Deformation Behaviors of Saturated Clay under Intermittent Cyclic Loading with Cyclic Confining Pressure
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 24, Issue 7
Abstract
The dynamic behaviors of subgrade soil are usually investigated by use of continuous loading mode in most studies; however, the dynamic loading induced by traffic loading is composed of cyclic loading and intermittent periods. Moreover, the existence of cyclic deviator stress, cyclic confining pressure, and shear stress has been already observed in the stress field induced by traffic loading. Recognizing this, intermittent cyclic loading was applied to saturated soft clay for this study. The impacts of cyclic deviator stress, cyclic confining pressure, and drained condition during intermittent periods on the deformation behaviors of soft soil were analyzed. The variations in strain increment were similar in all cases: as the number of loading stages increased, the strain increment decreased, and the difference in strain increment was more significant in the first loading stage although it could be ignored in subsequent loading stages. Furthermore, the strain increment increased with increasing cyclic stress ratio (CSR) and decreased with increasing cyclic confining pressure. Moreover, the dissipation of excess pore-water pressure induced during the cyclic loading period resulted in the increase of accumulated axial strain under intermittent partially drained conditions, while the recovery of specimen deformation during intermittent period led to the decreasing of accumulated axial strain under undrained conditions. In addition, an empirical formula of accumulated axial strain under intermittent cyclic loading was established, and the calculated results were consistent with the measured data.
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Data Availability Statement
All data used during the study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52079135) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. 2021325).
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- A, B, C, a, λ, and κ
- fitting parameters;
- f
- loading frequency (Hz);
- N
- number of cycles;
- effective consolidated confining pressure (kPa);
- pampl
- amplitude of the cyclic mean principle total stress (kPa);
- qampl
- amplitude of the cyclic deviator stress (kPa);
- accumulated axial strain increment (%);
- ɛ
- axial strain (%);
- ɛp
- accumulated axial strain (%);
- η
- inclination of stress path; and
- amplitude of the cyclic confining pressure (kPa).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 24 • Issue 7 • July 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 28, 2023
Accepted: Jan 2, 2024
Published online: Apr 16, 2024
Published in print: Jul 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Sep 16, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Axial forces
- Continuum mechanics
- Cyclic loads
- Deformation (mechanics)
- Dynamic loads
- Dynamics (solid mechanics)
- Engineering mechanics
- Forces (type)
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Saturated soils
- Soft soils
- Soil deformation
- Soil dynamics
- Soil mechanics
- Soil pressure
- Soil properties
- Soils (by type)
- Solid mechanics
- Structural dynamics
- Structural mechanics
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