A modified dynamic shear modulus model for rockfill materials under a wide range of shear strain amplitudes

High rockfill dams experience a wide range of shear strain amplitudes during earthquakes. To provide more reliable material property descriptions for earthquake response analysis of high rockfill dams, this study investigates the dynamic properties of rockfill materials in a wide strain range by large-scale cyclic triaxial testing with a high-sensitivity laser sensor. The results reveal the considerable increase of shear modulus and decrease of damping ratio with increasing confining pressure for a given initial stress ratio and the significant effect of the initial stress ratio on the small-strain shear modulus and normalized shear modulus. Previously proposed equations were found to imprecisely depict the variation of the dynamic shear modulus of rockfill materials for a wide strain range. Furthermore, the dynamic shear modulus is dependent on the Initial stress ratio in the anisotropic stress condition. Based on the existing hyperbolic model, a modified model for rockfill materials is suggested to accurately estimate the nonlinear behavior. The applicability of the modified model and previous studies for rockfill materials are assessed in the estimation of the normalized shear modulus. The results provide a reference for evaluating the accurate shear modulus in a wide strain range for strong earthquake motions.