ISSN 2319-5347, ISI Impact Factor: 0.763

VOLUME 04 NO. 04 OCTOBER 2015:

Title:         Cyclic Shear Response of Fraser River Sand using Cyclic Ring Shear
Authors:    Muhammad Safdar, Khalid Mahmood
Abstract:   Cyclic triaxial, direct simple shear, torsional shear, resonant column, and cyclic ring shear apparatuses can also be used for evaluating cyclic shear strength and liquefaction resistance of cohesionless soils. In this study cyclic shear response of Fraser River sand is investigated using constant-volume cyclic ring shear tests. Cyclic shear response of Fraser River sand is evaluated based on several parameters including sample preparation method, vertical stress (σv), number of loading cycles to liquefaction (NL), cyclic stress ratio (CSR), and relative density (Drc). Thirty Fraser River sand specimens are prepared by different sample preparation methods and tested under stress-controlled, constant-volume cyclic ring shear condition. The ring shear specimens are consolidated to vertical stresses of 100, and 200 kPa prior to the application of uniform, sinusoidal, shear stress cycles. The specimens are then subjected to cyclic shear stress ratios (CSR) of 0.08, 0.10, 0.12, 0.15 and 0.20. Cyclic shear strain and vertical stress respectively increase and decrease with increasing the number of loading cycles or when subject to higher CSR. It is found that saturated waterpluviated samples have significantly higher cyclic shearing resistance compare to dry air-pluviated and saturated moist-tamped samples. Compared to cyclic direct simple shear tests, cyclic shearing resistance measured in ring shear experiments is higher due to rigid boundaries of the specimen chamber which impose a perfect plane strain shearing condition.

Keywords: Cyclic Ring Shear, Cyclic Shear Resistance, Liquefaction, Sample Preparation, Cyclic Shear Strain
Pages:        211-215

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