Featuring the Future: The Use of Teflon to Reduce End Friction Effects in Triaxial Testing of Sand

June 11   |   1:00PM - 2:00PM EST   |  Webinar

Modern evaluation of liquefaction potential in cohesionless soils for engineering design is grounded in critical state soil mechanics. To assess a soil’s susceptibility to liquefaction, its critical state line and in-situ state must be defined. Consolidated undrained triaxial tests on cohesionless soils are a valuable tool for characterizing steady-state strength and flow liquefaction potential at specific initial states. A known challenge in triaxial testing of sands is end restraint friction generated during shearing, which restricts free lateral expansion of the specimen and leads to non-uniform strains, non-uniform stresses, and distorted failure modes. End restraint effects can produce non-representative strength, dilatancy, and liquefaction response.

The objective of this study is to explore the use of Teflon material to reduce end friction effects in triaxial testing of sands and compare the shearing response obtained using conventional end materials with that obtained using low-friction Teflon interfaces.

Language: English

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Presenter

The CDA Student Award of Merit Scholarship

Meet, Ivanna Montani, 2025 recipient

Ms. Montani is a master’s student in Civil Engineering with a focus on Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research involves conducting consolidated anisotropic undrained triaxial tests, consolidated isotropic undrained compression triaxial tests, and isotropic extension tests on the sand samples to assess the influence of stress path and varying fines content and void ratio on the steady state behavior of sand. 

The CDA Scholarships

The Canadian Dam Association (CDA) offers annually two scholarships to full-time post-graduate students attending a Canadian university or college whose program of study focuses on dam safety and/or the management of dams.

  • The CDA Gary Salmon Memorial Scholarship, valued at $6,000 was established in 2009 in honour of the late Gary Salmon, P.Eng and is awarded to an applicant registered as a full-time student in a Ph.D program at a Canadian university.  
  • The CDA Student Award of Merit Scholarship, valued at $3,000, was established in 2012. It is awarded to an applicant registered as a full-time student in a Master degree (M.Eng, M.Sc, M.A.Sc) at a Canadian university, in either project or thesis option. 

The scholarships are awarded primarily on the basis of academic excellence and the relevance of the research project to the stated objective, as well as leadership and community involvement. Further information and the application information is available below for download.

Objectives:

  • Recognize winners of CDA’s Honours and Awards
  • Promote the CDA scholarship program
  • Promote participation of young professionals in CDA activities 
  • Inform the audience of research work being undertaken at Canadian universities