Behavior of Sand After a High Number of Cycles Application to Shallow Foundation

Abstract

Considerable strains appear in the structures during accumulation of the irreversible strains of the subgrade under the effect of the cyclic loads. If the number of cycles is very large, even a small strain after accumulation becomes significant and sometimes harmful. In this study, a simple numerical modeling of the behavior of sand under cyclic loading is proposed. The suggested approach consists, in drained condition, in determining the parameters characterizing the average cyclic path of the soil under the effect of the number of cycles duly characterized and translating the cyclic effect by a volumetric strain cumulated by a variation of the module of the soil. In this study, we are interested in cyclic triaxial compression tests simulated by a finite element calculation. While proposing an analogy between the cyclic pseudo creep and the soft soil creep model (SSCM), on the first hand we propose an equivalence between the cyclic parameters and the parameters of SSCM, and on the other an equivalence time number of cycles will be established. The application of the formulation suggested on a shallow foundation under cyclic loading confirms the good adaptation of the model suggested to this type of problem.