An incremental model for cyclic compaction of sand

This paper presents an incremental objective model for the compaction of sand under cyclic triaxial loading. The model is derived on the assumption that on the long-term a cyclic loading will lead to the maximal attainable density, irrespective of the amplitude. To obtain an objective model, an incremental description is essential. It turns out that a model with three state variables is able to describe the observed behavior over the full time scale. These three state variables together define two compaction processes: a fast one and a slow one. The proposed model is tested against the empirical data obtained by Wichtmann and Triantafyllidis [1] and short term tests by Deltares. It is shown that the model also describes the observed behavior in short term tests and tests with multiple loading stages [2].