CYCLIC SOFTENING OF A LOW-PLASTIC FINE-GRAINEDSOIL

Several failure occurrences in low-plastic fine-grained soils have been observed in precedent strongground motions. In a similar manner to liquefaction hazard analysis for sands, cyclic failure hazard offine-grained soils has been investigated in seismic areas. This study reports the results of some cyclictriaxial tests showing cyclic softening or liquefaction or intermediate behavior of fine-grained soils,categorized to have clay-like, sand-like or intermediate behavior, respectively. The cyclic resistanceratio attained in this study were mostly smaller than the estimated cyclic stress ratio governed by themaximum considered earthquake. The aim of the paper is to persuade conducting cyclic tests on finegrainedsoils to assess their cyclic failure susceptibility, whether is categorized to have sand-like orclay-like behavior.

Keywords:

Cyclic Softening , Fine-Grained Soil , Low-Plastic Clay , Sand۰like , Clay-Like