Postliquefaction behavior of low-plasticity silt at various degrees of reconsolidation

During earthquake events, low-plasticity silt undergoes a reduction in shear strength and stiffness due to development of excess pore pressure induced by cyclic loading. With reconsolidation, during which process excess pore pressure is dissipated, the shear strength and stiffness can be regained. However, due to the low permeability of silts (compared to sands), the dissipation of excess pore pressure and the reconsolidation of low-plasticity silt takes much more time. This paper investigates the postliquefaction shear behavior of Mississippi River Valley (MRV) silt at various degrees of reconsolidation using triaxial tests. Test results indicate that there was a steady increase, in shear strength and stiffness, at both large and small deformations, with increase in the degree of reconsolidation. The postliquefaction silt showed the effect of the apparent OCR, which had a close effect on postcyclic shear behavior as did the OCR on the static behavior. The critical state lines of MRV silt were different for pre- and post-liquefaction conditions.     

Postcyclic behavior of low-plasticity silt with limited excess pore pressures

This paper investigates the postcyclic behavior of low-plasticity silt with excess pore pressure ratio (R_u) less than 1. The testing specimens were prepared from Mississippi River Valley (MRV) silt. Full and no reconsolidation were allowed after specimens were subjected to various excess pore pressure ratios due to cyclic loading in a cyclic triaxial cell, and then monotonic shear tests were conducted. The effect of the R_u on shear strength and stiffness at small and large deformation was investigated. It was found that a R_u greater than 0.70 is a prerequisite of large increase in volumetric strain and undrained shear strength for specimens with full reconsolidation. In contrast, a significant decrease in yield shear strength and initial stiffness was noted for specimens without reconsolidation. In comparison to published data for sands, the silt experienced significant volumetric strain due to reconsolidation at lower R_u, indicating that the specimen fabric was modified or strained at lower R_u.     

Cyclic shear response of channel-fill Fraser River Delta silt

The cyclic shear response of a channel-fill, low-plastic silt was investigated using constant-volume direct simple shear testing. Silt specimens, initially consolidated to stress levels at or above the preconsolidation stress, displayed cyclic-mobility-type strain development during cyclic loading without static shear stress bias. Liquefaction in the form of strain softening accompanied by loss of shear strength did not manifest regardless of the applied cyclic stress ratio, or the level of induced excess pore water pressure, suggesting that the silt is unlikely to experience flow failure under cyclic loading. The cyclic shear resistance of the silt increased with increasing overconsolidation ratio (OCR) for OCR>1.3. The silt specimens that experienced high equivalent excess cyclic pore water pressure ratios (r_u>80%) resulted in considerable volumetric strains (2.5%–5%) during post-cyclic reconsolidation implying potentially significant changes to the particle fabric under cyclic loading.     

The effect of clay mineral content on the dynamic response of reconstituted fine grained soil

Fine grained soils with considerable amount of silt may exhibit sand-like or clay-like behavior depending on several factors such as the amount of fines and clay content, as well as the consistency limits, other variables being kept unchanged. This unpredictable behavior makes silts highly problematic, especially under seismic conditions. This paper describes the laboratory behavior of low plasticity Adapazari silt, known to be highly sensitive to cyclic loading. In the first phase of the basic study reported herein, Adapazari silt was mixed with different percentages of bentonite and kaolin and the behavior of these reconstituted mixtures was investigated in cyclic triaxial and dynamic simple shear tests. The purpose was to identify basic index properties and their threshold values to delineate sand- and clay-like behavior. Such a distinction may make it possible to complement field penetration resistance with appropriate adjustment factors to evaluate the pore pressure development potential, thus the risk of ground failure during an earthquake. The results show that there is a range of liquid limit and plasticity index values above which cyclic failure is significantly mitigated. It can now be stated that silts of intermediate and high plasticity may be deemed of relatively low potential for ground failure during seismic loading.     

Effect of non-plastic silt content on the liquefaction behavior of sand–silt mixture

To identify the effect of non-plastic silt on the cyclic behavior of sand–silt mixtures, total sixty undrained cyclic triaxial stress-control tests were carried out on sand–silt mixtures. These tests were conducted on specimens of size 71 mm diameter and 142 mm height with a frequency of 1 Hz. Specimens were prepared at a constant relative density and constant density approach. The effect of relative density, confining pressure as well as magnitude of cyclic loading was also studied. For a constant relative density (D_r=60%) the effect of limiting silt content, pore pressure response and cyclic strength was observed. The rate of generation of excess pore water pressure with respect to cycles of loading was found to initially increase with increase in silt content till the limiting silt content and thereafter it reverses its trend when the specimens were tested at a constant relative density. The cyclic resistance behavior was observed to be just opposite to the pore pressure response. Permeability, CRR and secant shear modulus decreased till limiting silt content; after that they became constant with increasing silt content.     

