Influences of principal stress rotation (PSR) on the cumulative deformation of remoulded loess with different water contents under traffic loading

In the present paper, a series of cyclic hollow cylinder tests are conducted to study the cyclic principal stress rotation (PSR) in traffic load engineering. The strain accumulation behaviour of remoulded loess with different water contents under traffic load was examined. The test results show that the magnitude of the cyclic deviatoric stress and shear stress and the water content significantly contributes to the differences of the strain accumulation. When the cyclic deviatoric stress and shear stress were held constant, permanent axial strain increased with water content. Permanent axial strain increased with deviatoric stress and shear stress under the same water content. Furthermore, test data could be interpreted within a framework of multiple threshold cyclic stress ratios, and the critical stress ratio in different regions decreases with increase in water content. Finally, a nonlinear empirical formula for permanent axial strain considering the effects of principal stress rotation (PSR) was proposed to be used for the feasibility studies on remoulded loess subjected to traffic loading.