Cyclic Simple Shear

The system consists of a simple shear load frame air receiver with vertical and horizontal loading control valves.
It incorporates a control and data acquisition system as described below, with two 5 kN actuators.
Each actuator has an internal displacement transducer, which relays the actuator piston position back to the computer.
The system is identical to that one which is part of the cyclic triaxial system, except for the input channels, which are 6 instead of 13. The cyclic simple shear is a plane strain device.
The shear strain is induced by horizontal displacement at the bottom of the sample relative to the top.
The horizontal diameter of the sample remains constant; therefore any change in volume shall be as a result of vertical movement of the top platen.
The system is designed to allow a sample to be consolidated, drained and then sheared.
Pore pressure measurement is possible thus allowing equilibrium to be achieved prior to shearing.