Undrained behavior of natural marine clay under cyclic loading

Ling-Ling Li
a,n
, Han-Bo Dan
a,b
, Li-Zhong Wang
a
a
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, Zhejiang, China
b
Zhejiang Electric Power Design Institute, Hangzhou 310012, Zhejiang, China
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 July 2010
Accepted 10 September 2011
Editor-in-Chief: A.I. Incecik
Available online 10 October 2011
Keywords:
Natural marine clays
Cyclic shearing
Loading frequency
Degradation of post-cyclic strength
Elastic viscoplastic model
Simulation
a b s t r a c t
To study the undrained behavior of natural marine clay under cyclic loading, two kinds of stress-
controlled cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on natural K
0
-consolidated Wenzhou clay. In the Series I
tests, samples were cyclically sheared until failure, and the accumulative behavior was studied; based
on the results, a suitable cyclic failure criterion is suggested for natural clays. The effect of loading
frequency was also investigated, and it was observed that the loading duration t is a key factor in
controlling the undrained cyclic behavior. In the Series II tests, cyclic undrained tests followed by
strain-controlled monotonic compression tests were carried out, and special attention was given to
changes in the undrained strength after cyclic loading. The degradation of the post-cyclic peak strength
was affected by the accumulative behavior during cyclic shearing, but the deviatoric stresses at the
critical state were nearly constant. Finally, the accumulative behavior of natural clays was simulated
using a proposed anisotropic elastic viscoplastic model with a pseudo-static method of equivalent
undrained creep, and the results indicate that this equivalent creep simplication is suitable in practice.
By taking the apparent overconsolidation after cyclic loading into account, the post-cyclic strength
degradation can also be explained by this model.
& 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In a marine environment, foundations are subjected to cyclic
loads generally induced by waves, currents or vibrations of
superstructures over a long period of time. Accordingly, seabed
soils are expected to experience cyclic stresses of different
amplitudes and frequencies, which will lead the soils to residual
settlements and result in a decrease in strength or even damage.
Investigations on clay behavior under cyclic loading have been
done by many researchers (Andersen et al., 1980, 1988; Andersen,
2004; Yasuhara et al., 1982; Azzouz et al., 1989; Lefebvre and
Pfendler, 1996; Zhou and Gong, 2001; Moses et al., 2003). These
excellent works provide fundamental tools for further under-
standing the cyclic behavior of clays, which is of signicance in
practical design methods for the stability of nearshore and off-
shore structures.
Many of these studies were carried out on the basis of
isotropically consolidated reconstituted soils tests. Actually, soils
such as marine clay deposits are mostly in a K
0
-consolidation
condition in their in-situ sedimentary process. Andersen et al.
(1980) are the pioneers who conducted cyclic triaxial tests on K
0
-
consolidated clays. However, because of instrumentation con-
straints three decades ago, the K
0
condition was just approxi-
mated by manually controlling the ratio of the horizontal stress to
the vertical stress, so the test numbers were limited. Other
studies on the pre-shear effects were performed over some initial
static deviator stresses, which were not just equal to that caused
by K
0
consolidation (Hyodo et al., 1994; Yilmaz et al., 2004; Li
et al., 2006). Above all, studies of the undrained cyclic behavior of
natural K
0
-consolidated marine clays remain limited.
Undrained long-term cyclic loading for normally consolidated
clays may lead to cyclic failure. Generally cyclic failure is dened
by the number of loading cycles in which an arbitrary predeter-
mined double amplitude failure axial strain is reached, e.g. 3%, 5%,
10% or 15% (Andersen et al., 1980; Hyodo et al., 1994; Li et al.,
2006). Some researchers adopted residual pore pressure as an
indication of cyclic failure (Yasuhara et al., 1992, 2003). However,
as water pressure lags usually exist, the accumulative pore
pressure may be not suitable to estimate the cyclic failure for
natural clays.
Even if failure is not reached during the cyclic loading, the clay
sample suffers residual shear strains, and permanent pore pres-
sures. The reduction of post-cyclic strength, which is generally
less than 25% (Andersen et al., 1980), increases with increasing
cyclic shear strains and number of cycles. Some existing studies
show that the soil state after undrained cyclic shearing can be
considered as an apparent overconsolidation, which is just the
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
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Ocean Engineering
0029-8018/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2011.09.004
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 571 88206341; fax: 86 571 88206240.
E-mail addresses: lingzju@126.com (L.-L. Li), dan_zju@163.com (H.-B. Dan),
wlzzju@163.com (L.-Z. Wang).
Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805
basis of some empirical relations for estimating the reduction in
post-cyclic strength and stiffness (Demetrious, 1978; Matsui
et al., 1980; Yasuhara et al., 1992, 2003). The undrained soil
behaviors in the post-cyclic monotonic shearing phase need
further discussion, such as the strain softening, the critical
strength and the development of post-cyclic pore pressure.
Loading frequency is also an important issue in cyclic loading,
but its effects on clay behavior are controversial. Some existing
works have indicated that both the accumulated pore pressure
and shear strain induced by cyclic loading will increase with
decreasing frequency (Matsui et al., 1980; Procter and Khaffaf,
1984; Wang et al., 1998). However, other researchers have
reported different results that the frequency has a little or no
inuence on the cyclic strength and deformation of soils (Ansal
and Erken, 1989; Hyde et al., 1993). Actually, clay behavior under
undrained cyclic loading is complex for time-dependent creep
and rate dependent characteristics.
In addition to experimental studies, some researchers have
evaluated the undrained cyclic behavior of clays using elasto-
plastic models (Wang et al., 1998; Rao and Panda, 1999). The
number of loading cycles in the ocean environment may be on the
order of thousands or even more, and thus, calculations with
elasto-plastic models by increment time steps are extremely
complex and analysis errors may accumulate .The pseudo-static
method for simulation of cyclic phenomenon is a corresponding
measure, but it should be noted that the feasibility of the
constitutive model is a concern.
In this paper, two series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were
carried out to study the cyclic failure behavior and the post-cyclic
undrained static shear behavior of K
0
-consolidated natural marine
clay. Firstly based on the natural clay cyclic test results, the
emergence of an inexion on the shear strain curve is suggested
as a failure criterion for continual cyclic loading. The develop-
ments of shear strain amplitude and pore pressure versus the test
duration have been presented to discuss the inuence of the
loading frequency. Secondly with consideration of cyclic distur-
bance on natural clay, the followed strain softening, development
of the post-cyclic pore pressure and undrained strength after
cyclic loading are discussed in detail. Thirdly the undrained cyclic
behavior of natural marine clay is predicted by a newly proposed
elastic viscoplastic pseudo-static constitutive model with equiva-
lent coefcient of secondary compression. By comparing the
predicted results and the measured data, the validity and limita-
tions of this method are investigated.
2. Experimental Program
In this study, a computer-controlled GDS dynamic triaxial
testing system (10 Hz/2 KN) was used for performing K
0
-consoli-
dation, cyclic triaxial shearing and post-cyclic static compression
tests. All the pressures were exerted by stress controllers, and
axial displacements were measured by a GDS axial actuator.
Excess pore pressure is measured at the center of the bottom of
the specimens.
The soil samples in this paper were soft clays of marine origin,
coming from Wenzhou city in China, as shown in Fig. 1. The in-situ
soft clays with high water content are normally consolidated in
general, and exhibit obvious viscosity, initial stress-induced aniso-
tropy and some degree of soil structure. Block samples were taken
with thin-walled cubic stainless steel boxes from about 11.0 m
below the original ground level and were then trimmed for the
triaxial tests. All of the samples were quite homogeneous and the
index properties were as follows: natural moisture content
w
0
67.5%, liquid limit w
L
63.4%, plasticity index I
p
35.8, initial
void ratio e
0
1.896, initial density r
0
1.582 g/cm
3
and specic
gravity of solids d
s
2.75. The specimens were nominally 3.91 cm
in diameter by 8 cm in height and trimmed with their axes of
symmetry coincident with the in-situ vertical direction.
All specimens were rstly vacuum saturated, and B-values of
more than 0.95 were observed. Then, each specimen was consoli-
dated for 24 h under the K
0
condition. The nal effective axial stress
of consolidation s
a0
0
was set to 75.4 kPa according to the in-situ
depth, and the radial stress during K
0
consolidation was automati-
cally controlled by the GDS system. After consolidation, the average
value of K
0
was 0.55, and each specimen was in normally con-
solidated state in which the initial mean effective stress
p
0
0
52.8 kPa and the initial deviator stress q
0
33.9 kPa. The stress
invariants p
0
and q are dened as p
0
s
0
ii
=3 and q

