Comparing evolutions of elastoplastic characteristics of cohesive soils under different cyclic loading-wetting paths
HAN Zhong1*, PU Xingyu1, WU Jianrong1, ZHANG Lin1, CHEN Yongxing1, ZOU Weilie1, XU Feng2, FENG Huaiping3
(1. School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China; 2. China Merchants Chongqing Communications Research and Design Institute Co., Ltd., Chongqing 400074, China; 3. School of Civil Engineering, Shijiazhuang Tiedao
University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050043, China)
Abstract：This paper presents a comparative analysis of the evolution of elastoplastic characteristics (including resilient modulus, MR and accumulative plastic strain, ) of a clayey subgrade soil in Guangxi Ningming under two cyclic loading-wetting paths. The applied loading-wetting paths include a “loading-wetting” (LW) path, which simulates the simultaneous cyclic loading and wetting processes during the service of pavement subgrade soils, and a “constant-humidity loading” (CH) path, which is commonly used in current tests where soils are loaded under constant moisture content conditions. The experimental results indicate that: (1) compared with the CH path, the clayey soil under the LW path exhibits stronger resistance to cyclic loading, demonstrated by a higher MR (up to 39% increase) and a lower (up to 57% reduction) at the same moisture content and stress state. Moreover, under the LW path, the MR increases more rapidly during cyclic loading, while the accumulates more slowly. The scales of variation in the MR and during the wetting process are also smaller than those under the CH path; (2) Under both paths, the MR and generally exhibit a linear relationship during cyclic loading, with the slope decreasing significantly as the moisture content (w) increases. At lower w values, the accumulation of the and the corresponding compaction effect effectively enhance the MR. At higher w values, the accumulates rapidly, but the cyclic loading-induced damage effect increases while the contribution of the compaction effect decreases, resulting in insignificant MR growth. The slope of the MR- relationship under the LW path is greater than that under the CH path; (3) At the same number of loading cycles, the MR- relationship of the clayey soil under different confining pressures, deviatoric stresses, moisture contents, and loading-wetting paths shows a distinct linear trend in double-logarithmic coordinates. Based on this, a model is proposed that effectively predicts the MR- relationship of clayey subgrade soils under varying numbers of loading cycles, moisture contents, and stress states.
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2026, Vol. 45 
