Experimental Study on Maximum Dynamic Shear Modulus of Yangtze River Overconsolidated Floodplain Soft Soils

Abstract

This study conducted experimental tests on the undisturbed Nanjing Yangtze River floodplain soft soil using the bender element instrument to determine the maximum dynamic shear modulus of the Yangtze River floodplain overconsolidated soft soil. The Gmax of floodplain soft soil with different overconsolidated ratio OCR, initial effective confining pressure σ3c′, and void ratio e are discussed. The results indicated that Gmax reduced as e rose for given σ3c′ and OCR. In addition, an increase in OCR contributed to a gradual decrease in the decay rate of Gmax, while the Gmax decay rate is insensitive to the change of σ3c′. The void ratio-normalized maximum shear modulus Gmax/F(e) improved with the increase in the stress-normalized initial effective confining pressure σ3c′/Pa, whereas the growth rate gradually drops, and a power relationship is then obtained between Gmax/F(e) and σ3c′/Pa. Based on the regression analysis, a Gmax prediction method is established for reasonably characterizing Yangtze River floodplain soft soils with various over-consolidation states, initial stress conditions, and compactness levels, with a prediction error of less than 10%.