1096

NOTE / NOTE

Stressstrain behaviour of weathered weak rock

in middle-sized triaxial tests
Dean Sun, Tugen Feng, and Hajime Matsuoka

Abstract: A middle-sized triaxial test apparatus for a specimen 20 cm in height and 10 cm in diameter was developed
to measure the deformation and strength of weak rock or gravel. High-quality undisturbed samples of a weathered
weak rock were taken from a dam site by a core drilling method. To avoid damage to the structure of the weak rock
due to saturation of specimens as a result of measuring volume change through the water change in a burette, the lateral deformation of specimens was directly measured in the unsaturated condition using three rings mounted on the
specimen. Using the developed triaxial test apparatus, isotropic compression tests and consolidateddrained triaxial
compression tests were performed on unsaturated or saturated undisturbed samples under confining pressures of 49, 98,
196, 392, 539, and 683 kPa. The test results show that the stressstrain relationship of the weathered weak rock under
both unsaturated and saturated conditions is strongly influenced by the confining pressure when the confining pressure
is less than 392 kPa, and the stressstrain behaviour becomes similar to that of normally consolidated clay when the
confining pressure is greater than 392 kPa. Comparison of results of triaxial tests on unsaturated and saturated specimens shows that the saturated samples become somewhat weak. The test results also show that the bonding and stress
history largely influence the stressstrain relationship at small strain levels.
Key words: weathered weak rock, microstructure, undisturbed sample, deformation, strength, triaxial test, unsaturated
sample.
Rsum : On a dvelopp un appareil triaxial de grosseur moyenne pour les spcimens de 20 cm de hauteur et 10 cm
de diamtre afin de mesurer la dformation et la rsistance de la roche molle et du gravier. Des chantillons non remanis de haute qualit de roche molle altre ont t prlevs sur le site dun barrage par une mthode de forage de carottes. De faon viter dendommager la structure de la roche molle cause de la saturation des spcimens durant la
mesure du changement de volume par la variation deau dans la burette, la dformation latrale des spcimens a t
mesure directement dans la condition non sature au moyen de trois anneaux fixs sur le spcimen. Utilisant
lappareil triaxial dvelopp, des essais de compression isotrope et des essais de compression triaxiale consolids non
drains ont t raliss sur des chantillons non remanis saturs et non saturs sous des pressions de confinement de
49, 98, 196, 392, 539, et 683 kPa. Les rsultats des essais montrent que la relation contraintedformation de la roche
molle altre tant sature que non sature est fortement influence par la pression de confinement lorsque la pression
de confinement est infrieure 392 kPa, et le comportement contraintedformation devient similaire celui de largile
consolide lorsque la pression de confinement est plus grande que 392 kPa. La comparaison des rsultats des essais
triaxiaux sur les spcimens saturs et non saturs montre que les chantillons saturs deviennent quelque peu mous.
Les rsultats des essais montrent galement que les liens et lhistoire des contraintes influencent fortement la relation
contraintedformation aux faibles dformations.
Mots cls : roche molle altre, microstructure, chantillon non remani, dformation, rsistance, essai triaxial, chantillon non satur.
[Traduit par la Rdaction]

Sun et al.

1104

Received 31 August 2005. Accepted 28 April 2006. Published on the NRC Research Press Web site at http://cgj.nrc.ca on
11 October 2006.
D.A. Sun.1 Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai University, 149 Yanchang Road, Shanghai 200072, China.
T.G. Feng. Department of Civil Engineering, Hohai University, 1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China.
H. Matsuoka. Department of Civil Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan.
1

Corresponding author (e-mail: sundean@hotmail.com).

Can. Geotech. J. 43: 10961104 (2006)

doi:10.1139/T06-057

2006 NRC Canada

Sun et al.

1097

Table 1. Summary of initial states, confining pressures, and saturation states for the triaxial tests.

