An experimental study has been conducted to evaluate the effects of average and cyclic shear stresses on the undrained failure behaviors of dense marine silty sand by using the Cyclic Direct Simple Shear apparatus. The results show that when the average shear stress ratio is zero, symmetric cyclic shear deformation is the major component of deformation, and permanent shear deformation is relatively small. On the other hand, when the average shear stress ratio is larger than zero, asymmetric

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... anent shear deformation is the major component, and cyclic shear deformation does not change much as the number of cyclic loads increases. The average shear stress ratio has less effects on the number of cyclic loads needed to fail, as compared with the cyclic shear stress ratio. The proposed stress-dependent failure contour can effectively be used to assess the cyclic shear strength of soil beneath the foundation for the design of offshore structures.