Reference threshold shear strain. Its application to obtain an unique strain-dependent shear modulus curve for soil

Abstract

This paper comprises an analysis of the observed behavior of soil at very small strains. The contact model of perfect spheres is used to capture physical meaning on the macroscopic behavior of soil. Semi-empirical relationships are used to define the lower and the upper bound values for the initial shear modulus of soil as a function of the void ratio and the mean effective stress.