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Experimental Evaluation of Dynamic Characteristics of Firouzkooh Sand Using Cyclic Triaxial and Bender Element Tests

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Abstract

The main focus of this research is to obtain the dynamic properties of Firouzkooh sand and to study the effect of different factors, including specimen fabric, relative density, and consolidation anisotropy on those parameters. Dynamic properties, including shear modulus and damping ratio, play a significant role in predicting the dynamic response of soil. Having a correct estimate of those parameters in a wide strain range is essential for laboratory research and modeling. Thus, a laboratory testing program comprising of 116 experiments, including bender element and cyclic triaxial tests, was defined to obtain these properties in the strain range of 10–6 up to 10–2. During these tests, effective stress was in the range of 20–500 kPa and the relative density was between 16 and 74.2%. To study the effect of the type of specimen fabric, the sample preparation method was either dry deposition or wet tamping. At the same time, some tests were conducted with anisotropic consolidation. Results are presented in forms of shear modulus and damping ratio in relation to shear strain. Many of the previous studies conducted on different types of sands show consistent results. Additionally, a versatile preliminary empirical model, based on the previously proposed methods, is suggested to predict shear modulus and damping ratio curves of Firouzkooh sand, taking into account the sample fabric and consolidation method.

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Funding

This research was not funded by any organizations or companies. All the tests were carried out in the University of Tehran’s Soil Mechanics laboratories without outside financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Nevada Reno, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Nima Mojtahedzadeh & Ramin Motamed

  2. School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box: 4563, 11155, Tehran, Iran

    Abbas Ghalandarzadeh

Authors
  1. Nima Mojtahedzadeh
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  2. Abbas Ghalandarzadeh
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  3. Ramin Motamed
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Correspondence to Abbas Ghalandarzadeh.

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Mojtahedzadeh, N., Ghalandarzadeh, A. & Motamed, R. Experimental Evaluation of Dynamic Characteristics of Firouzkooh Sand Using Cyclic Triaxial and Bender Element Tests. Int J Civ Eng 20, 125–138 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-021-00644-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-021-00644-6

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