Date of Thesis
Summer 2026
Description
The vane shear test (VST) is widely used to estimate the undrained shear strength of soft cohesive soils; however, it does not directly provide constitutive information such as the stress–strain response. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), a mesh-free numerical method, offers an attractive alternative for modeling the large deformations involved in the VST and extracting additional information from the test.
This study develops and calibrates a two-dimensional SPH model to simulate the field vane shear test and investigate the stress–strain behavior of soft soils. The VST was implemented within an SPH framework, while field and laboratory data were used to define the material properties and calibrate the numerical model against measured torque–rotation responses.
The calibrated model successfully reproduced the experimental behavior and provided direct access to the internal stress and strain evolution during vane rotation. The simulations enabled the extraction of stress–strain curves and the estimation of constitutive parameters which cannot be directly obtained from conventional VST interpretation. Parametric analyses also quantified the influence of key material and numerical parameters on the stress–strain response and torque–rotation behavior. Furthermore, consistent correlations between vane rotation and shear strain were identified, allowing the development of a bilinear strain–rotation relationship and proposed shear modulus estimation curves. The proposed methodology extends the interpretation capabilities of the VST and demonstrates the potential of SPH for deriving constitutive soil behavior from in-situ testing.
Keywords
Vane Shear Test (VST), Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), Undrained Shear Strength, Soft Clay, Numerical Modeling, Large Deformation, Stress-Strain Relationship, Shear Modulus, Geotechnical Engineering
Access Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Major
Civil Engineering
First Advisor
Alomir H. Favero Neto
Recommended Citation
Rodrigues de Avila Oliveira, Gustavo, "Stress-Strain Behavior of Saturated Clays from Vane Shear Test: a Numerical Approach" (2026). Master’s Theses. 318.
https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/masters_theses/318