3s
ij
s
ij
=2
p
,
where s
0
ij
is the effective stress vector. The deviator stress tensor s
ij
is dened as s
ij
s
0
ij
p
0
d
ij
, where the subindexes i1, 2, 3 and j1,
2, 3, the Kronecker delta d
ij
equals to 1 if i j and 0 if i aj.
After K
0
-consolidation, two kinds of cyclic triaxial tests with
load control were performed under undrained conditions. A cyclic
sinusoidal wave load was applied in the vertical direction while
the cell pressure was kept constant. These tests were Series I
cyclic deformation tests and Series II cyclic triaxial tests followed
by monotonic compression tests. The testing conditions are
summarized in Tables 1 and 2.
Fig. 1. Location of sampling site.
Table 1
Conditions of undrained cyclic triaxial tests (Series I).
s
a0
0
(kPa)
p
0
0
(kPa)
q
0
=p
0
0
f
(Hz)
q
cyc
=p
0
0
75.4 52.8 0.643 1 0.185 0.296 0.371 0.49 0.573 0.657 0.757
0.1 0.207 0.301 0.389 0.485 0.595 0.651
0.01 0.207 0.29 0.381 0.457 0.565
Table 2
Conditions of undrained cyclic tests followed by monotonic loading (Series II).
s
a0
0
(kPa) p
0
0
(kPa) q
0
=p
0
0
f (Hz) q
cyc
=p
0
0
N (cycles)
75.4 52.8 0.643 0.1 0.2 1080 3240
0.3 1080 3240 6355
0.4 100 200 250
0.01 0.2 108 324
0.3 108 235 324
0.4 20 50 80
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1793
In the Series I tests, a cyclic deviator stress q
cyc
was applied
under stress-controlled conditions until the normally K
0
-consoli-
dated sample failed, as illustrated in Fig. 2(a). The accumulative
shear strain and excess pore pressure behaviors were investi-
gated. To study the effect of loading frequency on cyclic behavior,
the frequencies chosen in the tests were 1.0 Hz, 0.1 Hz and
0.01 Hz for each given cyclic deviator stress.
The Series II undrained cyclic tests were conducted on nor-
mally K
0
-consolidated specimens followed by post-cyclic strain-
controlled undrained monotonic compression with a constant
strain rate of 2.0%/h until a shear strain of 16% or more was
reached. The stress path of the Series II tests is illustrated in
Fig. 2(b). For a given cyclic deviator stress q
cyc
, two different
loading frequencies of 0.1 Hz and 0.01 Hz were adopted.
The effective stress ratio Zq/p
0
is adopted. As shown in Fig. 2,
Z
0
is the initial value of Z just after the consolidation, Z
p
corresponds to the state when the soil has been to subjected
several cyclic shearing, and M is the stress ratio once the soil
arrives critical state.
3. Analysis of the Series I cyclic test results
3.1. Accumulative behavior during cyclic loading
Because the specimens were K
0
-consolidated, special attention
was paid to the accumulative behavior of the Wenzhou clay
during undrained cyclic shearing. The development of the single
amplitude shear strain e
s,p
, which corresponds to the peak cyclic
stress on the compression side for each loading cycle, is shown in
Fig. 3.
It can be noted that, for a given loading frequency, the
development of single amplitude shear strain are highly depen-
dent on the magnitude of the applied cyclic stress. When the
q
q
0
p
0
p
CSL
q
cyc
M
1
1
1
Cyclic loading
Initial state
0
q
q
0
p
0
p
CSL
q
cyc
M
1
1
1
0
Initial state
Cyclic
loading
Post-cyclic
monotonic shear

