Stress-strain response of fine silica sand using miniature pressuremeter.

The pressuremeter is a well-known geotechnical test, used to measure soil strength and stiffness. In this paper, a miniature pressuremeter device, developed at the University of Western Australia (UWA), was employed to measure the stress-strain behaviour of dense fine silica sand at a range of stress levels. The UWA miniature pressuremeter has a diameter to length ratio of unity, and its inflation after burial in a normally consolidated sand represents a well defined boundary value problem. Back-analysis was performed using the Finite Element method and the well-known Hardening Soil-Small (HSS) model. The HSS model was found to provide a reasonable match to the measured stress-strain response using parameters derived from triaxial compression tests.