Time-dependent behaviour of sand with different fine contents under oedometric loading

To characterize the effects of creep, strain rate, and relaxation in granular soils, different sands have been studied under oedometric loading. The tests were analysed in the framework of the isotache concept. The results show increasing creep rates with increasing vertical stresses and a strong reduction of the creep rate upon unloading. A lower void ratio leads to less creep. Evaluation of the ratio C-alpha/C-c, where C-alpha is the creep coefficient and C-c is the compression index, demonstrates considerable deviation from a constant soil-specific value for the sands. With increasing fine content, however, a constant soil-specific ratio has been found for a silty sand. In strain rate-controlled tests, a sand with low and a sand with significant content of nonplastic fines were compared. Constant rate of strain tests displayed practically no strain rate dependency for the sand with little fines and a well visible strain rate dependency for the very silty sand. Tests with stepwise change of strain rate showed non-isotache behaviour for the sand with little fines and isotache behaviour for the other. Stress-relaxation tests displayed an isochronous behaviour. The analysis of the three viscous effects in sands showed they cannot altogether be mathematically described in the framework of the isotache concept. A new compression model for the creep behaviour of sands is presented.