UNDRAINED CYCLIC SHEAR BEHAVIOR OF CLAY UNDER DRASTICALLY CHANGED LOADING RATE

Abstract

The earthquake damage prediction is mainly focused on the seismic instability of sandy foundations although the clayey foundation could also be vulnerable to earthquake damage. Moreover, it is known that clayey soil shows a marked loading rate dependency in monotonic shear behavior due to its low permeability. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the undrained cyclic shear behavior of clayey soilunder a drastically changed loading rate. Reconstituted clayey samples were subjected to undrained cyclic triaxial compression/extension tests with loading rate from 1.0Hz to 0.0042Hz by stress control, and 0.01%/min by strain control. The cyclic loading was stopped when the double amplitude exceeded 5%. Then, the specimen was left for a while in an undrained condition, until the value of pore water pressure converged.Results revealed that as the loading rate decreases, the number of cycles that corresponds to DA=2% and 5% also decreased. Therefore, the degree of strain evolution varies depending on the loading rate and the undrained shear strength also varies depending on the cyclic loading rate. This is because when the cyclic loading rate was high; the pore water did not migrate sufficiently, leading to the non-uniform distribution of the excess pore water pressure inside the specimen. However, the final values of excess pore water pressure after the homogenization process was the same regardless of the loading rate. This means that if sufficient time is left after cyclic loading, the final mean effective stress value becomes equal regardless of the loading rate