Liquefaction behavior of toyoura sand under cyclic strain controlled triaxial testing

To investigate the possibility of using conventional strain controlled triaxial testing apparatus for liquefaction determination of sands. The effects of repeated monotonic loading and unloading over a range of densities and at various strain amplitudes are shown to be linked with the cyclic behavior in a cyclic stress controlled triaxial testing program, using a unique loading apparatus and control program. Various parameters such as excess pore pressure developed during monotonic loading and the apparent maximum strength of the sample are shown to correlate to the cyclic resistance determined by a suite of cyclic triaxial tests. A comparison between strain-controlled cyclic triaxial testing and stress-controlled cyclic triaxial testing shows similar results in the critical 10-cycle region. Strain-controlled testing more closely reflects the available data and may lead to reduced costs in performing liquefaction resistance assessments.