This paper describes new testing apparatus developed for the geotechnical centrifuge at The University of Western Australia. An actuator has been fabricated to allow a variety of tests involving combinations of vertical and torsional loading to be conducted. The new actuator has been used extensively to profile centrifuge samples by conducting inflight vane shear tests, and results are compared with those obtained from more traditional cone and T-bar penetrometer tests. In addition, a torsionalplate load test has been developed to examine both the monotonic and cyclic properties of soils in the centrifuge. Consisting of a circular plate with fins extending from the bottom face to provide full contact with the soil, various combinations oftorsional and vertical loading may be applied to the plate under either monotonic or cyclic conditions. Results are presented for monotonic loading, and compared with strengths from the other devices.
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