ZI E M E R, R. R. 1978. An apparatus to measure the crosscut shearing strength of roots. Can. J. For. Res. 8: 142-144. Loss of tree root strength after timber cutting is a principal mechanism leading to slope failure and landslides. Measurement of root shear strength changes can be useful in evaluating effects of logging on slope stability. The simple apparatus described measures shear strength...

Varved clays, which consist of alternating layers of silt and clay, are common in glaciated regions of North America and Northern Europe. This layering results in several unique engineering properties making varved clays a challenging soil for engineering design. Varved clays have hydraulic conductivity and undrained shear strength anisotropy that far exceeds that of most other soils. The stren...

Cropping is a cutting process whereby opposing aligned blades create a shearing failure by exerting opposing forces normal to the surfaces of a metal sheet or plate. Building on recent efforts to quantify cropping, this paper formulates a plane strain elastic–plastic model of a plate subject to shearing action by opposing rigid platens. Shear failure at the local level is modeled by a cohesive ...

By means of contact dynamic simulations, we investigate the contact network topology and force chains in two-dimensional packings of elongated particles subjected to biaxial shearing. The morphology of large packings of elongated particles in quasistatic equilibrium is complex due to the combined effects of local nematic ordering of the particles and orientations of contacts between particles. ...

Though still in use today, the method of the effective shearing force to evaluate the maximum shear stress in variable depth beams does not stand close scrutiny. It can lead to overestimating the shearing strength of these beams, although it is suggested as a viable procedure by many otherwise excellent codes of practice worldwide. This paper should help to put the record straight. It should wa...

Permeability, filtration and shearing strength were widely considered to be the key properties in evaluating the performance of railway subballast. An investigation on these key properties of railway subballast was presented in this paper. A constant head permeability test and a middle scale direct shear test of railway subballast were conducted in the research, aiming to investigate the subbal...

This paper reports on an experimental and analytical investigation conducted into efficacy of the scraping shear-test method in estimating the shearing adhesive strength of a thermally sprayed coating. It was found that the critical average shear stress, the apparent failure strength of WC-Co thermal spray coating, depends on both the dimensions of the test piece and the loading position around...

Aluminum alloy sheets have been widely used to build the thin-walled structures by mechanical clinching technology in recent years. However, there is an exterior protrusion located on the lower sheet and a pit on the upper sheet, which may restrict the application of the clinching technology in visible areas. In the present study, an improved clinched joint used to join aluminum alloy sheets wa...

The paper deals with the design of cognitive artefacts. It is supported that both normative and descriptive design approaches fail to acknowledge the co-adaptation between users and artefacts; this leads to the so-called design paradox and obstructs the co-evolution of practice and artefacts. In the first section, the paper discusses the task-artefact cycle and presents examples showing that th...