Comparison and Correction of Modulus Reduction Models for Clays and Silts
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 4
Abstract
Prediction models of normalized modulus reduction curves () for clays and silts have been proposed by several researchers in the past decades. However, model uncertainties have been recognized in these studies. This study compares five prediction models of from previous studies, which use common predictor variables of cyclic shear strain amplitude, effective confining stress, and plasticity index. The relative differences between these models are described against these predictor variables. Then the model biases are evaluated through residual analyses using the modulus reduction database. Modulus reductions of are also discussed by combining the prediction models of and to illustrate the importance of these combinations. Correlations among the residuals of ln() are calculated, and the correction factors of the model are presented conditioned on the and shear strength measurements.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The framework of this study was developed during the Ph.D. study of the author at the University of California, Davis. The author acknowledges the valuable discussion he had with Professor Boulanger during this study. The author is also grateful to the Pacific Engineering Research Center (PEER) at the University of California, Berkeley, for providing a great environment for research and to Charles D. James at the PEER library for assisting in collecting the reports and papers needed to develop the database. The author acknowledges Professor Tsai at National Chung Hsing University for reviewing the earlier draft of this paper. The author also acknowledges the anonymous reviewers for providing the insightful comments which improved the quality of the paper. The presented database will become publicly available in the future.
References
Arulnathan, R. (2000). “Dynamic properties and site response of organic soils.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, Davis, CA.
Boulanger, R. W., Arulnathan, R., Harder, L. F., Jr., Torres, R. A., and Driller, M. W. (1998). “Dynamic properties of Sherman Island peat.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 12–20.
Darendeli, M. B. (2001). “Development of a new family of normalized modulus reduction and material damping curves.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Díaz-Rodríguez, J. A., and Santamarina, J. C. (2001). “Mexico City soil behavior at different strains: Observations and physical interpretation.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 783–789.
Dobry, R., and Vucetic, M. (1987). “Dynamic properties and seismic response of soft clay deposits.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Geotechnical Engineering of Soft Soils, Vol. 2, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 51–87.
Doroudian, M., and Vucetic, M. (1999). “Results of geotechnical laboratory tests on soil samples from the UC Santa Barbara campus.”, Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept., Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Georgiannou, V. N., Rampello, S., and Silvestri, F. (1991). “Static and dynamic measurements of undrained stiffness on natural overconsolidated clays.” Proc., 10th European Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 91–95.
Hardin, B. O., and Black, W. L. (1968). “Vibration modulus of normally consolidated clay.” J. Soil Mech. Found., 94(2), 353–370.
Hardin, B. O., and Black, W. L. (1969). “Closure to vibration modulus of normally consolidated clay.” J. Soil Mech. Found., 95(6), 1531–1537.
Hashash, Y. M. A., Phillips, C., and Groholski, D. R. (2010). “Recent advances in non-linear site response analysis.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, Univ. of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, MO.
Hicher, P.-Y. (1996). “Elastic properties of soils.” J. Geotech. Eng., 641–648.
Hsu, C., and Vucetic, M., (1999). “Results of cyclic and dynamic simple shear tests on soils from Tarzana and Rinaldi sites conducted for ROSRINE project and other research purposes.”, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Idriss, I. M., Dobry, R., and Singh, R. D. (1978). “Nonlinear behavior of soft clays during cyclic loading.” J. Geotech. Eng. Div., 104(12), 1427–1447.
Isenhower, W. M., and Stokoe, K. H. (1981). “Strain-rate dependent shear modulus of San Francisco bay mud.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, Univ. of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, MO, 597–602.
Ishibashi, I., and Zhang, X. (1993). “Unified dynamic shear moduli and damping ratios of sand and clay.” Soils Found., 33(1), 182–191.
Ishihara, K. (1996). Soil behaviour in earthquake geotechnics, Oxford Science, Oxford, U.K.
Katayama, L., Fukui, F., Goto, M., Makihara, Y., and Tokimatsu, K. (1986). “Comparison of dynamic deformation characteristics of dense sand between undisturbed and disturbed samples.” Proc., 21st Annual Conf. of JSSMFE, Japanese Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Tokyo, 583–584 (in Japanese).
Kim, T. C., and Novak, M. (1981). “Dynamic properties of some cohesive soils of Ontario.” Can. Geotech. J., 18(3), 371–389.
Kishida, T. (2008). “Seismic site effects for the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, Davis, CA.
Kishida, T., Boulanger, R. W., Abrahamson, N. A., Wehling, T. M., and Driller, M. W. (2009). “Regression models for dynamic properties of highly organic soils.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 533–543.
Kokusho, T. (1987). “In-situ dynamic soil properties and their evaluations.” Proc., 8th Asian Regional Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering: 8ARCSMFE ‘87 Kyoto, Vol. 2, Japanese Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Tokyo.
Kokusho, T., Yoshida, Y., and Esashi, Y. (1982). “Dynamic properties of soft clay for wide strain range.” Soils Found., 22(4), 1–18.