Cyclic resistance and liquefaction behavior of silt and sandy silt soils

The liquefaction behavior and cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) of reconstituted samples of non-plastic silt and sandy silts with 50% and 75% silt content are examined using constant-volume cyclic and monotonic ring shear tests along with bender element shear wave velocity (V_s) measurements. Liquefaction occurred at excess pore water pressure ratios (r_u) between 0.6 and 0.7 associated with cumulative cyclic shear strains (γ) of 4% to 7%, after which cyclic liquefaction ensued with very large shear strains and excess pore water pressure ratio (r_u>0.8). The cyclic ring shear tests demonstrate that cyclic resistance ratio of silt and sandy silts decreases with increasing void ratio, or with decreasing silt content at a certain void ratio. The results also show good agreement with those from cyclic direct simple shear tests on silts and sandy silts. A unique correlation is developed for estimating CRR of silts and sandy silts (with more than 50% silt content) from stress-normalized shear wave velocity measurements (V_s1) with negligible effect of silt content. The results indicate that the existing CRR–V_s1 correlations would underestimate the liquefaction resistance of silts and sandy silt soils.     

Cyclic undrained behavior of silty sand

Laboratory cyclic triaxial tests were performed to investigate the effect of fine content on the pore pressure generation in sand. Strain-controlled, consolidated undrained tests have been performed with a cyclic shear strain range of 0·015-1·5%. These tests were carried to 1000 cycles or to initial liquefaction, which ever occurred first. Triaxial tests were performed on pure sand silt specimens and specimens with silt additions of 10, 20, 30, and 60% by weight. Two types of silt, a non-plastic silt and a low plasticity silt (PI 10) were used as control materials. The main parameters varied in this study were the amount of silt, the plasticity index of silt, and the void ratio where the observed parameter was the pore pressure generation. For all silt contents, silt plasticity and the number of loading cycles have no significant effect at strain levels below 0·01%. Therefore, threshold strain for silty sands have approximately the same value as sands. For both non-plastic and low plasticity silts, there is a significant increase in the generated pore pressure at high strain levels.     

Cyclic response of saturated silts

Softening and strength loss of sands with increasing excess pore water pressure under repeated loads is well-known. However, extensive damage to the built environment also occurs at the sites underlain by fine grained soils during seismic shaking. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting cyclic behavior of saturated low-plastic silt through laboratory testing. For this purpose, an extensive laboratory testing program including conventional monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests was carried out over reconstituted silt samples. The effects of the inherent soil properties and the effects of loading characteristics on the cyclic response of saturated low-plastic reconstituted silt samples were examined separately. Based on the test results, a model was introduced to estimate the effect of initial shear stress on the cyclic response. Besides, liquefaction susceptibility of the samples was examined via current liquefaction susceptibility criteria.     

黄河三角洲粉土液化的试验研究

在野外自然地理和地质调查的基础上，以黄河地区可液化场地粉土为研究对象，利用室内动三轴和振动柱试验进行测定，分析了动荷载作用下粉土的动应力应变关系并模拟了地震荷载作用下粉土的孔压响应及抗液化强度，得出了液化破坏标准，提出了原状粉土的振动孔压上升模型。对试验结果进行分析发现，随着粘粒含量的增加，粉砂、粉土、粉质粘土、粘土达到相同剪应变所需的动剪应力也依次增加；粉土孔压比0．68、粉砂土孔压比0．87作为液化破坏开始的标志；粉土发生液化所需的循环应力比大于砂土。这些研究为以后建立适合本地区的饱和地基土地震破坏判别方法提供了参数和依据。     

徐州市棠张镇饱和粉土液化性能试验研究

徐州市棠张镇高速铁路路基的粉土粘粒含量少于1．5％、粉粒含量约为80％,在强烈地震作用下存在着液化可能性,为了分析该路基粉土的液化特性,进行了多组振动三轴液化试验。对试验结果进行分析发现,该地区的粉土振动孔压发展模式与Seed提出的用反正弦三角函数拟合的砂十振动孔压发展模式不同,可以用双曲线进行拟合。采用最大往返剪切作用面上的应力条件确定了该地区的孔压发展模式的拟合参数,为该地区粉土地震液化动力计算分析提供了所需的地震孔隙水压力增长模型。同时,本文指出粉土的密度和结构是振动孔压发展的重要影响因素。     

