, containing the test specimen and the confining fluid, is designed to be very strong, both
axially and rotationally. This strength is achieved by the use of three large section tie rods (A) between
the cell top and the cell base. These tie rods are rectangular with the longest side facing the test
specimen. This arrangement ensures high stiffness to torque. The cell chamber (B) is made from a
transparent plastic material and is rated at 1700 kPa. A submersible load/torque cell (C) is attached
rigidly to the cell top. The load/torque cell can be easily changed – two sizes are routinely used with
the system, 100Nm/10kN and 30Nm/3kN. A counterweighted lifting system (not shown) is used to
allow the cell top to be raised, lowered and balanced in any intermediate position as an aid to test
specimen set-up. Exchangeable base platens can be attached to the ram (L) to allow for two sizes of
test specimen (100 outer diameter/60 inner diameter (100/60) and 70/30).
The ram (L) passes into the cell chamber via the balanced ram chamber (F) and the cell base. The
balanced ram is designed to ensure that there is no disturbance to confining pressure under dynamic
axial loading conditions. This is achieved by ensuring that when the ram enters the cell a matching
volume of water leaves the cell and enters the balanced ram chamber. An associated effect is that
changes in cell pressure cause a zero resultant force on the ram (L).
Axial load and displacement is generated by a high power brush less dc servomotor (K) attached to
the base of the ball screw (J) by means of a high stiffness, zero backlash toothed belt drive. Rotation
of the ball screw (J) causes the ball nut (I) to move axially, this motion is transferred to axial motion in
the ram (L). The ball nut (I) is prevented from rotating by means of a linear guide (not shown).
Rotational motion is added to the axial motion by means of the splined shaft (G). A second brushless
dc servomotor (H) is attached to the splined shaft (G) by means of a high stiffness, zero backlash
toothed belt drive and is used to generate torque or displacement as required. Control of
load/displacement and torque/rotation is provided by specially designed high-speed data-acquisition
and control (HSDAC) cards. These cards are resident on the pc ISA bus and provide facilities for both
static and dynamic control of load/displacement and torque/rotation. Feedback for load/torque is
derived from the combined load/torque cell and feedback for displacement/rotation is derived from
high resolution rotational encoders attached to the motors (H & K).
The HSDAC cards can select either the load/torque channel or the displacement/rotation channel as
the current parameter to be controlled. Facilities exist in the HSDAC card to seek to a target or to
follow a previously downloaded repetitive waveform (normally sinusoidal). The HSDAC cards have
the capability to control accurately from dc to 10 Hz. Putting this power into the pc resident cards
means that the program running in the pc has relatively little to do and therefore the power of the pc is
largely irrelevant to the speed of operation of the system. For quasi-static tests the control program
running in the pc calculates required targets and passes these targets to the HSDAC cards to carry out
the control procedures.
There are three pressures to control in the hollow cylindrical test specimen, these are: outer
pressure, inner pressure and the back pressure. These pressures are controlled by three GDS advanced
pressure/volume controllers of 2 MPa/200 cc capacity. If it is necessary to maintain low pressure
differences between the inner and outer pressures or between the outer pressure and the back pressure,
then advantage is taken of the ability of the pressure controllers to control via a second transducer – in
this case low range wet/wet differential pressure transducers. The back pressure controller is used to
measure volume change in the test specimen and the inner pressure controller is used to measure
volume changes in the inner space of the hollow cylinder test specimen. The ability to accurately
control these pressures and volume changes is vital for carrying out specialised low speed tests such as
stress paths in the (p,q,b,α) stress space or simple shear.
The HSDAC cards are used for data acquisition at both high and low speeds. Each card is capable
of acquiring data from up to eight channels. The parameters normally acquired are as follows: (i)
Axial load, (ii) Axial deformation; (iii) Torque, (iv) Rotation, (v) Local external axial strain during
triaxial tests (two channels), (vi) Local external radial strain during triaxial tests, (vii) Pore pressure
(two channels), (viii) Inner pressure, (ix) Outer pressure, (x) Back pressure, (xi) Inner volume change,
(xii) Specimen volume change, (xiii) Small strain external displacement, (xiv) Small strain external
rotation. The local external axial and radial strain devices are Hall Effect local strain transducers
(Clayton and Katrush,1986).
Pore pressure can be measured using an external pore pressure transducer connected to the base
pedestal, additionally provision is made for the measurement of pore pressure using a mid-plane
pressure transducer that is attached directly to the test specimen at its mid height. Inner pressure, outer
pressure and back pressure are measured using the output of the GDS digital pressure/volume
controllers. In addition inner, outer and back pressures are measured using separate transducers
attached to the cell to enable dynamic as well as static measurements to be made. Volume changes are
measured using the output of the GDS pressure/volume controllers. In order to ensure that the
compliance of the motor drive system can be estimated high quality LVDTs have been used to
measure axial displacement and rotation directly on the load ram. These LVDTs are designed
specifically for small strain measurements.
The use of intelligent parameter controllers (not in the pc) means that very complex control
procedures (e.g. stress paths in (p,q,b,α) stress space) can be routinely carried out. The full range of
tests that the machine is capable of performing are described below.
4 CONTROL CAPABILITIES FOR HCA

