1139

Deformation characteristics of two cemented

calcareous soils
Shambhu S. Sharma and Martin Fahey

Abstract: The effect of cementation on the deformation characteristics of two cemented calcareous soils was investigated through a series of undrained triaxial tests performed under both monotonic and cyclic loading conditions. Increasing the level of cementation significantly increased the initial stiffness, resulting in the stiffness being more
independent of the confining pressure. The curves of stiffness degradation with strain obtained from both cemented and
uncemented calcareous soils compared with those of other noncalcareous soils revealed that calcareous soil attains a
faster rate of modulus reduction with a higher strain threshold. It was also observed that the pattern of stiffness degradation is very similar in both cemented and uncemented samples. The stiffness degradation curves obtained from cyclic
tests were found to lie within the range defined by the corresponding monotonic tests. The effect of number of cycles
on the stiffness during cyclic loading was also examined and is found to depend on whether the postyield behaviour is
controlled by the cohesive or the frictional response. Examination of the variation of damping ratio with strain revealed
that the observed difference in the stiffness degradation curves between calcareous and noncalcareous soils was also reflected in the damping ratio, with the damping ratio of calcareous soils being below the range defined for
noncalcareous soils.
Key words: calcareous soils, triaxial test, shear modulus, damping ratio, repeated loading.
Rsum : On a tudi leffet de la cimentation sur les caractristiques de dformation de deux sols calcaires ciments
au moyen dune srie dessais triaxiaux non drains raliss dans des conditions de chargement tant cyclique que
monotonique. Laugmentation du niveau de cimentation a augment apprciablement la rigidit initiale, ce qui a rsult
en une rigidit plus indpendante de la pression de confinement. Les courbes de dgradation de rigidit en fonction de
la dformation obtenues sur les sols calcaires tant ciments que non ciments compares avec celles dautres sols non
calcaires rvlent que les sols calcaires atteignent plus rapidement le taux de rduction du module avec un seuil plus
lev de dformation. Il a t galement observ que le schma de dgradation de la rigidit est trs similaire dans les
chantillons tant ciments que non ciments. On a trouv que les courbes de dgradation de rigidit obtenues des essais cycliques se situent lintrieur de la plage dfinie par les essais monotoniques correspondants. Leffet du nombre
de cycles sur la rigidit durant le chargement cyclique a aussi t examin, et dpend du fait que le comportement
post-pic est contrl par la rponse soit de cohsion, soit de frottement. Lexamen de la variation du rapport damortissement avec la dformation rvle que la diffrence observe entre les courbes de dgradation de la rigidit des sols
calcaires et non calcaires se refltait dans le rapport damortissement, le rapport damortissement des sols calcaires
tant sous la plage dfinie pour les sols non calcaires.
Mots cls : sols calcaires, essai triaxial, module de cisaillement, rapport damortissement, chargement rpt.
[Traduit par la Rdaction]

Sharma and Fahey

Introduction
The nonlinear stressstrain behaviour of different geomaterials has been investigated extensively in recent years
with the use of different small-strain measuring devices.
This has led to evaluation of the initial maximum stiffness
and stiffness degradation curves for different geomaterials,
which provided guidelines for calculating ground movement
Received 6 March 2003. Accepted 16 June 2004. Published
on the NRC Research Press Web site at http://cgj.nrc.ca on
7 December 2004.
S.S. Sharma and M. Fahey.1 Centre for Offshore Foundation
Systems, School of Civil and Resource Engineering, The
University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway,
Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
1

Corresponding author (e-mail: fahey@civil.uwa.edu.au).

Can. Geotech. J. 41: 11391151 (2004)

1151

due to the application of different types of loads (Seed and

Idriss 1970; Kokusho 1980; Saxena et al. 1988; AlarconGuzman et al. 1989; Yasuda and Matsumoto 1993; Lo Presti
et al. 1997).
Although the practical importance and the simplicity in
analysis of ground movement using stiffness degradation
curves have been recognised (e.g., Schnabel et al. 1972), a
brief review of the literature reveals that, despite the large
amount of research on calcareous soils (Houston and
Herrmann 1980; Jewell and Khorshid 1988; Jewell and Andrews 1988; Kaggwa 1988; Coop 1990; Airey and Fahey
1991; Airey 1993; Carter and Airey 1994; Lagioia and Nova
1995; Hyodo et al. 1998), no attempt has been made to generate such curves for calcareous soils, especially with consideration of cyclic loading and the effect of cementation.
Considering the fact that most calcareous soils, which are
often encountered beneath the foundations of many offshore

doi: 10.1139/T04-066

2004 NRC Canada

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structures, possess some degree of bonding between their

