Experimental Studies on Cyclic Shear Behavior of Steel-Clay Interface Under Constant Normal Load

The degradation of the shear stress between pile-clay interface caused by undrained cyclic jacking affects the jacking force.A series of large displacement monotonic shear,cyclic shear and post-cyclic monotonic steel plate-clay interface shear te sts were performed under the constant normal load(CNL)condition to inve stigate the effects of normal stre ss,cyclic amplitude,and number of cycles on a steel plate-clay interface using the GDS multi-function interface shear tester.Based on the experimental results,in monotonic shear tests,change of shear stress took place in the specimen,the shear stress rapidly reached the peak value at shear displacement of 1 mm,and then abruptly decreased to the residual value.In cyclic shear te sts,accumulated displacement was a better parameter to describe the soil degradation characteristics,and the degradation degree of shear stress became greater with the increasing of normal stress and accumulated displacement.Shear stress in post-cyclic monotonic shear tests did not generate a peak value and was lower than that in monotonic shear tests under the same normal stress.The soil was completely disturbed and reached the residual strength when the cumulative displacement approached 6 m.An empirical equation to evaluate shear stress degradation mechanism was formulated and the procedure of parameter identification was presented.