The response of calcareous soil in static and cyclic triaxial tests

The paper discusses some of the general trends in the behaviour of calcareous soil observed in static and cyclic triaxial tests. The ratio of axial strain to volume strain in anisotropic consolidation tests and the measurement of K0 in “K0 consolidation” tests is discussed. In drained compression tests, large volume reductions were found to occur during shearing. The general form of the yield surface is established using the results of undrained compression tests on isotropically consolidated samples, and this is shown to be consistent with the results of “normally consolidated” and “overconsolidated” CAU tests. In CIU cyclic loading tests, the number of cycles to failure was found to depend on the level of cyclic deviator stress expressed as a percentage of the consolidation stress. In each cycle, the peak pore pressure was found to correspond to the peak (compressive) deviator stress, though the pore pressure at the point of zero deviator stress was found to be only slightly less than the peak.