PROCEEDINGS OF THE 15TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE

ON SOIL MECHANICS AND GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

This page intentionally left blank
 Prroceed
dings of
o the 15th
1 E
Europe ean
Co
onferennce on
n Soil Mecha
M anics aand
Geootechniical En
ngineeering
Geottechnics off Hard Soilss – Weak Rocks
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Compttes Ren
ndus duu 15ème Cong grès Eurropéenn
de Mécaniq
M que dess Sols & de Gééotechnnique
La Gééotechnique des Sols Induréés – Roches T
Tendres

Part 1, 2 and 3

Edited by
y
A
Andreas Anagnosstopoulos
N
National Tech
hnical University of Athens

Mich
hael Pach
hakis
OTM Con
nsulting Eng
gineers SA
and
Christtos Tsatssanifos
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PANGAEA C
Consulting En
ngineers LTD
D

Amstterdam • Berrlin • Tokyo • Washington, DC

© 2011 The authors and IOS Press.

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering v
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.

Contents
Part 1
1.1. Field Investigations / Investigations In situ 1

L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide entre le pressiomètre Ménard et le dilatomètre flexible 3

HyperPac 25 MPa Fills the Gap Between the Ménard Pressuremeter and the Flexible Dilatometer
G. Arsonnet, J.-P. Baud, M. Gambin and R. Heintz
Hydraulic Properties of Upper Eocene Flysch, at Papadates, Preveza Province, Greece 9
Les propriétés hydrauliques du haut-éocene flysch, au Papadates, Preveza province, de la Grèce
N. Barounis, A. Barounis, K. Karadima and P.H. McMahon
Laboratory and Field Investigation in Porto Romano Durres 15
Investigations en laboratoire et in situ dans Porto Romano Durres
L. Bozo, S. Allkja and L. Harizaj
Mechanical Properties of Low Plasticity Clayey Soil of the Embedded Daugava Ancient River
Channel in the Foundation of Plavinas Dam, Latvia 21
Propriétés mécaniques des sols argileux de faible plasticité du chenal ancienne de la rivière Daugava
enchâssé à la Fondation de Plavinas barrage, Lettonie
S. Dišlere and D. Pāruma
Landslide Stabilization Along a National Road 25
Stabilisation d’un glissement de terre sur une route nationale
V. Farcas, N. Ilies, A. Popa, C. Gherman, O. Muresan and I. Molnar
Intesa-San Paolo Tower in Turin – Geotechnical Issues 31
Intesa San Paolo Tour en Turin – Geotechniques probleme
A. Gasparre, H.D. St. John, M. Jamiolkowski and G. Rocchi
Investigations and Interpretation of Results from Dynamic Probing DPH from the N10*-Values
of an Data Acquisition 37
Exploration et interprétation des résultats de la pénétration dynamique de la N10*-valeurs d’une acquisition
des données
R.A. Herrmann and T. Lauber
Mechanical Properties of Semi-Rocks Soils and Methods of Their Determination 43
Propriétés de mécaniques de la pierre calcaive et méthods pour la détermination de leurs
N.V. Kornienko, A.V. Novskiy, V.A. Novskiy, A.P. Tkalich and Y.F. Tugaenko
Development of an Instrumented Subassembly for Energy Measurements in SPT Tests 49
Développement d’une tige instrumenté pour mesurer l’énergie d’essai de pénétration standard (SPT)
J.A. Lukiantchuki, L.P.R. de Oliveira and E.R. Esquivel
Geotechnical Conditions for the Construction of Tunnel “Progon” on the Dimitrovgrad Bypass
in Serbia 55
Conditions géotechniques pour la construction du tunnel « Progon » sur la rocade Dimitrovgrad en Serbie
S. Milenkovic, B. Jelisavac, V. Vujanic and M. Jotic
vi

Empirical Determination of the Undrained Shear Strength of Very Stiff to (Very) Hard
Cohesive Soils from SPT Tests 61
Détermination empirique de la cohésion non drainée des argiles très raides a très dures, a partir des
essais de Pénétration Standard
C. Plytas, A. Baltzoglou, G. Chlimintzas, G. Anagnostopoulos, A. Kozompolis and
Ch. Koutalia
Facteur d’influence des paramètres de forage 67
Influence Factors of Measuring While Drilling Method
Ph. Reiffsteck
Geophysical Site Characterization of a Volcanic Massif with Combined Surface and Borehole
Seismic Methods 73
Caractérisation géophysiques du site, d’un massif volcanique avec la combinaison des méthodes sismiques
de surface et celle réaliser dans un trou de forage
R. Rocha, N. Cruz, C. Rodrigues and F. Almeida
Investigation of Interdependence of Map and Distract Represented on It at Engineering –
Geological Researches in Construction 79
L’investigation de l’interdépendance de la carte et la localité représenté sur elle aux reconnaissance
du sol de fondation dans la construction
V.S. Shokarev, A.S. Shokarev, A.K Solonetz and A. Zhusupbekov
Stabilization of Gravel Deposits Using Microorganisms 85
La stabilisation des dépôts de gravier à l’aide des microorganismes
W.R.L. van der Star, W.K. van Wijngaarden-van Rossum, L.A. van Paassen,
L.R. van Baalen and G. van Zwieten
Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods for Identification of Subsoil Stratigraphy 91
Efficacité des méthodes de classification basées sur le CPT pour l’identification de la stratigraphie des sols
M.T. Tumay, Y.H. Karasulu, Z. Młynarek and J. Wierzbicki
Problems Caused by the Presence of Hard Concretions and Lithified Beds in the Subsoil
on the Realisation of Geotechnical Investigations and Infrastructure Projects 99
Problèmes causés par la présence de concrétions dures et d’horizons lithifiés dans le sol lors de
l’exécution de projets d’infrastructure
G. van Alboom, I. Vergauwen, J. Maertens and W. Maekelberg

1.2. Laboratory Testing / Essais en laboratoire 105

Microstructure and Mechanical Behaviour of a Saturated Compacted Scaly Clay 107

Microstructure et comportement mécanique d’une argile écailleuse compactée et saturée
C. Airò Farulla and M. Rosone
Dynamic Poisson Ratio Analysis 115
Analyse du coefficient de Poisson dynamique
M.F. Amaral, A. Viana da Fonseca, J. Carvalho and N.C. Consoli
Estimation of UCS from PLT for Sedimentary Rocks, with Emphasis to Conglomerate and
Breccias 121
Estimation de la résistance á la compression de l’essai ponctuel, avec emphases á conglomérâtes et breccia
A.A. Antoniou
 vii

Experimental Evaluation of Free Swell Method to Measure Swelling Pressure of Expansive

Soil 127
Évaluation expérimentale de méthode swell libre pour mesurer la pression de gonflement du sol gonflant
M.F. Attom and M.M. El-Emam
Compression Index Cc and Recompression Index Cr of Zagreb Area Clays 133
Indice de compression, Cc, et indice de recompression, Cr, des argiles de Zagreb
I. Bradvica and G. Mitrović
Measuring the Static and Dynamic Small Strain Stiffness of UK Mudrocks 137
La caractérisation de la rigidité aux petites deformations d’argilites anglaises par méthodes statiques
et dynamiques
A. Brosse, R. Hosseini Kamal, R. Jardine and M.R. Coop
Effects of Structure Changes in the Stress-Strain Strength Behaviour of a Sienitic Residual
Soil 143
Effets des changements de structure dans le comportement contrainte-déformation résistance d’un sol
sienitic résiduelle
T.M.O. Carvalho, T.M.P. de Campos and F.S. Antunes
Grain Size Distribution and Particle Shape Effects on Shear Strength of Sand – Gravel
Mixtures 149
Effets dus à la granulométrie et à la forme des particules sur la résistance au cisaillement du sable –
mélanges de gravier
F. Casini, S. Brauchli, R. Herzog and S.M. Springman
Un nouvel essai d’émiettage pour mieux caractériser l’effet de l’eau sur les sols 155
An “Enhanced Crumb Test” for Better Characterizing Water Effects on Soils
C. Chevalier, I. Haghighi, T. Martin and P. Reiffsteck
Influence of Fibre Inclusion on Crack Propagation 161
L’influence d’inclusion de fibre sur la propagation de première
A. Chegenizadeh and H. Nikraz
Validation of a Methodology for Reconstituting Weakly Cemented Sandstones 167
Validation d’une méthodologie pour la reconstitution de grès faiblement cimenté
P.A.L.F. Coelho, V.D. Marques, P.S. Andrade and P.P. Cunha
The Influence of Microfabrics in Bonded Soils Behaviour, Based in Laboratorial Comparison
of Artificially and Naturally Cemented Specimens 173
L’influence des microstructures dans le comportement des sols collés, basée sur la comparaison,
en laboratoire, de spécimens artificiellement et naturellement cimentés
N. Cruz, C. Rodrigues and A. Viana da Fonseca
Determination of the Small-Strain Stiffness of Hard Soils by Means of Bender Elements and
Accelerometers 179
Détermination de la rigidité à petite déformation des sols indurés par bender elements et accéléromètres
C. Ferreira, J.P. Martins and A. Gomes Correia
Measurement of Stiffness of Greek Stiff Soils 185
Mesures de rigidité des argiles raides en Grèce
V.N. Georgiannou, P. Ferreira and F. Altuhafi
Laboratory Measurement of Shear Stiffness of Decomposed Granite 191
Mesures en laboratoire de la rigidité de cisaillement d’un granite décomposé
X.Q. Gu and J. Yang
viii

Rapid Estimation of Residual Shear Strength by Ring Shear Test 197

Estimation rapide de la résistance au cisaillement résiduelle par l’essai de cisaillement annulaire
R. Iyisan, G. Cevikbilen and M. Hatipoglu
Laterally Cyclic Loading of Monopile in Dense Sand 203
Chargement lateral cyclique de monopile dens le sable dense
R.T. Klinkvort, O. Hededal and M. Svensson
Evaluation of Initial Stiffness of Natural Overconsolidated Cohesive Soils 209
Evaluation de la rigidité initiale des sols naturels, preconsolidés, cohérents
M.J. Lipiński and W. Tymiński
Some Comments on the Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands 215
Quelques comments au variation d’entropie granulométrique et rupture des carbonate sable
J. Lorincz, L. Kárpáti, P.Q. Trang, E. Imre and S. Fityus
Effectiveness of Microfine Cement Suspension Grouting 223
Efficacité des ciments très fins en suspension d’injections
I.N. Markou and A.I. Droudakis
Reflections on Primary and Secondary Consolidation 229
Réflexions sur la consolidation primaire et secondaire
N. Mortensen
UCS Estimation for Maastricht Limestones by Needle Penetration Testing 235
Estimation de la resistance à la compression simple des calcaires Maastrichtians par le test de
resistance à l’enfoncement d’une aiguille
D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard, H.K. Engin, W. Verwaal and A. Mulder
Mechanical Behavior of Microfine Cement Grouted Sands 241
Comportement mécanique des sables injectés par coulis de micro ciment
I.A. Pantazopoulos and D.K. Atmatzidis
Essais de cisaillement direct sur interfaces sol granulaire-structure chargées à très grand nombre
de cycles et interprétation préliminaire 247
Direct shear tests on granular soil-structure interfaces involving a large number of cycles and preliminary
interpretation
S. Pra-Ai and M. Boulon
The Performance of Prefabricated Vertical Drain (PVD) Preloading with and Without Vacuum
and Heat 253
Le Comportement du Drain Verticale Prefabriquee (PVD) prechargee et non precharge avec Vacuum et
Chaleur
J. Saowapakpiboon, D.T. Bergado, N. Teerachaikulpanich and P. Voottipruex
Compaction and Liquefaction of Sand Caused by a Large Number of Loading Cycles 261
Densification et liquefaction du sable chargé par un grand nombre des cycles
A. Sawicki, W. Świdziński and J. Mierczyński
The Instrumentation of Parameters of Thermal Radiation and of Acoustic Emission as a
Source of Information Concerning the Processes of Deformation of Soft Rock Specimens 267
L’instrumentation des paramètres du rayonnement thermique et de l’émission acoustique en tant que
source d’information concernant le processus de déformation des échantillons de roche molle
V.I. Sheinin, D.I. Blokhin and A.V. Favorov
 ix

Cyclic Behaviour of Saturated Sands Subject to Previous Horizontal Shear Stresses 275
Comportement cyclique des sables saturés soumis à des contraintes précédentes de cisaillement horizontal
A. Soriano, H. Patiño, J. González and M. Valderrama
The Effect of Mechanical Remoulding on the Compression and Strength Characteristics of a
Mercia Mudstone 281
L’effet de remaniement mécanique sur les caractéristiques de compression et la force d’un mudstone
Mercia
S.E. Stallebrass and L.J. Seward
An Investigation of the Long-Term Engineering Response of Intact Chalk 287
Étude de l’influence d’un ouvrage de génie civil à long terme sur un calcaire intact
K.J.L. Stone and K.I. Katsaros
Statistical Evaluation of Geotechnical Laboratory Round Robin Tests in Hungary 293
Evaluation statistique des resultats des tests de plusieurs laboratoires géotechniques de la Hongrie
A. Takács and A. Mahler
Engineering Properties of Marls from Small to Large Strains 299
Propriétés mécaniques des marnes de petites à grandes déformations
Th. Tika, P. Kallioglou and St. Elpekos
An Integrated Geotechnical Study of UK Mudrocks 305
Une étude géotechnique intégrée des argilites du Royaume-Uni
S. Wilkinson, A. Brosse, C.H. Fenton, R. Hosseini Kamal, R.J. Jardine and M.R. Coop
The Transitional Behavior of Loosely Compacted Completely Decomposed Granite 311
Le comportement transitoire de granit faiblement compacté complètement décomposé
J.J. Zhang and C.Y. Cheuk
Adhesion Measurements on Conditioned Clays 317
Mesure d’adhésion d’argiles traitées
R. Zumsteg, M. Plötze, A.M. Puzrin, H. Egli and A. Walliser

1.3. Classification / Classification 323

Classification des sols et des roches à partir d’essais d’expansion cylindrique en haute pression 325
Soil and Rock Classification Based on High Pressure Borehole Expansion Tests
J.P. Baud and M. Gambin
Rock Mass Characterization for Tunnels in Limestone in Copenhagen and Malmö Area 331
Caractérisation de Massifs Rocheux Calcaires pour de Tunnels à Copenhague et dans la Région de Malmö
N. Foged, S. Stabell and B. Foged
Specific Features of Weak Rock Laboratory Testing 337
Les caractèristiques spéciales des essais de laboratoire des roches faibles
J. Frankovská and T. Durmeková
Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne pour la réalisation de deux
tranchées de grande profondeur 343
Classification and Characterization of an Upper White Chalk for the Construction of Two Deep Railway
Cuts
M. Haghgou
x

Some Basic Trends on the Geotechnical Characteristics of Lisbon Miocene Clays 351
Certaines tendances de base sur les caractéristiques géotechniques des argiles du Miocène de Lisbonne
M. Lopes Laranjo, M. Matos Fernandes and J. Almeida e Sousa
Geotechnical Properties of the Chalk in East London and the Thames Gateway 357
Les propriétés mécaniques de la Craie dans l’est de Londres et la région de Thames Gateway
C.O. Menkiti, A.S. Merritt, C.K. Choy, R.N. Mortimore and M. Black
On the Properties of Cambrian Clay and Sandstones 363
Les caractèristiques de l’argile Cambrien et les pierres calcaires poreuses
M. Mets, J. Miljan and R. Raudsepp
Les “Terres Noires” du Dauphiné, un cas de roche très sensible aux variations climatiques 369
The Dauphiné “Black Marls”: A Very Sensitive Weak Rock
J. Monnet, D. Fabre and M. Zielinski
The Relevance of Lithostratigraphy in the Assessment and Investigation of Engineering Ground
Conditions in UK Mudstones 375
La pertinence du lithostratigraphy dans l’évaluation et la recherche sur les conditions au sol de technologie
en argilite UK
K.J. Northmore, D.C. Entwisle, H.J. Reeves, P.R.N. Hobbs and M.G. Culshaw
A New Concept to Identify and Characterize Active Clays 381
Un concept nouveau d’identifier et caracteriser les argiles actives
A. Stanciu, I. Lungu, L. Ciobanita and M. Aniculaesi

2.1. Selection of Parameters / Sélection des paramètres 387

Foundation of a Gravity Dam on Layered Soft Rock. Shear Strength of Bedding Planes in
Laboratory and Large “in situ” Tests 389
Fondations d’un barrage en arc sur des bancs de roc tendre. Resistance en cisaillement des plans de
stratification en laboratoire et essais in situ à grande échelle
E.E. Alonso, N.M. Pinyol and J.A. Pineda
Deformation of Cylindrical Cavities in Cross-Anisotropic Rock 395
Déformation de cavités cylindriques dans la roche anisotrope transverse
A. Blioumi and D. Kolymbas
Re-Assessment of the Shear Strength of the Oligocene Clay from the Buda Area Based on the
Site Investigation of the Metro Line 4 401
Re-évaluation de la résistance au cisaillement de l’argile oligocène de la région de Buda basée sur l’étude
du ligne 4 du métro
Gy. Horváth and B. Móczár
Advances in Tunneling Simulation – A Probabilistic Approach 407
Des progrès dans la simulation des tunnels – une approche probabilistique
M. Huber, P.A. Vermeer, P.M. Stroehle and C. Moormann
Mechanical Behaviour of Disintegrated Rockfill 413
Comportement mécanique d’enrochement désagrégé
K. Kast
 xi

Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil with Random Elastic Parameters 419
La fiabilité de vibration de structures rigides sur le sol avec paramètres élastiques aléatoire
M.L. Kholmyansky
Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils at River Dike 427
Essais triaxiaux, essais de cisaillement direct, essais de cisaillement à taux constant de déformation,
et simulations numériques de sols mous pour une digue fluviale
H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw
Estimation of Geotechnical Properties and Classification of Geotechnical Behaviour in
Tunnelling for Flysch Rock Masses 435
Estimation des propriétés géotechniques et classification du comportement des massifs rocheux du
flysch aux tunnels
V. Marinos, P. Fortsakis and G. Prountzopoulos
Determination of the Physical Parameters of Soil from Pressuremeter Tests 441
Calcul des paramètres physiques des sols à partir des résultats des essais préssiométriques
J. Mecsi
Geotechnical Mapping of the SGGW Campus in Warsaw Applying the Bayesian Approach 447
La cartes géotechniques du Campus SGGW à Varsovie en appliquant de l’approche bayésienne
S. Rabarijoely, K. Garbulewski, J. Rajtar and S. Jabłonowski
Aspects on the Laboratory Frost Heave Testing Procedure 453
Aspects sur la procédure d’essai de laboratoire de soulèvement dû au gel
S. Saarelainen, H. Gustavsson and T. Ono
Propriétés mécaniques d’une marne 459
Mechanical Properties of a Marl
J.F. Serratrice
Stiffness of the Soil Determined from in Situ Testing 465
La raideur du sol déterminé sur des essais en place
Z. Skutnik, M. Bajda and M. Lech
Stiffness of Overconsolidated Hard Sandy Clay Soils 471
La rigidité des argiles dures, sablonneux et surconsolidées
R.P. Thompson, J.M. Belton and A.F. Booer
On the Shear Strength of Weak Rocks 477
Sur la résistance de cisaillement des roches tendres
E. Togrol and F. Kıran
Geotechnical Experiences with Most Clay 481
Expérience de Géotechnique avec Most argile
I. Vaníček
Predicting Shear Strength Mobilization of London Clay 487
Prévision de la mobilization de résistance au cisaillement d’argile de Londres
P.J. Vardanega and M.D. Bolton
Petrographic and Textural Characteristics and Mechanical Behaviour of Sicilian Calcarenites 493
Caractéristiques pétrographiques et structurelles et comportement mécanique des calcarénites de Sicile
M. Zimbardo, N. Nocilla and L. Ercoli
xii

2.2. Modelling / Modélisation 499

A Soft Rock Model for Cement Improved Clays 501

Un modèle de roche tendre pour des argiles traitées avec du ciment
M. Arroyo, M. Ciantia, R. Castellanza and A. Gens
Application of a Constitutive Model for Structured Soils in Hard Soils 507
Application d’un modèle de comportement pour les sols structurés dans les sols durs
G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas
Mechanisms of Hydraulic Fracturing in Clay, Sand and Rock 513
Mécanismes de fracturation hydraulique dans l’argile, le sable et la roche
A. Bezuijen and A.F. van Tol
Use of a Damage Parameter to Model the Mechanical Behavior of Marls 519
Utilisation d’un paramètre de dommage pour modeler le comportement mécanique des marnes
L. Caldeira, E. Maranha das Neves and R. Cardoso
On the Model Requirements to Predict the Behaviour of Fissured Clays 525
Sur les ingrédients pour la modélisation du comportement des argiles fissures
F. Cotecchia and C. Vitone
Stiffness Parameters for a Deep Tunnel – Developing a Robust Parameter Selection Framework 531
Paramètres de rigidité pour un tunnel profond – Développement d’un cadre robuste pour la
sélection des parameters
J. Eadington and A.S. O’Brien
An Extended Drucker-Prager Hardening Model for Cross-Anisotropy of Soft Rocks 537
Un modèle de comportement à écrouissage de type Drucker-Prager pour roches tendres à anisotropie
transverse
B. François, F. Collin, A. Dizier and R. Charlier
Long Term Accumulation of Deformation in Granular Soils Under Multi-Axial Cyclic Loading 541
Accumulation de déformation à long terme dans les sols granulaires sous chargement cyclique multi-axiale
S. François, P. Franken, G. Degrande and W. Haegeman
The Influence of Stiffness Anisotropy on the Behaviour of a Stiff Natural Clay 545
L’influence de l’anisotropie de déformation sur la réponse d’une argile rigide naturelle
A. Grammatikopoulou, F.C. Schroeder, N. Kovacevic, V. Germano and A. Gasparre
Elasto-Viscoplastic Modeling of Soft Rock Time Dependent Behavior 551
Modelisation elasto-viscoplastique du comportement dependent du temps de rocher mou
F.E. Karaoulanis and Th. Chatzigogos
Analysis of the Behavior of Massive Plate Foundations on Viscoelastic Base 557
Analyse du comportement des massifs plaque fondations sur la base viscoélastique
Y. Kirichek
Elasto-Viscoplastic Constitutive Modeling of Soft Sedimentary Rocks 563
Elasto-viscoplastic modelage constitutif de pierres sédimentaires douces
F. Oka, S. Kimoto and Q.H. Nguyen
A Multilaminate Soil Model for Highly Overconsolidated Clays 569
Un modèle de sol multi-plan pour les argiles fortement surconsolidées
B. Schädlich and H.F. Schweiger
 xiii

Research on Hydraulic Heaves at Excavations with Surcharge Filters 575

Recherche sur la stabilité contre des soulèvements d’eau les de l’excavation avec un filtre de surcharge
P. Schober, C. Boley and B. Odenwald
Triaxial Test Simulation on Erksak Sand Using Hardening Soil Model 581
Simulation des essais triaxiaux sur le sable Erksak avec le modèle Hardening Soil
I. Sokolić and Ž. Skazlić
Cemented Soil Modelling Based on the Principles of Thermodynamics and the Critical State
Theory 587
Modèle de comportement des sols cimentés fondé sur les principes de la thermodynamique et la théorie
d’Etat Critique
R. Tamagnini, M. Mavroulidou and M.J. Gunn
Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits 593
Spécifités du travail de sous-sol de dépôts protérozoïques durs
V.M. Ulitsky, V.A. Vasenin, A.G. Shashkin and C.G. Shashkin
Neural Modelling of the Fly Ash Compaction Curve 601
Modélisation neuronale de courbe de compactage des cendres volantes
K. Zabielska-Adamska and M.J. Sulewska

2.3. Unsaturated Hard Soils – Weak Rocks / Sols indurés non saturés – Roches tendres 607

Measuring the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve of Structured and Recomposed Soils 609
Mesure de la courbe caractéristique sol-eau des sols structurés et recomposés
M. Bardanis and S. Grifiza
Modeling the Oedometric Behavior of an Evolving Marl Under Stress and Suction Cycles 615
Modulation du comportement oedometrique de une marne évolutive sur cycles de contrainte et succion
R. Cardoso and E.E. Alonso
Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants sur le site de Ouarzazate. Maroc 621
Experimental Studies in the Behavior of Swelling Soil in Ouarzazate. Morocco
H. Ejjaaouani, V. Shakhirev and J.P. Magnan
A Contribution to Improve the Understanding of Softening in Stiff Overconsolidated Clays and
Marls 629
Une contribution à améliorer la compréhension d’adoucissement dans les argiles surconsolidées rigides et
marnes
M. Maček, B. Pulko and A. Petkovšek
Structure and Collapsibility of Loess Soils in Middle Asia 635
Structure et dégradation des sols de lœss en Asie Moyenne
C. Meier, C. Boley and Y. Zou
In-situ and Laboratory Water Retention Characteristics in a Silty Sand Dyke 641
Détermination in situ et en laboratoire des caractéristiques de rétention en eau d’un sable limoneux
W.F. Morales, P.A. Mayor, S.M. Springman and A. Vogel
Hydro-Mechanical Characterization of Jurassic Marls to Study Load Degradation 647
Caractérisation hydro-mécanique de marnes du Jurassique pour étudier la dégradation résultante du
chargement
J. Muralha, L. Caldeira, R. Cardoso and E. Maranha das Neves
xiv

Retaining Structures in Expansive Clays 653

Les structures de soutien dans les argile expansifs
A.T. Papagiannakis, S. Bin-Shafique and R.L. Lytton
Study of Swelling and Strength Characteristics of Expansive Soil Treated with Stone Dust and
Flyash 659
Etude du gonflement et de caractéristiques de résistance du sol expansif traités avec de la poussière de
pierre et des cendres volantes
T.L. Ramadas, N. Darga Kumar and G. Yesuratnam
Modelling the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve of Structured and Recomposed Hard Soils –
Weak Rocks 665
Modélisation de la courbe caractéristique sol-eau des sols durs – roches tendres structurés et recomposés
P. Sitarenios, M. Bardanis and M. Kavvadas
Impact de cycles hydriques sur le comportement hydromécanique d’un sol argileux gonflant
traité à la chaux 671
Influence of Wetting and Drying Cycles on the Hydromechanical Behaviour of a Lime Treated Expansive
Clayey Soil
G. Stoltz, O. Cuisinier and F. Masrouri
Unsaturated Behaviour of a Cemented Sand 677
Comportement non saturés d’un sable cimenté
D.G. Toll and Z. Ali Rahman
Model Piles Behaviour in a Compacted Fine-Grained Unsaturated Soil 683
Comportement de pieux à échelle réduite dans un sol fin non-saturé compacté
S.K. Vanapalli and Z. Nil Taylan
Subject Index I
Author Index XV
 xv

Part 2
3.1. Shallow Foundations / Fondations superficielles 689

Foundation of a Heavy Loaded Stockyard on Problematic Subsoil: Experience and Two Years
of Measurements 691
Stabilisation d’une aire de stockage sur un sol problématique: retour d’expérience et deux années
d’instrumentalisation
D. Alexiew, C. Moormann and A. Glockner
Strip Footing Behavior on Geotextile Reinforced and Soil Nailing-Stabilized Sand Slope 697
Comportement d’une semelle filante sur une pente de sable renforcée avec géotextile et stabilisée par
clouage
E.A.O. Belqasem Altalhe
An Investigation of a Rock Socketed Pile with an Integral Bearing Plate Founded over Weak
Rock 705
Étude d’une pile avec une plaque encastrée dans une roche molle
S. Arshi and K.J.L. Stone
Comportement d’un matelas de répartition au-dessus d’inclusions rigides et supportant, ou non,
une structure en béton: Méthode analytique de cal-cul 711
Behaviour of a Spreading Layer Above Rigid Inclusions and Supporting, or Not, a Concrete Structure:
Analytical Method of Calcul
P. Berthelot, F. Durand and M. Glandy
Foundation of the Arch Bridge in the Landslide Area of Tsakona, Greece 717
Fondation du pont en arc dans la zone de glissement de terrain de Tsakona, en Grèce
I.F. Fikiris, L. Sotiropoulos and G.T. Dounias
Seismic Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings on Clay Slopes 723
La force portante sismique des semelles filantes sur un talus argileux
K. Georgiadis and E. Chrysouli
Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design in Conditions of Combined Karst and
Landslide Risk 729
Problèmes du pratique et de la théorie du projet des fondements sur le terrain avec le danger combiné de
karst et de glissement de terre
A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman
Laboratory Tests and Field Measurements Investigating the Stress Strain Behaviour of
Foundations on Hard Soil and Weak Rock 737
Recherche sur le comportement contrainte-déformation de fondations sur le sol dur et rock doux utilisant
des essais de laboratoire et des mesures sur le terrain
E.-D. Hornig and H. Klapperich
Capacité portante des fondations superficielles avec et sans l’hypothèse de superposition 743
Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations with and Without the Superposition Assumption
A. Mabrouki, D. Benmeddour, M. Mellas and R. Frank
Experimentally Observed Settlements Beneath Shallow Foundations on Sand 749
Des essais pour observer des tassements sous les fondations superficielles sur du sable
B.T. McMahon and M.D. Bolton
xvi

Case Study: The Design & Performance of a Raft Foundation on Mercia Mudstone 755
Etude de cas: l’étude et la performance d’un radier sur un sol de type ‘Mercia Mudstone’
M. Miller, M. Vaziri and R. Miller
Long-Term Settlement Observations of a Bridge Foundation on Clay of Very High Plasticity 761
Observations en matière d'affaissement à long terme de fondations de pont sur un argile de très haute
plasticité
N. Okkels, L. Bødker and B. Knudsen
Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations Under Highly Eccentric and Inclined Loads 769
La capacité portante des fondations superficielles sous des charges très excentriques et inclinées
V. Papadopoulos and A. Arapakou
Kinematic Interaction Between Retaining Walls and Retained Footings Under Dynamic
Loading 775
Interaction cinématique entre les murs de soutènement et les fondations conservées sous chargement
dynamique
G. Papazafeiropoulos, Y. Tsompanakis and P.N. Psarropoulos
Back-Analysis of a Basement with a Raft Foundation in Overconsolidated Stiff Clay 781
Back analyse d’un sous sol avec un radier en argile raide surconsolidée
A. Pillai, R. Fuentes, P. Ferreira and A. Swain
Fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” Dockyard in Lisbon over Alluvial and Hard Soils 787
Remblai de la Dock du “Terreiro do Trigo” à Lisbonne sur des Alluvions et de Sols Durs
A. Pinto, R. Tomásio, J. Ravasco and G. Marques
Foundations Under Seismic Loads 793
Fondations sous charges sismiques
S. Prakash and V.K. Puri
Protection of the Cement Plant Facilities Foundations on the Artificial Firm soil Base Effected
by Dynamic Loading (Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine) 799
Protection de la partie de fondation des unités de l’usine à ciment en République Autonome Crimée
(Ukraine) sur le basement solide artificiel, soumis aux effets dynamiques
G.R. Rozenvasser, V.N. Tokovenko, V.E. Zhigarev, S.V. Malikov and V.E. Symonovych
Execution of Micropiles in an Underground Metro Station Against Buoyancy 805
Exécution des micropieux dans une station de métro dans un cas de sous-pression
R. Thurner, T. Kimpritis and N. Koutavas
Performance Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations in Comparison with Conventional Foundation
Systems by Using Finite Element Method 811
Analyse de la performance des fondations radier sur pieux en comparaison avec les systèmes de bases
classiques en utilisant la méthode des éléments finis
A. Yalcin Dayioglu and M. Incecik

3.2. Deep Foundations / Fondations profondes 817

Étude expérimentale et numérique du comportement d’un pieu isolé sous chargement cyclique
axial 819
Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Cyclic Axial Response of a Single Pile
O. Benzaria, A. Le Kouby and A. Puech
 xvii

A New Assessment of Ultimate Unit Friction for Driven Piles in Low to Medium Density Chalk 825
Une nouvelle évaluation de frottement unité ultime de pieux enfoncés en bas à la craie de densité moyenne
T.M. Carrington, G. Li and M.J. Rattley
Interpretation of Axial Load Tests for Bored Piles Penetrating Soft Rocks 831
L’interprétation des essais de capacité portant pour les pieux penetrant dans les roches degradées
R. Ciortan, S. Manea and G. Tsitsas
A New Method for the Evaluation of the Ultimate Load of Piles by Tests Not Carried to Failure 837
Une nouvelle méthode pour l’évaluation de la charge limite des pieux avec des essais qui n’atteignent pas la
rupture
G. Dalerci and R. Bovolenta
A Parametric Study on Pile Drivability for Large Diameter Offshore Monopiles 843
Une étude paramétrique sur la maniabilité de pieux pour de grand diamètre monopiles offshore
P. Doherty, K. Gavin and B. Casey
Barettes Socketed to Bedrock Assesment of Their Load Capacity 849
La capacité verticale de fondations barrette dans les roches
H. Turan Durgunoglu, H. Fatih Kulac, S. Ikiz, M. Sutcuoglu and O. Akcakal
Optimum Loading Specifications for O-cell bi-directional Static Load Testing 855
Caractéristiques optimum pour essai de charge statique bidirectionnel utilisant la cellule d’Osterberg
M.G. England and P.F. Cheesman
Prediction of the Axial Load Response of Open-Ended Pipe Piles in Glacial Soils 861
Prédiction de la réponse de charge axiale des pieux tubulaires ouvertes dans les sols glaciaires
K. Gavin, P. Doherty, J. Bevin and L. Twomey
Bearing Capacity of Piles Based on Static Load Tests and Calculation Principles Provided by
EN 1997-1 867
Capacité portante des pieux à partir des essais de chargement statique et les principes de calcul prévues par
la norme EN 1997-1
K. Gwizdała, A. Krasiński and T. Brzozowski
Flexural Effects in Dynamic Determination of Pile Capacity 873
Effets de flexion dans la détermination dynamique de la capacité portante d’un pieu
A. Holeyman and M. Allani
Offshore Foundation Engineering in Extremely Dense Glacial Tills West of the Shetland Islands 879
Technique de fondations sous-marines pour les tills extrêmement denses situés à l’ouest des Îles de
Shetland
R.J. Jardine, T.R. Aldridge and T.G. Evans
Piled Bridge Abutments on Soft Soils: Physical and 3D Numerical Modelling 885
Les contreforts de ponts à piles sur les sols mous: modélisation physique et 3D numérique
M.K. Kelesoglu and S.M. Springman
Approach for a Deep Construction Pit and a Piled-Raft Foundation in Urban Environment 891
Procédure de projet une profonde fouille et une fondation profonde dans l’environnement urbain
S. Meissner, H. Quick, J. Michael and U. Arslan
Base Resistance of Large Diameter Bored Piles in Soft Rocks 897
Résistance à base de grand diamètre s’ennuie piles dans les roches tendres
J.R. Omer
xviii

Chargement cyclique de pieux-tests instrumentés: le programme SOLCYP 903

Cyclic Loading of Instrumented Test Piles: The SOLCYP Project
A. Puech, S. Po, O. Benzaria F. Rocher-Lacoste and A. Le Kouby
Heave of a Piled Foundation on a Sulphated Claystone 909
Soulèvement d’une fondation avec pieux dans des argillites sulfatèes
A. Ramon and E.E. Alonso
Méthode de dimensionnement directe des pieux basée sur l’essai de chargement de pointe 915
Pile Direct Design Method Based on Cone Loading Test
Ph. Reiffsteck, H. Ali, F. Baguelin, H. Van de Graaf, C. Bacconnet and R. Gourvès
Design, Load Tests & Completion of Bored Piles 80m Depth in Pliocene Clays on a Danube
Bridge 921
Conception, tests de charge et réalisation des pieux forés 80 m de long dans des argiles du Pliocène dans
un pont sur le Danube
F. Rodríguez Ballesteros, G. Gómez Burgaz and J.M. Gutiérrez Manjón
Pile Integrity Testing Developments 927
Développements du contrôle de pieu par les méthodes impulsionelles
A.J.G. Schellingerhout and A.J. van Rietschoten-Rietveld
Capacity of Rock Sockets in Weak Mud/Siltstone 933
La capacité de douilles de roche dans faible mud/siltstone
J.S. Steenfelt and J. Abild
Effects of Crushing on Pile Point Bearing Capacity in Sand Tested in a Geotechnical Centrifuge 939
Les effets de l’écrasement sur la pile dirigent la portance en sable examiné dans une centrifugeuse
géotechnique
R. Stoevelaar, A. Bezuijen, H. van Lottum and A.F. van Tol
Estimating Skin Friction of Large Diameter Drilled Shafts in Weak Rock 945
Estimation de l’adhésion de pieux forés à grand diametre dans des formations rocheuses faibles
K. Syngros, M. Khoury, A. Poeppel, R. Frizzi, K. Fahoum and G. Leventis
Dynamic Axial Response of Drilled Piers in Stiff Sandy Clays 951
Réponse axiale dynamique des puits de soutien dans des argiles sableuses rigides
G. Wang and N. Sitar

3.3. Ground Reinforcement / Renforcements des sols 957

Numerical Back-Analysis of Compaction Grouting with a Hypoplastic Soil Model 959

Analyse numérique pour l’injection solide avec un modèle hypoplastique
A. Anthogalidis, U. Arslan and O. Reul
Réponse dynamique d’un sol après travaux de compactage haute énergie 965
Soil Dynamic Response After Heavy Compaction
S. Brûlé, E.H. Javelaud, Ph. Liausu and A.Bitri
Consolidation of Extremely Soft Mud for the A-380 Factory in Hamburg – Long Time
Experience 971
Consolidation de boue extrêmement molle pour l’usine de montage de l’A-380 à Hambourg – Résultats à
long terme
J.-L. Chaumeny, J. Kirstein and J. Reiner
 xix

Soil Mix: Influence of Soil Inclusions on Structural Behaviour 977

Soil mix: influence des inclusions de sol sur le comportement structurel
P. Ganne, N. Denies, N. Huybrechts, A. Vervoort, A. Tavallali, J. Maertens, B. Lameire
and F. De Cock
Durabilité du comportement mécanique d’un limon traité à la chaux soumis à un écoulement
d’eau 983
Long Term Behaviour of Lime-Treated Silty Soil Submitted to a Water Flow
O. Cuisinier, B. Le Runigo, D. Deneele, Y.-J. Cui and V. Ferber
3-D Analysis of Stone Columns to Support a Roadway Embankment on Soft Soil 989
Analyse en 3D de la construction sur pilotis servant de fondations à des ouvrages bâtis sur talus sur sol
meuble
E. Koch
Interaction sol-structure: Comparaison entre un renforcement de sol par Colonnes à Module
Mixte CMM® et par Inclusions Rigides INSER® 995
Interaction Soil-Structure: Comparison of Mixed Modulus Columns and Rigid Inclusions
S. Lambert, W. Wehr and M. Bustamante
Behaviour of Load Carrying Capacity for Geogrid Encased Stone Columns Using Field Tests 1001
Comportement en site de la capacité de charge des colonnes ballastées, renforcées par des geogrids à la
partie supérieure
D.Y. Lee and C. Yoo
Behaviour of Stabilized Soft Clay 1007
Comportement de l’argile molle stabilisée
I. Mataic, P. Vepsäläinen, M. Lojander and O. Korhonen
Mechanical Properties of a Saturated Lime Treated Clay 1013
Propriétés mécaniques d’une argile saturée traitée à la chaux
M. Mavroulidou, X. Zhang and M.J. Gunn
A Simplified Pseudo Dynamic Method of Reinforced Retaining Wall Subjected to Seismic
Loads 1019
Une méthode simplifiée pseudo-dynamique de soutènement renforcés mur soumis à des charges
sismiques
S.N. Moghaddas Tafreshi and M. Rahimi
Laboratory Tests of Footing Supported on Geotextile-Reinforced Sand Under Repeated
Loading 1025
Les tests de laboratoire de pied appuyé sur le sable géotextile renforcé souschargement répété
S.N. Moghaddas Tafreshi and A.R. Dawson
Caractérisation d’un limon traité utilisé comme matelas de transfert de charges dans une
fondation composite 1031
Characterisation of a Treated Silt Used as Load Transfer Platform in a Composite Foundation
U.S. Okyay, R. Manirakiza, G. Rault, L. Thorel, J.P. David, J.C. Auriol and D. Dias
Cutter Soil Mixing Solutions in Portugal on Hard Soils and Weak Rocks 1037
Solutions de Cutter Soil Mixing au Portugal dans des sols indurés et des roches tendres
A. Pinto, R. Tomásio, X. Pita, A. Pereira and A. Peixoto
Investigation of the Compound Behavior of Geogrid Reinforced Soil 1043
Investigation du comportement composé des sols renforcés avec géogrilles
A. Ruiken, M. Ziegler, L. Vollmert and S. Höhny
xx

Experimental Investigation on Durability of a Lime Stabilised Soil 1049

Etude expérimentale sur la durabilité d’un sol stabilisé à la chaux
G. Russo, P. Croce and N. Nocera
Grid Space Optimization of Jet Grouting Columns 1055
Optimisation de la distance entre les colonnes de sols cimentés par injection
E. Saurer, Th. Marcher and M. Lesnik
Application of Soil-Cement Modification in Weathered Shale for Road Construction 1061
Application de la modification du sol-ciment dans les schistes altérés pour la construction routière
J. Sukolrat, B. Ongsuksun, A. Klummeng and M. Dechasakulsom
Comparaison des comportements de matériaux Soil-Mixing réalisés sur chantier et en
laboratoire: étude d’un limon traité au ciment 1067
Comparison of the in situ and Laboratory Behavior of Soil-Mixing: Study of a Cement Treated Silt
F. Szymkiewicz, P. Reiffsteck, A. LeKouby and S. Fanelli
Influence of Geocell Reinforcement on Damping Properties of Trench with Pipe 1073
Influence de la Géocell renfort sur les propriétés d’amortissement de la tranchée avec des tuyaux
Gh. Tavakoli Mehrjardi, S.N. Moghaddas Tafreshi and A.R. Dawson
Preventing Internal Erosion Phenomena with the BioGrout Process 1079
Prévention face aux phénomènes d’érosion interne par la technique de BioGrout
M.A. Van, G.A. van den Ham, M. Blauw, M. Latil, N. Benahmed and P. Philippe
Ground Improvement for Wind Energy Oplants in Germany 1091
Amélioration de sol supportant les éoliennes en Allemagne
J. Wehr
Characteristics of Manmade Stiff Grounds Improved by Drill-Mixing Method 1097
Caractéristiques des sols artificiels durs améliorés par la procédure de forage-mélangeage
M. Zotsenko, Yu. Vynnykov, I. Lartseva, V. Shokarev and V. Krysan

4.1. Embankments and Dams / Remblais et barrages 1103

Construction of Papadia Secant Pile Plastic Concrete Cut-Off Wall 1105

Construction d’un diaphragme de pilotis intersectés en béton plastique à Papadia
K. Anastasopoulos, Ch. Economidis, D.A. Bruce and G. Rizopoulos
Finite Element Analysis of the Saint-Alban Embankment Failure with an Anisotropic
Undrained Strength Model 1111
Analyse par éléments finis de l’échec du remblai Saint-Alban avec un modèle de résistance non drainée
anisotrope
L. Andresen, G. Saygili and G. Grimstad
Barrage de Mahouane: Conditions geologiques et traitement de la fondation 1119
Mahouane Earth-Fill Dam: Geological Conditions and Grouting Foundation Treatment
F. D’Alessandro, C. Bordas and R. Hebbache
Design for Upgrading of Tailing Dam Toranica – Kriva Palanka in Complex Geotechnical and
Hydrological Conditions 1125
Projet pour mise à niveau le barrage de produit de queue Toranica – Kriva Palanka dans conditions
géotechniques et hydrologiques complexes
Lj. Dimitrievski, D. Ilievski, D. Dimitrievski and B. Bogoevski
 xxi

Use of Site Won Chalk for the Construction of Steep Geogrid Reinforced Soil Embankments
in the South of England, UK 1131
Utilisation de la craie de Site pour la construction de remblais abrupts renforcés par Géogrilles au Sud de
l’Angleterre
C. Doulala-Rigby and J. Dixon
Load Distribution on the Geosynthetic Reinforcement Within a Piled Embankment 1137
La répartition des charges sur le renfort geosynthetique dans un remblai comprenant des pieux
S.J.M. van Eekelen, H.J. Lodder and A. Bezuijen
Rockfill and Soil-Rock Mixtures in Road Embankments – A Case Study 1143
Enrochements et des mixtures sol-enrochement dans les remblais routiers – une étude de cas
E. Fortunato and L. Caldeira
Studies of Behavior of the Temporary Dam at the Dniester PSPP 1149
Les recherches de la condition de la digue provisoire de Dnestrovsky station électrique hydroaccumulant
V. Galat and V. Taranov
Geotechnical Aspects of Aposelemis Dam in Crete Island 1153
Aspects géotechniques du barrage Aposelemis dans l’île de Crète
I. Karapanagiotis, L. Somakos, A. Gkiolas, S. Lazaridou, Μ. Kavvadas and P. Marinos
Geological and Geotechnical Issues Pertinent to the Construction of Gadouras Dam, Rhodes
Island 1159
Problèmes géologiques et géotechniques pour la construction du barrage Gadouras dans l’île de Rhodes
S. Lazaridou, Μ. Kavvadas, P. Marinos, V. Perleros and L. Somakos
Full Scale Failure Test on a Railway Embankment; Extensive Instrumentation and Real Time
Monitoring 1165
Test de stabilité à pleine échelle sur remblai de chemin de fer; instrumentation extensive et surveillance
en temps reel
J. Mansikkamäki, V. Lehtonen, T. Länsivaara and H. Luomala
Large-Scale Cyclic Triaxial Tests for the Seismic Safety Assessment of a High Earth-Core
Rockfill Dam 1171
Essais triaxiaux cycliques de grand diamètre pour l’évaluation de la sécurité sismique d’une haute digue
en enrochement à noyau d’argile vertical
S. Messerklinger, R. Straubhaar, R.P. Brenner R. Herzog, J. Laue and S.M. Springman
Results of Geotechnical Monitoring for the Erection and Operation of the Tailing Dam at the
Diamond Deposit Named After M.V. Lomonosov 1177
Les résultats du contrôle géotechnique de construction et exploitation de la digue de protection du bassin
à déchets de lavage sur le gisement de diamants nommé après M.V. Lomonosov
A. Nevzorov, V. Koptyev and A. Korshunov
Maximum Relative Density of Clean Sand as a Function of Median Grain Size and
Compaction Energy 1185
Densité relative maximale des sables propres en fonction du diamètre moyen des particules et de l’énergie
de compactage
C.R. Patra, N. Sivakugan, B.M. Das and C. Atalar
Requirements for the Foundation of Gravity Dams in Border-Line Terrains 1191
Réquisits pour les fondations de digues de gravité dans terrains faibles
M. Romana
xxii

Analysis of Deformation Course in Problematic Soils Under Embankment 1199

Analyse des cours de déformation dans les sols problématiques sous remblai
W. Sas, A. Szymanski, E. Malinowska, A. Niesiolowska and K. Gabrys
The Dissolution of Gypsum of Disueri Reservoir Left Bank 1205
La dissolution du gypse de la rive gauche du réservoir Disueri
C. Valore, M. Ziccarelli and C. Gambino
Impact of Geosynthetics on Reducing Permanent Deformations on Soil Embankments 1211
Impact des géosynthétiques sur la réduction des déformations permanentes sur remblais
V. Zania, Y. Tsompanakis, P.N. Psarropoulos and G. Bouckovalas

4.2. Slope Stability / Stabilité des pentes 1217

End of Construction Failures of Cuttings in Stiff Clayey Marls – A Case from Central Greece 1219
Glissement des talus artificiels en marnes argileuses, immediatement apres leur construction.
Un example en Grèce Centrale
A. Alexandris, A. Paschalidou, E. Griva and M. Kavvadas
Determination of the Stress Strain State of Soil Base for the Structures at Static and Dynamic
Loads 1225
Détermination de l’état de contrainte-déformation de la base au sol des structures sous l’effet de charges
statiques et dynamiques
O. Areshkovych, I. Boyko and V. Sakharov
Landslide in a Shale Slope in Kabylie 1231
Glissement dans un talus schisteux de Kabylie
H. Bendadouche and S. Lazizi
Le cas du glissement de Boulimat 1237
The Case of Boulimat Slide
H. Bendadouche and S. Lazizi
Station d’essais de chutes de blocs dans les Alpes françaises: premiers retours d’expériences 1243
Rock-Falls Test Site in the French Alps: First Feedback
M. Bost, F. Rocher-Lacoste, Y. Goyat, L. Dubois, M. Feregotto and J. Gineys
Shallow Instabilities in Weathered Slopes. Limit Equilibrium Analysis 1249
Instabilités superficielles des pentes dégradées. Analyse d’équilibre limite
A. Da Costa, C. Sagaseta, J. Cañizal and J. Castro
Static and Seismic Stability Analyses of Retaining Walls for Landslide Rehabilitation in
Mogorce 1255
Statique et séismique analyse de stabilité de mur de soutènement pour réhabilitation d’un glissement à
Mogorce
Lj. Dimitrievski, D. Ilievski, D. Dimitrievski and B. Bogoevski
Renforcement d’une falaise littorale en roches tendres en vue de ralentir son érosion 1261
Reinforcement of a Soft Rock Coastal Cliff in Order to Slow Down Its Erosion
M. Fontanel and B. Mazaré
Technique nouvelle pour la réalisation de talus raidis dans la craie altérée 1269
New Technique for the Performance of Steeped Slope Cuts in Weathered Chalk
M. Haghgou and P. Rossi
 xxiii

Progressive Failure and the Strain Localization Problem 1275

La rupture progressive et le problème de la localisation de la déformation
A. Murianni, A. Federico and C. di Prisco
Slope Stability of Murriz Tunnel Portal 1281
La stabilité des talus de Murriz tunnel entrance
E. Paçi, A. Dervishaj and H. Cullufi
Excess Pore Pressure During Pile Driving in Soft Sensitive Clay 1285
Excès de pression interstitielle au cours de battage de pieux dans l’argile molle et sensible
T. Tefera, G. Tvedt and F. Oset
Slope Stability Analysis Based on Autocorrelated Shear Strength Parameters 1291
La stabilité d’un versant basé sur l’autocorrélation de la résistance de cisaillement
O. Tietje, P. Fitze and H.R. Schneider
Slope Stability Analysis of Volcanosediments Undercut by Cellars with FEM Analyses 1297
Analyse de stabilité des séries sédimentaire volcaniques trouées des caves avec la méthode d’élément
borné
M. Vámos, M. Kozák, T. Léber, P. Görög and Á. Török
Numerical Behavior of a Real Slope Considering Climate Actions and Comparison with in situ
Readings 1303
Simulation du comportement d’un talus réel avec l’action atmosphérique et comparaison avec des lectures
d’instrumentation
J. Verde, R. Cardoso and J. Barradas
Subject Index I
Author Index XV
xxiv

Part 3
4.3. Landslides / Glissements de terrains 1311

Landslide Risk and Climate Change – Economic Assessment of Consequences in the Göta
River Valley 1313
Des risques de glissements de terrain et les changements climatiques – évaluation économique des
conséquences dans la vallée de la rivière Göta
Y. Andersson-Sköld, S. Falemo, P. Suer and T. Grahn
Landslide Affected with an Open Pit Excavation in Flysch Deposit 1319
Glissement de terrain causé par l’excavation d’une fouille dans les couches de flysch
Ž. Arbanas, S. Dugonjić, M. Vivoda and V. Jagodnik
Stabilisation of a Deep-Seated Landslide in Order to Protect an Archaeological Site 1325
Stabilisation d’un glissement de terrain profond afin de protéger un site archéologique
M. Bardanis and S. Cavounidis
Comment construire un immeuble dans un glissement de terrain actif à Monaco 1331
How to Construct a New Building in an Active Landslide in Monaco
F. Blondeau and J. Lavisse
Cost Benefit Analysis of Preventive Measures Against Landslides Due to Climate Change 1337
Analyse coût-efficacité de mesures préventives contre les glissements de terrain dus aux changements
climatiques
J. Fallsvik, V. Svahn, S. Falemo and K. Lundström
Combined Slope Protection Along the Southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast 1343
Protection combinée des talus le long de la côte bulgare sud de la mer Noire
G. Frangov, H. Zayakova and M. Hamova
A Simplified Numerical Approach for Studying Pile-Landslide Interaction in Hard Soils 1347
Une approche numérique simplifiée pour étudier l’interaction entre pieu et glissements de terrain dans
les sols durs
A. Galli, G. Cocchetti and C. di Prisco
Geotechnical Conditions for E-763 Motorway Construction from Belgrade to South Adriatic
Across the Landslide Umka – Duboko 1353
Conditions géotechniques pour la construction de l’autoroute E-763 de Belgrade jusqu’à l’Adriatique Sud,
à travers le glissement de terrain Umka – Duboko
B. Jelisavac, P. Mitrovic, V. Vujanic, S. Milenkovic and M. Jotic
Scientific Analyses of the Bearing Capacity and the Deformation Behaviour of the
Spinnanchor System for Engineering Practice 1359
Analyse scientifique de la capacité portante et du comportement en déformation du système Spinnanchor
pour sa mise en application
R. Katzenbach and S. Leppla
Investigation and Monitoring of Reactivated Landslides in Flysch 1365
Etude et surveillance des glissements de terrain réactivés dans le flysch
M. Kopecky, M. Ondrasik and M. Sulovska
Landslide Processes in Structurally Unstable Loessial Soils 1371
Les procès d’éboulement sur loess sols instables
S.G. Kushner
 xxv

Analysis of Sliding Hazard in Wider Area of Brus Landslide 1377

Analyse du risque de glissement dans l’aire de glissements de terrain Brus
S. Mihalić, M. Krkač, Ž. Arbanas and S. Dugonjić
Landslides Triggered in Hard Soils and Soft Rocks in Romania 1383
Glissements de terrain en Roumanie déclenchés en sols durs et en roches douces
A. Rotaru
Correction of a Slope Failure in Clay Shales with a Particular Pattern of Discontinuities 1389
Correction de l’instabilité d’un talus en schistes argileux avec une structure particulière
C. Sagaseta, J. Cañizal, A. Da Costa and J. Castro
Rehabilitation of a Landslide in ΝW Greece – From the Investigation to the Geotechnical
Design 1395
Réhabilitation d’un glissement de terrain au Nord Ouest de la Grèce – De l’enquête à la conception
géotechnique
K. Seferoglou, G. Prountzopoulos, F. Chrysochoidis, P. Fortsakis, I. Vassilopoulou
and V. Perleros
Stabilization of a Creeping Slope Using Deep Drainage Caissons 1401
Stabilisation du glissement de terrain per des caissons de drainage profound
S. Škrabl and L. Trauner
Scottish Road Network Landslides Study: Management and Mitigation 1407
Étude des glissements de terrain sur le réseau routier écossaise: la gestation et l’atténuation
M.G. Winter, F. Macgregor, L. Shackman and G. Edmond

5.1. Excavations and Retaining Structures / Excavations et structures de soutènement 1413

Hydraulic Heave Considering the Geometry of Excavations 1415

Rupture par soulèvement d’eau sous considération de la géométrie des fouilles de construction
B. Aulbach and M. Ziegler
Cylindrical Excavations in Overconsolidated Clays Supported by Jet Grout Walls: Analysis
Considering the Consolidation Effect 1421
Excavations cylindriques dans des argiles surconsolidées soutenues par des murs de jet grout: Analyse
considerant de l’effect de consolidation
J.L. Borges and G.T. Guerra
Design and Construction of a Secant Pile Wall in Glasgow 1427
Conception ét realisation d’une parois en pieux sécants á Glasgow
J.W.R. Brouwer, R.E. van Leeuwen and E.K. Inglis
Different Solutions of Retaining Structures in Stiff Clay 1435
Différents types de structures de soutènement en argile rigides
F. Buselli, A. Di Sotto, S. Miliziano and A. Zechini
Reinforcement of Non Traditional Soil with Geosynthetics – Application to the Walls of the
Saltpans of the Aveiro Lagoon 1441
Renforcement des sols non traditionnels avec des géosynthétiques – application sur les murs des marais
salants de la lagune d’Aveiro
D.M. Carlos and M. Pinho-Lopes
xxvi

Leakfinder: Infrared Detection of Leaks Through the Walls of Deep Underwater Excavations –
Progresses of an Innovative Detection Method 1447
Leakfinder: Détection par infrarouge de fuites à travers les parois d’une excavation submergée –
Etats d’une méthode de détection innovatrice
G.R.N.G. Colard, O.S. Langhorst and R. Bolhuis
Earth Pressure from the Nearby Buildings on Sheet Pile Walls 1455
Pression des sols provenant des bâtiments voisins sur les murs de palplanches
H. Denver and L. Kellezi
Evaluation of Alternative Methodologies to Minimize Movements of a Diaphragm Wall Close
to Buildings 1461
Évaluation de méthodes alternatives pour minimiser des mouvements d’une paroi moulée près de
bâtiments
C. de Santos, A. Ledesma, A. Lloret and E.E. Alonso
Full-Scale Physical Modeling of Sheet Piles Pressed-in to Hard Soils 1467
Modelage physique en pleine échelle des pilots à rainure enfoncés par impression dans les sols durs
M.P. Doubrovsky, M.B. Poizner and G.N. Meshcheriakov
Soil Nailed Walls – A Parametric Study 1473
Les murs du sol cloué - une étude paramétrique
T.Y. Elkady, A.M. Elleboudy and A.A. Mohamed
Analyse en retour de soutènements butonnés dans les molasses toulousaines 1479
Back-Analysis of Strutted Walls in Toulouse Molasses
F. Emeriault, J. Zghondi and R. Kastner
Deep Excavation with Multi Anchored Diaphragm Wall 1485
Excavation profonde avec un mur de soutènement ancrée plusieurs fois
J. Josifovski, S. Gjorgjevski and M. Jovanovski
Seismic Response of Complex Soil Structure Systems 1491
Réponse sismique de systèmes avec interactions complexes entre sol et structure
S. Kontoe, L. Zdravkovic, D.M. Potts, C.O. Menkiti and R.F. Lennon
Compensation Grouting and Deep Sealing Slabs for the Construction of the New Metro Line
B1 in Rome 1497
Injections de compensation et dalles d’étanchéité profonde pour la construction de la nouvelle ligne B1
de métro à Rome
C. Kummerer, E. Falk, A. Sciotti and G. Saggio
Observations of Anomalies in Diaphragm Walls for Deep Tunnel Excavations 1503
Observations d’anomalies dans des parois moulées utilisées pour la réalisation de tunnels à grande
profondeur
W. Maekelberg, E. De Clercq and J. Maertens
Modelling of a Deep Excavation in a Silty Clay 1509
Modélisation d’une excavation profonde située dans l’argile limoneuse
D. Mašín, J. Boháč and P. Tůma
Excavation over and Around an Operational Railway Tunnel for the Construction of a New
Station of the Athens Metro 1515
Excavation autour d’un tunnel ferroviaire en exploitation pour la construction d’une nouvelle station du
Metro d’Athenes
C. Mavrommati, F. Nakou, N.Boussoulas, I. Miliotis, G. Dimitriou and A. Chrysikopoulou
 xxvii

