Cyclic loading of an Ottawa area Champlain Sea clay

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Mitchell ◽  
R. Douglas King

Undrained cyclic loading of triaxial samples of a sensitive Champlain Sea clay at deviatoric stress levels in excess of 50% of the static shear strength is shown to produce large deformations and eventual shear failure. Continued deformation of the clay under repeated loadings is believed to result from a progressive destruction of the cemented soil structure. Effective stress failures result from an increase in the excess pore water pressures within the sample.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 7612
Author(s):  
Yuan Lu ◽  
Jian Chen ◽  
Juehao Huang ◽  
Libo Feng ◽  
Song Yu ◽  
...  

Soft soil is often subjected to cyclic loading such as that imposed during storms, under traffic, or in an earthquake. Furthermore, the cyclic-loading-induced excess pore water pressure can be partially dissipated after cyclic loading. Thus, different reconsolidation processes should be considered. A series of static and dynamic triaxial tests were conducted on undisturbed soft soil to determine the post-cyclic mechanical behavior thereof, such as the variation of undrained shear strength, the development of excess pore water pressure, and the evolution of effective stress path. The effects of consolidated confining pressure, cyclic stress ratio, and degree of reconsolidation were analyzed. Results show that the trend of all stress–strain curves is similar under different conditions. The effect of the degree of reconsolidation is such that, with increasing the degree of reconsolidation, the shear strength is enhanced. Meanwhile, compared with undrained shear strength without cyclic loading, the shear strength after cyclic loading with full reconsolidation is increased. These factors also have a significant effect on the undrained shear strength: the greater both the confining pressure and cyclic stress ratio are, the higher the undrained shear strength. A positive excess pore water pressure is always observed during post-cyclic shearing process, irrespective of different factors. The S-shaped effective stress paths under different test conditions are observed and cross the critical state line. The microstructures of undisturbed soil and post-cyclic specimens with different degrees of reconsolidation were quantitatively investigated. Besides that, the degree of influence of different factors on the post-cyclic undrained strength was analyzed. Based on the test results, the undrained shear strength with cyclic load-history was well predicted by existing models.


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 607-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis E. Vallejo

A new approach to the stability analysis of thawing slopes at shallow depths, taking into consideration their structure (this being a mixture of hard crumbs of soil and a fluid matrix), is presented. The new approach explains shallow mass movements such as skin flows and tongues of bimodal flows, which usually take place on very low slope inclinations independently of excess pore water pressures or increased water content in the active layer, which are necessary conditions in the methods available to date to explain these movements.


2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Harris ◽  
Antoni G Lewkowicz

Active-layer detachment slides are locally common on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, where permafrost is continuous, the active layer is 0.5-0.75 m thick, and summer temperatures are unusually high in comparison with much of the Canadian High Arctic. In this paper we report pore-water pressures at the base of the active layer, recorded in situ on two slopes in late July and early August 1995. These data form the basis for slope stability analyses based on effective stress conditions. During fieldwork, the factor of safety within an old detachment slide on a slope at Hot Weather Creek was slightly greater than unity. At "Big Slide Creek," on a slope showing no evidence of earlier detachment failures, the factor of safety was less than unity on a steep basal slope section but greater than unity elsewhere. In the upper slope, pore-water pressures were only just subcritical. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate that the stability of the shallow active layer is strongly influenced by changes in soil shear strength. Possible mechanisms for reduction in shear strength through time include weathering of soils and gradual increases in basal active layer ice content. However, we suggest here that soil shearing during annual gelifluction movements is most likely to progressively reduce shear strengths at the base of the active layer from peak values to close to residual, facilitating the triggering of active-layer detachment failures.Key words: detachment slides, Ellesmere Island, pore-water pressures, gelifluction.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (12) ◽  
pp. 1756-1768
Author(s):  
Jahanzaib Israr ◽  
Buddhima Indraratna

This paper presents results from a series of piping tests carried out on a selected range of granular filters under static and cyclic loading conditions. The mechanical response of filters subjected to cyclic loading could be characterized in three distinct phases; namely, (I) pre-shakedown, (II) post-shakedown, and (III) post-critical (i.e., the occurrence of internal erosion). All the permanent geomechanical changes such, as erosion, permeability variations, and axial strain developments, took place during phases I and III, while the specimen response remained purely elastic during phase II. The post-critical occurrence of erosion incurred significant settlement that may not be tolerable for high-speed railway substructures. The analysis revealed that a cyclic load would induce excess pore-water pressure, which, in corroboration with steady seepage forces and agitation due to dynamic loading, could then cause internal erosion of fines from the specimens. The resulting excess pore pressure is a direct function of the axial strain due to cyclic densification, as well as the loading frequency and reduction in permeability. A model based on strain energy is proposed to quantify the excess pore-water pressure, and subsequently validated using current and existing test results from published studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Huang ◽  
Kejun Wen ◽  
Dongsheng Li ◽  
Xiaojia Deng ◽  
Lin Li ◽  
...  

The unloading creep behavior of soft soil under lateral unloading stress path and excess pore water pressure is the core problem of time-dependent analysis of surrounding rock deformation under excavation of soft soil. The soft soil in Shenzhen, China, was selected in this study. The triaxial unloading creep tests of soft soil under different initial excess pore water pressures (0, 20, 40, and 60 kPa) were conducted with the K0 consolidation and lateral unloading stress paths. The results show that the unloading creep of soft soil was divided into three stages: attenuation creep, constant velocity creep, and accelerated creep. The duration of creep failure is approximately 5 to 30 mins. The unloading creep behavior of soft soil is significantly affected by the deviatoric stress and time. The nonlinearity of unloading creep of soft soil is gradually enhanced with the increase of the deviatoric stress and time. The initial excess pore water pressure has an obvious weakening effect on the unloading creep of soft soil. Under the same deviatoric stress, the unloading creep of soft soil is more significant with the increase of initial excess pore water pressure. Under undrained conditions, the excess pore water pressure generally decreases during the lateral unloading process and drops sharply at the moment of unloading creep damage. The pore water pressure coefficients during the unloading process were 0.73–1.16, 0.26–1.08, and 0.35–0.96, respectively, corresponding to the initial excess pore water pressures of 20, 40, and 60 kPa.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. D. Eigenbrod ◽  
J. Graham ◽  
J.-P. Burak

Seasonal changes in groundwater levels affect the rate of downhill creep movements in slopes. This process has been studied in triaxial tests on undisturbed specimens of a natural clay from Bluefish Lake, 50 km north of Yellowknife, N.W.T. Specimens were first anisotropically consolidated to low stresses that correspond to conditions at shallow depths in creeping slopes. Pore-water pressures (back pressures) in the specimens were then cycled systematically (over periods lasting 4–48 h) with the drainage leads open. Resulting axial and volumetric strains were measured, and shear and lateral strains deduced from them. Strain rates decreased with increasing total times of testing. They increased with increasing values of the ratio Δu/Δuf, with increasing values of deviator stress q, and with decreasing values of [Formula: see text]. Systematically increasing the pore-water pressures in the specimens produced clear estimates of failure at low stresses. Key words : slope, clay, creep, cyclic loading, ground water, triaxial.


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