Notation

Confining
pressure during
shear (kPa)

Water content
before testing
(%)

Void ratio
before
testing

Degree of
saturation before
testing (%)

State during
testing

State of sample
before testing

Figures showing
test data

SU49
SU98
SU196
SU392
SU539
SU683
UU98
UU196
UU392
UC98
SR392
SR686
UU98L

49
98
196
392
539
683
98
196
392
98
392
686a
98

41.2
48.9
45.4
36.3
41.9
45.0
41.2
50.8
46.7
30.0
39.8
39.3
40.5

1.26
1.40
1.27
1.29
1.32
1.34
1.26
1.42
1.42
1.34
1.08
1.07
1.34

88.8
94.4
96.9
82.6
97.5
90.9
88.1
96.4
88.9
60.4
100.0
100.0
81.6

Saturated
Saturated
Saturated
Saturated
Saturated
Saturated
Unsaturated
Unsaturated
Unsaturated
Unsaturated
Saturated
Saturated
Unsaturated

Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Undisturbed
Compacted
Remoulded
Remoulded
Undisturbed, from
1 m tube

10, 13
10, 11, 14
10, 11, 14
7, 1012, 14
68, 12
7, 8, 12
9, 11, 14, 15, 16
9, 11, 14
7, 9, 11, 14
16
8, 12
8
15

Isotropic compression test only.

Introduction
In the past, weathered weak rock was removed during the
construction of large important structures such as rock-fill
dams. There are many recent cases in which, for economic
reasons, weathered weak rock has been left as the foundations of such structures. It is well known that weathered
weak rock will produce relatively large deformations when
subjected to loading because it has a high void ratio and
weaker bonding. The design criteria of structures must satisfy a specified safety factor for ultimate stability and the
displacement within its serviceability limit under working
load conditions. One of the major steps in designing structures constructed on weathered weak rock is the prediction
of ground deformation and structural displacement. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate deformation and strength
characteristics of weathered weak rock in various stress
states. In this study, a middle-sized triaxial test apparatus
was developed to measure deformation and strength of a
weathered weak rock. Using the developed triaxial test apparatus, isotropic compression tests and consolidateddrained
triaxial compression tests were performed on unsaturated or
saturated undisturbed samples.
This paper presents a newly developed middle-sized
triaxial test apparatus, the test methods for the apparatus,
and the results for weathered weak rock tested using the apparatus. The stressstrain behaviour of a weathered weak
rock is identified from the results of triaxial tests under a
wide range of confining pressures. In addition, a series of
triaxial test data during isotropic compression and shear are
given in detail so that the constitutive models for weak rocks
or so-called structural soils can be checked or developed by
comparing the model predictions with the data presented in
this paper.

Experimental program
Materials
The weak rock used in the triaxial tests is a weathered
porphyrite. The minerals in the weak rock have been partly

decomposed to clays, and the rock is classified as D-class

weathering rock according to the Japanese rock mass classification standard, which classifies rocks according to the
degree of weathering (Tanaka 1964). According to the geological strength index (GSI) classification (Hoek et al.
1998), the weak rock has a GSI of about 10. Sampling was
undertaken at a dam site in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The
high-quality undisturbed samples were taken using a socalled core drilling method (Ijiri et al. 1998). The core drilling tube consists of two tubes, inner and outer. During the
operation of the outer rotary core tube sampling, the acrylic
resin inner sampling tube does not rotate to reduce the
amount of damage to the weak rock sample. It is easy to
sample weak rocks at shallow depths using this sampling
method. The tested samples were taken at depths of about
0.51.5 m beneath the ground surface. The initial water content, degree of saturation, and void ratio of all specimens are
summarized in Table 1. The samples have a high void ratio
of about 1.31.4 and a specific gravity of 2.74.
Figure 1 shows a retrieved sample on the ground surface.
The sample is 10 cm in diameter and 100 cm in length. The
sample in the acrylic resin sampling tube was cut into 20 cm
long specimens for triaxial testing, and then the specimens
were pushed out of the acrylic tube in a way that minimized
the friction force between the tube and the specimen.
Middle-sized triaxial test apparatus
Figure 2 is a photograph of the developed middle-sized
triaxial test apparatus, which can be used for testing unsaturated or saturated weak rocks and soils. The apparatus can
directly measure the lateral strain of the 10 cm in diameter
and 20 cm in height cylindrical specimens. The lateral displacement of each specimen was measured using three rings
made of stainless steel mounted at heights of H/4, H/2, and
H from the bottom of the specimen as shown in Figs. 2 and
3, where H is the specimen height. This method for measuring the lateral displacement of specimens was originally developed for unsaturated soils (Sun et al. 2000). The lateral
deformation shape was assumed to be a third-order polynomial for calculating the lateral strain (Sun et al. 2004). Fig 2006 NRC Canada

1098
Fig. 1. Photograph of weak rock sample in acrylic tube.

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 43, 2006

Fig. 3. Locations of LDTs and lateral displacement transducers.