constituents, research on the cyclic behaviour of cemented
calcareous soil is of immense practical importance.
The research on natural cemented calcareous soils is limited mainly because of the difficulty and cost associated with
obtaining consistently cemented natural soil from a site. This
difficulty has been overcome to some extent in recent years
by testing artificially cemented samples (Allman and Poulos
1988; Coop and Atkinson 1993; Ismail et al. 2002a, 2002b).
Nevertheless, the extent to which artificially cemented samples replicate the behaviour of natural soil is questionable, as
the type of cement has a significant influence on the behaviour of the soil (Ismail et al. 2002a). The innovative calcite
in situ precipitation systems (CIPS) technique, which was
found to be very promising in capturing the natural pattern
of cementation, has opened a new frontier for testing cemented samples (Kucharski et al. 1996; Ismail et al. 2002a,
2002b).
Results from CIPS-cemented calcareous soils are presented in this paper. Although the main objective of this
paper is to contribute to the database on the deformation
characteristics of cemented calcareous soils, it also provides
some insight into the behaviour of calcite-cemented soils in
general. It is believed that information on the effect of some
of the most influential parameters such as the level of
cementation, consolidation history, and confining pressure
should be of considerable importance even in the area where
cementation has been used for purposes other than replicating natural material (e.g., stabilized soils).
It is worth mentioning here that, despite excellent databases on the deformation characteristics of uncemented
material, most of the available research is limited to investigation of the stiffness reduction after a particular number of
cycles (e.g., 10 cycles). This may be due to the common observation that for small-strain cycling, there is little effect of
increasing number of cycles on the stiffness after 10 cycles.
More recently it has been reported that, although this proposition is true for clays, the number of cycles has a significant
effect on stiffness reduction in dry sand, especially at an elevated strain level, which becomes even more pronounced in
virgin specimens (Lo Presti et al. 1997). Further, the consideration of only a small number of repeated cycles in most of
the available research is because these studies were focused
on resolving the problems encountered during earthquake
loading. In contrast, to simulate loading due to waves, application of a large number of repeated cycles needs to be considered for a wide range of stresses. Considering this, the
cyclic tests performed in this study cover a wide range of cyclic stresses, and tests were performed up to 30 000 cycles to
investigate the influence of number of repeated cycles on the
cyclic behaviour of cemented samples. Hopefully, the degradation of stiffness with strain presented herein for different
numbers of cycles obtained from cyclic tests on cemented
calcareous soils will also provide some insight into the effect
of number of cycles on the stiffness degradation characteristics of soils in general. It is worth mentioning that the focus
here is more on the deformation characteristics of cemented
calcareous soils, and hence the features associated with
strength of cemented calcareous soils are not discussed. Discussion on the strength aspects can be found in Sharma and
Fahey (2002a).

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 41, 2004

Fig. 1. Particle-size distribution curves for the two calcareous
soils used in the study.

Material used and experimental procedure

Soil tested
Two types of reconstituted calcareous soils were used in
this study. The first is a fine-grained offshore calcareous soil
recovered from the seabed near the vicinity of the Goodwyn
A gas platform on the North West Shelf of Australia. The
second is a coastal aeolian calcareous soil from Ledge Point,
100 km north of Perth, Western Australia. The gradation
curves of these soils are shown in Fig. 1. The gradation
curves for the fraction finer than 0.075 mm were determined
using a laser technique. These soils were selected because
they represent the extremes of formation conditions, gradations, and void ratios as they exist naturally. Additional details on the physical properties of the soils can be found in
Ismail et al. (2002b).
Calcite cement
A proprietary chemical cementation system called CIPS
(calcite in situ precipitation system), developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) Australia, was used in this study for artificial
cementation. The CIPS is a water-based, nonparticulate,
low-viscosity, neutral in pH, nontoxic solution (Ismail et al.
2002b). In the CIPS technique, cementation is achieved by
flushing a mixture of two proprietary chemical solutions
through the soil sample, resulting in precipitation of calcite
on the surface and between the soil grains, and this imparts
cohesive strength due to bonding at particle contacts
(Kucharski et al. 1996; Ismail et al. 2000).
Sample preparation
The sample preparation technique described by Ismail et
al. (2000) was used to prepare artificially cemented samples
for triaxial testing in this study. This technique consisted of
pluviating the dry soil to a certain density into a former
lined with a rubber membrane. Carbon dioxide gas was then
flushed through the sample from bottom to top to displace
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1141
Table 1. Unconfined compressive strength (qucs) and tensile strength (TS) results of CIPScemented samples.

