Special Contribution

The material damping is an indispensable input mechanical property required in most design

work and the accuracy of the ground response analysis depends on it; also, it provides a very

basic condition for large strain dynamic properties. Hence, it is imperative to report the

correct damping ratio of the soil material in order to carry out the site response analysis more

accurately. In the resonant column test, two approaches to damping measurement are

commonly used: Steady-State Vibration (SSV) and Free-Vibration Decay (FVD). In the first

method, the cylindrical soil specimen is vibrated in one of its natural frequency with an

application of harmonic torsional excitation, which gives the frequency response curve from

which damping is determined. In the second method, the soil specimen is led to vibrate freely

after steady-state vibration is removed, while the amplitude of the motion decays

exponentially with time is recorded and damping is determined. Relatively limited studies are

reported in the literature on the comparison between the SSV and FVD method. Stokoe et al.

(1999) used the average of first three cycles in their study, Senetakis et al. (2015) reported the

use of two successive cycles when FVD method is used for damping determination. Though,

ASTM specifications suggested using ten or smaller number of free vibration cycles,

however, depending on the shear strain range which method should be adopted is not

specified clearly. Hence, this study primarily focuses on the detail investigation of the

differences between the SSV and FVD method of damping determination in a resonant

column testing and suggest the appropriate method to be adopted depending on the working

shear strain range.

In addition, damping results of natural sands and naturally deposited silts or clayey soils

derived from the SSV & FVD methods corresponding to suggested shear strain range is

adopted and discussed in the paper. Much research has already been done on the dynamic

properties of soils particularly for sands, clay, and silts worldwide and several dynamic
curves have been developed for those types of soils. However, naturally deposited soils are

mostly the mixtures of sands, silts, and clay of different fractions. Limited research is

available in the literature on the small to medium strain dynamic properties of naturally

deposited silty soils of varying sand and fine (silt & clay) fractions. Hence, there is a need to

develop the dynamic model for such type of naturally deposited soils which can be used for

ground response analysis of the alluvial sites underlain by the rich silty soils. In the present

study, an effort has also been made to investigate the influence of relative density, effective

confining pressures, and nature of the naturally deposited soil types on damping results

derived from the SSV and FVD methods. Finally, damping ratio curves with respect to small

to medium shear strain range is developed for the chosen soils, which should be useful in any

geotechnical dynamic analysis, if enough information concerning the soil type or gradation is

available.

Reviewer lists:

1. Kostas Senetakis, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University

of Hong Kong
Email: ksenetak@cityu.edu.hk

2. Takaji Kokusho, Professor Emeritus at Chuo University since 2015.

3. Yoshida, N.

Paul Michaels, Associate Member, ASCE

P.E., Prof. of Engrg. Geophys., Boise State Univ., Geosci. Dept., 1910 University Dr.,
Boise, ID 83725.

Suguru Yamada;

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Yamaguchi Univ., 2-16-1

Tokiwadai, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan (corresponding author). E-mail: suguru.y@yamaguchi-

u.ac.jp