Abstract
New excavation or tunnelling affects the stress state of soils in ground. The change of stress state due to excavation may affect the cyclic behaviour of soils. Cyclic loading, such as traffic and earthquake loading, induced ground deformation may be greater than expected if such effect is not considered. A series of cyclic triaxial tests were performed on Sydney sand with different relative densities. The effect of unloading sequence on deformation of the sand under cyclic loading was simulated by reducing lateral stress in steps between loading cycles. The dependence of strain accumulation on the magnitude of confining pressure reduction and on unloading stress paths was studied. The results indicate that the sand has a memory of stress history and the stress history of such unloading enlarges the strain accumulation during the subsequent cycles, and the greater the reduction of lateral stress, the greater the accumulated strain. Under cyclic loading, the accumulated axial strain could increase nonlinearly or linearly with the ratio of unloading magnitude to initial mean effective stress, depending on the stress state before cyclic loading. The unloading stress paths have limited effects on the final accumulated strain if the initial and final stress states are the same. The variation of strain accumulation direction attributes to the change of average stress ratio resulting from lateral stress reduction, but hardly depends on relative density and unloading stress paths. The strain accumulation direction after unloading roughly agrees with the modified Cam Clay flow rule.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bozzano F, Bretschneider A, Martino S, Prestininzi A (2014) Time variations of the K0 coefficient in overconsolidated clays due to morphological evolution of slopes. Eng Geol 169:69–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2013.11.013
Cai YQ, Hao BB, Gu C, Wang J, Pan LY (2018) Effect of anisotropic consolidation stress paths on the undrained shear behavior of reconstituted Wenzhou clay. Eng Geol 242:23–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2018.05.016
Huang H, Huang M, Ding JS (218) Calculation of tangent modulus of soils under different stress paths. Math Probl Eng.
Qian JG, Li SY, Gu XQ, Zhang JF (2019) A unified model for estimating the permanent deformation of sand under a large number of cyclic loads. Ocean Eng 181:293–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2019.03.051
Tong ZX, Zhang JM, Yu YL, Zhang G (2010) Drained deformation behavior of anisotropic sands during cyclic rotation of principal stress axes. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 136(11):1509–1518. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000378
Cai YQ, Sun Q, Guo L, Juang CH, Wang J (2015) Permanent deformation characteristics of saturated sand under cyclic loading. Can Geotech J 52(6):795–807. https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2014-0341
Wichtmann T, Triantafyllidis T, Ziesmann L (2019) On the influence of platy shell particles on the cumulative deformations in sand under drained high-cyclic loading. Soil Dyn Earthquake Eng 117:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2018.11.005
Xiong H, Cai YQ, Yang ZX, Chai JC (2017) Effect of drained static shear on cyclic deformation behavior of K0-consolidated sand. Soils Found 57(5):720–732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2017.08.004
Liu EL, Chen SS, Lai YM, Wei W, Fu ZZ (2016) Particle breakage of artificially crushable materials subject to drained cyclic triaxial loading. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 89:262–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2016.08.008
Sun Q, Dong QY, Cai YQ, Wang J (2020) Modeling permanent strains of granular soil under cyclic loading with variable confining pressure. Acta Geotech 15(6):1409–1421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-019-00868-w
Lopez-Querol S, Coop MR (2012) Drained cyclic behaviour of loose Dogs Bay sand. Géotechnique 62(4):281–289. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.8.P.105
Thakur PK, Vinod JS, Indraratna B (2013) Effect of confining pressure and frequency on the deformation of ballast. Géotechnique 63(9):786–790. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.12.T.001
Lackenby J, Indraratna B, McDowell G, Christie D (2007) Effect of confining pressure on ballast degradation and deformation under cyclic triaxial loading. Géotechnique 57(6):527–536. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.2007.57.6.527