The following Table shows those parameters that can be independently controlled; this means that a
hardware based controller exists to directly control that parameter, to match a target sent by the
computer, without the computer being involved in the control process. There are five independent
axes of control. Where more than one parameter is assigned to an axis this means that only one item
in the list can be controlled at any one time, for example either torque can be controlled or rotation can
be controlled but both cannot be controlled independently at the same time.

Table 1.Independent axes of control.

Axis 1 2 3 4 5

Static Axial force Torque Outer pressure Inner pressure Back pressure
variable
Kinematical Axial Rotation Outer volume Inner volume Specimen
variable displacement change change volume change

All of the above parameters can be controlled in quasi-static tests. In dynamic tests at frequencies
up to 5 Hz only parameters one and two can be controlled. The requirement for dynamic control over
outer pressure, inner pressure and back pressure is not necessary because for a typical dynamic test the
test specimen is undrained, the outer pressure is equalised with the inner pressure and the dynamic
balanced ram ensures that the outer pressure is not disturbed by motion of the loading ram.
If the computer is used to execute some control algorithm it is possible to carry out more complex
control for quasi-static tests. Options exist to control the derived parameters for hollow cylinder test
specimens listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Derived control parameters.

Axis 1 2 3 4 3,4

Variable σz τ zθ Constant outer Constant inner Constant wall

diameter diameter thickness

Generalised HCA control is achieved by allowing the control path for each axis to be independently
selected according to some time based reference. The control paths offered are: (i) Constant value, (ii)
Ramped value (from a start value to and end value), (iii) Cycled value (sine, square or triangle).
This ability for HCA generalised control allows the user to perform a range of tests from simple to
very complex. Simple tests could be modulus tests (Young’s or shear) performed by keeping the inner
pressure and outer pressure constant and ramping or cycling either deformation or rotation. Examples
of more complex tests could be cycled σ z or τ zθ , constant σ z with cycled outer pressure or back
pressure, and simple plane strain tests. The degree of control means that complex tests like simple
shear can be routinely carried out in a number of ways. For example, by specifying constant wall
thickness the simple shear requirement is established, it is then possible to add to this other control
parameters such as cycling rotation, torque or σ z .
The full control capabilities of the new HCA are mobilized in the implementation of the
generalised stress path capability. The hardware design and ease of control means that it is relatively
straightforward to implement complex control algorithms. The stress path control capability allows a
number of linear paths to be defined in terms of the controlled parameters p,q,b,α. Each linear path is
defined in terms of its end-points in the (p,q,b,α) stress space. Any number of paths can be executed
sequentially thus allowing complex geotechnical processes to be modeled.
The degree of control and ease of control provided by this new piece of apparatus means that one
can carry out tests previously requiring many different systems. The system can be used to replace
triaxial systems (static and dynamic), true triaxial systems, simple shear systems and of course it is a
complete hollow cylinder apparatus for both static and dynamic work.
5 TORSIONAL SHEAR TEST OF PLUVIATED SAND SPECIMEN

To demonstrate the capabilities of the new apparatus, a set of cyclic torsional shear tests were
performed (Bilé Serra, 1998) on Rio Maior sand (specific gravity = 2.65, maximum void ratio = 0.889,
minimum void ratio = 0.516). The results of one of such tests are presented herein.
The dense sample (outer diameter =70 mm, inner diameter = 30 mm, height = 140 mm) was
prepared at a relative density of 77% by means of a sand-pluviator specifically devoted to the set-up of
homogeneous hollow cylinder samples (Bilé Serra, 1998). The sand grains are rained in a dry state
from a three column-mounted container and passed through three ASTM sieves in order to achieve
uniform flow in the air. Given the influence that both the height of fall and the rate of pluviation at the
specimen surface have in the local density of the solid skeleton care was taken to keep both of the
parameters approximately constant during pluviation. The hollow cylinder space is created by two
specially designed formers: an interior collapsible two part inner former with a membrane in place and
a four part collapsible former with an outer membrane permanently sustained under vacuum during
pluviation. This assembly is positioned on a movable base axially aligned with the sieves under the
rectangular container. During pluviation the base is moved downward at a constant speed (equal to the
speed of heightening of the sample surface) so as to keep the effective falling height constant.
The specimen was consolidated under an isotropic effective pressure of 200 kPa and a back
pressure of 245 kPa. The test was conducted under shear stress control with axial stress and both outer
and inner confining pressures constant and with no drainage allowed. A total of eight sinusoidal cycles
were applied. Figure 2 depicts the shear-stress/shear-strain hysteresis loops. During the first four
cycles a shear stress amplitude of 35 kPa was applied.
τzθ (kPa)
100

