Experimental Investigation on Loading-Relaxation Behaviors of Shear-Zone Soil
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper presents an experimental investigation on the loading-relaxation behaviors of reconstituted shear-zone soils through drained triaxial tests. A multistage loading-relaxation approach is adopted to perform this test. The test aims to study two main issues: the influence of relaxation on the mechanical response during reloading; and the influence of strain rates, loading increments, and the relaxation time on the relaxation characteristics. The test results indicate that the stress-relaxation behavior of shear-zone soil is dependent on the stress and strain levels. The loading patterns prior to the stress-relaxation process affect mainly the viscoelastic behavior of the soil and subsequently influence the initial relaxation behavior. Moreover, a reloading after a stress-relaxation process gives rise to a higher deviatoric stress owing to the viscoplastic hardening. It is further shown that the loading-relaxation behaviors can be interpreted by the viscoplastic theory.
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Acknowledgments
Open access funding provided by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41772304 and 41602313); the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions RISE 2017 HERCULES (778360) and FRAMED (734485), and the Erasmus+KA2 project Re-built (2018-1-RO01-KA203-049214). The corresponding author wishes to thank the Otto Pregl Foundation for financial support in Austria.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21 • Issue 4 • April 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 15, 2020
Accepted: Oct 21, 2020
Published online: Jan 20, 2021
Published in print: Apr 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jun 20, 2021
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