Influence of non-plastic fines on the response of a silty sand to cyclic loading

Abstract

Data from cyclic loading tests on sand-fine mixtures made of Ahmedabad sand and quarry dust are presented. Tests were performed at constant void ratio, constant relative density and constant sand skeleton void ratio, for a variety of fines contents. Instead of looking at the direct effect of fines content on the cyclic response of the sand-fine mixtures, a novel approach of analysing the cyclic test data is proposed, by normalising these data with respect to state. The important difference with other similar work on plain sand is that the reference line for normalising must take account of the fines content. Simple definitions of equivalent void ratio, which take account of fines content, have been used. The results presented indicate that state plays an important role in defining the cyclic resistance ratio and pore water pressure generation during cyclic loading.