Prediction of oedometer terminal densities through a memory-enhanced cyclic model for sand

Abstract

Predicting the cyclic response of soils is still challenging in many geotechnical applications. In this area, the continual efforts on the constitutive modelling of cyclic sand behaviour demand new and reliable dataset for model validation - even more so for loading conditions involving numerous loading cycles ('high-cyclic' loading). This paper concerns the recent memory-enhanced bounding surface formulation by Liu et al. as a suitable platform to reproduce the high-cyclic response of sands. New evidence of its suitability is provided based on the recent dataset published by Park and Santamarina, comprising the results of high-cyclic oedometer tests at varying initial/loading conditions. Model simulations show satisfactory agreement with experimental data, and prove the ability of the model to predict 'terminal densities' under confined cyclic compression.