Abstract: “Unexpected earthquake incidents and development of high speed railways in Malaysia have drawn increasing attention of studies on soil dynamic behaviours. This paper provides an overview of the factors affecting dynamic properties of soil, i.e. damping ratio and shear modulus. Confining pressure and frequency of cyclic loading are the main extrinsic factors affecting the dynamic properties of soil, while soil plasticity and percentage of fines are identified as the main intrinsic factors of soil influencing its dynamic behaviours. It is found that previous studies of soil dynamic properties mainly focus on sandy and clayey soils. Studies of dynamic properties for tropical residual soil that consists of predominantly silty materials are still very limited.”

Keywords: residual soil, dynamic behaviours, damping ratio, shear modulus, cyclic loading.