Chalk is a soft biomicrite composed of silt-sized crushable CaCO3 aggregates. Chalk’s response to cyclic loading depends critically on its sensitive micro fabric and state, which may be altered significantly by high-pressure compression, dynamic impact or prior large-strain repetitive shearing. This paper reports high-resolution undrained cyclic triaxial experiments on low- to medium-density intact chalk and chalk de-structured by dynamic compaction to model the effects of percussive pile driving. The intact chalk manifested stable and nearly linear visco-elastic response under a wide range of the one-way, stress-controlled cyclic loading conditions imposed. However, high level cycling led to sudden failures that resembled the fatigue response of metals, concretes and rocks, with little sign of cyclic damage before sharp pore pressure reductions, non-uniform displacements and finally brittle collapses. However, the de-structured chalk’s response to high-level undrained cycling resembles that of silts, developing both contractive and dilative phases that led to pore pressure build-up, leftward effective stress-path drift, permanent strain accumulation, cyclic stiffness losses and increasing damping ratios. Results from exemplar tests are presented to illustrate these key features and demonstrate how chalk’s undrained cyclic shearing characteristics depend also on effective stress level. The experimental outcomes provide significant scope for developing constitutive and empirical relationships or predictive tools to enable the interpretation and design of driven pile foundations in chalk and other chalk-structure interaction related problems under cyclic loading. 

Project-specific advanced laboratory testing is employed increasingly frequently in site investigations for major offshore projects. Such testing needs to focus on characterising properties under in-situ conditions, while also catering for the effects of foundation installation and subsequent service conditions, including cyclic loading. Low-to-medium density chalk, a variable soft biomicrite, can be de-structured to soft paste under dynamic percussion or large-strain repetitive shearing, posing significant challenges and uncertainties for driven pile design. This paper draws on key outcomes from undrained cyclic triaxial test programmes on both intact chalk and dynamically de-structured (putty) chalk. The cyclic response of intact chalk resembles the fatigue behaviour of hard rocks and develops little sign of damage before sharp pore pressure reductions and brittle collapse occurs. In contrast, fully de-structured chalk develops both contractive and dilative phases, as seen with silts. The associated effective stress reductions vary systematically with the number of cycles and cyclic stress ratio. A laboratory-based global axial cyclic predictive method is proposed from the experiments and employed to predict the outcomes of field axial cyclic loading pile tests. The research provides then basis for robust cyclic design guidance for piles driven in low-to-medium density chalk.

An improved constitutive model for strain accumulation of natural clays under undrained cyclic loading is presented. The proposed model includes a formulation for the non-linear small-strain stiffness in the overconsolidated regime, along with a modified hardening law for cyclic accumulation to improve the tracking of strain accumulation at small stress amplitudes. To calibrate and validate the proposed model, a series of laboratory tests were conducted to study the cyclic response of natural Swedish clays, the effect of loading amplitude and pre-shearing history. Good agreement between predicted and measured accumulated axial strains and excess pore water pressures was obtained with different loading amplitudes. The findings reveal that the undrained pre-shearing has a substantial impact on the rate of accumulated strain, with pre-sheared samples exhibiting lower resistance values. The proposed and validated model opens up possibilities to study the monotonic and non-monotonic quasi-static response of soft clays below railway embankments over the lifetime of the structure, i.e. including the effects of construction, operation and decommissioning.

This paper reports the cyclic behaviour of chalk, which has yet to be studied comprehensively. Multiple undrained high-resolution cyclic triaxial experiments on low-to-medium density intact chalk, along with index and monotonic reference tests, define the conditions under which either thousands of cycles could be applied without any deleterious effect, or failure can be provoked under specified numbers of cycles. Intact chalk’s response is shown to differ from that of most saturated soils tested under comparable conditions. While chalk can be reduced to putty by severe two-way displacement-controlled cycling, its behaviour proved stable and nearly linear visco-elastic over much of the one-way, stress controlled, loading space examined, with stiffness improving over thousands of cycles, without loss of undrained shear strength. However, in cases where cyclic failure occurred, the specimens showed little sign of cyclic damage before cracking and movements on discontinuities lead to sharp pore pressure reductions, non-uniform displacements and the onset of brittle collapse. Chalk’s behaviour resembles the fatigue response of metals, concretes and rocks, where micro-shearing or cracking initiates on imperfections that generate stress concentrations; the experiments identify the key features that must be captured in any representative cyclic loading model.

