ISSN: 1945-7545
CODEN: GTJODJ
Page Count: 7

Direct Simple Shear Testing for Post-Cyclic Degradation in Stiffness of Nonplastic Silt

Song, BW
Vice Chief, Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Dasan Consultants Company, Ltd., South Korea,

Yasuhara, K
Professor, Ibaraki University,

Murakami, S
Research Associate, Ibaraki University,

(Received 22 February 2002; accepted 5 April 2004)

Abstract

Using a sequential procedure of cyclic and postcyclic direct simple shear tests, the stiffness degradation characteristics of nonplastic silt are studied during and immediately after cyclic loading by direct simple shear (DSS) tests. The results from cyclic and postcyclic DSS tests were interpreted using methods modified from those adopted for cyclic and postcyclic triaxial tests. In particular, the effect of initial static shear stress (ISSS) on postcyclic behavior is considered for nonplastic silt. The findings obtained from the sequential DSS testing on nonplastic silt are: (i) during cyclic loading the tendency of the stiffness to decrease with increasing normalized pore pressure is different for plastic and nonplastic silts, (ii) since the relation between equivalent stiffness ratio and single amplitude shear strain for nonplastic silt does not filt the Hardin-Drnevich Model, new modified relation is needed, (iii) the larger the ISSS is, the faster the decrease in stiffness ratio becomes, and (iv) the decrease of stiffness ratio for nonplatic silt is less marked than that for plastic silt when plotted against the normalized pore pressure after cyclic load.

Keywords:
silt, direct simple shear test, cyclic test, monotonic test, cyclic loading, constant volume condition, degradation of stiffness, postcyclic loading

Paper ID: GTJ11194
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ11194
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