Lanzo, G., Vucetic, M., and Doroudian, M. (1997). “Reduction of shear modulus at small strains in simple shear.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1035–1042.
Matesic, L., and Vucetic, M. (2003). “Strain-rate effects on soil secant shear modulus at small cyclic strains.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 536–549.
Mayne, P. W., and Kulhawy, F. H. (1982). “Ko-OCR relationships in soil.” J. Geotech. Eng. Div., 108(6), 851–872.
Mitchell, J. K., and Soga, K. (2005). Fundamentals of soil behavior, Wiley, New York.
Pane, V., and Burghignoli, A. (1988). “Determinazione in laboratorio delle caratteristiche dinamichedell’argilla de1 Fucino.” Atti de1 I Conuegno de1 Gruppo Nazionale di Coordinamento per gli Studi di Ingegneria Geotecnica, Monselice, 115–139 (in Italian).
Rampello, S., and Silvestri, F. (1993). “The stress-strain behaviour of natural and reconstituted samples of two overconsolidated clays.” Geotechnical engineering of hard soils-soft rocks, A. Anagnostopoulos, R. Frank, N. Kalteziotis, and F. Schlosser, eds., Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 769–778.
Santamarina, J. C., Klein, K. A., and Fam, M. A. (2001). Soils and waves, Wiley, West Sussex, U.K.
Shibuya, S., Hwang, S. C., and Mitachi, T. (1997). “Elastic shear modulus of soft clays from shear wave velocity measurement.” Geotechnique, 47(3), 593–601.
Shibuya, S., and Mitachi, T. (1994). “Small strain modulus of clay sedimentation in a state of normal consolidation.” Soils Found., 34(4), 67–77.
Silver, M. L., and Seed, H. B. (1971). “Deformation characteristics of sands under cyclic loading.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 97(8), 1081–1098.
Soga, K. (1994). “Mechanical behaviour and constitutive modelling of natural structured soils.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Stewart, J., and Kwok, A. O. L. (2008). “Nonlinear seismic ground response analysis: Code usage protocols and verification against vertical array data.” Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics IV Congress 2008—Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Stokoe, K. H., II, Darendeli, M. B., Andrus, R. D., and Brown, L. T. (1999). “Dynamic soil properties: Laboratory, field and correlation studies.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering, P. S. Seco e Pinto, ed., A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 811–845.
Stokoe, K. H., II, and Lodde, P. F. (1978). “Dynamic response of San Francisco Bay mud.” Proc., American Society of Civil Engineers Conf. on Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, Vol. 2, ASCE, Reston, VA, 940–959.
Tabata, K., and Vucetic, M. (2000). “Results of cyclic simple shear tests on thirteen soils from Los Angeles basin conducted for ROSRINE project and other research purposes.”, Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept., Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Tabata, K., and Vucetic, M. (2002). “Results of cyclic simple shear tests on fifteen soils conducted for PEARL project and other research purposes.”, Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept., Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Teachavorasinskun, S., Thongchim, P., and Lukkunaprasit, P. (2002). “Shear modulus and damping of soft Bangkok clays.” Can. Geotech. J., 39(5), 1201–1208.
Vardanega, P. J., and Bolton, M. D. (2013). “Stiffness of clays and silts: Normalizing shear modulus and shear strain.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1575–1589.
Vardanega, P. J., and Bolton, M. D. (2014). “Stiffness of clays and silts: Modeling considerations.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., .
Viggiani, G., and Atkinson, J. H. (1995). “Stiffness of fine-grained soil at very small strains.” Geotechnique, 45(2), 249–265.
Vucetic, M., and Dobry, R. (1991). “Effect of soil plasticity on cyclic response.” J. Geotech. Eng., 89–107.
Vucetic, M., Doroudian, M., and Matesic, L. (1999). “Results of geotechnical laboratory tests on soil samples from the UC San Diego campus.”, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Vucetic, M., Hsu, C.-C., and Doroudian, M. (1998). “Results of cyclic and dynamic simple shear tests on soils from La Cienega site, conducted for ROSRINE project and other research purposes.”, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Weiler, W. A. (1988). “Small strain shear modulus of clay.” Proc., Geotechnical Engineering Division Specialty Conf. on Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, Vol. 2, ASCE, New York, 331–345.
Wood, D. M. (1995). Soil behaviour and critical state soil mechanics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Yee, E., Stewart, J. P., and Tokimatsu, K. (2013). “Elastic and large-strain nonlinear seismic site response from analysis of vertical array recordings.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1789–1801.
Zhang, J. (2004). “Characterizing the dynamic properties of South Carolina soils for ground motion evaluation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Graduate School of Clemson Univ., Clemson, SC.
Zhang, J., Andrus, R. D., and Juang, C. H. (2005). “Normalized shear modulus and material damping ratio relationships.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 453–464.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 22, 2015
Accepted: Aug 2, 2016
Published online: Oct 24, 2016
Discussion open until: Mar 24, 2017
Published in print: Apr 1, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.