Fig. 2. Photograph of triaxial test cell with three lateral displacement rings and two LDTs.

Fig. 4. Calibration of 145 mm diameter lateral displacement

transducer. d, lateral displacement.

ure 3 also shows that the cell pressure is controlled by the

pressurized air, and the axial force is exerted on the specimen by raising the base pedestal while keeping the top cap
still. Compared to the conventional triaxial cell, the new apparatus is capable of testing soils or weak rocks under an unsaturated condition and at a small strain level.
Figure 4 shows the results from calibration of a mounted
lateral displacement transducer, which is a 145 mm diameter
ring with two strain gauges on two opposite sides. A good
linear relationship between the change in diameter and the
output voltage is observed. Hence, it is easy to calculate the
change in diameter using the transducers.

In most conventional triaxial tests on soils, the axial displacements are measured externally from a rigid boundary of
the specimen such as the loading piston and the top cap. For
weak rocks, the effects of the test system compliance and
bedding error are not negligible and are caused by the nonsmooth and aligned contacts between the specimen ends and
the top and base of the pedestal, because the weak rock is
harder than most soils and it is difficult to trim both ends of
2006 NRC Canada

Sun et al.

the specimen perfectly flat and parallel to each other. The

effects become especially noticeable in tests to measure deformation at small strain levels such as during isotropic
compression and the early stages of shear testing at small
confining pressures. To avoid these measuring errors, the
axial strain was measured using a local deformation transducer (LDT) (Goto et al. 1991) as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
Some researchers showed that the axial strain should be
measured locally in triaxial compression tests on weak
rocks, as large bedding errors could be involved in externally measured axial strain (e.g., Jardine et al. 1985; Clayton
et al. 1994; Kim et al. 1994). In this study, two 160 mm long
pieces of LDT were installed on opposite sides of the specimen diameter. The LDT detects changes in the distance between the two ends of a slightly bent phosphor bronze strip
with electrical resistance gauges attached to the center of the
strip. The axial strain of the specimen is the average of those
obtained from the change rates in the distances between two
pair of hinges attached to the specimen surface.
Figure 5 shows the calibration of a 160 mm long LDT.
The relative displacement (L, where L is the length of the
LDT) was measured using a micrometer with a resolution of
10 m. L0 is the length of the LDT at the state of no gauge
strain, and V0 is the output voltage corresponding to L0. As
shown in Fig. 5, the measured correlation between (V V0),
where V is the output voltage, and L can be assumed as a
second-order polynomial for measuring the change in LDT
length.
Figure 6 shows the relationship between axial strain and
mean effective stress, p, for the weak rock during isotropic
compression loading. The axial strain was measured using
external displacement transducers and LDTs represented in
Fig. 6 by the open triangles and circles, respectively. It can
be seen that the measured external axial strain is greater than
the locally measured axial strain because there are bedding
errors at the top and bottom ends of the specimen and the
testing apparatus compliance. The discrepancy between the
external and local axial displacement increments becomes
small, however, when the isotropic stress is relatively large.
This is because the newly occurring bedding error is very
small at relatively high stresses.
Testing procedures
Using the developed middle-sized triaxial test apparatus,
isotropic compression tests and consolidateddrained triaxial
compression tests were performed on unsaturated and saturated undisturbed specimens under confining pressures of
49, 98, 196, 392, 539, and 683 kPa. For unsaturated specimens, the tests were directly performed on samples taken
from the construction site. The initial degree of saturation
for unsaturated samples is from about 80% to 95%. For saturated specimens, carbon dioxide gas and deaired water were
circulated through the specimens, and then a backpressure of
196 kPa was applied to the specimens to ensure a high degree of saturation with a B value greater than 0.90, where B
is the ratio of the pore-water pressure increment to the confining pressure increment under undrained conditions.
To reduce the friction between the polished surfaces of the
top cap and bottom pedestal and the surfaces of the specimen, the surfaces of the top cap and bottom pedestal were
lubricated with Dow high vacuum silicone grease and then

1099
Fig. 5. Calibration of 160 mm long LDT.

Fig. 6. Axial strains measured by external displacement transducer and LDT during isotropic compression.

two sheets of thin rubber membrane with a small hole at

center were placed on the surfaces of the cap and pedestal
(Tatsuoka et al. 1984). To speed up the drainage of the specimen during testing, two sheets of filter paper were placed
on each membrane to gather water into the porous stones installed in the centers of the cap and pedestal. The axial compression rate in isotropic compression tests and triaxial shear
tests was about 3% per day under drained conditions. Drainage was permitted at the upper and lower ends of the specimen. Five days to a week is needed to complete one test,
including the isotropic compression test and subsequent
triaxial shear test. In the isotropic compression tests, the radial stress was adjusted to be equal to the measured axial
stress; in the triaxial shear tests, the radial stress was kept
constant.
The initial states, confining pressures, and saturation
states during the shear tests are summarized in Table 1.

