Cyclic liquefaction and pore pressure response of sand-silt mixtures

Abstract

The effect of non-plastic fines (silt) on liquefaction and pore pressure generation characteristics of saturated sands was studied through undrained stress controlled cyclic triaxial tests using cylindrical specimens of size 50 mm diameter and height 100 mm at different cyclic stress ratios and at a frequency of 0.1 Hz. The tests were carried out in the laboratory adopting various measures of sample density through various approaches namely gross void ratio approach, relative density approach, sand skeleton void ratio approach, and interfine void ratio approach. The limiting silt content and the relative density of a specimen were found to influence the undrained cyclic response of sand-silt mixtures to a great extent. Undrained cyclic response was observed to be independent of silt content at very high relative densities. However, the presence of fines significantly influenced this response of loose to medium dense specimens. Combined analyses of cyclic resistance have been done using the entire data collected from all the approaches.