Dynamic Characteristics of Saturated Soft Clays under Cyclic Loading in Drained Condition
Yong-hong Miao, Ruo-yu Sheng, Jie Yin, Fan-Bo Zhou, Jian‐Fei Lu
Abstract
This study presents an experimental investigation on the effects of cyclic loading waveform and cyclic stress ratio (CSR) on dynamic behaviors through laboratory tests on a source of soft clay under cyclic loading in drained condition. Test results showed that under different cyclic loading waveforms at a given frequency ( f = 1 Hz) and CSR = 0.6, the axial strain increases significantly at a relatively lower number of cycles ( N ) and then became stable, while the axial strain consistently decreases with the increasing N and tend to be stable. At a given N , specimen under sine wave cyclic loads shows a higher axial strain rate than that under triangle wave or square cyclic loads. Test results also indicated that at different CSRs, the axial strain increases rapidly at a relatively lower N and then gradually tends to be stable with the increasing N at lower CSR yet there is no stable trend for specimens at higher CSR, which indicates there is a critical value of CSR. It is recommended to apply the cyclic loading in sine waveform with CSR close to and less than the critical value to get a better treatment effect.