0
Fig. 2. Schematic gure of effective stress path during testing (a) Series I cyclic
tests and (b) Series II cyclic tests.
1
0
4
8
12
16
20
cyclic failure
s
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,

p

(
%
)
1
0
4
8
12
16
20
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,

p

(
%
)
cyclic failure
number of cycles N (cycle)
1
0
4
8
12
16
20
cyclic failure
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,

p

(
%
)
number of cycles N (cycle)
number of cycles N (cycle)
10 100 1000 10000
10 100 1000 10000
10 100 1000
Fig. 3. Relationships between single amplitude shear strain and number of cycles (a) f 1 Hz, (b) f 0.1 Hz and (c) f 0.01 Hz.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1794
cyclic stress ratio is small (e.g., f 1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
r0.3 in Fig. 3(a)),
the shear deformation increases slowly with a decreasing strain
rate during the whole test and nally stabilizes at a small value. A
trend of cyclic failure is not observed, although the number of
cycles was increased up to about 10,000. However, when the
cyclic deviator stress is larger, the shear strain amplitude rstly
increases with a decreasing strain rate in the initial stage of cyclic
loading, and then develops sharply, which leads the sample to
collapse abruptly. There is an inexion on each accumulative
shear strain amplitude curve if the cyclic stress ratio is large
enough to induce cyclic failure.
The undisturbed clay samples always collapse abruptly in a
relatively short period once the shear strain amplitude is larger
than that corresponding to the inexion of the strain curve.
Therefore, the inexion of the shear strain amplitude curve is a
distinct sign of cyclic failure, and its emergence can be considered
a suitable failure criterion for natural clays. Accordingly, the shear
strain corresponding to the inexion is dened as the strain at
failure, which is denoted as e
s,tp
.
As given in Fig. 3, the value of e
s,tp
appears to be constant at
about 3% for all the tests, independent of the features of the
applied cyclic loads. However, the experimental results from Chen
et al. (2005) indicate that the value of e
s,tp
increases with the
applied cyclic shear stress. These differences may be related to the
consolidation history of soil samples. In the cyclic triaxial tests
conducted by Chen et al. (2005), all of the soil samples were
isotropically consolidated and exhibited stress reversal during
cyclic loading. However, in the present studies, the stress reversal
may not occur in the undisturbed K
0
-consolidated specimens
unless the applied cyclic deviator stress q
cyc
is larger than the
initial deviator stress q
0
, and the accumulation of permanent
shear strain was the primary cause of cyclic failure. Therefore, it is
necessary to take the effects of K
0
-consolidation into account in
laboratory studies, especially for undisturbed natural soils.
Fig. 4 shows the measured variation of the accumulative
excess pore pressure u
p
with the number of cycles, where u
p
corresponds to the peak value of each cycle. In contrast to the
shear strain behavior, the excess pore pressure continuously
increases with the number of cycles, and no inexion appears
on the measured curves, regardless of cyclic failure. In addition, as
the clay features low permeability, the test duration may be
insufcient for the water pressure at different points in soil to
equalize when the clay is cyclic loaded. This kind of water
pressure lag behaves seriously if the clay sample is at high
frequency or large cyclic stress condition. Thus, the accumulative
pore pressure is not suggested to estimate the cyclic failure for
natural clays.
Under a given loading frequency, as the applied cyclic deviator
stress increases, the initial excess pore pressure in the rst cycle
increases, but the pore pressure at failure tends to decrease.
3.2. Inuence of loading frequency
According to the measured results shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the
loading frequency has a distinct inuence on the undrained cyclic
behavior of undisturbed Wenzhou clay. For a given number of
cycles, larger shear strains and pore pressures are generated at
lower frequencies as a general trend.
For a given cyclic stress ratio, the measured shear strain
behaviors at different frequencies are similar, but the number of
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
pore pressure at failure
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
number of cycles N (cycle)
pore pressure at failure
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
number of cycles N (cycle)
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
pore pressure at failure
number of cycles N (cycle)
10 100 1000 10000 10 100 1000 10000
10 100 1000
Fig. 4. Relationships between accumulative pore pressure and number of cycles: (a) f 1 Hz; (b) f 0.1 Hz and (c) f 0.01 Hz.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1795
cycles at failure, denoted as N
f
, decreases signicantly with the
loading frequency. For example, for q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.57, the value of N
f
is
less than 4 cycles for the specimen with a loading frequency
f 0.01 Hz (in Fig. 3(c)), but it increases to about 120 cycles when
the loading frequency is 1 Hz (in Fig. 3(a)). However, the loading
frequency has little inuence on the strain amplitude at failure
e
s,tp
, which is about 3% for all of the tests.
According to the results shown in Fig. 4, the loading frequency
has a different effect on the response of the accumulated pore
pressure depending on whether the samples collapse or not. For a
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6
0
1
2
3
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.185
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.207
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.207
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6
0
4
8
12
16
20
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.296
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.301
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.29
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
0
4
8
12
16
20
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.371
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.389
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.381
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
0
4
8
12
16
20
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.49
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.485
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.457
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
0
4
8
12
16
20
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.573
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.595
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.565
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
10
0
10
1
10
2
0
4
8
12
16
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.657
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.651
