Shear strength of purple soil bunds under different soil water contents and dry densities: A case study in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

Purple soil bunds are embankments constructed along the contour on purple soil sloping farmlands, and play a key role in controlling soil erosion. The soil shear strength makes a significant influence to the bund stability; however, few reports have documented how purple soil shear strength responds to the soil physical properties. The main goal of the present study was to determine how indicators of soil shear strength vary with the soil water content and dry density. In this study, we collected soil samples from 3 purple soil bunds in Zhong County, in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area in China, and performed an unconsolidated undrained triaxial compression test to study the soil shear strength in terms of the cohesion (c), internal friction angle (φ), and the principal stress difference (σ1–σ3). The test results show that when the dry density was constant and the soil water content increased, the soil cohesion increased and then decreased, and the results fitted to a quadratic curve. As the soil water content increased, the internal friction angle of the soil bunds decreased and displayed a first-order exponential decay. As the soil water content increased and the confining pressure remained constant, the principal stress difference decreased rapidly. When the soil water content was constant and the dry density increased, the soil cohesion, internal friction angle, and the total principal stress difference increased, although at different rates. In general, the water content had a greater effect on the cohesion, internal friction angle, and the principal stress difference than the dry density, but there were little or no interaction between water content and dry density. Furthermore, except when the water content was 6%, the stress–strain characteristics were similar across the range of water contents. For a low water content, fixed confining pressure, and an increasing dry density, the curves gradually changed from the hardening type to the weak hardening type and then to the softening type. In most cases the curves corresponded with the hardening type as the confining pressure increased.