Shear Modulus and Damping Ratio of Gravel Material

Two of the most important parameters in dynamic analysis involving soils are the dynamic shear modulus and the damping ratio. In this study, a series of tests were performed on gravels. For comparison, some other tests carried out by other researchers were also collected. The test results show that normalized shear modulus and damping ratio vary with the shear strain amplitude, (1) normalized shear modulus decreases with the increase of dynamic shear strain amplitude, and as the confining pressure increases, the test data points move from the low end toward the high end; (2) damping ratio increases with the increase of shear strain amplitude, damping ratio is dependent on confining pressure where an increase in confining pressure decreased damping ratio. According to the test results, a reference formula is proposed to evaluate the maximum dynamic shear modulus, the best-fit curve and standard deviation bounds for the range of data points are also proposed.