Soil Nailing in Dublin Boulder Clay 1521

Renforcement de il Dublin Boulder Clay par clouage
C.O. Menkiti, G.W.E. Milligan, M. Long and P. Higgins
Numerical Analysis of Retaining Wall in Overconsolidated Clay 1529
Analyse numérique du mur de soutènement dans l’environemment des argiles préconsolidées
L. Mica, J. Chalmovsky and V. Racansky
Design of Deep Excavation and Retaining Structures for the Garage House and Sewage Farm
Under the Road from Portorož to the Old Part of the City of Piran – Slovenia 1535
Conception des excavations profondes et des structures de soutènement du parc de stationnement et du
champ d’épandage sous la route de Portorož à la vieille ville de Piran – Slovénie
D. Ocepek and J. Likar
Performance Assessment of Izmirspor Metro Station 1541
Estimation du rendement de la station de métro d’Izmirspor
S.Ü. Oral, K.O. Çetin, O. Erol, G. İnci and M. Delice
Permeable Retaining Wall on a Soft Rock Slope. Case Study 1547
Paroi de soutènement perméable. Etude de cas
H. Popa, E. Olinic, S. Manea, E. Marchidanu and L. Batali
Progressive Failure in Soil-Cable Interaction 1553
Rupture progressive de l’interaction sol-câble
A.M. Puzrin, M. Iten and D. Hauswirth
Case Study of a Dewatering and Recharge System in Weak Chalk Rock 1561
Étude de cas d’un système de rabattement de nappe et de recharge dans la roche calcaire faible
T.O.L. Roberts and G. Holmes
Deep Excavation and Retaining Walls in Weak Rock for Building Pit Tunnel A2 in Maastricht,
Geotechnical Aspects 1567
Excavation profonde et murs de soutènement en roches tendres pour le fouille du tunnel A2 de Maastricht,
aspects géotechniques
J.R. Salazar, J.H. van Dalen, D. Boone and P. Schouten
Analysis of Displacements of Deep Excavation Walls Built in Hard Soils 1573
Analyses des déplacements des soutènements des excavations profondes réalisées dans les sols dûres
A. Siemińska-Lewandowska, M. Mitew-Czajewska and U. Tomczak
HSS Model Adequacy in Performance-Based Seismic Design Approach, Filyos New Port,
Turkey 1579
L’adéquation du modèle HSS dans l’approche de conception sismique, basée sur la performance,
Nouveau Port de Filyos, Turquie
C. Sigarán-Loría and D.J. Jaspers Focks
Special Type Retaining Walls in the Conditions of Weak Rocks 1587
Les contre-murs du type spécial dans les conditions des rochers fragile
Yu.G. Vilcul, R.О. Timchenko, S.O. Popov and D.A. Krishko
Long Term Behaviour of Temporary Prestressed Anchors – “Keramikos” Underground Car
Park Station 1593
Comportement à long terme des ancrages précontraints – La station souterraine de parking “Keramikos”
E. Zampiras and N. Boussoulas
xxviii

Effect of Wall Stiffness on Ground Deformations Around Deep Excavations in Stiff Clay 1599
Impact de la rigidité des murs sur les déformations du sol aux abord d’une excavation profonde dans de
l’argile raide
L. Zdravkovic, D.M. Potts and S. Kontoe

5.2. Tunneling / Construction des tunnels 1605

Block-in-Matrix Structure – Tunneling in Hard Soil and/or Weak Rock 1607

Structure blocs-en-matrice – construction de tunnels dans les sols indurés et/ou les roches tendres
D. Adam, R. Markiewicz and M. Brunner
Time-Dependent Rock Behaviour in Tunnelling 1615
Dépendance temporal du comportement des roches en creusage des tunnels
S.D. Athanasopoulos, P.P. Nomikos and A.I. Sofianos
Settlements Induced by Tunneling in Clay Shales 1621
Tassements induits par la construction d’un tunnel dans une formation de schistes argileux
P. Croce, G. Russo and R.L. Spacagna
Analysis of Jacking Force Data for Microtunnels in Glacial Till at Kilcock, Ireland 1627
Microtunneliers dans les till de Kilcock, Irlande: Analyse des données d’effort de poussée
B.G. Curran and B.A. McCabe
Evaluation of the Clogging Potential in Mechanical Tunnel Driving with EPB-Shields 1633
Évaluation du potentiel de colmatage dans le tunnelier mécanique à pression de terre
M. Feinendegen, M. Ziegler, G. Spagnoli and T. Fernández-Steeger
Geotechnical Monitoring of a Conduit on the Construction Site of Moscow International
Business Center in “Moscow City” 1639
Monitoring geotechnique de conduit en Chantier de Centre International de Business en “Moscow City”
О.N. Isaev, D.V. Nayatov, R.F. Sharafutdinov and R.R. Ibraev
Use of Face Extrusion Measurements in Assessing Ground Properties During Tunnel
Construction 1647
Utilisation des mesures d’extrusion de la face pour déterminer les propriétés géotechniques pendant la
construction d’un tunnel
M. Kavvadas and I. Spyropoulos
On the Magnitude of Pre-Displacements During Tunnelling in Foliated Soft Rocks 1653
Sur la magnitude des pré-déplacements pendant la construction des tunnels dans les roches tendres foliées
J. Klopčič and J. Logar
Efficient Pre-Processing for Finite Element Analysis of Shallow Tunnelling 1659
Efficace de pré-traitement pour l’analyse par éléments finis de tunnels peu profonds
D.K. Koungelis and C.E. Augarde
Ground Conditions due to Tunnelling in Hard Soils and Weak Rocks 1665
Conditions du sol pendant la construction des tunnels dans les sols dur et les roches tender
R. Lagioia and D.M. Potts
Comparison of Two Different Primary Support Structures in Thirra Tunnel, R. Albania in
Weak Rock Conditions 1671
Comparaison de deux structures différentes de la sub-construction primaire dans le tunnel Thirra, la
République d’Albanie en termes de roche faible
Lj. Lamov
 xxix

Rock Reinforcement in Squeezing Weak Rocks 1677

Renforcement par serrage des roches faibles
C.C. Li
Crossing of a Public Road in Tunnel Across a Motorway Embankment, with Small Covering
and Without Disturbing Traffic 1683
Faire traverser de la voie publique dans un tunnel à travers un remblai d’autoroute, avec recouvrement
petits, sans perturber le traffic
M. Müller, Z. Czap and A. Mahler
Design and Construction of Double and Triple Track Tunnel, Athens Metro Line 3, Section
Egaleo – Haidari 1687
Design et Construction d’un Tunnel Double et Triple voies pour la Ligne 3 du Metro d’Athènes, Section
Egaleo – Haidari
F. Nakou, C. Mavrommati and N. Boussoulas
Boring of a Tunnel in Overconsolidated Tertiary Soils (Line 2, Madrid Subway) 1693
Exécution d’un tunnel dans des sols tertiaires preconsolitées (Ligne 2, Mètre de Madrid)
C.S. Oteo, F. Díez, J.M. Díaz Retana and P. Jiménez
Geotechnical Design Aspects for the Southern Extension of Athens Metro Line 2, Greece 1699
Aspects géotechniques de l’extension sude de la Ligne 2 du Métro d’Athènes, Grèce
E. Papageorgiou and N. Boussoulas
Experience of Tunnel Collectors Monitoring at Engineering Development of Underground
Face of Megapolis 1705
L’expérience du monitoring des manifolds de tunnel à la mise au point de génie et l’exploitation de
l’espace souterraine de la mégalopole
N.A. Perminov, S.V. Lombas and А.N. Perminov
Investigation Tunnels Aicha-Mauls at Brenner Base Tunnel – Progress of Works and Results 1713
Le tunnel d’enquête Aicha-Mauls au tunnel de Base de Brenner – avancement des travaux et des
resultants
H. Quick, J. Michael K. Bergmeister and E. Facchin
Tunneling in Marls. The Case of Melissi Tunnel 1721
Tunneling dans les marnes. Le cas du tunnel Melissi
H. Saroglou, D. Niavis and A. Kapenis
Athens Metro Line 3 – Western Extension – Trumpet Area 1727
Métro d’Athènes ligne 3 – Extension ouest – Région trompette
S. Schina and A. Charalampidou
Assessment of Overbridge Openings on the London Underground Tunnel Network 1733
Evaluation des ouvertures surpont sur le réseau tunnel du métro de Londres
F.C. Schroeder, K.G. Higgins, P. Wright and D.M. Potts
Multi-Utility Tunnels (MUT) in Frankfurt am Main – Technical Challenges and Innovative
Perspectives 1739
Tunnels multi-utilite (MUT) à Francfort sur le main defis techniques et perspectives innovatrices
M. Thaher, W. Siedentopf, J. Becker and T. Lindemann
xxx

6.1. Geoenvironmental Issues / Géotechnique de l’environnement 1745

The Environmental Aspects of Utilizing Phosphogypsum in Embankment 1747

Aspects environnementaux de l’utilisation des phosphogypses dans les remblais
E. Dapena, L. Pujol, F. Pardo de Santayana, V. Cuéllar and R. Rodríguez
Impact of Sulfates on the Mechanical and Hydraulic Behavior of a Cement-Clay Mix 1753
Impact des sulfates sur le comportement mécanique et hydraulique d’un mélange de ciment-argile
G. Di Emidio and R.D. Verástegui Flores
Comportement hydromécanique post-fermeture des cavités remblayées 1757
Post-Closure Hydromechanical Behaviour of Backfilled Cavities
N. Dufour, H. Wong and F. Deleruyelle
Enhanced Geothermal Energy Systems – Energy Supply and Storage for Sustainable
Development 1765
Systèmes améliorés d’énergie géothermique – Approvisionnement énergétique et stockage pour le
développement durable
R. Katzenbach, F. Clauss, T. Waberseck and I. Wagner
Dynamic Behavior of a Softer Layer Overlying Hard Soil / Bedrock and Vibration Reduction 1771
Comportement dynamique d’une couche supérieure constituée d’un sol souple recouvrant un sol
dur/rocheux, et réduction des vibrations
L. Kellezi
Chemical Stabilisation of Closed Landfill Sites Using Chemical Agents 1777
Stabilisation chimique des sites d’enfouissement fermé à l’aide des agents chimiques
H. Khabbaz and B. Fatahi
Deposition Tunnel Backfill Development: ¼-Scale Tests in Riihimäki 1783
Le développement du remblai du tunnel de dépôt: tests ¼-échelle dans Riihimäki
L. Korkiala-Tanttu, R. Nemlander, E. Keski-Kuha, P. Keto and P. Koho
Reclamation of a Slope of the Solid Waste Landfill that Rests Its Foot in the Ussury Bay, the
Japanese Sea 1789
La reconstitution de la pente du placement des déchets solides, tombant en forme de base dans la baie
d’Ussury de la mer du Japon
S.A. Kudryavtsev, T.Y. Valtseva, E.V. Fedorenko, E.D. Goncharova, Y.B. Berestyanyy,
R.G. Mikhaylin and E.V. Berestyanaya
Mechanical Properties of MSWI Bottom Ash in Denmark 1797
Les propriétés mécaniques du mâchefer issue des Usines d’Incinération d’Origines Ménagères au
Danemark
P. Larsen
Mesures en grand pour essais en faibles perméabilités 1803
Global Measurements for Low Permeability Tests
R. Massonnet
Case History: Influence of Ground Water Level on Vibrations Induced by Heavy Forging
Hammers 1809
Historique de ce cas précis: L’influence du niveau de la nappe phréatique sur la réduction des vibrations
causé par des marteaux de forgeron
S. Quinteros and H.R. Schneider
 xxxi

Tunneling as a contribution to Sustainable Energy 1815

La construction des tunnels – une contribution à la promotion des énergies renouvelables
M. Schneider, P.A. Vermeer and Chr. Moormann
Some Geotechnical Aspects of UK Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal 1821
Aspets geotechniques des déchets radioactifs au Royaume Uni
D.M. Tonks, E.M. Gallagher and N. Shaw
Stability Analysis of Bioreactor Landfill 1827
Analyse de stabilité du bioréacteur de l’enfouissement de dechet
G. Varga
Impact of Seismic Hazards on Waste Landfills 1833
Impact des risques séismiques sur les sites d’enfouissement des déchets
V. Zania, Y. Tsompanakis and P.N. Psarropoulos

6.2. Monuments and Historic Sites / Monuments et Sites Historiques 1839

Back-Analysis Sheds Light on the History of the Acropolis Wall: The Interpretation of a
Permanent Structural Failure 1841
L’analyse rétrograde met en lumière l’histoire du mur de l’Acropole: L’interprétation d’un échec
structurel permanent
D. Egglezos and D. Moullou
In-Situ Tests on the Parthenon Columns for the Assessment of Their Foundation Condition 1847
Essais in-situ sur les colonnes du Parthénon pour l’evaluation de la situation de leurs fondations
D. Egglezos and E.-E. Toumbakari
Dynamic Analysis of San Pedro Cliff at La Alhambra 1853
L’analyse dynamique de la falaise de San Pedro à La Alhambra
J.L. Justo, A. Morales-Esteban, P. Durand, N. Vázquez and E. Justo
Enhanced Geotechnologies for the Protection of World Heritage Properties 1859
Géotechnologies améliorées pour la protection des sites du patrimoine culturel mondial
R. Katzenbach, M. Vogler, S. Kurze and R. Dunaevskiy
Technical Condition of Ukrainian Historical Monument “The Lastochkino Gnezdo” Castle 1865
Conditions techniques de monument historique Ukraine – chateau «Nid d’hirondelle»
P. Kryvosheiev, Iu. Nemchynov, А. Khavkin, Ia. Chervinskiy, А. Bambura, Yu. Kaliukh,
N. Marienkov, I. Zolotariov, V. Kukunaev, B. Popov and M. Rizhiy
Geotechnical Issues of the New Acropolis Museum 1871
Sujets Géotechniques du Nouveau Musée d’Acropole
V. Papadopoulos and A. Anagnostopoulos
Underground Expansion of Drents Museum 1879
Expansion souterrain de Drents Museum
M.G.J.M. Peters and N.P. van Leeuwen
Accurate Monitoring of Displacements by Liquid Level Instrumentation 1887
La mesure précise de déplacements par des capteurs de pression liquide
A.J. van Rietschoten-Rietveld and A.J.G. Schellingerhout
Subject Index I
Author Index XV
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1.1. Field Investigations
Investigations In situ
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 3
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-3

L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide

entre le pressiomètre Ménard et le dilatomètre
flexible
HyperPac 25 MPa fills the gap between
the Ménard pressuremeter and the flexible dilatometer
G. Arsonnet
Géomatech, Champlan, France
J.-P. Baud 1
Eurogéo, Avrainville, France
M. Gambin
Apagéo, Magny-les-Hameaux, France
R. Heintz
Eurasol, Luxembourg
ABSTRACT
The bore hole expansion test can be applied to any ground material, from the softer to the harder ones, so as to obtain their
stress-strain behavior in situ. The authors submit their research on an equipment which permits to extend the use of the Ménard
pressuremeter up to 25 MPa test pressure. They also give the first test diagrams towards this pressure in slightly fractured rocks.
RÉSUMÉ
L’essai d’expansion in situ d’une cavité cylindrique peut s’appliquer à tous les types de matériaux, des plus mous aux plus résis-
tants, pour déterminer leurs propriétés mécaniques. Les auteurs présentent un appareil permettant d’étendre le domaine du pres-
siomètre Ménard jusqu’à des pressions d’essai de 25 MPa, ainsi que ses premières utilisations dans des roches peu fracturées.

Keywords: Pressuremeter, flexible dilatometer, rock moduli, rock limit pressure, hard soils.

Mots-clés : Pressiomètre, dilatomètre, modules des roches, pression limite des roches, sols raides.

1 INTRODUCTION calculer toutes sortes de fondations et ouvrages

Les essais géotechniques in situ par expansion
d’une cavité cylindrique dans les sols meubles et
les roches tendres ont été développés sous
l’impulsion de Louis Ménard à partir de 1955.
Ainsi a été créé un corpus de techniques de réali-
sation des mesures et de méthodes d’exploitation
des résultats obtenus dans le but de concevoir et
en terre [1] [2].
Les mesures de déformation in situ dans les
roches franches peu altérées ont connu un déve-
loppement parallèle. Ainsi s’est développé le di-
latomètre flexible encore appelé dilatomètre au
rocher, sans toutefois avoir sur l’histoire de la
mécanique des roches un impact comparable à
celui du pressiomètre sur la géotechnique.

1
Corresponding Author.
4 G. Arsonnet et al. / L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide entre le pressiomètre Ménard
Pressiomètre et dilatomètre poursuivent le
même objectif de mesure de modules par me-
sures de déformations radiales, mais pour des ni-
veaux moyens de déformations comme de con-
traintes très différents, l’un en gardant l’objectif
d’obtenir aussi une pression limite pLM des sols,
l’autre celui de réaliser des mesures précises des
très faibles déformations des roches [3]. Enfin, le
premier reste plus maniable que le second.
2 BESOINS SPECIFIQUES AUX ROCHES
TENDRES ET ALTEREES
Un hiatus a toujours existé entre les mesures du
pressiomètre dans les sols et celles du dilato-
mètre dans les roches.
La grande précision des dilatomètres type A a
pour contrepartie une course limitée de leurs cap-
teurs de déplacement, qui freine considérable-
ment leur utilisation dans les roches trop fissu-
rées ou altérées, dans lesquelles le calibrage du
trou de forage est souvent impossible à l’endroit
où l’on souhaiterait faire la mesure.
Par ailleurs avec le pressiomètre Ménard,
malgré l’augmentation progressive, réalisée au
cours de son histoire, de la pression maximale
utilisable, il n’a pas été possible de rejoindre la
gamme des pressions utilisées par le dilatomètre
au rocher. Sur le plan des Normes Françaises ou
Européennes puis ISO, son utilisation reste limi-
tée à 5 MPa [4] [5] et son utilisation au-delà de
cette limite, bien que de plus en plus demandée,
ne dépasse guère 10 MPa.
Néanmoins, le besoin de solliciter à des ni-
veaux très élevés les sols les plus raides et les
terrains situés à la frontière subjective entre sols
et roches, amène de plus en plus souvent la de-
mande de sondes et contrôleurs pressiométriques
(CPV) utilisables au-delà de 10 MPa. La con-
naissance des modules EM et des pressions li-
mites pLM des roches altérées, plus généralement
du comportement de ces terrains sous une dé-
formation de type expansion radiale, reste un
domaine peu exploré qui correspond à des be-
soins croissants en génie civil, comme le rappelle
l’objet du colloque Athènes 2011.
3 AU-DELA DES LIMITES NORMALES
DU PRESSIOMETRE
Le « pressiomètre » Ménard, malgré son nom,
utilise quasi-systématiquement depuis son ori-
gine l’énergie d’un gaz sous pression pour réali-
ser les paliers égaux de chargement d’un liquide
servant à la fois à l’expansion de la sonde et à la
mesure des volumes déplacés. Les limitations qui
en résultent sont d’une part celle de la pression
de conditionnement des gaz industriels soit
20 MPa, d’autre part la résistance des sondes,
dimensionnées pour satisfaire à l’obligation
normative de 5 MPa avec une marge de sécurité
qui permet d’aller bien au-delà, généralement
jusqu’à 10 MPa, soit au double de cette limite,
mais de façon exceptionnelle ou du moins avec
un risque d’éclatement systématique croissant
avec le degré de l’expansion de la sonde.
3.1 Au-delà de 10 MPa avec un pressiomètre
type Ménard au gaz comprimé
Des exemples jalonnent l’utilisation du pressio-
mètre normal, souvent à grande profondeur,
d’abord avec l’appareil à enregistrement manuel
dès la fin des années 60, quand Ménard avait dé-
jà développé des recommandations concernant
l’utilisation du pressiomètre dans le rocher [6]
[7], ou avec un pressiomètre à enregistrement
numérique, le Géopress dans les années 90 :
 Bologne, Italie, 1986, granite, de 80 m à
190 m, pression d’essai 7 MPa
 Alise-Sainte-Reine, France, 1991, marnes,
moins de 40 m, pression d’essai 10 MPa
 Limoges, France, 2004, gneiss, moins de
20 m, pression d’essai 11 MPa
Ces trois derniers sont représentés graphique-
ment 2 (figures 1, 2 et 3).
2
Les graphes représentent, en échelles arithmétiques :
- la courbe pressiométrique, pour laquelle le volume est
en ordonnée en fonction de la pression en abscisse,
- la courbe des volumes de fluage sur le même graphe,
les valeurs de l’échelle de volume, écrites pour la
courbe pressiométrique, étant à diviser par 10,
- la courbe des modules sécants à partir du point [P1],
dont les valeurs sont données en ordonnées sur un axe
secondaire à droite ; sa forme, en cloche ou directement
décroissante est liée à la loi hyperbolique que suit la
courbe pressiométrique elle-même [8].
 G. Arsonnet et al. / L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide entre le pressiomètre Ménard
Figure 1. Un essai haute pression, Poggiolino, province de
Bologne, 1986, pressiomètre Ménard type GA.
Figure 2. Un essai haute pression, marnes du Lias, Alise-
Sainte-Reine, 1991, pressiomètre Géopress.
Figure 3. Un essai haute pression avec fluage, gneiss alté-
ré, Limoges, 2004, pressiomètre Géopress.
5
Dès 1976, un rapport interne CERCHAR /
Houillères du Bassin de Lorraine relate des es-
sais à 90 MPa avec un prototype de "pressio-
mètre 1000 bars" de Ménard équipé d’une sonde
à embouts rétractables [9] [10]. Avec ce pres-
siomètre remis en service par la société Eurasol
au Luxembourg, une pression de 36 MPa été at-
teinte avant rupture de la sonde d’origine [11].
Une étude récente de sa fiabilité tant pratique que
théorique a été entreprise au LCPC [12].
Enfin, Massonnet [13] a présenté des résultats
d’essais poussés à 12 MPa, effectués avec un
pressiomètre classique pourvu de manomètres
types Bourdon de 16 MPa en pleine échelle, ren-
forcé au niveau des gaines toilées métalliques et
de leurs bagues de serrage. Les essais présentés
sont dans les sables du Thanétien de Londres.
L’auteur note la fragilité du voyant de lecture vo-
lumétrique avec fissuration fréquente au-delà de
10 MPa,
Les conclusions de cette pratique d’essais
pressiométriques en très haute pression furent
donc les suivantes :
 Dans des roches dures peu fissurées, dans
lesquelles la pression de fluage n’est pas
obtenue, il est possible d’atteindre 12 MPa
avec un matériel pressiométrique en parfait
état, sans fuites, d’une façon relativement
sure. Les sondes pressiométriques standard
montées avec soin, soit à gaine caoutchouc
directement au contact du sol, soit en tube
fendu, supportent la pression sans risques
de débaguer la gaine dans un forage bien
calibré dont la paroi se déforme peu.
 Lorsque le sol induré présente des pres-
sions de fluage entre 5 MPa et 12 MPa, la
même performance est plus difficile à réali-
ser, et les occasions de le faire au cours
d’une reconnaissance géotechnique sont
plus rares. Les quelques exemples présen-
tés montrent qu’une roche altérée peut pré-
senter le même type de comportement pres-
siométrique qu’un sol, avec une courbe de
forme hyperbolique extrapolable vers des
pressions limites de 12 MPa à 20 MPa.
 Malgré ces tentatives réussies, sporadiques
au cours de l’histoire du pressiomètre, les
donneurs d’ordre sont souvent restés peu
intéressés, soit en raison du manque de pré-
6 G. Arsonnet et al. / L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide entre le pressiomètre Ménard
cision sur le module EM imputé à la mesure
du déplacement par déformations volumé-
trique, soit également en raison de la diffi-
culté d’approcher de façon fiable une pres-
sion limite pLM.
 De nombreux utilisateurs de résultats pres-
siométriques restent cependant demandeurs
d’une extension significative du domaine
d’utilisation du pressiomètre. Ceci notam-
ment en raison de la difficulté à trouver, sur
échantillons carottés une mesure équiva-
lente à la pression limite ; les mesures de
Rc par exemple perdent leur signification
pour l’ensemble d’un massif en raison de la
fracturation des roches, que la mesure pres-
siométrique prend en compte.
 Des pressiomètres enregistreurs dépourvus
du voyant de lecture visuelle (Géospad2
d’Apagéo) existent maintenant ; ils restent
limités à une pression de 15 à 18 MPa, au-
delà de laquelle la consommation de gaines
de sondes standard et surtout de gaz de-
vient une limitation d’usage.
3.2 L’apport du pressiomètre automatisé
(GéoPac) et son évolution en version
25 MPa (HyperPac)
Le principe de ce pressiomètre de génération ré-
cente (article à paraître 3) est d’assurer le pro-
gramme de chargement pressiométrique par un
système volumétrique à piston motorisé, auto-
contrôlé par un dispositif d’asservissement élec-
tronique qui analyse la courbe en cours de cons-
truction, et stabilise les paliers de pression nor-
malisés sans intervention d’un opérateur. Le
pressiomètre est piloté à distance par un ordina-
teur de chantier « durci », la Géobox.
La nécessité de mise en œuvre d’une avance
micrométrique du piston a d’emblée apporté à ce
dispositif :
- une très grande précision des mesures de
volume, déterminées lors des essais pres-
siométriques courants à 2.10-3 cm3
- une stabilisation précise des paliers de
pression du circuit de mesure (selon la
précision des capteurs employés), et ne
3
G. Arsonnet, J.P. Baud, M. Gambin, W. Youssef, Le
pressiomètre auto-contrôlé Géopac.
nécessitant plus le recours au gaz com-
primé industriel (azote), qui n’est utilisé
que pour les cellules de garde.
Dès la mise au point de ce dispositif pour un
appareil standard avec des composants électro-
mécaniques, et notamment des capteurs de pres-
sion, dans une plage de mesures limitée peu au-
dessus de la limitation normative de 5 MPa, il est
apparu que le même principe constructif fonc-
tionnerait à des pressions beaucoup plus élevées.
Pour la construction d’un prototype HyperPac,
l’objectif visé a été une pression de 25 MPa, soit
5 fois la limite des essais normaux, qui a le mé-
rite de correspondre à la fois au domaine de me-
sures à combler entre essais au pressiomètre et
essais au dilatomètre, et à un dimensionnement
des composants mécaniques et électroméca-
niques industriels éprouvés et fiables.
L’utilisation d’un cylindre (fig. 4), celui où
circule le piston, largement dimensionné sup-
prime tout risque d’explosion en cas de fuite ou
rupture d’un composant du système hydraulique,
des tubulures ou de la sonde.
La résolution de mesure de déplacement du
piston motorisé est inférieure à 1 μm, correspon-
dant à une mesure théorique de déplacement du
volume de 1.10-3 cm3, soit pour la sonde décrite
(fig. 5) un déplacement moyen de la paroi de
l’ordre de 3.10-2μm.
Figure 4. Pressiomètre auto-contrôlé HyperPac. Schéma
de principe du volumètre à piston motorisé asservi.
 G. Arsonnet et al. / L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide entre le pressiomètre Ménard 7

C’est sur la sonde de mesure (au contact du  Calcaire de Beauce, carrière de Roncevaux
forage, et au calibrage de celui-ci, que devait être (45).
portée l’attention. Nous avons utilisé une sonde
monocellulaire de 46 mm de diamètre, avec dif-
férents types de gaines, selon une gamme de ré-
sistances (de dureté 40 à 90 Shore), similaires à
celles des sondes dessinées par Ménard pour son
« pressiomètre 1000 bars » [9].

Figure 5. Schéma de la sonde 46 mm THP Géomatech

3.3 Exemples d’essais au pressiomètre

automatique Hyperpac 25 MPa
Les mesures et essais présentés ici apparaissent Figure 6. Grès de Saulx à 25 MPa sans fluage, (expan-
comme une « simple » transposition des opéra- sion et résistance propres de la sonde en grisé).
tions usuelles pour un essai pressiométrique
normal, avec les dispositions propres aux sondes
dilatométriques de type B [14] :
 Le calibrage d’une sonde très haute pres-
sion se fait par paliers de l’ordre de 2 à 3
MPa dans un tube épais d’acier de forte ré-
sistance élastique, avec correction de sa dé-
formation propre, vérifiée soit par le calcul
soit par l’utilisation d’un tube double en
équipression [15].
 L’étalonnage d’une sonde 46 mm très haute
pression amène à des valeurs de la résis-
tance propre des gaines de l’ordre de 0,6 à
1,2 MPa selon la dureté Shore et
l’épaisseur de la gaine utilisée.
Figure 7. Calcaire de Beauce, avec un début de fluage
 La capacité de déformation de ces sondes à 18 MPa (expansion et résistance propres de la sonde
est actuellement limitée à 350 cm3, soit, en grisé).
pour une cellule de mesure (fig. 5), une dé-
formation relative de 50 % en dV/V (23 % On remarquera la pente des courbes de ca-
en dr/r). librage, quasi-rectilignes entre le contact du tube
On retrouve ces deux éléments classiques et 25 MPa, la pente étant ici de l’ordre de 1
de correction sur les pressions et les volumes cm3/MPa en utilisant l’eau comme fluide de
mesurés sur les graphiques d’essais dans des transfert et mesure. La qualité d’ajustement par
roches ci-après, faites dans des forages réalisés une régression linéaire d’une part, à l’aide d’une
avec un carottier de 46 mm à couronne diaman- hyperbole d’autre part, est une mesure indirecte
tée : de la précision atteinte par l’appareil sur les vo-
lumes, ce qui permet de présager une excellente
 Grès de Fontainebleau, anciennes carrières fiabilité des mesures et une diminution drastique
de pavés à Saulx-les-Chartreux (91) et de la pente en utilisant une huile incompressible.
8 G. Arsonnet et al. / L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide entre le pressiomètre Ménard
3.4 Mesures de modules dans la plage 0 – 25
MPa et fluage des sols très indurés et des
roches tendres
L’interprétation des essais en très haute pression
peut donner lieu à des estimations de modules
variant selon l’intervalle de pression retenu.
Sur les exemples présentés, et en considérant
l’intervalle de pression le plus étendu, les mo-
dules EM obtenus sont respectivement de 3 200
MPa dans un grès et de 4 900 MPa dans un cal-
caire. Pour ce dernier essai, l’amorce de fluage
permet d’extrapoler une pression limite de 24,2
MPa, soit un rapport EM/pLM de 200.
4 CONCLUSION. DEVELOPPEMENTS
FUTURS
L’appareil présenté, l’HyperPac 25 MPa, com-
prend un contrôleur pression-volume doté d’un
volumètre à piston asservi, les paliers de pression
normalisés étant stabilisés sans intervention d’un
opérateur. Cet appareil permettant d’atteindre
25MPa et doté d’une capacité de 600 cm3, est
destiné à la mesure pressiométrique des roches
tendres pouvant présenter un début de rupture
avant cette pression, et des roches cimentées.
En vue d’une utilisation courante d’essais
pressiométriques à 25 MPa par les bureaux
d’études, le développement de l’appareil porte
actuellement sur les points suivants :
 Elargissement de la gamme des sondes très
haute pression dont le diamètre pourra être
aussi de 63 mm ou 76 mm selon les normes
pressiométriques.
 Réduction à une valeur minimale du terme
de correction de calibrage ; les sondes gar-
deront par contre, pour une robustesse
compatible avec leur utilisation, une valeur
de résistance propre élevée (mesurée au
cours de l’étalonnage), qui n'est pas préju-
diciable à la précision de la mesure.
 Mise à disposition d’une gamme d’outil de
forage calibrés, carottiers et outils destruc-
tifs adaptés aux sols et roches visés 4.
4
Pour les terrains indurés et même pour les roches, les
auteurs estiment que la minimisation du délai entre forage et
REMERCIEMENTS
Remerciements à l’équipe technique des sociétés
Géomatech, Apagéo et Cedarnet, qui a fait en
sorte que le prototype HyperPac soit complète-
ment opérationnel au cours de l’année 2010. La
première présentation publique de fonctionne-
ment à 25 MPa a été faite lors de Journées Tech-
niques Apagéo les 23 et 24 septembre 2010.
REFERENCES
[1] M. Cassan, Les essais pressiométriques et leurs applica-
tions en France, rappels historiques et état des connais-
sances, ISP5-PRESSIO 2005 Vol. 2. Gambin, Magnan
et Mestat (ed.), LCPC, Paris (2006), 125-200.
[2] M. Gambin, Le pressiomètre, in I. Sharour et R. Gour-
vès, Reconnaissance des terrains in situ, Hermès
Sciences - Lavoisier Ed. (2005), Chapitre 4, 104-146.
[3] M. Galera, M. Alvarez, Z.T. Bienawski, Evaluation of
the deformation modulus of rock masses. Comparison
by pressuremeter and dilatometer test, ISP5-PRESSIO
2005 Vol. 2. Gambin, Magnan et Mestat (ed.), LCPC,
Paris (2006), 239-256.
[4] Norme NF P94-110-1, Afnor (2000).
[5] Norme EN-ISO 22476-4, CEN, en enquête probatoire.
[6] L. Ménard, Essais pressiométriques dans le rocher, No-
tice Etudes Pressiométriques Louis Ménard D21 (1967).
[7] L. Ménard, Application des essais pressiométriques aux
études de tunnel en terrain rocheux, Notice Etudes
Pressiométriques Louis Ménard D36 (1966).
[8] J.-P. Baud et M. Gambin, Homogenising MPM test
curves by using a hyperbolic model, ISC3 Taïpeï, Geo-
technical and Geophysical Site Characterization –
Huang & Mayne (eds) London (2008), 975-980.
[9] L. Ménard, Le pressiomètre éclateur de roches, Notice
Etudes Pressiométriques Louis Ménard D23 (1974).
[10] J. Arcamone, R.Poirot et R.Schwartzmann, Utilisation
de la pressiométrie dans les études minières, C.R. Sym-
posium. Int. Essais en place, Paris (1983), vol. 2, 187-193.
[11] R. Heintz, Rapport national du Grand-Duché du
Luxembourg, ISP5 – PRESSIO 2005 Vol. 2. Gambin,
Magnan et Mestat (ed.), LCPC, Paris (2006), 431-440.
[12] R. Heintz et P. Reiffsteck, Essais pressiométriques
haute pression, Rapport de recherche n°11J021, Labo-
ratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris (2003).
[13] R. Massonnet, Le pressiomètre sous haute pression,
ISP5-PRESSIO 2005, Vol. 1. Gambin, Magnan et Mes-
tat (ed.), Presses ENPC/LCPC, Paris (2005), 81–90.
[14] Norme EN-ISO 22476-5, CEN, projet.
[15] L. Ménard, Exécution des essais pressiométriques dans
le rocher, Notice Etudes Pressiométriques Louis Mé-
nard D3 (1966).
essai reste aussi essentielle à la qualité de la mesure des mo-
dules que dans les sols meubles.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-9


   


  


   


  


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 N. Barounis et al. / Hydraulic Properties of Upper Eocene Flysch, at Papadates 13

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 15
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-15

Laboratory and field investigation in Porto

Romano Durres
Investigations en laboratoire et in situ dans Porto Romano
Durres
L. Bozo1
Polytechnic University of Tirana
S.Allkja, L.Harizaj
A.L.T.E.A&GEOSTUDIO2000

ABSTRACT
In the west part of Albania, near the Adriatic Sea there is a large area of very problematic soils as organic cohesive soils and fine
sands under the ground water table. These soils have high porosity and are under consolidated. This region is characterized by a
big development of motor-ways, industries, costal constructions and tourism.
We would like to present in this papers the laboratory and in-situ tests and studies performed by the laboratory
“A.L.T.E.A&GEOSTUDIO2000” for the determination of the behaviour of these soils under static and seismic loads. We will
also give some recommendations about engineering measures that should be taken for the improvement of these characteristics.

RÉSUMÉ
En occidental part d’Albanie a proximite de l’Adriatik mer se trouve vaste plaine composant de problematique sols tel com-me
sols argileux organique et sable finne dessous de la nappe del eau. Celle sols ont porosite eleve et ils sont non consolide. Cette
zone est caracterise de grande developpement de le industrie, construction portuel, tourisme et routtes. Nous voulont pre-senter
dans Cette materiau les etudes et investigations dans Porto Romano Durres par les essais execute in laboratoire et in situ de la
“A.L.T.E.A&GEOSTUDIO2000” intentionnellement pour determination de la comportement des sols sous chargement sta-tique
et seismique.

Keywords: Geological, investigation, laboratory test, in situ test, soil improvement

1 INTRODUCTION that the area consists of sands and unconsolidated

In the western Albania, nearby the Adriatic Sea
lies the Durres City, one of Albanian biggest ci-
ties and also the Albanian biggest Port. A huge
Petroleum Plant, tanks and road infrastructure for
it will be built in the area of Porto Romano, near
Durres City. For this project realization, a de-
tailed geological and geotechnical study was car-
ried out because this area is known as very prob-
lematic geologically speaking. The study showed
clays with a high content of organic matters
which may cause serious problems concerning
specially the Second Limit State (Serviceability
Limit state).
We will explain in the following material the
degree of the phenomena related to soil deforma-
tion can reach and how can we interfere in order
to minimize or eliminate these kinds of problems.

1
Corresponding Author.
16 L. Bozo et al. / Laboratory and Field Investigation in Porto Romano Durres

2 GEOLOGICAL, GEOMOPHOLOGIC The description of the layers encountered dur-

AND SEISMIC STUDY ing the drillings is given in Fig.2.

The geological study is based on 12 drillings per-

formed in a depth (20-40) m.
The drillings show that the studied area has:
 Quaternary deposits: Colluviums
represented by deluvial deposits and parts
of weathered bed-rocks; marshy deposits; -
maritime deposits.
 Deposits of Upper Miocene N2: Sand
stone; - Siltstone; - Mudstone
 The ground water table is 0.90m. There are
4 or 5 typical layers encountered in all of
the drillings with a typology almost normal
(fig.1).
Geological Section VI - VI
Horizontal Scale 1:200
Vertical Scale 1:200
0.50 0.50
1
0.50 1 0.50 1 1
2 2 2 2

3 3 3
3

4 4 Fig. 2 BH-1
4 4
5 5
5 5

3 GEOTECHNICAL STUDY
Fig.1 Geological section VI-VI
The geotechnical study aims to determine a gene-
The geomorphologic study shows that the site ralized geotechnical model. The first step was the
location has flat relief. The most remarkable geo- performance of laboratory tests for the determi-
logical and geodynamic features identified in the nation of physical and mechanical properties of
area are: soils by analyzing undisturbed samples (1st quali-
 Erosion which is visible in the hilly part of ty) taken from the 12 drillings [9], [10], [11],
the zone. [12]. In most of the drillings were encountered 4
 Weathering phenomena which is visible on layers; in 2 of them appeared a fifth layer.
the bed-rock formations composed of Mud- The data analysis produced the following ge-
stone and Sandstone. neralized physical properties of soils:
 The phenomenon of consolidation of the Table 1
marshy deposits.
The seismic study shows that the site location
is situated in a zone of high seismic activity. The
seismic Micro-Division [1],[2] shows that an
earthquake of magnitude M=6.5-7 can occur,
with high accelerations on the free surface: amax =
0.4g in loose deposits (80-100) m of thickness,
high ground water table, with a spreading speed
of the waves Vs=150m/s. Based on this informa-
tion we can conclude that the soil corresponds to And generalized mechanical properties:
the D or E category according to EuroCode-8.
 L. Bozo et al. / Laboratory and Field Investigation in Porto Romano Durres 17

Table 2  A high silt content correspondently: 55%

Based on the in-situ tests, we notice that there
is a good correspondence between the SPT tests
and the properties determined in laboratory (for
different layers). Based on the description of the
layers, laboratory tests and in-situ tests (NSPT), we
can modify the real geotechnical model com-
posed from five layers into a generalized model
composed from two layers: A and B (Fig.3).
and 56%,
 Similar Sand Content: 28% and 20%,
 Similar NSPT values: 9-10,
 Similar water content: 25.78and 28.38,
 Same unit weight: 1.913 g / cm3,
 Specific Gravities almost equal: 2.662 g /
cm3 and 2.667 g / cm3.
On the other hand, the layer 3 has a limited
thickness (approximately one fourth of the thick-
nesses of layer 4). Based on these facts, we con-
clude that we can unify the two layers in one.
This generalized model is also confirmed by the
CPTU tests. The registered data from these tests
testify clearly the presence of two layers A and
B. (Fig.4)

11 m
A

21 m
B

5m

Fig.3The generalized geotechnical model

We base this modification on:

The exception of the first layer of thickness 3
m composed by Silty Clay as inappropriate to
study for the following reasons: Big void ratio e
> 1.4 contains organic matters, it is very com-
pressible [E=(0.5-0.8)*104 KPa ], deformation as
a result of the second consolidation
C =11.5*10-3, it has very small resistive capaci- Fig.4 CPTU Registration Data
ty:   14 , C=(19-20) KPa, Cu = 23.5KPa,

According to the CPTU data, the layer A with
NSPT = 5. a depth (11-12)m has the characteristics:
We think that it’s dangerous to support Petro-
 cone resistance qc = (8-10)MPa
leum Tanks on this layer because the substantial
 sleeve friction f = (70-80)KPa
deformations of the layer (First and Second Con-
 pore pressure Pw = 50KPa
solidation) could cause the Ultimate Limit State.
While from (11-12)m up to 25 m of depth we
The layers 3 and 4 have many similar properties
distinguish the layer B with characteristics:
like:
 cone resistance qc = 2 MPa
18 L. Bozo et al. / Laboratory and Field Investigation in Porto Romano Durres
 sleeve friction f = (40-50)KPa
 pore pressure Pw = (200-600)KPa
Definitely, the generalized geotechnical model
is composed by two layers with the following
characteristics: (Table 3)
Table 3
4 THE EXPECTED PHENOMENA
There are two categories of objects predicted for
this area: 1-large petroleum tanks of (20-30)m di-
ameter, and 2- roads.
The foundation will undergo settlements dur-
ing the first and second consolidation under the
static action of loads (from petroleum tanks). If
the right solution is not given for the foundation
location depth the soils can slide under the foun-
dation.
Referred to the real geotechnical model
(Fig.3), the calculated bearing capacity for each
layer according the Limit States [3], [7], [8] (al-
lowable values) is relatively small. These values
are reported in Table 4.
Table 4.
The allowable pressure of the petroleum tank
applied on the first layer shall not exceed the val-
ue 130KPa.
For this pressure and for plate dimension
D=30m, h=1m, an active zone is created of depth
Ha=20m.The tank settlement results:
From the first consolidation: S1  12 cm, it
ends up after t1=1.36 years.
From the second consolidation: S2  2.4 cm,
it ends up after t2=5 years.
The total settlement is: S  14.4 cm > Slim =
10 cm.
So, the Ultimate Limit State can occur to the
structure. On the other side, in the area near the
edge of the foundation [Z= (0-2) m depth] the
pressure applied will cause shear stresses
  (41  30) KPa while the resistive shear
capacity of soil results
  (36  22) KPa .This means that the first
layer is unstable and that the soil will be pushed
under the foundation. This is the reason why the
first layer can’t be used to support the foundation
of the Tanks. If we use this layer, the structure
will pass through the First Limit State or total
loss of stability or in a better case in the Second
Limit State (Serviceability Limit State).
In the generalized geotechnical model, under
seismic actions can occur the phenomenon of li-
quefaction. The data reported from the seismic
study is:
M= (6.5-7), amax= 0.4g, Vs = 150m/sec,
H  (80  100) m (loose deposits).
 L. Bozo et al. / Laboratory and Field Investigation in Porto Romano Durres 19

The laboratory tests produced data for a gene-

(KPa)
ralized particle size analysis of the layer A (Fig. 0 10 20 30 40
6). 0

100 2
90

80
4

h (m)
70
6
Passing (%)

60

50 ( 0.199, 50) 8
40

30 10
20

10

0
Fig.7   , c and Depth relation
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
Diameter (mm)

D50=0.199mm According to the calculations, the layer A will be

Fig.6 Generalized particle size analysis of the layer A
We have calculated the values of the Cyclic
Shear Resistance  c and the shear stresses
caused by the seismic action
simplified Seed Method. The data is given in ta-
ble 5.
Table 5.
liquefied in case of an earthquake of magnitude
M=7 and ground acceleration amax=0.4g (Fig.7).
Finally, according to the geological, geotechnic-
al, seismic studies and also due calculations [4],
[5], we conclude:
 The first layer composed by silty clay con-
  based on the
taining organic matters, of high porosity,
very compressible, low resistant shall not
be used to support the foundation.
 The second layer composed by silty sands,
with density (Dr = 35-45%), saturated, un-
der the ground water table, can be liquefied
in case of an earthquake and causing col-
lapse to the structures located in this area.
With these premises, we shall take some engi-
neering provisions: [6]

5 PROPOSAL FOR IMPROVEMENT OF

SOILS

Where: Improvement of the layer of fine silty soils with

dc I cobble or gravel piles of diameter 80cm, length
'0 Cr D 12m placed like a chessboard in a distance of
c = 2 3 D50 2.5m from each other (Fig.8).
amax
   0.65
h rd
g
2.5 m

2.5 m

Fig.10 Placement of Gravel Piles on plane

20 L. Bozo et al. / Laboratory and Field Investigation in Porto Romano Durres

act like vertical drains and contribute for the dis-

This reinforcement shall be done under each
petroleum tank.
The second proposal is the use of plate foun-
dation supported by reinforced concrete piles,
which will be embedded into the layer B for at
least (5-6) m. The piles will be pendent and they
will bear the main load of the tanks. (Fig.9)
A [6] Takahashi T., 2006, Debris Flow Mechanics, Prediction
(5-6) m B cations, London
Fig. 11 Pile embedded on layer B
sipation of the pore water pressure during the
seismic oscillations can solve the problems.
REFERENCES
[1] Bozo L., 2004, Dinamika e dherave, Vol 1,2,3, Tirane
[2] Science Academy, 1989, Seismic Micro-Division study
for Albania, Tirane
[3] Lancellota R., Geotechnical Engineering 2006. Turin
[4] Look B., 2006, Handbook of Geotechnical Investigation
and Design Tables, Taylor & Francis
[5] Bell F., 2006, Geological Hazards, Taylor & Francis
and Countermeasures Taylor & Francis
[7] Honjo Y. ECT, 2006, Foundation Design Codes and
Soil Investigation Taylor & Francis
[8] Powrie W.,1996, Soil Mechanics: Concepts and Appli-
[9] British Standards (BS1377) 1990.
[10] Code of Practice For Site Investigations (BS 5930:1999)
[11] ASTM Standards 2003.
[12] AASHTO Standards 1990.

The limit friction for the layer A is f1= 25Kpa

while for the layer B f2=(10-11)Kpa
The bearing capacity per pile depends on its
diameter.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The Porto Romano area, where the Petroleum

Plant will be built, is composed by problematic
soils for different reasons:
 High compressibility,
 Under consolidated soils OCR  (0.4-0.5),
 High porosity e>1.4 and high content of or-
ganic matters,
 Duration of deformation [ >(5-6) years],
 High content of silt and fine sand [(75-
82)%],
 High ground water table (0.9m from the
ground surface)
 Predisposition for loss of stability.
The choice of Petroleum Tanks foundation is
specific and delicate. This is why it shall be done
very carefully.
Increasing the density of sands by the rein-
forcement with gravel piles which simultaneously
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 21
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-21

Mechanical properties of low plasticity clayey soil

of the embedded Daugava ancient river channel in
the foundation of Plavinas Dam, Latvia
Propriétés mécaniques des sols argileux de faible plasticité du
chenal ancienne de la rivière Daugava enchâssé à la Fondation
de Plavinas barrage, Lettonie
S. Dišlere 1, D. PZruma
University of Latvia, Faculty of Earth Science, Alberta str. 10, Riga Latvia

ABSTRACT
Daugava River is the largest river in Latvia, and it has been developed for hydropower with the construction of dams at three
sites namely Plavinas, Kegums and Riga HPP. In the 1960s the largest of the three hydroelectric power plants - Plavinas Power
Plant, having a considerably higher head than the other two and a relatively large reservoir, was built up. It is built across an an-
cient pre-glacial river channel, which is filled with glacial deposits up to 137 m or more thick.
Since construction of the power plant the properties of these soils and their behaviour are tested and discussed. During 2009
drilling and sampling were performed close to the Plavinas Dam as a scope of the geotechnical investigation for construction of
the additional spillway on the right side of the power plant. Part of the samples was used for testing of soil clasification and me-
chanical properties in Geotechnical laboratory of the University of Latvia. Based on the testing results soils were classified and
their properties described. Testing results were compared to previous findings and geotechnical properties of the soils tested dur-
ing construction of dam. The tested soils are similar to the soils under Plavinas dam concrete structures and detail analysis of the
soil properties helps to explain the long term behavior of the Plavinas dam structures, the possible changes of the soil properties
as a result of the loading and impact of the artesian groundwater pressure.

RÉSUMÉ
Daugava est la plus grande rivière en Lettonie, et il a été développé pour l'hydroélectricité avec la construction de barrages sur
trois sites, à savoir Plavinas, Kegums et Riga PPH. Dans les années 1960, la plus importante des trois centrales hydroélectriques
- Plavinas PPH, ayant une tête considérablement plus élevée que les deux autres et un réservoir relativement important, a été
construite. Il est construit sur un ancien chenal préglaciaires, qui est rempli de dépôts glaciaires jusqu'à 137 m ou plus épais.
Depuis la construction de la centrale électrique, les propriétés de ces sols et leur comportement sont testées et discutées. Au
cours de 2009 de forage et d'échantillonnage ont été réalisés près pour le barrage de Plavinas comme une portée de l'étude
géotechnique pour la construction de l'évacuateur de crues supplémentaire sur le côté droit de la centrale électrique. Partie des
échantillons a été utilisée pour l'essai de classification des sols et des propriétés mécaniques en laboratoire géotechnique de
l'Université de Lettonie. Basé sur les résultats des tests, les sols ont été classés et leurs propriétés décrites. Résultats des tests ont
été comparés aux résultats antérieurs et des propriétés géotechniques des sols testés au cours de la construction du barrage. Les
sols testés sont similaires aux sols sous Plavinas barrage des structures de béton et l'analyse de détail de l'aide les propriétés du
sol pour expliquer le comportement à long terme des structures Plavinas barrage, les éventuelles modifications des propriétés du
sol à la suite du chargement et l'impact de la pression d'eau souterraine artésien.

Keywords: Laboratory testing, clayey soil, plasticity, compressibility

1
Corresponding Author.
22 S. Dišlere and D. Pāruma / Mechanical Properties of Low Plasticity Clayey Soil
1 INTRODUCTION
Plavinas HPP is the largest dam in Latvia and
Baltic region constructed on Daugava River. The
Daugava River has been developed for hydro-
power with the construction of the cascade of
dams at three sites upstream Riga City.
Plavinas Dam having a head of 40 m was con-
structed 107 km from its entrance to the Baltic
See. It was designed by Hydroproject Institute,
Russia. The construction was started on 1961 and
finished on 1966. There are two dams con-
structed downstream of the Plavinas Dam on
Daugava River: Kegums HPP with head of 14 m;
and Riga HPP with head of 18 m (Figure 1).[1]
Figure 1. Scheme of the Daugava dam cascade [1].
The Plavinas powerhouse is of combined type.
The gated spillway is on top of the powerhouse
consisting of two blocks or sections sealed by a
special bitumen seal. The hydraulic hill dam is
connected to power plant structure and it crossed
the preconstruction river channel (Figure 2).
Figure 2. View on Plavinas Dam on Daugava River [1].
2 GEOLOGY AND FOUNDATION SOILS
The geology and hydrogeology of the Plavinas
HPP area is complicated. The thickness of the
Quaternary deposits is the largest in the buried
valley and reaches at least 140 m (the largest re-
covered thickness by drill hole is 137 m), while
smallest thickness is on the slopes of the both
banks and in some places of existing Daugava
river bed and in reservoir. [1]
The ancient pre-Quaternary river channel is
filled by glacial till – soft clayey soil with low
permeability. It is described in the Russian termi-
nology as high plasticity clayey soil (called
“loam” in some documents) and "low plasticity
clayey soil" (called “sandy loam” in some docu-
ments) (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Section through powerhouse foundation along
downstream toe gallery [2]
It was noted before that in the USC system
this soil with about 11% gravel, 43% sand, 29%
silt and 17% clay would be classified as a low
plastic clayey, silty sand. The liquid limit is
around 21% and the plasticity index 9%. [2]
The excavation for the foundation of the pow-
erhouse was made in the glacial deposits. There
was some hydraulic instability in the floor of this
excavation due to strong upward hydraulic pres-
sure gradients from the rock below, mainly in the
northerly part of the excavation, where the cover
was highest and excavation was deepest. [3]
The dam structures and the area around the
dam are equipped by comprehensive monitoring
system. The vertical and lateral displacements of
the concrete and earthfill structures have been
monitored since their construction. It was con-
cluded and pointed out already before [3] that the
soil deformation parameters used in the founda-
 S. Dišlere and D. Pāruma / Mechanical Properties of Low Plasticity Clayey Soil
tion behavior analyses seem to result in shear dis-
tortion settlements that are too large and volume
compression settlements that are too small com-
pared to observed soil-structure behavior. This
may be the main reason for the differences be-
tween the calculated and the observed behavior
of the structure.
It is concluded [2] that the reason for these
non-uniform settlements are the additional
stresses originating from both concrete and earth
structures at both ends of the powerhouse.
However differential settlements under the
powerhouse structure could be only partly ex-
plained using uniform soil parameters at the all
foundation. As it can be seen from cross-section
and continuously noted by powerhouse designer
the soil in powerhouse foundation is not homo-
geneous and the main reason of differential set-
tlement is mainly caused by changes of the clay
content in the soils of pre-glacial buried valley.
3 TESTING OF SOILS
During 2009 drilling and sampling were per-
formed close to the Plavinas Dam as a scope of
the geotechnical investigation for construction of
the additional spillway on the right bank of Dau-
gava River downstream of the Plavinas Dam.
Part of the samples was used for testing of soil
for index tests and mechanical properties in Geo-
technical laboratory of the University of Latvia.
Following geological structure the tested soils are
similar to the soils under Plavinas dam concrete
structures and detail analysis of the soil proper-
ties helps to explain the long term behavior of the
Plavinas dam structures, the possible changes of
the soil properties as a result of the loading and
impact of the artesian groundwater pressure.
More than 35 undisturbed samples were used
for different tests taken from 13 boreholes in
depth interval between 6 and 30 m.
3.1 Testing methods
Mainly standard testing methods were used for
determination of the index properties like deter-
mination of water content (ISO/TS 17892-
1:2004), determination of particle density
23
(ISO/TS 17892-3:2004), incremental loading oe-
dometer test (ISO/TS 17892-5:2004).
Liquid limit and plasticity limit were tested
and rate of porosity calculated using methodol-
ogy described by Lomtadze. [4]
Grain size distribution was determined using
wet sieving method described in ISO/TS 17892-
4:2004.
3.2 Testing results
Following testing results will be discussed:
composition of soil, index tests and physical
properties, and deformation parameters.
3.2.1 Classification of soil
Composition of the soil was tested using wet
sieving method. It was found that soil consists of
10% gravel (including particles with size
>10mm), 25% sand, 32% silt and 33% clay parti-
cles. Following USC classification system such
soils shall be classified as a silt and clay. This re-
sult contradicts to previous assumptions and
should be investigated more detail in future.
However given result corresponds with soil
description in Russian terminology there it is de-
scribed as high plasticity and low plasticity
clayey soil. Plasticity index shall be determined
in this case.
3.2.2 Index properties of soil
Index properties of the soil were tested using
mainly standard methods and methods described
by V.D. Lomtadze [4]. The results obtained are
shown in table 1.
Table 1. Soil characteristics
Characteristic Average Min Max
Water content, % 10 7 17
Liquid limit, % 16 15 19
Plasticity index, % 3 2 6
It can be defined that tested soil was low plas-
ticity clay. There are not found any clear ten-
dency of the variation of the characteristics with
depth or in the investigation area.
Consistency of the tested samples was hard
(plastic limit IL < 0) and only 3 of tested samples
were of plastic consistency.
24 S. Dišlere and D. Pāruma / Mechanical Properties of Low Plasticity Clayey Soil
3.2.3 Deformation characteristics
For testing of the deformation characteristics
soil samples were tested for consolidation in oe-
dometer. Undisturbed samples with natural satu-
ration and initial density were loaded up to 1.4
kg/cm2.
The average initial rate of porosity was 49.6%.
Rate of porosity reduced due to loading for 12%
in average however the significant distribution of
results shall be noted (5 to 25%). Final rate of po-
rosity due to loading was 43.6% in average.
There is no correlation between initial rate of po-
rosity and compression (or final rate of porosity).
It shall be concluded that compression of this
type of soil depends from another characteristics
than initial density. An explanation of this is not
readily available. It is possible therefore that the
reason for the unequal compression due to load-
ing could be the changes in composition of soil
sample mainly inclusions of the coarse particles –
gravel in tested samples and gravel and boulders
in foundation soils.
Tests with additionally saturated sample were
performed to test compressibility of the soil after
opening of foundation pit during construction of
Plavinas dam. As it was mentioned before the
soils were unloaded and affected by high pore
pressure during construction and this could sig-
nificantly change the soil behavior after loading.
Water content of the additionally saturated
samples before testing was 12% in average. Test-
ing results were in the range of results obtained
with undisturbed samples and it shows that be-
havior of soil after secondary loading in the
foundation of structure should not be
significantly changed. It is important to note that
the water content of sample at the end of test
reduced up to 7% which correspond with the
minimum water content values determined for
undisturbed samples.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Mechanical properties of the foundation soils un-
der Plavinas HPP structures are discussed since
construction. Dam structures are designed taking
into account the changes of the compressibility of
soils and possibility of the differential settlement.
The following conclusions can be drawn based
on the results obtained from laboratory testing of
the soil samples:
x Tested soil contains 10% of gravel, 25% of
sand, 32% of silt and 33% of clay particles.
Soil can be classified as a silt or clay by
USC system and as a low plasticity clay by
Russian soil classification system (SNIP).
x Average water content of tested soil was
10%, liquid limit 16% and plasticity index
3%. Tested samples mainly were of hard
consistency.
x Coefficient of porosity varies more and it
was in average 49.6%. After loading of soil
coefficient of porosity changed for about
12%.
x There is no correlation between initial den-
sity and compression due to loading. The
similar results were obtained using addi-
tionally saturated soil samples.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful for the access to the
Plavinas Dam owner Latvenergo archive and the
use of the samples taken during drilling close to
Plavinas Dam.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Dišlere, Monitoring as a tool of Dam Safety im-
provement at Plavinas HPP. Trans. 22nd Int. Congress
Large Dams, Barcelona, Spain, Vol. 1, pp.611-607
(2006)
[2] S. Messerklinder, R.P. Brenner, S. Dišlere and Z.
Z[\ele. The long-term behavior of a run-of-river
scheme in Latvia, 8th ICOLD European Club Sympo-
sium, Graz, Austria (2010)
[3] S. Dišlere and A.Šnore. The calculated settling by using
2D FE method and actual observations of the Plavinas
HPP structures, Baltic Geotechnics IX, Parnu, Estonia
(2000)
[4] V.D. Lomtadze, Physical and mechanical properties of
soils and rocks. Laboratory testing methods (in Rus-
sian), Nedra, Moscow (1999)
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 25
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-25

Landslide stabilization along a national road

Stabilisation d’un glissement de terre sur une route nationale
V. Farcas, N. Ilies 1 , A. Popa, C. Gherman, O. Muresan & I. Molnar
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of, Civil Engineering

ABSTRACT
The paper presents the investigation program and slope stability analysis of an active landslide situated on National road DN 1,
major traffic way in Transylvania, Romania. Slope stability analysis was performed using Geo Fine software, considering circu-
lar or polygonal sliding surfaces and using GFAS software, applying FEM method. The investigation program is continued by a
monitoring program to determine movements on the site and ground water table variation. On the site were placed inclinometers
and piezometers, where the slope stability analysis indicates a lower value of the safety factor than the acceptable one.

