Comparative analysis of damping ratio determination methods based on dynamic triaxial tests

Various methods for determining the damping ratio have been proposed by scholars both domestically and abroad. However, no comparative analysis of different determination methods has been seen yet. In this study, typical sand (Fujian standard sand) and cohesive soils were selected as experimental objects, and undrained strain-controlled dynamic triaxial tests were conducted. The differences between existing damping ratio determination methods were theoretically compared and analyzed. The results showed that the hysteresis curve of cohesive soils had better symmetry and more closely conformed to the definition of equivalent linear viscoelasticity. For non-cohesive soils, the differences in damping ratio determined by six methods were significant. The differences decreased with increasing confining pressure and relative density, but increased gradually with increasing shear strain, especially at high shear strains, where the maximum relative error reached 200%. For cohesive soils, the differences in damping ratio determined by six methods were relatively small, with a maximum relative error of about 50%. Moreover, they were less affected by effective confining pressure and had the same changing trend under different effective confining pressures. The damping ratio determination method has a large effect on the seismic response of soils distributed by non-cohesive soils, with a maximum relative error of about 15% for the PGA and up to about 30% for the Sa. However, for soil layers distributed by cohesive soils, the damping ratio determination method has less influence on the seismic response. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a unified damping ratio determination method for non-cohesive soils, which can effectively avoid artificial errors caused by different determination methods.