Abstract:
A series of undrained cyclic shear tests were carried out on saturated coral sands with different initial physical states, as they were subjected to rotations of 90° in the paths of cyclic stress under various consolidation conditions. An important finding from the test results is that both soil properties (fines content
FC and initial relative density
Dr) and consolidation conditions (consolidation confining pressure p'_0, the consolidation inclination
αc and the consolidation ratio
kc) significantly affect the relationship between
ue and
W, and are less affected by cyclic loading conditions (cyclic loading frequency, cyclic stress path and cyclic stress ratio). When
FC is less than the threshold fines content, the cumulative dissipated energy required for liquefaction (
Ws) increases with the increase of
FC and decreases with the increase of
Dr. Under isotropic consolidation conditions,
Ws increases significantly with the increase of p'_0. For the anisotropically consolidated specimens, the stable value of
ue first increases and then decreases with the increase of
αc, and decreases with the increase of
kc. The equivalent intergranular void ratio (e_\textsk^ * ) was introduced to reflect the effects of
FC, physical states of the particles and inter-particle contact on physical properties of coral sand. The relationship between the excess pore water pressure ratio (
ru) and the normalized cumulative dissipation energy (
WR) of saturated coral sand under isotropic consolidation conditions is unique. The empirical parameters considering
αc and
kc are put forward, and the arctangent function model of modified
ru increasing with
WR is established for saturated coral sand with different physical states and complex stress conditions.