RÉSUMÉ
Le papier présent le program d’investigations géotechniques et l’analyse de stabilité des pentes pour un glissement de terre actif,
localise sur la route nationale DN1, route très important en Transylvanie. L’analyse de stabilité des pentes a été réalise en utili-
sant le logiciel Géo Fine, pour des surfaces de glissement circulaire ou polygonal et en utilisant le logiciel GFAS, en utilisant la
méthode d’éléments finit. Le program d’investigation a été continu par un program de surveillance pour déterminer les mouve-
ments sur le site et la variation des tableaux d’eaux souterraines. Inclinomètres et piézomètres ont été placés donc sur le site dans
les lieux ou l'analyse de stabilité indique une valeur inférieure du coefficient de sécurité que celui acceptable

Keywords: Geotechnical investigation program, slope stability, FEM, national road, monitoring program

1 INTRODUCTION This is due to the geological and geomorphologic

Extending and modernization of the roads net-
work in Romania involves serious challenges,
during designing and contracting. Among these
problems the geotechnical ones belong to the most
prominent. The national road affected by the land-
slide is connecting southern part of Romania (Bu-
charest - Sibiu) to the northern part – Cluj Napoca
and going to the Hungarian border.
Transylvanian depression where the national
road is located has a high potential of landslides.
conditions, the presence of swelling clays (very
active and quite common in this region), hydro
geological conditions etc.
On the investigated area it was observed the
presence of a new landslide. The investigated site
is affected by an active landslide having following
dimensions: 160 m length and 160 m width (see
Figure 1). The national road is affected, on 120 m
total length, mostly on one way and also a parking
lot near the road. The landslide is presence can be
observed by carriage way cracks and scarps, park-

1
Corresponding Author.
26 V. Farcas et al. / Landslide Stabilization Along a National Road
ing lot collapse and soil mass movements on the
entire area.
Figure 1. General view.
Soil fractures created negative slopes, where
water accumulates and infiltrates into the sliding
mass. In the area with negative slopes, it can be
observed some water accumulation spots and ve-
getation specific to the lakes area, proving that
soil mass movement has previous manifested.
2 GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY
Transylvanian depression is located in central part
of Romania. The landslide is located on the east
of Badeni hill, in the western part of Transylva-
nian Depression.
From geological point of view, the basement
of Transylvanian depression is represented by
metamorphites belonging to the Bihor Nappe,
overthrusted by ophiolitic rocks, belonging to the
Transylvanian Nappes of South Apuseni
Mountains and intruded by laramian batholiths.
The post tectonic evolution of Transylvanian
depression is correlated with the evolution of
Paratethys. Post-tectonic cover, is starting with
Senonian sandstones and marls on the north and
west side of the depression, followed by Eocene
detritic deposits and Miocene sandy marls.
In the researched area, the Pannonian is
considered to be the basement of the sedimentary
complex, being represented by compact marls and
sandy marls, of marine origin, that develops both
in the whole wide depressions and in its hills
frame. This formation is covered by Pleistocene
coarse fluvial sediments throughout the
depression but the downhill slopes that are
covered by a sandy silty clayey complex of
deluvial origin, Pleistocene as well.
Pleistocene formations are discordant and have
a lower limit consistent with the Pannonian
sedimentary basement up to the base of the slope
areas.
3 GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS
In order to determine soil characteristics (stratifi-
cation, geotechnical parameters) five drillings and
five dynamic penetration tests DPSH-B type were
performed on the site (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Site map with borehole and DPSH positions.
The analysis regarding the stratification of the
soil, based on laboratory tests, has the following
results:
x (1) Top soil - 0.20m depth
x (2a) Silt with organic materials (organic ma-
terial-layer 3), soft to medium soft - 3.50m
thickness for borehole F101, 3.60m thick-
ness for F102, 6.00m thickness for F103 and
3.80m thickness for F104.
x (2) Brown silt, medium soft to stiff, up to
10.00m depth.
Based on the laboratory tests the following
geotechnical parameters were determined (see
Table 1 and Table 2).
The laboratory tests results shows also that the
layer of organic silt has a high swelling potential
U> 100% (active).
 V. Farcas et al. / Landslide Stabilization Along a National Road 27

Table 1. Physical characteristics for main soil layers The underground water level is directly con-
Bore- Thick- Soil type J Ic nected to the water level from a creek in the area
hole ness (defined [kN/m3] [-] which undercross the road and at some point, 30
[m] layer)
F101 3.70 Organic 18.31 meters downstream the road, it infiltrates into the
0.20-0.50
Silt ground. The same creek is found at the toe of the
6.30 Silty 18.65 slope and is collected by another creek that flows
0.64-0.80
Clay
F102 3.80 Organic 19.21
orthogonal with the possible landslide direction.
0.60-0.70 This fact is considered to be the main disturb-
Silt
6.20 Silty 19.50 ing factor by saturating the underground soil at
0.70-0.90
Clay depths that can cause decreasing of mechanical
F103 6.00 Organic 18.60 characteristics. At the surface of the slope there
0.57-0.67
Silt
4.00 Silty 19.66 are numerous cracks that also allow soil saturation
0.70-0.90 during rainfalls and snow melting.
Clay
F104 3.80 Organic 17.23
-
Silt
6.20 Silty 19.61
Clay
- 5 SLIDING PROBABLE CAUSES

Table 2. Shear strength parameters obtained for direct shear Based on the in-situ investigations and also on the
C-D(consolidated-drained) laboratory tests laboratory tests results, the following conclusions
Bore- Thickness Soil Ik rez/ck rez Ik’/ck’
hole [m] type
were established:
[0/kPa] [0/kPa]
(defined x The results of the laboratory tests show a
layer) stratification, that from the top up to 3.70-
F101 3.70 Organic 10.43/5 6.00m depth is represented by a layer of or-
7.60/14.4
Silt
6.30 Silty 10.56/-
ganic silt from very soft consistency (F101)
17/79 to medium stiff (F102). The top layers are
Clay
F102 3.80 Organic 8.85/6 formed by silty soils with high content of
7/16
Silt organic materials, loose, with e>0.7, that
6.20 Silty 9.40/- also present swelling characteristics
11/77
Clay
F103 6.00 Organic 9.12/6 (U>100%). Due to these properties, infiltra-
- tions from rain waters create a softening
Silt
4.00 Silty 10.40/-
14/45
phenomenon, which will cause an important
Clay decrease of the shearing strength resistance
F104 3.80 Organic 9.20/6
Silt
- values. Dynamic penetration tests (DPSH-B)
6.20 Silty 10.50/- confirm the existence of soft soil layers on
16/85 the top, as shown in the following table:
Clay

Table 3. The probable depth of sliding surface

DPSH-B Depth with [m]
4 SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND
Very soft soil Soft soil
WATER
DPSH-B1 3.70 4.00
DPSH-B3 3.80 4.00
In the studied area the water table is found at
DPSH-B2 3.80 4.40
depths between -3.20 and -4.00 according to
DPSH-B4 4.20
borehole profiles for F101 (GWT:-3.70, NH:-
DPSH-B5 7.60
0.20), F102 (GWT:-3.20, NH:-0.60), F103 (-4.00,
NH:-0.20), F104 (GWT:-4.00, NH:-0.20) meas-
ured from the ground level. The hydrostatic water Comparing the results obtained from both
level is rising up to -0.6 to -0.2 m from ground investigations (in-situ investigations and
level, and can reach up to the surface level. laboratory tests) was established that the
sliding surface does not have a constant
28 V. Farcas et al. / Landslide Stabilization Along a National Road
depth on the sliding area: upstream, the
sliding surface is found between 7.60m
(DPSH-B5) and 4.40m (DPSH-B2).
Downstream, the probable sliding depth is at
5.00m (F103) (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Main scarp downstream the road.
x The main cause of this sliding is the
pronounced softening of silty soils caused
by the water infiltrations and underground
water flow.
x This type of sliding is a plastic yielding
sliding with successive mobilizations of
sliding areas starting from downstream to
the upstream. In the affected upstream areas
the silt layer is very soft. Besides the sliding
phenomenon, also the collapse of the former
parking lot occurred (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Parking lot collapse.
x The risk of a slow or moderate continuous
instability could lead to the closing of the
road. This requires consolidation measures.
6 SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS
Slope stability analysis was performed for several
possible sliding surfaces, in order to determine the
most probable one. The shape and the position of
the most unfavorable sliding surface depend on
soil characteristics, stratigraphy, the slope etc.
Slope stability computation is performed ac-
cording to Romanian norm SR EN 1997 -1: 2006,
using limit state theory – safety factors and finite
element method - MEF.
Slope stability analysis, according to limit state
theory was performed using numerical methods,
admitting circular slip surfaces: Fellenius and Bi-
shop, and methods with the admission of polygo-
nal surfaces sliding: Sarma or Spencer. The analy-
sis used Geo Fine software – Slope Stability
Module.
In this particular situation the most suitable
analysis for the slopes was the one admitting po-
lygonal probable sliding surfaces. The following
figure presents representative results.
 V. Farcas et al. / Landslide Stabilization Along a National Road
Figure 5. Slope stability analysis.
Slope stability study concluded the slope is not
stable, in this area safety factor FS having values
between 0,82...0,97 which is lower that the ac-
ceptable value (FS,min=1,50).
According to this initial analysis the slope is
not stable, therefore it was performed another
analysis using finite element method, to confirm
first analysis.
The finite element method represents an alter-
native approach for slope stability analysis which
is accurate and requires fewer “a priori” assump-
tions regarding the failure mechanism. The FEM
solution preserves global equilibrium until failure
is reached and is able to monitor progressive fail-
ure up to and including overall shear failure.
In this paper, the numerical computations has
been conducted using GFAS application, a finite
element based system for nonlinear analysis of de-
formation and stability in geotechnical engineer-
ing problems in which soil models are used to si-
mulate the soil behavior.
29
The Factor of Safety (FS) of a soil slope is de-
fined here as the factor by which the original
shear strength parameters must be divided in order
to bring the slope to the point of failure. During
the analysis the program gradually reduces the ba-
sic strength characteristics of the soil mass until
failure occurs. The safety factor (FS) is to be as-
sessed, and this quantity is defined as the propor-
tion by which tan I (friction angle) and c (cohe-
sion) must be reduced in order to cause failure
with the gravity loading kept constant. Gravity
loads are generated automatically and this load is
applied to the slope in a single increment. A trial
strength reduction factor loops gradually weak-
ness the soil parameters until the algorithm fails to
converge. This actually means that no stress dis-
tribution can be achieved to satisfy the failure cri-
terion and global equilibrium.
For analysis it was adopted a mathematical
model of nonlinear behavior of soil type elastic-
plastic - failure criterion Mohr - Coulomb. The
Mohr - Coulomb criterion relates the shear
strength of the material to the cohesion, internal
friction angle and normal stresses of the material.
According to FEM computations the factor of
safety (FS) is lower than acceptable one, proving
the slope instability.
7 CONSOLIDATION SOLUTIONS
Based on the discussed conclusions of the in-situ
tests and laboratory tests the following solutions
were proposed:
x Keeping the slope layers at a constant water
content and a stiff consistency, by leveling
the negative slopes and eliminating the
water trough elastic drains,
x Supporting the carriage way by counterforts
and elastic drains, which allow small strains
and also the efficient mobilization of the
shear strength resistance,
x To collect water from the carriage way -
horizontal elastic drains shall be installed,
x The torrent must be adjusted with a concrete
gutter and storage tanks with excess hatch.
The creek will be collected downstream the
landslide area,
30 V. Farcas et al. / Landslide Stabilization Along a National Road

x Upstream the road, a longitudinal drain must
be executed to collect the underground wa-
ter. A forestation program will help on col-
lecting the surface and underground water.
8 SLOPE MONITORING PROGRAM
so to Professor Cosmin Chiorean for providing
GFAS application for slope stability analysis.
Special acknowledgments to Romanian National
Road Companies (CNADNR Bucharest and
DRDP Cluj), for allowing authors to use the in-
formation about the landslide.

In order to detect the movements of the slope in REFERENCES

the respective area, a monitoring program using
inclinometer and piezometric measurements was [1] SR EN 1997-1:2006, Eurocode 7. Geotechnical design –
Part 1. General Rules, 2006
proposed. [2] A. Stanciu, I. Lungu, Foundations – Soil mechanics and
The monitoring program will help on detecting phisycs, Ed. Tehnica, Bucharest, 2006
the real sliding surface and improve the prediction [3] A. Popa, N. Ilies, C. Chiorean – Utilization of analytical
of future slope analysis. methods in slope stability and consolidation, Proceedings
of 14th Danube-European Conference on Geotechnical
Inclinometer measurements represent a major Engineering "From Research to Design in European
monitoring step to provide valuable data about the Practice", June 2-4 2010, Bratislava, Slovakia, ISBN
behavior of the slope after the consolidation 978-80-227-3279-6
works. [4] Geotechnical software suite Geo 5, User’s guide, 2010
[5] Geostru Software, GFAS: Finite element system for geo-
technical applications, Theory manual - Version 2010-7,
Geostru Software, Italy, 2010.
9 CONCLUSIONS [6] BSI 1377 – 1:1990, Methods of test for soils for civil en-
gineering purposes. General requirements and sample
preparation, British Standards Institution, 1990
One of the most important stages for this type of
construction works is soil investigation. This pa-
per proves that an extended investigation program
is not an ignorable issue.
Hydro-geological aspects and surface water
represent an important issue in predicting the haz-
ards in the area therefore all the precaution meas-
ures need to be accomplished.
Underground water has a negative effect on
mechanical characteristic of the soil, by reducing
them, which is increasing soil instability.
Starting from the appropriate test methods, for
in situ and laboratory tests and continuing with
slope stability analysis, all these analysis give an
exhaustive image of the site conditions, retaining
systems and valuable information about future
maintenance of the site.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study was performed as a part of the road

consolidation technical project. Authors are
thankful to the software providers: Fine Civil En-
gineering Software and Geostru Software, and al-
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 31
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-31

Intesa-San Paolo Tower in Turin - Geotechnical

issues
Intesa San Paolo Tour en Turin – Geotechniques probleme
A. Gasparre1, H.D.St John
Geotechnical Consulting Group
M. Jamiolkowski, G. Rocchi
Studio Geotecnico Italiano

ABSTRACT
The building comprises a 200 metre tall tower and 20 metre deep basement in a densely developed urban area. The tower has a
steel frame closed by glass panels. The vertical loads are transmitted to the ground by six mega-columns and by a core in the
central area. The lateral load restraint is provided by a permanent slab placed according to the top-down method. This paper dis-
cusses the geotechnical issues associated with the project and the ground investigation carried out to assess both the variability of
the underlying soils and the parameters for design. The large amount of information on ground conditions around the site at
shallow depths was integrated with a site-specific investigation that reached depths of 80 metres. Soil parameters were extrapo-
lated from cross-hole tests, which were carried out with two boreholes and from the measurements of the mechanical energy,
pressures and torque (PAPERO tests) during drilling. The groundwater water level was found at approximately 20 metres depth.
The information provided by the ground investigation allowed the design of the retaining wall and the foundation system and the
selection of a construction technique that accounted for the urban context.

RÉSUMÉ
Le bâtiment comprend une tour de 200 mètres de hauteur et une partie enterré de 20 mètres de profondeur dans une zone très ur-
banisée. La tour a une structure à cadres en acier fermés par des baies vitrées. Les charges verticaux sont transmises à travers six
méga-colonnes et par un noyau dans la zone centrale. La condition d’appui latérale est fournie par une dalle permanente installée
selon la méthode ‘tranchée couverte’. Ce document examine les questions géotechniques liées au projet et à la reconnaissance
des sols effectués pour évaluer la variabilité des sols de fondation et les paramètres géotechniques de projet. Le grand nombre
d'information disponibles sur les conditions du sol à faible profondeur autour du site a été intégré avec une campagne de recon-
naissance spécifique atteignant une profondeur de 80 mètres. Les paramètres géotechniques du sol ont été extrapolés à partir des
essais ‘cross-hole’, qui ont été effectués avec deux forages et des mesures d'énergie mécanique, de pression et de couple (essais
PAPERO) pendant le forage. Le niveau de la nappe se trouve à 20 mètres de profondeur environ. L'information obtenue à partir
de la campagne de reconnaissance a été retenue pour le projet du mur de soutènement et du système de fondation et la sélection
d'une technique de construction adaptée au contexte urbain..

Keywords: 200 m high tower ; gravelly soils ; deep excavation ; raft foundation

1 INTRODUCTION tower and 20 m deep basement that is to become

the new headquarters of the Intesa-San Paolo
This paper describes the geotechnical issues bank. The construction site is 44 m by 150 m in
associated with the construction of a 200 m tall plan and is located in a densely developed urban

1
Corresponding Author.
32 A. Gasparre et al. / Intesa-San Paolo Tower in Turin – Geotechnical Issues
area just outside the historical centre of Turin, It-
aly. The site is bounded by a public park to the
west and roads on the other three sides. Over the
majority of the width of the park there is an un-
derground car park extending to about 7 m below
the level of the surrounding ground. The high
speed railway line (RFI) that connects Turin to
Milan runs in an open cut at about 30 m to the
east of the site (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The site and the surrounding structures
The proposed tower occupies the central part
of the site. It has a steel frame enclosed by glass
panels. The vertical loads from the tower are
transmitted to the ground by six mega-columns
and by a core in the central area. The lateral load
restraint is provided by the combination of
braced bays surrounding the core and bracing be-
tween the mega-columns. The substructure com-
prises a five level basement that extends over the
whole plan area of the site.
The main challenges for the geotechnical de-
sign team were the identification of the appropri-
ate substructure system to retain the ground and
transmit the loads from the superstructure and
the choice of a construction sequence for the
deep basement accounting for the urban context
2 GROUND CONDITIONS
The site is located on a ground which slopes
gently eastwards from the Rivoli Mountains to-
wards the Po River, in an area marked by the
presence of numerous tributaries of the Po River.
The geology of the area comprises quaternary
deposits of varying nature overlying marine de-
posits of Pleistocene and Pliocene age that in
turn overlay chalk deposits of Miocene age.
Figure 2: Longitudinal cross section (elevation in meters
above sea level (m.a.s.l.))
The large amount of information on ground
conditions around the site at shallow depths was
integrated with a site-specific investigation that
consisted of:
x Five boreholes to 80 m depth used to retrieve
representative samples of the encountered
soil and to perform seismic cross-hole tests to
measure the compression (Vp) and shear (Vs)
waves velocities.
x Three boreholes for SPT tests to 30 m depth
at intervals of 1.5 m.
x Twelve drilled holes to 40 m depth to meas-
ure the five drilling parameters (i.e. rate of
advancement, pressure on the drilling tool,
applied torque to drilling rods string, rotation
rate and pressure of the drilling fluid). These
tests, known as PAPERO, aimed at detection
and preliminary estimate of the distribution
and degree of cementation encountered usu-
ally in the gravelly deposits of middle Pleis-
tocene age in central area of Torino.
 A. Gasparre et al. / Intesa-San Paolo Tower in Turin – Geotechnical Issues
x Six open stand pipe piezometers installed at
the depth around 40 m to monitor the ground
water level (G.W.L.) and obtain water sam-
ples for chemical tests.
x One water well to 40m depth used to perform
short and long term pumping tests.
The design soil profile derived from the site
investigation is shown in Figure 2. It includes
about 2 m of Made Ground, 37 m to 40 m of flu-
vial-glacial deposits comprising sandy gravel
with cobbles with different degrees of cementa-
tion over alluvial-lacustrine deposits consisting
of a succession of dense to very dense layers of
medium to coarse sand and relatively thinner
layers of stiff to very stiff silty clays. This last
formation is expected to extend to depths of ap-
proximately 100 m below ground level (bgl).
Based on piezometers readings, the G.W.L.
during the site investigation was encountered at a
depth of 21 m bgl.
Figure 3: Seismic wave velocity from cross hole tests
The results of cross-hole tests played a crucial
role in assessing the geotechnical design parame-
ters. Figure 3 shows the profiles of Vs and Vp
with. depth measured at two locations. The Vs al-
lowed computing the small strain (H< 10-5) shear
modulus Go, from which the small strain Young
modulus E’o was derived using isotropic elastic-
33
ity theory and assuming the Poisson’s ratio
]’=0.15.
Moreover, using the formula by Foti et al [4]
based on Biot [1] poroelasticity theory, the
measured Vp and Vs allowed the computation of
the profile of the in situ void ratio eo. Special at-
tention was devoted to the stiff to very stiff lay-
ers of silty clay, encountered within the alluvial
deposits.
The oedometer tests carried out on undis-
turbed samples showed that this layer has verti-
cal yield stress ^’vy ranging from 1300 to 1800
kPa well in excess of the existing overburden ef-
fective stress ^’vo. Moreover the oedometer re-
compression curve of this material crossed the
intrinsic compression line ICL as defined by
Burland [2] suggesting that the clay is structured.
3 THE SUBSTRUCTURE SYSTEM
3.1 The foundation solution
Given the ground conditions and the presence of
a strong and stiff cemented layer below the level
of the basement, a 4.5 m raft was chosen to sup-
port the loads from the tower and a 1.2 m thick
diaphragm wall was adopted for the ground re-
taining system. The wall was supported by the
internal floor slabs in the permanent condition
with the upper 9 m cantilevering above the sec-
ond level basement slab, which acted as a thick
plate spanning the entire plan area. The 4.5 m
thick raft spanned between the walls in the area
of the central tower and thinner rafts (1.2 m and
1.6 m) were used for the remainder of the base-
ment where there was no superstructure.
3.2 The construction sequence
Having completed an unexploded ordnance
(UXO) search the retaining wall was installed
from 3 m below existing ground level. This ex-
tended to the clay layer to form a cut off to water
flow into the basement during excavation. The
first 3 m of ground were retained using a ‘Berlin
Wall’ comprised of minipiles along the bounda-
ries with the roads and by the existing diaphragm
wall along the car park side of the site. Following
34 A. Gasparre et al. / Intesa-San Paolo Tower in Turin – Geotechnical Issues

installation of the walls the ground was removed was assumed that the structure applied a uniform
using a top-down method with the permanent pressure to the top of the raft.
second level basement slab, supported on tempo- The results showed that as excavation pro-
rary piles, as propping for the wall. ceeds there is a tendency of the structure to
‘sway’ towards the car park due to the asymmet-
3.3 The retaining wall ric ground level outside the site. This sway in-
creased when the loads from the tower were ap-
The geotechnical design was carried out in ac- plied. The diagram of bending moments and
cordance with the principles of EC7.1 based shear forces derived from the analyses were used
largely on as assessment of the serviceability
for the structural design of the wall in different
conditions using unfactored soil parameters. This
sections.
required the temporary state to be modelled in
Seismic load was considered as ultimate state
order to determine the most onerous conditions. condition for the wall, but it did not dictate the
Limit equilibrium calculations were then con- design.
ducted to check ultimate limit state conditions.
Analyses were carried out using the finite
element program ICFEP to determine the behav- 247mOD ~30m
car park services
iour of the retaining system and surrounding 238mOD
ground during the construction of the basement RFI anchors RFI
227mOD
and during the loading from the superstructure. 4.5m 222mOD
All analyses were undertaken using unfactored
conglomerate
soil parameters derived from the site investiga- 207mOD
203mOD
tion. A linear elastic soil model was used, al- Alluvial-lacustrine deposits
though the effects of non-linear soil parameters
were also checked. The parameters are summa- Figure 4: Section through the tower area
rised in Table 1.
3.4 The foundation raft
Table 1: Soil parameters for the analyses of the retaining wall
(J=unit weight; c’=cohesion; I’=angle of shearing resistance; The basement rafts rest on the cemented strata of
Ko=coefficient of earth pressure at rest; E’=Young’s fluvioglacial origin. The average pressure (qav)
Modulus) transmitted to the ground by the tower megacol-
soil J c’ I’° Ko E’
umns (including the self weight of the raft) is
kN/m3 kPa MPa about 710 kPa. The average net pressure, equal
1 20 1 30 0.4 160 to qav – ^vo’, where ^vo’ represents the original
2a 20 1 35 0.4 160+187z vertical effective overburden stress at 25m depth
z at 244mOD
2b 22 80 35 0.4 2800
before excavation, is about 710 – 440 = 270 kPa.
2c 22 80 35 0.4 2800-233z The average pressure exerted on the ground by
z at 217mOD the rafts of the podium is about 100 kPa, i.e. sig-
3 20 1 32 0.85 470+3.3z
z at 207
nificantly lower than ^vo’.
The key geotechnical issues were related to
the evaluation of the total and differential settle-
Sections through the middle of the tower, ments of the Tower raft foundation and its ability
where the most onerous conditions occurred, and to redistribute the loads transmitted by the six
through the areas outside the tower were mod- mega-columns and the central core. For these
elled accounting for the presence of the existing purposes, specific analyses were carried out us-
structure for the RFI and the basement under the ing the computer code FOCALS (Foundation on
car park area. Figure 4 shows a sketch of a sec- Cross Anisotropic Layered System); see Wardle
tion though the tower area. The analyses made and Fraser [6]. The code is able to solve the in-
the assumption of plane strain conditions and it teraction problem represented by rafts resting on
layered soils, loaded by both distributed and con-
 A. Gasparre et al. / Intesa-San Paolo Tower in Turin – Geotechnical Issues
centrated loads. In the code both the raft and the
layered soils are schematized by elastic constitu-
tive models.
The numerical model was developed taking
into account the embedment ratio h/B (where h
and B represent respectively the height of exca-
vation and the short side of the raft), the negligi-
ble influence of the podium rafts and the retain-
ing walls on the tower foundation, the depth of
the boundary layer, assumed at 65 m below the
raft level and the stress levels induced in the
ground by the tower raft. The latter were signifi-
cantly lower than the gross yield stress of the
materials (see for example Jardine, [5]), there-
fore, the soil materials were reasonably repre-
sented by elastic constitutive models. From the
profile of elastic Young’s moduli, Eo’ opera-
tional values that accounted for strain levels were
derived. These are shown in Figure 5.
The settlement distribution derived from the
analyses for the end-of-construction conditions
are shown in Figure 6.
Figure 5: Young’s modulus profile. Stress conditions after
excavation and tower construction
To take into account the possible contribution
given by creep phenomena, settlement distribu-
tion, representative to long term conditions, 50
years after end of construction, were determined
using the empirical approach proposed by Bur-
land and Burbidge [3] for static loading condi-
tions; the results are included in Figure 6.
35
Maximum total settlements were predicted to
be of the order of 10 cm for long term condi-
tions. Possible occurrence of creep phenomena
could lead, after end-of-construction, to maxi-
mum total settlements of the order of 40 mm to
50 mm. Maximum induced settlements (long
term conditions) on the adjacent podium rafts
could be of the order of 50 to 60 mm on one side
of the site and 30 to 40 mm on the other side.
4 THE EFFECTS OF CONSTRUCTION ON
SURROUNDING GROUND AND
STRUCTURES
Ground movements were expected to occur as a
result of the installation of the retaining walls,
the construction of the basement and the applica-
tion of load to the tower.
Based on observations of ground movements
the settlements due to the installation of the ber-
linese wall and the diaphragm wall were ex-
pected to be confined to a zone approximately
equal to one times the depth of the wall from the
back of the wall and, in granular soils, the maxi-
mum settlements are likely to be around 0.1% of
the wall depth. Movements due to the installation
of the berlin wall were expected to be negligible
assuming that the installation was carefully
planned. No significant movements were ex-
pected to occur below the top of the conglomer-
ate.
Each diaphragm wall panel has a width of 2.8
m and was to be constructed between guide
trenches from 3 m below the existing ground sur-
face. General ground movements, although small
were therefore expected to be more concentrated
within the 3m from the back of the wall as a re-
sult of local loss of support. The Berlin wall was
also expected to mitigate movements to a depth
of 9 m below existing ground level where these
are present.
An upper bound of the profiles of horizontal
and vertical movement of the ground adjacent to
the basement was estimated from the results of
the finite element analyses. From these it was
deduced that prior to the application of load to
the raft the movements outside a zone around 15
m back form the wall were generally less than 5
36 A. Gasparre et al. / Intesa-San Paolo Tower in Turin – Geotechnical Issues
mm. Within the 15 m zone, which is affected
principally by the forward rotation of the wall
above the conglomerate, the maximum settle-
ment was around 25 mm and maximum lateral
movement to be 40 mm. The movements were
smaller on the car park side
Figure 6: Predicted settlements of tower raft
The application of load to the raft resulted in a
general settlement around 20 mm close to the
walls. This settlement was accompanied by a lat-
eral movement of less than 10 mm towards the
basement.
In reality, the effect of the loading of the raft
was believed to be confined to a smaller area
than the analyses suggested because of the lim-
ited extent of the raft. Furthermore, conservative
values of the ground stiffnesses were used in the
analyses and therefore the maximum net settle-
ments and lateral movements of the ground out-
side the basement were likely to be exaggerated.
It was concluded that:
x The principal movements occurred in the
roadways around the site with largest move-
ments occurring next to the wall.
x There was negligible effect of the construc-
tion on the car park due to the effects of
basement construction and loading of the raft.
Care was required during the construction of
the diaphragm walls to ensure that significant
settlements local to the outer wall of the car
park did not occur.
x Other buildings outside the site were unlikely
to be affected by the construction.
x The diaphragm wall to the RFI nearest to the
site could move a maximum of in a range of
5 mm around its current position. This is mir-
rored by slightly smaller movements on the
opposite wall.
5 CONCLUSION
The geotechnical design of the proposed project
was carried out taking into account the ground
conditions, the loading conditions and the site
constrains due to the urban context.
A dominant feature for the design was the
presence of the conglomerate material which was
both stiff and with a relatively high strength.
This affected the choice and the design of the
substructure system. Finite element analyses
were carried out to support the structural design
of the wall and the foundation raft. Ground
movements and their effects on surrounding
ground and structures were also estimated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors express their thankfulness to the
Management of the Banca Intesa-Sanpaolo for
allowing publishing this paper. Moreover we ac-
knowledge the contribution of Dr. Cristina Pepe
of Ingegneria Geotecnica, Torino, during the soil
investigation campaign and during the prepara-
tion of the Soil Mechanics Report.
REFERENCES
[1] Biot, M.A, Theory of propagation of elastic waves in a
fluid-saturated porous solid. I. Lower frequency range,
Journal of Acoustical Society of America 28 (1956),
168-178.
[2] Burland, J.B., On the compressibility and shear strength
of natural clays, Géotechnique 40, (1990), 329-378.
[3] Burland J.B., Burbidge M.C., Settlement of foundations
on sand and gravel, Proceedings of the Institution of
Civil Engineers, 78 ,1, (1985) 1325-1381
[4] Foti, S., Lai, C.G., Lancellotta, R, Porosity of fluid
saturated porous media from measured seismic wave
velocities, Gèotechnique 52, 5, (2002) 359-373.
[5] Jardine, R., Some observations on the kinematic nature
of soil stiffness Soils and Foundations 32, 2, (1992),
111-124.
[6] Wardle L.J., Fraser R.A., Finite Element analysis of a
plate on a layered cross-anisotropic foundation, Int.
Conf. on Finite Element Methods in Engineering, Pul-
mano, V.A.; Kabaila, A.P. Eds, University of N.S.W.,
Australia, 1974.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 37
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-37

Investigations and interpretation of results from

Dynamic Probing DPH from the N10*-values of an
Data Acquisition
Exploration et interprétation des résultats de la pénétration
dynamique de la N10*-valeurs d´une aquisition des données
R. A. Herrmann1
Geotechnical Institute, University of Siegen
T. Lauber
GEOTECHNIK GmbH, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Herrmann & Partner, Herrieden
ABSTRACT
Dynamic Probings, whether Heavy, Medium or Light type (DPH, DPM, DPL), are state-of-the art methods for subsoil investiga-
tion used by Geotechnical Engineers in Europe. Dynamic Probings are used worldwide to determine geotechnical design pa-
rameters, and in Europe EC-7-2 (Ground Investigation and Testing) and EC-7-1 (Geotechnical Design) are the-up-to date stan-
dards. The uses of dynamic probings are important since the Cone Penetration Test (CPT) is found to be good only in soft to stiff
cohesive soils and loose to medium dense sands.
Since the CPT cannot be used in dense sands, gravel or bedrock due to very high penetration resistances, DPH, DPM and DPL
are mainly used for geotechnical investigations. In this study based on the approach by Zweck, who defined N10* = 10 / e (e =
cm of the probe penetration per blow), the use of an automated data acquisition system was further developed to eliminate the in-
fluence of operators logging the data manually. By using a Field Geo-Measuring system (FGM) for dynamic probings, the qual-
ity, comparability and interpretability of the acquired data can be tremendously increased and, therefore, the automated system
should be incorporated into EC 7-2 as a standard procedure for dynamic probings.

RÉSUMÉ
La pénétration dynamique quelque soit de type lourd, moyen ou léger sont des méthodes d´exploration de sol en europe utilisés
par les ingénieurs en géotechnique. Les pénétrations dynamiques s ´utilisent dans tout le monde pour déterminer les paramètres
de calcul géotechnique. L´ EC-7-2 et l´ EC-7-1 sond actuellement les valables normes en europe. Cette étude qui définie N10*=
10/e (e= cm de tronche d´enfoncement par chute) montre que l´automatisation de valeurs aquis est développé pour diminuer le
risque d´erreurs provoqués par les valeurs aquis manuellement. Le système de mesure géotechnique (FGM) pour les pénétrations
dynamiques améliore la qualité, la comparabilité et l´interprétation des valeurs aquis. Pour cela, le sytème automatisé doit être
integré dans l´EC-7-2 comme procédure standard pour les pénétrations dynamiques.

Keywords: EC 7-2, EDAS, Electonic Data Acquisition System, CPT, FGM-System, N10*-values, Definition of shearing and slid-
ing-planes, Correlation of Cu/Ic and N10*-values

1 INTRODUCTION was used as a guideline in the development of

Up to the present day in the Federal Republic of
Germany, the procedure for the Dynamic Pene-
tration Test day was set out in the German Indus-
trial Standard DIN 4094 Part 3. This standard
the European Standard DIN EN ISO 22476-2.
Consequently, it became the core of the current
European (CEN) and International (ISO) stan-
dards, and became merged into EC 7-2 in the

1
Corresponding Author.
38 R.A. Herrmann and T. Lauber / Investigations and Interpretation of Results
System of Standards for Field Testing according
to DIN ISO 22476-1 to -13.
In the Dynamic Penetration Test a probe is
driven into the ground. The driving force is pro-
duced by dropping a hammering head of speci-
fied mass falling through a predetermined dis-
tance. The number of blows required to penetrate
10 cm are counted during the test. The various
types of dynamic penetration tests are differenti-
ated by the masses of the falling weight, the dis-
tances, and the diameters of the probe as:
- Dynamic Probing Light (DPL)
- Dynamic Probing Medium (DPM)
- Dynamic Probing Heavy (DPH)
- Dynamic Probing Super Heavy (DPSH)
- Dynamic Probing Giant (DPG)
The probe DPG is only used in Germany and
serves primarily to determine the boundary layer
for the top of bedrock, and is dedicated to high
penetration resistance and greater depths.
The choice of type of probe depends on sev-
eral factors, which are essentially:
- Condition and composition of the site soils
- Planned depth of the sounding
- Situation and accessibility of the test site
In today's economical environment, the prob-
ings must be mobile and fully automated, in par-
ticular for the DPM, DPH, DPSH and DPG. The
probings DPH, DPSH and DPG today are usually
mounted on a tracked vehicle, as shown in Fig-
ure 1. Further details of each system can be
found in DIN EN ISO 22476-2.
Figure 1. Automatic Dynamic Probing Heavy and FGM-
System EDAS (Geotechnical Institute, University Siegen).
2 GEOMEASURING SYSTEM DYNAMIC
PROBING (DP-SH/-H-M-L)
The Field Geo-Measuring System, FGM re-
cording measurement system EDAS [1], consists
of a rotation transducer, which divides the chain
circulation into 1000 impulses. One impulse cor-
responds, thereby, to a specified chain move-
ment. In practice the hydraulic chain drive has
been justified due to the precision of the chain
path. The measured impulses are transmitted
through a cable to the electronic data-collection
unit. The geo-measuring technique consists of a
robust design suitable for on-site operations. The
enclosure for the connections complies with the
protection grade IP65 and is thus protected
against muck and water.
The FGM system works by constantly com-
paring the time difference between successive
impulses of a processor during the sounding.
With the release of the fall-weight by a trip on
the continuously-rotating chain of the automatic
sounding equipment, the processor sets a point of
reference. Then the impulses are counted up to
the next release of the fall-weight and compared
to the reference point. The difference between
the counted impulses is the penetration of the
probe in impulses which are converted through
calculations into the penetration of the probe per
blow in mm.
Figure 2. Portable Control Unit (Electronic Data Acquisition
System - EDAS).
2.1 Calibration
The FGM system EDAS requires calibrations for
each set of sounding equipment. Initially, the
nominal impulses with the location of the fol-
lower (fall-weight) correlated with the impulses
 R.A. Herrmann and T. Lauber / Investigations and Interpretation of Results
of the chain length in mm determine the equip-
ment factor. Another factor is specified depend-
ing on the threshold sensitivity determined for
the various fall-weights. On the basis of these pa-
rameters, the equipment is calibrated in tests with
no penetration, and in hard soils with only one to
two millimeters penetration per blow. By an ad-
justment of the equipment factor within the
1/1000 millimeter range and comparative meas-
urements between the actual and the measured
penetration depth, the effect of the chain length,
cycle of the chain drive, and other influences can
be eliminated. The accuracy of the FGM measur-
ing system is approximately 2%, which corre-
sponds to an accuracy of 20 cm in an investiga-
tion depth of 10 m. This inaccuracy can be
reduced through correction software. The results
of the measurements are given in the form of in-
dividual values of the penetration as follows, see
[2].
The collected and documented data for the
FGM system were used as follows to compute
the standard dimensionless N10* representation.
For clarity these were back-calculated into tabu-
lar form and presented in DIN ramming dia-
grams according to DIN EN ISO 22476-2.
Figure 3. Printout of FGM-System
3 MANUAL AND INSTRUMENTED
COLLECTION OF RAMMING DATA
The manual data collection by counting the
number of N10 blows by a technician (in accor-
dance with DIN EN ISO 22476) or by a me-
chanical or optical counting device (counter,
39
light sensor or similar) can yield different results,
and a comparison study was carried out [2]. The
presentation in Figure 4 shows the difference be-
tween a hand recording and the automatic data
collection with EDAS.
Deviation of the results of data acquisition and manual recording
0
-40 -30 -20 -10 0
blow / 10 cm penetration
10 20 30 40
-2
manual manual
-4 recording recording
+ -
depth [m]
-6
-8
-10
-12
Figure 4. Deviation of the results of the data acquisition and
manual recording [2]
It can be seen that at shallower depths in sec-
tions with a low number of blowcounts, the de-
viation is primarily small at approximately 1
blow per 10 cm. At greater depths In sections
with more blowcounts, deviations from up to 10
blows per 10cm can occur. The two large devia-
tions in the diagram result from a shift of the
depth scale in the hand drawing. The small dis-
crepancies in the recording of the blowcounts be-
tween the two different methods of recording are
apparent. In areas with low numbers of blow-
counts, e.g., in cohesive soils, the variations in
consistencies by manual data collection cannot
be differentiated and require more sophisticated
measuring procedures, such as conducting a CPT
according to DIN EN ISO 22476-1. However,
CPT soundings are usually only feasible in very
soft to semi solid cohesive soils. In dense to very
dense mixed gravelly soils with pebbles, and in
the transition to rock-residual soils, CPT sound-
ings are not applicable due to damage to the
measuring technique of the non replaceable elec-
tronic tip. Therefore, the use of CPT soundings is
limited predominantly to marine sediments.
40 R.A. Herrmann and T. Lauber / Investigations and Interpretation of Results
4 PRESENTATION OF SOUNDING
RESULTS
The former German standard for Dynamic Pene-
tration Test, DIN 4094, and the recent European
Standard DIN EN ISO 22476-2, and together
with EC 7-2, all require that the results be pre-
sented in a blowcount diagram (Step Diagram)
with N10 (number of blowcounts per 10 cm
penetration).
4.1 Standardized, Dimensionless N10*-Values
In expectation of an improved field geomeasur-
ing technique, the possibility of measuring the
penetration depth for each individual hammer
impact with the assistance of a geo-measuring
system, with reference to the well-known ram-
ming interval of 10 cm was foreseen, see For-
mula (1).
Formula N10* = 10 / e [1] (1)
N10* from standard N10, dimensionless penetra-
tion resistance
e cm of probe penetration into the soil per
blow
10 10 cm
The result is a standardized dimensionless
blowcount N10* as is N10. This approach has the
benefit (after [3]) that the blowcount diagrams,
DP and CPT, are affine curves (similar point-to-
point translated), although different dimensions
are present. This affine curve, thereby, achieves
among other things, that the formerly considered
interval for N10 of 10 cm as a function of the
consistencies of the site soils, is represented by
N10* for each blow: Thus, the consistencies of
the site soils are measured differentially and are
also illustrated within the former N10 interval.
4.2 Instrumented Data Collection of N10*-
Values
The relationship from Formula (1), as a quotient
of the N10 interval and e, results in a boundary-
value problem as the penetration e converges to-
ward zero. Due to the present instrumented data
collection of 1 mm, indistinction arises in the
case of high and very high blowcounts with re-
sults as illustrated in Figure 5. However, the re-
sulting inconsistencies are meaningless in prac-
tice, since this is within the Dynamic Penetration
Test limiting horizon with N10 S 50 blows.
R e l a ti o n o f P e n e t r a t i o n a n d N 1 0
*
10 0
90
80
70
60
N10*
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 ,1 1
P e n e t r a t io n [ c m ]
10
Figure 5. Relation of Penetration and N10* [2]
4.3 Particularity of the N10*-Relationship
The particularity of the FGM system, above all,
lies in the fact that very soft to soft grounds can
also be explored with Dynamic Penetration
Tests. In DP results, the influence of the skin
friction from the driving rod was, up to now, not
differentiable from the tip resistance in low N10-
values. The resolution of penetration resistance
into tip resistance and skin friction gives no in-
terpretation for N10 < 3 (3 blows for 10 cm).
Only CPT soundings could be used here. This is
not so with the use of the FGM system. The dif-
ferentiation between the tip resistance and skin
friction can be made using the "Exploratory
Probings" procedure after [4].
The DP results using the FGM system show
that the penetration per blow is comparable with
the results of point resistances from piles or CPT
soundings as long as the cohesive soil flows
around the probe tip. Thus, the consistencies of
cohesive soils and cU-values can be confidently
correlated as derived values.
5 INTERPRETATION OF SOUNDING
RESULTS USING FGM
5.1 Affine Relationship to Subsoil Strengths
From the approach after [3], it developed that the
penetration diagrams, DP and CPT, point toward
 R.A. Herrmann and T. Lauber / Investigations and Interpretation of Results
an affine arrangement, translated points although
divergent dimensions are present. This affine
process is attained partly by the fact that the in-
terval for N10 of 10 cm is represented as a func-
tion of the firmness of the site soils for each
blow. Thus, the firmness of the site soil is ob-
tained differentially with consideration also of
the former N10 interval.
Figure 6. Relation of CPT (red) and N10* (blue) [2]
5.2 Application with the Determination of
Sliding and Shearing Planes
This method was used (from [1]) for the investi-
gation and exploration of the sliding and shear-
ing planes of slipping masses at Wasserstraßen
(Stichkanal Hildesheim to the Mittellandkanal)
as a substitute for CPT soundings. The results of
the soundings obtained could be substantiated by
comparison with a concurrent geo-measuring
program for the movement of the sliding mass.
Figure 7. Definition of shearing and sliding-planes with N10*
[2]
41
6 EVALUATION OF FGM SOUNDING
RESULTS
6.1 Affine Relationship to Subsoil Strengths
The investigations of the differential site soil
firmness with the help of the FGM system show
that both granular layers as well as fine-grained
cohesive layers can be confidently delineated,
see Figure 8. Cohesive soils are marked with
homogeneous linear N10*-values according to
their consistencies.
Figure 8. Relation of soil layers and N10*
A further outcome is that granular soil layers
(gravel, sand) and decomposed rock zones (sand-
stones and clay stones, etc.) can be confidently
delimited. The differentiation is dependant,
thereby, on the range of the N10*-values as well
as the magnitude of N10*. Currently, there is not
sufficient confident data on hand as to the in situ
density, D, and/or the reference density, ID, for
granular soils. Further scientific research is in
progress.
6.2 Evaluation and Correlation Relationships
The analysis between measured N10*-values and
the consistencies of cohesive soils produce a
confident correlation. From this, derived values
after EC 7-2 and characteristic values after EC 7-
1 can be constituted and determined.
42 R.A. Herrmann and T. Lauber / Investigations and Interpretation of Results

18,000
relationship fR from the CPT. However, further
16,000 15,846
research is still necessary.
14,000
12,000 Apart from the advantage of data transfer by
N10* [1]

10,000 the EDP application, the manual errors (human

8,000
factors) are eliminated. The derived N10*-values
6,000 5,973
4,393
provide not only confident correlations with con-
4,000
2,000
2,588 sistencies, but with CU-Values of cohesive soils
0,000 0,526 as well. This is based on the differential data col-
very soft firm stiff very stiff hard lection within the former typical N10 interval, i.e.,
Consistencity / Term with the measurement of the penetration e for
each hammer blow, 100% of the soil mass of the
Figure 9. Correlation of Consistency and N10*-Values of co- sounding is measured with instruments and
hesive Soils
logged. Thereby, with the use of the FGM sys-
tem and interpretation with N10*-values, a new
Term Cu [kPa] Ic [1] N10* [1]
approach regarding the quality and interpretabil-
very soft / < 20 < 0,25 0,5
very low ity of indirect site soil investigations according to
soft / 20-40 0,25-0,50 1,0 EC 7-2 and/or DIN EN 22476-2 is possible. Ac-
low cording to a re-release of DIN EN ISO 22476-2,
firm / 40-75 0,50-0,75 2,6 the FGM-System should be established as a
middle
standard.
stiff / 75-150 0,75-1,00 4,4
high
very stiff / 150-300 > 1,00 6,0
very high REFERENCES
Figure 10. Correlation of Cu and Ic-values (see DIN EN ISO
14688) and N10*-Values of cohesive Soils [1] J. Müller-Weichbrodt, M. Liebrecht, EDAS-Elektro-
nische Datenerfassungen für Rammsondierungen,
Messtechnik im Erd- und Grundbau, Colloquium Insti-
tut für Geotechnik, University Siegen, Siegen, 2001.
7 SUMMARY [2] M. Pietsch, Erfahrungen mit der Rammdatenerfassung
bei Rammsondierungen und deren Interpretation, Er-
kundung und Untersuchungen in der Geotechnik, Col-
The use of the FGM system results in a high
loquium Institut für Geotechnik, University Siegen,
resolution differential for the investigation of site Siegen, 2003.
soil strengths. This is valid for both non-cohesive [3] H. Zweck, „Baugrunduntersuchungen durch Sonden“
and cohesive soils as well as weathered-rock Verlag Wilhelm Ernst und Sohn, Berlin, München
(1969).
soils (rock residual soils). From the affine ar-
[4] R. A. Herrmann, M. Zimmermann, Untersuchungen
rangement of the penetration blowcount dia- zum Einfluss der Gestängemantelreibung bei Ramm-
grams DP and CPT, sliding planes and shearing sondierungen und deren Bewertung, Erkundung und
surfaces, thin beds, and other discontinuities, can Untersuchungen in der Geotechnik, Colloquium Institut
für Geotechnik, University Siegen, Siegen, 2003.
be discerned. Generally, the impending [5] R. A. Herrmann, Script Geotechnik, University Siegen,
soil/decomposed rock can be identified by the Siegen, 2010
N10* deviations, comparable with the frictional
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 43
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-43

Mechanical properties of semi-rocks soils and

methods of their determination
Propriétés de mécaniques de la pierre calcaive et méthods pour
la détermination de leurs
N.V.Kornienko
Kiev National University of Engineering and Architecture, Ukraine
A.V. Novskiy, V.A. Novskiy1, A.P. Tkalich, Y.F. Tugaenko
Odessa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Ukraine

ABSTRACT
In the south-western part of Ukraine Black Sea plateau as a base foundation soils used semi-rock soils presented pontian lime-
stone. In the state standards are no methods for determining their mechanical characteristics needed for the design of foundations
and piles. The article presents the methodology and results of laboratory and field studies of these characteristics.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans la zone sud-ouest de l’Ukraine de la mer Noire le terrain de fondation utilisée la pierre calcaire. Dans le standard Ukrainien
n’existe pas de methods pour la détermination de leurs caractéristiques mecaniques. L’article présente la methodologie et les
résultants des tests.

Keywords: limestone, semi-rock, the ultimate strength at uniaxial compression, structural strength, the resistance of the shift,
bored pile, field tests, laboratory tests.

Occurrences of the shell limestone at differ- resulting in three horizons with different charac-
ent depths from the daylight characterize engi- teristics. Limits of averaged coefficients of these
neering and geological structure of the plateau characteristics are listed in table.1
south-west from Black Sea in Ukraine. These
Table 1
biochemical rocks have long been used for wall-
ing for a long time. The development was carried Ultimate Volumetric Porosity, Softening co-
out as open pit and underground, resulting in the stress in uni- weight, n efficient
axial com- a,
production zone remained empty. To assess the pression, Rc, %
construction properties of limestone, its physical _P` kN/m3
properties and ultimate stress in uniaxial com-
pression were studied. Geologists [1, 2] studied 0,6 – 2,5 12,7– 16,0 59 – 43 0,77 – 0,58
these characteristics at a distance of 30 km. from
the modern Black Sea coastline. Shell limestone In order to erect high-rise buildings and to
layers are typical marine sediments that have un- strengthen foundations in reconstruction it’s
dergone considerable changes during diagenesis, necessary to use the limestone as a bases of

1
Corresponding Author.
44 N.V. Kornienko et al. / Mechanical Properties of Semi-Rocks Soils

foundations and a base layer for the bored piles. elastic deformations at pressures less than struc-
However, the mechanical properties of these tural strength, and the second one - at pressures
rocks are investigated insufficiently. As a rule exceeding the structural strength. Pressure corre-
the bored piles are designed as point-bearing sponding to the point of intersection of the
ones, while the calculated carrying capacity can branches defines the value of the structural
be several times differ from the actual one. The strength, (see fig. 2).
problem is the limestone of south-west region of
Ukraine is not rock. It is semi-rock, and its me-
chanical properties are identical to disperse soils. b) p, MPa
Therefore the study of these properties is a ur-
gent problem.
According to the effective standard in
Ukraine, the rocks with rigid structural connec-
tions are estimated by ultimate strength in uniax-
ial compression at a water-saturated state. How-
ever, this indicator does not permit to estimate a)
other properties of the shell limestone, to which
include: structural strength, modulus of deforma-
tion and shear resistance along the lateral surface
of bored piles.
Structural strength pstr of studied semi-rock is
the limiting value of resistance at which of the
applied load is balanced by the strength of shells s, mm
Fig. 2. Results of laboratory tests of shell limestone
and structural connections to their contacts. samples. a) A test scheme: 1 - extra stamp, 2 - sample. b) A
Meanwhile in the bases of fundamental there are graph of stamp settlement and settlement elastic component
predominantly elastic deformations, disappearing versus the pressure
after removal of the load. Stresses, exceeding the The research has determined that with
structural strength, cause the destruction of shells increasing strength of limestone at uniaxial
and their structural connections, results that the compression the value of structural strength
rock compaction. According to experiments in increases, and the ratio of these indices decreased
the tray with a transparent wall, residual defor- with increasing strength of the rock. Mean values
mations grow within volume of the irreversible of Rc and pstr by results of tests of 55 samples
deformations zone, forming in the bases founda- with different strength at uniaxial compression,
tion. as well as their ratios are shown in table. 2.
Laboratory tests are performed on the samples
of shell limestone of varying strength. For re- Table 2.
search the compression device, in which the load The results of laboratory testing of ultimate strength at
on the sample with area of 60 cm2 is passed by uniaxial compression and structural strength of limestone.
the stamp with area of 15 cm2 was reequipped. Range of values Mean values, _P`
Tests are performed by the technique of cycli- Rc,
Rc pstr pstr/Rc
cally increasing load [3]. Each stage represents _P`
an independent cycle: load application, keeping
0,5-1,0 0,69 1,60 2,32
it till stabilization of settlement and unloading.
The applied method enabled to measure the 1,0-1,3 1,19 2,11 1,77
value of the total settlement and its residual and >2,0 2,19 2,48 1,13
elastic components at each stage.
The graph of the elastic component of settle-
ment versus the pressure consists of two In the field, estimate of indicators of the
branches. The first branch reflects the growth of strength and deformation properties of lime-
 N.V. Kornienko et al. / Mechanical Properties of Semi-Rocks Soils 45

stones is performed by results of the testing with

the stamps in the wells at different horizons. Re-
search a performed with 300 mm diameter
stamps in boreholes on four horizons [4, 5].
Abutment of the stamp foot to the bottom surface
is performed by special technology, which in-
cludes cleanup and aligning it with cement mor-
tar of 7 - 10 cm thickness. The load on the stamp
body was phasic. Values of structural strength
and the deformation modulus obtained by results
of the field tests on one of the sites are listed in
table. 3
Table 3.
Values of structural strength and modulus of deformation
of limestone

Depth lower, pstr, b, _P` pv, kN

than the lime- in the pressure range
stone top, _P` Fig. 3. Graphs of total, elastic and residual deformations at
p, _P`
m the pulling test of pile-anchor
1,1 - 1,5 1,5 - 2,5
1,10 1,15 4,0 - 1,7 - The length of the extended section of the pile
3,0 1,35 - 20 - 9
for each stage of the load is determined with the
use of Hooke's law according to (1):
0,8 1,88 - 24 - 6
li = E · Syi / ^cd, i (1)
3,6 1,38 - 30 - 9

where: E - modulus elasticity of reinforcing

Resistance to the limestone shifts along the lat-
eral surface of the bored piles is determined in
the laboratory on models of piles, as well as at
the test of pile-anchors in the field.
Check tests of natural boring-injection pile-
anchors on pulling was performed using the
technique of cyclically increasing load. Figure 3
shows the test results of one of the anchors with
diameter of 150 mm and length of 8,0 m.
According to this technique after the stabiliza-
tion of the deformation of each stage of the load,
the unload to zero is performed. This character of
the load allows to determine total movement and
their elastic and residual components. In the se-
quel, these data allowed to determine the length
of the tension section at the each stage of load-
ing, as well as resistance along the lateral surface
of the pile individual sections.
steel, equal to 1.9 × 10 5 MPa; Syi - the elastic
component of measured strain; ^sr,i - stress aver-
age value in the reinforcing bars within the
length of the deformed fragment determined
from the expression ( 2):
^cd,i = 0,5 pv,i / As (2)
where: pv,i - force applied to the anchor; AS -
cross-section area of reinforcing bar and 0,5 -
coefficient taking into account a triangular shape
of the diagrams of stresses arising in the rebar.
Shear resistance along the lateral surface of
piles within any length fragment at each stage of
the load can be determined from the dependence
(3):
e fi = e Pi /e fv u (3)
where: e fi - the average value of friction
forces along the lateral surface for each frag-
46 N.V. Kornienko et al. / Mechanical Properties of Semi-Rocks Soils
ment of the pile body; e Pi - the load value influ-
encing the length fragment of the pile body;
e fv - the length fragment of the pile body; u -
cross-section perimeter of the pile body.
The graph in fig.4 shows that the maximal re-
sistance along lateral surface arises at an area lo-
cated in the limestone.
Fig. 4. Graph of change of friction forces along the lateral
surface at different length fragments of the pile-anchor
At laboratory, the shear resistance along
the lateral surface of the bored piles fc is defined
on models. The model piles are concreted
thereby that below their feet there is a cavity, and
the applied load is transmitted by the lateral sur-
face. In performed research the destruction of
limestone took place at 0,2-0,4 mm movements
of the pile body along the surface, located from
borehole walls on the hole at a distance of pene-
tration of cement to concrete the pile. At re-
uploading of the pile after "breaking" the resis-
tance along the lateral surface is reduced by 35 -
40%. This means that the shear resistance after
breaking of structural connections is transformed
into friction resistance along the damaged sur-
face. At determination of carrying capacity of
bored piles in limestone, it is necessary to take
into account feature of their work determined
experimentally.
According to results of the comprehensive
studies, there are graphs of shear resistance along
the lateral surface of the bored piles and struc-
tural strength of the ultimate strength at uniaxial
compression for samples with different strength,
(see fig. 5).
a Rc, MPa
Fig. 5. Associated graph of structural strength and shear resis-
tance along the lateral surfaces of piles versus the ultimate
strength at uniaxial compression
Thus, knowing the standard characteristic of
limestone - the ultimate strength at uniaxial
compression, and using graphs, drawn by results
of the presented research one can (without per-
forming laboratory or field tests) determined
value of structural strength and shear resistance
along the lateral surface necessary to design
foundations and bored piles.
The results of research have been used to
strengthen existing foundations and build new
ones for some buildings and structures in Odessa.
CONCLUSIONS
1. As a result of the comprehensive field and
laboratory tests of shell limestone, indices of
its mechanical characteristics are determined:
ultimate strength at uniaxial compression Rc,
structural strength Rstr and shear resistance
along the lateral surface of the bored piles fc.
2. The values and pattern of shear resistance
along the lateral surface of the bored piles in
the field and laboratory environment are de-
termined. There is specified transformation
phenomenon of ultimate shear resistance of
limestone with undisturbed structure at fric-
tion resistance, while the structural connec-
tions along the bodies of the bored piles are
 N.V. Kornienko et al. / Mechanical Properties of Semi-Rocks Soils 47

destroying during their movement, including

elastic compression.

