A semi-empirical formula for evaluating residual strain of soils under earthquake loading

A new semi-empirical formula for evaluating the residual strain of soils under earthquake loading is presented in this paper based on the incremental method and the increment model proposed by the authors. When the incident loading is uniform, the results calculated by the new formula are nearly the same as those by the existing formula. For excitation of the random earthquake loading, the results calculated by the new formula are compared to the results obtained by dynamic triaxial tests. The dynamic triaxial tests had been performed considering different seismic waves, confining stresses,consolidation ratios, and types of cohesive soils. The comparison between the calculated and tested results indicate that the presented formula can efficiently and practically describe the time-dependent process of the soil residual strains under actual seismic loads.