Influence of Depositional Method on Dynamic Properties of Granular Soil

Abstract

The behaviour of granular soil is mainly dependent upon the nature and arrangement of particles, which in turn affect fabric anisotropy. It has been known for many years that depositional method plays an important role in the results of laboratory testing of granular soils. Despite extensive studies on the dynamic properties of granular soil, previous research has lacked a quantitative study of the effects of depositional methods on the dynamic properties of the granular soil. The primary objective of the current study was to evaluate the effect of fabric anisotropy on the dynamic properties of granular soil for practical applications. The influence of depositional method, mean effective consolidation stress, shear strain amplitude and relative density on the maximum shear modulus (Gmax), shear modulus curve (G-γ), normalized modulus curve (G/Gmax-γ) and damping curve (D-γ) of pure sand, pure gravel and sand-gravel mixtures is investigated. The results of the tests indicate that depositional method has a significant effect on Gmax that this effect was more pronounced for the pure sand specimens than for the pure gravel or sand-gravel mixture specimens. However, the depositional method had no significant effect on the shear modulus at large shear strain amplitudes. The effects of depositional method on the G/Gmax-γ and D-γ curves are dependent on effective confining pressure and relative density.