颗粒组成对粉土动强度的影响分析

以天津汉沽地区某挡土墙地基粉土为研究对象,首先对不同颗粒组成的粉土做固结不排水动三轴剪切试验,采用各向等压固结,周围压力等于100kPa。固结完成后在不排水条件下施加轴向激振力,试验波形为正弦波,振动频率1.0Hz,试验中以试样在周期剪切时轴向周期应变达到5%作为破坏标准,得出粉土的动强度受颗粒组成的影响。细颗粒含量越大,其动强度越小,黏粒含量为7.2%的粉土循环剪应力比CSR约为20.3%黏粒含量粉土的2倍。粉土的动强度可以用循环剪应力比和破坏振次建立的幂函数关系式较好地拟合。在剪切过程中,粉土的孔隙水压力一直没有达到所施加的围压数值,最终稳定在75%~85%围压之间。同时,试验还得出孔隙水压力的增长模式不能用统一的Seed模型拟合,孔压增长规律的影响因素较多。     

Cyclic and post-cyclic monotonic behavior of Adapazari soils

The August 17, 1999 Kocaeli earthquake affected the city of Adapazari, which is located in the northwest of Turkey, with severe liquefaction and bearing capacity failures causing tilting of buildings, excessive settlements and lateral displacements. To understand the stress–strain behavior and pore pressure behavior of undisturbed soils during the earthquake, the cyclic and post-cyclic shear strength tests have been conducted on soil samples obtained from Adapazari in a cyclic triaxial test system within the scope of this research. Cyclic tests have been conducted under stress controlled and undrained conditions. Post-cyclic monotonic tests have been conducted following cyclic tests. The strength curves obtained in the experiments showed that the dynamic resistance of silty sand was found to be 45% lower than those of high plasticity soils (MH). The strength of clayey soils with the plasticity index of PI=15–16% was lower compared to the strength of high plasticity soils. Also, it was observed that silty sand soils had the lowest strength. The dynamic strength of the soils increased with the increase in plasticity.     

Learning of pore pressure response and dynamic soil behavior from downhole array measurements

Downhole arrays are deployed to measure motions at the ground surface and within the soil profile, with some arrays instrumented to also record the pore pressure response within soft soil profiles during excitation. The measurements from these arrays have typically been used in conjunction with parametric and nonparametric inverse analysis approaches to identify soil constitutive model parameters for use in site response analysis or to identify averaged soil behavior between locations of measurement. The self-learning simulations (SelfSim) inverse analysis framework, previously developed and applied under total stress conditions, is extended to effective stress considerations and is employed to reproduce the measured motions and pore pressures from downhole arrays while extracting the underlying soil behavior and pore pressure response of individual soil layers. SelfSim is applied to the 1987 recordings from the Imperial Valley Wildlife Liquefaction Array. The extracted soil behavior suggests a new functional form for modeling the degradation of the shear modulus with respect to excess pore pressures. The extracted pore pressure response is dependent on the number and amplitude of shear strain cycles and has a functional form similar to current strain-based pore pressure generation models.     

不同应力分量耦合模式下天津滨海饱和黏性土变形特性研究

地基土单元体在地震荷载作用下将产生主应力轴连续旋转,不同的应力耦合模式对土的强度、孔压以及变形等特性影响显著。利用GCTS空心圆柱扭剪仪,对天津滨海软土场地饱和黏性土进行K0固结下的不同应力耦合模式的循环剪切试验。着重对比相同应力路径下竖向和扭剪双向耦合加载模式,内外围压和扭剪的三向耦合加载模式以内外围压、竖向和扭剪的四向耦合加载模式条件下饱和黏性土的变形特性、循环软化特性。试验结果表明:在相同的动强度下,四向耦合应力模式更容易破坏且变形特性以及软化特性较双向、三向耦合下发展更加迅速;剪应力分量对试样软化变形特性的影响更加显著。     

复杂应力条件下饱和松砂单调与循环剪切特性的比较研究

本文利用大连理工大学新引进与开发的“土工静力-动力液压-三轴扭转多功能剪切仪”,针对福建标准砂,在不排水条件下同时进行了单调剪切试验与循环剪切试验,进而对其进行了对比分析。通过比较表明,应力-应变关系的应变软化和硬化特性与流滑变形和循环流动特性密切相关,当循环剪切应力水平高于单调剪切过程中应变软化阶段最小强度时将会发生流滑变形。无论在单调剪切中,还是在循环剪切中,稳定状态时的有效偏应力比随着大主应力方向与竖向之间夹角的增大而减小,在中主应力系数相同的条件下,循环剪切中呈现显著剪胀时的有效偏应力比和最终稳定状态时的有效偏应力比峰值分别与单调剪切中达到相变状态时的有效偏应力比和最终稳定有效偏应力比基本上一致。然而不排水条件下单调与循环剪切过程中孔隙水压力的增长特性却并不相同,循环剪切中的最大孔隙水压力随着初始主应力方向角的增大而减小,单调剪切中的最大孔隙水压力却随着主应力方向角的增大而增大。     

