The cyclic behavior of clean sands pertaining to earthquake loading have been studied extensively. However, natural sands may contain significant amounts of silt or clay, which have long been thought to affect the cyclic resistance of such soils. In fact, the literature contains what appears to be conflicting results. There was a need to clarify the effect of fines content on the cyclic resistance of sand which was addressed in this paper. A series of constant volume stress-controlled cyclic tests using the DSS apparatus was performed on reconstituted specimens of sand with fines content of 0 percent, 20 percent, and 40 percent. The samples were prepared at relative densities of 40 percent and 80 percent; consolidated at vertical stresses of 50, 100, 200, and 400kPa; and sheared at cyclic stress ratios of 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15. Test results indicate that failure criterion should be identified based on whether the sand behavior is contractive or dilative. The cyclic resistance is found to be controlled by the relative density of the soil.
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