Strain Softening Prediction Using Normalized Method

Abstract This study assessed the applicability of normalized method in predicting the stress-strain curve at the strain softening phase. The methodology is based on standard test and easily replicable which is conventional triaxial test. The soil sample from Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia was taken for the test. The drained triaxial test was conducted on four samples with various effective stresses (50, 100, 200 and 300kPa). The results showed that the soil is classified as silty clay with high plasticity. Based from the results, the stress-strain curves indicate strain softening clearly. The normalized method is applied in this study. It is based from Rotational Multiple Yield Surface Framework (RMYSF). However, RMYSF is applied to predict the stress-strain curves for unsaturated soil and limited to strain hardening only. Extension work is conducted to the existing method by predicting the strain softening phase for saturated soil. It can be concluded that normalized method is successfully predicted the strain softening phase of the soil. The main advantage of this method is that it can be applied to predict the soil strength parameter for various effective stresses without having to conduct many tests. Therefore, this method will help to cut the time and cost of testing effectively.