Soil

No. of
CIPS
flushes

di
(kN/m3)

qucs
(kPa)

TS
(kPa)

Percent
calcite added
by weight

df
(kN/m3)

LP
LP
LP
LP
GW
GW
GW

1
1
1
2
2
2
3

12.70
13.20
13.90
12.70
9.81
9.81
9.81

524
590
655
1200
350
600
2500

51
70
91

4.61
3.70
3.52
8.05
15.00
17.00
23.00

13.4
13.7
14.4
13.8
11.3
11.5
12.1

Note: df, unit weight of sample after cementation; di, unit weight of uncemented sample.

all the entrapped air from the sample to aid the subsequent
saturation of the sample. Water was then flushed through the
sample, followed by the CIPS solution. The flushing pressure was maintained equal to 25 kPa in Ledge Point (LP)
soil and 75 kPa in Goodwyn (GW) soil. The seating pressure
applied on the LP and GW soil samples was 50 and
100 kPa, respectively. The flushing time was maintained at
4 and 8 min for the LP and GW samples, respectively. The
larger flushing pressure and more time required in flushing
CIPS through the GW sample is due to the large amount of
fines present in this soil.
Once the flushing of CIPS was finished, both the inlet and
outlet valves were closed and the sample was then left to
cure for 24 h. The same procedure was repeated for the next
flush of CIPS whenever multiple flushes were needed. An
interval of 24 h was always maintained between each successive flush of CIPS. After the last flush, the sample was
left to cure for another 24 h before testing.
A number of advantages of this sample preparation technique were described in Ismail (2000). The key issues with
this procedure, however, were that it controlled both the
density and cementation of the sample and eliminated any
disturbance of the sample during extrusion and during assembling the sample on the triaxial base. Nevertheless, due
care was taken while setting up the samples in the triaxial
machine to avoid any breakage of cementation. All the triaxial tests were carried out under full saturation and with
pore pressure parameter (B) values of at least 0.95.
Depending on the type of soil, initial void ratio, and number of CIPS flushes, samples with different levels of strength
were created. The unconfined compressive strengths (qucs)
and tensile strengths (TS) obtained are as reported in Table 1. The values reported in Table 1 are the averages of at
least two samples. The variation of strength between samples under each condition was less than 5%, which confirms
the reproducibility of these samples. It is worth mentioning
that reproducibility of the CIPS-cemented samples was extensively examined by Ismail (2000) and Sharma (2004) and
was found to be highly reproducible.
The behaviour of cemented samples depends on the
stresscementation histories. Two most common stress
cementation sequences in nature are loading before cementation and cementation before loading (e.g., Fernandez and
Santamarina 2001). It is worth mentioning that the cemented
samples prepared in this study were cemented and cured
inside the mould before loading, and hence the results and

discussion presented in this paper are limited to this particular type of stresscementation history.
Laboratory equipment
The experiments were performed using a computercontrolled triaxial machine designed and fabricated at the
University of Western Australia (UWA). Axial load and displacement were measured using an internal load cell and an
external potentiometer, respectively, both attached to the
loading ram. Internal submersible linear variable differential
transformers (LVDTs) were also used to measure the strains
locally. The LVDTs were fixed in the sample using four aluminium footings implanted in the sample by gluing them
inside the rubber membrane prior to sample preparation
(Sharma and Fahey 2003). The arrangement used to fix the
LVDTs is shown in Fig. 2. This arrangement avoids possible
errors due to the relative slippage between the rubber membrane and sample surface (Tatsuoka and Kohata 1995). This
measuring system can resolve axial strain down to about 1
105 (or 103%).
Terminology used
The stress state is described using Cambridge invariants: deviator stress q = 1 3 and mean effective
stress p = (1 + 2 3 )/3, where 1 and 3 are the major and
minor principal effective stresses, respectively. The shear
strain parameter used is the deviator strain s = 2/3(1 3),
which is equal to 1 for undrained tests, where 1 and 3 are
the principal strains. Tests were performed on both isotropically and anisotropically consolidated samples. Radial
stress paths in qp space with constant stress ratio (=q/p)
were followed during anisotropic consolidation. The stress
ratio at the end of anisotropic consolidation is termed the
consolidation stress ratio (CSR = qo/po ), where qo and po
are the deviator stress (which is zero for isotropically consolidated samples) and mean effective stress at the end of
consolidation, respectively.
The terminology illustrated in Fig. 3 has been adopted to
describe the cyclic loading tests. During cyclic loading tests,
a cyclic shear stress amplitude qcyc is superimposed on the
mean shear stress qmean. Depending on the relative magnitude of qcyc with respect to qmean, the cyclic test is classified
as a one-way (qcyc qmean) or two-way (qcyc > qmean)
test. The initial tangent stiffness Go is obtained from the
monotonic tests. The secant shear modulus for the whole
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Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the setup of a sample in the
triaxial apparatus with internal LVDTs.

