Calibration of Testing Equipment for Reliable Small-Strain Deformation Measurements Using Synthetic Specimens

Abstract

For reliable deformation measurements at small strains, calibration of the entire testing system in addition to routine transducer calibrations are very important. Seven synthetic specimens of varying stiffness (4.3 to 1500 MPa) were constructed and tested to measure the compliance of testing equipment and to improve the measurement setups. Testing equipment used in this study included resonant column device (RC), torsional shear device (TS), free-free resonant column device (FF-RC), cyclic resilient modulus testing device (M-R) and the static compression testing device. Moduli of synthetic specimens determined by various testing equipment after improvement were almost identical if considered the effect of loading frequency, indicating that all of the testing devices were well calibrated over a wide stiffness range. To verify the effectiveness of calibration on soil testing, two subgrade soils were tested, and moduli determined by various tests compared well. Use of synthetic calibration specimens shows potential for calibrating testing equipment and determining its capability and limitation of small-strain deformation measurements.