Data and figures

Stiffness of soil at very small strains <i>G</i>₀ is mainly affected by void ratio, effective stress and suction. Empirical equations considering those factors have been proposed to estimate <i>G</i>₀. However, for collapsible soil like loess, variations in suction might induce changes in void ratio of soil. The combined effect of these two factors poses challenges in accurately estimating of <i>G</i>₀. This paper first presents an experimental study on the <i>G</i>₀ of collapsible loess under various conditions, including as-compacted states, wetting/drying and K₀ loading. <i>G</i>₀is estimated from shear wave velocity obtained with bender element technique. The changes of <i>G</i>₀ with respect to void ratio, suction, effective stress, and wetting under K₀ stress conditions are evaluated. Test results reveal that power relationships<i> </i>can be defined between <i>G</i>₀ and void ratio, suction and effective stress, respectively. The changes in <i>G</i>₀ along wetting/drying shows an “S” shape due to the different dominant effects on soil structure, as well as the induced non-uniform volume changes when suction change at different zones. Under K₀ loading,<i> G</i>₀ decreases upon wetting at stresses below the compaction stress, while it increases upon wetting at stresses above the compaction stress, due to the combined effects of densification caused by volume collapse during wetting and softening induced by suction decrease. Finally, a <i>G</i>₀<i> </i>model considering net stress and suction as independent stress variable is proposed. This model could effectively capture the change of <i>G</i>₀<i> </i>during wetting, drying and loading, as well as upon wetting under K₀ loading for collapsible loess