Effects of loading history on small-strain shear modulus of saturated clays

The small-strain shear modulus is the main physical index of saturated clays. In the methods for the effective stress analysis, the mall-strain shear modulus obtained from static tests is often used in the dynamic analysis without regard to the influence of loading history. However, for saturated clays, this assumption has not been proved by enough test data. Based on this consideration, a few cyclic triaxial and bender element tests were conducted to study the influence of loading history on the small-strain shear modulus of saturated clays. The test results indicate that the influence is great and the above assumption is not correct. Meanwhile, it is also found that the small-strain shear modulus can be used to determine the failure criterion of saturated clays under cyclic loading.