The objective of the present research was to study the effect of rate of probe expansion in pressuremeter testing for cohesive soil. Emphasis in this paper was given to quantifying and modeling the effect of strain rate on the undrained shear strength. The strain path followed by an element of clay adjacent to the expanding probe was simulated using an automated flexible boundary cuboidal shear device (CSD) typically up to a magnitude of strain level of 10%. Two types of soil (kaolin, kaolin-silica mix) were used consistently for all the testing. Repeatable cubical cohesive specimens were obtained from a high water content slurry consolidation technique.K0consolidation was performed by using a constant vertical stress - zero lateral strain boundary condition using a closed-loop pneumatic system. A series of strain-controlled tests with increasing strain rates from 0.01 to 5%/min was performed under undrained conditions. The effects of increase of strain rate on shear stress - strain behavior and undrained shear strength were quantified. A numerical model based on cylindrical cavity expansion theory which accounts for higher strain rate and its variation with radial distance from an expanding probe membrane was calibrated using the single-element CSD test data.Key words: strain rate, pressuremeter, stress-strain, shear strength, strain path, cavity expansion.