Dynamic shear modulus and damping ratio of saturated soft clay under the seismic loading

Soft clay is widely distributed in the southeast coastal areas of China. Many large underground structures, such as subway stations and underground pipe corridors, are shallow buried in the soft clay foundation, so the dynamic characteristics of the soft clay must be considered to the seismic design of underground structures. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of saturated soft clay in Shanghai under the bidirectional excitation for earthquake loading are studied by dynamic triaxial tests, comparing the backbone curve and hysteretic curve of the saturated soft clay under different confining pressures with those under different vibration frequencies. Considering the coupling effects of the confining pressure and the vibration frequency, a fitting model of the maximum dynamic shear modulus was proposed by the multiple linear regression method. The M-D model was used to fit the variations of the dynamic shear modulus ratio with the shear strain. Based on the Chen model and the Park model, the effects of the consolidation confining pressure and the vibration frequency on the damping ratio were studied. The results can provide a reference to the earthquake prevention and disaster reduction in soft clay area.