3. To determine the structural strength there has

been used a new test procedure at absence of
rigid walls of a ring around the compressed
sample.

4. Use the test procedure with cyclically incre-

asing load has permitted to determine step-
by-step inclusion in work of bored piles and
anchors, as well as the shear resistance along
the lateral surface, while the load is increas-
ing.

5. There are received regional values of the

limestone mechanical characteristics, allow-
ing to determine the bearing capacity of
bored piles at compressing and pulling loads
in semi-rocks.

REFERENCES

[1] g.g. hijklmn. odp qrst`cuv w`qxyir ovwxvtxp-

z`{v|xp}p j~kldly €pdxp}p pdy. _vwv|ptr‚
dlcqjksvi`xcnir‚ x`jipwr‚ ~kvdxri: *+,-,./0
123+4+550 / 678 9,47,., :8 ;2,<=>?,., @,4/< 1
@+58A BCDC. ƒrqjci 6. ƒr|`wxrmuwp „r…wcnip}p
jxvwldcruluj. 1972, c. 87-93.
[2] †.‡. „pslcxripw, ˆ.‰. Šj}`lxip, ‹._. „p|dyxpw`,
ƒ._. „`dqŒi, ƒ.. ‡snrtlw, o.. „pxpw`spw.
Žicqldrlxu`snxpl rccsl|pw`xrl xlcjl‚
cqpcpkxpcur kjdprxlimrpxx‘{ cw`‚ w pcxpw`xrr
~|`xry g|lccip}p ul`ud` pqld‘ r k`slu`. E=7,<87F0,
G1768@+7:H F @+A87F?8 .417:,<. ’ 5. 2000, c. 23 -
29.
[3] ƒ.. “pwcir‚. ‡ccsl|pw`xrl qdptxpcux‘{ r
|l”pd`urwx‘{ cwp‚cuw r~wlcuxyi`-d`ij•ltxri` w
s`kpd`updx‘{ jcspwry{. I/=7F? E6+=>?,J 6+458<7,J
8?86+@/J 316/<7FK:<8 :8 84A/:+?:14F. ƒrqjci 29.
g|lc`: g–—. 2008, c. 289-295.
[4] ˆ.‰. Šj}`lxip, .o. Ši`srt, ƒ.. “pwcir‚.
“`qdylxxp |l”pdrdpw`xxpl cpcupyxrl
kjdpx`krwx‘{ cw`‚ r r{ pcxpw`xry, csplxxp}p
qpxurtlcirr r~wlcuxyi`r. L4,3-+@H @+A87F?F
.417:,< F G1768@+7:,=:4,+7F0 < =-,57HA
.417:,<HA 1=-,<F0A. M416H @+561784,67,N
781O7, – :+A7FO+=?,N ?,7G+4+7KFF, P,=<0Q+77,N 50
– -+:FR S8TUVV=:4,0. Šp 1. ˜w`‚x‘l
”jx|`lxu‘. ™”`. 2006, c. 137 - 141.
[5] ˆ.‰. Šj}`lxip. odpmlcc‘ |l”pdrdpw`xry }djxupw
w pcxpw`xry{ ”jx|`lxupw cw`‚ r cw`‚x‘{
”jx|`lxupw. - E6+==8: «;=:4,P4F7:. 2008, 216 c.
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 49
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-49

Development of an instrumented subassembly for

energy measurements in SPT tests
Développement d’une tige instrumenté pour mesurer l'énergie
d’essai de pénétration standard (SPT)
J. A. Lukiantchuki 1, L. P. R. de Oliveira, E. R. Esquivel
University of Sao Paulo, Department of Geotechnical Engineering

ABSTRACT
The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is a test which provides assessment of soil properties and foundation design parameters.
The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is the in-situ soil characterization test, which is most widely used in the Americas. The NSPT
index depends not only on the soil properties and on the SPT sampler characteristics, but also on the energy delivered to SPT
sampler during the hammer impact. The amount of energy that is transferred to the sampler depends on many factors, including
the test equipment characteristics, soil conditions, and procedures followed during the test. For this reason, different NSPT index
values can be obtained for the same soil. Thus the NSPT index should be normalized to a standard energy level that is equivalent
to 60% of the nominal SPT hammer energy. Thus, it is of great importance to evaluate the actual energy input. The aim of this
work is to show a suitable instrumented subassembly developed to assess the amount of energy that is effectively delivered to
the sampler during a hammer impact. Results of SPT tests, conducted at the Experimental Research Site of the University of Sao
Paulo (USP), showed the suitability of the instrumented subassembly to measure the amount of the energy that reaches the
sampler, for the particular conditions. However, it should be verified if these conclusions are valid for tests performed in other
situations involving the use of different types of hammer, different soil conditions and different instrumented subassembly
positions.

RÉSUMÉ
L'essai de pénétration standard (SPT) est un test qui permet d'évaluer les propriétés du sol et les paramètres pour les projets de
fondations. Le SPT est l’essais de caractérisation des sols in-situ plus utilisé aux Amériques. L'indice NSPT ne dépend pas
seulement sur les propriétés du sol et les spécifications de l'échantillonneur, mais aussi l'énergie qui atteint l'échantillonneur
pendant le coup de marteau. La quantité d'énergie transférée à l'échantillonneur dépend de nombreux facteurs comme les
caractéristiques de l'équipement d'essai, les conditions du sol, et les procédures d’essais. Pour cette raison, différentes valeurs de
l'indice NSPT peut être obtenu pour le même sol. Ainsi, l'indice NSPT devrait être normalisé à un niveau d'énergie standard qui est
équivalent à 60% de l’énergie nominale du marteau d’essai SPT. Pour cette raison, il est extrêmement important d’évaluer
l'apport d'énergie réelle. Le but de cet article est de présenter une tige instrumenté développé pour déterminer la quantité
d'énergie nette qui atteint l'échantillonneur pendant le coup de marteau. Les essais ont été réalisés à l'Université de São Paulo et
ont montré la pertinence du sous-ensemble d'instruments pour mesurer la quantité de l'énergie qui atteint l'échantillonneur, pour
des conditions particulières. Toutefois, la pertinence de l'instrumentation doit être vérifiée par des essais réalisés dans d'autres
conditions, avec différents marteaux, conditions du sol et positions de la tige instrumentée.

Keywords: SPT field test, energy, instrumentation, instrumented subassembly, force signal, acceleration signal.

1
Corresponding Author.
50 J.A. Lukiantchuki et al. / Development of an Instrumented Subassembly for Energy Measurements

1 INTRODUCTION accelerations and normal forces during the

The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is a test
which provides assessment of soil properties and
foundation design parameters. Despite problems
associated with its repeatability and reliability,
the Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is the most
popular in-situ test used in the Americas for soil
hammer impact. The design of this equipment
was based on laboratory dynamic tests which led
to the definition of the best geometry for the
accelerometer supports and a suitable data
acquisition system.
=42.6 mm
characterization. 26.9 mm
=32.8 mm

The NSPT index is defined as the number of 4.6 mm

blows necessary to cause the sampler, attached to Thread 5/8" - 11
a string of rods, to penetrate 0.3 m into the
105.0 mm
soil. The NSPT index depends not only on the soil
properties and on the SPT sampler Accelerometer

characteristics, but also on the energy delivered

to SPT sampler during the hammer impact. This
delivered energy is only a portion of the nominal 17.0 mm

SPT hammer energy, which is equal to 474.5 J. =33.4 mm

The amount of energy that is transferred to the =24.3 mm

sampler depends on the test equipment, soil 350.0 mm

conditions, and procedures followed during the

test [1]. For this reason, different NSPT index
values can be obtained for the same soil. Thus Strain
gauges
the NSPT index should be normalized to an energy
level equivalent to 60% of the nominal SPT
hammer energy: N60 =(E/E60)N, where N60 is the
normalized NSPT index; E is the actual energy
delivered to the rod stem E60 is 60% of 4.6 mm
26.9 mm
the nominal SPT hammer energy; and N is Thread 5/8" - 11
the measured NSPT index. Thus, it is of great
importance to evaluate the actual energy input. =42.6 mm
The method of energy measurement consists
of attaching an instrumented subassembly near
the top of drill rods and measuring the force and
the acceleration time history during hammer
impact.
The aim of this work is to show a suitable
instrumented subassembly developed to measure
the amount of energy that is effectively delivered
to the sampler during a hammer impact. In order
to assess this energy, the instrumented
subassembly was placed down the hole, just
above the sampler [2].
2 INSTRUMENTATION
=32.8 mm
Figure 1. Instrumented subassembly design.
The instrumented subassembly, made of
martensitic stainless steel (VC-150), is similar to
the one constructed by Odebrecht [3]. After the
instrumented subassembly had been machined, it
received a heat treatment to improve its strength
characteristics. This process was performed in
two steps: quenching and tempering.
2.2 Load cell electrical circuit
The load cell electrical circuit is based on a
Wheatstone bridge, composed of four double
 
 
     
2.1 Instrumented subassembly
In this work, an SPT subassembly instrumented
with two accelerometers and a load cell (Fig. 1)
was constructed to measure the required
apart. The strain gauges are installed so that one
of the grids is parallel to the rod axis and the
other one normal to the rod axis. The use of four
double strain gauges aims at minimizing
temperature and bending effects.
 J.A. Lukiantchuki et al. / Development of an Instrumented Subassembly for Energy Measurements
2.3 Accelerometers
To measure accelerations, a couple of PCB
Piezotronics piezoelectric accelerometers (model
350B04) were installed on a rod subassembly
(Fig. 2). These accelerometers are capable of
measuring accelerations up to 5000 g, in the
0.4-10000 Hz frequency range.
Figure 2. Accelerometers (Model 350 B04) mounted on
SP3 supports.
2.3.1 Accelerometer supports
To investigate the most appropriate
accelerometer support geometry, preliminary
dynamic tests were performed using a shaker
(Fig. 3) and a laser vibrometer. Purpose-designed
accelerometer supports with three different
geometries were tested (SP1, SP2 and SP3).
Shaker
Figure 3. Laboratory dynamic tests.
Laboratory test results have shown that SP3
accelerometer support (Fig. 4) was the most
suitable for field tests. This support has shown
the lowest resonance and anti-resonance effects.
It was possible to collect data with frequencies
up to 14000 Hz, with low amplitude variations.
51
2.4 Acquisition system
For recording the signal data, an HBM data
acquisition system, model MX 410, was used.
This four channel portable data acquisition
system is suitable for collecting dynamic event
data, at sampling rates up to 96 kHz per channel,
with a resolution of 24 bits. Sampling rates and
filters can be independently adjusted for each
channel. This equipment is able to supply
adjustable transducer excitation (DC) in the
5-24 V range.
102
SP3
SP2
SP1
101
Amplitude
0
10
-1
10
-2
10
0 4000 8000 12000 16000 20000
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 4. Laboratory dynamic test results.
The signals were collected and monitored
with the help of the software Catman Easy 3.0.
This software enables to graphically visualize the
collected data in real time. Moreover, captured
data can be analyzed using the software analysis
mode. It was necessary to use special IEPE
(Integral Electronic Piezoelectric) signal
conditioners with the accelerometers, to amplify
the signals during the data acquisition.
3 SPT FIELD TESTS
3.1 Characterization of experimental site
Field tests were performed at the University of
Sao Paulo Experimental Research Site, in Sao
Carlos, Brazil. Figure 5 shows a typical
geological profile of this site.
In this area, there exists a 6-m thick lateritic
clayey sand layer above a pebble line. This layer
is unsaturated, very porous and collapsible,
52 J.A. Lukiantchuki et al. / Development of an Instrumented Subassembly for Energy Measurements

showing low bearing capacity, with a NSPT index redefinition, proposed by Aoki and Cintra (2000)
ranging from 1 to 8 blows. The depth of the [2].
water level varies from 7 to 10 m, depending on
the season of the year. This site has been
extensively investigated for more than 30 years. Instrumented
Alongside the investigation of geotechnical Subassembly
properties, many load tests have been performed
on many different types of foundations.

Sampler

Figure 6. Instrumented subassembly placed above the

sampler.

As positioning the instrumentation just above

the sampler leads to extra difficulties, it was
necessary to take some safety measures. First,
the borehole was drilled with a diameter of
100 mm to provide enough room for the
instrumented subassembly. Second, holes were
lined with PVC tubes, to prevent them being
blocked and protect the instrumentation. Finally,
the accelerometers were protected with a thick
silicon rubber layer.

3.3 SPT equipment

The SPT field tests were performed in
Figure 5. Experimental Research Site typical profile accordance with NBR 6484 Brazilian Standard
[4], except for the hammer. A trip hammer
3.2 SPT field test procedures (Fig. 7) with a propylene cushion was used
instead of a pin guided hammer with wood
The SPT field tests were carried out according to cushion.
the NBR 6484 Brazilian Standard [4].
In the conventional method for measuring
energy, an instrumented subassembly is attached
next to the top of the string of rods, allowing
measurements of axial forces and accelerations
during the hammer impact. However, the aim of
this work is to show a suitable instrumented
subassembly, developed to measure the amount
of energy that is effectively delivered to the
sampler during a hammer impact. In order to
assess this amount of energy, the instrumented
subassembly was placed down the hole, just
above the sampler (Fig. 6). The reason for
placing the instrumented subassembly in this
position is based on the SPT efficiency Figure 7. Trip hammer (65 kg).
 J.A. Lukiantchuki et al. / Development of an Instrumented Subassembly for Energy Measurements 53

4 RESULTS curves in the 0-2L’/c time interval can be

observed. This curve superposition occurs only
in a short time interval because of the relatively
4.1 Force and acceleration signals short length of L’.
Figure 8 shows the record of force and 120
F
acceleration signals corresponding to a test v*Z
t= 2L'/c
performed with a 5.35-meters long string of rods. 80

Acceleration signals, obtained with the

Force (kN)
40
instrumented subassembly placed just above the
sampler, remained within the accelerometer
0
working range, not exceeding the maximum
allowed value.
-40
Velocity signals were obtained by integrating 199.5 200 200.5 201 201.5 202 202.5 203 203.5 204
Time (ms)
the acceleration signals. In order to verify the Figure 9. Comparison between F and vZ curves.
suitability of the developed equipment, the curve
corresponding to force signals (F) and the curve
corresponding to velocity signals (v) multiplied Displacement signals were obtained through
by the rod impedance (Z) were compared. These the integration of velocity signals. When
comparing the maximum displacement with the
curves should coincide in the time interval
actual sampler penetration a good agreement
between 0 and 2L’/c, where c is the propagation
between these values can be noticed (Figure 10).
velocity and L’ is the distance between the
accelerometer position and the sampler tip. 0.14

Because of wave reflections, this curve 0.12

superposition does not occur again for times 0.1

Field penetration = 0.10 m
Displacement (m)

longer than 2L’/c. 0.08

4 0.06
5x10

4 0.04
4x10

0.02
Acceleration (m/s)

4
3x10

2x10
4 0
190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280
4 Time (ms)
1x10
Figure 10. Displacement versus time.
0
0x10

-1x104
4.2 Energy and energy ratio
-2x104
190 200 210 220 230 240
Time (ms)
250 260 270 280
Figures 11 and 12 show the energy curve and
80 energy ratio curve, respectively. Energy ratio is
defined as the ratio between the actual energy
60
reaching the sampler and the nominal SPT
hammer energy. At the end of the event, the
Force (kN)

40

energy reached its maximum value, equal to

20
390 J. Thus the importance of subsequent
0 impacts in the total amount of the energy that
reaches the sampler can be noticed.
-20
190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280
To take into account the sampler penetration
Time (ms)
and rod weight effects, the energy delivered to
Figure 8. Acceleration and force signals versus time. the sampler had to be corrected [3]. With no
correction, the energy ratio is about 12% higher
Figure 9 shows the F and v.Z curves plotted than the corrected one. This correction is
on the same graph. The close agreement of these fundamental mainly for soils with low
54 J.A. Lukiantchuki et al. / Development of an Instrumented Subassembly for Energy Measurements

penetration resistance and testes performed with 5. Energy correction must be used to
long string of rods. determine the energy ratio, mainly in the case of
soil showing low NSPT index.
600
However, it is advised to verify if these
500
conclusions are valid for tests performed in
Maximum Energy = 390 Joules
different situations. This should include the use
Energy (Joules)

400

300
of different types of hammer, different soil
conditions and different instrumented
200
subassembly positions.
100 Performing SPT tests with the instrumented
0 subassembly placed just below the anvil or in
190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280
Time (ms) another intermediate position causes the 0-2L’/c
Figure 11. Energy versus time. time interval to be longer. Consequently, this
100
enables the verification of the influence of joints
ER= 82%
and connections on wave reflections.
80
ER= 70%
Energy Ratio (%)

60
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
40
Energy

20
0
190 200 210 220
Figure 12. Energy Ratio versus time.
5 CONCLUSION
The suitability of an instrumented subassembly,
to measure energy, was evaluated by carrying out
a series of SPT tests. For the particular case in
which the instrumented subassembly was placed
just above the sampler and a trip hammer was
used, the following conclusions can be stated:
1. The accelerometers were suitable for
measuring the accelerations during the SPT tests.
2. The curves corresponding to force (F) and
velocity times impedance (v.Z) signals show a
close agreement in the 0-2L’/c time interval
3. Displacements obtained by integrating
velocity signals were similar to measured
sampler penetrations.
4. Subsequent impacts were fundamental to
obtaining the amount of the energy that reaches
the sampler.
Corrected Energy Ratio
The authors are very thankful to FAPESP (Grant
No. 2008/08268-4) and CNPq (Grant No.
230 240 250 260 270 280
479001/2009-0) for the financial support.
Time (ms)
Furthermore, the first author is very thankful to
CAPES for the scholarship granted in Brazil and
Canada.
REFERENCES
[1] HOWIE, J.A; DANIEL, C.R; JACKSON, R.S;
WALKER, B. Comparison of energy measurement
methods in the standard penetration test. Reported
prepared for the U.S Bureau of Reclamation,
Geotechnical Research Group, Department of Civil
Engineering, The University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada, 2003.
[2] AOKI, N; CINTRA, J.C.A. The application of energy
conservation Hamilton’s principle to the determination
of energy efficiency in SPT tests, In: International
conference on the application of stress waves theory to
piles 6, v.1, p. 457 – 460, Sao Paulo, 2000.
[3] ODEBRECHT, E; SCHNAID, F; ROCHA, M.M;
BERNARDES, G.P. Energy efficiency for Standard
Penetration Test. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineenring ASCE (2005), 1252 –
1263.
[4] ABNT (2001) Standard penetration test (SPT). NBR
6484, Rio de Janeiro, 17p. (In Portuguese)
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 55
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-55

Geotechnical conditions for the construction of tunnel

“Progon” on the Dimitrovgrad bypass in Serbia
Conditions géotechniques pour la construction du tunnel
« Progon » sur la rocade Dimitrovgrad en Serbie
S. Milenkovic1, B. Jelisavac, V. Vujanic & M. Jotic
The Highway Institute, Kumodraska 257, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

ABSTRACT
Within the designed alignment of E-80 motorway in South East Serbia: Section Dimitrovgrad By-Pass the roadway alignment
for the motorway and respective structures has been adopted. In the area of the abovementioned section it is foreseen to build the
roadway in twin-tube tunnel Progon with total length of 1100 m.
The terrain is composed of clayey-gravely layers which are present in alternating sequence with sections of clay. The transitions
from one into another lithological member are mostly gradual and unclear, seldom sharp, and consequently it is very difficult to
single out the boundary between them.
In the course of analysis pertaining to geotechnical construction conditions, the geotechnical zoning of rock masses was carried
out, i.e. the constraints were set for terrain parts along the designed tunnel alignment inside which there are similar conditions
regarding the tunnel construction. Respecting the previously given criteria, according to geotechnical conditions, in the tunnel
tube all singled-out quasi-homogenous zones can be classified into four significantly different categories of rock masses with
specific conditions for tunnel excavation and support system.
Taking into account geotechnical conditions found on the location, size and shape of future tunnel, as well as advanced trends in
the tunneling, as optimal technical and cost-effective solution, the tunnel construction as per SCL has been adopted. Under spe-
cific conditions, SCL thanks to its flexibility, can fulfill the requirements regarding the costs and construction deadlines, validity
of the technical solution, and security of manpower and equipment.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans le cadre de l’alignement projeté de l’autoroute E-80 dans le sud-est de la Serbie : la Section Rocade Dimitrovgrad,
l’alignement de la chaussée pour l’autoroute et les structures respectives a été adopté. Dans la zone de la section susmentionnée,
la construction de l’autoroute dans le tunnel bitube Progon d’une longueur totale de 1100 m a été prévue.
Le terrain est composé de couches argileuses-caillouteuses qui sont présentes dans des séquences alternantes avec des sections
d’argile. Les transitions de l’une à l’autre zone lithologique sont principalement graduelles et peu claires, rarement brusques, et
par conséquence, il est très difficile de les distinguer.
Dans le cadre des analyses afférentes aux conditions géotechniques de la construction, le zonage géotechnique des massifs
rocheux a été effectué, c’est-à-dire que des contraintes ont été fixées sur les portions de terrain le long de l’alignement du tunnel
projeté, à l’intérieur duquel sont présentes des conditions similaires concernant la construction du tunnel. En respectant les
critères donnés antérieurement, selon les conditions géotechniques, dans le tube du tunnel, toutes les zones quasi-homogènes
distinguées peuvent être classifiées en quatre catégories significativement différentes des massifs rocheux aux conditions spéci-
fiques pour l’excavation de tunnel et le système de support.
Vu les conditions géotechniques trouvées sur le site, la taille et la forme du tunnel envisagé, ainsi que les tendances avancées
dans la construction de tunnels, en tant que solution optimale technique et de rentabilité, la construction du tunnel suivant la
méthode SCL (méthode de béton projeté) a été adoptée. Selon les conditions spécifiques, la SCL, grâce à sa flexibilité, peut
satisfaire aux exigences en matière de coût et de délais de construction, de validité de la solution technique, de sécurité de la
main d’œuvre et de l’équipement.
Keywords: tunnel, clay, SCL

1
Corresponding Author
56 S. Milenkovic et al. / Geotechnical Conditions for the Construction of Tunnel “Progon”
1. INTRODUCTION
Within the designed alignment of Paneuropean
corridor E-80, Niš – Dimitrovgrad (Bulgarian bor-
der), the roadway alignment for the motorway and
Figure 1. – Geographic location of the area under study
Double-tube tunnel "Progon" is designed in the
variant of separated tubes with individual length of
about 1050 m each. Distance of the tubes is con-
stant and is about 28 m. The tunnel is with constant
downgrade (max.0,75%) towards exit. Daylight
opening area of one tunnel pipe is about 90 m2.
Maximum overburden from the finished level is 40m.
2. REGIONAL GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE
AND TECTONIC FRAMEWORK
Beside the fact that the terrain was well studied
when the Basic Geologic Map was produced, de-
tailed additional exploratory works throughout all
stages of investigation and design for E-80 mo-
torway provided a lot of new data which some-
how modify previous understanding regarding
geologic evolution of the wider investigation zone.
The terrain basis in wider zone of "Progon"
tunnel is made of marine Mesozoic formation.
Beside the fact that they have been discovered on
open outcrops in wider tunnel zone, they have been
drilled in the borehole P-1 at the interval from the
depth of 89.5 m to approximately 76.9 m of depth,
where they have been represented by solid, gray
respective structures has been adopted in Prelimi-
nary Design. In the area of the abovementioned
section, among other things, it is foreseen to build
the roadway in twin-tube tunnel Progon.
sandstone cemented with carbonate. Along with
mutual tectonic contact with this unit there is a
formation of limestone-carbonate complex of
differing ages. On the tectonic contact thereof,
large differential movements occurred and the
block with carbonate complex is rather elevated,
and opposite to it there are Cretaceous flysch like
formations which are lowered and form the part
of asymmetric trench structure.
Plioquaternary deposits encompass the thick
package of heterogeneous formations drilled out
from the depth of 76.9 m up to terrain surface. The
sedimentation cycle encompasses the deposits of
diluvial-proluvial sediments accumulated in pre-
vailingly on-shore aerobic milieu. There stands out
the material created by the accumulation of "Terra
rossa" material (ensuing fromlong-standing processes
of physical-chemical weathering in surrounding
karst-type limestone terrains) which mixed itself
with the fragments of Mesozoic limestone and sand-
stone. Alternation of differing lithological mem-
bers, from compacted rusty-reddish clays and silts,
gravel-sandy clays to rough clastic proluvial de-
posits made of accumulated fragments and boulders
of Mesozoic limestone and sandstone, testifies on
the occurrence of climate change in the sedimen-
 S. Milenkovic et al. / Geotechnical Conditions for the Construction of Tunnel “Progon”
tation process. The deposit thickness of over 60 m
testifies on rather fast sedimentation within the
Figure 2. – Schematic regional geologic profile with distorted scale
3. HYDROLOGIC AND HYDROGEOLOGIC
PROPERTIES OF THE TERRAIN
Area of the Nisava river basin in the tunnel zone
is large, so the portion of surface waters has pla-
nar flow structure and periodical flows through the
lateral valleys of the basin towards Nisava river.
Part of atmospheric waters infiltrates in wide
carbonate backing and sinkholes, caverns and
cracks and then seeps into lower parts of the ter-
rain, Figure 8.
Within this package of sediments there are more
clayish layers which are in fact hydrogeologic insu-
lator and lenses with considerable content of lime-
stone and sandstone gravel which represent water-
bearing formation of fully closed ground water stor-
age of limited capacity. For this reason one cannot
consider the storage with continuous spreading, with
uniform level along the entire tunnel length. The
discharge of these storages is carried out towards
lateral valleys and in the direction of Nisava river.
Based on the position of tunnel axis regarding the
slope and the position of represented milieus, the
appearance of smaller ground waters can be ex-
pected along the entire tunnel, while larger seep-
age and water will occur in the zone of uphill left
57
depression and long-standing cyclic process of
deposit formation.
tunnel tube. Initial discharges could be rather
large, yet they are not long lasting. By recording
the occurrences and with monitoring the ground
water level changes in the course of exploratory
boreholes, and by installing standpipes and water
pumping, one was in a position to establish that
permeability of rock masses within the tunnel
zone expressed by filtration coefficient amounts
less than k < 1 x 10-05 cm/s.
4. ENGINEERING-GEOLOGIC PROPERTIES
OF THE ROCK MASSES
Complex of Pliocene-Quaternary Sediments
(PI, Q-G, DR)
Complex of Pliocene-Quaternary Sediments (PI,
Q-G, DR) within which silty-sandy clays and clayey
gravel alternate in layers and lenses. According to
petrographic composition, limestones and sand-
stones are represented by coarse fraction although
the occurrence of cemented breccia is not rare.
The clayey-gravely layers take alternating turns
with the layers of clays. The transitions from one
into another lithological layer are mostly gradual
and unclear, and consequently it is very difficult
to single out the boundary between them.
58 S. Milenkovic et al. / Geotechnical Conditions for the Construction of Tunnel “Progon”

Within the complex, two basic lithological
members are singled out:
- Silty-sandy CLAY (PL, Q-G); with non-
uniform distribution of detritus in the mass.
Detritus is intensely altered physically and
chemically, often disintegrated into sand. Mi-
lieu is generally hard, medium to low com-
pressibility, slightly water pervious to water
impervious.
- Clayey DETRITUS (PL, Q-DR): mostly
angular gravel is of different petrographic
composition (limestone, sandstone) and of
TABLE 1
Grain-size distribution
Milieu
different size, max 10 cm. Milieu is hard,
medium to low compressibility, medium to
low water permeability.
Beside the above mentioned, conditionally
called "pure types", there are several other singled-
out milieus depending on the content of certain
fractions: Clay with gravel, Gravel with clay,
Clays and gravel.
Parameter ranges which are the results of la-
boratory tests carried out on the samples from
exploratory boreholes within the scope of wider
tunnel area are presented on the table 1.
Water Unit Plasticity Shear

content weight characteristics strength

0,002 0,002-0,06 0,06 - 2,0 2,0 - 60.0 > 60.0 w J Jd wL Ip Ic M’ C’
% % kN/m3 (p) KPa

17.5-21.2

11.2-48

0.7-1.5

18--49
PLQ -
G,DR

10-37

11-27

13-17

34-77

17-29
8-36

9-71

1-69

1-8

5. GEOTECHNICAL ZONING OF THE Respecting the previously given criteria, ac-

TERRAIN ALONG THE TUNNEL
In the course of analysis pertaining to geotechnical
construction conditions, the geotechnical zoning
of rock masses was carried out, i.e. the constrains
were set for terrain parts along the designed tun-
nel alignment inside which there are similar con-
ditions regarding the tunnel construction. In that
process, total quantity of rock masses from the
geotechnical point of view was taken into account
based on material content, strength, ground water
conditions and overburden from the tunnel calotte
to the terrain surface.
cording to geotechnical conditions, in the tunnel
tubes all singled-out quasi-homogenous zones (8 in
total) can be classified into four significantly differ-
ent categories of rock masses with specific con-
ditions for tunnel excavation and support system.
x Category " A "
Category “A” is represented by pliocene-quarte-
rnary sediments in which there is mostly silty
sandy clay with rather small amount of gravel. The
other very important characteristic of this category
is small overburden.

Figure 3. – Geotechnical terrain model - category “A”

 S. Milenkovic et al. / Geotechnical Conditions for the Construction of Tunnel “Progon” 59

x Category " B "
Category “B” is represented by silty-sandy CLAY;
with non-uniform distribution of gravel in the
mass. Gravel is sometimes intensely altered. Mi-
lieu is generally hard, medium to low compressi-
bility, low permeabile to impermeabile. The over-
burden is in the range 30 - 40 m.
The clayey - gravely layers take alternating turns
with the layers of clean clays. The transitions from
one into another lithological member are mostly
gradual and unclear, seldom sharp, and conse-
quently it is very difficult to single out the bound-
ary between them.
x Category " D "

x Category " C " This category of rock masses consists of quasi-

homogenous zones, i.e. parts of tunnel excavation
Category “C” is represented mostly by angular which will be done in “cut and cover” and are
clayey gravel of different petrographic compo- represented in diluvial clayey-detritus deposits
sition (limestone, sandstone) and of different size. and pliocene-quarternary clayey materials.

Figure 4. Geotechnical terrain model in the exit porta zone

Recommended values of physical mechanical TABLE 3

and strength-deformability parameters are given EXCAVATION Rock mass Length
in the following table: TYPE category (m)
 388
TABLE 2
Tunnel excavation B 445
SOIL PARAMETERS
C 111
CATE- J M’ c’ E
GORY Cut and cover D 162
kN/m3 (o) kPa MPa
Category A 20 23 60 45
Category B 20 24 40 70
6. TUNNEL EXCAVATION
Category C 20 26 20 70
Category D 20 24 30 45 Although there is a significant experience in the
world in building tunnels with SCL method in clayey
Presence of soil mass categories in the tunnel materials, the designed diameter of the tunnel "Pro-
tube is given in the following table: gon" multiplies all problems that might appear
during the execution of works. For safety reasons,
excavation phase must be short enough both
concerning excavation dimensions and stoppage.
60 S. Milenkovic et al. / Geotechnical Conditions for the Construction of Tunnel “Progon”
Taking into account geologic and geotechnical
conditions found on the location, size and shape
of future tunnel, as well as advanced trends in the
tunneling, yet in accordance with TOR, the tunnel
construction as per SCL has been adopted. Under
specific conditions, SCL thanks to its flexibility,
can fulfill the requirements regarding the costs and
construction deadlines, validity of the technical
solution, and security of manpower and equipment.
The excavation has to be carried out mechanically,
with profiling at several phases, first the calottes and
flanks-side walls, and then the foundation and in-
vert. The step of advance heading is proposed to
be from 0.5 to 1.0 m. Maximum length of exca-
vation without support should not be longer than
1 m. The excavation should provided immedi-
ately with the support.
The recommended lining is taking into account
the systematic anchoring in the vault and on walls
with the utilization of steel mesh. Furthermore,
one should anticipate medium to heavy arches at
the distance of 0.75 m, with steel lagging and
forepoling in advance on the vault.
All represented rock masses are sensitive to the
impact of water, and are prone to softening and
degradation of physical-mechanical parameters,
and thus it will be necessary to protect the excava-
tion from water and moisture. First of all, after the
excavation, in order to avoid also the cross-section
narrowing, the rock masses thereof should be cov-
ered with shortcrete layer, and immediately after-
wards the remaining elements of the lining sys-
tem must be installed. In such a way the protection
from moisture from the air will be provided and
thus their degradation prevented. In the course of
construction it is required that all occurrences of
seepage and technical waters are diverted from the
excavation under control through the drainage
channels. The tunnel floor/invert has to be protected
particularly, since the clayey materials are prone to
degradation due to unfavorable impact of technical
waters and heavy equipment operation.
Minor quantities of water may be expected
in a form of wetting, dripping, and leakage. Most
probably, the highest afflux of water will be at
the time of excavation, and then it will reduce as
time goes by.
7. CONCLUSION
The forecast of geotechnical conditions for the
construction of "Progon" tunnel was carried out
on the basis of analysis pertaining to existing do-
cumentation and comprehensive investigation
and testing meant for different design levels. Level
of investigation and trustworthiness of recommended
geotechnical parameters we consider as reliable
and sufficient for the Main design of tunnel. The
results of additional investigations provide indi-
cation for anticipated geologic structure of the
terrain and the characteristics of represented mi-
lieus. In such a way the properties of milieus
which have been defined in the previous investi-
gation stages have been confirmed. The tunnel will
be built in accordance with the Sprayed Concrete
Lining (SCL). On the whole, geotechnical condi-
tions for the tunnel construction are rather unfa-
vorable, however if the operating technique and
lining system were to be optimized and adapted to
the conditions in the field, then the tunnel could
be completed successfully.
REFERENCE
[1]. Atkinson, J.H ; Mair, R.J: Soil mechanics aspects of soft
ground tunnelling. In: Ground Engineering 14 (1981), No.
5, pp. 20-38.
[2]. Baumann, T ; Sternath, R ; Schwarz, J: Face stability of
tunnels in soft rock – Possibilities for the computational
analysis. Proc. 14th Int. Conf. Soil Mech. Found.
Engineering, Hamburg, Vol. 3, pp. 1389-1392.
Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 1997.
[3]. Clough, G.W. and B.Schmidt: Design and
performance of excavations and tunnels in soft clay. In:
Soft Clay Engineering, Chapter 8, pp. 569-634.
Elsevier, Netherlands, 1981.
[4]. Davis, E.H; Gunn, M.J; Mair, R.J ; Seneviratne,H.N:
The stability of shallow tunnels and underground
openings in cohesive material. In: Géotechnique 30
(1980), No. 4, pp. 397-416
[5]. G.R.Dasari, C.G. Rawlings, Numerical modelling of a
NATM tunnel construction in London Clay, Geotechni-
cal aspects of tunneling in soft ground, Balkema, Roter-
dam, 1996.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 61
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-61

Empirical determination of the undrained shear

strength of very stiff to (very) hard cohesive soils
from SPT tests
Détermination empirique de la cohésion non drainée des argiles
très raides a très dures, a partir des essais de Pénétration
Standard
C. Plytas 1, A. Baltzoglou, G. Chlimintzas, G. Anagnostopoulos, A. Kozompolis & Ch. Koutalia
OTM S.A.- Engineering Consulting Co., Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT
The Standard Penetration Test has become increasingly popular in testing stiff to hard cohesive soils. Several correlations have
been proposed that associate undrained shear strength with SPT blowcount in such soils. These correlations, often produced
through significant data scatter, are typically restricted to specific materials and their main drawback is their not taking into ac-
count physical characteristics, often conveniently reflected in trivial lab processes, e.g. clay mineralogy manifested through At-
terberg limits. A simplified empirical relationship is presented that correlates the undrained shear strength (cu) of cohesive for-
mations and the ‘as-measured’ SPT blowcount (N) attempting to reduce statistical scatter by addressing the important influence
of characteristic physical properties on soil strength. The correlation derives from the statistical processing of data obtained in
three different stiff to very hard cohesive formations in Greece, essentially clays and marls, each exhibiting a consistently identi-
fiable geotechnical behaviour, in which a large number of ‘coupled’ SPT and lab UU triaxial tests were performed. Processing of
the available data supports the common observation that the definition of a constant cu / N ratio (even within the same material)
is unrealistic. The inclusion of both water content (w) and plasticity index (PI) in such correlations is investigated and found to
significantly improve the consistency of correlation results, indicating a linear dependence of the cu / N ratio on (w) and loga-
rithmic dependence on (PI). The identification of additional independent parameters affecting the procedure is also examined
and basic directions for the orientation of future correlations are outlined.

RÉSUMÉ
L’essais de Pénétration Standard est devenu récemment très populaire a la détermination des propriétés mécaniques des argiles
raides à dures. Ils existent plusieurs corrélations qui associent la cohésion non drainée avec le nombre SPT. Ces corrélations
sont représentatives pour un nombre des sols limités et présentent une grande dispersion. En général elles ne tiennent pas
compte les propriétés physiques usuelles comme p.e. la minéralogie qui se reflète aux limites d’Atterberg. Une relation empi-
rique simplifiée est proposé, qui relie la cohésion non drainée avec le nombre SPT, mesuré in situ, en essayant de limiter la dis-
persion statistique, en tenant compte l’influence des propriétés physiques caractéristiques. Cette corrélation résulte d’une élabo-
ration statistique d’un grand nombre des données, des trois formations provenant de la Grèce, argiles et marnes, raides jusqu’ a
très dures. Chaque sol cohérent présente un comportement géotechnique unique et distingué. Un grand nombre d’essais couplés
de Pénétration Statique et triaxiaux est réalisé en chaque formation. L’élaboration des données montre que la définition d’un
rapport (cu /N) constant n’est pas réaliste. L’introduction de la teneur en eau (w) en relation avec l’indice des plasticité (PI) a
amélioré efficacement les corrélations montrant une dépendance linéaire du rapport (cu /N) avec la teneur en eau et le logarithme
de l’indice de plasticité.

Keywords: Standard Penetration Test (SPT), undrained shear strength, plasticity (index), water content, hard cohesive soils, clay,
Atttiki Odos, Athens, Greece.

1
Corresponding Author.
62 C. Plytas et al. / Empirical Determination of the Undrained Shear Strength

1 INTRODUCTION tiki Odos Motorway, traversing the metropolitan

area of Athens, Greece.
SPT is arguably the most popular in situ test used The variation of natural water content (w) was
for the estimation of mechanical properties of incorporated in the correlations and appears to be
coarse grained formations, in which undisturbed a fundamental parameter affecting the values of
sampling is usually difficult. It has been recog- the (cu / N) ratio. So does the plasticity index
nized, however, that SPT can be usefully applied (PI), which has already been considered in re-
on cohesive materials and weak rocks as well, al- lated widely-cited literature [4], [6].
though the interpretation of such results should
be approached with some caution.
Despite inevitable warnings for cautious ap- 2 GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS
plication, the evaluation of the undrained shear
strength (cu) or unconfined compressive strength The following formations encountered during the
(qu) of the above materials from SPT results is design of the new Attiki Odos Motorway are in-
presented in numerous design manuals and vestigated in the present paper:
guidelines publications, e.g. [1], [2], [3]. It is al- (a) Quaternary fluvio-terrestrial formations,
so interesting to note that related research, in- consisting of firm to hard, low to medium plas-
cluding reference work [4] on this subject, has ticity sandy clays of the Chalandri-Marousi Area.
concluded that very stiff to hard cohesive soils They are divided in two categories: the reddish to
and weak rocks are particularly suitable for such reddish-brown sandy clays of Kifissias Ave. and
practice as the results of lab testing or alternative the reddish-brown to yellowish-brown sandy
field tests in these materials are often unrepre- clays of Doukissis Plakentias Ave.
sentative or uneconomical. (b) Neogenic fluviolacustrine and lacustrine-
Numerous correlations connecting SPT results terrestrial deposits. They mainly consist of firm
and undrained shear strength have been proposed to hard, medium to high plasticity, yellowish-
in the literature (e.g. [4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9]). Such brown, green-brown to grayish-brown marls.
correlations, which are not always in accordance Relevant properties of the above materials are
with each other, are strictly valid only for specif- summarized in Table 1. Atterberg limits in par-
ic types of investigated materials and should only ticular are depicted on a Casagrande diagram in
produce qualitative rather than quantitative con- Figures 1.
clusions when applied in engineering practice.
The frequent divergence of results often expe-
Table 1 – Material Properties
rienced when implementing such correlations in
Clayey
practice seems to be associated, among other fac- Doukissis
Kifissias Marl of
Material properties Plakentias
tors, with existing limitations in our understand- Ave. Clay
Ave. Clay
Mesogeia
ing of the complex mechanics of SPT–cu interre- Area
lation in-situ, as well as the inherent difficulty of Rating by AUSCS (CL) (CL) (CL) ÷ (CH)
accounting for all possible parameters involved Mean overconsoli-
~2 ~ 2.2 ~ 1.5
in the actual procedure. dation ratio (OCR)
Natural water con-
In the present study the formulation of an em- tent, w (%)
10.5÷25.5 8.4÷20.6 15.8÷46.5
pirical mathematical relationship is developed, Liquid limit,
24.5÷43.5 21.4÷46.5 33.2÷86.6
attempting to connect undrained shear strength LL (%)
(cu) to SPT blowcount (N) based on statistical Plasticity index,
4.2÷28.8 5.2÷28.1 11.1÷54.9
PI (%)
processing of a large number of corresponding Dry unit weight,
field and lab tests performed in fully saturated 15.5÷20.6 16.8÷21.8 11.9÷17.6
d (kN/m3)
very stiff to very hard soil-like (or very soft rock- Undrained shear
85÷529 91÷710 67÷378
like) cohesive formations. These tests were part strength, cu (kPa)
N-values in SPT,
of a very extensive geotechnical investigation NSPT
16÷65 15÷60 16÷52
programme conducted for the construction of At-
 C. Plytas et al. / Empirical Determination of the Undrained Shear Strength
60
Geographical Unities
ǹǹǹ $$
50
Plasticity Index, PI (%)
40
CL or OL
30
20
CL - ML
10
ML or OL
0
0 10 20 30 40
Liquid limit, LL (%)
Figure 1. Casagrande A-charts for each of the three
formations.
3 CORRELATIONS FROM THE
LITERATURE BETWEEN cu AND N
It has long been a justified assumption that the
produced SPT blowcount in a tested soil should
be in proportional relation to its shear strength.
Terzaghi and Peck’s [5] classification of cohe-
sive soils based on SPT and unconfined com-
pressive strength (qu) implies a linear cu – N cor-
relation of the form cu ! KPa. The latter
is accompanied by its authors’ warning note re-
garding the large scatter existing in the available
data. A wide variety of direct linear correlations
co-exist in the literature stated either as generic
or as case-specific, all with varied degree of suc-
cess regarding statistic consistency over the em-
ployed database and realistic applicability in soil
behaviour prediction.
According to [2], poor correlation of cu and N
is attributed to the combined effect of inadequate
SPT standardization, mixing of undrained
strength data from different types of tests and the
variable degree of sensitivity of the clays consi-
dered. The confusingly wide scatter appearing in
such correlations due to similar factors is illu-
strated by various researchers indicatively
represented in Table 2. In any case, in the light of
current experience, the derivation of universal
correlations applicable to different cohesive soils
does not seem feasible in the near future.
On the other hand, the use of consistent drill-
ing equipment, SPT procedure and undrained
strength determination is generally found to im-
63
prove such correlations. One such example ([13])
&ǾRU2Ǿ
is the work performed for 25 different Japanese
sites with N values mainly between 2 and 30. A
non-linear correlation cu /Pa = 0.29N0.72 was pro-
duced with reasonably smooth fit to the used da-
MH or OH
ta, although a systematic scatter in the cu values
of almost 1 order of magnitude was not avoided
over the dominant SPT blowcount range of N=3-
Kifissias Ave. 10. The assumption of linear variation of cu
Douk. Plakentias I/C
Mesogeia Area against N remains, however, the most popular
50 60 70 80 90 100 one. An analytical approach is presented in [14]
that verifies this linear correlation based on ener-
gy balance. [14] also gives an example referring
to tests at a particular site in Michigan, USA
producing cu / N = 4.1 KPa. It is a reasonable ar-
gument that meaningful correlations with tight
statistics could only be expected within results of
the ‘same’ material encountered in ‘similar’ con-
ditions.
Table 2. Typical range of values of the Cu / N ratio reported
in the literature
Researchers Cu / N range produced (in KPa)
[6] Sowers (1954) 2.4 – 16.5
[8] De Mello (1971) 0.4 – 20.0
[10] Djoenaidi (1985) 6.0 – 20.0 (excluding Sowers)
[11] Behpoor & Gha- 7.5 – 8.4 (tests with N < 25)
hramani (1989)
[12] Edil et al. (2009) 2.4 – 15.7
According to [3], the diversity of cu – N correla-
tions in the literature can be associated with dif-
ferences in material plasticity, sensitivity and fis-
suring, as well as equipment factors and cu
determination methods and sample characteris-
tics, such as fissuring orientation in tested speci-
men. Fissuring and sample disturbance are
pointed out by [4] as the most influential scatter-
producing factors in such correlations. Fissuring
can either artificially increase cu / N ratio as a re-
sult of testing unrepresentative intact material
specimens in the lab or in other cases reduce cu /
N ratio particularly in hard fissured materials,
where fissuring together with increased sample
disturbance tend to produce an overly brittle be-
haviour in the lab which is not observed in the
in-situ modes of failure related to SPT. The latter
effect is supported by [3] demonstrating cu / N
ratio in London Clay rising to a value of about 11
when remoulded samples are used for lab testing,
64 C. Plytas et al. / Empirical Determination of the Undrained Shear Strength

compared to values of the order of 4.5 reported i.e. cu / N ratio, PI and w. The resulting correla-
by [4] based on undisturbed sample testing. The tion is produced in the following form:
important effect of sensitivity on cu / N values is
also highlighted by most researchers, including cu
[2], [3], [4] and [8], the latter having examined a  A  B w  C log 10 ( PI ) (1)
wide variety of soils including soft sensitive N
clays. Using Schmertmann’s [15] conclusion that
up to 70% of soil resistance to SPT advancing in which coefficients A, B, and C were deter-
derives from side shearing (reflecting remoulded mined by means of the least squares method and
strength), Clayton [3] estimates that a sensitivity have the dimensions of stress. The results pro-
value of 10 would increase the cu / N ratio by a duced with cu, A, B, and C expressed in KPa and
factor of at least 2.5 compared to a completely w, PI expressed as percentages (%) are presented
insensitive material (of a theoretical sensitivity of in Table 3 and illustrated in Figures 2a, 2b and
1.0). 2c. The present correlation indicates a unique
The work by Stroud [4] has undoubtedly been trend between cu / N, PI for different water con-
very influential in the perception of cu – N corre- tent w. Reducing w corresponds to shifting the
lation. [4] employed an extensive data base of re- (cu / N) vs. (PI) curve upwards, to higher cu / N
sults in London Clay and a wide range of other values and vice versa, which is roughly what
UK overconsolidated insensitive cohesive mate- should be physically expected. For reasons of
rials and weak rocks. The consistency of SPT comparison, plotted in Figure 2 along with the
procedure used, sample diameter (102mm) and current correlations are Stroud’s [4]
triaxial undrained lab testing have all added to w-independent correlation as is Terzaghi-
the close convergence of the results, also verified Peck’s [5] recommended mean cu / N ratio.
by means of plate loading tests where available.
Table 3 – Coefficients in Resulting Empirical Relationships
[4] managed to successfully relate the cu / N ratio
Clayey
to plasticity index (PI) for the range of examined Regression Kifissias
Doukissis
Marl of
Plakentias
materials (with PI practically between 15% and Parameters Clay
Clay
Mesogeia
60%). A consistent decrease in the cu / N values Area
with increasing PI was observed, with very li- Coefficient ǹ (kPa) 13.9748 15.4657 11.9424
mited exceptions. The suggested correlation in- Coefficient Ǻ (kPa) -0.2033 -0.4951 -0.0977
dicates that cu / N varies between about 4.2 and 7
KPa. Coefficient C (kPa) -3.1719 -1.6401 -2.0137

Correlation Coeff. r 0.55684 0.55797 0.48096

4 GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION
RESULTS AND EMPIRICAL
CORRELATIONS 5 COMMENTS ON THE RESULTS

A large number of SPT and respective lab test
results have been used in the present investiga-
tion. The undrained shear strength of the soil has
been determined from triaxial UU tests per-
formed on intact samples retrieved within each
borehole from depths immediately adjacent to
the preceding SPT depth.
An empirical mathematical correlation was
derived by performing linear regression analysis
on the obtained geotechnical investigation data,
The above correlation implies that the main
physical characteristics which affect the cu/N ra-
tio are the plasticity index, PI and natural water
content, w. Although this argument is adequately
supported by the results of the present investiga-
tion, significant scattering is still observed in the
values of the cu/N ratio. Nevertheless, the trend
of the cu/N variation with the physical characte-
ristics appears to be represented satisfactorily.
The scattering in the results can mainly be at-
tributed to the following:
 C. Plytas et al. / Empirical Determination of the Undrained Shear Strength 65

10
LEGEND
w=20%
9
w=15%
w=10%
8
Cu/NSPT (KPa)

w=10,0%
7 Terzaghi & Peck (1967) w=12,5%
w=15,0%
6 w=17,5%
w=20,0%
Stroud (1974)
5 w=22,5%

(a) Kifissias Ave. Red Clay (Area A10) w=25,0%

4
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 PI (%) 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
13

(b) D. Plakentias I/C Clay (areas A11-A12) LEGEND

w=20%
11
w=15%
w=10%
Cu/NSPT (KPa)

9 w=8,0%
w=10,0%
Terzaghi & Peck (1967) w=12,0%
7
w=14,0%
Stroud (1974)
5
w=16,0%
w=18,0%
w=20,0%
3
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 PI (%) 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
9

F0HVRJHLD0DUOVDUHDVǹǹǹ
8

Terzaghi & Peck (1967)

7

w=20%
Cu/NSPT (KPa)

6 Stroud (1974) w=25%

w=30%
5 w=35%
LEGEND
w=40%
w=45%
4 w=45%
w=35%
w=50%
w=25%
3
7 11 15 19 23 27 31 PI (%) 35 39 43 47 51 55 59

Figure 2. Presentation of resulting empirical correlations in chart form for: (a) Kifissias Clay, (b)
D.Plakentias Clay and (c) Mesogeia Marl.
ence of the aforementioned parameters. It seems
(a) The intrinsic variation of geotechnical that the phenomenon is also influenced signifi-
behaviour within each formation even when cantly from the development of suction in the
comprehensive criteria have been set as to what soil samples, which increases scattering in the re-
can be described as ‘the same formation.’ sults.
(b) The fact that during the evaluation of the (c) The fact that the adoption of cu/N ratio
results certain parameters were not taken into ac- as a fundamental parameter is rather arbitrary.
count, such as anisotropy, sensitivity, fracturing, The challenge of correlating the cu/N ratio
overconsolidation ratio (OCR) etc. Nevertheless, with the physical characteristics of the soil ele-
the estimation of the plasticity index and the nat- ment remains open and such correlations are ex-
ural water content includes indirectly the influ-
66 C. Plytas et al. / Empirical Determination of the Undrained Shear Strength
pected to be more credible the larger the number
of used lab and field tests becomes.
6 CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the presented analysis of the available
data, the following conclusions can be extracted:
(a) There seems to be no unified law correlat-
ing the cu / N ratio with the index properties of
the soil material.
(b) The proposed relationship in Eq.(1) adopt-
ing both a (PI)- and a (w)- dependent term along
with the constant term in the evaluation of
(cu / N) is an attempt to overcome the existing
shortcomings. The various units present similar
trend in regards to the cu / N ratio as a function of
PI. The A, B and C parameters differ from one
material to another, their differences being pri-
marily attributed to the heterogeneous origin of
the formations, but also to other factors such as
anisotropy, overconsolidation ratio, etc.
(c) In general this study exhibited that cu / N
ratio drops with increasing Plasticity Index (PI),
which essentially conforms to the recommenda-
tions previously made by [4] and adopted by [3].
(d) The cu / N ratio also drops with increasing
natural water content. This has generally been
neglected so far in the related literature.
(e) The Terzaghi - Peck [5] correlation is
found to be a satisfactory approximation of the
mean value of the ratio; [cu / N]  6.5 (KPa).
(f) It should be rendered acceptable that clas-
sification of cohesive formations as a sole func-
tion of blowcounts N is not feasible; the reason is
that a given N value resembles several values of
the undrained shear strength cu, depending on the
Plasticity Index as well as the natural water con-
tent of the soil material.
(g) It should be considered that equations sim-
ilar to Eq.(1) may yield generic guidance on a
broad spectrum of soil materials. It appears
though, that formulas of this type seem to be
more reliable on cases focusing on particular lo-
calized soil formations.
REFERENCES
[1] Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC),
Design Manual 7.01, Soil Mechanics, 1986, still valid
as an active part of ‘Unified Facilities Criteria UFC 3-
220-10N (Soil Mechanics),’ 2005.
[2] F.H. Kulhawy & P.W. Mayne (1990). Manual on Esti-
mating Soil Properties for Foundation Design. EPRI
EL-6800, RP 1493-6, Final Rpt. Aug. 1990, Palo Alto,
CA, USA.
[3] C.R.I. Clayton, The Standard Penetration Test (SPT):
Methods and Use”, CIRIA REPORT 143, Construction
Industry Research Information Association, London,
UK, 1995.
[4] M. A. Stroud, “The Standard Penetration Test in Insen-
sitive Clays and Soft Rocks”. Proc. Eur. Symp. On Pe-
netration Testing (ESOPT 1), 1974, pp. 367-75.
[5] K. Terzaghi & R.B. Peck, “Soil Mechanics in Engi-
neering Practice”. 2nd edition, John Wiley, New York,
1967.
[6] G. F. Sowers, Modern Procedures for underground in-
vestigations, ASCE Journal GE Div., vol. 80 (1954),
no. 435, p. 11.
[7] E. Schultze & H. Knausenberger, Experiences with Pe-
netrometers, 4th International Conference on Soil Mech.
and Foundation Eng., London, 1957, vol.1, pp. 249-
255.
[8] V.F.B. De Mello, “The Standard Penetration Test State-
of-the-Art Report” 4th Pan-American Conf. on Soil
Mechanics Foundation Engineering, Puerto Rico, 1971,
Vol.1, pp.1-86.
[9] A.C. Stamatopoulos & C. Kotzias, Refusal to the SPT
and penetrability, Geotechnical Engineering of Hard
Soils – Soft Rocks (Anagnostopoulos et al. – eds), Bal-
kema, Rotterdam, 1993.
[10] W. J. Djoenaidi, “A Compendium of Soil Properties
and Correlations” M. Eng. Sc. Thesis, University of
Sydney, Sydney, 836 p, 1985.
[11] L. Behpoor and A. Ghahramani, Correlation of SPT to
strength and modulus of elasticity of cohesive soils.
12th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering, ISSMFE, Rio do Janeiro,
Brazil, 1989.
[12] T.B. Edil, C.H. Benson, L. Li, D. Mickelson, &
F.F. Camargo, Comparison of basic laboratory test re-
sults with more sophisticated laboratory and in-situ
tests methods on soils in Southeastern Wisconsin, Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Highway Re-
search Program #0092-06-05 Final Report, 2009.
[13] A. Hara, T. Ohta, M. Niwa, S. Tanaha &, T. Banno,
“Shear Modular and Shear Strength of Cohesive Soils”.
Soils and Foundations, vol. 14, No. 3, Sept. 1974, pp.
1-12.
[14] H. Hettiarachchi & T. Brown, Use of SPT Blow Counts
to Estimate Shear Strength Properties of Soils: Energy
Balance Approach, ASCE J. of Geotechnical & Geoen-
vironmental Eng. 135 (2009), No.6, pp.830-834.
[15] J.H. Schmertmann, “Statics of SPT,” Journ. Geot. Div.,
Proc. ASCE, vol.105, GT5, May 1979, pp. 655-670.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 67
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-67

Facteur d’influence des paramètres de forage

Influence factors of measuring while drilling method
Ph. Reiffsteck 1
Université Paris Est / IFSTTAR-LCPC, Paris, France

ABSTRACT
This paper will present a detailed study of influencing factors and possible correlations from the technique of drilling parameters.
Operating parameters of instrumented drilling machine provides a fairly precise idea of the position of transition layers of soil or
rocks of different kinds. Similarly, the combination of these parameters allows to approximate the variation of mechanical and
hydraulic parameters of these ground layers. The work program implemented during this study was as follows:
- Establish the methodology to achieve physical quantities correlated to the mechanical parameters,
- Testing on real sites with different test zones conforming to a program to isolate the influence parameters,
- Apply a statistical analysis to data fields to establish empirical and theoretical relationships.
The results are compared to Standard Penetration Test and static penetrometer profiles.
This paper will try to make a statement of present practices and the importance of writing specific protocol for this test to be
considered as a test of its own and must be adapted to the purpose of investigation.

