Study on monotonic and cyclic simple shear test of calcareous sand

In order to explore the mechanical properties and particle breakage evolution of calcareous sand under the single shear stress path, a series of constant stress and constant volume monotonic and cyclic single shear tests were carried out on the saturated calcareous sand. The test results showed that the particle breakage of calcareous sand increases with the magnitudes of vertical stress, cyclic stress, and cyclic strain, as well as the number of cycles, and there is a relatively stable relationship between the relative breakage and the input energy at the end of the shearing tests, regardless of the testing conditions.In addition, the study also found that the phase transformation stress ratios of the cyclic tests are significantly smaller than those of the monotonic tests.The volume strain accumulation increases with the number of cycles and is related to the shear strain accumulation during constant stress cyclic tests. Furthermore, the particle shape has a considerable influence on the particle breakage, and the particle breakage tends to regularize the shape of irregular calcareous sand grains. © 2023 Huazhong University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.