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Measurement of small strain behavior of a local soil by fiber Bragg grating-based local displacement transducers

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Abstract

The small strain stiffness of soils has a significant role in geotechnical design and analysis. In laboratory, the small strain behavior is examined by different techniques including the bender element method for measuring the maximum shear modulus and local displacement transducer (LDT) for measuring Young’s modulus at small strains. However, most commonly used LDTs are based on electrical components and have limitations, such as electromagnetic interference and possibility of short circuit in the presence of water. To overcome these limitations, in the present study, a conventional triaxial apparatus has been modified to measure and study the stress–strain behavior of soils at small strains. The major modifications include addition of piezoceramic sensors (bender elements) for measuring the maximum shear modulus and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor-based local displacement transducers (FBG–LDTs) for measuring the stress–strain behavior at small strains. The modified triaxial apparatus has been used to conduct several tests on a completely decomposed granite soil from a site in Hong Kong. The stress–strain behaviors measured by the newly developed FBG–LDTs and an external displacement transducer are compared and discussed. In particular, the shear modulus values obtained using the bender elements, FBG–LTDs, and the external displacement transducer are also compared, discussed, and evaluated. The comparison and assessment show that the FBG–LTDs are more suitable for measuring the small strain behavior of soils.

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Acknowledgments

Financial supports (G-U663, G-YG60) by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University are acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Dong-Sheng Xu, Lalit Borana & Jian-Hua Yin

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  1. Dong-Sheng Xu
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  2. Lalit Borana
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  3. Jian-Hua Yin
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Correspondence to Jian-Hua Yin.

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Xu, DS., Borana, L. & Yin, JH. Measurement of small strain behavior of a local soil by fiber Bragg grating-based local displacement transducers. Acta Geotech. 9, 935–943 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-013-0267-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-013-0267-y

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