RÉSUMÉ
Cette communication présentera une étude approfondie des facteurs d’influence et des corrélations possibles à partir de la tech-
nique des paramètres de forage. Une sondeuse géotechnique hydraulique instrumentée a été utilisée sur des planches expérimen-
tales constituées de différents matériaux et stratification. L’observation de la variation des paramètres de fonctionnement de la
machine permet d’avoir une idée assez précise de la position des transitions des couches de sols ou de roches de natures diffé-
rentes. De même, la combinaison de ces paramètres permet d’approcher la variation de certains paramètres mécaniques et hy-
drauliques de ces terrains. Le programme de travail mis en œuvre lors de l’étude a été le suivant :
- établir la méthodologie pour aboutir à des grandeurs physiques corrélées aux paramètres mécaniques
- tester sur sites réels différentes planches expérimentales avec un programme d’essai visant à isoler les paramètres d’influence,
- appliquer la statistique à ces champs de données pour aboutir à des relations empiriques et théoriques.
Les résultats sont comparés à des essais de pénétration au carottier (SPT) et au pénétromètre statique avec piézocone.
Cette communication s’attachera à faire un état des pratiques et à présenter l’importance de l’écriture de protocole spécifique à
cet essai qui doit être considéré comme un essai à part entière et doit être adapté à l’objectif de la reconnaissance.

Mots clés : reconnaissance géotechnique, paramètres de forage, corrélations

Keywords: situ testing, drilling parameter recording, correlation

1
Corresponding Author.
68 Ph. Reiffsteck / Facteur d’influence des paramètres de forage
1 INTRODUCTION
Les enregistrements de paramètres de forage
(MWD pour measuring while drilling) ou dia-
graphies instantanées sont apparus à l'origine
dans le domaine pétrolier qui s’en servait en
grande partie pour gérer les cadences de forage.
En Génie Civil, ils ont pris, depuis les années
1970, une part grandissante dans les études géo-
techniques ([5] ; [11] ; [3] ; [9] ; [10] ; [13]).
Les paramètres de forage sont les paramètres
enregistrés directement lors du forage et ayant
subi un traitement numérique. Des corrections
sont en effet nécessaires pour prendre en compte
certaines spécificités du système hydraulique
ainsi que le poids des tiges, l'influence de la co-
lonne de boue dans le forage, etc. Leur nombre
dépend des types d’enregistreurs et des types de
travaux que l’on souhaite réaliser. La plupart du
temps de 4 paramètres à 9 au maximum sont en-
registrés. Couramment, les suivants sont enregis-
trés (figure 1) :
 La vitesse d’avancement (VA),
 Pression de poussée sur outil (PO)et pres-
sion de retenue (PR),
 Vitesse de rotation (VR),
 Couple de rotation (CR),
 Pression d’injection du fluide de forage
(PI),
 Débit du fluide de forage (QI).
paramètre (-)
0 10 20 30 40
0
1 Via (m/h)
2
z (m)
3
4
5
Figure 1. : Exemple de résultat de mesure des paramètres de
forage
2 LES PARAMÈTRES COMPOSÉS
Chaque paramètre enregistré peut se voir attri-
buer une signification qualitative en terme de ca-
ractéristiques du sol foré ou en terme de fonc-
tionnement du forage. Durant le forage, chaque
changement de couche se traduit généralement
par la variation d’un ou plusieurs paramètres [8].
Toutefois, afin de limiter l’influence de la modi-
fication de l'un des paramètres de fonctionne-
ment sur les autres paramètres et faciliter
l’exploitation, il est nécessaire de recourir à des
combinaisons de paramètres appelés : paramètres
composés, quasiment indépendants des condi-
tions de réalisation.
Les paramètres composés les plus utilisées
sont rassemblées dans le tableau 1 ([2] ; [1]). Ils
sont issus de différentes pratiques européennes,
japonaises, anglo-saxonnes ou scandinaves et
sont le résultat d’années de pratique et de re-
cherches sur leur territoire national. Ils sont basés
sur des combinaisons des paramètres bruts et
cherchent à représenter une réalité physique du
terrain. Lors de l’élaboration de ces combinai-
sons, leurs auteurs ont choisi deux voies princi-
pales :
 empirique pour se rapprocher de para-
mètres mécaniques d’autres essais comme
le pénétromètre ou le pressiomètre. C’est le
cas des deux premières combinaisons ;
 théorique en construisant des combinaisons
50 60 70 80 basés sur l’énergie dépensée pour désagré-
ger le sol avec l’outil (énergie normalisée)
ou sur l’agitation du signal (entropie).
Ces relations permettent de disposer de profils
Po ( bar )
Vr ( tr/min )
moins bruités et plus proches des paramètres
Cr ( bar ) ayant une signification physique. Toutefois, il est
Pr ( bar )
important de pouvoir cerner l'influence de cer-
Pi ( bar )
Débit l/min tains paramètres qui ne sont pas nécessairement
enregistrés. Par exemple, nous n’avons pour le
moment aucun moyen de mesurer de manière
fiable l’énergie du marteau hydraulique, il est
nécessaire de connaître son importance sur les
paramètres de forage et en particulier sur les
énergies. De même, le type d'outil et son usure
ne sont pas notés ni vraiment étudiés par la bi-
bliographie. A ces fins, un plot expérimental
comportant plusieurs sols a été construit [12].
 Ph. Reiffsteck / Facteur d’influence des paramètres de forage 69

Pour cela, nous avons comparé graphiquement

Tableau 1. : Tableau récapitulatif des paramètres composés les paramètres composés de chaque forage avec
Nom Formule Unité Ref. et sans utilisation de la frappe (Figure 2).
En observant les courbes, on remarque que les
résistance à la
RP  (t ) dz 0.2 m s/0.2m [13] énergies enregistrées, pour les forages utilisant le
pénétration
1 marteau hydraulique, sont moins importantes que
indice de Some- V  2
PE
rton
Sd  PE . R   kPa [17] celle enregistrées sur les forages qui ne l’utilisent
 VA  VA
pas. Cette différence est encore plus nette sur les
énergie spécifique PE 2. (VR  C R ) passages durs, car c’est là que le marteau apporte
SDE   . kJ/m3 [18]
de forage S0 S0 VA le plus d’énergie. Il ressort aussi que sur les
courbes des forages avec percussion, la sensibili-
énergie spécifique ES  V
R R C .V
N.m/m [15]
té est moins importante. Ceci s’explique par le
A fait que le marteau diminue le besoin en énergie
énergie norma-  .PE .VA   .CR .2. .VR 
.PM .f de rotation et de poussée. Malheureusement, cela
EN  N.m/m [14]
lisée VA
n'est pas enregistré.
 PE V 
indice d’altération I A  1  k0 .  k1. A  Aucune [15] Toutefois, l’enregistrement de l’énergie déve-
 Pmax Vmax 
entropie mathé-
loppée par le marteau n’est pas une chose facile.
z
matique du signal L(z )   S z  dz   S z  Aucune [6] Nishi et al. [14] avaient équipé avec succès les
z0
S tiges de forage d’accéléromètres pour quantifier
l’énergie, technique difficilement applicable
2.1 Étude de l'influence de la frappe dans la pratique courante.
Afin de vérifier l’importance de l’utilisation du
2.2 Étude des variations dues au changement
marteau hydraulique, nous avons réalisé pour
d’outils de forage
chaque sol un forage sans utiliser le marteau et
un forage en l’utilisant. Le principal but de cette La figure 3 illustre l'influence du changement
étude est de vérifier l’importance de l’énergie d’outil sur les paramètres de forages. On observe
développée par le marteau. des différences notables, toutes choses égales par
EN (N.m/m)
0 2000
RP (s/0,2m)
4000 6000
ailleurs, entre un forage avec un outil à bouton,
0 200000 400000
0 0 un forage avec un outil à lame et un forage à la
tarière hélicoïdale continue (THC).
0,5 0,5
Il faut noter que la comparaison se fait, pour
1 1 la figure 3, sur trois forages en rotation.
Dans les deux cas (massif 1 et massif 2), il
1,5 1,5
semble que l’énergie fournie lors des forages
2 2 avec un outil à lame soit supérieure à celle four-
nie avec l’outil à bouton. Ceci s’explique par le
2,5 2,5
mode de déstructuration du sol de chaque outil.
3 3 Les deux outils destructifs poinçonnent et cisail-
lent le sol. Cependant, le cisaillement des bou-
3,5 3,5
tons nécessite moins de couple que celui des
4 4 lames en raison de la faible surface sollicitée.
Cette tendance dépend tout de même du type
4,5 4,5
z (m) Rotation z (m) Rotation
de sol rencontré. Il ressort que dans les sols mous
a) 5 Rotopercussion
b) 5 Rotopercussion la différence est moins nette. Le signal obtenu
avec la tarière est plus lissé. Ceci peut être expli-
Figure 2.: Comparaison des paramètres de forage en rotation qué par le frottement généré sur l'extérieur de
et rotopercussion
l'hélicoïde.
70 Ph. Reiffsteck / Facteur d’influence des paramètres de forage

Il est évident que les résultats issus de la ta- spécifique de forage et l’énergie normalisée ne
rière hélicoïdale continue ne sont pas exploi- donnent pas de relation claire.
tables pour l’exploitation des MWD.
Le choix du type d’outil est donc important et 30 argile
joue un rôle important dans l’étude des enregis- limon
trements de paramètres. Il n’est pas possible pour 25 sable
grave
le moment de mettre au point une relation qui
craie
permettrait de normaliser les énergies en fonction 20
marne
du type d’outil.

qc (MPa)
roche
Indice de Somerton Indice de Somerton
0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
15
0 0

0,5 0,5 10

1 1

5
1,5 1,5

2 2 0
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
z (m)

2,5 2,5
Rp (s/0,2m)
3 3
Figure 4. : Relation entre qc et la résistance à la pénétration
3,5 3,5 Rp
14 argile
4 4
limon
12 sable
4,5 4,5
Taillant à lame Taillant à bouton grave
Tarrière hélicoïdale continue Tarrière hélicoïdale continue 10
5 5 craie
a) Taillant à bouton
b) Taillant à lame
marne
Fréquence

8
roche
Figure 3. : Comparaison des paramètres de forage avec diffé-
6
rents outils (a) massif 1, (b) massif 2
4

2
3 COMPARAISON DES RESULTATS
0
MWD AVEC LES ESSAIS EN PLACE
8

62

80
0

11

23

35

47

59

70

82

94

10

11
Nous avons cherché à établir des relations entre rapport Rp/qc

les paramètres de forage et certains essais clas- Figure 5. : Histogramme des fréquences
siques de mécanique des sols. Nous nous
sommes appuyés sur les résultats provenant de Les relations entre les paramètres apparaissent
13 sites ayant fait l'objet de reconnaissances dé- de manière plus lisible sur les histogrammes
taillées. Toutefois, tous ne possèdent pas l'en- dressés sur la figure 5. Il semble exister les rela-
semble des méthodes d'essais en place. Ces sites tions suivantes :
balayent la panoplie des textures de sol classique. argile q c  0,00148.R p et q c  0,9.PE VA
La répartition des points en nuages dispersés,
mais avec une certaine fidélité, est visible sur la limon q c  0,0069.R p et qc  1,4. PE VA
figure 4 pour la résistance à la pénétration au
cône en fonction de R p . Le même genre de rela- sable qc  0,0154.R p et qc  8,7. PE VA
tion est obtenu pour PE VA . Malheureuse-
ment, les représentations de la résistance à la pé- craie q c  0,010.R p et q c  1,1.PE VA
nétration au cône en fonction de l’énergie
 Ph. Reiffsteck / Facteur d’influence des paramètres de forage 71

Le même genre de relation peut être obtenu si 30 argile

l'on cherche à comparer le nombre SPT et les dif- limon
férents paramètres composés comme la résis- 25 sable
grave
tance à la pénétration (figure 6). La corrélation craie
20
obtenue entre le nombre SPT et l’énergie spéci- marne

Fréquence
fique de forage et l’énergie normalisée est assez 15
roche

proche respectivement des valeurs proposées par

[14] et [7]. 10

Cela pourrait permettre de proposer (figure 5

7) :
0

argile NSPT  0,014.R p et NSPT  8.Po VA

0
0

50

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50
rapport Rp/NSPT

limon NSPT  0,025.R p et NSPT  5,5.Po VA Figure 7. : Histogramme des fréquences

sable NSPT  0,019.R p et N SPT  24,5. Po VA Il est possible de représenter le nombre SPT
en fonction de l’énergie spécifique de forage. On
craie NSPT  0,500.R p obtient la relation suivante pour les sables :
SDE  390.NSPT . Relation qui diffère de celles
grave NSPT  0,037.R p
proposées pour les sols sablo-limoneux par [4] :
180 argile
SDE  800.N SPT et par [7] : SDE  1430.N SPT .
limon
160
sable
Il convient de préciser que les écart-types ob-
140 grave servés sont relativement élevés et que la qualité
craie de ces corrélations ne peut s’améliorer que par la
120
marne collecte de données supplémentaires et
roche
NSPT (-)

100 l’application d’un mode opératoire robuste per-

80 mettant de canaliser les pratiques ([16] ; [19]).
60 Plusieurs facteurs peuvent influencer les cor-
40 rélations présentées :
20  la non prise en compte de la correction de
0 surface pour le CPT sur certaines données
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 plus ou moins anciennes,
RP (s/0,2m)  les valeurs SPT ont été obtenues avec di-
Figure 6. : Relation entre NSPT et la résistance à la pénétration vers types de matériel (marteau par
Rp exemple) pas toujours connus, donc on ne
compare pas toujours avec la même éner-
gie. De même, on ne tient pas compte de la
contrainte effective verticale. Si toutes les
données étaient ramenées en terme de
(N1)60, de meilleures corrélations seraient
sans doute possibles,
 etc.
72 Ph. Reiffsteck / Facteur d’influence des paramètres de forage
4 CONCLUSION
On retiendra que l’influence du type d’outil et de
l’utilisation du marteau n’est pas négligeable
bien qu’il semble possible d’en faire abstraction
en les normalisant, tout du moins pour
l’influence de la percussion qui peut être norma-
lisée à partir du moment où l’on enregistre
l’énergie de percussion.
La corrélation entre les MWD et les essais in
situ laisse présager qu’il est possible d’obtenir
des données quantitatives fiables et utilisables
pour les études de sols.
Cette étude nous a donc permis de mettre en
évidence la nécessité d'élaborer des documents
de normalisation adaptés aux diagraphies instan-
tanées.
REMERCIEMENTS
L'auteur remercie le ministère français du Déve-
loppement durable (MEDTL) pour le finance-
ment de ces travaux et ses collègues pour leur
aide dans la réalisation de ce programme : G.
Laudansky, J.L. Tacita, G. Desanneaux, E. Haza-
Rozier.
REFERENCES
[1] Benoît J., Bothner W. A., Escamilla-Casas J., Characte-
rization of Fractured-Rock Aquifers Using Drilling Pa-
rameters, Proceedings of the Fractured-Rocks Aquifers
2002 Conference, Denver, (2002)
[2] Bourget M., Rat M., Interprétation semi-automatique
des enregistrements Des paramètres de forage (son-
deuses hydrauliques en rotation), Revue Française de
Géotechnique 73 (1995) 3 -14.
[3] Cailleux J.-B., Étude des diagraphies instantanées en
forage, Rapport des laboratoires, GT12, 1986
[4] Christie K., Introducing new technologies to in situ
geotechnical testing, Heriot-Watt University 5th Year
MEng Personal Study Project, 2002
[5] Diehl G.W., Automation and optimisation of rock drill
parameters in hydraulic drilling, Mining magazine,
(1978) 38-43
[6] Duchamp J.M., Apport des techniques statistiques pour
l'exploitation des diagraphies instantanées en génie ci-
vil. Doctorat Université Bordeaux I - n° d'ordre : 273.
1988,
[7] Fortunati F., Pellegrino G., The use of electronics in the
management of site investigation and soil improvement
works: Principles et applications, Proceedings First In-
ternational Conference on Site Characterization, Atlan-
ta, Robertson et Mayne Eds, 1 (1998) 359-364.
[8] Girard H., Morlier P., Puvilland O., Garzon M., The
digital enpasol method – Exploitation of drilling para-
meters in civil engineering, Proceeding 39th Canadian
Geotechnical Conference, Ottawa, (1986) 59-68
[9] Gui, M.W., Bolton, M.D., Soga, K., Hamelin, J.P, Hass,
G, Burgess, N and Butler, A.P. Instrumented borehole
drilling using ENPASOL system. 5th International
Symposium on Field Measurements in Geomechanics,
Singapore, (1999) 577-581.
[10] Gui M.W., Soga K., Bolton M.D. Hamelin J.P., Instru-
mented borehole drilling for subsurface investigation,
Journal of Geotechnical and Environmental Engineer-
ing. ASCE, 128(4) (2002) 283-291.
[11] Hamelin J.P., Levallois, J, Pfister, P., Enregistrement
des paramètres de forage : nouveaux développements,
International symposium on soil and rock investigations
by in-situ testing, École Nationale des Ponts et Chaus-
sées, Paris, 1 (1983) 83-88.
[12] Laudansky G., Les diagraphies instantanées sont-elles
la solution pour un modèle géotechnique plus fiable ?,
Master 2 de l’université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI,
2010
[13] Möller B., Bergdahl U., Elmgren K., Soil-rock sound-
ing with MWD – a modern technique to investigate
hard soils and rocks, Proceedings of the 2nd Interna-
tional Conference on Site Characterization (ISC-2),
Porto, 1 (2004) 773-740.
[14] Nishi, K., Suzuki, Y., Sasao, H., Estimation of soil re-
sistance using rotary percussion drill, Proceedings First
International Conference on Site Characterization, At-
lanta, Robertson et Mayne Eds, 1 (1998) 393-398.
[15] Pfister P., Drilling Parameter Recording in Soil Engi-
neering. Journal Ground Engineering, 18(3) (1985) 16-
21.
[16] Reiffsteck P. et coauteurs, Paramètres de Forage en
Géotechnique, Méthode d'essai LCPC, ME79, 2010
[17] Somerton A laboratory study of rock breakage by rotary
drilling, Petroleum transaction, AIME, 216 (1959) 92-
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ing, International Journal Rock Mechanics and Mining
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 73
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-73

Geophysical site characterization of a volcanic

massif with combined surface and borehole seismic
methods
Caractérisation géophysiques du site, d'un massif volcanique
avec la combinaison des méthodes sismiques de surface et celle
réaliser dans un trou de forage
R. Rocha, N. Cruz1, C. Rodrigues
Mota-Engil, Engenharia e Construção S.A., Portugal
F. Almeida
Aveiro University, Aveiro, Portugal
ABSTRACT
Seismic surface methods are widely recognised has being the most cost effective way of evaluating seismic velocity in large ar-
eas, especially in sedimentary deposits were the soil profile is usually characterized by a seismic velocity increase with depth. In
the case of volcanic massifs, it’s common to have volcanic rock layers enclosed in volcanic sedimentary deposits, and in this
case the isolated use of seismic surface methods can provide multiple models for the same field data. In this paper is going to be
described a case study, of the combined use of various surface and borehole seismic techniques, in the determining of the site P
and S wave seismic velocity profile. The results obtained from this tests, allowed the comparing of results and discussing of the
advantages and limitations in its use.

RÉSUMÉ
Les méthodes sismiques de surface sont largement reconnues comme le moyen le plus efficace d’évaluer la vitesse sismique
dans de vastes zones, en particulier dans les dépôts sédimentaires ont le profil du sol est généralement caractérisée par une
augmentation de la vitesse sismiques avec la profondeur. Dans le cas des massifs volcaniques, il est courant d’avoir des couches
de roches volcaniques inclus dans les dépôts sédimentaires, et dans ces cas, l’utilisation isolée des méthodes sismiques de
surface peuvent générer des multiples modèles, pour les mêmes données de terrain. Dans cet article il va être décrit un cas
d’étude, de l’utilisation combinée de différentes techniques sismiques de surface ou réaliser dans un trou de forage, pour la
détermination des profils de vitesse sismique P et S. Les résultats obtenus par ces tests, ont permis la comparaison des ces
résultats et la discussion des avantages et des limitations de l’utilisation de ces méthodes.

Keywords: Volcanic environment, dynamic characterization, seismic refraction, MASW, Crosshole tests

1 INTRODUCTION on the site conditions and project requirements

The most recent advances in geophysical site
characterization armed geotechnical engineering,
with a large offer of tools to determine in situ P
and S wave seismic velocity profile [9]. Tradi-
tionally surface methods and borehole methods
have been used to determine subsurface seismic
profile for geotechnical engineering applications.
The choice of the method to use largely depends
[3].
Even tough borehole (invasive) methods allow
determining accurately the velocity profile and
detecting small variations in depth, they involve
a larger cost effort and only allow measurements
in the near surroundings of the borehole.
On the other hand, surface methods (non-
invasive) are more cost effective, have simpler
field equipment and procedures and allow sam-

1
Corresponding Author.
74 R. Rocha et al. / Geophysical Site Characterization of a Volcanic Massif
pling larger areas. Nevertheless, some methods
are completely blind to velocity reductions with
depth (refraction), are less efficient to shallower
depths and require a larger processing effort (re-
flection) and can also present a relatively low
resolution and in some cases may result in multi-
ple models for the same field data (MASW) [5].
In volcanic regions, were soil profile is usu-
ally characterized by multiple thin and thick lay-
ers of volcanic sediments and volcanic rock lay-
ers, the use of isolated seismic surface methods
may not be able to provide reliable data. For this
reason borehole methods are preferentially used,
since they allow the obtaining of a velocity pro-
file were all the variations in depth can be deter-
mined. However, having in mind that the vol-
canic massifs are characterized by marked
vertical and also horizontal heterogeneities, and
if large areas need to be studied, seismic charac-
terization usually presents big cost efforts which
in many cases cannot be supported.
2 OBJECTIVES
The combined use of multiple in situ geotechni-
cal and geophysical site characterization meth-
ods, to determine mechanical properties of soil
and rock massifs, has been largely used in the
Geotechnical Department of Mota-Engil, S.A.
[4]. In this paper the authors intend to propose a
combined methodology of P-wave and S-wave
Seismic Refraction with Multichannel Analyses
of Surface Waves (MASW) has a way to com-
pensate the limitations of each method on the
seismic characterization of a volcanic massif.
Both S-wave and P-wave seismic refraction
methods cannot characterize velocity reversal,
and thus, whenever there is a seismic profile with
a lower under a higher velocity layer the method
doesn’t work. On the other hand MASW method
may be used to profile S-wave with velocity re-
versal [7], but relying only in MASW data can
generate several models [6]. Although each
available borehole technique is able to character-
ize accurately subsurface profiles with several
velocity reversals [8], the high cost associated to
boreholes execution, limits its application to
large areas. Also in the case of volcanic envi-
ronments, SCPT tests are not a solution due to
the existence of very stiff layers limiting cone
penetration.
In order to find a cost effective and reliable
way, to determine s-wave velocity profile on an
large area situated in a volcanic environment, the
authors performed two Crosshole tests (with 23m
and 27m depth), and P-wave/S-wave refraction
and MASW profile on the surface with the bore-
holes positioned on the center. The main idea
was to use S-waves to determine the velocity and
thickness of the shallowest layer, in order to re-
fine with this information MASW model, reduc-
ing it is uncertainty. Crosshole tests were used
for control, since this method is the most reliable
way to obtain subsurface S-wave velocities.
3 GEOLOGICAL ENVIROMENT
The studied area is located in the northern limit
of Angra do Heroísmo (Terceira Island, Azores).
According to the geological map of Terceira,
(Geological Services of Portugal, 1:50 000), the
area is represented by deposits of the trachytic
complex, characterized by the presence of fine
grained pumice/pyroclastic deposits and trachyt-
ic/andesitic lava flows.
At test location level, the boreholes performed
for the Crosshole tests, allowed to differentiate
two distinct lithologic horizons. A shallower unit
of pyroclastic deposits mainly composed by:
sands, silts and more rarely clays, varying from
13.5 m to 19.5 m thickness and overlaying tra-
quytic lava flows. The top of the latter unit is
highly weathered (W5), evolving in depth to
moderately to slightly weathered massif (W3-W2,
with RQD varying from 50% to 90 %), as pre-
sented in Figure 1.
4 CROSSHOLE TESTS
Although Uphole and Downhole tests were also
performed on this site [8], only Crosshole tests
results will be treated herein.
Crosshole tests, were performed as suggested
by ASTM [1]. In the present case, two geotech-
nical boreholes with continuous sampling and
 R. Rocha et al. / Geophysical Site Characterization of a Volcanic Massif 75

SPT tests and another two auxiliary (4 m apart)

were performed, all cased with 87 mm HDPE
tubes, and then filling with grout the space be-
tween the inner side of the boreholes and the
outer side of the casings. In order to determine
the correct distance between each pair of bore-
holes at the same depth, deviation surveys were
performed. Seismic source was a sparker emit-
ting simultaneously P and SH waves (model BIS-
SH, Geotomographie Inc). The used receiver was
a seven channels borehole geophone (model
BGK7, Geotomographie Inc). S wave data was
recorded with polarity inversion (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Source (left) and receiver (right) used in Crosshole
data acquisition.

Figure 1. Results of the geotechnical boreholes.

Seismic compression and shear wave velocity

profiles, of both Crosshole tests are presented in
Figure 3.
These results illustrate the high heterogeneity
of these materials, were the same lithology (py-
roclastic deposits or traquytic layers) can evi-
dence P and S wave velocities values, varying to
Figure 3. VP and VS results obtained in the Crosshole tests
the double and triple, in short distances. CH1 and CH2.
Also it’s quite clear the existence of both P
and S wave velocity reversal in the profile of
CH2 test.
76 R. Rocha et al. / Geophysical Site Characterization of a Volcanic Massif

5 SURFACE SEISMIC TESTS

The acquisition of both surface wave and P wave

seismic refraction data was performed using the
same resources. To perform S wave refraction
data acquisition, special equipment was used.

5.1 P and S wave seismic refraction data
acquisition and interpretation
In the acquisition of P wave refraction data, an
array of 48 vertical 4.5 Hz geophones, disposed
in line with 1 m spacing, was used. The seismic
source was a sledgehammer and a light weight
aluminum plate fixed to the ground surface. Both
SRT1 and SRT2 were disposed with CH1 and
CH2 in the middle. Another 48 horizontal 28 Hz
geophone line was placed parallel at a distance of
approximately 5 cm from the vertical geophone
line, to perform S wave data acquisition, using
the same P-wave sledgehammer to hit laterally a
wooden block and create polarized shear waves
(Figure 4). Data acquisition of both P and S-
wave was performed in five shot points loca-
tions, with 12 m spacing. The field procedure
followed ASTM [2] procedure.
Figure 5. S-wave refraction tomography obtained in SRT1
Figure 6. S-wave refraction tomography obtained in SRT2
5.2 Surface wave data acquisition and
interpretation
After collecting P-Wave refraction data seismo-
graph was prepared to obtain surface wave data.
Record length was enlarged to 1 second, chan-
nels gain was raised up to 48 dB and sample rate
to 0.125 ms. The same source and geophone ar-
ray of P-wave was used, but in this case posi-
tioned 10 m away from the first geophone.
SurfSeis1.80 software (Kansas Geological
Survey) was used to process MASW data. In
Figure 7 and 8 multichannel records and velocity
spectrums with the best fitting dispersion curves
overlaid are presented.

Figure 4. Details of the P and S wave geophone relative posi-

tioning and of the S-wave source.

P wave first arrival picking was performed di-

rectly, while S-wave first arrival was obtained by
getting together both polarized records obtained
in each shotpoint. Seismic tomography inversion
for both P and S-waves was carried out using
Rayfract32 software produced by Intelligent Re-
sources Inc. Obtained S-wave seismic refraction
tomographies are presented in figures 5 and 6.
Figure 7. Multichannel record and both velocity spectrum and
dispersion curve, MASW1.
The results of P and S wave seismic refraction
tomographies, together with the borehole data,
were used as a base for the inverse modeling
process of gathering the best fitting 1D VS layer-
 R. Rocha et al. / Geophysical Site Characterization of a Volcanic Massif
ing model to each dispersion curve, as shown in
Figures 9 and 10, with Zmax of 30 m and 20, for
MASW1 and MASW2, respectively.
Figure 8. Multichannel record and both velocity spectrum and
dispersion curve, MASW2.
Figure 9. VS model obtained for MASW1 with inversion con-
sidering 10 layers.
Figure 10. VS model obtained for MASW2 with inversion
considering 10 layers.
6 DISCUSSION
In figures 11 and 12, P and S velocity profiles
obtained from each method are plotted. MASW1
results for P and S wave are very close to those
obtained from CH1. In this location even VS data
77
obtained directly from seismic refraction tomo-
graphy SRT1 is consistent with the data ob-
tained, due to the absence of a marked velocity
reversal until its maximum depth. However, P-
wave velocity kept increasing below elevation
149.5m in SRT1, while MASW1 and CH1 re-
vealed convergent results.
Figure 11. Projection of VP (right) and VS (left) data obtained
from CH1, SRT1 and MASW1.
Concerning to the deepest layer, MASW1 re-
vealed lower velocities than those obtained in
CH1, which may be due to the heterogeneity in
the volume of soil/rock involved in each method.
On its turn, Crosshole data obtained in CH2
location show a highly marked P-wave and
slightly marked S-wave velocity reversal located
at 8 m depth (elevation 145m). At this depth
range both MASW2 and SRT2 exhibited lower
velocities than CH2, either in P or S waves.
Again, these divergences could be related to het-
erogeneity in the soil/rock mass volume involved
in each method. Another explanation may arise
from the different influence induced by the bore-
hole preparation (grout concentrations), or to dif-
ferences in material level of compaction.
78 R. Rocha et al. / Geophysical Site Characterization of a Volcanic Massif
Figure 12. Projection of VP (right) and VS (left) data obtained
from CH2, SRT2 and MASW2.
Within 10 and 17m depth, both VP and VS da-
ta of MASW2 are consistent with CH2. From
this depth on, VS of MASW2 is slightly lower
and VP higher than those obtained from CH2.
This can have several explanation such as, high
variability of the soils/rocks mechanical proper-
ties (vertical and horizontal heterogeneity), dif-
ferences in the characteristics of each methodol-
ogy (volume of soil/rock mass involved in the
measurements) and also disturbance induced by
the test preparation (borehole techniques).
7 CONCLUSIONS
The combined acquisition, of both refraction (P
and S) and surface wave data, proved to be use-
ful when compared to the isolated acquisition of
any of the referred non-invasive methods, both
for interpretation and cost reasons. In fact, instal-
lation of equipments for collecting P-wave ve-
locities can be also used for MASW surveys.
Moreover, with specific S-wave equipments it’s
possible to obtain S-wave refraction data to-
gether, allowing for much more useful informa-
tion at a lower cost. In the first place, MASW
method proved to be very useful in the increasing
of investigation depths, when compared to tradi-
tional seismic refraction tomographies. The prob-
lems of non-uniqueness of solutions may be
largely reduced with the combination of multiple
surface methods. In highly heterogeneous envi-
ronments, such as the case presented on this pa-
per, the combined acquisition of several surface
seismic techniques can be a way to reduce uncer-
tainty and more cost effectiveness characterizing
larger areas. It is important to remind that, even
when using several non destructive techniques
it’s always an advantage to have more geological
and geotechnical data (mechanical boreholes, in
situ tests) to support geophysical data, and help
to reduce the referred non-uniqueness of solu-
tions.
REFERENCES
[1] ASTM D4428/D4428M-0, Standard Test Methods for
Crosshole Seismic Testing, ASTM International, West
Conshohocken, 2007.
[2] ASTM D5777 - 00, Standard Guide for Using the
Seismic Refraction Method for Subsurface Investiga-
tion, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, 2006.
[3] Anderson, N., Croxton, N., Hoover, R., Sirles P., Geo-
physical Methods Commonly Employed for Geotechni-
cal Site Characterization, Transportation Research
Board, Washington, D.C., 2008.
[4] Cruz, N.; Tareco, H; Rocha, R.; Andrade, R. e Cruz, J.,
Caracterização Mecânica de Maciços Rochosos com
Base na Combinação de Prospecção Mecânica e
Geofísica. IV Congresso Luso-Brasileiro de Geotecnia,
Coimbra, (2008), 423-430. (In Portuguese).
[5] Dal Moro, G., Tre divagazioni: Il mito dell’ inversione.
MASW in Friuli, esemplio di studio congiunto MASW-
Rifrazione, Centro Internazionale di Scienze
Meccaniche (CISM), Udine, 2008. (In Italian).
[6] Ivanov, J., Miller R.D., Xia, J. And Steeples, D., The
Inverse Problem of Refraction Traveltimes, Part 1:
Types of Geophysical Nonuniqueness Trough Minimi-
zation, Pure And Applied Geophysics, 2005.
[7] Park, C. B., Miller, R. D., and Xia, J., Multichannel
Analysis of Surface Waves, Geophysics, (1999), 800-
808.
[8] Rocha, R., Cruz, N., Almeida, F., Rodrigues C., Cruz,
J., Comparison Between Crosshole, Downhole and Up-
hole in Volcanic Massifs, XI Cong. Nacional de
Geotecnia, Guimarães, (2008), 101-108. (In
Portuguese).
[9] Stokoe, K.H. II, John S. and Woods R. D. Some contri-
butions of the in situ geophysical measurements to solv-
ing geotechnical engineering problems. Proc of the 2nd
International Conference on Geotechnical Site Charac-
terization. Porto, 2004.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 79
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-79

Investigation of interdependence of map and dis-

tract represented on it at engineering – geological
researches in construction
L’investigation de l'interdépendance de la carte et la localité
représenté sur elle aux reconnaissance du sol de fondation dans
la construction
V.S. Shokarev1, A.S. Shokarev
Scientific – research institute of building constructions, Zaporozhye, Ukraine
A.K Solonetz
CJS CrimeaSROProject, Sevastopol, Ukraine
A. Zhusupbekov
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astan, Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT
The revealing technique for detecting fractured zones in rocky }djxu`{ is developed. Scheduled positions of fractured zones
marked on map and directly on locality, determined with use of biolocation effect, were identical. Results, which were received
with use of biolocation methods, have confirmed with devices, geophysical researches and scientific experimental works on ce-
mentation detected of fractured zones

RÉSUMÉ
Une méthode de découverte des zones rompus craquelées dans une base d’une construit maison d’un centre culturel-touristique
a Zaporigia a ete développée. Avec une utilisation d’un effet bio-localise, les positions planifiées determines de zones rompus et
craquelées sur une carte et directement sur une localité, s’est trouve identique. Les résultats obtenus avec une utilisation des
méthodes bio-localises sont confirmés par un complexe de recherches géophysiques et engineerings et par travaux naturels
expérimentaux en une cimentation de zones rompus craquelées observées.

Keywords: soil-cement, drill-mixing technology, physical and mechanical properties, time of mixture setting, impermeability,
grout curtain, reinforcing the soil massif.

1 INTRODUCTION ple, at diagnostics, search, treatment of the per-

Earlier executed researches have shown that each
line, the letter, figure, photo, etc. radiate a physi-
cal field. Identical or geometrically similar im-
ages are united in system inside which all objects
connected among themselves by physical beams
[1]. The given phenomenon is widely distributed
in the nature and used by the person, for exam-
son on distance using image (photo). Such image
can be protoplast reproduced in brain of the prac-
ticed person [1, 2].
Biolocation effect is used for the decision of
similar tasks. Biolocation effect is the act of ra-
diation acceptance by men and its indication as
formation of ideomotor act causing turn of
framework or fluctuation of pendulum, etc. The

1
Corresponding Author.
80 V.S. Shokarev et al. / Investigation of Interdependence of Map and Distract Represented on It

Phenomenon of the given effect has not satisfac-
tory theoretical substantiation but there are many
concepts of work of indicators of effect (a pendu-
lum, a framework, a rod, etc.) [3]. The method
based on use of biolocation effect is biolocation
and it is applied for the decision of various tasks
including search of deposits and geological map-
ping [4].
The purpose of the present work is to show an
opportunity of use of biolocation method at work
with a topographical basis, for the decision of
tasks connected with engineering - geological re-
searches in construction.
2 BRIEF CHARACTERISTIC OF INVESTI-
GATION SITE AND TECHNIQUE OF
WORKS PERFORMANCE AND TECH-
NIQUE OF WORKS PERFORMANCE
The investigation site is located in the central
part of Zaporozhye on the left coast of Dnepr
valley; this is excavation in rocky massif in
length up to 100m and width up to 30m. The site
from the north is limited by Tbilisi Street and
from the south borders with the artificial lake lo-
cated on a place of former building quarry with
the water table close to a water level in Dnepr.
Difference of marks between a water level in
lake and a mark of bottom of excavation makes
~14m. It is planned to construct a cultural - tour-
ist complex on the given site.
The complex engineering - geophysical re-
searches of fracturing estimation of the given
rocky massif were executed in February …
March 2007 by Zaporozhye branch NIISK. The
primary goal of work was the estimation of frac-
turing estimation of rocky massif and elements
of an engineering - geological structure of site
taking into account probable natural and tech-
nogenic components.
The complex of works including three stages
has been executed for the decision of tasks.
The first stage included performance of engi-
neering - geophysical researches of fracturing es-
timation of rocky massif [5] (fig. 1): remote bio-
location researches on map (a topographical
basis); direct biolocation researches on locality;
electroprospecting works on locality by method
of vertical sounding (VES); works on locality
with use of method of passive magnetic- reso-
nant location of subsoil (PMRLS);
The second stage included experimental re-
searches of cracked zones: development of the
project of cementation of the top part of zone
with increased fracturing of rocky massif [6];
performance of cementing works on tested site;
cementation of rocky massif; quality assurance
of performance of cementation by direct bioloca-
tion method; additional cementation of rocky
massif by results of quality assurance of the exe-
cuted cementation.
The third stage included quality assurance of
cementation of cracked zones by carrying out of
seismic prospecting works [7].

Figure 1. The circuit of an arrangement of cracked zones, points of sounding and cementing boreholes on platform of construc-
tion of the cultural - tourist complex in Zaporozhye: I- cracked zones determined with the help of remote and direct biolocation
methods; II-points of electric sounding; III-points of magnetic- resonant sounding; IV-cementing boreholes; V-ledge of quarry;
VI-border of zone with increased fracturing of rocky massif which formed at development of quarry.
 V.S. Shokarev et al. / Investigation of Interdependence of Map and Distract Represented on It
3 ENGINEERING - GEOPHYSICAL RE-
SEARCHES BY FRACTURING ESTIMA-
TION OF THE ROCKY MASSIF
3.1 Remote biolocation researches
Remote biolocation researches were carried out
in the building of Zaporozhye branch NIISK to
the address Zaporozhye, Novostroyek 4 Street,
located on distance 8km from the platform of re-
searches. The topographical survey of site in
scale 1:250 was as the basis for performance of
work. The purpose of works was revealing of
cracked zones on topographical survey and draw-
ing of their scheduled arrangement on survey.
The pendulum of drop-shaped form executed
from rock crystal and suspended on a string in
length 13 … 14sm was as the indicator of effect.
The technique of work with a pendulum con-
sists in the following. The operator having taken
in hands a pendulum brings it to a place of re-
search on map. A method of inquiry receives all
necessary information
“Is it cracked zone?” - The pendulum an-
swers: "No", vibration for example counter-
clockwise.
“Is it cracked zone?” - The pendulum an-
swers: "Yes", vibration for example clockwise.
Realization of this technique has allowed to
reveal all existing cracked zones, to define their
width and length, and to put these zones on a to-
pographical basis (fig. 1). Revealed cracked
zones was located under a corner to a slope; zone
of increased fracturing which formed at devel-
opment of quarry with use of explosion energy of
deep charges of explosive was located in parallel
to ledge.
The operator spent 3 hours on remote bioloca-
tion researches.
3.2 Direct biolocation researches
Direct biolocation researches were carried out by
the same operator directly on a platform of re-
searches by the traditional technique [3]. The
81
framework of the š-shaped form was the indica-
tor of effect. The revealed contours of cracked
zones were rendered by paint on a surface of
massif. The operator spent 4 hours on revealing
of cracked zones. Contours of cracked zones and
their scheduled positions which determined by
direct and remote biolocation methods were
completely identical (fig. 1).
3.3 Engineering - geophysical researches
The complex of engineering - geophysical works
has been executed for the decision of tasks [5]
including:
x Electroprospecting works by method of
vertical electric sounding (VES);
x Works by method of passive magnetic- re-
sonant location of subsoil (PMRLS);
Electric sounding was carried out with use of
the complete set of the electroprospecting
equipment of low frequency ELF – 3. Thus the
apparent resistance was measured on earth sur-
face at gradual increase of researches depth due
to consecutive increase in length of power line
up to 50m. Works were carried out by symmetric
Schlumberge installation at maximal spacing of
power line above 50m and a receive line 1,0m.
The general number of VES points were 19 (fig.
1), at a step 7 … 16m and depth of researches up
to 15m. The relative error of individual meas-
urement on VES point did not exceed +\- 5 %.
The received results of electroprospecting
works were interpreted in two stages.
The analysis of VES curves was made at the
first stage of interpretation, qualitative, specific
electric resistance (SER) was defined in charac-
teristic points. Basically SER of layers depends
on uniformity, a degree of fracturing, minera-
logical structure of hollows filling and other pa-
rameters. Presence of humidified filling in frac-
turing granitoids results in decrease of SER of
soil and absence of filling - to higher values of
SER. The second stage of interpretation, quanti-
tative, was characterized by data acquisition
about capacity of layers and their specific elec-
tric resistance. The software package of interpre-
82 V.S. Shokarev et al. / Investigation of Interdependence of Map and Distract Represented on It

tation of VES curves was applied to realization
of the second stage in an interactive mode with
the image of interpretive curves on the screen.
The received data of capacities of layers and
their specific electric resistance were used for
construction of geoelectric profiles (fig. 2).
ings was executed in not fracturing blocks for
studying density of granites outside of fractured
zones. The arrangement of points of sounding is
shown on fig. 1. Results of soundings are pre-
sented on schedules of change of density of gran-
ites on depth (fig. 3). Measurements of granite
density were carried out with step 10sm along a
vertical axis at sounding. Thus, according to used
of PMRLS technology, each executed indication
characterizes average density of granite in vol-
ume of the cylinder in diameter 10sm and height
6sm, i.e., if emptiness had been met more than
this size, indication would be zero.

Figure 2. The Geoelectric profile on line -: 1 – VES point

and its number; 2 - SER value of layer in ohm, m; 3 - depth
of geoelectric border in meters; 4 - stratum disagreement of
geoelectric borders.

Deep sounding on technology of PMRLS si-

milarly to standard logging of boreholes allows
to study geological profile in vertical measure-
ment with the help of a measuring complex that
allows to make direct definitions of structure and
the contents of substance [8]. Results of such
soundings are represented as schedules of mass
fractions of the given substance in mass unit of
all soil. The resonant frequency of investigated
substance and conformity of intensity of a meas-
ured signal in accepted units to the contents of
substance is defined for this purpose on artificial
models. The calibration tests are executed for big
amounts of substances and experimental depend- Figure 3. Change of soil density on depth with the data fixed
by method of passive magnetic- resonant location of subsoil
ences of signal strength on the given frequency (PMRLS): `) - point 2; b) point 4; c) - point 6.
from the contents of researched substance were
received. The granites density changes within 2,22-
Deep sounding were carried out on a platform 2,76g/sm3 at average values of 2,49-2,53g/sm3
of researches for studying capacity and condi- according to data of soundings outside of
tions of fractured zones in profile, studying of cracked zones. Constant and unweathered gran-
density change of granites on depth in natural lo- ites have density of 2,58-2,61g/sm3. Their den-
cation. It was 10 sounding up to depth 50m. The sity reduces to 2,2g/sm3 at weathering. Their
points of sounding settled down close to sutural density increases as a result of secondary miner-
line of fracture in its trailing wing for undercut- alization and increase dark-coloured minerals in
ting of fractured zones in profile and studying of structure of granite (migmatites). Therefore the
their conditions of location. The part of sound-
 V.S. Shokarev et al. / Investigation of Interdependence of Map and Distract Represented on It
presented limits of change of soils density on
PMRLS data in rather monolithic blocks of
building site are natural and characterize on the
one hand degree of weathering of massif and on
the other hand – its initial mineralogical hetero-
geneity.
The granites density changes within 1,80-
2,74g/sm3, at average values of 2,28-2,34g/sm3
in fractured zones. The change of granites den-
sity looks as a sawtooth curve with often changes
of the minimal and maximal values of density in
fractured zones on schedules of soundings. The
position of fractured zones on schedules is
shown by additional shading for presentation.
Executed instrument geophysical researches
have proved the correctness of drawing of frac-
tured zones on map with use of remote bioloca-
tion methods. The specific electric resistance of
granite is less (110 … 200 Ohm, m) in VES
points located directly in fractured zones, for ex-
ample ’’ 1,8 … 10, than in points ’’ 4, 5
(700 … 800 Ohm, m) where fractured zones
have not been fixed (fig. 2).
If density of granite changes within1,8 …
2,74g/sm3 (points PMRLS ’’ 1, 2, 6, 7, 10) in
cracked zones, density of granite changes within
2,22 … 2,76g/sm3 (points PMRLS ’’ 4, 5, 8,
9) in uncracked zones (fig. 3).
4 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES OF
FRACTURED ZONES
The project of cementation of rocky massif was
developed on the basis of the executed re-
searches [6]. The given project provided fasten-
ing of rocky massif by reinforced cementation of
granites in fractured zones. Cemented boreholes
were located directly in fractured zones (fig. 1).
Works of rocky massif fastening were made
by Open Company “ZB Hydrospecstroy” from
July, 25 till September, 5 in 2007, from bottom
of excavation.
The work of excavation preparation was be-
fore cementation of fractured zones which pro-
viding crop of loessial soils, removal of top part
of bark of granite weathering (a disperse zone),
the device of lean concrete. Thickness of lean
concrete makes 0,2 … 1,5m. It is connected to
83
significant capacity of crushed stone soils in the
base of the projected center. Tampons for cemen-
tation of boreholes were established directly in
concrete preparation.
Works of rocky massif fastening were carried
out in the following sequence:
A. Preparatory works.
x Breakdown and binding of cemented bore-
holes (fig. 1);
x Installation of the process equipment and dis-
tributing of pipelines;
B. Bored works.
x Boring of boreholes ‡ 105mm in depth
8…11m;
x Boring was carried out with blow of bore-
holes for removal of sludge with the subse-
quent washing by water;
C. Hydraulic sampling.
x serviceability and tightness of cemented sys-
tem was checked by forcing of water in bore-
holes after installation of a tampon in bore-
hole;
x Hydraulic sampling was made at pressure
0.3MPa;
x Specific water absorption of rocky soils was
determined by results of sampling;
D. Cementation of boreholes.
x The forcing of cement mortal was made by
mortar pump with adjustable drive;
x Cementation of boreholes was carried out by
cement mortal with application of portland
slag cement of 400 mark;
x Preparation of mortal was carried out in
working unit by mixing cement with water
before reception of homogeneous weight, the
mortal were mixed before receipt in borehole;
x Cementation of boreholes was made with the
following scale of change of the contents of
cement in the water-cement relation: 4; 1,33;
0,8; 0,57;
x The decrease of the mortal charge to
5l/minutes at pressure 0,3MPa was accepted
for refusal of mortal absorption.
Tested cementation was preceded to cementa-
tion of massif. The tested site settled down in
axes « 1 … 3 » lines “A...G” (fig. 1). The absorp-
84 V.S. Shokarev et al. / Investigation of Interdependence of Map and Distract Represented on It
tion of cement mortal was insignificant (60l, 20l)
at the maximal charge in 10l/minutes at cementa-
tion of boreholes ’’ 4, 12, located outside of
fractured zones. The absorption has made 320 …
546l at the maximal charge 24l in one minute at
boring of boreholes ’’ 6, 7, 15 in fractured
zones.
The further cementation of massif was made
under the project [6]. Absorption of mortal in bo-
reholes was 1000 … 200l at pressure 0,5 … 3,0
atmospheres.
93 cemented boreholes were bored in the base
of the cultural - tourist center at fastening of
rocky massif (fig.1).
5 QUALITY ASSURANCE OF CEMENTA-
TION OF FRACTURED ZONES
Quality assurance of the executed cementation of
the rocky massif was carried out by its seismic
translucence. 24 - Channel computerized digital
seismic station “Laccolite 24 M-2” was used as
registered equipment. Researches were carried
out on two structures. The length of arrangement
has made 46 meters; a step is 2 meters between
geophones.
The analysis of the given geophysical meas-
urements has shown that the base of builded cul-
tural - tourist complex is quasi-homogeneous af-
ter cemented works i.e. zones of fracturing are
absent [7].
Figure 4. Work of the operator at remote biolocation re-
searches fractured zone a rocky file on a card (a topographi-
cal basis).
CONCLUSIONS
1. The executed complex of prospecting
works including remote (on map) and direct (on
district) biolocation researches and also electro-
prospecting works by method of vertical electric
sounding, works by method of passive magnetic-
resonant location of subsoil, cementation of frac-
tured zones have allowed to establish interde-
pendence of map and the district represented on
it (fig.4).
2. Remote biolocation method demands the
further development, first of all its theoretical
substantiation, and also development of require-
ments to operators who makes the given kind of
researches.
REFERENCES
[1] Veinik A.I.Thermodynamics of real processes: Mn: Sci-
ence and technics, 1991. – p. 385-386.
[2] Serdjuk A.A. Deep medicine. Ecology of human body -
Donetsk: Nord-pres, 2008. – 284p.
[3] Sochevanov N.N., Stechenko V.S., Chekunov A.Y. Use
of biolocation method at searches of deposits and geo-
logical mapping. - M.: Radio and communication, 1984.
– 56p.
[4] Puccko L.G.Biolocation for all. - M.: ANS, 2002. –
202p.
[5] The report about engineering - geophysical researches
according to object « Engineering - geophysical re-
searches by estimation of fracturing of rocky massif on
the site of construction of a cultural - tourist complex on
Tbilisi Street in Zaporozhye », Zaporozhye branch
NIISK, 2007.-48p.
[6] The work design “Cementation of rocky massif in the
base of building of a cultural - tourist complex on Tbilisi
Street in Zaporozhye ». The code 328-1218/07-C_, Za-
porozhye branch NIISK, 2007. – 6p.
[7] The conclusion about results of rocky massif fastening
on the site of construction of a cultural - tourist complex
on Tbilisi Street in Zaporozhye, Zaporozhye branch
NIISK, 2007. – 70p.
[8] Susin O.A., Novik N.N., Shokarev A.S. PMRAM tech-
nology applied to evaluate the geoenvironment pollution
and density when geo-engineering problems are solved //
XIII European conference on soil mechanics and geo-
technical “Geotechnical problems with mam-made and
man influenced grounds”.- Vol.-Praha: The Czech Geo-
technical Society CICE.-2003.-p.481-484.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 85
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-85

Stabilization of gravel deposits using

microorganisms
La stabilisation des dépôts de gravier à l'aide des micro-
organismes
W.R.L. van der Star1 & W.K. van Wijngaarden-van Rossum
Deltares, Geo-Engineering, P.O. Box 177, 2600 MH Delft, NL
L.A. van Paassen
Delft University of Technology, Geotechnology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, NL.
L.R. van Baalen
Visser & Smit Hanab, P.O. Box 305, 3350 AH, Papendrecht, NL
G. van Zwieten
Volker Staal en Funderingen, P.O. Box 54548 3008 KA Rotterdam, NL
ABSTRACT
One of the techniques used for the construction of underground infrastructure is horizontal directional drilling
(HDD). This trenchless method is complicated when crossing gravel deposits as a borehole in coarse gravel tends
to collapse, causing the drill pipe to get stuck or the failure of installation of the product pipeline due to exceeding
pull forces. In order to find a solution for the problem of borehole instability, the Biogrout process was adapted for
borehole stabilization in gravel. In the Biogrout process, loose sand is converted into sandstone by injection of a
dedicated mixture in the underground, which stimulates micro-organisms to catalyze chemical reactions leading to
the precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) crystals. These crystals form ‘bridges’ between the grains, increas-
ing the strength and stiffness of the material. After a first successful test on lab scale in 2008 in which gravel was
cemented, a 3 m3 container was treated after which a hole successfully was drilled through it using HDD equip-
ment. Following the success of this container test, two field applications were performed as part of the installation
of two 48 inch steel gas pipelines with a length of 600 and 900 meter near Nijmegen NL. During these field appli-
cations twice a volume of 1.000 m3 gravel was stabilized in only 7 days each time using the Biogrout technique,
after which a HDD was performed successfully.

RÉSUMÉ
Une des techniques utilisées pour la construction de l'infrastructure souterraine est le forage horizontal dirigé
(FHD). Cette méthode sans tranchée est compliquée lors du franchissement des dépôts gravier que le fluide de
forage débusque due à une plus grande perméabilité et l'absence de formation de gâteau de filtration. A cause de
l’effondrement du trou de forage, la tige de forage peut se coincer et l'installation de la canalisation peut échouer
en raison du dépassement des forces de traction. Pour trouver une solution pour le problème de l'instabilité de
forage, le processus Biogrout a (spécialement) été adapté pour la stabilisation de forage dans le gravier. Dans le
processus Biogrout, le sable est transformé en grès par l’injection d'un mélange dédié dans le souterrain, ce qui
stimule les micro-organismes afin de catalyser les réactions chimiques conduisant à la précipitation des cristaux
de carbonate de calcium (CaCO3). Ces cristaux forment des «ponts» entre les grains, augmentant la résistance et la
rigidité du matériau. Après un premier test réussi sur l'échelle dans le laboratoire en 2008 dans lequel le gravier a
été cimenté, un conteneur de 3 m3 a été cimenté après lequel un trou a été foré avec succès à l'aide de l’équipement
FHD. Après le succès de cet essai, deux applications sur le terrain ont été effectuées de 600 et 900 mètres dans le
cadre de l'installation d'un gazoduc près de Nimègue NL. Au cours du test sur le terrain, un volume de 1.000 m3 de
gravier a été stabilisée en utilisant la technique Biogrout après quoi un FHD a été effectuée avec succès.

1
Corresponding Author.
86 W.R.L. van der Star et al. / Stabilization of Gravel Deposits Using Microorganisms

Keywords: Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), Biogrout process, in situ cementation, biological methods, gravel

1 INTRODUCTION jected in the soil after introduction of a suspen-

Horizontal Directional Drilling is a method for
trenchless and steerable installation of under-
ground pipelines. It enables passage with mini-
mal disturbance of the surrounding areas and/or
where application of continuous trenches is im-
possible or unpractical (Harke Willoughby,
2005). Since the seventies this techniques has
been used to install pipelines and cables under
rivers, canals and major roads. It is applied both
in rocks and in soils composed of porous mate-
rial. When applied in the latter, the stability of
the bore hole after drilling is maintained by a
viscous and high density drilling fluid (i.e. con-
taining bentonite or xanthane) which aids in sta-
bilization of the bore hole during the initial
smaller (pilot) drilling and the reaming phase of
the hole to the final diameter, enabling product
pipeline passage. The method however is notori-
ously problematic when drilling in gravel, since
coarse gravel tends to collapse, causing the drill
pipe to get stuck or the failure of installation of
the product pipeline due to exceeding pull forces.
sion of the naturally occurring soil bacterium
Sporosarcina pasteurii [2,3]. This bacterium is
capable of hydrolysis of urea into carbonate
(CO32-) and ammonium:
CO(NH2)2 + 2H2O › CO32- + 2NH4+
The produced carbonate precipitates with the
calcium ions to form calcium carbonate
Ca2+ + CO32- œ CaCO3(s)
This precipitation leads to an increase in com-
pressive strength, stiffness and tensile strength.
The method has been scaled up from 1 L scale in
2004 to 100 m3 scale in 2008 [4]. In sandy soils,
prevention of internal erosion is one of the envi-
sioned applications [5,6].

