Assessment of a Hyperbolic Model for Undrained-Cyclic Shearing of Remolded Clay

Abstract

The behavior of remolded kaolin clay is examined using cyclic triaxial and resonant column tests. The damping of kaolin is shown to be largely hysteretic, and its cyclic degradation behavior is affected predominantly by strain level and number of cycles. From the observed behavior, a hyperbolic model incorporating Masing’s rules and degradation effects is proposed. The performance of the model is assessed by comparing the model predictions with experimental results for three problems: (1) cyclic triaxial tests, (2) uniform clay bed subjected to base shaking, and (3) pile-raft foundation in soft clay subjected to base shaking. In general, good agreements are found between model predictions and experimental data for small to medium strain levels (i.e., below 1%). At large strains, the predictions are less accurate due to significant effect of soil damping.