Undrained behaviour of compacted gravel lateritic soils from western Senegal under monotonic and cyclic triaxial loading

The shear strength of lateritic soils has been studied extensively and several studies have demonstrated the susceptibility of laterite soils to degradation under load. Results of CIU triaxial tests on reconstituted samples of western Senegalese laterites are presented during monotonic and cyclic triaxial loading. The results of these tests reveal the existence of two types of behaviour that are dependent on the level of the effective confining pressure (or the initial density). The response of three lateritic soils to undrained cyclic triaxial loading is also described. The cyclic stress level has been varied, while the frequency remained constant for all tests. In order to model the response of the soils under the traffic load the results are considered only in terms of the evolution of the permanent strain and also of the variation of the resilient modulus during loading. The three soils all act alike.