In this paper we describe the adjustment of bio-

logical sand-strengthening method –the Biogrout
process– as an alternative procedure for the
achievement of bore hole stability in gravel. Af-
ter evaluation of proof of principal, the method
was optimized for application of the crossing of Figure 1 Cementation of 100 m3 sand with the Biogrout
gravel deposits near a river in the Netherlands. process [4].
The procedure was applied in practice prior to
the crossing of two 48 inch steel gas pipelines
with a length of 600 and 900 meter under the 3 BIOGROUT FOR GRAVEL: PROOF OF
river Waal in Summer 2010. PRINCIPLE

2 THE BIOGROUT PROCESS FOR SAND 3.1 Laboratory tests

The Biogrout process has been developed as a
method to strengthen sand through in situ pre-
cipitation of calcium carbonate. In the form most
employed, a calcium chloride/urea mixture is in-
It was not immediately evident whether the Bio-
grout process could be adapted for application in
gravel as well. With much less contact points be-
tween the individual grains than sand, it was un-
 W.R.L. van der Star et al. / Stabilization of Gravel Deposits Using Microorganisms 87

clear to what extent calcite precipitation would uniform medium-grained gravel (D50=10 mm,
aid the strength. A preliminary laboratory pro- originating from the Moese river near Maastricht
gram was therefore executed in which 18 kg of (NL)) and the second one containing the same
gravel was treated with the Biogrout process in gravel, mixed with coarse gravel (D50=40 mm).
wooden boxes. After placement of one pore vol- as well as with cobble stones up to 300 mm. The
ume bacteria and subsequent fixation with tests were performed in Papendrecht (NL) using
50 mM calcium chloride, five respectively nine the same on site produced bacteria and cementa-
treatments with 1 mol/L urea/calcium chloride tion solutions as in the 100 m3 sand cementation
solution (the cementation solution) were applied tests performed on the same site [4].
to induce calcium carbonate precipitation. In the
test with nine flushes of the cementation solu-
tion, a second batch of bacterial suspension was
added after the first five treatments with
urea/calcium chloride mixture. In addition, the
test with five treatments of cementation fluid was
also performed in a system where the gravel was
mixed with 1.5 kg coarse sand. After treatment,
the boxes were opened on one side and visually
inspected (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Gravel after application of the Biogrout process for

five (left and middle) and nine (right) flushes. The box in the
middle also contained 7% sand.
Calcium carbonate precipitation was visible as
a white precipitate on the gravel. It was more
abundant on top of the gravel particles than be-
low it, indicating that reaction had taken place
mainly within the pore space and the formed cal-
cium carbonate had sedimented by gravity on the
gravel particles. The cemented gravel was strong
enough to keep its form for several months after
draining of the water and removal of one side (as
is shown in Figure 2). The absence of a flat top
surface and the strong cementation in the bottom
rendered the parts however unsuitable for uncon-
fined compressive strength (UCS) tests.
3.2 “Container test”
The procedure was subsequently tested on
3 m3 scale. In this test, two containers were filled
with gravel. The first container was filled with a
Figure 3 Drilling tests in a 3 m3 cemented gravel container.
Finally, the containers were put in front of a 100
ton drilling rig, which drilled through the entire
containers using a 97/8” tri-cone rollerbit. This
resulted in a stable bore hole inside both contain-
ers (Figure 3).
4 FIELD APPLICATION
The tests performed at 3 m3 constituted suffi-
cient proof of principle for the application of the
Biogrout process in gravel to proceed with the
design and application in the field.
4.1 Optimization tests
The number of flushes used for the cementa-
tion is directly correlated to the amount of cal-
cium carbonate precipitation, and therefore to the
88 W.R.L. van der Star et al. / Stabilization of Gravel Deposits Using Microorganisms

increase in strength and stiffness. Operationally

it is however also correlated to mobilization time
as well as materials and operational cost. Fur-
thermore, a too much cemented system will lead
to extra power required during drilling, which is
not desirable. It is therefore important to find the
minimum amount of cementation that will lead
to a stable borehole. To that effect tests were per-
formed in boxes with circa 8 kg gravel treated
35
with only one or two flushes cementation solu-
4 flush
tion at concentrations of 0.7 and 1 mol/L. Also in 30

these tests cementation could be observed. 25

Shear stress [kPa]

3 flush

20 2 flush
1 flush
15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Displacement [mm]

Figure 5 Shear-box tests of Biogrouted gravel (top) treated

Figure 4 Gravel treated with one or two flushes of
urea/calcium chloride in optimization tests.
4.2 Shear box tests
In order to assess whether a physical effect of
a low number of flushes with cementation solu-
tion was quantifiable, test boxes of 7 kg were
produced (similar to those described in 4.1) with
1, 2, 3 or 4 flushes. After cutting (only the
wooden box, Figure 5, top), a shear test was per-
formed at a displacement rate of 1 mm/min. The
resulting shear stresses were higher with increas-
ing number of flushes, although the residual
shear stress seemed to be similar. None-treated
gravel resulted in a lower maximum shear stress
showing the effect of the process (details in [7]).
with various amounts of cementation solution resulted in in-
creased maximum shear stress (bottom).
4.3 Mathematical modelling
Another optimization method was the design of
the liquid injection and extraction system. The
form of the treated area could not be estimated
straightforwardly using Darcy’s law analytically
because of the threedimensional grid of injection
and extraction wells and the potential of gravity
driven flow due to the higher density of the in-
jected solution (circa 1050 kg/m3) compared to
the surrounding groundwater. Mathematical
modeling was used to evaluate how different in-
jection/extraction strategies and geometries con-
tributed to the shape of the area where cementa-
tion took place (Figure 6).
 W.R.L. van der Star et al. / Stabilization of Gravel Deposits Using Microorganisms
6h 12
A h
16 h 24 h
Figure 6 2D model of the treated area during 24 hours. Injec-
tion took place at the top and the extraction was performed
using the extraction wells placed below the injection wells to
both sides.
4.4 Site description of field application
The HDDs at which the Biogrout process was
applied were part of the construction of a 48”
steel gas pipeline in the east of the Netherlands
from Groningen to Maastricht (north-south
route). The gas pipeline is part of a program of
Gasunie which will improve the capability of the
Dutch transmission network to increase gas ex-
port at several border crossings. At Beunin-
gen/Slijk Ewijk (near Nijmegen), the river Waal
is crossed by means of HDD and when descend-
ing during that crossing, several gravel lenses or
layers needed to be crossed. At this area these
gravel layers were improved with the Biogrout
process after which the HDD was executed.
Figure 7 Location of the Biogrouted areas (continuous lines)
to enable passing of the river Waal (dashed line).
89
4.5 Biogrout procedure and HDD
At two different locations along the river Waal, a
volume of circa 1000 m3 was treated with the
Biogrout process. In these areas, a single flush of
bacteria solution was followed by a single flush
of cementation solution. The bacteria suspension
(Sporosarcina pasteurii DSM33) was obtained
from a commercial supplier, as were brines of
urea and calcium chloride, which were diluted
and mixed on site using a concrete mixer. Injec-
tion took place in several injection wells, in-
stalled directly above the projected pathway of
the pipeline (Figure 8). Extraction wells were
placed lower and to the sides. The extraction
wells were placed for two reasons:
x to direct the flow most efficiently –and
thus economically– to the location
where the Biogrout process should take
place, and
x to remove the residual product of the
process: ammonium chloride.
The removal of the residual product was
achieved by extracting 3 days longer than the
time needed for the injection of the cementation
solution and by extraction at higher flow rates.
The extracted water was sent directly to the local
wastewater treatment plant, which was able to
take the water in its normal operation without
further treatment or buffering. The total time in-
volved in stabilizing the gravel layers at one site
took about 7 days.
Figure 8 Application of the Biogrout process prior to the
HDD: A) the field with injection (middle) and extraction
wells; B) mobilization of tanks for calcium chloride, urea and
mixing equipment; C) monitoring of the effluent prior to
sending to the wastewater treatment; D) An injec-
tion/monitoring well.
90 W.R.L. van der Star et al. / Stabilization of Gravel Deposits Using Microorganisms
During drilling and reaming of both HDDs the
gravel turned out to be stable and the installation
of the two 48-inch gas pipelines using a 450 ton
drilling rig were both successful with no prob-
lems encountered in the gravel areas (Figure 9).
Figure 9 Installation of the 600 m 48-inch gas pipeline (bot-
tom), using a 60-inch flycutter and 48-inch barrel reamer
(top) and a 450 tons drilling rig (middle).
5 CONCLUSIONS
With the successful application of the Biogrout
process to achieve bore hole stability in gravel,
the biocementation process has for the first time
been applied in practice. The application is a
suitable risk-reducing measure when drilling flu-
ids are not expected to be able to stabilize the
bore hole due to high permeability/no filter cak-
ing. Operational and regulatory requirements
could be met by extracting the injected liquids
followed by treatment. The Biogrout applications
have contributed to a controlled crossing of the
river Waal of the North South Route gas line.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank M. Harkes, M. Blauw,
M. Woning (Deltares), Arno Mulder and Werner
van Hemert (Delft University of Technology) for
their involvement during the laboratory and re-
search stage of the program; as well as all per-
sonnel of VSF/VSH which assisted during per-
formance of the Biogrout process on full scale.
REFERENCES
[1] D. Harke Willoughby. 2005. Horizontal Directional
Drilling. McGraw-Hill, New York (U.S.).
[2] V.S. Whiffin, L.A. van Paassen and M.P. Harkes. 2007.
Microbial Carbonate Precipitation as a Soil
Improvement Technique. Geomicrobiol J 24(5): 417-
423.
[3] J.T. de Jong, M.B. Fritzges and K. Nusslein. 2006. Mi-
crobially Induced Cementation to Control Sand Re-
sponse to Undrained Shear. J Geotech Geoenv Eng.
132(11): 1381-1392.
[4] L.A. van Paassen, R. Ghose, T.J.M. van der Linden,
W.R.L. van der Star and M.C.M. van Loosdrecht
MCM. 2010. Quantifying Biomediated Ground Im-
provement by Ureolysis: Large-Scale Biogrout Experi-
ment. J Geotech Geoenv Eng. 136(12): 1721-1728
[5] M. Van, M. Blauw, N. Benhamed, P. Philippe. 2011.
Preventing Internal Erosion Phenomena by Means of
Biogrout. This conference.
[6] J.T. de Jong, B.M. Mortensen, B.C. Martinez and D.C.
Nelson. 2010. "Bio-mediated soil improvement." Ecol
Eng 36(2): 197-210.
[7] L.A. van Paassen et al. 2011. Shearbox tests on biologi-
cally cemented gravel. Manuscript in preparation.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 91
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-91

Effectiveness of CPT-Based classification methods

for identification of subsoil stratigraphy
Efficacité des méthodes de classification basées sur le CPT pour
l’identification de la stratigraphie des sols
M. T. Tumay
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
and Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Y. H. Karasulu
Construction Science & Mgmt. Program, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Z. Młynarek1, J. Wierzbicki
Department of Geotechnics, University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland

ABSTRACT
The paper presents an analysis of effectiveness of the application of seven commonly used CPT-Based classification systems for
the assessment of subsoil stratigraphy and lithology. The analysis was conducted with the following classification systems: Be-
gemann 1965, Douglas/Olsen 1981, modified Schmertmann 1985, Robertson et al. 1986, Robertson 1990, Eslami/Fellenius
1997, and, Zhang/Tumay 1999. The analysis was performed for subsoil composed of slightly and strongly overconsolidated mo-
raine tills and glacifluvial sands and gravels. In the investigated area a total of nine piezocone penetration tests, PCPT (or CPTU)
tests were conducted and samples were collected for laboratory analyses. The reference point for soil behavior type classification
systems was provided by the results of grain size distribution of the soil. The basic element in the analysis was to determine the
effect of the type of the applied soil behavior type classification system on the construction of the subsoil stiffness model. Three
systems were selected as best performing for the purpose of this analysis: Douglas/Olsen 1981, Robertson et al.1986, and
Zhang/Tumay 1999. The construction of subsoil stiffness models was based on the statistical Inverse Distance Weighted method
(IDW) by Młynarek, et al., 2007.

RÉSUMÉ
La communication présente une analyse de l’efficacité de l’application de sept systèmes de classification basés sur l’essai CPT
communément utilisés pour l’évaluation de la stratigraphie et de la lithologie des sols. L’analyse a été réalisée sur la base des
systèmes de classification suivants : Begemann 1965, Douglas/olsen 1981, Schmertmann modifié 1985, Robertson et al. 1986,
Robertson 1990, Eslami/Fellenius 1997 and Zhang/Tumay 1999. L’analyse a été faite pour des sols composés d’argiles
morainiques à blocs, légèrement et fortement surconsolidées et de sables et de graviers glaciofluviatiles. Dans la zone étudiée, un
total de neuf essais de pénétration au piezocône, PCPT (ou CPTU) ont été réalisés et des échantillons ont été récupérés pour des
analyses de laboratoire. Le point de référence pour évaluer les systèmes de classification des sols a été fourni par les résultats de
l’analyse granulométrique réalisée pour les différents sols. L’élément de base dans l’analyse réalisée a été de déterminer l’effet
du type de système de classification utilisé sur la construction du modèle de raideur du sol. Trois systèmes ont été sélectionnés
comme étant les plus performants pour ce type d’analyse : Douglas/Olsen 1981, Robertson et al. 1986 and Zhang/Tumay 1999.
La construction des modèles de raideur des sols s’est appuyée sur la méthode statistique de l’ « Inverse Distance Weighted »
(IDW) de Mlynarek et al., 2007.

Keywords: cone penetration test, CPT, PCPT, CPTU, soil behavior, soil classsification, soil stiffness, probability

1
Corresponding Author.
92 M.T. Tumay et al. / Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods
1 INTRODUCTION
The piezocone penetration test, PCPT [1,2] (or
CPTU [3]), simultaneously measuring cone tip
resistance, qc, frictional component of penetra-
tion resistance, fs, and generated pore pressures,
u, is at present a common approach applied in the
assessment of stratigraphy, lithology, behavior
and geotechnical parameters of soil substrata.
The pore pressures generated during penetration
are measured, depending on the location of the
pressure transducer, at the cone face, u1, behind
the cone base, u2, or behind the friction sleeve,
u3. Due to the geometric design of the piezocone,
pore water pressures generated behind the cone
base (u2) may influence the total stress measured
by the cone tip. Therefore, the measured cone tip
resistance (qc) may have to be corrected for cer-
tain cone configurations to account for the effect
of this pore water pressure developing behind the
cone tip. Theoretically, the corrected cone tip re-
sistance (qt) is given by qt = qc + u2 (1-a), where
“a” is the effective area ratio of the cone, An =
cross-sectional area of the load cell, and Ac =
projected area of the cone. This may necessitate
calibration of the piezocone in a pressure cham-
ber to account for the actual “effective area ratio”
of the cone used. Theoretical studies also indi-
cate the region “behind the cone base” is unsta-
ble and may lead to u2 anomalies in some sub-
strata rendering erroneous soil classifications
[4].The fact that CPT-based classification sys-
tems have been widely investigated and around a
dozen such systems proposed is a testament of
their paramount role and advantages in geotech-
nics. It is important to be familiar with specific
characteristics of the classification systems in or-
der to recognize their effectiveness and limita-
tions, including:
x Development of CPT-based classification sys-
tems rely on the results of laboratory analyses
conducted on randomly selected soil samples
along penetration path. The proper application
of the system makes it possible to obtain a
continuous picture of subsoil structure, taking
into consideration its stratigraphy, lithology
and engineering behavior;
x Systems developed by Robertson et al. [5],
Robertson [6], Jefferies and Davis [7], Eslami
and Fellenius [8] and Lunne et al. [9], use cor-
rected tip resistance, qt.
x The systems developed by Begeman [10],
Schmertmann [11], Douglas and Olsen [12],
Zhang and Tumay [13,14], use directly meas-
ured tip resistance, qc.
x Douglas and Olsen, Robertson et al., Jeffries
and Davis, Robertson, Eslami and Fellenius,
Lunne et al. give consideration to soil compo-
sition, increasing fines content, changes in the
void ratio, OCR, sensitivity, plasticity, stiff-
ness and ageing.
x Begemann and Schmertmann classifications
consider granulometric composition of soil,
and composition and stiffness, respectively.
x Zhang and Tumay probabilistic methodology
addresses the uncertainty of correlation be-
tween the soil composition and soil mechani-
cal behavior, and the fuzzy approach is fun-
damentally different in releasing the constraint
of soil composition, and instead is based on
the certainty of soil behavior.
When using CPT-based classification charts
we also have to bear in mind other important li-
mitations which are frequently overlooked. All
classification systems, as mentioned above, are
developed based on measured and transformed
CPT or PCPT parameters. Studies conducted at
the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute and the
Department of Geotechnics of the Poznan Uni-
versity of Life Sciences [15] showed that pene-
trometers of leading cone manufacturers exhibit
different levels of accuracy for measured values
of cone resistance, sleeve friction and pore pres-
sure measurement. Figure 1 depicts a “differ-
ence” trend for corrected cone resistance, qt, for
nine different penetrometers tested. In Figure 2,
Młynarek [16] shows differences in the evalua-
tion of undrained shear strength obtained using
three different penetrometers, that reveals dif-
ferences by 50%. The quality of penetrometers is
connected with penetrometer classes in accor-
dance with the TC-16 directive. Figure 3 shows
[17] accuracy for three classes of penetrometers
using Robertson 1990 classification. Anomalies
 M.T. Tumay et al. / Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods
in “correction” of cone penetrometer parameters
and/or penetrometer accuracy/quality and cali-
bration may significantly change the effective-
ness of the soil classification system.
Figure 1. Calculated trend with offset for cone resistance qt
for different penetrometers with ± accuracy range for class I
penetrometer (50kPa) (after 15]).
Figure 2. Prediction of undrained shear strength su of Onsöy
clay by different penetrometers (after [16]).
CPT-based classification methods can supply
an extensive body of essential information on
subsoil. It is an open problem how the system
would respond if interbeddings of soils with dif-
ferent grain size distributions are found in a ge-
netically homogeneous soil layer. Such a situa-
tion is typical of subsoils found in Poland. By
effectiveness of a classification system we un-
derstand the degree of consistency of an evalua-
tion of subsoil stratigraphy and lithology, deter-
mined on the basis correlations with reliable data
coming from laboratory analyses. Effectiveness
of a system may also be investigated through the
93
consistency of the evaluation of changes in geo-
technical parameters of soil, which were deter-
mined from characteristics of penetration with
changes in the liquidity index of cohesive soil
and relative density of non-cohesive soil, since
these parameters are strongly connected with
mechanical parameters (i.e behavior) of soil. The
parameter which describes rigidity of both cohe-
sive and non-cohesive soils is a particularly con-
venient parameter for the evaluation of effective-
ness of a given system. Two particularly popular
classification systems used for soils in Poland,
i.e. by Robertson et al. [5] and Douglas and Ol-
sen [12] were selected for the analysis of effec-
tiveness. Due to the fact that the probabilistic and
fuzzy system developed by Zhang and Tumay
[13] lends itself to incorporation of changes in
grain size distribution and behavior, this model
was also included in this analysis.
Figure 3. CPT accuracy areas for peat and soft clay (after
[17]).
2 GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE STUDY AREA
The test site is located in the middle west of Po-
land, within the area of the post glacial moraine
plain, formed by the Pleistocene Scandinavian
glaciers. The upper part of the Pleistocene pro-
94 M.T. Tumay et al. / Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods

file, to the depth of 20-30 m, consists of glacial

tills interbedded with glacifluvial sands and gra-
vels (Figure 4). The lower tills, which are the
clay–sand mixtures of low plasticity, are inter-
bedded with some gravel and sandy-silty layers.
These tills are strongly overconsolidated (OCR 5
to 10 at a depth of 15 m) and stiff. They are
overbedded by glacifluvial sands and gravels,
with a thickness of at least 5 to 10 m. The glacif-
luvial deposits are dense to very dense due to the
overloading of the last glacier. The youngest gla-
ciations yielded a layer of upper glacial till, with Figure 4. The PCPT results at the background of geological
grain size distribution similar to the lower one, cross-section of the test site.
but with a higher content of sand admixtures.
The sand content very often situated this soil at
the area of very low plasticity soils. The upper
tills can be generally divided into the stiff, lower
part, and the soft, upper part. The deposits of the
lower part of the upper till profile are overcon-
solidated (as “lodgment” type tills), but their up-
per part are characterized by relatively high po-
rosity and compressibility (as “melt out” type
tills). Figure 4 presents a typical PCPT/CPTU
profile in view of the lithological profile. Soil
classification in accordance with computer-aided
Standardized KT Color System [17] is depicted
in Figure 5. Table 1 summarizes the results of
grain size distribution and the determinations of
the liquidity index and the density index, which
were used in the evaluation of effectiveness for
PCPT/CPTU classification systems.

Table 1. The basic soil properties derived on the basis of la-

boratory tests for the testing point CPTU-3.
Depth Sand Silt con- Clay DR/LI
contents tents contents
1,8 80,0 10,0 10,0 0,23
3,0 79,0 9,0 12,0 0,07
4,3 72,0 13,0 15,0 0,25
5,8 71,0 15,0 14,0 0,35
7,8 97,1 3,0 0,0 >90%
10,2 99,6 0,4 0,0 60%
11,0 99,5 0,6 0,0 60%
13,0 99,0 1,0 0,0 60%
14,0 98,8 1,2 0,0 45%
16,0 63,0 27,0 10,0 <0,00
18,0 66,0 22,0 12,0 <0,00
Figure 5. The soil classifications according the Standardized
KT Color System [18] at CPTU-3.
 M.T. Tumay et al. / Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods
3 FOUNDATIONS FOR THE
INTERPRETATION OF SOIL BEHAVIOR
TYPE CLASSIFICATION METHOD
DERIVED FROM PCPT (CPTU) DATA
In the development of CPT-based classification
systems directly measured and/or “corrected” pa-
rameters are utilized, i.e. qc versus qt, fs and u.
Significant progress in the identification of soil
behavior type using a PCPT classification system
was obtained by introducing a standardization of
cone resistance by vertical effective stress and
the effect connected with the excess pore pres-
sure in cohesive soils. These effects are included
in the following formulas:
qt  V v 0
Qt
V 'v 0
u 2  u0
Bq
qt  V v 0
where: qt – corrected cone resistance, Vv0 & V’v0
– total & effective overburden stress, u2 – pore
pressure measured behind the cone, u0 - hydro-
static pressure.
A different probabilistic to fuzzy approach is
presented by the system proposed by Zhang and
Tumay [13]. In this method conformal mapping
was performed on the Douglas and Olsen [12]
chart to transfer the chart axis from the CPT data
(qc and Rf) to the soil classification index U and
the in situ state index, V.
U 
95
and: a1= -11.345, a2= -3.795, b1= 15.202, b2=
5.085, c1= -0.269, c2= -0.759, d1= -2.960, d2=
2.477.
In this system a probabilistic correlation was
established between the U index and the compo-
sitional soil type given by the Unified Soil Clas-
sification System (USCS). The CPT-based fuzzy
soil classification methodology, which also uses
in situ state index, V, is fundamentally different
in realizing the constraint of soil composition,
and instead is based on the certainty of soil be-
havior (i.e., cone tip resistance and local fric-
tion).
(1)
4 EFFECTIVENESS OF SOIL BEHAVIOR
TYPE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS
FROM PCPT IN THE EVALUATION OF
SUBSOIL STRATIGRAPHY AND
(2) LITHOLOGY
The potential of individual classification charts
based on PCPT data for the identification of soils
found in the subsoil may be verified as a 1-D or
2-D problem [16]. In case of a 1-D model this
identification is conducted along the PCPT per-
formed, while in the 2-D or 3-D models it is
through the construction of the so-called geo-
technical section. The analysis of the evaluation
of soil type was limited to the 1-D model, while
the analysis of subsoil rigidity was based on the
2-D model. Figure 5 presents the evaluation of
the structure of subsoil using different systems.
A very good conformity with the results of grain
a1 x  a2 y  b1 c1 x  c2 y  d1  size distribution in the soil was obtained when
c1 x  c2 y  d1 2  c2 x  c1 y  d 2 2 using classification charts by Zhang and Tumay,
as well as those by Douglas and Olsen. It was

a2 x  a1 y  b2 c2 x  c1 y  d 2  (3) particularly evident in the surface zone, where
c1 x  c2 y  d1 2  c2 x  c1 y  d 2 2 clays are strongly interbedded with sands and
silts. The Robertson et al. 1986 system, com-
monly used in Poland, isolates at that depth a
where: layer of homogeneous clays. This fact is clearly
documented in Figure 5. In turn, the potential to
x 0.1539R f  0.8870 logqc   3.35 (4) expose the effect of interbedding in the subsoil
structure was revealed in the recent system pro-
0.2957R f  0.4617 logqc   0.37 (5) posed by Robertson [14], which applies soil be-
y
havior index Ic.
96 M.T. Tumay et al. / Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods

The comparison of individual systems sug-
gests one important observation. Figure 5 shows
that in regions of the analyzed with simple sub-
soil structure, i.e glacifluvial sand zone and the
lower clay layer, less advanced systems such as
those proposed by Begemann or Schmertmann,
provide a very good identification of subsoil stra-
tigraphy and lithology, while some recent ad-
of values defined by coordinates xi,yi,z0. Each of
these values affects the interpolated value of v0
with the weight, wi , which is inversely propor-
tional to the distance between these points. The
formula used in Inverse Distance Weighted,
IDW, method takes the form:
N ( v0 )

vanced methodologies miss the mark. ¦wv

i 1
i i
(4)
v0 N ( v0 )

5 EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ¦w
i 1
i

EVALUATION OF SUBSOIL RIGIDITY

BASED ON SELECTED CPTU where ~N(v0)~denotes the number of included
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS observations from the neighbourhood of v0, and
weight wi takes the form:
Constrained modulus M was used in the descrip-
tion of subsoil rigidity. Numerical values of this 1
modulus were established for cohesive soils by wi (5)
Kulhawy and Mayne [20]. d i  s
p

M D qt  V v 0  (6)
For glacial tills D was assumed to be 8.25,
while for silts at 6.0. Values of the modulus for
sands were determined by Lunne et al. [9].
Changes in modulus M in subsoil are strongly re-
lated not only with the type of soil, but also with
stress level in the subsoil and its liquidity index
or relative density index. This element facilitates
the evaluation of effectiveness of these systems
thanks to the evaluation of consistency of
changes in the modulus in the subsoil with
changes in the liquidity index or relative density
index, which had been determined in laboratory
analyses. Modulus of subsoil rigidity was veri-
fied for the cross-section, which contains CPTU
nos. 3, 5 and 9. This profile is highly convenient
for analysis, since changes in the values of this
modulus are connected with the zone structure of
the subsoil, composed of an interbedded glacial
till in the surface zone, a homogeneous zone of
glacifluvial sandy deposits and a homogeneous
zone of glacial till lying on the profile floor.
In the construction of the 3-D model the IDW
method was applied [16, 21, 22]. For this method
the interpolation value M in a given point with
coordinates (x0,y0,z0) is established on the basis
where the value of di denotes the Euclidean dis-
tance between points (x0,y0,z0) and (xi,yi,z0).
Values of modulus M were determined for all
layers, which were isolated by a given classifica-
tion system. Figure 6 presents a model of subsoil
rigidity, in which two most commonly applied
classification systems, i.e. proposed by Douglas
and Olsen as well as Robertson et al., were used
together with the probabilistic system by Zhang
and Tumay. Figure 6 makes it possible to formu-
late several interesting and important conclu-
sions, which at the same time will justify the aim
of this paper. These conclusions are as follows:
x In homogeneous subsoil zones, which are
composed of fluviglacial sands and glacial
tills, the models are almost identical. Models
of this zone respond in an identical manner to
a change in the state of consolidation of sands
and the degree of plasticity of clays.
x In the upper subsoil zone, which is composed
of glacial tills interbedded with sands, locally
strengthening rigidity of this layer, the model
by Zhang and Tumay reflects the above men-
tioned strengthening of this zone. Strength-
ened zones are very well identified by the
course of isolines of constant values of M.
 M.T. Tumay et al. / Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods
x The model of rigidity based on the system
proposed by Robertson yields a more conser-
vative evaluation of rigidity in the upper sub-
soil zone. It is classified as a zone of smaller
rigidity. The system by Robertson et al. to a
certain degree averages subsoil rigidity in this
zone.
Figure 6. The models of subsoil stiffness calculated on the
basis of PCPT results, using different classification systems.
These differences are clearly evident in the
profile of changes in modulus M established at
the site of CPTU no. 3. Differences in the
evaluation of rigidity in this zone are as high as
50% (Figure 7).
The model of rigidity by Zhang and Tumay in
the upper clay zone very clearly reflects also lo-
cal changes in the state of consistency in clays,
which were highly consistent with excess pore
pressure u2 recorded in this zone.
97
Figure 7. Differences between the M modulus profiles, calcu-
lated on the basis of PCPT at the testing point CPTU-3.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Conducted analyses showed that soil behavior
type classification systems from CPTU data are a
convenient method to evaluate stratigraphy of
subsoil with a complex geological structure.
However, the effectiveness of structure evalua-
tion, and first of all in the next stage - geotechni-
cal parameters, depends definitely on the adopted
system. If subsoil structure is simple, then the
conducted analyses confirmed that the selection
of a system for the evaluation of stratigraphy and
lithology of subsoil plays a lesser role. In the
case when even genetically homogeneous layers
are found in a subsoil, but are interbedded with
soils of varying grain size distributions, then
each of the systems responds differently to the
identification of these interbeddings. This differ-
ent reaction of the system results in the evalua-
tion of geotechnical parameters of soils in the
subsoil. The analyzed example of a model of
subsoil rigidity showed that the probabilistic sys-
tem by Zhang and Tumay best reflects variation
in rigidity, connected with changes in grain size
distribution and the state of soil, well identifies
98 M.T. Tumay et al. / Effectiveness of CPT-Based Classification Methods
the strengthening and weakening zones. This
element is particularly important when a designer
of an object has to analyze in detail the coopera-
tion of this object with subsoil, taking into con-
sideration the non-uniformity of settlement for
individual foundations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank HEBO Pozna
Ltd. for conducting static probing tests in the
analyzed area and making their results available.
REFERENCES
[1] M.T. Tumay, R.L. Boggess, and Y. Acar, Subsurface
investigation with piezocone penetrometer,” Sympo-
sium on Cone Penetration Testing and Experience,
Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, St. Louis
MO, USA, (1981), 325-342.
[2] H.M. Zuidberg, L.H.J. Schaap, and F.L Beringen , A
penetrometer for simultaneously measuring of cone re-
sistance, sleeve friction and dynamic pore pressure,”
Procedings of the Second European Symposium on Pe-
netration Testing, Vol. 2, Amsterdam, (1982), 963-970.
[3] R. G. Campanella, and P. K. Robertson, Current status
of the piezocone test, Proceedings Penetration Testing
1988, ISOPT-1, Orlando), Vol. 1, Balkema, Rotterdam,
(1988), 93–116.
[4] P.D. Kiousis, G.Z. Voyiadjis, M.T. Tumay, A large
strain theory and its application in the analysis of the
cone penetration mechanism,” International Journal for
Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics,
Vol. 12, No, 1, (1988), 45-60.
[5] P.K. Robertson, R.G. Campanella, D. Gillespie, J.
Grieg, Use of piezometer cone data, Proc. ASCE Spe-
cialty Conference In Situ’86: Use of In Situ Tests in
Geotechnical Engineering, Blacksburg (1986), 1263-
1280.
[6] P. K. Robertson, Soil Classification using the Cone Pe-
netration Test, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 27(1)
(1990), 151-158
[7] M.G. Jefferies, M.O. Davies, Soil Classification by the
cone penetration test: discussion. Canadian Geotechni-
cal Journal, 28(1) (1991), 173-176.
[8] A. Eslami, B.H. Fellenius, Pile Capacity by direct CPT
and CPTu methods applied to 102 case histories, Cana-
dian Geotechnical Journal, 34(6) (1997), 880-898.
[9] T. Lunne, P. K. Robertson, J. Powell, Cone penetration
testing in geotechnical practice, E&FN Spon, Lon-
don,1997.
[10] H. K. S. Begemann, The friction jacket cone as an aid
in determining the soil profile, Proceedings 6th Interna-
tional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation
Engineering, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Vol I,
(1965),17-20.
[11] J.H. Schmertmann, Guidelines for Cone Penetration
Test, Performance and Design, Report No. FHWA-
TS-78-209, U.S. Department of Transportation,
Washington, D.C., (1978), pp. 145.
[12] J. B. Douglas, R. S. Olsen, Soil Classification using
Electric Cone Penetrometer, Symposium on Cone Pene-
tration Testing and Experience, Geotechnical Engineer-
ing Division, ASCE, St. Louis, MO, USA, (1981), 209-
227.
[13] Z. Zhang, M.T. Tumay, Statistical to Fuzzy Approach
toward CPT Soil Classification, ASCE Journal of Geo-
technical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol.
125, No. 3 (1999), 179-186.
[14] Z. Zhang, and M. T Tumay, Simplification of soil
classification charts derived from the cone penetration
test," ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal, GTJODJ,
Vol. 19, No.2, (1996), 203-216
[15] T. Lunne, P. Gauer, Z. Młynarek, W. Wołyski, M.
Kroll, Quality of CPTU, Part 2 Statistical evaluation of
differences between the CPTU parameters obtained
from tests with various penetrometers, Norwegan Geo-
technical Institute Report, 2003.
[16] Z. Młynarek, Site investigation and mapping in urban
area, Geotechnical Engineering in Urban Enviorn-
ments, V. Cuellar et. al (Eds.) Vol. 1. Millpress Rotter-
dam (2007), 175-202.
[17] M.Th. van Staveren, J.K. Deen, The need for cone pe-
netration test accuracy classes, Geotechniek, 7(2),
(1998), 12-19.
[18] Y.H. Karasulu and M. T. Tumay, Practical visual pres-
entation approach for CPT-based soil characterization
and modeling, Proceedings, of the ASCE Geo-Frontiers
Conference: Advances in Geotechnical Engineering,
ASCE Special Publication No. 211, Dallas, TX, (2011),
pp. 2387-2396.
[19 ] P.K. Robertson, Interpretation of cone penetration tests
– a unified approach, Canadian Geotechnical Journal,
46, (2009), 1337-1355.
[20 ] F.H. Kulhawy, P.W. Mayne, Manual on Estimating Soil
Properties for Foundation Design, Report No. EL –
6800, Electric Power Reseaech Institute (1990
[21] Z. Młynarek, Subsoil contribution to construction fail-
ures (in polish), Proc. of Konferencja Naukowo-
Techniczna “Awarie Budowlane”, Szczecin (2009).
[22] Z. Młynarek, J. Wierzbicki, W. Wołyski, An approach
to 3D subsoil model based on CPTU results, Geotech-
nical Engineering in Urban Enviornment,. V. Cuellar
et. al (Eds.) Vol. 3. Millpress Rotterdam (2007), 1721-
1726.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 99
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-99

Problems caused by the presence of hard concre-

tions and lithified beds in the subsoil on the realisa-
tion of geotechnical investigations and infrastruc-
ture projects
Problèmes causés par la présence de concrétions dures et
d’horizons lithifiés dans le sol lors de l’exécution de projets
d’infrastructure.
G. van Alboom 1 , I. Vergauwen,
Geotechnics Division, Flemish Government, Belgium
J. Maertens,
Jan Maertens bvba and Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium
W. Maekelberg,
Geotechnical design engineer, TUC RAIL n.v., Belgium

ABSTRACT
The presence of hard concretions and lithified beds in the subsoil can cause serious problems during the realisation of infra-
structure projects. As these concretions do most often not occur as continuous layers, they also are a real challenge for geotech-
nical investigations. This paper gives an overview of geological features and general characteristics of typical hard soil concre-
tions in Flanders. Special attentions is paid to the important interaction between geology and geotechnics. Some typical
examples are given of successful and unsuccessful geotechnical investigation programs and their effects on the realisation of in-
frastructure projects.

RÉSUMÉ
La présence de concrétions dures et d’horizons lithifiés dans le sol peut causer de graves problèmes lors de l’exécution de
projets d’infrastructure. Puisque dans la plus part des cas ces concrétions ne se présentent pas comme des couches continues el-
les constituent un défi réel pour les investigations géotechniques.
Cet article donne un aperçu général des caractéristiques géologiques et mécaniques de quelques concrétions typiques pour le
sous-sol Flamand. Un intérêt spécial a été dédié à l’interaction entre la géologie et la géotechnique. Quelques cas représentatifs
sont présentés de recherches géotechniques qui soit ont abouti à des résultats positifs, soit ont mené à un échec.

Keywords: hard concretions, boulders, geology, soil investigation, case studies

INTRODUCTION and gravel sediments with thicknesses up to hun-

dred of meters. The upper Quaternary formations
In Flanders outcrops of Primary bedrock are rare, have been influenced by the glacial periods, re-
and bedrock is covered by Tertiary clay, sand sulting in the formation of marine, coastal, river,

1
Corresponding Author.
100 G. van Alboom et al. / Problems Caused by the Presence of Hard Concretions and Lithified Beds
lake or wind deposits of sand, clay, peat and
loam (silt). A typical soil profile in the Antwerp
harbour area eg. consists of soft clay and peat,
loose Quaternary sands, very dense Tertiary
sands and stiff clay.
Within Tertiary sediments hard concretions
can occur as continuous/discontinuous layers or
as boulders. Their presence in Flemish soils is
certainly not predominant, but can have a major
impact on geotechnical design.
Table 1
Some of these hard concretions (sandstones,
limestones…) have over the past centuries been
quarried for the construction of historical build-
ings (cathedrals, beltowers…). The demand for
authentic natural building stones is now growing
rapidly for renovation projects.
Table 1 gives a summary of some typical con-
cretions in Tertiary layers in Flanders and their
features. The features and compressive strength
of the described concretions or rocks can be quite
heterogeneous. In many cases only the better
quality, meaning the rocks used as building
stones, are well described and investigated. Poor
quality rocks have not been studied quite exten-
sively.
This table gives a broad overview of these
concretions, but is certainly not complete.
In recently updated geological maps and booklets
with explanatory text the presence of hard con-
cretions is clearly mentioned within the descrip-
tion of geological units. This was not the case
with the older geological maps, where you had to
have knowledge of the presence of hard concre-
tions to find evidence from specific borehole
logs.
The Belgian Geological Survey is now draw-
ing up a database on hard concretions in the Bel-
 G. van Alboom et al. / Problems Caused by the Presence of Hard Concretions and Lithified Beds
gian subsoil, including a sheet with technical fea-
tures (compressive strength…)
Technical features are at this stage based on
building stones documentation [1], and should be
completed with results from project site investi-
gations.
HARD CONCRETIONS A CURSE ?
The presence of hard concretions in the sub-
soil can cause problems for the realisation of in-
frastructure projects [2], because the contractor is
faced with:
x Lower production rates than expected
x Inadequate execution techniques that can
only be used if adapted, or should be disre-
garded
This will definitely lead to discussions where
following questions need to be addressed:
x Could the presence, number and hardness of
hard concretions be anticipated by the con-
tractor, based on available information in
specifications.
x Were the execution methods proposed by the
contractor fully adapted to the known soil
conditions
x Could lower production rates or need for
adapted execution techniques be anticipated
x Who is financially responsible for extra costs
The presence of hard concretions can have im-
pact on
x groundworks for building excavations: when
excavations have to be performed within a
limited space the removal of hard concretions
can be cumbersome because no heavy equip-
ment can be used
x groundwater lowering: the presence of hard
concretion layers can cause problems for in-
stallation of deep wells, and can also influ-
ence waterflow towards the excavation slopes,
requiring additional drains above these layers
x deep foundation techniques: problems
caused by fracture of precast piles, feasibil-
ity of auger piles depending on hardness and
size of concretions
101
x retraining walls (all types): eg inadequate
concrete cover on diaphragm walls [3],
sheet piling not suitable due to inadequate
penetration or tearing of interlocks causing
water infiltration and ground loss
x tunnel boring: increase of wear of tunnel-
ling equipment, lower production rates
Due to a limited geotechnical investigation
hard concretions can be a curse for a project..
A geotechnical investigation program with
a special focus on hard concretions can limit
these problems and even show opportunities
for quarrying building stones needed for resto-
ration works.
A CHALLENGE FOR SOIL INVESTIGATION
In Flanders nearly all site investigations make
use of CPT, with depths ranging between 20m
and 40m.
The presence of hard stones is marked by an
abrupt increase of cone resistance in the CPT
diagram, sometimes up to refusal of the equip-
ment. [4]
Three situations can occur:
xthe stone is pushed away, or CPT rods are de-
flected at the contact point with the stone (
fig 1 a and b): the CPT profile doesn’t give
evidence of the presence of these stones. In
the latter case the CPT might deviate sig-
nificantly from the vertical
xthe maximum thrust of the CPT is reached,
and further penetration is not possible with-
out use of special techniques (fig 1 c)
xthe CPT rods do not touch the stone at all, and
there isn’t any evidence of the presence of
stones in the CPT-profile. (fig 1d)
102 G. van Alboom et al. / Problems Caused by the Presence of Hard Concretions and Lithified Beds
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig 1 Hard concretions vs CPT
However a laboratory research at the Catholic
University of Leuven demonstrated that penetra-
tion of sandstone with a thickness up to 20cm
might be possible with CPT cones [5]. Electrical
cones being more fragile it is general practice in
Flanders to execute mechanical CPT if penetra-
tion of sandstone layers is required.
Figure 2 shows a CPT diagrams where an
electrical CPT had to be stopped due to the pres-
ence of a sandstone layer
Fig 2 electrical CPT stopped at hard concretion level
Figure 3 shows a CPT diagram where a me-
chanical CPT could penetrate multiple sandstone
layers of limited thickness.
Fig 3 mechanical CPT penetrating different sandstone
concretions
Anyhow when refusal is met one can recall to
different techniques to resume CPT. Depending
whether or not intact samples of the stones are
needed, destructive or non destructive methods
can be used [4].
Destructive methods:
a) pneumatic hammering
In between thrust column and CPT rods a
framework with a pneumatic hammer is placed
allowing a pulsating downward movement of the
rods. By the pulsating force and a limited static
thrust the stone can be crushed. The use of this
technique is limited to rather thin stone layers.
b) Overburden drilling (ODEX)
At refusal of the CPT, all rods are removed
and a drilling rig with ODEX-system takes over.
The boring tubes are lowered into the ground
by percussion, combined with an eccentric
movement of the tophammer. After perforation
of the hard concretions the casings and topham-
mer are withdrawn and CPT is resumed. Extra
casings are needed to avoid buckling of the CPT
rods.
Non destructive methods
a) After interruption of CPT a core drilling
is performed to sample the hard concre-
 G. van Alboom et al. / Problems Caused by the Presence of Hard Concretions and Lithified Beds 103

tions; alternately CPT and core drilling

take over about every half a meter.
b) Geophysical methods could be used to
detect hard concretions as they are not
limited to point locations; There is how-
ever little positive experience with this
method.

CASE HISTORI`ES

Sandstone concretions in Ruisbroek sands

During construction of the tunnel under the
Rupel river and the canal Brussels-Schelde in
Boom (1970-1980) the unexpected presence of
sandstone boulders caused serious problems.
The tunnel was finished with a delay of 6
years at an extra cost of millions of euros. The in
situ test program consisted of 32 CPT and 7 bor-
ings. Only 3 CPT had to be stopped prematurely,
at a level which later proved to correspond with
the presence of the sandstones. The geotechnical
report did not make any comment on this fact, as
the old geological maps did not draw attention to
the hard concretions (only mentioned in 2 bore-
hole logs).
Observations on the project site showed that
the concretions consisted of calcareous sandstone
with dimensions ranging from 1 to 2.5m. The
concretions had a area coverage of about 7%.
This means that CPT, borings or any other
method representative for discrete test locations
had only a probability of 1/14 to detect the con-
cretions (which corresponds with the 3/39 effec-
tiveness of executed CPT and borings on site).
During dredging activities for the diversion of
the canal Brussels-Schelde the presence of a
“hard layer” was met, which didn’t allow the fur-
ther use of conventional dredging techniques.
CPT and borings revealed the presence of the
calcareous sandstones mentioned above. Again
the presence of the hard concretion layer was not
anticipated.
Suction dredging techniques had to be com-
bined with backhoe dredging, resulting in lower
production rates and higher cost.
Fig 4 Sandstones at diversion Brussel-Schelde canal
Sandstone concretions in Brussels sands
For the Diabolo project in Zaventem TUC
RAIL, aware of the impact of sandstone layers in
Brussels sands, had the intention to compile a
complete soil investigation dossier. Main objec-
tive was to have a good estimate of the number,
extent and hardness of sandstone layers within
the excavation volume. Moreover the efficiency
of executing strutted excavation trenches was
monitored in a test pit.
From the test pit (3m x 1,5m and 13m deep)
detailed geological profiles ware drawn (see fig
5), with focus on sandstone layers and concre-
tions. Excavation rates (m³/manhour) were also
monitored to have an idea of the efficiency of
executing strutted excavation trenches within
part of the tunnelling project, and the amount of
stones within each excavation phase.
Fig 5 – picture and geological profile of test pit section
On about 20 sandstone samples uniaxial com-
presssion tests, Brazilian tests and abrasive tests
were performed to estimate the impact on tunnel-
ling rates and wear of equipment. Tested samples
104 G. van Alboom et al. / Problems Caused by the Presence of Hard Concretions and Lithified Beds
had a heterogeneous structure with laminations,
cavities and porous zones. Compressive strength
varied between 30 and 145 MPa, tensile strength
between 3 and 9 MPa..
From mineralogy tests heterogeneity was con-
firmed and stones could be classified as either
calcareous sandstone or sandy limestone.
The specifications on the tunnelling project
included general information on geology and
complete data on the test pit (geological profiles
and descriptions, test results, efficiency of exe-
cuted strutted excavations). Moreover TUC
RAIL organised for all interested tenderers a
visit to the site, where samples of different exca-
vated sandstones were exhibited.
Thanks to the extensive investigation and the
well documented specifications the tunnelling
project could be realised without problems re-
lated to the presence of sandstones.
CONCLUSION
The presence of hard concretions in the sub-
soil is a challenge to geotechnical engineering.
Common in situ testing methods (CPT, bor-
ings…) are related to discrete location points and
discontinuous stone layers may not be detected.
And even when detected they can not be pene-
trated or sampled using routine techniques.
Geophysical methods that can investigate lar-
ger areas do not give reliable results or are not
workable on a routine basis.
Therefore a well detailed desk study for any
infrastructure project is essential; recently up-
dated geological and geotechnical maps give
evidence of possible hard concretion layers.
A database is being drawn by the Belgian
Geological Survey focussing on features of
building stones, thus representing the better qual-
ity of hard concretions. The project however will
provide a continuous update and an effort should
be made to compile investigation results from in-
frastructure sites.
The presence of hard concretions in the sub-
soil can have a major impact on techniques used
for excavations, groundwater lowering, deep
foundation techniques, tunnel boring, directional
drilling projects. More often they result in sub-
stantial delays and major extra costs.
The question whether or not the presence of
hard concretions was unforeseen is an issue for
fierce discussions.
“Unpredictability” is indeed debatable, and
does not exclusively relate to whether or not their
presence was anticipated and mentioned in the
specifications. Adequacy of information on
thickness of continuous layers, area density and
dimensions of boulders, hardness of the hard
concretions are quite often discussed, often re-
sulting in lawsuits
The case of the tunnelling project in Zaventem
shows however that a well documented dossier
and geotechnical/geological investigation that is
shared with tenderers can reduce significantly
uncertainties with respect to the presence of hard
concretion and their features.
REFERENCES
[1] WTCB, technische voorlichting 205 “natuursteen”,
September 1997.
[2] Maertens, J. 1994. Mogelijke invloed van de aan-
wezigheid van stenen op regelmatig toegepaste tech-
nieken. Workshop “Stenen in de grond: nut of
probleem”, KVIV, Antwerp (15/09/94).
[3] Maekelberg W. et al ‘Observations of anomalies in dia-
phragm walls for deep tunnel excavations’ ECSMGE,
Athens 2011
[4] Van Alboom, G. ‘Problemen door versteningen bij geo-
technisch onderzoek. Workshop “Stenen in de grond:
nut of probleem”, KVIV, Antwerp 1994
[5] Maertens, J. et al ‘Penetrability of sandstones with a
CPT cone’ ICSMGE Hamburg 1997
[6] Nulens, K. 1996. Aanwezigheid van stenen in de on-
dergrond. Onderkenning met behulp van diepsonderin-
gen. M.Sc.thesis. Department of Civil Engineering,
K.U.Leuven, 107
1.2. Laboratory Testing
Essais en laboratoire
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 107
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-107

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 115
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-115

Dynamic Poisson ratio analysis

Analyse du coefficient de Poisson dynamique
M. F. Amaral 1, A. Viana da Fonseca & J. Carvalho
FEUP, University of Porto; Portugal
N. C. Consoli
UFRGS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul; Brazil

ABSTRACT
The dynamic Poisson ratio is a complex calculation parameter mainly considering the standard existing equipment in some Geo-
technical laboratories. Nevertheless, this dynamic property can be easily calculated through a simple relationship – based on the
theory of elasticity – between the propagation velocities of two distinct elastic waves. Despite permitting an easy calculation of
the dynamic Poisson ratio, the signals arrival instant – in regard to the above referred waves – are not always identifiable on the
time domain basis of interpretation (Viana da Fonseca et al. [1]). For the analysis of the dynamic Poisson's ratio, three types of
elastic waves were taken into consideration. For soil-cement specimens – studied in this paper – were calculated the compression
wave velocity VP, Bar wave velocity VL and shear wave velocity VS. Properties like the dynamic confined modulus Mdin, dynam-
ic modulus of elasticity Edin and dynamic shear modulus Gdin were also intended. The cross comparison between the dynamic
Poisson ratios computed by different waves is used to ensure the chosen arrival instances based on time domain interpretation. In
this paper it is also preformed a dynamic Poisson ratio recalculation in order to evaluate the parameter sensitivity regarding the
equipment resolution concluding in the possibility $@
$^din from the presented tests.

RÉSUMÉ
Le coefficient de Poisson dynamique est un paramètre de calculs complexes qu’envisage principalement l'équipement standard
en vigueur dans certains laboratoires géotechniques. Néanmoins, cette propriété peut être facilement calculée par une relation
simple - basée sur la théorie de l'élasticité - entre les vitesses de propagation de deux ondes élastiques distinctes. Malgré permet-
tant un calcul facile du coefficient de Poisson dynamique, l'instant d'arrivée des signaux - en ce qui concerne les vagues ci-
dessus visées - n'est pas toujours identifiable sur la base de l'interprétation dans le domaine temporel (Viana da Fonseca et al.
[1]).Pour l'analyse du coefficient de Poisson dynamique, trois types de vagues élastiques ont été tenues en considération. Pour
les spécimens de sol-ciment - étudiés dans le présent document - ont été calculées de la vitesse des vagues de compression VP,
vitesse des vagues Bar VL et la vitesse des vagues de cisaillement VS. Propriétés comme le module dynamique limité Mdin, mo-
dule d'élasticité dynamique Edin et module de cisaillement dynamique Gdin étaient également destinés. La comparaison croisée
entre les coefficients de Poisson dynamiques calculées par les différentes vagues est utilisé pour assurer l'arrivée des cas choisis
en fonction de l'interprétation dans le domaine temporel. Dans cet article, il est également préformé un nouveau calcul de coeffi-
cient de Poisson dynamique afin d'évaluer la sensibilité des paramètres concernant la résolution d’équipements.

Keywords: Soil-cement, seismic waves, dynamic Poisson ratio, ultrasonic transducers, bender elements

1
Corresponding Author.
116 M.F. Amaral et al. / Dynamic Poisson Ratio Analysis
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 About soil-cement
Cementation effects in dynamic, hydraulic and
mechanic behavior of naturally and artificially
cohesive geomaterials have been studied by sev-
$^din for each wave inter-
eral researchers (e.g. Clough et al. [2], Leroueil
& Vaughan [3], Coop & Atkinson [4], Gens &
Nova [5], Viana da Fonseca [6], Cuccovillo &
Coop [7], Schnaid et al. [8], Consoli et al. [9],
Consoli et al. [10], Viana da Fonseca & Coutinho
[11], Amaral [12], Amaral & Viana da Fonseca
[13]). These authors established a fundamental
understanding of the behavior of natural soils
and/or develop soil stabilization methods using a
cementation agent (Cruz et al. [14]).
A very good example of soil-cement applying
is the high speed railways embankments, particu-
larly the transition zones. As the transition zones
take part as one of the most critical areas in these
engineering works, it is extremely important to
study the cyclic and dynamic behavior of these
structures.
To understand bounding effects in dynamic
properties of a residual granitic soil of Porto
(north of Portugal), artificially cemented speci-
mens were compacted for distinct cement con-
tents and compaction degrees.
1.2 Seismic waves
Seismic tests are typically used to detect flaws
and evaluate the mechanical properties’ degrada-
tion of materials (Bodig & Jayne, [15]). One of
the most widely used techniques for this type of
transducers is the pulse-echo method (Blitz &
Simpson [16], Cartz [17]). In addition, the pulse
velocity test is an ASTM [18] standard for mea-
suring seismic wave velocities trough concrete. It
is also used for monitoring massive rocks quality
and settlement ranges (Santamarina et al. [19],
Cascante et al. [20], Landon et al. [21]).
In this paper are presented three types of seis-
mic wave measurements; compression wave (P),
bar waves (L) and shear waves (S). P, L and S
waves are related among them by the Poisson ef-
fect analytically expressed by dynamic Poisson
shear (Gdin) modulus, respectively. In this paper,
it is per$  ^din computing using P & L
wave velocities (VP and VL, respectively) and L
& S wave velocities (VS). Then, according to the
time window test resolutions it is achieved the
maximum and minimum values not only for Mdin,
Edin and Gdin 
correlation.
2 MOLDING AND CURING OF
SPECIMENS
Specimens were compacted to obtain a cylindric-
al shape; 71mm diameter () and a 136mm
length (H). The 12% of water content (w) was
defined by the modified Proctor test.
For compaction, an equivalent quantity of
fines replaced the necessary cement weight to be
added. Thus, the macro structural granulometric
curve (see Fig. 1) was kept constant.
Soil, cement and water were placed on a board
and very well mixed. Then, the resulted volume
was divided in to three similar portions. The first
portion was placed in a lubricated compacter and
statically compressed originating the first speci-
men’s layer. After this procedure, the surface was
scarified to be used as a support for the second
layer. The procedure was repeated for the second
and third layers.
At the end of the process, the specimens were
stored in a humid chamber with a relative humid-
ity of 96%. After a period of 24 hours, the speci-
men was taken out of the mould and again placed
in the same humid chamber remaining curing for
28 days.
The specimens were suitable considered if re-
maining in the following tolerances:
Dry Unit Weight (d) ± 1% of target value,
w ± 1.0% of the target value,
Diameter within ± 0.5mm,
Height within ± 1mm.
Cement content (C) is defined by simple rela-
tionship between dry cement weight (WC) and
dry soil weight (Wd) express by Eq. 1.
^din). They are also related with the dynam-
ic stiffnesses of confined (Mdin), Young (Edin) and C  WC Wd (1)
 M.F. Amaral et al. / Dynamic Poisson Ratio Analysis 117

3 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM Table 1. Specimens’ information

Name C (%) w (%) H (mm) _{ 3)(*) S (%)(*)

The experimental program was carried out in a
very well graded granular soil mixed with ce- 1 2 11.7 136.48 1857 51.1
ment. The physical properties of the soil charac- 2 3 11.3 136.68 2046 63.6
teristics and of the admixture with cement were
3 3 12.7 136.74 2049 69.1
reported by Rios Silva et al. [22]. A significant
amount of tests with ultrasonic compression 4 5 12.1 135.92 1973 59.6
transducers and bender elements were performed 5 7 12.9 136.18 1878 54.4
on specimens with different combinations of ce-
ment content and void ratio.
In this study, five soil-cement specimens of
weathering Porto granite (Viana da Fonseca et al.
[23]) were molded. The referred soil is classified
as a SM (silty sand). The grain size distribution is
presented in Fig. 1. It reflects a mean effective
diameter (D50) of 0.25mm and the uniformity and
curvature coefficients are of 113 and 2.7, respec-
tively. Atterberg limits measurements have
shown a non-plastic soil. Particle specific gravity
is 2.72 and mineralogical analysis predominantly
presented feldspars, quartz and small portions
mica.
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
10
Figure 1. Porto residual soil grain size distribution.
The used cement was a rapid hardening CEM I
52.5 R. The cement particle specific gravity is
3.10. Distillated water was used for specimens’
compaction.
Table 1 shows the essential specimens’ basic
information for dynamic parameters computing.
|_}Dry unit weight, (*) S = Degree of saturation
Retention curves analysis proved this range of
S promotes a suction variation in 100kPa to
200kPa. Thus, it is not expected considerable dy-
namic properties changes because of the distinct
saturation degrees.
4 FORMULATION AND EQUIPMENT
In order to compute the dynamic properties four
type of equipments were used; a signal generator,
an oscilloscope, an acquisition system and an ap-
propriate pair of transducers. For each category
of seismic wave determining (P, L & S) it was
used a different pair of transducers. These last
equipments were placed in the specimens top and
bottom. Thus, the specimens’ lengths (H) are
equivalent to the propagation length of each
seismic wave.
4.1 Compression waves
According to Richart et al. [24] there is a type of
wave called compression wave whose velocity is
related with Mdin in the following expression.
M din
VP  (2)
Where VP may be estimated by
VP  H t P (3)
Where tP is the time of propagation of the
compression wave which was directly measured
from the oscilloscope.
118 M.F. Amaral et al. / Dynamic Poisson Ratio Analysis

The used oscilloscope and the chosen time where tS is the S-wave time of propagation.
window for the VP determining provide a tP accu- The relationship between Gdin and Edin is well
racy of ± 0.2s. These tests were performed using known and it can be written by
a 1MHz nominal frequency compression trans-
ducers. 1
Gdin  Edin (7)
4.2 Bar waves 2(1   din )
According to Graff [25], the use of lower nomin- Then, the association linking Gdin to Mdin is
al frequency transducers converts propagation
medium, of the compression wave, to an asso-
(1  2 din )
ciated constrained environment. Therefore, those Gdin  M din (8)
frequencies enable a bar wave propagation in- 2(1   din )
stead of the – as presented before – traditional
compression wave. Some authors (Graff [25],
The tS determining accuracy was ± 2.0s.
Khan et al. [26], Amaral & Viana da Fonseca
These tests were performed using a pair of bend-
[13]) defend that this physical phenomenon is as-
er elements.
sured whenever the impulse wave length has the
same order of magnitude of the propagation envi-
ronment.
VL or Bar velocity is expressed by 5 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

5.1 Dynamic stiffness and ȣdin

Edin
VL   H tL (4) The unprocessed results either for ultrasonic or
 bender elements tests are the time of propagation
determining. Fig. 2 shows an example of those
Where tL is the time of propagation of the bar raw results, specifically bender element results.
wave. Read times of propagation were corrected by
A relationship between Edin and Mdin is defined subtracting the estimated time delay calculated in
by ^din and expressed by Eq. 5. the calibration standard procedures. The three
pairs of transducers were placed in contact. The
(1   din ) time difference between the wave arrival instant
M din  Edin (5) and the function generator sent pulse instance is
(1   din )(1  2 din ) the time delay. This value was subtracted to each
specimens’ arrival time record. All three pair of
The chosen time window for the VL determin- transducers demonstrated different delay times.
ing provided a tL accuracy of ± 0.5s. These tests
were performed using a 50kHz nominal frequen- 0.15
cy compression transducers.

