Failure Modes of Sand in Undrained Cyclic Loading: Impact of Sample Preparation
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 1
Abstract
This paper presents a systematic experimental investigation into the impact of specimen preparation on the cyclic loading behavior of saturated sand, including the deformation pattern, pore-water pressure generation, stress-strain relationship, and cyclic shear strength. Moist tamping and dry deposition were used in the laboratory to prepare sand specimens with distinct fabrics for cyclic triaxial tests under a range of conditions. It is found that the soil fabric formed by dry deposition can lead to unique failure modes different from those of moist-tamped samples in certain situations. These failure modes are hybrid in nature, characterized by a contractive response in the form of limited flow followed by cyclic strain hardening in the form of either cyclic mobility or plastic-strain accumulation. The hybrid nature of the failure patterns makes defining failure for liquefaction-resistance evaluation crucial; the conventional failure criteria based on a certain level of strain or pore-water pressure do not appear to properly represent the failure mechanism involved and may lead to a substantial overestimation of liquefaction resistance. The experiments reveal that the method used to reconstitute specimens or the soil fabric they form plays a role that is far more complicated than previously thought. Depending on the combination of relative density, confining stress, and degree of stress reversal in cyclic loading, a change of reconstitution method can have a marked or little effect on the nature of the response in terms of deformation pattern and failure mechanism; nevertheless, the two reconstitution methods always give significantly different liquefaction-resistance values under otherwise similar testing conditions.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this work was provided by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong under Grant No. 719105. The work was also partially supported by the University of Hong Kong through the Outstanding Young Researcher Award and the Research Output Prize schemes.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 1 • January 2014
Pages: 152 - 169
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 12, 2012
Accepted: May 24, 2013
Published online: May 27, 2013
Published in print: Jan 1, 2014
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