ON THE MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES OF SOIL AS THEY AFFECT TRACTION

In order to explore some of the controversies encountered in soil testing, the author conducted numerous tests with the purpose of determining soil shear strength and the factors influencing it. Five different representative soil types were used, and the influence of void ratio and moisture content on collision and internal friction was examined. A suitable parameter employed in soil physics was found by means of which the measured mechanical characteristics were arranged into a multi-variable system. The author determined that the conventional view regarding the development of shear diagrams, their shape and the interpretation of their meaning contradict the classical soil mechanics definition of shear stresses. The contradiction is eliminated by the author's new interpretation of the shear diagram which is in consonance with the tenets of classical soil mechanics.