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 41, 2004

Fig. 4. Variation of initial stiffness of cemented GW samples:
(a) isotropically consolidated samples; (b) anisotropically consolidated samples.

Fig. 3. Symbols and definitions for cyclic loading tests. Aloop,

area of the hysteresis loop in an unloadingreloading cycle.

loop (Gloop) and cyclic shear strain (scyc) are calculated as

shown in Fig. 3.

Stiffness during monotonic loading

Initial stiffness
The maximum initial tangential stiffnesses (Go) of both
cemented and uncemented soils were calculated using the
initial portion of the stressstrain curves obtained from
monotonic undrained triaxial tests. Samples with different
levels of cementation were created and tested at different
consolidation pressures under both isotropic and anisotropic
conditions. The results are summarized in Fig. 4. Examination of Fig. 4a clearly demonstrates that increasing the level
of cementation increases the initial stiffness and reduces the

effect of confining pressure on the initial stiffness. This is

consistent with results reported by other investigators (e.g.,
Baig et al. l997; Fernandez and Santamarina 2001). On the
other hand, results from samples subjected to anisotropic
consolidation shown in Fig. 4b reveal that the CSR has
a significant effect on the initial stiffness of the samples,
where CSR is defined as the stress ratio (q/p) corresponding
to the radial stress path followed during anisotropic consolidation in qp space. It can be observed that increasing the
CSR significantly reduces the initial stiffness. Further, comparison of the results from samples subjected to similar CSR
at different cell pressures, shown in Fig. 4b, reveals that the
initial stiffness of anisotropically consolidated samples reduces with increasing confining pressure. In other words, although all the isotropically consolidated cemented samples up
to po of 1000 kPa have similar Go, it can be observed from
Fig. 4b that samples consolidated at CSR of 0.75 at po of 200,
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Sharma and Fahey

600, and 1000 kPa show Go(ani)/Go(iso) of 0.83, 0.59, and 0.40,
respectively, where Go(ani) is the Go value obtained from an
anisotropically consolidated sample, and Go(iso) is the initial
maximum tangential stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated samples subjected to similar po .
These observations suggest that it is the level of cementation that controls the initial stiffness of the samples rather
than the mean effective stress, and the degradation of cementation is more likely to occur with increasing deviator
stress than with increasing isotropic mean effective stress.
Degradation of stiffness
As it has been observed that increasing the consolidation
deviator stress has a tremendous effect on the initial stiffness
of the samples, it is worth investigating the pattern of stiffness degradation with strain during monotonic shearing. To
examine this, normalized curves of stiffness degradation
with strain are plotted for different monotonic tests in
Figs. 510. The shear modulus considered in these figures is
the secant shear modulus normalized using the initial maximum shear modulus values (Go) reported in Fig. 4.
Figure 5 shows the modulus reduction curve obtained
from uncemented GW samples consolidated to confining
pressures (po ) of 200 and 600 kPa. This figure clearly shows
that confining pressure has a significant effect on the position of the modulus reduction curve, which is similar to
what is often observed for other cohesionless soils. To examine how the modulus reduction curves of uncemented GW
soil compare with those of other cohesionless soils, the
range of modulus reduction curves obtained by Seed and
Idriss (1970) is also shown in Fig. 5. Although the qualitative pattern of modulus reduction with strain is similar, calcareous soil attains a faster rate of modulus reduction with a
higher strain threshold.
Figure 6 shows the modulus reduction curves obtained
from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples with
qucs of 0.6 MPa. There is not much difference in these three
curves, but there is nevertheless an indication that increasing
the confining pressure from 600 to 1000 kPa gives more
rapid reduction in stiffness, although increasing the confining pressure from 200 to 600 kPa gives a trend of decreasing
rate of modulus reduction with increase in strain. This suggests that although confining pressure has a negligible effect
on the initial stiffness of cemented samples, it can affect the
pattern of stiffness reduction with strain. In particular, the
faster rate of stiffness degradation observed at the smallest
confining pressure (po = 200 kPa) may be due to the increasing brittleness in the stressstrain response resulting
from the localized failure of the sample.
To facilitate comparison between uncemented and cemented samples, the range of modulus reduction curves obtained from Fig. 5 are replotted in Fig. 6. It can be observed
from Fig. 6 that, within the range of confining pressures
used in this study, the stiffness degradation curves obtained
from cemented samples lie within the range of the uncemented samples, although some difference can be observed if tests at similar confining pressures are compared.
Since the influence of consolidation history on the initial
stiffness is significant, it is useful to examine how the CSR
affects the pattern of modulus reduction. Cemented samples
with qucs of 0.6 MPa were tested at different CSRs and con-

1143
Fig. 5. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated uncemented GW samples.

Fig. 6. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs = 0.6 MPa).

