ABSTRACT:

In underground excavations (tunnels, turbine rooms etc.), concrete dam foundations, drilled piers socketed into rock and rock anchors, dilation during sliding is constrained by the rock/concrete mass and the normal stress is not constant along a discontinuity. This boundary condition is better represented by a constant normal stiffness (CNS) direct shear test than the typical constant normal load (CNL) direct shear test. This is likely also the case for characterizing the strengths of concrete in large mass concrete dams where the normal stress may not be constant along the discontinuity during sliding.

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