Influence of initial state and intermediate principal stress on undrained behavior of soft clay during pure principal stress rotation

It is important to be fully aware of the dynamic characteristics of saturated soft clays under complex loading conditions in practice. In this paper, a series of undrained tests for soft clay consolidated with different initial major principal stress direction ξ were conducted by a hollow cylinder apparatus (HCA). The clay samples were subjected to pure principal stress rotation as the magnitudes of the mean total stress p, intermediate principal stress coefficient b, and deviator stress q were all maintained constant. The influences of intermediate principal stress coefficient and initial major principal stress direction on the variation of strain components, generation of pore water pressure, cyclic degradation and non-coaxiality were investigated. The experimental observations indicated that the strain components of specimen were affected by both intermediate principal stress coefficient and initial major principal stress direction. The generation of the pore water pressure was significantly influenced by intermediate principal stress coefficient. However, the generation of pore water pressure was merely influenced by initial major principal stress direction when b = 0.5. It was also noted that the torsional stress–strain relationships were affected by the number of cycles, and the effect of intermediate principal stress coefficient and initial major principal stress direction on the torsional stress–strain loops were also significant. Stiffness degradation occur under pure principal stress rotation. Anisotropic behavior resulting from the process of inclined consolidation have considerable effects on the strain components and non-coaxial behavior of soft clay.