Test results and analysis

Deformation characteristics in isotropic compression
Figure 7 shows the results obtained from the four isotropic compression tests on unsaturated and saturated specimens in the ep and e log p planes, where e is the void
2006 NRC Canada

1100
Fig. 7. Isotropic compression results: (a) linear scale; (b) logarithmic scale.

ratio and p is the mean effective stress. An unsaturated specimen was tested in its in situ state and a saturated specimen
was tested after saturating an unsaturated sample. It can be
seen that the initial void ratio (e0) of the specimen is rather
high (about 1.281.42). The arrows in Fig. 7a indicate the
initial yield stresses of the weak rocks, which were determined at the stress above which the compression curve deviates from its initial linear behaviour in the ep plane. This
definition is consistent with that used in other works (e.g.,
Cuccovillo and Coop 1997; Rotta et al. 2003). The initial
yield stress for the tested weak rock is about 200 kPa, at
which it is considered that the bonding breakage of weak
rock initiates. The arrows in Fig. 7b indicate the breakageending stress above which the bonding breakage of weak
rock ceases, i.e., no new bonding breakage takes places. The
breakage-ending stress is obtained from the stressstrain
curve in the e log p plane, i.e., from which the e log p
relation becomes linear. The breakage-ending stress is about
400 kPa for the tested weak rock. The change in void ratio
before the initial yield stress is very small and becomes
large after the initial yield stress. This is because the bonding between particles begins to break after the initial yield
stress. The compression index Cc (i.e., the slope of the com-

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 43, 2006

pression line in the e log p diagram) does not remain constant but varies with p at isotropic stresses greater than the
initial yield stress, which increases with increasing p and
then becomes a constant value from the breakage-ending
stress. These findings indicate that during the isotropic loading the bonding of the tested weak rock breaks gradually after the initial yield stress and then the tested specimens
behave as destructured materials.
As indicated by many authors (e.g., Leroueil and Vaughan
1990), weak rocks are microstructured (bonded), i.e., at a
given void ratio, they can sustain stresses higher than those
of the same material without microstructure. In the isotropic
compression, microstructure can be shown by comparison of
the compression curves obtained on the undisturbed weak
rock and on remoulded and reconstituted sample of the same
material. Figure 8 shows the results of isotropic compression
tests on undisturbed and remoulded samples. The remoulded
sample was reconstituted by submerging an undisturbed
sample in water and thoroughly disturbing it using a mixer
to form a slurry. The remoulded specimen was made by
pouring the slurry into a 10 cm in height and 5 cm in diameter cylinder and then immediately freezing it in a freezer.
After being frozen, the specimen was set up on a conventional triaxial apparatus for isotropic compression testing
and subsequent triaxial shear testing. The solid and open circles in Fig. 8 are the results of isotropic compression tests
on two remoulded specimens. Line ICL1 is a normal consolidation line for remoulded samples. The open triangles in
Fig. 8 are the test results from two undisturbed samples that
were shown in Fig. 7. Line ICL2 is the compression line for
undisturbed weak rock in the high stress ranges in which the
bonding has vanished. It can be seen that ICL2 is higher
than ICL1 in the plane, which means that the undisturbed
sample with no bonding has a higher void ratio than the
remoulded sample. This is due to the difference in fabric between the two samples. It can also be seen that the slope of
ICL2 is greater than that of ICL1, which is considered the
result of a higher initial void ratio in the undisturbed sample.
It can be inferred that the two lines ICL1 and ICL2 tend to
converge at a high stress. These deformation characteristics
of weak rock are similar to those of natural clay (Burland
1990).
Deformation characteristics in triaxial compression
Figure 9 shows the results obtained from the isotropically
consolidated drained triaxial compression tests on unsaturated specimens under confining pressures r of 98, 196,
and 392 kPa in terms of a /r , a , r , and v relations, where
a and r are the axial and radial stresses, respectively, in
the triaxial test; a /r is a principal stress ratio; and a , r ,
and v are the axial, radial, and volumetric strains, respectively. It can be seen that there are differences in the deformation and strength due to differences in the confining
pressures, i.e., the peak stress ratio decreases with an increase in the confining pressure, the stress ratio versus strain
curve slopes down with an increase in confining pressure,
and the contraction of specimens during shear becomes large
when the confining pressure increases.
Figure 10 shows the results of isotropically consolidated
drained triaxial compression tests on saturated specimens
under confining pressures r of 49, 98, 196, and 392 kPa. It
2006 NRC Canada

