Small-strain cyclic behavior of Augusta clay in simple shear

Cyclic simple shear tests were conducted on undisturbed specimens of high-plasticity Augusta clay. The testing focused on the small-strain behavior characteristics, expressed in terms of maximum shear modulus, secant shear modulus and damping ratio. The variation of these parameters with cyclic shear strain amplitude, vertical consolidation stress, overconsolidation ratio and the frequency of cyclic loading was investigated and is systematically presented. Comparisons between the shear moduli and damping ratios obtained in this study and those measured in other studies using different testing techniques are discussed.