Characterising the elastic response of very stiff coarse grained soils

Small strain shearing data from triaxial tests on two cemented sands are examined in detail, highlighting peculiarities of the observed response that, if not correctly interpreted, could lead to a misunderstanding of the underlying behaviour of the soil. Some of the features of the pore water pressure response during undrained loading or the volumetric response during drained are shown to result from bedding errors and membrane penetration. A deficiency in the pore water pressure together with discrepancies between the values of the maximum shear modulus measured for drained and undrained conditions may arise from a compressibility of the soil skeleton which is of a similar order of magnitude to that of the pore fluid and pore pressure measuring system.