Fig. 5. Relationships between shear strain amplitude and duration of cycle loading under different loading frequencies: (a) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.2, (b) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.3, (c) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.4,
(d) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.5, (e) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.6 and (f) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.65.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1796
constant cyclic stress ratio, if the cyclic deviator stress is too small
to make cyclic failure occurring (e.g., q
cyc
/p
0
0
E0.2 in Fig. 4(a)(c)),
a decrease in frequency leads to an increase in the accumulated
pore pressure. However, under a large cyclic load resulting in
cyclic failure, although the rate of pore pressure versus the
number of cycles is different for different frequencies, the nal
pore pressure at failure will be stabilized at nearly a same value
(e.g., q
cyc
/p
0
0
E0.49 in Fig. 4(a)(c)).
Due to rheological effects, the strength and deformation proper-
ties of soft clays are time-dependent. Thus, the relationships of the
measured shear strain and pore pressure with the testing duration
t are given in Figs. 5 and 6 and, respectively, where the applied
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6
0
10
20
30
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
Duration of cyclic loading t (s)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.185
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.207
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.207
0
10
20
30
40
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.296
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.301
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.29
0
10
20
30
40
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.371
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.389
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.381
0
10
20
30
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.49
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.485
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.457
0
10
20
30
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.573
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.595
f = 0.01Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.565
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
0
5
10
15
20
25
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.657
f = 0.1Hz q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.651
Fig. 6. Relationships between accumulative pore pressure and duration of cycle loading under different loading frequencies: (a) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.2, (b) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.3, (c) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.4,
(d) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.5, (e) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.6 and (f) q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.65.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1797
cyclic stresses are approximately the same. As shown in the
gures, when the applied cyclic stress is large enough to cause
cyclic failure, the loading frequency appears to have little effect on
the accumulative behavior versus time, although there are some
discrepancies mainly caused by the inequality of the real cyclic
shear stresses.
All of the measured results demonstrate that, in addition to the
cyclic stress ratio, the time duration of cyclic loading plays a
crucial role due to the viscosity of the soil samples. The develop-
ment of accumulative shear strain and pore pressure with time
appears to be independent of the applied loading frequency. The
existing experimental results from Chen et al. (2004) also show
good agreement with this conclusion.
4. Analysis of the Series II cyclic test results
4.1. Post-cyclic undrained static shear behavior
The Series II cyclic tests were conducted to investigate the
post-cyclic undrained static shear behavior of natural clays,
whose procedure and some necessary variables are illustrated in
Fig. 7. The undrained shear strength without cyclic loading, which
corresponds to shear strain e
s,f
, is denoted as S
u,s
, while the post-
cyclic undrained strength is denoted as S
u,c
corresponding to the
total shear strain of soil e
s,c
.
The undrained compression behavior of K
0
-consolidated
Wenzhou clay without cyclic loading was rstly investigated by
strain-controlled triaxial compression tests whose strain rate was
2.0%/h. To determine the static strength properties, namely the
effective cohesive stress c
0
and the effective angle of internal
friction j
0
, three effective axial stresses in consolidation were
selected to be 75.4 kPa, 150 kPa and 300 kPa.
The effective stress paths in the p
0
q plane and the stress
strain relationships are shown in Fig. 8. The softening behavior
appears after the peak deviator stress is reached at a small strain
stage. The peak strength increases with increasing initial deviator
stress. The critical state is dened as the stress state correspond-
ing to the maximum of s
1
0
/s
3
0
, and the slope of the critical state
line is given as M1.23. As a benchmark value, the undrained
strength for s
a0
0
75.4 kPa is S
u,s
31.13 kPa.
The measured stressstrain relationship and pore pressure
behavior of post-cyclic monotonic compression of the Series II
tests are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. The shear strains
given in Fig. 9 are only the parts occurring in the post-cyclic
monotonic loading phases. The results of the undrained
compression test without cyclic loading, which correspond to
the data curves of N0, are also included in these gures.
As shown in Fig. 9, the peak strength is reached at a small
shear strain in each test, and then obvious strain softening
behavior occurs. The post-cyclic undrained peak strength of
normally consolidated Wenzhou clay is reduced by an undrained
cyclic loading history, and its degradation increases with increas-
ing cyclic stresses and number of cycles. There is a tendency that
the degree of strain softening becomes stronger when cyclic
stresses and number of cycle increase, which may be mainly
due to the increasing destructure and evolution of anisotropy
during the previous cyclic loading. However, the deviator stresses
at the critical state appear to be independent of the cyclic loading,
which is approximately equal to the measured result of the
undrained compression without cyclic loading (N0). Although
the post-cyclic peak strength decreases, the previous cyclic
shearing seems to have little or no inuence on the critical
strength property of natural clays.
Because the accumulative pore pressure will increase with the
number of cycles when the samples are cyclically loaded under a
given cyclic stress, the initial pore pressures, shown by arrows in
Fig. 10, are different. As the samples are sheared in undrained
conditions after cyclic loading, the post-cyclic pore pressures in
all of the tests continuously increase with the shear strain and
Post-cyclic
monotonic shear
Without cyclic loading
q
Cylcic
loading
2s
u,s
2s
u,c
q
0
q
cyc

