Undrained cyclic simple shear characteristics of transparent sand manufactured by fused quartz

Abstract

Transparent sand is a special material to realize visualization of concealed work in geotechnical engineering. To investigate the dynamic characteristics of transparent sand, a series of undrained cyclic simple shear tests were conducted on the saturated transparent sand composed of fused quartz and refractive index-matched oil mixture. The results reveal that an increase in the initial shear stress ratio significantly affects the shape of the hysteresis loop, particularly resulting in more pronounced asymmetrical accumulation. Factors such as lower relative density, higher cyclic stress ratios and higher initial shear stress ratio have been shown to accelerate cyclic deformation, cyclic pore water pressure and stiffness degradation. The cyclic liquefaction resistance curves decrease as the initial shear stress ratio increases or as relative density decreases. Booker model and power law function model were applied to predict the pore water pressure for transparent sand. Both models yielded excellent fits for their respective condition, indicating a similar dynamic liquefaction pattern to that of natural sands. Finally, transparent sand displays similar dynamic characteristics in terms of cyclic liquefaction resistance and K_α correction factor. These comparisons indicate that transparent sand can serve as an effective means to mimic many natural sands in dynamic model tests.

Keywords

transparent sand / fused quartz / undrained cyclic simple shear tests / dynamic characteristics / initial shear stress

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