4.3 Shear waves

According to Richart et al. [24] there is also
another type of wave called S. VS is related with -0.15
the Gdin by Eq. 6.

Gdin
VS   H tS (6)
 Figure 2. S-wave times of propagation.
 M.F. Amaral et al. / Dynamic Poisson Ratio Analysis 119

Tables 2 and 3 indicate not only the speci- Table 4. Dynamic properties minimum values.
mens’ dynamic stiffnesses but also the ^din com- N. Mdin (MPa) Edin (MPa) Gdin (MPa) ^din
puted for each combination of Mdin & Edin and
Edin & Gdin. 1 2467 2000 784 0.227
2 5884 4772 1923 0.172
Table 2. ^din computed by Mdin and Edin. 3 5927 4892 1900 0.216
t VP Mdin tL VL Edin
N. P ^ 4 6729 5355 2092 0.204
 (m/s) (MPa)  (m/s) (MPa) din
5 4832 3664 1378 0.264
1 118 1155 2476 131 1042 2016 0.262
2 80.4 1700 5913 89.5 1536 4825 0.261 Table 5. Dynamic properties maximum values.
3 80.2 1705 5956 88.0 1554 4947 0.252
N. Mdin (MPa) Edin (MPa) Gdin (MPa) ^din
4 73.4 1852 6766 82.0 1658 5421 0.269
1 2484 2031 815 0.295
5 85.7 1608 4855 97.5 1404 3702 0.290
2 5942 4880 2036 0.269

Table 3. ^din computed by Edin and Gdin. 3 5986 5004 2012 0.317

tL VL Edin tS VS Gdin 4 6803 5488 2225 0.312

N. ^
 (m/s) (MPa)  (m/s) (MPa) din 5 4878 3740 1450 0.357
1 131 1042 2016 208 656 800 0.261
Analyzing both Tables 4 and 5 it can be con-
2 89.5 1536 4825 139 983 1978 0.220
clude that Mdin Edin and Gdin do not significantly
3 88.0 1554 4947 140 977 1955 0.265 change with the time window resolution uncer-
4 82.0 1658 5421 130 1046 2157 0.257 tainly. In addition, ^din is to some extent affected
5 97.5 1404 3702 157 867 1413 0.310
by stiffness modifications, taking variations up to
about 20%.
Based on Tables 2 and 3 it can be concluded
that ^  €   cement content
(C) and its values seem to be consistent between 6 CONCLUSIONS
the two conducts of ^din computing.
From the data presented in this paper, the follow-
5.2 ȣdin accuracy determining ing conclusions may be drawn:
It is possible to estimate fair values of ^din val-
Supported on the chosen time window, values of ue from the presented tests. Besides, its compu-
tP, tL and tS were adjusted for ± the presented res- ting represents a very good way to validate VP,
olution !‚† !  ‚!, providing a
Mdin, Edin and Gdin maximum and minimum val-
ues. Then, each new dynamic stiffness combina-
tion was interrelated in order to provide max and
minimum ^din. For example, a minimum value of
Mdin and a maximum Edin value provide (Eq. 5) a
minimum of ^din, and vice-versa. Following
tables show how dynamic properties are able to
fluctuate.
VL and VS ^din remains in the interval 0.17
to 0.36, well in the range of what is commonly
expected in cemented materials.
Dynamic stiffnesses are not very affected by
the uncertainty of the time window resolution.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the
University of Porto Engineering Faculty Geo-
technical Laboratory personal, to the University
of Waterloo Non Destructive Geotechnical La-
120 M.F. Amaral et al. / Dynamic Poisson Ratio Analysis
boratory and its coordinator Professor Giovanni
Cascante. This research was developed under the
activities of FCT (Portuguese Foundation for
Science and Technology) research unit SEC, in
FEUP, namely PTDC/ECM 099475/2008 project,
financed by European Community
(QREN/UE/FEDER), on the Operational Pro-
gram for Competitive Factors “COMPETE”.
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IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-121

Estimation of UCS from PLT for sedimentary

rocks, with emphasis to conglomerate and breccias
Estimation de la résistance á la compression de l’essai ponctuel,
avec emphases á conglomérâtes et breccia
A. A. Antoniou1
National Technical University of Athens, Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT
The uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is one of the main parameter for rock mass characterization and classification, as well
as in rock engineering practice. Although UCS testing has been standardized by the International Society for Rock Mechanics
other parameters such as results from point load test, which is comparatively cheap and easy to apply, are most widely used.
Various studies in the literature propose relationships between Is50 (from point load test) and UCS, thus objective of this study is
to determine conversion factors relating Is50 and UCS for intact sedimentary rocks, as well as for conglomerates and breccias,
since to those rocks, specimen with geometric characteristics for the USC test according to ISRM requirements can not be easily
shaped.

RÉSUMÉ
La résistance á la compression uniaxe est la paramètre essentielle pour définir et classifier la messe rocher. Bien que la résistance
á la compression a été normalisée par la Société International du Mécanique des Roche, autres paramètres telle que l’essai
ponctuel, sont appliquées. Objectif de cette étude est la proposition des facteurs de la conversion entre l’essai ponctuel et la
résistance à la compression aux rocks sédimentés et semblablement aux conglomérâtes et breccias.

Keywords: uniaxial compressive strength, point load test, conglomerate, breccias

1 INTRODUCTION tion while the testing equipment is less compli-

The uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is
the main test in order to determine the strength of
intact rock materials; therefore this test has been
standardized either by [15] and [1]. Although,
the method is relatively simple, it is time con-
suming and expensive; since it requires well-
prepared rock cores [8]. Hence, indirect tests are
often used to predict the UCS, such as point load
index. This test is very easy to carry out, even in
the field, because it requires no sample prepara-
cated.
The aim of this article is to present a relation
between the point load index and UCS for
carbonate sedimentary rocks. Besides that
another main objective of this study is to
determine conversion factors relating Is50 and
UCS for conglomerates and breccias, since to
those rocks, specimen with geometric
characteristics for the USC test according to
ISRM requirements can not be easily shaped.

1
Corresponding Author.
122 A.A. Antoniou / Estimation of UCS from PLT for Sedimentary Rocks

2 BACKGROUND Laboratory core drill and saw machines were

used to cut the samples in order to provide spe-
The point load strength test apparatus was devel- cimens with size, shape and ends geometries ac-
oped at Imperial College, London as an aid to cording to [15] requirements.
core logging. Nevertheless, this technique has
been used extensively as a laboratory research Table 1. Published equations correlating the UCS to the point
load index
tool and as a useful method for field index test-
ing. British Standards refer that the point load Reference Equation
index is only a quick and cheap laboratory and [4] qu=24Is50
filed indicator strength test, useful to core log- [3] qu=23Is50
ging. Its results are considered as input parame- [12] qu=29Is50
ters to Rock Mass Rating (RMR, [2]) rather than [20]
predicting the uniaxial compressive strength of 1) Sedimentary rocks qu=16Is50
rocks.
2) Basalts qu=20Is50
The development of point loading method by
[4] led many researchers to conclude to a rela- [10] qu=16.5Is50+51.0
tionship between point load index and UCS. In [16] qu=20÷25Is50
particular, [13]; suggested a very simplified table [27] qu=8.6÷16Is50
of site specific conversion factors for core sam- [26] qu=14÷82Is50
ples of sedimentary rocks (in dry and wet condi- [9] qu=16Is50
tions), and finally proposed an increasing value [7] qu=12.5Is50
of the conversion factor as point load index is in-
[25]
creasing. [21], presented published data as well
1) Power relation
as his own for sedimentary rocks and showed a
variation of the conversion factor from 14.5 to 27 2) Linear relation qu=7.3(Is50)1.71
for limestones, 12 to 24 for sandstones, 10 to 15 qu=23Is50
for siltstones, and 5 to 10 for chalk and porous
limestone (in [25]). Table 1 summarizes the Table 2. Physical and mechanical properties of sedimentary
equations correlating the UCS to the point load rock materials
index. As shown, the suggested ratios between
Rock Location No of ad ^c ¦s(50)
compressive strength and point load strength ex- Type samples (¥B/m3) (MPa) (MPa)
hibit a very large range; the ratio for the equa- Limestone Athens 65 23.00- 27- 1.3-
tions using the zero-intercept varies between 7.3 27.59 180 6.4
Dolomitic Piraeus 12
and 29. limestone Crete 23
Tripoli 15
Marly li- Piraeus 5 20.0- 26-37 1.3-
3 TEST PROCEDURE 22.6 1.8
mestone
Siltstone Nafpaktos 5 25.89- 10-16 0.6-
26.21 1.0
3.1 Carbonate rocks
Rock samples used in this study were obtained The influence of the sample size upon UCS
from exploratory sampling boreholes. The sam- has been extensively discussed and it is generally
pling locations were widely distributed around assumed that there is a considerable reduction in
the Greek territory (Table 2); while the samples strength with increasing sample size, while the
were sedimentary carbonate rocks, since this ratio of height to diameter of the cylindrical rock
type of rocks is the most common one in Greece, cores remains constant. [14] proposed the fol-
comprising almost the 25% of the outcrops. lowing formula for the conversion of the results
obtained for different diameter specimens:
 A.A. Antoniou / Estimation of UCS from PLT for Sedimentary Rocks 123

Vc (1) 3.2 Conglomerate and breccia

V c50 0.18
§ 50 ·
¨ ¸
©d ¹
3.2.1 Introduction
Where; Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting
^c50: is the uniaxial compressive strength calcu- of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated
lated for a 50 mm diameter sample, 200
^ c: is the uniaxial compressive strength cal- 160 y = 21,05x
R2 = 0,75
culated for sample which has a different

c (MPa)
120
core diameter size, 80
d: is the diameter of the specimen in mm. 40
[13] stated that the results of his studies do not 0
support the previous equation; the maximum 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0

strength values for sedimentary samples ranging Is50 (MPa)

from 38 to 54 mm in diameter. Figure 1. Linear function between point loading and uniaxial
In this study, the cylindrical samples had a compressive strength for sedimentary carbonate rocks.
length to diameter ratio of 1.9 to 2.3, avoiding
any uncertainties regarding the influence of the
200
sample size on the measured strength. The dia- y = 24,82x 0,88
160
metrical point load test was carried out on cores R2 = 0,77
c (MPa)

120
having a length to diameter ratio fluctuated from
1.8 to 2.1. Moreover the loading axis was applied 80

perpendicularly to any visible plane of weakness. 40

Finally the result of point load test considered 0

adequate when the failure plane was fresh and 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0
Is50 (MPa)
not following any discontinuity surface.
Regression analysis was applied to define the Figure 2. Power function between point loading and uniaxial
relation among UCS and point load test data. As compressive strength for sedimentary carbonate rocks.
shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the equation for the re-
gression curve is: from breccias, which consist of angular clasts.
Both conglomerates and breccias are character-
Vc 21.05I s (50) (2) ized by clasts larger than sand. Conglomerates
are cemented by various minerals. Normal ce-
menting agents include calcite, quartz, sand and
clay. When the sediment is first deposited there
Vc 24.82 I s (50 )
0.88
(3) are lots of open spaces. Cement can affect the
amount of pore space that is left in a rock as it
solidifies
Several researchers ([6], [18], [19], [5], [11],
[17], [23], [24]) have investigated the properties
of complex geo-materials such as melanges, or
coarse pyroclastic rocks, while many suggest that
only the matrix of a conglomerate would need to
be tested because failure, if it were to occur,
would be through the matrix. This might be ac-
ceptable where over half of the material is matrix
and no boulders or clasts come in contact, or
when boulder size is small. However if a signifi-
cant number of large boulders are present and are
124 A.A. Antoniou / Estimation of UCS from PLT for Sedimentary Rocks

not accounted for the in strength estimate the

strength of the formation would undoubtedly be Table 3. Mechanical properties of conglomerate and breccia
underestimated [22]. In addition, he referred to materials
an empirical criterion where if more than 10% of Rock type Location No of ^c ¦s(50)
the gradation has a size greater than 50mm, or if samples (MPa) (MPa)
5% is greater than 600mm, then the failure path Conglomerate- Athens 8 7.65- 0.30-
27.74 2.77
would be forced around boulders and along breccias
Drama 15 7.23- 0.36-
boulders-matrix contacts; resulting an irregular 33.30 3.65
failure surface with an apparent roughness. Siatista 5 32.50- 3.09-
38.56 5.45
3.2.2 Test approach
In this study, only the results from diametrical
tests on cylindrical specimens were evaluated.
Moreover, tests were rejected as invalid if the
fracture surface passes through only one loading
point (Fig. 3d, 3e).
Figure 4. Valid conglomerate-breccias specimen

Figure 5. Valid conglomerate-breccias specimen

Figure 3. Typical modes of failure for valid and invalid test;
(a) valid diametric tests; (b) valid axial tests; (d) invalid core
tests; (e) invalid axial tests [16].

The samples were obtained only from ex-

ploratory sampling boreholes which were widely
distributed around the Greek territory (Table 3),
while Figs. 4 and 5 present typical conglomerate-
breccias specimens valid for the tests where less
than 5% is greater than 60mm. In Fig. 6 a non
valid specimen is presented. The cemented mate-
rials were usually calcitic, sandy and in some
places clayey, while rock boulders derived main- Figure 6 . Non valid conglomerate-breccias specimen
ly from limestone, marble, sandstone, siltstone,
and schist. V c 10.46 I s (50) (4)
Regression analysis was applied to define the
relation among UCS and point load test data. As
shown in Figs. 7 and 8 the equation for the re- Vc 11.81I s (50 )
0.83
(5)
gression curve is:
 A.A. Antoniou / Estimation of UCS from PLT for Sedimentary Rocks 125

60 [5] C. Burgi, A. Parriaux, G. Franciosi, Geological charac-

50 y = 10,46x terization of weak cataclastic fault rocks with regards to
R2 = 0,77
40
the assessment of their geomechanical properties. Q J
 c (MPa)

30
Engng Geol Hydrogeol 34, (2001), 225–232.
[6] F. M. Chester, J. M. Logan, Implications for mechani-
20
cal properties of brittle faults from observations of the
10 Punchbowl Fault Zone, California, Pure Appl Geophys
0 124, (1986), 79–106.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] K. T. Chou, R. H. C. Wong, Uniaxial compressive
Is50 (MPa) strength and point load strength, Int. J. Rock Mech.
Min. Sci. 33,(1996), 183–188.
Figure 7. Linear function between point loading and uniaxial [8] M. Fener, S. Kahraman, A. Bilgil, O. Gunaydin, A
compressive strength for conglomerates and breccias. comparative evaluation of indirect methods to estimate
the compressive strength of rocks, Rock Mech. Rock
Eng. 38 (4) (2005), 329–343.
60
[9] D. K. Ghosh, M. Srivastava, Point-load strength: an in-
50 y = 11,81x0,83 dex for classification of rock material, Bull. Int. Assoc.
40 R2 = 0,71
Eng. Geol. 44, (1991), 27–33.
c (MPa)

30 [10] K. L. Gunsallus, F. H. Kulhawy, A comparative evalua-

20
10
0 [11]
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 chanical characterisation of cataclastic rocks: experi-
Is50 (MPa)
Figure 8. Power function between point loading and uniaxial
compressive strength for conglomerates and breccias.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is the
main test in order to determine the strength of in-
tact rock materials; however it requires well-
prepared rock cores. Hence, indirect tests are of-
ten used to predict the UCS, such as point load
index. This article assesses the relation between
point load index and UCS. Thus linear and also
power equation are presented, primarily for car-
bonate sedimentary rocks and then for conglom-
erates and breccias.
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[26] K. E. N. Tsidzi, Point load-uniaxial compressive
strength correlation, Proc. 7th ISRM Congress, Aachen,
Germany, vol. 1, (1991), 637–639.
[27] L. E. Vallejo, R. A. Welsh, M. K. Robinson, Correla-
tion between unconfined compressive and point load
strength for Appalachian rocks, Proc. 30th US Symp.
Rock Mech., Morgantown, (1989), 461–468.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 127
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-127

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 133
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-133

Compression index Cc and recompression

index Cr of Zagreb area clays
Indice de compression, Cc, et indice de recompression, Cr, des
argiles de Zagreb
I. Bradvica 1, G. ‡@ˆ
Institut IGH Zagreb, Croatia

ABSTRACT
The compressibility properties of Zagreb-area clays are evaluated based on oedometer consolidation test results for 177 undis-
turbed samples tested in the period between 2002 and 2007. The compression Cc and recompression Cr indexes are statistically
correlated (linear regression) with the corresponding classification index properties. Each of these indexes is correlated with the
liquid limit, natural moisture content, plastic limit, void ratio, and their combinations. Derived correlations are compared with
similar correlations for clay found in other countries.

RÉSUMÉ
La compressibilité des argiles de Zagreb a été analysée sur la base de 177 essais oedométriques effectués sur les échantillons in-
tacts de sol dans la période entre 2002 et 2007. La corrélation statistique entre l'indice de compression, Cc, et l'indice de relaxa-
tion ou recompression, Cr, a été établie par régression linéaire en utilisant les paramètres de classification appropriés tels que la
limite de liquidité, la limite de plasticité, la teneur en eau naturelle, l'indice des vides, et leur combinaisons. Les corrélations ob-
tenues ont été comparées avec les corrélations similaires utilisées pour argiles dans d'autres pays.

Key words: compression index, recompression index, soil index parameters, linear regression.

1 INTRODUCTION sion index Cr, with classification parameters, ref-

After the Institut IGH's Geotechnical Laboratory
was accredited by the HAA (Croatian Accredita-
tion Agency) in 2002, the classification and oe-
dometric tests were conducted, in accordance
with British and American standards (BS and
ASTM) on the first 177 samples of Zagreb-area
clays, taken down to 50m in depth, for various
builders and clients. Based on these tests, the
correlation was made between oedometric indi-
cators of compressive index Cc and recompres-
erence [1].
2 PURPOSE OF STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
This paper does not consider parameters influen-
cing Cc and Cr, such as the type and amount of
clay minerals and physical properties of soil
(density, load history, joints, etc.), i.e. it concen-
trates only on the correlation by linear regres-
sion, based on some of the selected classification

1
Corresponding Author.
134 I. Bradvica and G. Mitrović / Compression Index Cc and Recompression Index Cr

tests, which point to the effectively observed Cr H  

natural state of clay. The index Cc provides elas- H  log  (1)
toplastic deformations, while the index Cr gives 1  e0 
elastic deformations that are nonlinear in reality,
due to recompression or additional loading to the The second analysis is the expression for H
preconsolidation level. However, by presentation where the total stress value is greater than the
on the logarithmic scale, they can be shown in preconsolidation stress p.
the linear relationship. For those that will be us-
ing these data in the settlement analysis, a brief
Cr H p Cc H  
reminder of abbreviations used is given below: H  log  log 
1  e0  1  e0 p
’ - geological effective vertical stress,
 - increase of vertical stress due to external Preliminary empirical statistical relationships
load, are used for calculation of consolidation, accord-
p - preconsolidation stress, ing to the above expressions for H in design,
e0 - void ratio, based on rapid classification tests. To establish
w0 - natural moisture content, correspondence of results, the Zagreb-area clay
wl - liquid limit, studies were compared with the published Amer-
wp - plastic limit, ican studies primarily relating to clays from Chi-
Cc - compressibility index cago and Texas.
Cr - index of recompression
Cs - swelling or rebound index
3 PRESENTATION OF Cc AND Cr
Although the swelling or rebound index Cs,
differs from the recompression index Cr, the
A part of the oedometer test report for one of the
presentation of the oedometric loop of unloading
analyzed Zagreb clay samples is shown in Figure
and recompression is taken, for purposes of en-
1.
gineering simplification, as the loop axis of these
two parameters and Cr is used in this study.
The stress applied on the normally consolidat-
ed clay sample is equal to or greater than the pre-
consolidation stress ( > p), while stress exerted
on a preconsolidated sample is smaller than the
preconsolidation stress ( p < ). Practically all
samples subjected to this analysis were preconso-
lidated. The consolidation value H, as deter-
mined through oedometric testing of clay sam-
ples representing a layer of H thickness, will be
dependent on the value of additional stress,  ,
and on preconsolidation stress that depended on
previous stress, p. Two distinct analyses can be Figure 1. Shape of Cc and Cr indexes for a Zagreb clay sam-
ple
differentiated. The first analysis is the expression
for H, where the total stress value (geological
The relationships established between the se-
effective stress + additional vertical stress) is
lected classification tests and compression index,
smaller than or equal to the preconsolidation
Cc, and recompression index, Cr, are shown in
stress, p. the following tables.
 I. Bradvica and G. Mitrović / Compression Index Cc and Recompression Index Cr 135

Table 1. Correlations established for Cc – compression index Table 3. Previously published equivalences for Cc - compres-
for Zagreb-area clays sion index

Table 2. Correlations established for Cr – recompression in-

dex for Zagreb-area clays

The testing of Zagreb-area clays, with establish-

ment of relations for the compression index Cc,
and recompression index Cr, has revealed a rela-
tively wide dispersion of measured values when
compared to values obtained by calculation.
However, for those measured Cc and Cr values
that are lower than the calculated values, we are
on the side of safety, with regard to greater de-
formations or settlements, which is why it is
more significant to concentrate on measured val-
3.1 Correlation between the compression and ues that are greater than the calculated ones.
recompression indexes according to void Seven of Zagreb clay samples with maximum
ratio deviation of measured values with respect to cal-
culated ones (Table 4.), were selected and ana-
lyzed through equivalences established in this
study.

Table 4. Samples with extreme deviations

Figure 2. Correlation between the compression index and re-

compression index, logarithmic presentation
136 I. Bradvica and G. Mitrović / Compression Index Cc and Recompression Index Cr

Table 5. Comparison of calculated and measured Cc values
correlations established for other clays, as can be
seen from comparison with previously published
correlations with other coefficients of selected
variables. The authors recommend the use of
equivalencies defined for Zagreb clays for pre-
liminary design purposes, but with precautions as
indicated above. Final correlations are:

The newly established correlations for Zagreb
clay (equivalence No. 2 for Cc and equivalences
No. 12 for Cr) have revealed the smallest devia-
tions between the calculated values and meas-
ured values. Only one out of the total of 177 tests
exceeded the calculated value by more than two
times. Other correlations established in this study
are similar to previously established relation-
ships, references [2] and [3].
Table 6. Comparison of typical values of compression index-
es Cc
Cc = 0.0091 wo - 0.032
Cr = 0.0005 (wle0) + 0.0171
Cr = 0.117 Cc + 0.0101
The correlations established for other clays show
greater dispersion of measured values when
compared to the above correlations.
REFERENCES
[1] E. Nonveiller,: 0HKDQLND WOD L WHPHOMHQMH JUDÿHYLQD
Školska knjiga, Zagreb 1979.
[2] R.D. Holtz, W.D. Kovacs, An Introduction to Geotech-
nical Engineering, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey, 1981.
[3] S. Javed, Prediction of Compression and Recompres-
sion Indices of Texas Overconsolidated Clays, Proceed-
ings of Texas ASCE Spring Meeting, 2005.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The study of Zagreb-area clays, and establish-

ment of relations for compression index, Cc, and
recompression index, Cr, has revealed a relative-
ly great dispersion of measured values when
compared to values obtained by calculation. For
measured Cc and Cr values, that are lower than
calculated values, we are on the side of safety
with regard to greater deformations or settle-
ments, which is why it is more significant to
concentrate on measured values that are greater
than the calculated ones. Measured values com-
pared to calculated ones, with extreme devia-
tions, are given in Table 5. Correlations estab-
lished in this paper point to similarities with
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 137
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-137

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 155
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-155

Un nouvel essai d’émiettage pour mieux

caractériser l’effet de l’eau sur les sols
An “Enhanced Crumb Test” for better characterizing water
effects on soils
C. Chevalier1, I. Haghighi, T. Martin & P. Reiffsteck
Université Paris-Est, IFSTTAR, département GER, Paris, France

ABSTRACT
Recent catastrophes occurred in France clearly show the great vulnerability of embankments and dikes to internal erosion or
overtopping. Repeatable tests, examining the effects of water on soil microstructure through small-scale specimens, are essential
to study rapidly and efficiently a large panel of configurations (soil textures and eroding fluid chemistry). The “Crumb Test” as
ASTM standard is a simple, quick and convenient test that can be used both in the laboratory and on field. It is an easily practi-
cable test but with limited capacity because of interpretations based on visual observations.
We propose here to modify the equipment and improve the test protocol by the development of an “Enhanced Crumb Test”. Aim
obtain quantitative results, a new test method is thus developed based on temporal evolution of soil specimen geometry. As an ap
tion, we report in this study the tests of 2 remoulded soil textures in a wide range of water content.

RÉSUMÉ
De récentes catastrophes survenues en France montrent la grande vulnérabilité des remblais et digues face à l’érosion interne et à
la surverse. Dans le but de diagnostiquer efficacement la sensibilité des sols aux processus érosifs, des essais répétables sur de
petits échantillons sont indispensables pour étudier un grand nombre de configurations (texture de sols et nature de fluides). Le
« Crumb Test » ou essai d’émiettage tel que normalisé par l’ASTM, est un essai simple et rapide qui peut être utilisé à la fois en
laboratoire et sur le terrain. Il est facilement réalisable mais avec une capacité limitée en raison d’interprétations basées sur des
observations visuelles.
Nous proposons ici de modifier l’appareillage et d'améliorer le protocole d'essai par le développement d'un « essai d’émiettage
amélioré ». Ce dernier est basé sur le suivi de l'évolution temporelle de la géométrie d’un échantillon centimétrique de sol plongé
dans un grand volume d’eau afin d’obtenir des résultats quantitatifs. En guise d’application, nous présentons une campagne
d’essais menée sur 2 textures différentes de sols reconstitués dans une large gamme de teneur en eau.

Keywords: Crumb test, test procedure, dispersion, parametric study, clayey soil
Mots clés : “Crumb Test”, essai d’émiettage, protocole d’essai, dispersion, étude paramétrique, sols argileux

1 INTRODUCTION terne et à la surverse. La susceptibilité de ces ou-

Les catastrophes récentes survenues en France
(Aude, Novembre 1999 ; Gard, Septembre 2002 ;
Vendée, Février 2010) montrent la grande vulné-
rabilité des remblais et digues face à l’érosion in-
vrages en terre à l’érosion hydrique est
extrêmement dépendante de la texture du sol (en
particulier, la présence de particules fines argi-
leuses) et de la sensibilité à la dispersion liée aux
caractéristiques physico-chimiques de l’eau envi-

1
Corresponding Author.
156 C. Chevalier et al. / Un nouvel essai d’émiettage pour mieux caractériser l’effet de l’eau
ronnante (par exemple eau salée). Elle est donc
très difficile à prévoir.
Dans le but de diagnostiquer efficacement la
sensibilité des sols aux processus érosifs, il est
essentiel d’étudier les effets de l’eau sur la mi-
crostructure des sols au moyen d’essais simples,
rapides et répétables sur des échantillons de pe-
tite taille. Le « Crumb Test » préconisé par
l’ASTM [1] fournit une indication qualitative sur
la sensibilité à la dispersion des sols argileux.
Afin de quantifier les résultats, une nouvelle mé-
thode est développée permettant le suivi tempo-
rel de la géométrie d’un échantillon de sol.
On propose de placer un échantillon centimé-
trique et cylindrique de sol non-saturé et com-
pacté dans un grand volume d’eau distillée sans
aucun effort mécanique externe et d’enregistrer
des images de celui-ci au cours du temps. Le pro-
fil vertical de l’échantillon est ensuite extrait en
filtrant les images acquises et des paramètres
quantitatifs en sont déduits.
A l’aide de ce protocole, plusieurs textures de
sol reconstituées sont étudiées. Les phénomènes
d’hydratation et de dispersion d’un sol non-
saturé sont observés comme deux phases consé-
cutives de gonflement puis d’affaissement de
l’échantillon.
2 DESCRIPTION DU “CRUMB TEST”
Dans la littérature, de nombreux auteurs ont étu-
dié le problème de la sensibilité à la dispersion
par des essais en laboratoire dans le but
d’expliquer et de caractériser le phénomène [2-
4]. Pour l’identification des sols dispersifs, diffé-
rents essais ont été normalisés par l’ASTM : le
« Pinhole test » (essai à l’aiguille) [5], le « Dou-
ble hydrometer test » (essais sédimentométriques
en parallèle) [6] ainsi que le « Crumb test » (es-
sai d’émiettage) [1].
Le « Crumb test » consiste à immerger un
cube de sol naturel ou remanié de petite taille (15
mm de côté, compacté à la main) dans un volume
d’eau distillée beaucoup plus important (250 ml).
L’échantillon est posé sur le fond d’un récipient
cylindrique, à côté du bord. La tendance des par-
ticules du sol à se disperser en suspension colloï-
dale est estimée par l’observation du nuage for-
mé à 2 minutes, 1 heure et 6 heures. Selon le
degré de turbidité du nuage, le sol est classé dans
un des quatre niveaux de dispersion suivants (Fi-
gure 1) :
x Niveau 1 – Non dispersif : il ne se produit
pas de réaction entre le sol et l’eau ;
x Niveau 2 – Intermédiaire : il se produit une
réaction légère avec la formation d’une
suspension colloïdale de faible turbidité ;
x Niveau 3 – Dispersif : il se produit une ré-
action modérée ;
x Niveau 4 – Très dispersif : il se produit une
réaction forte.
Figure 1. Essais typiques de « Crumb test », a) niveau 1 : non
dispersif, b) niveau 2 : intermédiaire, c) niveau 3 : dispersif,
d) niveau 4 : très dispersif [1].
3 ELABORATION DU NOUVEAU
PROTOCOLE D’ESSAI
Le « Crumb Test » est un essai très simple et fa-
cile d’utilisation. Il donne une bonne et rapide
indication sur la sensibilité à la dispersion de
l’argile. L’essai n’est pas coûteux, il ne nécessite
pas d’appareil complexe et il peut être utilisé
dans n’importe quel laboratoire ainsi que sur site.
Cependant comme l’essai se base sur
l’observation, l’indication donnée est qualitative.
Les résultats dépendent en effet de la couleur de
l’argile, de la lumière dans le laboratoire… mais
aussi de l’opérateur.
L’essai ici développé utilise deux caméras qui
permettent de suivre l’évolution temporelle de la
géométrie d’un échantillon cylindrique.
L’échantillon est placé dans un récipient en plas-
tique transparent rempli d’eau distillée. Le fond
 C. Chevalier et al. / Un nouvel essai d’émiettage pour mieux caractériser l’effet de l’eau
et la face arrière du récipient sont recouverts
avec des plaques de couleur noire. Une première
caméra est placée face à l’échantillon, enregis-
trant l’évolution du profil ; une seconde est pla-
cée à la verticale afin de vérifier que la symétrie
de l’échantillon est conservée au cours de
l’expérience (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Dispositif d’essai.
3.1 Premières observations
Pour la plupart des échantillons testés, plusieurs
phases se succèdent lors de l’essai (Figure 3).
Tout d’abord, une phase d’hydratation de
l’échantillon remarquable par son « gonflement »
se produit, alors que la forme géométrique glo-
bale reste inchangée.
Figure 3. Vue de profil pour un essai après 0, 10, 30 et 90
minutes.
Il y a ensuite de premiers décollements : des
particules de sols, rassemblées en fines pellicu-
les, tombent de la paroi latérale de l’échantillon
et commencent à former un petit tas au pied de
l’échantillon, qui conserve toujours sa forme.
Une chute d’amas de sol plus conséquents
provenant de la partie supérieure de l’échantillon
se produit ensuite, on parlera alors
157
d’« affaissement » dans la mesure où la hauteur
de l’échantillon diminue. La partie supérieure
s’aiguise et la pente des dépôts constituant le tas
au pied de l’échantillon devient plus régulière.
Enfin, sur la plupart des échantillons, au bout
d’un temps « long » (de quelques minutes à plu-
sieurs heures), une structure finale en forme de
cône est atteinte.
3.2 Traitement numérique des images
Tous les essais sont réalisés avec la même confi-
guration (distance de la caméra à l’échantillon,
temps d’exposition, luminosité, balance de cou-
leurs et fréquence d’acquisition des images…).
Un traitement numérique permet d’extraire le
profil de l’échantillon à partir de chaque image
(Figure 4).
Figure 4. Filtrage pour la détection du profil d’un échantillon.
Par la suite, il est possible d’étudier plusieurs
paramètres comme présentés sur la Figure 4 :
x la hauteur de l’échantillon (h), moyenne de
la hauteur sur deux millimètres au centre,
x le temps de gonflement et le temps de sta-
bilisation de la géométrie,
x les rayons gauche (Rg) et droite (Rd),
moyennes des distances entre chaque point
et la ligne centrale de la première image,
x la pente des dépôts (µg et µd) obtenue à
l’aide d’une régression linéaire pour la par-
tie des dépôts.
La répétabilité et les observations menées sur
différents essais permettent de valider le disposi-
tif et le protocole d’essai. Nous les mettons donc
en œuvre, par la suite, dans une étude paramétri-
que portant sur l’influence de la teneur en eau.
158 C. Chevalier et al. / Un nouvel essai d’émiettage pour mieux caractériser l’effet de l’eau

4 ETUDE PARAMETRIQUE 20

K100 K50S50

densité (kN/m )
18

3
4.1 Préparation des échantillons 16

Les échantillons de sol sont toujours reconstitués 14

selon la même procédure : (1) faire sécher les
composants sableux et argileux durant 24h à 12
8% 12% 16% 20% 24% 28% 32% 36%
l’étuve à 55°C, (2) verser l’ensemble dans un teneur en eau
malaxeur et ajouter l’eau sur la surface du sol au Figure 6. Evolution de la densité sèche des échantillons en
fur et à mesure, (3) mélanger manuellement pour fonction de la teneur en eau.
éviter perte d’eau et poussières, puis malaxer à la
machine pendant 15min, (4) laisser maturer la La campagne d’essais a été réalisée pour 5 te-
texture durant 48h dans un double sac plastique à neurs en eau de w = 9 à 19% pour la première
la température ambiante. texture et pour 4 teneurs en eau de w = 19 à 36%
Les échantillons sont des cylindres compactés pour la seconde. Il s’agit de plages de teneurs en
dans un moule de 15mm de diamètre et de 20mm eau situées au voisinage du maximum de la den-
de hauteur. Un certain aléa dans la préparation sité sèche observée pour les échantillons cylin-
des échantillons concerne l’énergie de compac- driques statiquement compactés (Figure 6).
tage. Seul l’expérimentateur peut déterminer à
quel point les échantillons qu’il compacte ma-
5 ANALYSE DES RESULTATS :
nuellement le sont avec la même intensité. On
INFLUENCE DU POURCENTAGE
choisit donc une énergie de compaction maxi-
D’ARGILE ET DE LA TENEUR EN EAU
male, et les pesées montrent que pour une teneur
en eau donnée, les échantillons compactés ma-
nuellement ont environ le même poids pour un 5.1 Evolution temporelle de la hauteur
volume identique (un écart type normalisé de
1,7% sur 10 échantillons est observé). Comme précédemment expliqué (section 3.1.),
l’hydratation de l’échantillon commence dès son
4.2 Matériaux testés insertion dans l’eau. Elle se traduit par une aug-
mentation du volume de l’échantillon. Cette
On choisit de faire varier la teneur en eau des phase est suivie par l’affaissement de
échantillons de deux textures sèches (granulomé- l’échantillon : chute d’amas de sol (d’où une di-
tries) différentes : l’une constituée de 50% minution brutale de sa hauteur), étalement hori-
d’argile kaolinite Armoricaine et de 50% de sa- zontal et formation de dépôt autour de
ble de Fontainebleau (K50S50) et l’autre de l’échantillon. Les essais effectués sur chacune
100% d’argile kaolinite (K100) (Figure 5). des textures et pour les différentes teneurs en eau
montrent une bonne répétabilité.
Lors de la phase de gonflement, on suppose
100
que la pénétration de l’eau en surface de
pourcentage passant (%)

80 l’échantillon se fait suffisamment lentement pour

60 K50S50 permettre un gonflement surfacique et donc on
40
K100
s’intéresse à la variation des paramètres géomé-
20
triques.
La variation de hauteur (eh : hauteur à un ins-
0
1 10 100 1000
tant donné diminuée de la hauteur initiale) en
Taille (μm)
fonction de la teneur en eau pendant la phase de
Figure 5. Granulométrie des sols utilisés.
gonflement est représentée sur les Figures 7 et 8.
On observe que la vitesse de gonflement est plus
faible pour des échantillons à teneur en eau éle-
 C. Chevalier et al. / Un nouvel essai d’émiettage pour mieux caractériser l’effet de l’eau 159

vée, car l’augmentation de la teneur en eau vo-
lumique initiale du sol provoque, au cours d’une
infiltration, une diminution de la vitesse
d’infiltration d’eau dans le sol. On constate la
même tendance dans l’affaissement des échantil-
lons (matérialisée par la chute de hauteur) : les
échantillons qui contiennent initialement plus
d’eau s’effondrent plus vite à l’exception de
K100 à 36% de teneur en eau (Figure 8) qui
s’hydrate très faiblement. Notons que certains de
ces échantillons peuvent ne pas entrer dans la
phase d’affaissement et rester inchangés pendant
plusieurs jours.
Enfin, le gonflement des échantillons conte-
nant 50% d’argile est plus faible mais légèrement
plus rapide par rapport aux échantillons pure-
ment argileux. Cela est vraisemblablement dû à
la perméabilité des échantillons : plus le sol con-
tient d’argile, moins il est perméable et plus l’eau
paramètre eh en racine du temps. Cette considé-
ration semble être fondée dans les différents cas
étudiés. Ceci est en accord avec l’équation de
Richards selon laquelle le profil d’infiltration suit
une loi d’évolution en racine du temps [7,8].
5.2 Grandeurs caractéristiques de l’essai
La Figure 9 illustre le changement maximum de
hauteur des échantillons pour tous les essais ré-
alisés. On constate qu’indépendamment de la
densité de l’échantillon, plus la teneur en eau est
élevée, moins l’échantillon gonfle. Ce constat est
beaucoup plus significatif pour les échantillons
purement argileux. Au-delà des teneurs en eau
étudiées le sol devient plastique et non testable.
3 8
6
hg (mm)

2
met donc de temps pour s’y infiltrer. 4
1
2
4
0 0
19%
3 18% 9% 11% 13% 15% 17% 19% 18% 22% 26% 30% 34%
15% teneur en eau teneur en eau
h (mm)

13%
2 Figure 9. Gonflement maximum des échantillons : textures
9%
K50S50 (à gauche) et K100 (à droite).
1
60 90
0
temps (min)

0 10 20 30 45
temps (min)
60
30
Figure 7. Changement de hauteur des échantillons de la tex-
30
ture K50S50. 15

4 0 0
36% 9% 11% 13% 15% 17% 19% 18% 22% 26% 30% 34%
3 teneur en eau teneur en eau
36%
h (mm)

30% Figure 10. Temps de stabilisation de la géométrie : textures

2 25%
K50S50 (à gauche) et K100 (à droite).
19%
1
Le temps de stabilisation de la géométrie
0
0 10 20 30
(après effondrement) est présenté Figure 10. On
temps (min) peut conclure qu’une élévation de teneur en eau
Figure 8. Changement de hauteur des échantillons de la tex- précipite la ruine de l’échantillon. Les échantil-
ture K100. lons s’écroulent plus rapidement et la géométrie
des échantillons se stabilise ainsi plus vite.
Si des échelles logarithmiques sont employées La Figure 11 représente le diamètre final
(non représentées ici), il peut être observé que la (Rg+Rd) des échantillons. Ceux-ci s’étalent beau-
première partie des courbes de ce faisceau est re- coup moins pour les teneurs en eau plus élevées
lativement rectiligne. Une droite de pente 1/2 et cela indépendamment de la compacité du sol.
peut être tracée et permet de vérifier visuelle-
ment que la pente moyenne des portions rectili-
gnes des courbes correspond à une évolution du
160 C. Chevalier et al. / Un nouvel essai d’émiettage pour mieux caractériser l’effet de l’eau

14 24 sol et sa texture. De plus, la cinétique

d’hydratation observée semble en accord avec les
Df (mm)

12 16
modèles d’infiltration communément utilisés.
10 8 La bonne répétabilité des résultats d’un coté et
la bonne discernabilité entre configurations diffé-
8 0 rentes de l’autre sont des atouts de ce nouvel es-
9% 11% 13% 15% 17% 19% 18% 22% 26% 30% 34%
teneur en eau teneur en eau sai. L’essai permet donc de sonder de manière
Figure 11. Diamètre final des échantillons : textures K50S50 intéressante les propriétés du sol.
(à gauche) et K100 (à droite). Le nouveau dispositif et le protocole dévelop-
pé dans le présent article permettent, par ailleurs,
50 50

45
d’étudier un grand nombre de configurations
45
rencontrées en pratique. Il est en effet très facile
final (°)

40 40

35 35
30 30
25 25
9% 11% 13% 15% 17% 19% 18%
teneur en eau
Figure 12. Angle d’inclinaison final des dépôts : textures
K50S50 (à gauche) et K100 (à droite).
Concernant les angles d’inclinaison des dé-
pôts, on remarque visuellement qu’ils convergent
très vite (dès les premiers détachements) vers
leurs valeurs finales. Ces dernières sont plus ou
moins les mêmes pour tous les échantillons quel-
que soit la texture et la teneur en eau (Figure 12).
On distingue cependant une nouvelle fois un
écart notable pour la texture K100 à une teneur
en eau de 36%.
Etant donnée la diminution du diamètre final
des échantillons aux teneurs en eau plus élevées
et l’indépendance de l’angle d’inclinaison des
dépôts, on constate que le volume final des
échantillons suit la même tendance que leur hau-
teur maximale de gonflement. Ainsi, plus la te-
neur en eau est faible et/ou plus le pourcentage
d’argile est élevé, plus le volume final sera
grand.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Dans le but d’améliorer le « Crumb Test », un
nouvel essai d’émiettage a été développé. Grâce
a cet essai, il est ainsi possible de suivre la dy-
namique de gonflement d’un sol non-saturé en
délimitant notamment plus précisément une
phase d’hydratation et une phase d’affaissement.
Une étude paramétrique a montré que la durée
de ces deux phases dépend de la teneur en eau de
de faire varier la nature et les propriétés des sols
comme illustré ici mais il est également possible
d’étudier l’influence des caractéristiques physi-
22% 26% 30% 34% co-chimiques de l’eau environnante.
teneur en eau
D’autres études sont envisagées sur différen-
tes tailles d’échantillon ainsi que différents types
d’argiles pour élargir et compléter les résultats.
REFERENCES
[1] ASTM (2005) Standard test methods for determining
dispersive characteristics of clayed soils by the crumb
test, Annual book of ASTM standards, Vol. 04.09,
D6572-00.
[2] Holmgren, G.G.S. and Flanagan, C.P. (1976) Factors
affecting spontaneous dispersion of soil materials as
evidenced by the Crumb test, ASTM proceedings on
symposium on dispersive clays, Chicago, pp. 218-239.
[3] Perry E. B. (1979) Susceptibility of dispersive clay at
Grenada dam, Mississippi, to piping and rainfall ero-
sion, Tech Rep. GL-79-14, U.S. Army Engineers, Wa-
terways Experiment station, Vicksburg, 111 pages.
[4] Sherard J. L. et al. (1992) Piping in earth dams of dis-
persive clay, Geotechnical Special Publication, (32),
55-93.
[5] ASTM (2005) Identification and classification of dis-
persive clay soils by the pinhole test, standard test
method, Annual book of ASTM standards, Vol. 04.08,
D4647-93.
[6] ASTM (2005) Standard test method for dispersive
characteristics of clay soil by double hydrometer, stan-
dard test method, Annual book of ASTM standards,
Vol. 04.08, D4221-99.
[7] Richards L.A. (1931) Capillary conduction of liquids in
porous mediums, Physics , pp. 318–333.
[8] Martin T. (2009) Elaboration et analyse d’un nouvel es-
sai experimental pour comprendre l’émiettage des sols,
Rapport de stage de recherche, École polytechnique, 52
pages.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 161
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-161

Influence of fibre inclusion on crack propagation

L'influence d'inclusion de fibre sur la propagation de première
A. Chegenizadeh1, H. Nikraz,
Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia

ABSTRACT
Desiccation cracking has been a major concern for the proper functioning of clay soils. Reinforcement of sand with discrete fi-
bres has been well investigated in the literature. In contrast, clayey soil reinforced with discrete fibres has been less studied. Fi-
bre-reinforcement has been considered in projects involving slope stabilization, embankment construction, subgrade stabiliza-
tion, and stabilization of thin veneers such as landfill covers. Some recent researches have indicated that benefits may be gained
by inclusion of discrete fibres in clay.
Influence of fibre inclusion on soil compaction parameters and crack propagation pattern have been investigated in this paper.
Different type of clay and fibre were used for this investigation. The main parameters such as fibre length and percentage were
changed. (i.e. Fibre length varied from 5mm to 25mm and fibre percentage varied from 0.1 to 1% as dry weight of soil). Sample
size also was changed throughout this study and crack propagation pattern has been well investigated. Image analysis was used
to evaluate crack percentage. The results showed that crack propagation percentage will be reduced with adding fibre. Further-
more, compaction curve for used samples showed that inclusion of fibre caused a slight decrease in maximum dry density and
increased in optimum moisture content (OMC).

RÉSUMÉ
La dessiccation se fendant a été une inquiétude importante pour le fonctionnement nécessaire de sols de glaise. Le renforcement
de sable avec les fibres séparées a été bien enquêté dans la littérature. Au contraire, le sol glaiseux renforcé avec les fibres sé-
parées a été moins étudié. Le renforcement de fibre a été considéré dans les projets impliquant la stabilisation inclinée, la con-
struction de digue, la stabilisation de sous-qualité et la stabilisation de placages fins comme les couvertures d'enfouissement des
déchets. Quelques recherches récentes ont indiqué que les avantages peuvent être gagnés par l'inclusion de fibres séparées dans
la glaise. L'influence d'inclusion de fibre sur le sol compaction les paramètres et le dessin de propagation de première a été en-
quêtée dans ce papier. Le différent type de glaise et de fibre a été utilisé pour cette enquête. Les paramètres principaux comme la
longueur de fibre et le pourcentage ont été changés. (c'est-à-dire. La longueur de fibre variait de 5 millimètres à 25 millimètres et
à pourcentage de fibre varié de 0.1 à 1 % comme le poids sec de sol). La grandeur de promotion a aussi été changée au cours de
cette étude et le dessin de propagation de première a été bien enquêté. L'analyse d'image a été utilisée pour évaluer le pourcen-
tage de première. Les résultats ont montré que le pourcentage de propagation de première sera réduit avec l'ajoutant de la fibre.
En outre, compaction la courbe pour les échantillons utilisés a montré que l'inclusion de fibre a provoqué une augmentation
faible dans la densité sèche maximum et la diminution dans la teneur en humidité optimale (OMC).

Keywords: Crack, Fibre, Compaction

1
Corresponding Author.
162 A. Chegenizadeh and H. Nikraz / Influence of Fibre Inclusion on Crack Propagation

1 INTRODUCTION 2.1 Soil Type

The soil type in this study was kaolin clay. The
In conventional application of reinforcement in
properties of clay are presented in table 1. This
soil, the inclusion of tire, bars, grids etc are usu-
type of kaolin clay is widely used in industrial
ally in a preferred orientation. The advances of
project and research activities in Western Austra-
these materials have usually been considered by
lia.
an increase in their applications. The randomly
discrete fibers are easily added and mixed ran-
domly with soil part, the same way as cement, Table 1. Clay properties
lime or other additives. Some researches have No. Size (cm)
been done on cement additive (Consoli et.al. 1 Soil type Clay
2 Liquid Limit 49
2009; Cai et.al 2006; Lorenzo and Bergado, 3 Plastic Limit 23
2004) and can be used as a pattern of additive 4 Pl. Index 26
usage in soil. Fibre reinforced composite shows
more ductility and small losses of peak strength
i.e. in compared to unreinforced material. There- 2.2 Fiber Type
fore, fiber-reinforced soil composite is a practical
solution in civil engineering projects. The main
application of composite soil can be in embank- The plastic fiber has been used for this investiga-
ment, subgrade, subbase, and slope stability tion. Figure1 shows the used fiber. The used fi-
problems. However, the data concerning the ef- ber has good potential to absorb energy and good
fects of fiber inclusion on the characteristics of adhesion with soil particle.
compacted native or virgin soils are limited,
(Maher and Ho, 1993). This shortage is more
considerable in pavement engineering and land-
fill systems in terms of crack control. Limited at-
tempts have been made to control clay cracking
by fibre reinforcement (Allan and Kukacka,
1995; Al Wahab and El-Kedrah, 1995; Ziegler et
al., 1998). Miller and Rifai (2004) studied the ef-
fects of fibre reinforcement on the development
of desiccation cracking in compacted clay sam-
ples. Therefore, the significance this study is to
evaluate the effect of fibre inclusion on crack
propagation in clayey soil. The application of
controlling crack cause significant improvement
Figure. 1 Plastic fiber
in land fill systems and pavement engineering as
cracking which lead these systems to be failed in
the real civil projects.
3 TEST PROGRAM

Test program in this study includes two parts.

2 MATERIAL
First part is series of cracking test were con-
ducted to investigate the effect of fibre inclusion
Composite soils consist of two parts. The first
on cracking phenomenon. The second part is
part is soil part which can be dealt as normal soil.
compaction test to find out the effect of fibre
The second part is reinforcement part which can
content on compaction characteristics of clayey
be made up of any material which helps soil to
soil.
have better performance.
 A. Chegenizadeh and H. Nikraz / Influence of Fibre Inclusion on Crack Propagation
3.1 Main Equipments
x Metal container for cracking test
x Electrical light for cracking test
x Balance for cracking test
x Rammer for Compaction test
x Mould for Compaction test
Figure 2 shows the metal container which was
used to run the crack test.
Figure 2. Metal Container used for cracking test
4 SAMPLE PREPARATION FOR CRACK
TEST
The soil was passed through a 4mm sieve in or-
der to obtain a consistent mixture once water had
been added. The cured soil would be sealed in a
couple of plastic bags to prevent moisture loss.
When placing soil at 45% moisture content into
containers, they were continuously tapped to sur-
face any trapped air bubbles in the soil. Cling
wrap was used to smoothen the surface of each
sample as well as provide a cover to prevent
moisture loss when allowing the soil to settle
over night. The surface of the sample was a cir-
cle with 50mm and thickness was 10mm.
5 TEST METHODOLOGY AND PROCE-
DURE
Experimental program was included two parts:
first cracking tests and secondly compaction test.
163
5.1 Cracking test
To run the cracking test following steps were
taken:
x Putting soil into container
x Making sure that moisture content is as
what required (i.e. 45%)
x Setting up the height of light faced to sam-
ple precisely on 1m
x Using digital camera to record image of
soil specimen every hour
x Extracting of images to analysis of crack
pattern
x Crack Intensity Factor is considered as ra-
tio of crack area to total surface of sample.
The figure 3 shows the sketch of experimental
set-up which used to run the cracking tests. As
previously mentioned the flood light used to run
cracking test. The soil in metal container is di-
rectly faced to flood light.
Figure 3. Cracking test procedure sketch
5.2 Compaction test
Compaction test also conducted to observe the
effect of fibre inclusion on compaction parame-
ters clayey composite.
The test procedure can be listed as:
164 A. Chegenizadeh and H. Nikraz / Influence of Fibre Inclusion on Crack Propagation

x About 4.5 kg of air-dried soil was put in the A series of cracking tests were conducted and
mixing pan so that it could pass No. 4 following results obtained. Table 2 shows the
sieve. crack density with different fibre content and
x The moisture content was increased by length. Crack density factor was computed based
about 5%. on image processing and obtaining the ratio of
x The weight of empty mould without the crack to total surface area.
base plate and the collar was recorded as
W1 (gr). Table 2. Crack density versus fibre content
x The collar and base plate was fixed and the Fibre Percentage Fibre Crack Intensity Factor
first soil part was compacted with 25 blows length
in proctor mould No fibre 5.28
x Some scratches were put with a spatula 0.1% 5mm 3.4
0.1% 25mm 2.85
forming a grid to ensure uniformity in dis- 1% 5mm 0.37
tribution of compaction energy to the sub- 1% 25mm 0.24
sequent layer. The second and third layer
was placed and 25 blows were applied. Figure 4,5,6,7 and 8 show the images from
x The final layer was placed so that the com- different fibre contents. The results proved that
pacted soil is just above the rim of the with increasing in fibre content and length crack
compaction mould when the collar is still density decreased rapidly.
attached.
x The collar carefully was detached without
disturbing the compacted soil inside the
mould and edge was used to trim the excess
soil levelling to the mould.
x The weight of the mould with the moist soil
W2, (gr) was determined.
x Sample was extruded the sample and
evaluated for water content in some cans
x The rest of the compacted soil was broken Figure 4. The crack propagation without fibre
with hand to pass US Sieve No.4. and
moisture content was increased by 2%.
x Steps repeated again for different moisture
contents.
x Different fibre contents (i.e. 0.1% and 1%)
were used.
x The dry density plotted versus moisture
contents for unreinforced clay and rein-
forced clay
Figure 5. The crack propagation 0.1% fibre with 5mm
length

6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this section the results of cracking tests and

compaction tests are presented.

6.1 Result of cracking test

 A. Chegenizadeh and H. Nikraz / Influence of Fibre Inclusion on Crack Propagation 165

Figure 6. The crack propagation 0.1% fibre with 25mm

length

Figure. 9 Results of compaction test in different fiber con-

tent (at 25mm)

Figure 9 proved increasing in fiber content

will decrease the maximum dry density and in-
creased OMC.