s, f

s,p

s,c
s
Fig. 7. Schematic of testing procedure of the Series II tests.
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
K
0
line
CSL
M = 1.23
d
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
mean effective stress p' (kPa)
1
1
K
0
= 0.55
peak value of q
0
0
40
80
120
160
200
K
0
= 0.55
d
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
shear strain
s
(%)
peak value of q
50 100 150 200 250
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
'
a0
= 75.4kPa
'
a0
= 150kPa
'
a0
= 300kPa

0
= 0.64
'
a0
= 75.4kPa
'
a0
= 150kPa
'
a0
= 300kPa
Fig. 8. Measured results of undrained monotonic shear tests without cyclic
loading: (a) the effective stress path and (b) the stressstrain relationship.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1798
nally stabilize in a narrow range of 2931 kPa. Due to accumula-
tion during cyclic loading, all of the measured post-cyclic pore
pressures of the Series II tests are larger than those of the
compression test without cyclic loading (N0), but the tenden-
cies of excess pore pressures to increase with shear strain are
basically similar.
4.2. Post-cyclic undrained static strength
The accumulative behavior and the post-cyclic undrained peak
strengths are summarized in Table 3 for the tests conducted at
f 0.1 Hz and in Table 4 for those at f 0.01 Hz. According to these
results, cyclic loading has a signicant effect on the post-cyclic
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
D
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
N = 0 (static)
N = 1080
N = 3240
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
N = 0 (static)
N = 1080
N = 3240
N = 6355
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
N = 0 (static)
N = 100
N = 200
N = 250
K
0
= 0.55, q0/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
N = 0 (static)
N = 108
N = 324
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
N = 0 (static)
N = 108
N = 235
N = 324
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
N = 0 (static)
N = 20
N = 50
N = 85
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
D
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
D
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
D
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
D
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
D
e
v
i
a
t
o
r

s
t
r
e
s
s

q

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Fig. 9. Measured stressstrain relationships of post-cyclic undrained monotonic shear tests: (a) f 0.1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.2, (b) f 0.1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.3, (c) f 0.1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.4,
(d) f 0.01 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.2, (e) f 0.01 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.3 and (f) f 0.01 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.4.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1799
strength reduction. The larger the accumulative shear strain and
pore pressure induced by cyclic loading, the higher the degree of
degradation in post-cyclic strength.
Fig. 11 shows the ratios of post-cyclic undrained strength
S
u,c
to the undrained strength without cyclic loading S
u,s
,
which are plotted against the normalized accumulative pore
pressure u
p
/p
0
0
. In spite of some scatter, the strength reduction
becomes obvious with increasing cycle-induced excess pore
pressure, and a unique relationship between them appears
to exist.
0
0
10
20
30
40
Initial value of
K0 = 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
N= 0 (static)
N= 1080
N= 3240
E
x
c
e
s
s

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u

(
k
P
a
)
postcyclic u
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
N = 0 (static)
N = 1080
N = 3240
N = 6355
postcyclic u
Initial value of
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
N = 0 (static)
N = 100
N = 200
N = 250
postcyclic u
Initial value of
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
N = 0 (static)
N = 108
N = 324
Initial value of
postcyclic u
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
N = 0 (static)
N = 108
N = 235
N = 324
Initial value of
postcyclic u
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
N = 0 (static)
N = 20
N = 50
N = 85
Initial value of
postcyclic u
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0
0
10
20
30
40
E
x
c
e
s
s

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
0
10
20
30
40
E
x
c
e
s
s

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0
0
10
20
30
40
E
x
c
e
s
s

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
0
10
20
30
40
E
x
c
e
s
s

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0
0
10
20
30
40
E
x
c
e
s
s

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u

(
k
P
a
)
Shear strain
s
(%)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Fig. 10. Measured pore pressurestrain relationships of post-cyclic undrained monotonic shear tests: (a) f 0.1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.2, (b) f 0.1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.3, (c) f 0.1 Hz,
q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.4, (d) f 0.01 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.2, (e) f 0.01 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.3 and (f) f 0.01 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.4.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1800
In addition to the cycle-induced apparent overconsolidation,
the destructure related to the collapse of bonding between soil
particles and the evolution of stress-induced anisotropy during
undrained cyclic loading may be other important causes for the
remarkable strength reduction.
5. Theoretical simulation of the undrained cyclic shear
behavior
5.1. Equivalent static creep and anisotropic elastic viscoplastic
model
According to the measured results described above, time is a
key factor that controls the undrained behavior of clays under
cyclic loading. The increase of accumulative shear strain and pore
pressure with time depends only on the applied cyclic stress. All
of these features are analogous to those observed in triaxial
undrained creep tests for clayey samples. Therefore, to theoreti-
cally evaluate the undrained cyclic behavior of saturated clays, it
is feasible to consider the accumulative behavior under undrained
cyclic loading as an equivalent undrained static creep.
To simulate the creep and strain rate dependence of natural soft
clays, a three-dimensional anisotropic elastic viscoplastic (EVP)
model has been proposed by the authors. This creep model has
been validated by comparing the model response with laboratory
data in static conditions. Here this model is also used to simulate
the undrained cyclic behavior of natural Wenzhou clay. The main
expressions of this EVP model are introduced below.
Similar to most rate-dependent models, it is assumed that
there are no instant plastic strains and that all inelastic strains are
viscoplastic. The instant elastic strain rate _ e
e
ij
can be expressed by
the general Hookes law. The time-dependent viscoplastic strain
rate _ e
vp
ij
is calculated by a ow rule, which is analogous to the
overstress theory originally proposed by Perzyna (1963), and a
similar viscoplastic scalar multiplier f is adopted. As shown in
Fig. 12, two surfaces are dened to exist for any loading history.
One surface is the loading surface f, a rate sensitive surface of
constant f, which contains the current stress state of the soil
element. The other surface is the reference surface f , a work-
hardening surface of constant f on which the soil is consolidated
for the reference time t
0
. The normal consolidation line (NCL) is
commonly obtained from the standard 24 h oedometer test
with stepwise loading (MSL
24 h
), thus the corresponding value
of t
0
is 24 h. Different from the static yield surface f
s
of Perzyna
(1963), the reference surface is not an elastic nucleus. The current
stress state s
ij
0
on the loading surface is allowed to be inside,
outside or on the reference surface, and thus, this proposed
model can describe the viscoplastic behavior of soils in all stress
states. The corresponding reference stress s
0
ij
is dened by a
radial mapping rule with the projection center at the origin of
stress space.
Table 3
Summaries of measured results of the Series II tests at f 0.1 Hz.
q
cyc
=p
0
0
N
(cycle)
Accumulative
behavior
during cyclic
loading
Postcyclic
monotonic
undrained
behavior
Degradation
of undrained
strength (%)
e
s,p
(%) up=p
0
0
e
s,c
(%) S
u,c
(kPa)
0.2 1080 0.303 0.149 1.358 29.283 5.94
3240 0.624 0.169 1.567 28.213 9.48
0.3 1080 0.633 0.193 1.473 29.25 6.03
3240 1.324 0.169 2.127 28.175 9.48
6355 6.355 0.424 7.397 21.908 29.62
0.4 100 1.764 0.263 2.373 25.644 17.61
200 4.867 0.440 6.187 23.239 25.34
250 10.384 0.467 11.464 20.908 32.83
Table 4
Summaries of measured results of the Series II tests at f 0.01 Hz.
q
cyc
=p
0
0
N
(cycle)
Accumulative
behavior
during cyclic
loading
Postcyclic
monotonic
undrained
behavior
Degradation
of undrained
strength (%)
e
s,p
(%) u
p
/p
0
0
e
s,c
(%) S
u,c
(kPa)
0.2 108 0.486 0.179 1.468 29.300 5.87
324 0.544 0.200 1.248 27.55 11.483
0.3 108 1.253 0.293 2.056 27.955 10.19
235 2.839 0.410 3.382 24.357 21.75
324 4.065 0.495 4.889 23.348 24.99
0.4 20 0.388 0.135 1.228 30.238 2.85
50 1.161 0.300 2.011 27.495 11.67
80 4.026 0.377 4.948 24.926 19.92
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
U
n
d
r
a
i
n
e
d