Sun et al.
Fig. 8. Isotropic compression curves (ICL1, ICL2) for undisturbed and remoulded samples.

Fig. 9. Results of consolidateddrained triaxial compression tests

on unsaturated specimens.

can be seen that the strength and deformation characteristics

are similar to those of the unsaturated specimens, i.e., the
stress ratio versus strain curve slopes down with an increase
in confining pressure, and the contraction of specimens during shear becomes large when the confining pressure increases. In detail, at a low confining pressure of 49 kPa, the
weak rock shows a peak strength followed by strain softening, as in a dense noncohesive soil; at higher confining pressures of 98, 196, and 392 kPa, yield occurs well before
failure, which is only approached after a large strain accompanied by significant contraction.
Figure 11 shows the comparisons of deviator stress
(a r ) versus axial strain relation and volumetric strain
versus axial strain relation obtained from the isotropically
consolidated drained triaxial compression tests on saturated and unsaturated specimens under confining pressures
r of 98, 196, and 392 kPa. Figure 11 is the result of rearranging Figs. 9 and 10 for comparing the stressstrain
relationship of unsaturated and saturated specimens. It can

1101
Fig. 10. Results of consolidateddrained triaxial compression
tests on saturated specimens.

Fig. 11. Comparison of stress versus strain relations for unsaturated and saturated specimens.

be seen that two groups of stressstrain curves are similar

and the deviator stress (a r ) versus axial strain curves of
unsaturated specimens are slightly higher than those of the
corresponding saturated specimens. In particular, the initial
Youngs moduli of unsaturated specimens are larger than
those of corresponding saturated specimens. It can also be
seen that two groups of the dilatancy curves are similar and
the amount of volume contraction of saturated specimens is
slightly greater than that of corresponding unsaturated speci 2006 NRC Canada

1102
Fig. 12. Results of consolidateddrained triaxial compression
tests on saturated samples under confining pressures of 392, 539,
and 683 kPa.

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 43, 2006

Fig. 13. Mohr stress circles at failure for saturated specimens in
the range of r = 49683 kPa.

Fig. 14. Mohr stress circles at failure under r = 98, 196, and
392 kPa: (a) unsaturated state; (b) saturated state.

mens. These results indicate that the saturated specimens become somewhat weak due to saturation.
Figure 12 shows the results of isotropically consolidated
drained triaxial compression tests on saturated specimens
under confining pressures r of 392, 539, and 683 kPa and
on a remoulded specimen under a confining pressure r of
392 kPa. It can be seen that the strength and deformation
characteristics of the weak rock in the stress range greater
than 392 kPa are similar to those of normally consolidated
clay, i.e., the stress ratio versus axial strain curves during
shear at different confining pressures are almost the same,
and the volumetric strain versus axial strain curves during
shear are also almost the same at different confining pressures. These results are consistent with those obtained in the
isotropic compression test at the stress range greater than
392 kPa, as shown in Fig. 8, which indicated that the tested
weak rocks behave as destructured material in the stress
range greater than 392 kPa, i.e., the e log p relation is linear in that stress range. Comparing the stressstrain curves
of remoulded and weak rock samples along the same stress
path, i.e., r = 392 kPa, we can see that the stress ratio versus axial strain curve of the remoulded sample is steeper
than that of the weak rock samples and the volume contraction of the remoulded sample is smaller than that of the
weak rock samples. The difference in these two types of
samples is consistent with that from the results of isotropic
compression tests, i.e., the slope of ICL2 is greater than that
of ICL1. The reason for this difference is that the remoulded
sample is stiffer than the weak rock because of the small
void ratio.
Figure 13 shows Mohr stress circles at peak or at a =
15% as obtained from the results of isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression tests on saturated specimens. The broken line is drawn to be tangent to the Mohr
stress circle of r = 683 kPa through the origin. It can be
seen that the broken line is almost tangent to the Mohr stress