Undrained monotonic and cyclic behavior of sand-ground rubber mixtures

In this study the stress–strain characteristics of sand-ground rubber mixtures are investigated in the sandlike zone,at different confining pressures,using hollow cylinder specimens subjected to torsional monotonic and cyclic loading.Under monotonic loading a mixture of sand-ground rubber with 10% and 25% rubber content show more contraction behaviour than that observed in a pure sand specimen.Phase transformation point in these mixtures are located on a larger shear strain.As expected,the shear strength of specimens decreases with increase of ground rubber content.However,with increasing of effective confining pressure,the loss in shear strength of the mixture is decreased.In addition,a mixture with 25% ground rubber shows a smaller loss in shear strength compared to a mixture with 10% ground rubber mixture.Under cyclic loading mixtures with 10% and 25% ground rubber have similar liquefaction resistance,especially at confining pressures of 110 k Pa and 260 k Pa.Therefore,by using of the mixture with 25% ground rubber,a larger volume of scrap tires could be recycled.The addition of ground rubber to sand would affect the shear strain variation and excess pore water pressure trends,and this effect was further intensified with increasing ground rubber percentage.     

Key factors affecting prediction of seismic pore water pressures in silty sands based on damage parameter

The paper provides insight into factors affecting the prediction of seismic pore-water pressure build up in clean sands and sand–silt mixtures for modeling purposes. Laboratory pore pressure measurements were conducted using stress-controlled undrained cyclic simple shear (CSS) tests carried out on both reconstituted and undisturbed specimens of silty sands under different initial conditions (density state, effective vertical stress, initial fabric and fines content). Test results were interpreted by using a damage concept-based model which is actually implemented for clean sands in non-linear time domain site response analysis codes. In the present work, such a model was properly modified for sands having fines contents higher than 35%. The general applicability of the modified procedure for predicting pore water pressure response of silty sands under irregular shear stress loading using data from stress-controlled CSS tests was also verified and all factors affecting calibration parameters of the model were throughly analyzed.     

Evaluation of temperature and freeze–thaw effects on excess pore pressure generation of fine-grained soils

The November 3, 2002 Denali-Alaska earthquake (M_w=7.9) caused significant liquefaction associated damage to various infrastructure built on fine-grained soils. The seismic response, liquefaction potential, and excess pore pressure generation of soils in cold regions, especially those of fine-grained nature, have not been studied thoroughly and therefore are not well-understood. This paper presents results from an extensive laboratory study on the characteristics of excess pore pressure generation and liquefaction potential of fine-grained soils. Laboratory-constituted soils specimens were tested in four categories: (1) tests on specimens subjected to no thermal conditioning or freeze–thaw cycles; (2) tests on specimens conditioned at 24, 5, 1, 0.5, and −0.2 °C; (3) tests on specimens subjected to 1–4 freeze–thaw cycles; and (4) tests on specimens conditioned at near-freezing temperatures of 0.5 and −0.2 °C through different freeze–thaw paths. Strain-controlled, undrained, cyclic triaxial tests were performed at shear strain levels of 0.005–0.8%. Specimens conditioned at different temperatures were found to generate significantly different pore pressures with cyclic loading. The excess pore pressure generation at near or slightly below freezing was found to change dramatically. A transitional change in the dynamic soil behavior, attributed to unfrozen- or frozen-dominant pore water, was discovered. The threshold shear strain was also found to be influenced by the temperature. Subjecting the soil specimens to 1, 2 and 4 freeze–thaw cycles caused a reduction in excess pore pressure generation and slight change in the threshold shear strain. The temperature conditioning path to reach the target temperature was found to be important on the development of excess pore pressure at near and slightly below-freezing temperatures.     

Investigation of liquefaction and pore water pressure development in layered sands

This paper presents the results of shaking table model tests which were carried out to investigate the pore water pressure generation and related liquefaction mechanism in layered sand deposits. The experiments were performed on uniform sand columns, silt interlayered sand columns and two layered sand columns deposited at various relative densities and subjected to different input excitations. During the experiments excess pore water pressures were measured by pore pressure transducers installed at three different depths and, surface settlements and thickness of water film developed under less permeable inclusions were measured by a digital camera. The experimental results are discussed and compared to demonstrate the effects of relative density, input acceleration and presence of a silt seam on the generation of excess pore water pressure in sand deposits subjected to dynamic loading. The results showed that the presence of a less permeable silt interlayer within the sand deposit and existence of a loose sand layer underlying dense sand deposits can have significant effect on the pore water pressure generation mechanism.