Liquefaction Behaviour and Prediction of Deviator Stress for Unsaturated Silty Sand

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the liquefaction behaviour and predict deviator stress with matric suction, of unsaturated silty sand. The unsaturated soil tests were conducted using a modified triaxial cell and specimens were prepared using the moisture tamping method. The axis translation technique was used to create the desired matric suctions in the specimen. Undrained triaxial compression tests were carried out at matric suction of 0, 2, 5, 10 and 25 kPa. The specimens were sheared to axial strains of about 20% to obtain steady state conditions. The results showed that liquefaction of silty sand only occurs at matric suction of 0 kPa and 2 kPa. The results also show that at matric suctions of 5, 10 and 25 kPa, the resistance to liquefaction increases. As the suction increases, the undrained effective stress path approached the drained stress path. Also, the predicted and measured maximum deviator stress for unsaturated soils using the effective stress concept showed good agreement as matric suction increases. The deviator stress increase is nonlinear as matric suction increases.