Influence of Strain History on Postliquefaction Deformation Characteristics of Sands

Abstract

An experimental study aimed at improving the understanding of the role of maximum cyclic strain during earthquake loading on the subsequent response of liquefied sands is presented. The behavior of two sands, one generally strain-hardening and the other strain-softening over a range of stress and density states during virgin monotonic loading, is presented to demonstrate that regardless of whether a sand is contractive or dilative in preliquefaction loading, its response following liquefaction is dilative. It is shown that postliquefaction stress-strain behavior can be characterized by four distinct phases. The influence of relative density, confining stress, and the level of maximum shear strain during earthquake loading prior to liquefaction (preliquefaction strain,