circles of r = 392 and 539 kPa and cuts across the Mohr
stress circles of r = 49, 98, and 196 kPa, which is due to
the disappearance of the bonding of undisturbed weak rock
at the shear failure of r = 392, 539, and 683 kPa.
Figure 14 shows Mohr stress circles at peak or at a =
15% and their failure envelopes obtained from the
isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression
tests on unsaturated and saturated specimens in the range of
r = 98392 kPa. Although there are many excellent criteria
such as the HoekBrown criterion for rock (Hoek and
Brown 1980), the MohrCoulomb criterion is chosen here
for simplicity, and different conditions can be compared easily by the corresponding parameters. It can be seen that the
value of the apparent friction angle, , for both unsaturated
and saturated specimens is 30, whereas the value of appar 2006 NRC Canada

Sun et al.
Fig. 15. Effect of pushing pressure on stress versus strain relation: (a) results of isotropic compression test; (b) results of
consolidateddrained triaxial compression test.

1103
Fig. 16. Comparison of stress versus strain relation for undisturbed and compacted specimens (r = 98 kPa).

is much smaller than that measured using the external displacement transducer for the same isotropic compression
tests on both samples. It can be seen from Fig. 15b that the
former specimen has an initial yield stress greater than that
of the latter, and the strength of the two specimens is almost
the same. Therefore, the initial yield stress and Youngs
modulus of weak rocks or soils will be overestimated using
the results of tests on the sample pushed out from a long
thin-walled sampling tube.
ent cohesion, c, for unsaturated specimens is larger than that
for saturated specimens in that stress range. As the degree of
saturation for unsaturated samples is at 80%95%, the suction effect can be ignored. Hence, it can be concluded that
the damage of bonding due to saturation only induces a decrease in the value of apparent cohesion and does not change
the value of the apparent friction angle.
Influence of pushing pressure
It is well known that the stress history has a strong influence on the subsequent stressstrain relationship and
strength. Figure 15 shows the results of isotropic compression tests and isotropically consolidated drained triaxial
tests on two undisturbed samples obtained using different
methods to push the sample out from the thin-walled sampling tube. As described earlier, the length of the thin-walled
sampling tube is 100 cm. The solid curves shown in Fig. 15
are the results of isotropic compression tests and triaxial
tests on the sample pushed from the 100 cm long tube. The
broken curves shown in Fig. 15 are the results of isotropic
compression tests and triaxial tests on the sample pushed
from the 20 cm long tube, which was obtained by cutting the
100 cm long sampling tube before the samples were removed. Since pushing the sample out needs to overcome the
friction between the sample and the tube, the maximum
pressure of the former is about five times that of the latter. It
can be seen from Fig. 15a that the axial strain of the former
specimen is much smaller than that of the latter during isotropic loading, and the axial strain measured using the LDT

Influence of microstructure
Figure 16 shows a comparison of the stress ratio versus
axial strain relationship obtained from the isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression tests on undisturbed
and compacted unsaturated specimens under a confining
pressure r of 98 kPa. The results for the undisturbed sample are shown in Fig. 9. The compacted specimen was made
by compacting the same crushed weak rock to reach a dry
density similar to that of the undisturbed sample. It can be
seen that the two groups of stressstrain curves are similar
for specimens with almost the same initial density. The initial Youngs modulus of the undisturbed specimen is greater
than that of the compacted specimen, however. This result
shows that the microstructure affects largely the initial deformation coefficient, i.e., the bonding increases the initial
Youngs modulus. It can be seen that the microstructure of
the tested weathered weak rocks has small effects on the
strength and deformation characteristics except for the initial
shear stage, which is due to the loss of bonding at large
strains.

Concluding remarks
Using a newly developed middle-sized triaxial test apparatus, isotropic compression tests and isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression tests were performed
on unsaturated and saturated undisturbed weak rock samples
under a wide range of confining pressures. The test results
show that the stressstrain relationships of the weathered
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Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 43, 2006

The experimental work in this paper was carried out at

Nagoya Institute of Technology when the first and second
authors were working there. The authors wish to express
their gratitude to the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., and
Newjec Inc., Japan, for providing the testing materials, undisturbed weak rock samples. The authors would also like to
thank Drs. C.F. Chiu and A. Deng at Hohai University,
China, for their help in the revision of this paper.