Low-to-medium density chalk at St Nicholas at Wade, UK, is characterised by intensive testing to inform the interpretation of axial and lateral tests on driven piles. The chalk de-structures when taken to large strains, especially under dynamic loading, leading to remarkably high pore pressures beneath penetrating CPT and driven pile tips, weak putty annuli around their shafts and degraded responses in full-displacement pressuremeter tests. Laboratory tests on carefully formed specimens explore the chalk’s unstable structure and markedly time and rate-dependent mechanical behaviour. A clear hierarchy is found between profiles of peak strength with depth of Brazilian tension (BT), drained and undrained triaxial and direct simple shear (DSS) tests conducted from in-situ stress conditions. Highly instrumented triaxial tests reveal the chalk’s unusual effective stress paths, markedly brittle failure behaviour from small strains and the effects of consolidating to higher than in-situ stresses. The chalk’s mainly sub-vertical jointing and micro-fissuring leads to properties depending on specimen scale, with in-situ mass stiffnesses falling significantly below high-quality laboratory measurements and vertical Young’s moduli exceeding horizontal stiffnesses. While compressive strength and stiffness appear relatively insensitive to effective stress levels, consolidation to higher pressures closes micro-fissures, increases stiffness and reduces anisotropy.

Low-to-medium density chalk can be de-structured to soft putty by high-pressure compression, dynamic impact or large-strain repetitive shearing. These process all occur during pile driving and affect subsequent static and cyclic load-carrying capacities. This paper reports undrained triaxial experiments on de-structured chalk, which shows distinctly time-dependent behaviour as well as highly non-linear stiffness, well-defined phase transformation (PT) and stable ultimate critical states under monotonic loading. Its response to high-level undrained cyclic loading invokes both contractive and dilative phases that lead to pore pressure build-up, leftward effective stress path drift, permanent strain accumulation, cyclic stiffness losses and increasing damping ratios that resemble those of silts. These outcomes are relatively insensitive to consolidation pressures and are distinctly different to those of the parent intact chalk. The maximum number of cycles that can be sustained under given combinations of mean and cyclic stresses are expressed in an interactive stress diagram which also identifies conditions under which cycling has no deleterious effect. Empirical correlations are proposed to predict the number of cycles to failure and mean effective stress drift trends under the most critical cyclic conditions. Specimens that survive long-term cycling present higher post-cyclic stiffnesses and shear strengths than equivalent 'virgin' specimens.

A new procedure for the preparation of low-plasticity silt specimens that are isotropically reconstituted from slurry is developed for use in both saturated and unsaturated soil testing. Spatial variations of the water content and grain size distribution were examined to confirm the uniformity of the specimens (regarding void radio and segregation). The new preparation method results in a homogeneous specimen, which has a simple stress history. The repeatability of the proposed method in preparing identical specimens was verified for both saturated and unsaturated soil testing. The strength and volumetric behavior of specimens prepared by the introduced method are compared with those of moist-tamped compacted specimens and one-dimensionally reconstituted slurry specimens by performing consolidated drained triaxial tests. The microstructure of the specimens prepared with different methods was examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry. The test results indicate that silt specimens could exhibit either dilative or contractive behavior at normal consolidated conditions, depending on the microstructure.

An exponential equation is introduced to predict the nonlinear variation of shear strength with matric suction for unsaturated soils. The proposed equation involves three constant parameters, two of which are effective shear strength parameters (i.e., ′ and c′). The third parameter is the maximum capillary cohesion, c″max, which is the maximum possible increase in shear strength due to matric suction. A procedure for the determination of c″max from the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is devised. The proposed equation is validated through a series of constant-suction consolidated drained triaxial tests conducted on specimens reconstituted by isotropic consolidation from the slurry state. In addition, the validity of the equation is investigated by applying it to the test results of five other soils that were available in the literature for the low-suction range (i.e., up to 1,500 kPa). A comparative study on the prediction of shear strength was carried out between the proposed equation and six other shear strength equations found in the literature. The results show that the proposed equation provides reliable predictions of the shear strength of unsaturated soils when the shear strength converges to an asymptotic value at the residual water content.

The potential of X-ray scattering measurements for monitoring changes on the nano-scale in fine-grained materials in their natural wet state is demonstrated with a series of feasibility tests on well-controlled kaolin samples - that is, water content, pH and loading history. The results indicate that subtle changes on the nanometric scale, especially the particle orientations, can be measured with high fidelity using a standard laboratory small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering instrument. This opens up possibilities for future in situ loading tests with simultaneous monitoring of the evolving changes of the fabric in fine-grained soils.

X-ray scattering is a promising non-invasive technique to study evolving nano- and micro-mechanics in clays. This study discusses the experimental considerations and a successful method to enable X-ray scattering to study clay samples at two extreme stages of consolidation. It is shown that the proposed sample environment comprising flat capillaries with a hydrophobic coating can be used for a wide range of voids ratios ranging from a clay suspension to consolidated clay samples, that are cut from larger specimens of reconstituted or natural clay. The initial X-ray scattering results using a laboratory instrument indicate that valuable information on, in principal evolving, clay fabric can be measured. Features such as characteristic distance between structural units and particle orientations are obtained for a slurry and a consolidated sample of kaolinite. Combined with other promising measurement techniques from Materials Science the proposed method will help advance the contemporary understanding on the behaviour of dense colloidal systems of clay, as it does not require detrimental sample preparation.