Traffic-induced cyclic stresses in the subsoil are three-dimensional, and it is important to acknowledge that cyclic major, intermediate, and minor principal stresses have obvious impacts on the permanent strain of the subsoil. Therefore, a series of cyclic true triaxial tests were performed on intact marine clay to investigate the evolution of permanent major principal strain (epsilon(p)(1)) under long-term true triaxial cyclic loads in this study, considering the effects of the amplitudes of cyclic deviator stress (q(ampl)), coefficient of the cyclic intermediate principal stress (b(cyc)), and the slope of the stress path (eta). The test results indicated that epsilon(p)(1) exhibits an increasing trend with increasing CSR, but decreases nonlinearly with an increase in b(cyc)and eta. This implies that the increasing amplitude of cyclic deviator stress promotes the development of epsilon(p)(1), and the accumulation of epsilon(p)(1) is limited by the growing amplitudes of the cyclic mean principal stress and cyclic intermediate principal stress. Considering the effects of CSR, b(cyc), and eta on epsilon(p)(1), a five-parameter empirical model is established to describe the accumulation of epsilon(p)(1) under true triaxial cyclic loads. In addition, the proposed model is verified by the permanent deformation data in this study and previous studies.

Changes in soil properties due to loading and consolidation during the life of infrastructure affect the soil response to future events. This concept is encapsulated in the whole-life geotechnical design approach which accounts for the evolution of properties such as strength, stiffness and consolidation coefficient, to improve forecasts of system response through and beyond the design life. This paper explores the changing properties of a soft clay from episodes of pre-failure cyclic loading and consolidation through a series of stress-controlled cyclic direct simple shear (DSS) tests. The scenario is relevant to offshore applications where infrastructure is subject to cyclic seasonal loading, and is particularly relevant to floating offshore wind anchoring systems as these are located in deeper water, farther from shore where soft clays are common. The results quantify the effect of cyclic stress amplitude, number of cycles per packet, and number of consolidation intervals, on the clay properties. The results show increases in undrained strength by up to 70%, stiffness by up to 50% and consolidation coefficient by a factor of up to 30, highlighting the importance of accounting for whole-life effects for reliable and efficient geotechnical design.

In order to study the failure mechanism of a finned pile foundation under horizontal cyclic loads, a physical model test of the pile-soil interaction of finned pile is designed in this paper. Based on the model tests, the pile top displacement, the cyclic stiffness of the pile foundation, and the response of pore water pressure within the soil around the pile were fully studied for the finned pile foundation under horizontal cyclic loads. It is found that the cyclic stiffness attenuation of the finned pile foundation is more severe than that of a regular single pile foundation, but the final stiffness at equilibrium is still greater than that of a regular single pile foundation. The accumulation of horizontal displacement at the pile top and pore water pressure within the soil around the pile mainly occurs in the first 1000 loading cycles, and an increase in fin plate size will reduce the magnitude of pore water pressure and pile top displacement. This study can not only deepen the understanding of the failure mechanism of finned pile foundation under horizontal cyclic loads, but also provide guidance for the design of the finned pile foundation.

Increasing demand for transportation has forced new infrastructure to be built on weak subgrade soils such as estuarine or marine clays. The application of heavy and high-frequency cyclic loads due to vehicular movement during the operational (post-construction) stage of tracks can cause (i) cyclic undrained failure, (ii) mud pumping or subgrade fluidisation, and (iii) differential and excessive settlement. This keynote paper presents the use of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) to enhance the performance of tracks. A series of laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the cyclic response of remoulded soil specimens collected from a railway site near Wollongong, NSW, Australia. The results of the laboratory tests showed that beyond the critical cyclic stress ratio (CSRc), there is an internal redistribution of moisture within the specimen which causes the top portion of the specimen to soften and fluidise. The role that geosynthetics play in controlling and preventing mud pumping was analysed by assessing the development of excess pore water pressure (EPWP), the change in particle size distribution, and the water content of subgrade soil. The experimental data showed that PVDs can prevent the EPWP from building up to critical levels. PVDs provide shorter-radial drainage for EPWP to dissipate during cyclic loading, resulting in less accumulation of EPWP. Moreover, PVDs cause soil to behave in a partially drained rather than an undrained condition, while geotextiles can provide adequate surficial drainage and effective confinement at the ballast/subgrade interface. Partially drained cyclic models were developed by adopting the modified Cam clay theory to predict the behaviour of soil under cyclic loadings. The Sandgate Rail Grade Separation project case study presents a design of short PVDs to minimise the settlement and associated lateral displacement due to heavy-haul train loadings.