fining pressures and the results are presented in Figs. 7 and

8. To facilitate the comparison between isotropic and anisotropic consolidation, the modulus reduction curve obtained
from an isotropically consolidated sample is also superimposed on Fig. 7. It can be observed that, although the CSR
has a significant effect on the initial stiffness, its influence
on the modulus reduction curve is rather insignificant, especially at smaller confining pressures. On the other hand, if
the samples subjected to a similar consolidation stress ratio
(qo/po ) are compared (e.g., samples with qo/po = 0.75) as
shown in Fig. 8, it can be observed that increasing the confining pressure decreases the rate of modulus reduction
slightly.
Since the level of cementation is one of the most important parameters in controlling the stiffness of the sample,
examination of the effect of level of cementation on modulus
reduction is essential. Samples with qucs of 0.35 and
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Fig. 7. Degradation of stiffness obtained from anisotropically
consolidated cemented GW samples (po = 200 kPa, qucs =
0.6 MPa).

Fig. 8. Degradation of stiffness obtained from anisotropically

consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs = 0.6 MPa).

2.5 MPa were tested and their corresponding modulus reduction curves are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. Superimposed on these figures is the range of modulus reduction
curves obtained from uncemented samples presented in
Fig. 5. Although there is some scatter, it can be observed
that, within the range of po examined in this study, the
modulus reduction curves obtained from cemented samples
with different levels of cementation, and even with higher
po , lie within the range of curves for uncemented samples.
This is because, unlike the case for uncemented samples, cemented samples showed faster rates of modulus reduction
due to the rapid breakage of cementation, even at higher po .
To further examine curves of stiffness degradation with
strain obtained from different conditions, all the curves of
stiffness degradation with strain presented for different conditions in Figs. 610 are replotted together, and the range

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 41, 2004

Fig. 9. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs = 0.35 MPa).

Fig. 10. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs = 2.5 MPa).

defined by these plots is shown in Fig. 11. The range of

curves for cemented samples obtained from monotonic tests
lie within the band represented by solid lines in Fig. 11. The
range of curves for uncemented samples and from Seed and
Idriss (1970) are superimposed on the same figure. Figure 11 clearly demonstrates that, within the range of po used
in this study, the modulus reduction curves for cemented and
uncemented calcareous soil lie within a narrow range, but a
clear difference can be observed between calcareous and
noncalcareous soils.
The pattern of degradation of stiffness with strain obtained from cemented LP samples is shown in Fig. 12. Only
one level of cementation was used for this soil, giving qucs of
about 0.5 MPa, and all the samples were consolidated under
isotropic conditions. The maximum initial shear modulus
obtained from these samples was about 600 MPa. Superimposed on Fig. 12 is the range of modulus reduction curves
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Sharma and Fahey

Fig. 11. Range of curves of stiffness degradation with strain obtained from cemented GW samples compared with the range of
curves for uncemented GW samples and other sands.

Fig. 12. Degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented LP samples (qucs = 0.5 MPa) compared with
range of curves for cemented GW samples.

1145
Fig. 13. Effect of loading rate on the degradation of stiffness obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented LP samples
(qucs = 0.5 MPa).

It can be observed that, although the initial stiffness is independent of loading rate, increasing the loading rate results in
a slight reduction in the rate of stiffness degradation.

Stiffness during cyclic loading

obtained from cemented GW samples shown in Fig. 11.

Although significant differences can be observed for the
stressstrain behaviour of cemented LP and GW soils, with
peak monotonic strength being controlled by the cohesive
component in GW soil and by the frictional component in
LP soil (Sharma and Fahey 2002a), the modulus reduction
curves for the two soils lie within a narrow band.
Loading rate is often found to control the rate of degradation of stiffness. The monotonic tests on the GW and LP
soils were at an axial strain rate of 0.067 and 0.13%/min, respectively. To examine the effect of loading rate, monotonic
tests on cemented LP samples with qucs of 0.5 MPa were
also performed at strain rates of 1.33 and 13%/min; the results are presented in Fig. 13 together with the results obtained from a sample tested at a loading rate of 0.13%/min.

