Experimental study of stress anisotropy and noncoaxiality of dense sand subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading

Abstract

Abstract The noncoaxiality of the principal stress direction and plastic principal strain increment has been broadly recognized as an influencing parameter for design of soil structures. Here we performed a series of systematic hollow cylinder experiments to study the effects of stress anisotropy on the noncoaxiality of dense Babolsar and Toyoura sands. A total of 25 undrained torsional shear tests were carried out under constant mean confining pressure, and fixed principal stress directions, α. We investigated the stress-strain behavior of dense sands for different α-directions, and cyclic stress ratio, CSR, under monotonic and cyclic loading conditions. The results show that the noncoaxiality value depends on the CSR, the level of plastic strain, and α-direction. Independent of the principal stress direction, maximum noncoaxiality value was observed at peak shear strength when there is most interlock between sand particles. Minimum noncoaxiality was recorded in α = 45° tests, in which the direction of maximum shear stress coincided with the horizontal bedding plane direction (weakest plane).