Post-Cyclic Drained Shear Behaviour of Fujian Sand under Various Loading Conditions

Abstract

In offshore engineering, the sand beneath an embankment may be subjected to traffic loads, resulting in a series of engineering issues. The behaviour of the sand beneath the embankment may change under a long-term traffic load. A series of drained cyclic and post-cyclic monotonic triaxial tests were performed on Fujian sand with different relative densities. The drained strength and stress–dilatancy behaviours were studied. The results indicated that the normalised peak strength ratio after cyclic loading was greater than that without cyclic loading, depending on the cyclic stress amplitude, while the critical state strength seemed to be only slightly affected by the cyclic loading history. The dilative response of sand could also be influenced by cyclic loading-induced fabric. Under constant relative density conditions, the higher the cyclic stress amplitude applied to the sand sample, the larger the volume strain produced in the critical state. Furthermore, cyclic-induced fabric could be destroyed after 6% axial strain.