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

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the shear modulus degradation of soil. The study is based on a key parameter called reference threshold shear strain. This parameter is defined as the shear strain for a stiffness degradation factor of G/G₀=0,7, in which G₀is the very small strains shear modulus and G the secant shear modulus. The influence of some important factors on the reference threshold shear strain is discussed in this paper. Based on a proposed normalisation methodology it is possible to define some unified relationships that allow the assessment of shear modulus degradation of soil.