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h

r
a
t
i
o

S
u
,
c

/
S
u
,
s
Excess pore pressure ratio u
p
/p'
0
0.2 0.4 0.6
Fig. 11. Measured degradation of undrained strength versus normalized pore
pressure.
K
0
line
Reference surface f
Loading surface f
A
B
p'
c
p'
c
q
p' o
CSL
axis
C

(p', q)
( p', q)
(p'
n
, q
n
)
(p'
n
, q
n
)
E
Fig. 12. Schematic gure of the loading and reference surfaces.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1801
For an arbitrary current stress state, the total strain rate can be
expressed as
_ e
ij
_ e
e
ij
_ e
vp
ij

k
3V
i
_ p
0
p
0
d
ij

1
2G
_ s
ij
f
@f
@s
0
ij
1
where V
i
1e
i
is the specic volume just before shearing, and G
is the shear modulus. k can be obtained by C
r
/ln 10, where C
r
is
the recompression index.
To match the inuence of the stress-induced anisotropy, the
loading and reference surfaces are supposed to be inclined
ellipses in the p
0
q plane, and their expressions are the same as
those suggested by Wheeler and N a at anen (2003)
f
M
2
a
2
Za
2
M
2
a
2
p
0
p
0
c
0 2
f
M
2
a
2
Za
2
M
2
a
2
p
0
p
0
c
0 3
where the scalar quantity a denes the orientation of the inclined
ellipses, which represents the effects of plastic anisotropy. The
stress p
0
c
and p
0
c
represent the size of the loading surface and
reference surfaces, respectively.
Both the loading surface f and the reference surface f are
contours of viscoplastic scalar multiplier f. Therefore, the value of
f for a general stress state (e.g. Point A in Fig. 12) equals to that
for other stress states on the same loading surface (e.g. Point C in
the one-dimensional straining condition in Fig. 12). By analyzing
the deformations in one-dimensional (1D) creep compression, the
viscoplastic volumetric strain rate in the 1D straining can be
expressed as
_ e
vp
vn

c
V
i
1
t

c
V
i
t
0
s
0
v
s
0
v

lk=c
4
where the subscript n represents 1D straining condition; s
v
0
is the
vertical effective stress and s
0
vi
is its corresponding reference
vertical stress. l can be obtained by C
c
/ln 10, C
c
is the compression
index; c equals to C
a
/ln 10, C
a
is the coefcient of secondary
compression.
From the ow rule for viscoplastic strain rate, the functional
form of f in 1D straining condition can be derived by
f
n

_ e
vp
vn
@f =@p
0

c
V
i
t
0
s
0
v
s
0
v

lk=c
M
2
a
2
0
M
2
Z
2
K
0nc
5
The expression of f for a general stress state can be obtained
directly by the relation that ff
n
. Because of the radial mapping
rule and the similarity of loading and reference surfaces, a
relation as s
0
v
=s
0
v
p
0
c
=p
0
c
exists and the expression of f becomes
f
c
V
i
t
0
p
0
c
p
0
c

lk=c
M
2
a
2
0
M
2
Z
2
K
0nc
6
with
p
0
c
p
0
c0
expe
vp
v
=lk=V
i
7
where p
0
c0
corresponds to the reference surface passing through
the preconsolidation stress state from the standard MSL
24 h
tests.
To account for the evolution of the initial anisotropy, a
rotational hardening law of the scalar quantity a is adopted into
the EVP model, which is in the form of
_ a bfb
s
9b
s
9Z29b
s
9a9_ e
vp
s
9r29b
s
9a/_ e
vp
v
Sg 8
According to Wheeler and N a at anen (2003), the initial value of
a can be obtained from the 1D straining compression
a
0
Z
2
K
0nc
3Z
K
0nc
M
2
=3 9
where Z
K
0nc
is the initial stress ratio after normal K
0
-consolidation
and can be obtained by 3(1K
0nc
)/(12K
0nc
), and K
0nc
equals to
1sin j
0
for most normally consolidated clays.
b
s
in Eq. (8) describes the inuence of the viscoplastic shear
strain rate _ e
vp
s
on the evolution of the anisotropy, and it can
expressed as b
s
9M9a:9Z9. When the soil is in a stress state
where b
s
Z0, a will increase with the viscoplastic shear strain.
However, if b
s
becomes negative, the anisotropy is erased gradu-
ally and the soil tends to isotropic.
When the soil is under one-dimensional loading, a must
always be equal to a
0
, and _ a0. However, under isotropic
consolidation, the initial anisotropy will be lost if the loading
pressure is up to two or three times larger than the preconsolida-
tion pressure. Considering these two special features of aniso-
tropy, the expressions of parameters r and b in Eq. (8), which
control the rate of rotation, can be obtained as
r
2Z
K
0nc
a
0

