Dilatancy Characteristics Of Sand

Abstract

Dilatancy characteristics of sand under cyclic loading including cyclic mobility behavior and behavior at large strains after liquefaction is investigated. Series of torsional shear test data and torsional simple shear test data, including both monotonic and cyclic loading, have been processed. First, stress-dilatancy relationship is developed using drained test results based on normalized shear work. Volumetric strain characteristics in wide range of confining pressure including low confining pressure levels are then investigated using undrained test data and stress-dilatancy model established using drained test data. It is shown that volumetric strain characteristics are similar to the one after liquefaction, except that the range of low stiffness region is smaller than that. This indicates that conventional constitutive model may not be able to simulate the behavior of sand at low confining pressure. It is also recognized that material properties deteriorate gradually with the application of cyclic load.