Critical Cyclic Stress Ratio of Undisturbed Saturated Soft Clay in the Yangtze Estuary under Complex Stress Conditions

There exists a critical cyclic stress ratio when sand or clay is subjected to cyclic loading. It is an index dis-tinguishing stable state or failure state. The soil static and dynamic universal triaxial and torsional shear apparatus de-veloped by Dalian University of Technology in China was employed to perform different types of tests on saturated soft marine clay in the Yangtze estuary. Undisturbed samples were subjected to undrained cyclic vertical and torsional coupling shear and cyclic torsional shear after three-directional anisotropic consolidation with different initial consoli-dation parameters. The effects of initial orientation angle of major principal stress, initial ratio of deviatoric stress,initial coefficient of intermediate principal stress and stress mode of cyclic shear on the critical cyclic stress ratio wereinvestigated. It is found that the critical cyclic stress ratio decreases significantly with increasing initial orientation angle of major principal stress and initial ratio of deviatoric stress. Compared with the effects of the initial orientationangle of major principal stress and initial ratio of deviatoric stress, the effect of initial coefficient of intermediate prin-cipal stress is less evident. Under the same consolidation condition, the critical cyclic stress ratio from the cyclic cou-pling shear test is lower than that from the cyclic torsional shear test, indicating that the stress mode of cyclic shear has an obvious effect on the critical cyclic stress ratio. The main reason is that the continuous rotation in principal stressdirections during cyclic coupling shear damages the original structure of soil more than the cyclic torsional shear does.

Analysis of Wave-Induced Liquefaction in Seabed Deposits of Silt

The dynamic stress introduced in half elastic space by wave loading is characterized by the equation between the magnitude of half cyclic axial stress and cyclic torsion shear stress and the principal stress, whose direction rotates continuously and compression stress on seabed can be calculated by the use of small amplitude wave theory. With relationship curves of saturated silt of liquefaction cycles and cyclic stress ratios obtained by cyclic triaxial-torsional coupling shear tests and curve fitting method to different data points of relative density, it is suggested that the cyclic stress ratio corresponding to constant liquefaction impedance be taken as the critical cyclic stress ratio which implies liquefaction. There exists a linear relationship between critical cyclic stress ratio and relative density under different relative densities. Empirical formula for critical cyclic stress ratios of seabed liquefaction induced by wave loading under different relative densities is established. The possibility of seabed silt liquefaction and its influence factors are analyzed based on the small-amplitude wave theory and the data acquired in laboratory tests.

Mechanical analysis of folds in compressive belt and its significance to earthquakes

The paper proposes the conception of Beads type fold system. The mechanical analyses of the typical tectonic system are made by means of elastic stability theory, mathematical and mechanical method and rheology. The relation among the deflections of folds and time, external forces, and distribution of stresses, strain energy density are analyzed to explain the causing mechanism of folding earthquake.