ABSTRACT
Many laboratory tests and field monitoring data were carried out to study the failure mechanism of discrete materials. Frost (2002) performed a series of laboratory tests on the shear failure behavior of granular-continuum interfaces. Matsuoka & Liu et al. (1999, 2001, 2005) developed an in-situ direct shear test apparatus in both small and large dimensions to test the shear failure behavior of several kinds of coarse-grained granular materials including rockfills at different construction sites of embankments. Li et al. (2004) examined mechanical behavior of RSA by insitu direct shear tests in the Three Gorges reservoir area.