2
a
0
M
2
Z
2
K
0nc

10
b
V
i
2lk
2
2rMrM
ln
rM
2
2a
0
=10

9rM
2
2a
0
9
0
@
1
A
2
4

ln10
rM

1
2rM
ln
Ma
0
=10
Ma
0

3
5
11
Thus, the complete expression of the three dimensional EVP
model is obtained. This model has nine parameters l, k, c, M, n,
t
0
,a
0
, r and b. In these parameters, l and k can be obtained from
standard MSL
24 h
loading and unloading tests, and the viscous
parameter c can be measured from 1D oedometer creep tests.
Poissons ratio n is usually 0.3 for soft clays, and t
0
is taken as 24 h.
M can be measured from triaxial undrained compression test or
calculated as M 6sinj
0
=3sinj
0
. The variables M, Z
K
0nc
and
K
0nc
can be expressed as functions of the effective angle of
internal friction j
0
. Therefore, the constants a
0
, r and 2b(lk)/
V
i
in Eqs. (9)(11) can be fully obtained by j
0
. The measured
modeling parameters of Wenzhou clay are shown in Table 5.
The presented three dimensional EVP model can be applied to
simulate the viscous behavior of soft soils in general stress states,
such as creep, strain-rate dependence and stress relaxation.
Meanwhile, the softening behavior of natural clays can also be
reected in some extent because of the adoption of the stress-
induced anisotropy and its evolution in the loading process.
However, it is still not suggested to use this model for the soils
with extreme high overconsolidation.
5.2. Prediction of accumulative behavior with cyclic failure and
discussion
To theoretically simulate the accumulative behavior of clayey
samples, the real undrained cyclic loading process is equivalent to
a static undrained creep with a load increment Dqq
cyc
, and the
loading duration t is chosen as a basic modeling variable. How-
ever, with this kind of simplication, the predicted rupture life t
f
will be shorter than the measured one because the duration for
which the soil is under the peak deviator stress q
cyc
in each cycle
is relatively short.
Table 5
Modeling parameters of natural Wenzhou clay.
k l c M t
0
(
min
) a
0
r b n
0.042 0.384 0.010 1.23 1440 0.40 0.55 39.1 0.3
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1802
To improve the validity and precision of the prediction, the
coefcient of secondary compression C
a
, which is a key parameter
in controlling the viscous behavior of soils, was adjusted by the
back-analysis method. For a given deviator stress, different values
of C
a
were used in the calculation while the other modeling
parameters were kept constant, as given in Table 5. The optimum
value of C
a
, which is denoted as the equivalent coefcient of
secondary compression C
a
, can be obtained until the predicted
rupture life t
f
equals the measured value. The calculated values of
C
a
for the Series I cyclic tests are summarized in Table 6 and
plotted in Fig. 13.
Except for the condition with extremely large cyclic stress
(e.g., f 1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.757), all of the data from the back-
analysis are centralized in a relatively narrow range. There seems
to be a linear relationship between C
a
and q
cyc
/p
0
0
, which is
independent of the loading frequency. The tting line and its
function are also shown in Fig. 13. When the applied cyclic stress
ratio q
cyc
/p
0
0
is in the range of 0.20.5, the tting line agrees well
with the data points. C
a
can be calculated by a simple equation as
C
a
=C
a
Aq
cyc
=p
0
0
1 12
where A is a constant related to the soil properties. For undis-
turbed Wenzhou clay, A1.347. Especially, when the applied load
is static and the soil sample is under static undrained creep
(q
cyc
0), C
a
equals to the real coefcient of secondary compres-
sion C
a
.
By using the pseudo-static method of equivalent creep and the
proposed anisotropic EVP model, the accumulative behavior of
Wenzhou clay in the Series I tests was simulated. The C
a
values
obtained from Eq. (12) in each case were used to substitute for the
original C
a
values, while the other parameters are given in Table 5.
Fig. 14 shows the predicted and measured shear strain
behavior for the Series I cyclic tests. Under a few conditions
(e.g., f 1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.757; f 0.1 Hz, q
cyc
/p
0
0
0.301), some dis-
crepancies appear because the C
a
values obtained from Eq. (12)
are not equal to the optimum values shown in Table 6. However,
the development of shear strain amplitudes and the cyclic failure
of natural Wenzhou clay are generally well predicted. In addition,
the inuence of loading frequency on the relationship between
the shear strain and number of cycles is also fairly well described.
The predicted and measured accumulative pore pressures are
shown in Fig. 15. The predicted initial pore pressures are gen-
erally larger than the measured results. In the theoretical predic-
tion, the initial pore pressure is assumed to be the increment of
the total stress induced by the applied load. Actually in the
experiments, there is always no sufcient time given for the
water pressure to equalize in the soil during the initial loading
phase, especially when the loading frequency and the cyclic stress
ratio are high. Thus, the discrepancies between the predicted and
measured initial pore pressures occur. However, it can be noted
that the tendencies of the excess pore pressures to increase with
the number of cycles are well described in general.
5.3. Prediction of post-cyclic strength degradation and discussion
The proposed anisotropic EVP constitutive model is also
adopted to simulate the post-cyclic strength degradation that
occurred in the Series II cyclic tests. The original value of C
a
without adjustment is used, and all the modeling parameters are
shown in Table 5. The analysis is generally conducted as follows.
Firstly, the soil sample is assumed to be overconsolidated due to
the accumulative pore pressure u
p
, and the stress condition just
after cyclic loading is that p
i
0
p
0
0
u
p
, q
i
q
0
and u
i
u
p
, where p
0
0
and q
0
are the initial mean effective stress and deviator stress
after normal K
0
-consolidation. Then, the post-cyclic undrained
monotonic stressstrain characteristics and strengths are pre-
dicted by the adopted model. Finally, the predicted relationship
between the post-cyclic strength and the accumulative pore
pressure is shown as solid line in Fig. 16.
In addition, according to the MohrCoulomb failure criterion, a
method was suggested by Xu et al. (2003) to evaluate changes in
the undrained peak shear strength caused by excess pore pres-
sure, and the nal expression is given as
S
u,c
S
u,s

