Influence of degree of saturation on the dynamic soil properties of a sandy soil

¹ LabUnsat, Civil Engineering Department, University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica
² Construction Engineering, Costa Rica Institute of Technology, Cartago, Costa Rica

^* Corresponding author: rafael.baltodanogoulding@ucr.ac.cr

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that the fully-saturated scenario represents the critical shear strength condition for geotechnical structure design; nevertheless, this is not the case when the dynamic shear strength of unsaturated soil is considered, because the water content affects the transfer of seismic waves through the porous medium and into a structure. It is important to better understand this behavior so the soil response during an earthquake could be established to prevent damage or failure of the structure. A series of cyclic triaxial tests with controlled matric suction was conducted to determine the principal dynamic parameters for a sandy soil for different degrees of saturation. Finally, to assess the influence of soil saturation on the dynamic soil properties of a sandy soil, a dynamic lateral load pile design was performed using Reese’s p-y curve method, and the parameter obtained from the laboratory testing were used to backcalculate the seismic coefficients used for structural design. Structural designs of laterally loaded piles considering different soil degrees of saturation demonstrated that the saturated soil condition while subjected to a dynamic condition does not represent the critical load case for seismic analysis.