Shear modulus and hysteretic damping of sensitive eastern Canada clays

Abstract

The shear modulus and equivalent viscous damping ratio of three sensitive clays from the sediments of the Champlain Sea were investigated using a combined triaxial simple shear apparatus. The tests were conducted on undisturbed samples and were carried out on a wide range of shear strain from about 0.001% to 1%. The values of the small strain shear modulus of the tested clays were further confirmed through a series of piezoelectric ring actuator and MASW tests. Although the shear modulus and damping ratio of the sensitive eastern Canada clays follow some classic literature models, the results show that the examined clays exhibited more linear behaviour. Such behaviour may be attributed to their highly structured nature compared to other clays. The compilation of available data on the shear modulus and damping ratio of several sensitive eastern Canada clays confirmed this trend and showed that some literature models might not be representative.

Cyclic threshold shear strain for pore water pressure generation and stiffness degradation in marine clays at Yangtze estuary

“…Matasovićand Vucetic (1995) summarized the published data and found that the g tp of Cariaco undisturbed marine clays was 0.1%. Abdellaziz et al (2020) investigated the g tp of three types of Eastern Canada clays and concluded that the g tp for the clays with I p =36 and 38 ~40 was 0.2%, while it was 0.3% for the clays with I p =28. It was noted that the variation pattern of g tp in Abdellaziz et al (2020) is contrary to previous studies but was not explained in detail.…”

“…Abdellaziz et al (2020) investigated the g tp of three types of Eastern Canada clays and concluded that the g tp for the clays with I p =36 and 38 ~40 was 0.2%, while it was 0.3% for the clays with I p =28. It was noted that the variation pattern of g tp in Abdellaziz et al (2020) is contrary to previous studies but was not explained in detail. Likitlersuang et al (2014) observed that the g td of Bangkok clays ranged from 0.03% to 0.07%, which was defined as the shear strain at G/G max = 0.7 within the normalized shear modulus versus shear strain curves.…”