Xu F, Zhai B, Leng WM, Yang Q, Leng HK, Nie RS (2020) Probabilistic method for evaluating the permanent strain of unbound granular materials under cyclic traffic loading. Constr Build Mater. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118975
Xiao YJ, Zheng KY, Chen LX, Mao JF (2018) Shakedown analysis of cyclic plastic deformation characteristics of unbound granular materials under moving wheel loads. Constr Build Mater 167:457–472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.02.064
Qian JG, Du ZB, Lu XL, Gu XQ, Huang MS (2019) Effects of principal stress rotation on stress-strain behaviors of saturated clay under traffic-load-induced stress path. Soils Found 59(1):41–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2018.08.014
Qian JG, Zhou RY, Chen SL, Gu XQ, Huang MS (2018) Influence of pavement roughness on dynamic stresses in saturated subsoil subjected to moving traffic loading. Int J Geomech 18(4):04018012. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0001097
Konstadinou M, Georgiannou VN (2013) Cyclic behaviour of loose anisotropically consolidated Ottawa sand under undrained torsional loading. Géotechnique 63(13):1144–1158. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.12.P.145
Georgiannou VN, Konstadinou M (2014) Effects of density on cyclic behaviour of anisotropically consolidated Ottawa sand under undrained torsional loading. Géotechnique 64(4):287–302. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.13.P.090
Pan K, Yang ZX (2018) Effects of initial static shear on cyclic resistance and pore pressure generation of saturated sand. Acta Geotech 13(2):473–487. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-017-0614-5
Yang J, Sze HY (2011) Cyclic behaviour and resistance of saturated sand under non-symmetrical loading conditions. Géotechnique 61(1):59–73. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.9.P.019
Wei X, Yang J (2011) Cyclic behavior and liquefaction resistance of silty sands with presence of initial deviatoric shear stress. Soil Dyn Earthquake Eng 122:274–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2018.11.029
Yang ZX, Pan K (2017) Flow deformation and cyclic resistance of saturated loose sand considering initial deviatoric shear effect. Soil Dyn Earthquake Eng 92:68–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2016.09.002
Wu TY, Cai YQ, Guo L, Ling DS, Wang J (2017) Influence of shear stress level on cyclic deformation behaviour of intact Wenzhou soft clay under traffic loading. Eng Geol 228:61–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.06.013
Chiaro G, Koseki J, Sato T (2012) Effects of initial static shear on liquefaction and large deformation properties of loose saturated Toyoura sand in undrained cyclic torsional shear tests. Soils Found 52(2):498–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2012.05.008
Zhuang HY, Wang R, Chen GX, Miao Y, Zhao K (2018) Shear modulus reduction of saturated sand under large liquefaction-induced deformation in cyclic torsional shear tests. Eng Geol 240:110–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2018.04.018
Lee S, Im J, Cho GC, Chang I (2019) Laboratory triaxial test behavior of xanthan gum biopolymer-treated sands. Geomech Eng 7(5):445–452. https://doi.org/10.12989/gae.2019.17.5.445
Chang CS, Whitman RV (1988) Drained permanent deformation of sand due to cyclic loading. J Geotech Eng 114(10):1164–1180. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1988)114:10(1164)
Wichtmann T, Niemunis A, Triantafyllidis T (2006) Experimental evidence of a unique flow rule of non-cohesive soils under high-cyclic loading. Acta Geotech 1(1):59–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-006-0006-8
Wichtmann T, Niemunis A, Triantafyllidis T (2014) Flow rule in a high-cycle accumulation model backed by cyclic test data of 22 sands. Acta Geotech 9(4):695–709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0302-7
Chu J, Lo SCR (1993) On the measurement of critical state parameters of dense granular soils. Geotech Test J 16(1):27–35. https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ10264J
Acknowledgement
The project is funded by the Zhejiang Provincial Transportation Planning and Design Institute. Funding received from the Systematic Project of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety (2019ZDX021) is also appreciated. The first author received Ph.D. scholarship from the University of New South Wales.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, Z., Xue, J. & Ye, J. The effects of unloading on drained cyclic behaviour of Sydney sand. Acta Geotech. 16, 2791–2804 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01209-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01209-6