The effects of initial deviatoric stress on anisotropy of marine clay and strain components

Abstract

This study investigated effects of initial deviatoric stress state and the orientation of their major principal stresses on the strain components and shear strength of soft marine clay. Hollow cylinder test results demonstrated that the axial and circumferential strain component magnitudes substantially depended on the initial deviatoric stress and the principal stress direction. The octahedral shear indicated the highly anisotropic microstructure of the clay, and the initial deviatoric stress significantly affected the octahedral shear strain development and influenced the anisotropic microstructure. The results can provide an experimental basis for constitutive modeling of marine clay and provide guidance for ocean engineering.

Keywords:

• Hollow cylinder apparatus
• initial deviatoric stress
• principal stress direction
• anisotropic microstructure

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFC0800200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant Nos. 51778502, 51978532), Key Research and development program of Zhejiang Province (grant No. 2018C03038) and the Basic Scientific Research Projects of Wenzhou (grant no. G20180030). This financial support is gratefully acknowledged.