ABSTRACT
General shear strength measurements and classification tests there is frequently a need to obtain estimates of soil behaviour away from the laboratory where comprehensive tests can be carried out. In some cases, many samples need to be analysed, and relatively quick and easy methods provide a complement to interspersed, more complete, tests. Plastic and liquid limits are useful for many soils, the latter especially in describing phenomena like mudflows where there is no 'shear strength' but a viscous material of complex rheological behaviour. A value for the shear strength is found directly from tables, which equate it with fall distance for a particular cone. The shear test is similar in that the variation of shear strength, with change in the stress applied normal to the plane of shear, is measured. In the 'short-term' condition, the strength parameters would be the undrained shear strength.