sinj
0
p
1sinj
0
p
u
p
13
Based on the measured results of Wenzhou clay in undrained
compression tests without cyclic loading, as shown in Fig. 8, the
effective cohesion c
p
0
and the effective angle of internal friction j
p
0
corresponding to the peak strength line are c
p
0
12.2 kPa and
j
p
0
22.41, respectively. The predicted results of Eq. (13) are also
given in Fig. 16.
It can be seen that the tendency of post-cyclic strength
degradation with excess pore pressure has been simulated by
these two methods. However, the decreasing rates of post-cyclic
strength is relatively well predicted by the present EVP model,
while those obtained from Xu et al. (2003) is much higher than
the measured results. Under a given normalized pore pressure,
the strength ratio predicted by the proposed EVP model is higher
than the measured values to some extent, which may be due to
the lack of information on the soil structure in the constitutive
model. Development of a suitable evolution law for the degrada-
tion of the anisotropic EVP model is in progress.
Table 6
Equivalent coefcients of secondary compression obtained by back-analysis.
f 1 Hz f 0.1 Hz f 0.01 Hz
q
cyc
=p
0
0 Ca
q
cyc
=p
0
0 Ca
q
cyc
=p
0
0 Ca
0 0.023 0 0.023 0 0.023
0.185 0.028 0.185 0.029 0.201 0.029
0.296 0.032 0.301 0.033 0.29 0.030
0.371 0.037 0.389 0.035 0.381 0.044
0.49 0.036 0.485 0.039 0.457 0.039
0.573 0.038 0.595 0.044 0.565 0.044
0.657 0.039 0.651 0.041
0.757 0.040
0.0
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
fitting curve
results of back analysis:
f = 1Hz
f = 0.1Hz
f = 0.01Hz
q
cyc
/ p'0
C

/

C

y= 1.347x+1
R
2
= 0.91
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Fig. 13. Relationships between normalized equivalent coefcient of secondary
compression and cyclic deviator stress ratio.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1803
1
0
4
8
12
16
20
measured results
predicted results
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
Number of cycles N (cycle)
measured results
predicted results
measured results
predicted results
10 100 1000 10000
1
0
4
8
12
16
20
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
Number of cycles N (cycle)
10 100 1000 10000
1
0
4
8
12
16
20
S
i
n
g
l
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
a
i
n

s
,
p

(
%
)
Number of cycles N (cycle)
10 100 1000 10000
Fig. 14. Measured and predicted shear strains of the Series I cyclic tests: (a) f 1 Hz, (b) f 0.1 Hz and (c) f 0.01 Hz.
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
Number of cycles N (cycle)
measured results
predicted results
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643, f = 1Hz
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Number of cycles N (cycle)
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
measured results
predicted results
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643, f = 0.1Hz
1
0
10
20
30
measured results
predicted results
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643, f = 0.01Hz
A
c
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
o
r
e

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

u
p

(
k
P
a
)
10 100 1000 10000 10 100 1000 10000
Number of cycles N (cycle)
10 100 1000
Fig. 15. Measured and predicted accumulative pore pressure of the Series I cyclic tests: (a) f 1 Hz, (b) f 0.1 Hz and (c) f 0.01 Hz.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1804
6. Conclusions
From the study presented above, the following conclusions can
be drawn.
(1) The consolidation history has an inuence on the undrained
cyclic behavior of natural clays. It is suggested that the in-situ
K
0
-consolidation history be taken into account in both labora-
tory and theoretical studies of the undrained behavior of
natural marine clays under cyclic loading.
(2) The emergence of an inexion on the shear strain curve is a
sign of cyclic failure, which is suggested as a failure criterion
for natural clays. The corresponding single strain amplitude at
failure of natural K
0
-consolidated Wenzhou clay is constant at
3% and independent of the applied cyclic stresses and
frequencies.
(3) The loading frequency has a distinct inuence on the
undrained cyclic behavior of natural clays. For a given number
of cycles, larger shear strains and pore pressures are gener-
ated at lower frequency. In reality, the loading duration t
plays a crucial role in controlling the undrained cyclic
behavior. When the applied cyclic stress is large and results
in cyclic failure, the relationships of accumulative strain and
pore pressure versus time are nearly the same for different
frequencies. These features are analogous to the behavior of
clays in undrained static creep.
(4) In post-cyclic monotonic undrained compression, strain soft-
ening occurs at the small strain stage. The reduction of peak
strengths depends on the accumulative behavior induced by
cyclic loads, while the deviator stress at the critical state is
approximately equal to that obtained from static tests with-
out cyclic loading. The nal post-cyclic pore pressures from all
the tests are approximately the same and are larger than
those measured in the tests without cyclic loading. In addi-
tion, there appears to be a unique degradation of post-cyclic
strengths with accumulative pore pressures.
(5) A pseudo-static method of equivalent undrained creep with
an anisotropic elastic viscoplastic model was used to simulate
the accumulative behavior induced by cyclic loading, and a
simple formula of the equivalent coefcient of secondary
compression C
a
was adopted to improve the precision of
prediction. The results indicate that this theoretical method is
suitable in practice and that the accumulation behavior
during the cyclic loading of natural clays can be described.
(6) By accounting for the apparent overconsolidation after cyclic
loading, the tendency of post-cyclic strength degradation with
excess pore pressure can be well described by the proposed
anisotropic EVP model.
Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper was funded by a research
grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.
50779061 and 51079128), Grant from Excellent Youth Foundation
of Zhejiang Scientic Committee (No. R1100093) and Grant from
Non-prot Industry Financial Program of MWR (No. 201001071).
The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of the
reviewers.
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0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
K
0
= 0.55, q
0
/p'
0
= 0.643
predicted by this model
predicted by Xu et al. (2003)
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
f = 0.1Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.2
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.3
f = 0.01Hz, q
cyc
/p'
0
= 0.4
u
n
d
r
a
i
n
e
d

s
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h

r
a
t
i
o


S
u
,
c

/
S
u
,
s
Excess pore pressure ratio u
p
/p'
0
measured results:
0.2 0.4 0.6
Fig. 16. Measured and predicted degradation of undrained strength of the Series
II tests.
L.-L. Li et al. / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 17921805 1805