A large number of stress-controlled cyclic triaxial tests

were performed on cemented GW and LP samples at a cyclic frequency of 0.1 Hz. Different combinations of cyclic
deviator stress (qcyc) and mean deviator stress (qmean) were
imposed on samples with different consolidation histories
subjected to different cell pressures and levels of cementation. The loop shear modulus (Gloop) is calculated as shown
in Fig. 3, and the degradation of stiffness with respect to the
number of cycles (N) and cyclic shear strain (scyc) is investigated in detail.
An examination of degradation of stiffness with N obtained from cemented GW samples was presented in detail
by Sharma and Fahey (2002b), who showed that the stiffness
of cemented GW samples reduces linearly with increasing
N. Typical results obtained from one-way cyclic tests performed on isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples
at po = 200 kPa are shown in Fig. 14, with the corresponding monotonic stressstrain curve shown in the inset. All the
cemented GW samples tested in this series showed similar
results, and further details can be found in Sharma and
Fahey. In Fig. 14 and subsequent figures, the cyclic loading
range is indicated by quoting the maximum and minimum
deviator stress (qmax:qmin) in the cycles.
Typical results showing the variation of stiffness with N
obtained from cemented LP sand are shown in Fig. 15. The
degradation is expressed as the value of Gloop in cycle N
(Gloop-N) compared with Gloop in cycle 1 (Gloop-1). The inset
to Fig. 15 is the corresponding monotonic stressstrain
curve. Degradation curves are shown for tests with four different cyclic stress ranges (qmax:qmin), viz. 600:10, 600:100,
800:10, and 1200:10 kPa. Three of these show modulus re 2004 NRC Canada

1146

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 41, 2004

Fig. 14. Degradation of loop stiffness with number of cycles obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples
with qucs = 0.6 MPa and po = 200 kPa (after Sharma and Fahey
2002b).

Fig. 15. Degradation of loop stiffness with number of cycles obtained from isotropically consolidated cemented LP samples
(qucs = 0.5 MPa, po = 600 kPa): (a) qmax:qmin of 600:10 and
600:100 kPa; (b) qmax:qmin of 800:10 and 1200:10 kPa.

duction with increasing N, but one (1200:10 kPa) shows a

modulus increase (hardening) with increasing N.
Comparison of these results with those obtained from cemented GW sand in Fig. 14 reveals that there are differences
in the pattern of degradation of stiffness between the two
types of soils. In fact, such differences in degradation of
stiffness between these two types of soils can be expected if
the postyield shearing behaviour of these samples is taken
into consideration. It can be observed from Fig. 15 that the
patterns of degradation of stiffness with N in cemented LP
sand depend on the magnitude of the cyclic stresses, i.e.,
qmax:qmin. The inset to Fig. 15 shows that in monotonic
shearing, there is an initial yield (qyield) at about 900 kPa,
followed by a softening phase, and then a gradual hardening
phase to a peak strength of about 1400 kPa. When subjected
to qmax smaller than qyield during cyclic loading, the cemented LP samples showed linear degradation of stiffness at
small strain in a fashion similar to that for the cemented GW
samples. This reflects the degradation of cementation during
cyclic loading. On the other hand, when subjected to qmax
greater than qyield during cyclic loading, a significant degradation of cementation (and hence stiffness) occurred during
first loading, and during subsequent loading the stiffness
showed a tendency to increase. This is because at this stage,
with the breakdown in cementation in the first cycle, the
variation of stiffness is controlled by the variation in the
mean effective stress in a pattern similar to that of the uncemented soils where the response is frictional.
This means that for the samples in which a dilatant response dominates (samples subjected to very large qmax
compared with qyield, e.g., test subjected to qmax:qmin of
1200:10 kPa) an increase in stiffness could be observed with
an increase in N. On the other hand, for samples subjected to
qmax < qyield, following the breakdown of cementation, stiffness may remain nearly constant (e.g., test subjected to
qmax:qmin of 600:10 kPa) or show a slight tendency to increase (e.g., test subjected to qmax:qmin of 800:10 kPa) with
an increasing number of cycles, depending on the values of

p associated with that particular stage. It should be noted,

however, that in both samples (samples with qmax:qmin of
600:10 and 800:10 kPa) the initial reduction in stiffness with
increasing N is associated with the degradation of cementation. In contrast, in samples subjected to two-way cyclic
stress, a drastic decrease in stiffness is always observed
towards failure (e.g., test subjected to qmax:qmin of 600:
100 kPa).
The experimentally determined G/Go values for cemented
GW soil are plotted against the deviator strain in Figs. 16
21, with deviator strain being scyc for cyclic tests and s for
monotonic tests. The term G refers to Gloop in cyclic tests
and Gsec in monotonic tests. Further, the term scyc refers
to cyclic deviator strain, which is the difference in strain
between the maximum and minimum points of a loop as
shown in Fig. 3. The results shown in Fig. 16 were obtained
from different tests with different isotropic consolidation
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Sharma and Fahey

Fig. 16. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from
isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs = 0.6 MPa):
(a) cycle numbers 10, 20, and 50; (b) cycle numbers 100, 200,
and 500; (c) cycle numbers 1000, 2500, 5000, and 10 000.

1147
Fig. 17. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from
anisotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs =
0.6 MPa, CSR = 0.5).