Ijiri, K., Nishigata, U., and Torii, T. 1998. Development of core

drill method for sampling undisturbed soft rock and trimming of
samples. In Proceedings of the 53 Annual Conference of Japan
Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE), Kobe, Japan, 46 October
1998. Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Tokyo, Japan. Vol. 3,
pp. 770771. [In Japanese.]
Jardine, R.J., Brook, N.J., and Smith, P.R. 1985. The use of electric
transducers for strain measurements in triaxial tests on weak
rock. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Science, 22(5): 331337.
Kim, Y.S., Tatsuoka, F., and Ochi, K. 1994. Deformation characteristics at small strains of sedimentary soft rocks by triaxial compression test. Gotechnique, 44(3): 461478.
Leroueil, S., and Vaughan, P.R. 1990. The general and congruent effects of structure in natural soils and weak rocks. Gotechnique,
40(3): 467488.
Rotta, G.V., Consoli, N.C., Prietto, P.D.M., Coop, M.R., and Graham, J. 2003. Isotropic yielding in an artificially cemented soil
cured under stress. Gotechnique, 53(5): 493501.
Sun, D.A., Matsuoka, H., Yao, Y.P., and Ichihara, W. 2000. An
elasto-plastic model for unsaturated soil in three-dimensional
stresses. Soils and Foundations, 40(3): 1728.
Sun, D.A., Matsuoka, H., and Xu, Y.F. 2004. Collapse behavior of
compacted clays in suction-controlled triaxial tests. Geotechnical
Testing Journal, ASTM, 27(4): 362370.
Tanaka, H. 1964. Introduction to geology. Sankaido Publishing
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References

List of symbols

weak rock under both unsaturated and saturated conditions

are influenced by the confining pressure. When the confining pressure is large, the specimens exhibit only negative
dilatancy, i.e., volume contraction, although the specimens
exhibit negative and positive dilatancy at low confining
pressures. The smaller the confining pressure, the steeper is
the stress ratio versus axial strain relationship obtained from
triaxial tests on unsaturated and saturated specimens. The results of both isotropic compression tests and isotropically
consolidated drained triaxial compression tests indicate
that the weak rock behaves as a destructured material in the
stress range greater than 392 kPa, and undisturbed samples
have higher void ratios than remoulded samples at the same
stress. Comparison of the results of triaxial tests on unsaturated and saturated specimens shows that the samples become somewhat weakened due to saturation for measuring
the volume change.

Acknowledgements

Burland, J.B. 1990. On the compressibility and shear strength of

natural clay. Gotechnique, 40(3): 329378.
Clayton, C.R.I., Gordon, M.A., and Matthews, M.C. 1994. Measurement of stiffness of soils and weak rocks using small strain laboratory testing and field geophysics. In Pre-failure Deformation
Characteristics of Geomaterials: Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Pre-failure Deformation Characteristics of
Geomaterials, Sapporo, Japan, 1214 September 1994. Edited by
S. Shibuya, T. Mitachi, and S. Miura. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands. Vol. 1, pp. 229234.
Cuccovillo, T., and Coop, M.R. 1997. Yielding and pre-failure deformation of structure sand. Gotechnique, 47(3): 481508.
Goto, S., Tatsuoka, F., Shibuya, S., Kim, Y.S., and Soto, T. 1991. A
simple gauge for local small strain measurements in the laboratory. Soils and Foundations, 31(1): 169180.
Hoek, E., and Brown, E.T. 1980. Empirical strength criterion for
rock masses. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE,
106(9): 10131035.
Hoek, E., Marinos, P., and Benissi, M. 1998. Applicability of the
geological strength index (GSI) classification for very weak and
sheared rock masses. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the
Environment, 57: 151160.

B pore pressure parameter

c apparent cohesion
Cc compression index, i.e., slope of the compression line in
e log p diagram
e void ratio
e0 initial void ratio
H specimen height
L length of LDT
L0 length of LDT at state of no gauge strain
LDT local deformation transducer
p mean effective stress
V output voltage
V0 output voltage corresponding to L0
d lateral displacement
L relative displacement of LDT length
a axial strain
r radial strain
v volumetric strain
a axial effective stress
r radial effective stress
frictional angle

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