EVOLUTION OF STRAIN LOCALIZATION OBSERVED IN PLANE STRAIN EXPERIMENTS ON CLAY

One of the simplest forms of strain localization takes place in a biaxial or plane strain apparatus, in which a homogeneous sample gradually becomes fragmented usually into two nearly rigidly deforming bodies that are interconnected by an extensively deforming shear band. Although clayey soils are largely encountered in practice, a vast majority of experimental studies conducted in plane strain devices has been devoted to sands, whereby the grain scale processes have been successfully quantified to a large extent. The major goal of this study was to advance understanding of strain localization in clays. A special emphasis herein is placed on quantifying the strain localization at sub-macroscopic scales.