50

-50

γzθ
-100
-3.E-03 -2.E-03 -1.E-03 0.E+00 1.E-03 2.E-03 3.E-03

Figure 2 - Shear stress – shear strain hysteresis loops.

There was a steady pore pressure build-up to the final value of 10 kPa at the end of the four initial
cycles (cf. Figure 3). During each of the subsequent cycles the pore pressure variation was influenced
both by the densifying tendency of the sample and by dilatancy, showing an oscillatory pattern. At the
end of each cycle the net pore pressure build-up reflected the importance of the densifying process
between two successive cycles.
In Figure 4 the inherent cross anisotropy of the sample caused by the gravity pluviation is evident
from the ratio between the axial shear strain and both horizontal shear strains.

6 CONCLUSION

A new hollow cylinder apparatus has been described. This new equipment has been designed to give
an extensive range of element testing capabilities. The equipment can perform both quasi-static and
dynamic tests with sinusoidal waveforms up to 5Hz at both small and large strains. The hardware
implementation has been designed to remove computing load from the host computer and thus
simplify the control software. The supporting applications software is designed to give the user
flexibility in the use of the equipment with both hollow cylinder and solid cylinder (triaxial) tests
supported. The combination of intelligent hardware, comprehensive systems software and flexible
applications software means that even highly complex procedures, such as stress paths defined in
(p,q,b,α) stress space, can be routinely carried out. The equipment represents the ultimate single piece
of advanced laboratory soil testing equipment capable of carrying out tests normally requiring many
separate testing systems – advanced triaxial, true triaxial, shear box, and simple shear apparatus.
σr (kPa) σθ (kPa)
200 200

100 100

t (min) t (min)
0 0
0 100 0 100

σz(kPa) τzθ (kPa)

200 100

50

100 0

-50

t (min) t (min)
0 -100
0 100 0 100

p (kPa) ∆u (kPa)
200 100
90
80
70
60
100 50
40
30
20
10
t (min) t (min)
0 0
0 100 0 100
Figure 3 - Variation of effective stress tensor components, mean effective pressure and pore pressure buildup.
 εr εθ
2.E-04 2.E-04

1.E-04 1.E-04

0.E+00 0.E+00

t (min) t (min)
-1.E-04 -1.E-04
0 100 0 100

εz γzθ
1.E-04 3.E-03

2.E-03
0.E+00
1.E-03

-1.E-04 0.E+00

-1.E-03
-2.E-04
-2.E-03
t (min) t (min)
-3.E-04 -3.E-03
0 100 0 100

Figure 4 - Variation of strain tensor components.

REFERENCES

Ampadu, S. K. and Tatsuoka, F. (1993). A Hollow Cylinder Torsional Simple Shear Apparatus
Capable of a Wide Range of Shear Strain Measurement, Geotechnical Testing Journal, GTJODJ, Vol.
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Arthur, J.R.F. and Menzies, B.K. (1972). Inherent anisotropy in a sand. Geotechnique Vol.22, No. 1,
115-128.
Bilé Serra, J.(1998). Numerical Modelling and Experimental Characterization of Cyclic Behaviour of
Non-cohesive Soils. Applications to Earthquake Engineering, Dr. Eng. Thesis, Instituto Superior
Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (in Portuguese).
Broms, B. B. and Casbarian, A. O. (1965). In Proceedings, Sixth International Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Foundation Engineering , Montreal, Vol. 1, 179-183.
Clayton, C. R. I. and Katrush, S. A. (1986). A new device for measuring local axial strains on triaxial
specimens, Geotechnique Vol. 36, No. 4, 593-597.
Huang A., Hsu, S. , Kuhn, H.(1994). A Multiple Purpose Soil Testing Apparatus, Geotechnical
Testing Journal, GTJODJ, Vol. 17, No. 2, June, 227-232.
Saada, A. S. (1988). Hollow Cylinder Torsional Devices: Their Advantage and Limitations, Advanced
Triaxial Testing of Soil and Rock, ASTM STP 977, R. Donaghe, R. Chaney, M. Silver, Eds.,
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