Influence of shear stress level on cyclic deformation behaviour of intact Wenzhou soft clay under traffic loading

Under traffic loading, the soil elements in subgrade are subjected to a cyclic cardioid-shaped stress path in the 2τvh ~ (σv − σh) stress plane. This significantly differs from the conventional stress paths that have been simulated using the cyclic triaxial and simple shear apparatuses, as widely reported in the literature. To date, the influence of shear stress level on cyclic deformation behaviour of intact soft clay subjected to cyclic traffic loading were rarely considered in the existing experimental investigation. For this reason, a series of cyclic hollow cylinder experiments that mimic cardioid-shaped stress paths are carried out on intact samples of Wenzhou soft clay. A wide range of vertical stress levels combined with different shear stress levels (i.e., different cardioid-shaped stress paths) are simulated in the experiments. The results show that the shear stress level significantly influences the cyclic straining and exacerbates the potential of cyclic shear failure. The difference of cyclic tests with variable shear stress level increases as the vertical cyclic stress ratio value increases. Based on the test results, an allowable cyclic stress ratio is determined to be about 0.22, which may serve as the upper bound limit of cyclic traffic loadings on soft clayey deposit. For the hollow cylinder specimens used in this study, a resilient axial strain of 3% could be a proper failure criteria value. A simplified permanent strain model that considers shear stress is proposed for the deformation behaviour of soft clay under cyclic traffic loading.