Soil Properties - II

Amit Prashant
Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar
Short Course on

Geotechnical Aspects of Earthquake Engineering

04 08 March, 2013

Seismic Waves

Earthquake
Rock

Near the ground

surface, most of
the seismic waves
arrive vertically

Important Properties

Propagation of Shear Waves

Density = Mass per unit volume

Shear Modulus

Damping Characteristics

Shear Modulus

Shear Stress
Shear Strain
Secant
Shear Modulus

Useful in Equivalent Linear Analysis

Initial Shear
Modulus

Shear Stress,

Go

Gsec

Gtan

Tangent
Shear Modulus
Used in Nonlinear Analysis

Shear Strain,

Secant Modulus
Go

G1

G2

Shear Stress,

G3

Shear Strain,

Cyclic Loading Secant Shear Modulus

Go
Equivalent
Linear
Analysis

G
Nonlinear Analysis
(step by step)

Skeleton
curve

Branch curve
(Hysteresis loop)

Hysteretic Damping

G
W = Loss of Energy per cycle
W = Strain Energy

Damping Ratio,

W
4W
7

Modulus Reduction Curve

Plasticity index

Go

Modulus
Reduction
Curve

log scale

%
After Vucetic, 1994

Threshold Strain
(Below this strain the behaviour is linear)
8

Typical Values of Initial Shear Modulus

(Source: FHWA-SA-97-076)

Initial Shear Modulus

Increasing Factor

Go

Effective Stress

Increases

Void Ratio

Decreases

Geologic age

Increases

Cementation

Increases

Overconsolidation

Increases

Plasticity Index

Negligible to small increase

Strain Rate

No effect on sand
Increases for clay

Number of loading cycles

Increases for sand

Decreases for clay
10

Correlations of initial shear Modulus

(Source: FHWA-SA-97-076)

11

Modulus Reduction Curve

Effect of Confining Pressure
Non-plastic soil

G Go

(After Iwasaki et al., 1978)

12

Modulus Reduction Curve

Effect of Confining Pressure
Non-plastic soil

Plastic soil

G Go

(After Ishibashi, 1992)

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Modulus Ratio, G/Go

Increasing Factor

G/Go

Cyclic Strain

Decreases

Effective Stress

Increases

Void Ratio

Increases

Geologic age

May Increase

Cementation

May Increase

Overconsolidation

No effect

Plasticity Index

Increases

Strain Rate

No effect

Number of loading cycles

Increases for drained sand

Decreases for undrained sand
Decreases for clay
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Modulus Reduction Curve

Effect of Soil Type

Clay
Gravel

G Go

Sand

m0 (kPa)
Clay

100

Sand

50 300

Gravel

50830

(Imazu & Fukutake, 1986)

15

Shear Modulus and Damping

with Cyclic Strain

1.0

G Go

0.5

106

log scale

101

16

Modulus Reduction Curve

with Hysteresis and Damping along Depth

Liquefaction Reduction on effective overburden?

Increasing
Overburden
Deeper Strata

Go

log scale

17

Shear Modulus and Damping

Effect of Plasticity Index

G Go

For sand

Damping Ratio
(%)
(After Vucetic and
Dobry, 1991)

(%)

18

Damping Ratio,
Increasing Factor

Cyclic Strain

Increases

Effective Stress

Decreases

Void Ratio

Decreases

Geologic age

Decreases

Cementation

May decrease

Overconsolidation

No effect

Plasticity Index

Decreases

Strain Rate

May Increase

Number of loading cycles

No significant change

19

Typical values of Poissons Ratio

20

10

Volume Change or Evolution of Pore

Water Pressure During Shearing
Drained
Shearing
Slow Loading

Undrained
Shearing
Fast Loading

Contractive

Increase in
Pore Water
Pressure

Initially loose configuration

Settlement
Initially Dense configuration

Dilative

Reduced
effective stress
Decrease in
Pore Water
Pressure

21

Sand Behavior during Cyclic Loading

Drained/Slow Loading:

Compression

Undrained/Fast Loading:
Pore water
pressure, p

Liquefaction
N (cycle)

22

11

Stress Strain Curve for soils

Peak Shear Strength

Zone of instability
Due to
Initial
Overburden
Cyclic loading

Steady State
Shear Strength
OR
Residual Shear
Strength

q
Strength reduced to 80% of Undrained shear strength is often
considered to avoid large deformations and Instabilities

23

Residual Shear Strength

Difficult to measure in the laboratory

Ring Shear Test

Triaxial test not reliable at very high strains

Sampling issues
Time consuming

Field Test

Correlation with SPT, N60 corrected for fines content.

24

12

Residual Strength and SPT

(After Seed and

Harder, 1990)

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Thank You

26

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