Fig. 18. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from

anisotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs =
0.6 MPa, CSR = 2.25 and 2.50).

pressures and different combinations of one-way cyclic

stresses. The stiffnesses obtained from cycle numbers 10,
20, and 50 are shown in Fig. 16a; those from cycle numbers
100, 200, and 500 in Fig. 16b; and those from cycle numbers 1000, 2500, 5000, and 10 000 in Fig. 16c. Superimposed on these plots is the range of modulus reduction
curves obtained from monotonic tests performed on
isotropically consolidated cemented samples with po between 50 and 1000 kPa.
It is clear from Fig. 16 that the higher stiffness is associated with smaller strain, and a significant reduction in stiffness can be observed with increasing strain in cyclic tests, a
response similar to that in monotonic tests. Further, significant degradation of stiffness occurred with an increasing
number of cycles due to the larger strain mobilized at a
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1148
Fig. 19. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from
isotropically consolidated cemented GW samples (qucs =
2.50 MPa).

Fig. 20. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from

all tests performed on cemented GW samples.

larger number of cycles. The comparison of the results from

N = 10 to 10 000 plotted in Fig. 16 clearly shows that the
variation of stiffness with strain lies within a very narrow
band, suggesting that the number of cycles has very little influence on the pattern of stiffness degradation with strain in
cemented samples. It can also be observed that the confining
pressure does not significantly influence the pattern of stiffness degradation of the cemented samples, even during
cyclic loading. This observation is in contrast with results
obtained from uncemented materials, where a moderate effect of confining pressure on stiffness during cyclic loading
was reported (Lo Presti et al. 1997).
The type of loading, monotonic or cyclic, has a very negligible effect on the variation of stiffness with strain on cemented samples. It is often reported that samples subjected
to cyclic loading showed a stiffer response and slower rate

Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 41, 2004

Fig. 21. Degradation of loop stiffness with strain obtained from
all tests performed on cemented LP samples.

of stiffness degradation compared with those subjected to

monotonic loading performed under similar conditions (Lo
Presti et al. 1997). This is because the mean effective stress,
which has a significant influence on the stiffness, changes
continuously with increasing number of cycles during
undrained cyclic loading. The results presented in Fig. 16
clearly show, however, that the pattern of degradation of
stiffness during monotonic and cyclic loading is very similar.
Cyclic tests were also performed on anisotropically consolidated samples with CSR varying from 0 to 2.5. Typical
results obtained from these tests are shown in Figs. 17 and
18. Superimposed on these figures is the range of curves of
stiffness degradation with strain obtained from monotonic
tests. It can be observed that CSR influences the pattern of
degradation of stiffness. Thus, for samples subjected to CSR
of 0.5 the pattern of degradation of stiffness with strain is
similar to that for isotropic samples (Fig. 17). A similar response was observed for samples subjected to CSR of 1.5.
Once the CSR increases above 1.5, a clearer difference in
the pattern of degradation of stiffness with strain is observed
(Fig. 18). In general, samples subjected to larger CSR show
a relatively slower rate of degradation stiffness with increasing s compared with samples subjected to smaller CSR.
This is believed to be due to the significant degradation of
cementation occurring during consolidation of the samples
to larger CSR, i.e., Go is also affected by CSR, with high
CSR resulting in lower Go, and therefore the pattern of reduction in the absolute value of G is not much affected.
To examine the influence of the level of cementation on
the pattern of stiffness degradation, results obtained from
samples with qucs of 2.5 MPa are shown in Fig. 19. If the results shown in Fig. 19 are compared with weaker samples
tested under similar conditions (Fig. 16), it can be observed
that a faster rate of degradation of stiffness occurs in samples with a higher level of cementation due to the increasing
brittleness in the stressstrain response with increasing level
of cementation. Further, Fig. 19 shows that the confining
pressure and number of cycles have a very negligible effect
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Sharma and Fahey

on the rate of degradation of stiffness on strongly cemented

samples. This suggests that the only difference observed in
modulus reduction between samples with different levels of
cementation is the rate of degradation of modulus, and the
influence of other parameters, e.g., confining pressure and
number of cycles, is qualitatively similar in samples with
different levels of cementation.
The variation of stiffness with strain obtained from a large
number of tests performed on cemented GW samples is presented in previous sections and the cyclic tests results were
compared with the range defined by monotonic tests. To further investigate the pattern of stiffness degradation with
strain obtained from cyclic and monotonic tests, all the cyclic test results obtained from cemented GW samples are
plotted in Fig. 20. In this figure, the range of stiffness degradation obtained from monotonic tests presented in Fig. 11 is
also replotted. It can be observed that all the cyclic test results lie within the boundary defined by the monotonic tests.
The degradation of stiffness with strain obtained from cyclic tests on cemented LP sand was also examined and the
cyclic test results are presented in Fig. 21 together with the
range defined by the monotonic tests. In general, cemented
LP samples showed a pattern of degradation of stiffness similar to that observed in cemented GW samples. It can also be
observed that all the cyclic test results lie within a narrow
band defined by the monotonic tests, as in the case of GW
samples.

Damping ratio
The hysteresis loops obtained at different numbers of cycles, from which the shear moduli of cemented GW soils
were determined in previous sections, were also used to calculate the damping ratio. The results obtained from all the
tests are plotted in Fig. 22. Superimposed on the same figure
is the range of damping ratios proposed by Seed and Idriss
(1970) for silica sands. It can be observed that the differences previously noted in stiffness degradation curves are
also reflected in the damping ratio, with the damping ratio
being smaller at a particular strain level in cemented calcareous soils compared with that in uncemented noncalcareous
soils.

Summary and conclusions

Detailed experimental results on the deformation characteristics of two cemented calcareous soils obtained from
undrained monotonic and cyclic tests are presented in this
paper. The following conclusions are drawn from the analysis of the experimental results:
(1) Increasing the level of cementation resulted in a significant increase in the initial stiffnesses, with the latter being less and less dependent on the confining pressure.
Comparison of the pattern of stiffness degradation
obtained from calcareous soils with that from other noncalcareous soils showed that calcareous soils attained
faster rates of stiffness degradation with a higher strain
threshold.
(2) Examination of the effect of loading rate on the stiffness
showed that, although the effect of loading rate on initial stiffness is negligible, a slight difference in the pat-

1149
Fig. 22. Damping ratio with cyclic strain obtained from all tests
performed on cemented GW samples.

tern of degradation of stiffness with strain is observed,

with samples subjected to faster strain rates attaining a
slightly slower rate of stiffness degradation, and vice
versa.
(3) Examination of the influence of number of loading cycles on the stiffness revealed that the modulus reduction
with increasing number of cycles is found to depend on
whether the postyield behaviour is controlled by the cohesive component or the frictional component. In the
GW soil, where the sample showed a brittle postyield
response, the modulus reduction with increasing number
of cycles is found to be linear. In the LP samples, however, where the postyield response is controlled by frictional behaviour, the pattern of modulus reduction is
found to depend on the magnitude of cyclic stress and
the strain mobilized during the cyclic test.
(4) Examination of the degradation of stiffness with cyclic
strain showed that samples subjected to different precyclic and cyclic loading conditions, with the number of
cycles varying from 1 to 10 000, fall within a range
bounded by the monotonic tests.
(5) The damping ratio of the cemented calcareous soils was
also examined and was found to lie below the range defined for other noncalcareous soils.
The results and discussion presented in this paper are
obtained from samples cemented before consolidation, and
application to other cementation sequences needs further investigations.

Acknowledgements
The work presented in this paper forms part of the
research activities of the Centre for Offshore Foundation
Systems (COFS), established and supported under the Australian Research Council Research Centres Program. The
first author was supported by an International Postgraduate
Research Scholarship (IPRS) and a Geomechanics Group
Studentship. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The
collaboration of Dr. Edward Kucharski and Mr. Bob Middle 2004 NRC Canada

1150

ton from Lithic Technology (who provided the CIPS solution) is also appreciated.

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List of symbols
Aloop area of the hysteresis loop in an unloadingreloading
cycle
B pore pressure parameter
D damping ratio
G secant shear modulus for monotonic tests and loop shear
modulus for cyclic tests
Gloop secant shear modulus for the whole loop
Gloop-1 secant shear modulus for the whole loop corresponding
to the first cycle
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Sharma and Fahey

Gloop-N secant shear modulus for the whole loop corresponding
to the Nth cycle
Go initial tangent shear modulus
Go(ani) Go value obtained from an anisotropically consolidated
sample
Go(iso) Go value obtained from an isotropically consolidated
sample
Gsec secant shear modulus from monotonic tests
N cycle number
p mean effective stress (= (1 + 2 3 )/3)
po initial consolidation pressure
q deviator stress (= 1 3 )
qcyc cyclic deviator stress
qmax maximum deviator stress

1151
qmean
qmin
qo
qpeak
qucs
qyield
TS
1, 3
s
scyc
df
di
1, 3

mean deviator stress

minimum deviator stress
deviator stress at end of consolidation
peak strength
unconfined compressive strength
yield deviator stress
tensile strength
principal strains
deviator strain (= 2/3( 1 3))
cyclic deviator strain
unit weight of sample after cementation
unit weight of uncemented sample
major and minor principal effective stresses

2004 NRC Canada