Figure 7. The crack propagation 1% fibre with 5mm length

7 CONCLUSION

A series of cracking on cylindrical clayey soil

with 50 mm diameter and 10 mm thickness, were
conducted and following results obtained:

1- Using fibre caused huge decrease in crack

intensity factor
2- Increasing in fibre length and content di-
rectly decreased the crack
Figure 8. The crack propagation 1% fibre with 25mm length
3- Image processing proved that can be used
as useful tool in further crack analysis
The results from cracking test proved that in-
creasing in fibre content and fibre length de-
Compaction tests were also conducted on
creased the Crack Intensity Factor (CIF). There-
composite clayey soil. This investigation proved
fore, fibre inclusion is good solution to solve the
that:
cracking problem of clayey soil.
4- Maximum dry density showed slight de-
crease due to induction of fiber and with
6.2 Result of compaction test increasing in fibre content maximum dry
Compaction tests were conducted in order to de- density decreased
termine effect of fiber inclusion on compaction
characteristics of reinforced clay. Figure 9 5- Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) in-
showed the compaction curve obtained from the creased with increasing in fiber content.
tests. The presented results in figure 9 are at fiber
length of 25mm.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The technical support from the Curtin University

Laboratory is gratefully acknowledged.
166 A. Chegenizadeh and H. Nikraz / Influence of Fibre Inclusion on Crack Propagation

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science,Vol. 38, No. 1, (1998),pp. 247-253.
[18] Zornberg, J. G., Cabral, A. R. and Viratjandr, C.
[1] Akbulut, S., Arasan, S. and Kalkan, E.,Modification of ,Behavior of tire shred-sand mixtures, Canadian Geo-
clayey soils using scrap tire rubber and synthetic fibers, technical Journal 41 (2), (2004) ,pp. 227–241.
Journal of Applied Clay Science 38(2007), 23-32. [19] Zornberg, J. G. ,discrete framework for limit equilib-
[2] Allan, M. L., Kukacka, L. E. (1995) “Permeability of rium analysis of fiber-reinforcement, Geotechnique
microcracked fibre-reinforced containment barriers.” Journal 52 (8), (2002) , pp. 227–241.
Waste Management, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 171-177. [20] H. Nahlawi and J.K. Kodikara, Laboratory experiments
[3] Al Refeai, T.O. Behaviour of granular soils reinforced on desiccation cracking of thin soil layers Geotechnical
with discrete randomly oriented inclusions, Journal of and Geological Engineering (2006) 24: 1641–1664
Geotextiles and Geomembranes, 10, (1991) pp. 319–
333.
[4] Cai, Y., Shi, B., Charles, W.W. Ng. & Tang, C. ,Effect
of polypropylene fiber and lime admixture on engineer-
ing properties of clayey soil, Engineering Geology 87,
(2006),230– 240.
[5] Consoli, N.C., Vendruscolo, M.A., Fonini, A. and Dalla
Rosa, F. ,Fiber reinforcement effects on sand consider-
ing a wide cementation range, Geotextiles and Ge-
omembranes 27, (2009) , pp. 196–203.
[6] Dvorak, G.K. and Bahei-El-Din, Y.A. ,Plasticity analy-
sis of fibrous composites, Journal of Applied Mechan-
ics 49, (1982) , pp. 327–335.
[7] Freitag, D.R. ,Soil randomly reinforced with fibers,
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering ASCE 112 (8),
(1986) ,pp. 823–826.
[8] Gray, D. and Al-Rafeai, T. O.. ,Behavior of fabric ver-
sus fiber reinforced sand,. Journal of Geo-technical En-
gineering, vol. 112, no. 8, (1986),pp. 804-820.
[9] Gray, D. H. and Ohashi, H.. ,Mechanics of fiber rein-
forcement in sand,. Journal of Geotechnical and Geo-
environmental Engineering, ASCE, vol. 109, no. 3,
(1983) pp. 335-353.
[10] Lorenzo, G. A. and Bergado, D. T. ,Fundamental pa-
rameters of cement-admixed clay – New approach,.
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engi-
neering, Vol. 130, No. 10, (2004). , pp. 1-9.
[11] Kaniraj, S. R. and Havanagi, V. G ,Behavior of cement-
stabilization fiber-reinforced fly ash-soil mixtures.
Journal of Geo-technical and Geo-environmental Engi-
neering, vol. 127, no. 7, .( 2001). ,pp. 574-584.
[12] Maher, M. H., Ho, Y. C., ,Mechanical-properties of
kaolinite fiber soil composite,. J. of Geotech. Engrg,
ASCE, Vol. 120, No. 8, (1994),pp. 1381-1393.
[13] Nataraj, M. S., Mcmanis, K. L., Strength and deforma-
tion properties of soils reinforced with fibrillated fi-
bers., Geosynthetics Int., Vol. 4, No. 1, (1997), pp. 65-
79.
[14] Sivakumar Babu, G.L., Vasudevan, A.K. and Haldar, S.
(2008) Numerical simulation of fiber-reinforced sand
behaviour, Geotexiles and Geomembranes 26, pp. 181–
188.
[15] Waldron, L. J.,Shear resistance of root-permeated ho-
mogeneous and stratified soil., Soil Society. Of Ameri-
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[16] Yetimoglu, T. and Salbas, O.,A study on shear strength
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B., Effect of short polymeric fibers on crack develop-
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 167
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-167

Validation of a methodology for reconstituting

weakly cemented sandstones
Validation d'une méthodologie pour la reconstitution
de grès faiblement cimenté
P. A. L. F. Coelho1, V. D. Marques
Dep. of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, CIEC, Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal
P. S. Andrade
Dep. of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal
P. P. Cunha
Dep. of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, IMAR-CMA, Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal
ABSTRACT
One of the limitations to the study of natural materials is the difficulty to obtain similar samples. The reconstitution of samples is
a process used to solve this problem, its applicability to sandstones being discussed in this work. The reconstitution methods pre-
sented here, using material obtained exclusively by the disaggregation of a natural sandstone, seek to reproduce the geological
phenomenon that led to the formation of the sandstone under study, which integrates the Silves Group. After describing the two
procedures used to reconstitute the samples in the laboratory, the behaviour of natural and reconstituted sandstone specimens is
compared. The results allow the evaluation of the capability to reproduce and characterize in laboratory samples of weakly ce-
mented sandstones and contribute to improve our understanding of this important geological formation as well as others with
similar characteristics.

RESUME
Une des limites à l’ètude des matériaux naturels est la difficulté d’obtenir des échantillons similaires. La reconstitution d
échantillons´est un processus utilisé pour résoudre ce problème, son applicabilité à des grès en cours de discussion dans ce
travail. Les processus de reconstitution présentés ici, en utilisant un matériau obtenu exclusivement par la désagrégation de grès
naturel, cherche à reproduire les processus géologiques qui ont conduit à la formation du grès considéré, qui intègre le Groupe de
Silves. Après avoir décrit les deux méthodes utilisées pour reconstituer les échantillons dans le laboratoire, le comportement
échantillons de grès naturel et reconstitué est comparé. Les résultats permettent l’évaluation de la capacité de se reproduire et de
caractériser des échantillons de grès faiblement cimenté dans le laboratoire et de contribuer à améliorer notre compréhension de
cette importante formation géologique ainsi que d’autres présentant des caractéristiques similaires.

Keywords: sandstone, lightly-cemented, reconstitution, compression, Silves Group, anisotropy..

INTRODUCTION natural state present a marked variability. The

One of the biggest obstacles to assessing the in-
fluence that certain factors have on the behavior
of a number of soils and rocks is the difficulty in
comparing the behavior of materials that in their
use of reconstituted samples is one of the solu-
tions used to overcome this difficulty in soils. To
effectively meet the objectives, reconstituted
samples must exhibit the fundamental properties
of natural material and show uniforme behav-

1
Corresponding Author.
168 P.A.L.F. Coelho et al. / Validation of Methodology for Reconstituting Weakly Cemented Sandstones
iour, which allows parametric studies to be car-
ried out on similar specimens.
The reconstitution of a certain geological ma-
terial usually requires the characterization and
laboratory replication of the geological processes
that occurred in nature, even if the impossibility
of reproducing the effects of geological time
must be recognized. This study evaluates the fea-
sibility of reconstituting a weak rock, namely a
friable sandstone, according to the enounced
principles. The methodology used to reconstitute
and verify the two fundamental requirements for
the samples, namely the uniformity of behavior
and the similarity with the average natural be-
haviour, are described. The study was conducted
in sandstones of the Castelo Viegas formation,
which exists in several places in the district of
Coimbra and in other regions of Portugal.
This study considers two methods for sand-
stone reconstitution. In a first attempt, the mate-
rial obtained by disaggregation of the sandstone
was reconstituted simply by using uniaxial con-
fined compression to simulate the load applied to
the formation in their natural state. On a second
attempt, the material was vibrated and then com-
pressed, in order to include the effects of seismic
events, which certainly occurred at the time of
the formation of the sandstone.
GEOLOGICAL PROCESSES THAT
ORIGINATED THE CASTELO VIEGAS
FORMATION
The Castelo Viegas Formation (Upper Triassic)
is a fluvial formation with an age of about 200
million years that integrates the Silves Group [1]
[2] [3] [4]. The studied sandstone was collected
from the top layer of the Castelo Viegas Forma-
tion. The sampled site is located on the western
slop of the Miguel Bombarda Street, one of the
access routes to the Polo II of the University of
Coimbra. Based on the thickness and unit
weights of the various lithostratigraphic units
resting above the sampled layer in the past, it is
estimated that the studied sandstone was sub-
jected to a lithostatic load corresponding to a to-
tal of 648 m of sediments, with an average unit
weight of 21.57 kN/m3. This formation shows
spatial variability that limits the value of experi-
mental analysis intended to evaluate the influ-
ence of some factors on its behavior, from a Civil
Engineering perspective.
The sampled sandstone layer shows a pale
pink shad due to the presence of iron oxides
(hematite and goethite) and presents a clastic tex-
ture with medium sand grains. The stratification
surfaces appear well defined and the layer thick-
ness is about 0.5 to 0.6 m. The sandstone sam-
ples taken from this formation are easily disag-
gregated by hand and are very sensitive to the
presence of water as well as to vibration, which
is related to the fact that their cementation is
weak, possibly of clayey nature. The formation
exhibits, in its natural state, high resistance and
freestanding capacity, as can be seen in the verti-
cal excavations that can be made. The grains of
the studied sandstone are mainly constituted by
quartz, k-feldspar, plagioclase and micas. The
silt-clay matrix is mostly composed of clay min-
erals, iron and manganese oxides and, more
rarely, by carbonates.
RECONSTITUTION METHODS IN
LABORATORY
In an initial phase, common to both methods, the
sandstone samples were collected with the neces-
sary care to avoid significant disturbance to the
natural material and to obtain samples represent-
ing the true behavior in situ. Parts of these sam-
ples were placed in a container with water for
approximately 24 hours to allow smooth disag-
gregation of the matyerial without applying me-
chanical actions that could break the grains.
The compression of the material was executed
on a Servo Hydraulic Universal Testing Ma-
chine, within a rigid metal mold built for that
purpose (Figure 1).
 P.A.L.F. Coelho et al. / Validation of Methodology for Reconstituting Weakly Cemented Sandstones
a) b)
Figure 1. (a) Servo Hydraulic Universal Testing Machine
and (b) rigid metal mold used to compress the sample.
Method 1: reconstitution by uniaxial confined
compression
For this first method, the homogeneous mixture
of water and disaggregated material was com-
pressed in a 0.15 m diameter and 0.30 m high cy-
lindrical mold . Geotextile and a paper filter were
placed at the top and bottom of the specimen, to
ensure drainage during the loading process,
without the loss of fine material. An acetate film
was placed between the mold and the mixture to
facilitate the removal of the reconstituted sample.
Given the unit weight and thickness of the rock
units in situ, the specimens were subjected to a
vertical stress of about 7500 kPa, which reflects
the estimated level of vertical effective stress
corresponding to the location from where the
natural samples were collected. The sample was
compressed for a 5 day period, registering the
deformations over time to guarantee that after
this period the deformations had stopped. This
results from the fact that previous tests carried
out with only 5 hours of compression suggested
that a longer loading period was required. In this
case, it was possible to observe that deformations
had practically stopped after 2 days of compres-
sion.
After the compression process, the samples
were dried, in the mold, at 40° for 6 days. Then,
they were removed from the mold, and dried for
4 more days to ensure complete drying. Once the
reconstituted samples cooled down, smaller par-
allelepipedic specimens were cut in the vertical
and horizontal directions. After measured and
weighted, the samples were tested to failure in
unconfined compression. Grain-size analyses, for
169
comparison, were made with the leftover mate-
rial of the cutting process.
Method 2: reconstitution by compression
following densification by vibration
In this case, the disaggregated material was
placed in the mold, as described before, and then
vibrated for several minutes using a vibration
needle. The material was uniformly vibrated by
making upward circular motions, to obtain an
homogeneous densification. After vibration, the
material was placed on the Universal Testing
Machine and loaded to the estimated 7500 kPa
for 2 days. After this time period of compression,
the material was subjected to the same process of
cooling performed in Method 1. Once again,
smaller specimens were cut, measured, weighted
and tested in unconfined compression.
COMPARISON OF NATURAL AND
RECONSTITUTED SAMPLES
To ensure that it is possible to reproduce a sand-
stone in laboratory with the same natural charac-
teristics, and that the variability exhibited by the
natural samples was eliminated, it is essential to
validate the reconstitution processes. To do this,
it is necessary to compare the reconstituted sam-
ples with the natural material. This validation can
be made at a more elementary level, namely by
comparing the appearance and physical features
of both, as well as their behavior in the presence
of water or, at a more advanced level, using un-
confined compression tests to identify differ-
ences in mechanical behavior [5].
Visual, texture and unit weight comparison
The samples resulting from both of the tested
methods show some differences relatively to the
natural samples. While in the natural samples it
is possible to observe and distinguish the con-
stituent grains, the reconstituted samples show a
more even tone, being almost impossible to iden-
tify single grains. The first method produces re-
constituted samples with a less granular appear-
ance as the fines are more distributed in the
mass. The average unit weight of reconstituted
170 P.A.L.F. Coelho et al. / Validation of Methodology for Reconstituting Weakly Cemented Sandstones
specimens is 16.51 kN/m3 whereas in natural
samples it is about 19.30kN/m3, which suggests
that the reconstitution did not produce samples as
similar to the natural material as desired [5].
Method 2 produced reconstituted samples with a
more breakable appearance, apparently more po-
rous due to segregation of fines during vibration
and with an average unit weight of 16.52 kN/m3.
Grain-size distribution curves
No significant effects of disaggregation and re-
constitution processes were expected on the
grain-size curves and, existing, should be due to
the process of compression and not to the vibra-
tion. Figure 2 shows two grain-size distribution
curves of the natural sandstone and one of the
samples reconstituted by method 1.
It is possible to verify that the curve of the re-
constituted samples is almost an average of the
curves relating to the natural samples, showing
only a very slight increase in the fine content.

Simple compression tests
After cutting the natural sample in the horizontal
(Nat-H) and vertical (Nat-V) directions, they
were tested in unconfined compression with
measurement of applied stress and axial defor-
mations until failure. To validate the reconstitu-
tion methods, the test results were compared for
each direction to those obtained when testing the
reconstituted samples loaded for 5 days in
method 1 (Rec5d-H and Rec5d-V) and with den-
sification by vibration used in method 2 (Rec-
Vib- H and RecVib -V) [5].
The stress-strain responses observed clearly
show that whether in the vertical (Figure 3) or in
the horizontal direction (Figure 4), the natural
samples show, on average, much higher com-
pressive strength than the reconstituted ones. The
conclusions derived from Method 2 are relatively
limited since, due to the fragility of the samples,
it was not possible to obtain more than 6 speci-
mens for testing. Another difference that can be
observed is the uniformity of the values of stress
failure in the case of reconstituted samples, both
in horizontal and vertical directions. This shows

that one of the objectives sought with the recon-


 

 

  !" stitution of the samples, namely the elimination

of the great variability of behaviour presented by
the natural samples, was actually achieved.




 
 

 12000
Figure 2. Grain-size distribution curves of one reconstituted Vertical Samples
10000 Natural
and two natural samples.
8000 Sample
^a (kPa)

6000 Rec5d-V

4000
RecVib-V
Behavior in the presence of water 2000
0
It was experimentally observed that sandstone
0 0,5 1 1,5 2
samples disaggregate relatively easily when im- ¶a (%)
mersed in water. In the case of the intact sample, Figure 3. Stress-strain curves of specimens cut in the vertical
it took several hours before major disaggregation direction
occurred and, at the end of this period, it still
showed some clusters that appeared intact. How-
ever, these were easily disaggregated by weak
hand pressure [5]. All the reconstituted speci-
mens, when submersed in water, underwent
complete disaggregation with no noticeable clus-
ters in only a few minutes.
 P.A.L.F. Coelho et al. / Validation of Methodology for Reconstituting Weakly Cemented Sandstones 171

12000 failure (Figure 7), we can once again confirm the

Horizontal Samples
10000 Natural grater variability affecting the values measured
8000 Sample in the natural samples and in the samples recon-
^a (kPa)

6000 Rec5d-H stituted by Method 2.

4000
RecVib-H
2000 #
0 Natural

^v failure (kPa)
0 0,5 1 1,5 2  Sample
¶a (%)
Figure 4. Stress-strain curves of specimens cut in the horizon- Rec 5d
tal direction. #
RecVib

Figure 5 clearly confirms the conclusions 

about the differences of compressive strength be- 0 2500 5000 7500 10000
^h failure (kPa)
tween natural and reconstituted samples: average Figure 6. Relationship between horizontal and vertical stress
values are lower but more uniform in reconsti- at failure of natural and reconstituted specimens.
tuted samples. However, samples reconstituted
by Method 2 exhibit greater variability in terms
2
of strains at failure. In fact, strains at failure for
this samples vary between 0.30% and 1.76% 1,5
¶v failure (%)

Natural
while in the natural ones the variation is only Sample
from 0.64% to 1.50%. 1
Rec 5d
0,5 RecVib

12000 0
Natural-H
0 0,5 1 1,5
10000
)a ¶h failure (%)
Natural-V
P8000 Figure 7. Relationship between horizontal and vertical
(k strain at failure of natural and reconstituted specimens.
re6000 Rec5d-H
ul
ia Rec5d-V
fa4000
s Table 1 provides detailed values regarding the
2000 RecVib-H
differences between the values plotted in the
0 RecVib-V previous charts. For the compressive strength
0
0,5 1 1,5 the values obtained in the natural samples are, in
ea failure (%) average, up to 5 times higher than the values ob-
Figure 5. Values of stresses and strains at failure of natural
and reconstituted specimens. tained for the reconstituted samples. The oppo-
site is observed with respect to the strains at fail-
ure. These, in average, show values for the
Figures 6 and 7 clearly show the anisotropic reconstituted samples that are about 1.5 times
behaviour of the natural samples with respect to higher than those measured for the natural sam-
the direction of loading. The natural samples ples. It is possible to confirm once again the low-
show the expected behaviour of greater resis- est variability of compressive strength in recon-
tance under compression in the vertical direction, stituted samples, but, on the contrary, higher
a tendency that is not observed for the reconsti- variability of the deformations measured at fail-
tuted samples. It is clear from Figure 6 that the ure in the samples reconstituted by Method 2.
values of unconfined compression resistance in The Young's Modulus (E0), being a relation-
the reconstituted samples are much lower than ship between stresses and strains shows, as ex-
the ones exhibited by the natural material, even if pected, higher values in the case of natural sam-
variability is much less. In terms of strains at ples, due to the fact that natural samples have
172 P.A.L.F. Coelho et al. / Validation of Methodology for Reconstituting Weakly Cemented Sandstones

higher compressive strength and lower deforma- cut in the vertical direction exceeds the resis-
tions at failure. tance of the ones cut in the horizontal direction,
Table 1. Statistical analysis of the properties of natural and but the opposite seems to happen in the reconsti-
reconstituted samples in terms of compressive strength, strain tuted samples, even if with a smaller magnitude;
at failure and Young's Modulus. • Vibrating the samples during reconstitution
Samples Statistical ^a ¶a E0 is ineffective, as the presence of fines limits the
parameter (kPa) (%) (MPa) resulting densification of the material.
Natural Max. 11392 1.50 1252 The observed differences cannot be fully ex-
Min. 3557 0.64 95
Average 7455 1.03 764 plained. These may simply result from time ef-
Stand. Dev. 2103 0.22 274 fects not being replicated, may be due to some
Reconst. by Max. 1412 1.58 160 underestimation of the lithostatic load or even to
Method 1 Min. 796 0.95 76 the fact that the fines found in the material,
Average 1160 1.34 103
Stand. Dev. 238 0.20 32 which limit vibration effects, were absent at the
Reconst. by Max. 1140 1.76 495 time of the deposition and were generated later
Method 2 Min. 989 0.30 56 (neoformation).
Average 1060 1.05 243
Stand. Dev. 65 0.51 182

CONCLUSIONS
The research herein presented aimed at reconsti-
tuting friable sandstone using two different
methods. The consolidation of loose material
was carried out through compression under a
load corresponding to the lithostatic load applied
in situ to the sampled sandstone, in one case also
with vibration. The results show that:
• The reconstituted samples have more homo-
geneous texture and color, but a grain size distri-
bution similar to natural samples, except for a
possible small increase of fines, which may be
due to grain fragmentation during reconstitution;
• The natural samples have higher unit weight,
which proves that the void ratio of reconstituted
samples is higher and the process of consolida-
tion under load cannot fully replicate the struc-
ture of natural samples, even when vibration is
used to simulate the effects of seismic events
• The natural and reconstituted samples ex-
hibit qualitatively similar sensitivity to water
though the disaggregation of the reconstituted
samples is more extensive and much faster;
• The natural samples show higher compres-
sive strength and lower extensions at failure, but
exhibit greater variability in their properties;
• The anisotropy in the resistance of natural sam-
ples is not adequately replicated by reconstituted
samples. The resistance of the natural samples
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Prof.s Alexandre Ta-
vares, Luis Gama Pereira and Fernando Carlos
Lopes for their valuable contribution to the re-
search, and to Mr. Jose Antonio, technician of
the Geotechnical Lab of DEC-FCTUC, for his
generous support with the experiments. The re-
search was supported by the grant PTDC/ECM/
103220/2008 of the Portuguese Government and
the EU (Compete and QREN programs).
REFERENCES
[1] C. Palain, Une série détritique terrigéne. Les “Grés de
Silves”: Trias et Lias inférieur du Portugal. Memories
of the Geological Services of Portugal, N.S., 1976.
[2] R. P. Reis, A. Corrochano, C. A. Bernardes, P. P.
Cunha & J. L. Dinis, The Meso-Cenozoic of the Portu-
guese Atlantic Coast. III Geological Congress of Spain
and VIII Latin-American Geological Congress, Excur-
sions, Salamanca (1992), 115-118 (in Portuguese).
[3] A. F. Soares, J. F. Marques, R. B. Rocha, Contribution
to the understanding of Coimbra’s geology. Memories
and News, Publ. Mus. Mineral Geol. Lab. University of
Coimbra. nº 100, (1985), 41-71 (in Portuguese).
[4] A. F. Soares, J.F. Marques, J.D.S. Sequeira, Geological
map and explanation notice for region 19-D Coimbra-
Lousã. Department of Geology. INETI. Lisbon, 2007.
(in Portuguese)
[5] V. Marques, P. Coelho, P. Andrade, P. Cunha, Method-
ology for the reconstitution of sandstones aiming at its
geotechnical characterization. XII Portuguese Geo-
technical Conference, Guimarães, Portugal, 2010 (in
Portuguese).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 173
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-173

The influence of microfabrics in bonded soils

behaviour, based in laboratorial comparison of
artificially and naturally cemented specimens
L'influence des microstructures dans le comportement des sols
collés, basée sur la comparaison, en laboratoire, de spécimens
artificiellement et naturellement cimentés
N. Cruz 1
Mota-Engil & University of Aveiro; Portugal
C. Rodrigues
Mota-Engil & Polytechnic Institute of Guarda; Portugal
A. Viana da Fonseca
FEUP, University of Porto; Portugal

ABSTRACT
Cemented soils are often seen as non-textbook materials, since they don´t fit into the usual behaviour of transported soils in the
light of classical Soil Mechanics theories. The major problem of establishing a mechanical behaviour pattern of cemented sandy
soil based on recoiled natural samples is the variability of its fabric and the existence of a dispersion of particulate strength, ag-
gravated by inevitable sampling induced disturbance. The use of artificially cemented soils has been frequently used as a mean
to overcome these drawbacks. However, this approach may be criticized due to an important handicap, that is the difficulty of ar-
tificially recreating natural microfabrics. Herein, a laboratorial framework performed on Guarda granitic residual soils, inte-
grated in a wider research PhD program (Cruz, 2010) is presented, aiming to study the influence of microfabric in artificially and
naturally cemented soils strength and stiffness properties. The program involved an extensive laboratorial testing program per-
formed over remoulded soils of weathered granite mixed with Portland cement under distinct contents. Overall, 50 uniaxial,
diametral and triaxial (CID) compression tests with internal or local instrumentation (LVDT) were executed over these admix-
tures.

RÉSUMÉ
Les sols cimentés sont souvent considérés comme des matériaux «non-textbook», car ils ne s’ajustent pas dans le comportement
habituel des sols transportés, compte tenu des théories classiques de la Mécanique des Sols. Le problème majeur d’établissez un
modèle de comportement mécanique des sols sableux cimenté, basé sur des échantillons naturels recueilli, est la variabilité du
fabrique et l’existence d’une dispersion de la résistance des particules, aggravée par les inévitables perturbations induites par
l’échantillonnage. L’utilisation des sols artificiellement cimenté a été souvent utilisé comme un moyen de remédier ces inconvé-
nients. Cependant, cette approche peut être critiquée en raison d’un handicap important, notamment, la difficulté de recréer arti-
ficiellement la microstructure naturelle. Ici, un étude de laboratoire intégré dans un plus large programme PhD (Cruz, 2010), ef-
fectuées sur les sols résiduels granitiques de la Guarda (Portugal), est présenté visant étudier l’influence de la microstructure
dans les propriétés de résistance et de rigidité des sols artificiellement et naturellement cimentés. L’étude comprenait un grand
programme d’essais de laboratoire effectué sur des sols remaniés de granite altéré, mélangé avec du ciment Portland en différent
pourcentages. Dans l’ensemble, 50 essais de compression, uniaxiale, diamétrale et triaxiale (CID), avec instrumentation interne
ou locale (LVDT), ont été exécutés au cours de ces mélanges.

Keywords: Residual soils, artificially cemented soils, structure, fabric, bonding.

1
Corresponding Author.
174 N. Cruz et al. / The Influence of Microfabrics in Bonded Soils Behaviour
1 INTRODUCTION
The residual soils usually exhibit high variability
and spatial heterogeneity, and a complex struc-
tural layout, generated by diverse weathering
conditions.
In the case of granitic residual soils, as weath-
ering progresses, the primary interparticle bonds
between the grains are broken and a series of in-
tergranular voids are created. Afterwards, weath-
ering makes the feldspars and micas unstable, al-
lowing leaching to occur, with the creation of a
network of intragranular voids. In addition, the
more stable minerals, mostly quartz grains, are
bonded by highly weathered (and therefore un-
stable) grains of feldspars and micas to form a
peculiar microfacric.
The structural variability and the known diffi-
culties of sampling these materials usually pose
serious difficulties in the evaluation of the me-
chanical behaviour, from laboratory testing. In
order to overcome these difficulties Vaughan [1]
proposed the use of artificially cemented soils for
studying the effects of cementation matrix in
mechanical soil behaviour to reduce variability
and sampling consequences and the approach has
been followed in several research programs pro-
duced ever since, (Vaughan et al. [2], Viana da
Fonseca [3], Leroueil & Vaughan [4], Coop &
Atkinson, [5], Schnaid et al. [6], Rodrigues [7],
Viana da Fonseca & Coutinho [8], Cruz [9]
among others). However, the application of this
procedure implies that the resulting microfabric
artificially cemented mixtures should be similar
to the structure observed in naturally cemented
soils, which might frequently be quite difficult to
achieve. In fact, a natural cemented structure is
represented by a specific weakening condition
(in the case of granites resulting mostly from the
weathering of feldspars), which is variable with
the specific content of the weathered mineral (or
minerals), while in artificial sands cementation
increases with time until stabilization, globally
showing homogeneous distribution. The frame-
work presented herein was based in 2 PhD re-
search programs (Rodrigues [7] and Cruz [9])
and aimed to find out the main differences in
mechanical behaviour arising from naturally and
artificially cemented soils obtained in the same
granitic residual soil spot of Guarda (NE of Por-
tugal).
2 SAMPLE PREPARATION
The natural residual soils were collected on the
surface granitic residual soil massif of Guarda
(NE Portugal) within 1.5 m and 3.5 m depth. The
respective sampling was carried out using thin-
walled samplers, according to Rodrigues and
Lemos [10]. A set of artificially cemented sam-
ples obtained from the same granitic spot has al-
so been prepared (Cruz [9]), which started with
air drying of unique sample of natural soil, fol-
lowed by desegregation, mixing and separation
in grain size homogeneous portions. Each of
these samples was then mixed with different por-
tions of cement and prepared through static com-
paction in order to obtain a similar void ratio of
the respective natural soil. Samples were re-
moulded by static compaction in order to repre-
sent the natural density level.
Cemented samples were prepared aiming to
obtain different levels of inter-granular bonding,
representing different levels of the cohesive
component of strength. Different percentages of
cement were mixed with the pre-selected residual
soil samples, followed by compaction (directly in
the molds). Five groups of cylindrical samples
with 14 cm height and 7 cm diameter were pre-
pared, in 4 layers of 3.5 cm, statically compacted
using a split mold for adequate extrusion.
Due to specific reasons of the main experi-
mental programs, two different types of Portu-
guese cement were used, namely CIM I/52.5R
[11] and CIM II/B-L 32.5N [12]. Taking into ac-
count the different properties of the cements,
samples were placed in a curing chamber with
automatic control of environmental conditions
(20r1ºC of temperature and moisture content of
95r5%), with different residence times. Thus,
samples prepared with cement CIM I/52.5R
cured for 14 days while samples prepared with
cement CIM II/B-L 32.5N remained in the
chamber for 21 days. Detailed discussion on
these conditions can be found in Cruz [9].
 N. Cruz et al. / The Influence of Microfabrics in Bonded Soils Behaviour 175

3 PRELIMINARY TESTS 4.1 Peak strengths

In Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 the global obtained re-
An initial set of natural and artificially cemented
sults are presented, by means of stress ratios
specimens were subjected to uniaxial compres-
(q/p’) plotted against axial strains and represent-
sion and indirect tensile tests. The main results
ing destructured, 1% of cement 52.5R, 2% of
can be found in Fig. 1 and 2, respectively.
cement 32.5N and natural soil samples. Obtained
The results in terms of the ultimate stress val-
data reveals some interesting features, as pre-
ues (uniaxial strength, qu, and indirect tensile
sented in the following lines.
strength, qtu) show that the natural soil has uniax- 2.5
ial compressive strength and indirect tensile
2
strength framed between the soil-cement of 1%

q/p'
Cem-52.5R and 2% Cem-32.5N, but with clearly 1.5

different stress-strain relationships. 1

p'=25 kPa
p'=50 kPa
350 p'=75 kPa
0.5
Uniaxial stress, q (kPa )

p'=300 kPa
Natural residual soil
300 (q/p')max
Cem 1%-52.5R
0
250 Cem 2%-32.5N
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Cem 2%-52.5R
200 εa (%)
Cem 3%-32.5N
150 Destructured -1
100 0 dmax

50 1
2
0
3
εv (%)

0 1 2 3 4 5
Axial strain, εa (%) 4
5
Figure 1. Uniaxial compression tests.
6
45 7
Natural residual
Indirect tensile stress, q t (kPa)

40 soil 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
35 Cem 1%-52.5R εa (%)
30 Figure 3. CID triaxial tests in destructured samples.
Cem 2%-32.5N
25
20 Cem 2%-52.5R
2.5
15
Cem 3%-32.5N
10
2
5 Destructured
q /p'

0 1.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 p'=25 kPa
Vertical diametral strain, εd (%) 1 p'=50 kPa
Figure 2. Indirect tensile stress. p'=75 kPa
0.5 p'=300 kPa
(q/p')max
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
4 TRIAXIAL TESTS εa (%)
-2

In order to compare mechanical behaviours, a set -1

of CID triaxial tests was performed on naturally 0 dmax

structured, destructured and artificially cemented 1

εv (%)

samples, all falling within the same void ratio 2

range. All triaxial tests were performed under sa- 3
turated conditions and the shear phase was im- 4
plemented at low strain rates of 0.02 mm/min, in 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
εa (%)
order to ensure drained conditions, in a double
Figure 4. CID triaxial tests in artificially cemented samples
drainage path (Rodrigues [7], Cruz [9]). The ax- with Cem 1%-52.5R.
ial strains were measured externally using a
high-resolution displacement transducer and in-
ternally using submersible LVDT’s.
176 N. Cruz et al. / The Influence of Microfabrics in Bonded Soils Behaviour

2.5 tion for the sample consolidated at lower confin-

ing stress, which show a smooth peak), artifi-
2
cially cemented samples show clear peaks at
q/p'

1.5 lower confining stresses and natural samples re-

p'=25 kPa veal the existence of a peak for all confining
1
p'=50 kPa stresses. It should be noted that in artificially
p'=75 kPa
0.5 p'=300 kPa cemented samples the presence of peak strengths
(q/p')max
0
is related both with cement content and confining
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 stresses. In fact, higher cement content reveals
εa (%) peak strengths up to 75 kPa of confining stress,
-3 while in the sample with lower content peaks are
-2 only observed for 25 and 50 kPa confining
-1
0
stresses. Finally, peak strengths of natural soils
εv (%)

1 are higher than those observed in artificial mix-

2
dmax
tures.
3 Concerning to dilatancy, it can be observed
4
5
that for the same levels of confining stresses
6 rates increase with cement content and naturally
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 cemented soils present higher values than the
εa (%) other specimens. Moreover, despite the lower
Figure 5. CID triaxial tests in artificially cemented samples values of uniaxial and diametral strengths (com-
with Cem 2%-32.5N. paring with artificially cemented samples) natu-
2.5 ral soil reveals a dilatant behaviour in all the
2
tested samples, which doesn´t happen in artificial
mixtures.
1.5 On its turn, in cemented samples the maxi-
q/p'

1
p'=350 kPa
p'=25 kPa
mum rate of dilation takes place after the maxi-
p'=50 kPa mum stress ratio, while these two points coincide
0.5 p'=150 kPa
(q/p')max
in destructured samples [3]. Results also reveal
0 that increasing cementation level leads to a high-
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 er gap between peak and maximum dilatancy re-
εa (%)
lated strains.
-6 Finally, a softening post-peak behaviour is ob-
-5 dmax
served, which is smoother in natural soils. De-
-4
spite the same order of strength magnitude, arti-
-3
ficial and natural sample behaviours are not
-2
εv(%)

-1
similar and thus, the former doesn´t seem to rep-
0 resent with accuracy the latter.
1
2 4.2 Stress-dilatancy behaviour
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
εa (%) The different behaviours referred above seem
Figure 6. CID triaxial tests natural structured samples. to be highly influenced by volumetric answer
during shear and so, relations between strength
In the first place, results show that globally
and dilatancy were also studied to go further in
strains associated to peak strengths increase with
the understanding of these behaviours. To do so,
increasing confining stresses.
On the other hand, stress ratios of the destruc- dilatancy ratio (dHv/dHs) was plotted against stress
tured samples show a gradual increase up to a ratio, K (=q/p’), as presented in Fig. 7, 8, 9 and
maximum ultimate value (with the only excep- 10. These figures show that the higher dilatancy
 N. Cruz et al. / The Influence of Microfabrics in Bonded Soils Behaviour 177

is obtained in natural soils, followed by artificial Figure 9. Stress-dilatancy data for cemented soil with 2% of
cement 32.5N.
mixtures, while in destructured samples the pa- q/p' Frictional trend
2.5
rameter is no longer present. In these latter, the Cemented trend
p'=15 kPa
stress paths are almost linear, revealing the ab- 2 p'=25 kPa
p'=50 kPa
sence of a cementation strength, while in artifi- p'=150 kPa
cially or naturally cemented soils the increase of 1.5 p'=300 kPa
p'=500 kPa
cementation strength is represented by an in-
creasing cohesive intercept in shear strength, as 1

discussed in next section.

q/p' 0.5
2.5
p'=25 kPa
p'=50 kPa 0
2 p'=75 kPa
p'=300 kPa -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
Frictional trend Dilatancy, dεv/dεs
1.5

Figure 10. Stress-dilatancy data for natural granitic soil.

1

0.5 These results also show that the initial paths

are clearly different in the several specimens,
0 which suggests initial stiffness of natural soils is
-0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 not well represented by artificial ones. Moreover,
Dilatanc y, dεv/dεs in natural soils dilation seems to hide cementa-
Figure 7. Stress-dilatancy data for destructured uncemented tion effects, which is represented by a higher
soil. slope of cemented trend in artificial specimens.
q/p' p'=25 kPa
2.5 p'=50 kPa
p'=75 kPa 4.3 Failure envelope
2 p'=300 kPa
Frictional trend Peak strength envelopes for all tested specimens
Cemented trend
1.5 are presented in Figure 11, respectively, repre-
sented in the form of a q-p’ diagram, [q=V’1–V’3
1
and p’=1/3(V’1+2V’3)].
1200
0.5 Destructured
1000 Cem 2%-32.5N
Deviatoric stress, q (kPa)

0 Cem 1%-52.5R
800 Natural residual soil
-0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5

Dilatancy, dεv/dεs 600

Figure 8. Stress-dilatancy data for cemented soil with 1% of 400

cement 52.5R.
q/p' p'=25 kPa 200
2.5 p'=50 kPa
p'=75 kPa 0
2 p'=300 kPa 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Frictional trend Mean effective stress, p' (kPa)
Frictional trend
1.5
Figure 11. Peak shear strength envelops of specimens.
1 These diagrams reveal that failure envelopes
for destructured materials are almost linear,
0.5
while those for cemented ones are curved. In the
0 case of cemented materials the slope of failure
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 envelope decreases with increasing p’, suggest-
Dilatancy, dεv/dεs ing the breakage of interparticular bonding with
increasing mean effective stress. On the other
178 N. Cruz et al. / The Influence of Microfabrics in Bonded Soils Behaviour
hand, the increase of cementation level generates
failure envelopes located at higher stress do-
mains, highlighting the influence of cementation
on shear strength mobilization. Nevertheless, it is
also clear that the envelope non-linearity in-
creases with cementation level and so the inter-
ception in q axis is closer to the origin, as a con-
sequence of dilatancy control. Finally, results
also reveal that the interception of naturally ce-
mented and destructured soils failure envelopes
occurs at higher confining stresses (p’) than
those related with comparable artificially ce-
mented mixtures, showing a more effective con-
trol of microfabric in the former.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The use of artificially cemented soils to study the
behaviour of structured soils is very useful, since
it allows separated analysis of cohesive and fric-
tional influence in mechanical behaviour. How-
ever, to simulate the behaviour of natural soils
original microfabric should be reproduced, which
seems to be quite difficult to achieve with artifi-
cial mixtures.
The research presented herein highlighted that
even tough artificial mixtures were prepared with
same void ratio and comparable uniaxial and in-
direct tensile strengths (thus, similar cementation
magnitudes) the behaviour in triaxial testing was
quite different. In fact, naturally cemented soils
always showed higher levels of dilatancy than
those observed in artificial mixtures, curvature of
failure envelopes is more pronounced in natural
soils and stress-dilatancy paths are quite different
in both materials.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was developed under the activities
of CEC, FEUP, namely PTDC/ECM/099475/
2008 project, financed by European Community
(QREN/UE/FEDER), through the Operational
Program for Competitive Factors, COMPETE.
REFERENCES
[1] P.R. Vaughan, Mechanical and hydraulic properties of
in situ residual soils, Proc. 1st Int. Conf Geomech.
Tropical Lateritic Saprolit. Soils, Brasilia 3 (1985),
231–263.
[2] P.R. Vaughan, M. Maccarini, S.M. Mokhtar, Indexing
the engineering properties of residual soils, Q.J. Engng
Geol, 21 (1988), 69-84.
[3] A. Viana da Fonseca, Geomechanics of Porto residual
soil from granite. Project criteria for direct founda-
tions, PhD Thesis, Porto University, Portugal (in Portu-
guese), 1996.
[4] S. Leroueil, P.R. Vaughan, The General and Congruent
Effects of Structure in Natural Soils and Weak Rocks,
Géotechnique, 40-3, (1990), 467–488.
[5] M.R. Coop, J.H. Atkinson, The mechanics of cemented
carbonate sands, Géotechnique, 43-1 (1993), 53-67.
[6] F. Schnaid, P.D.M. Prietto, M.H.T. Consoli, Charac-
terization of cemented sand in triaxial compression, J.
Geotech. Geoenv. Engng, ASCE, 127(10), (2001), 857–
867.
[7] C.M.G. Rodrigues, Geotechnical characterization and
geomechanic behaviour study an saprolitic granite soils
from Guarda. PhD thesis, Coimbra University, Portugal
(in Portuguese), 2003.
[8] A. Viana da Fonseca, R.Q. Coutinho, Characterization
of Residual Soils, Geotechnical and Geophysical Site
Characetrization. Keynote Lecture ISC’3. (2008). 195-
248.
[9] N. Cruz, Modelling geomechanics of residual soils by
DMT tests. PhD dissertation. Faculty of Engineering of
University of Porto. Portugal, 2010.
[10] C.M.G. Rodrigues, L.J.L. Lemos, Strength and stress-
strain behaviour of saprolitic granite soils from Guarda
– sampling effects. Proc. Int. Symp. Deformation Char-
acteristics of Geomaterials – IS Lyon (2003), 663–668.
[11] http://www.secil.pt/pdf/CEMI525R.pdf.
[12] http://www.cimporportugal.pt/cache/bin/XPQLYeQXX
513rayzg5JXIPZKU.pdf.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 179
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-179

Determination of the small-strain stiffness of hard

soils by means of bender elements and
accelerometers
Détermination de la rigidité à petite déformation des sols
indurés par bender elements et accéléromètres
C. Ferreira 1, J. P. Martins, A. Gomes Correia
C-TAC – Centre of Territory, Environment and Construction, University of Minho, Portugal

ABSTRACT
Direct determination of seismic wave velocities in the laboratory is becoming common practice worldwide, given its great poten-
tial in the definition of the stiffness at very small strains. One of the techniques for seismic wave measurement makes use of pie-
zoelectric transducers, such as bender elements (BEs). However, some limitations remain to the applicability of this technique,
namely for stiff geomaterials, such as compacted soils, naturally or artificially cemented soils and soft or weak rocks. For this
purpose, two accelerometers have been used in conjunction with BEs. In the present paper, this combined test setup implemented
on a stress-path triaxial chamber will be detailed. An application study will be presented for a hard soil, prepared by laboratory
compaction and tested in triaxial compression at different isotropic stress levels. The equipments, procedures and interpretation
analyses will also be described. The advantages of this setup are twofold: i) the interpretation of the acceleration measurements
is straightforward, since the signals are of the same nature; ii) these measurements can be used to verify the bender element sig-
nals, and thus minimize the subjectivity of the interpretation of BE results. Additionally, the accelerometers can be used autono-
mously wherever the interpretation of BEs becomes too complex. The results of this research enabled to validate the interpreta-
tion methods used for bender element testing. Moreover, this combined setup of transducers provided a simple yet powerful tool
for eliminating the subjectivity inherent to BE testing, enabling reliable measurements of small-strain stiffness for a wide range
of materials.

RÉSUMÉ
Détermination directe des vitesses des ondes sismiques dans le laboratoire est devenue une pratique courante dans le monde en-
tier, compte tenu de son grand potentiel dans la définition de la rigidité à petites déformations. Une des techniques pour la me-
sure des ondes sismiques utilise des transducteurs piézoélectriques, comme des bender elements (BEs). Toutefois, certaines li-
mites restent à l'applicabilité de cette technique, pour les géomatériaux raide, comme les sols compactés, les sols cimentés et des
roches tendres ou faibles. A cet effet, deux accéléromètres ont été utilisés en conjonction avec des BEs. Dans cet article, cette
installation d'essai combiné mise en œuvre sur une chambre triaxial de stress-path sera détaillée. Une étude d'application sera
présentée pour un sol dur, préparé par compactage en laboratoire et testé en compression triaxiale à différents niveaux de con-
trainte isotrope. Les équipements, les procédures et l'interprétation seront également décrits. Les avantages de cette installation
sont de deux ordres: i) l'interprétation des mesures d'accélération est simple, puisque les signaux sont de même nature; ii) ces
mesures peuvent être utilisées pour vérifier les signaux des BEs, et donc de minimiser la subjectivité de l'interprétation des résul-
tats. En outre, les accéléromètres peuvent être utilisés de manière autonome quand l'interprétation des BEs devient trop com-
plexe. Les résultats de cette recherche a permis de valider les méthodes d'interprétation utilisées pour les essais des BEs. En plus,
cette configuration combinée des transducteurs fourni un instrument simple mais puissant pour éliminer la subjectivité inhérente
à les essais des BEs, permettant des mesures fiables de la rigidité à petites déformations, pour un large éventail de matériaux.

Keywords: Small-strain stiffness, hard soils, bender elements, accelerometers.

1
Corresponding Author.
180 C. Ferreira et al. / Determination of the Small-Strain Stiffness of Hard Soils
1 INTRODUCTION
In the past couple of decades, it has been recog-
nized that the stress-strain response of practically
all soils and soft rocks is in fact highly non-
linear. This has led to the development of design
methods that take this into account, such that
stiffness non-linearity is now routinely incorpo-
rated into many standard computer codes. These
achievements have been paralleled by develop-
ments in both in situ and laboratory testing tech-
niques that allow the details of the stress-strain
response to be examined, even at strains as low
as 10-6 [1, 2].
Direct determination of seismic wave velocities
in laboratory specimens is gradually becoming
common practice worldwide, given its great po-
tential in the definition of the stiffness at very
small strains, recognized as a reference parame-
ter in soils. In the laboratory, the most widely
used method of determining VS makes use of
piezoelectric transducers, such as bender ele-
ments (BEs), shear plates and also bender-
extender elements. Bender elements, originally
developed for soft soils [3], have opened a new
window in laboratory testing, since seismic wave
measurements are performed simultaneously
with standard mechanical static or cyclic tests.
These transducers enable transmitting and re-
ceiving shear and/or compression waves and can
be installed virtually in any conventional soil
testing device, most commonly in the oedometer
or the triaxial chamber, but also in more complex
systems such as calibration chambers, centrifug-
es, resonant columns and even cubical true tri-
axial apparatuses [2, 4].
The attraction of the BE technique is its ap-
parent simplicity: one of the transducers is ex-
cited at one end of a specimen using a single
pulse excitation, and the time required for this to
be registered by the receiving bender element at
the other end of the specimen can be simply read
off an oscilloscope, to obtain the travel time, and
hence the shear wave velocity. Therefore, pie-
zoelectric transducers are an inexpensive and
versatile solution for laboratory seismic wave
measurement. Furthermore, its capabilities in
monitoring processes of evolution of stiffness
with effective stresses, namely during cementa-
tion, curing, load stabilization and even satura-
tion, are particularly appealing.
Despite its several advantages, the interpreta-
tion of BE results often involves some degree of
uncertainty. A number of methods for the inter-
pretation of bender element results are common-
ly used, in the time or the frequency domain.
Time domain techniques are generally simpler
and more straightforward, as the travel time can
be directly defined from the measurement of the
time interval between characteristic points in the
transmitted and received wave traces. On the
other hand, frequency domain techniques tend to
be more elaborate, as these are supported by sig-
nal processing and spectrum analyses tools, and
enable automated data acquisition and
processing. Many authors have dealt with the dif-
ficulties of interpretation of results [5-9]. A prac-
tical framework for BE testing was recently pro-
posed by Viana da Fonseca et al. [2], combining
two distinct interpretation methods, in the time
and the frequency domain, as an effective means
of obtaining the most reliable value for the travel
time.
Sample geometry and BE-related phenomena
also play a part in the quality and performance of
BE tests, especially spatial and boundary condi-
tions, such as alignment of the BEs, wave ref-
lections, coupling, near-field effects (relative dis-
tance between transmitter and receiver) and
overshooting at high frequencies [10].
However, some limitations remain to the ap-
plicability of this technique, namely for stiff
geomaterials, such as compacted soils, naturally
or artificially cemented soils and soft or weak
rocks, given the greater stiffness impedance be-
tween the transducers and the tested materials.
In this work, an alternative technique has been
developed to overcome this challenge. Two acce-
lerometers (ACs), located at specific points in the
laboratory specimens, have been used in con-
junction with the bender elements setup. The
signal produced by the bender element transmit-
ter is acquired by the bender element receiver
and by the two accelerometers.
This combined system of seismic wave mea-
surements enables to obtain additional and com-
 C. Ferreira et al. / Determination of the Small-Strain Stiffness of Hard Soils
plementary information regarding the validity of
the BE signals and thus minimize the subjectivity
in interpretation. The advantages of this setup are
twofold: i) the interpretation of the acceleration
measurements can be directly made both in the
time and in the frequency domain, since the sig-
nals are of the same nature, hence directly com-
parable; ii) these measurements can be used to
check BE results, enabling its validation or, if
necessary, its revision. Additionally, the accele-
rometers can be used autonomously in high stiff-
ness materials where the interpretation of bender
elements tends to be more complex.
2 APPLICATION OF THE COMBINED
BENDER ELEMENTS AND
ACCELEROMETERS SYSTEM
2.1 Instrumentation of the stress-path chamber
For the development of this system, a Bishop-
Wesley stress-path chamber, available at the Civ-
il Engineering laboratory of the University of
Minho, was used and adapted to accommodate
the bender-extender elements and the accelero-
meters [12]. New top and bottom platens were
designed and manufactured and modifications,
including drilled holes for cable outlet, were
made.
The bender-extender elements used in this
work were manufactured by GDS Instruments
[11]. The accelerometers, from Brüel & Kjær,
are piezoelectric sensors (type 4513-001, 100
mV/g sensitivity, ±50 g measuring range, 1 Hz to
10 kHz frequency range, 12.7mm in diameter,
15.65 mm in height, 9 g in weight). In order to
ensure adequate coupling and stability during
testing, the ACs were fixed to the sides of the
specimens at specific points, by means of pins
screwed to the back of the accelerometers.
The conceived testing system comprises a to-
tal of four sensors: two bender-extender elements
and two accelerometers, as shown in Figure 1.
The transmitter BE sends seismic S-waves,
which travel through the specimen, and are re-
ceived and recorded by the remaining transduc-
ers, the receiver BE and the ACs.
181
Receiver BE
Accelerometers
Specimen
Transmitter
a) b)
Figure 1. Setup and installation of the bender elements and
accelerometers in a soil specimen: a) schematic; b) photo-
graph of setup AC3-13.
The associated electronics equipment include
a function generator from Thurlby Thandar In-
struments (TG1010A model) and a National In-
struments data logger system (SCXI-1600), with
16-bit accelerometer cards (SCXI-1531), con-
nected to a portable computer. Data acquisition
was taken at a sampling rate of 50 kHz per chan-
nel. A specific LabView interface was developed
for data acquisition and recording. The program
operates similarly to an oscilloscope: triggered
signals are detected and an average of 16 pulses
is displayed; in addition, each channel can be in-
dividually amplified by a user-defined factor.
2.2 Characterization of the tested material
For the purpose of this work, a well-graded
clayey sand (designated SAE) collected at an ex-
perimental embankment in the city of Évora, was
used. This soil was subjected to extensive physi-
cal and mechanical characterization in the la-
boratory [12].
The specimens, of 100 mm in diameter and
200 mm in height, were prepared for 97% of the
maximum modified Proctor compaction, corres-
ponding to a dry volumetric mass of 1991 kg/m3
and a void ratio of 0.331.
182 C. Ferreira et al. / Determination of the Small-Strain Stiffness of Hard Soils
2.3 Test setup and procedure
A pilot test was performed with the aim of defin-
ing the test setup, namely the optimal positions
of the accelerometers in the sides of the speci-
men. For this purpose, seismic wave measure-
ments using BEs and ACs were made on an un-
confined specimen. Since the transmitter BE was
installed at the base platen, the ACs were posi-
tioned at the distances of 30, 130, 150 and 180
mm from the base. The first AC at 30 mm from
the base was kept at that position at all times,
while the second AC was successively positioned
at the other locations, as illustrated in Figure 1b.
For each position of the second AC, a series of
BE and AC measurements were taken for a range
of input frequencies. With this experiment, it was
possible to assess the sensitivity of the sensors to
the vibrations produced by the transmitter BE as
a function of its distance. In terms of signal qual-
ity, the differences encountered were minor and
mostly related with the frequency of the input
signal; the most distant accelerometer provided
clear signals for lower input frequencies than the
closest accelerometer, as anticipated, and an
identical signal quality was obtained at each po-
sition. Based on these results, the positions of 30
and 130 mm from the base were selected as final
positions for the ACs. These positions were con-
sidered beneficial for direct comparison of re-
sults, since the distance between the two ACs is
of 100 mm, while the distance between the two
BEs is of about 200 mm. This means that the tra-
vel time measured by the ACs is expected to be
half of the travel time measured by the BEs.
Having established the test setup, the test pro-
cedure followed that of a drained isotropic triaxi-
al compression test, with additional seismic wave
measurements at unconfined conditions and at
the isotropic effective stresses of 100, 200 and
300 kPa. The transmitter BE was excited with a
sine pulse with a magnitude of 20 V. For each
isotropic confining pressure, a range of input fre-
quencies between 100Hz and 10 kHz was tested
in order to define the value which provided
greater amplification in the received signals, that
is, the clearest output signals.
V S2 (2)
2.4 Interpretation of BE and AC results
The interpretation of the bender elements and ac-
celerometers data was performed in the time do-
main. As an example, in Figure 2 typical signals
of BE and accelerometers are shown, from a tri-
axial test carried out on an unsaturated specimen,
for 100 and 300 kPa of isotropic confining pres-
sure.
The identification of the arrival time of the
shear waves is not always straightforward, since
direct and reflected compression waves often ap-
pear in the received signals. With regards to BEs,
the first deflection point recorded can be erro-
neously taken as the first wave arrival, however
it is caused by near field effect, hence cannot be
considered to correspond to the real shear wave
arrival time. The arrival time of shear waves was
then assumed to be located at the point of clear
uprising of the signal, as marked in Figure 2.
Note that the polarity of the input and output sig-
nals is positive, hence the start of the shear wave
is expected to be ascending.
For accelerometer signals, it is possible to
identify and selected any similar characteristic
points in both signals, defining the travel time as
the time interval between the two selected in-
stants, as shown in Figure 2.
It should be noted that this interpretation as-
sumes that the same travel time is obtained with-
in the frequency range, that is, the travel time is
frequency-independent.
Seismic wave velocities (Vs) were calculated
using the travel length and time measured during
the triaxial tests, according the following equa-
tion from wave propagation theory:
L
VS  (1)
TS
where L is the effective travel distance (tip to
tip for BE) and Ts is the travel time of the S-
waves. The elastic shear modulus (G0) can be de-
rived from the shear wave velocity as follows:
G 0  
where ȡ is the bulk density of the specimen.
 C. Ferreira et al. / Determination of the Small-Strain Stiffness of Hard Soils 183

10 100

From these results, it can be concluded that

5 50 the maximum differences observed between BE
and AC results are of 7% in shear wave velocity,

AC amplitude (mV)
BE amplitude (V)

corresponding to 14% in shear modulus. Bearing

0 0
in mind the subjectivity inherent to BE testing
BE
AC
AC
BE and the reported divergences observed from the
-5 -50
application of different interpretation techniques,
BE transmitter BE receiver these differences can be considered small and
AC 3 AC 13
-10 -100 within satisfactory limits. It can also demon-
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
a) Time (ms)
strates that the arrival time selected in the BE re-
ceived signal corresponds to the actual first ar-
10 100 rival of the shear wave.
From the analysis of the obtained response
5 50 signals at each stress level (Figure 3a and 3b), it
AC amplitude (mV)

is possible to observe that the amplitude of the

BE amplitude (V)

0 0
BE signal is reduced as stress level increases,
BE
while the AC signals appear to be unaffected by
BE

AC
stress changes. In effect, with the stress increase,
-5 -50
AC
the shear wave may become undetected in the re-
BE transmitter BE receiver
AC 3 AC 13
ceived BE signal, while it is still visible in the
-10
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
-100
AC measurements. For this reason, it can be
b) Time (ms) stated that the performance of the accelerometers
is virtually independent of the stiffness of the
Figure 2. Time histories of signals from BEs and ACs at dif-
ferent isotropic confining stresses: a) 100 kPa; b) 300 kPa
tested material.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the com-
Table 1 presents a comparative summary of bined measurement of shear wave velocities by
the results obtained by the BEs and the ACs at bender elements and accelerometers is a valid
the different confining pressure stages, in terms method, providing comparable results. Further-
of travel time, shear wave velocity and shear more, the combined use of BEs and ACs is both
modulus. The differences between the measure- advantageous and complementary: not only in
ments are also indicated in the table. terms of the validation of the BE interpretation,
but also for the determination of shear wave ve-
locities beyond the range of applicability of the
Table 1. Comparative summary of BE and AC results
BE method.
Test
Parameter
Confining pressure (kPa) This is particularly relevant for testing stiffer
method 0* 100 200 300 materials, such as hard soils (compacted or artifi-
t (ms) 4.25 0.74 0.60 0.50 cially cemented) and soft rocks or for testing at
BE VS (m/s) 47.1 270.3 333.3 400 high stress levels.
G0 (MPa) 4.4 145.5 221.2 318.6

t (ms) 1.98 0.36 0.28 0.24 3 CONCLUSIONS

AC VS (m/s) 50.5 277.8 357.1 416.7
In this paper, the implementation of a combined
G0 (MPa) 5.1 153.4 253.9 345.7
testing system using bender elements and accele-
VS (m/s) 7% 3% 7% 4% rometers on a stress-path chamber has been de-
 scribed. The developed testing system enables
G0 (MPa) 14% 5% 13% 8%
the measurement of shear wave velocities from
*: unconfined; : differences between BE and AC
which the very small strain stiffness, in the form
184 C. Ferreira et al. / Determination of the Small-Strain Stiffness of Hard Soils
of the shear modulus, can be determined. In
short, the system comprises two BEs and two
ACs: the transmitter BE sends a shear wave
through the specimen, which are detected by the
receiver BE and the two accelerometers.
The performance of this new testing setup has
been assessed and demonstrated by means of iso-
tropic compression triaxial tests, with measure-
ments of the shear wave velocities at different
stress levels. The obtained measurements showed
a good agreement between BE and AC results,
thus enabling to validate the interpretation me-
thod used for bender element testing as well as
the new testing setup and procedure.
During this testing program, it was possible to
observe that, with the increase of stiffness (inhe-
rent or induced by the stress state), the interpreta-
tion and reliability of the bender element mea-
surements decreased. On the other hand, the
performance of the accelerometers was found to
be relatively independent of the stiffness of the
tested material.
Therefore, it is possible to conclude that this
combined setup of transducers provided a simple
yet powerful tool for eliminating the subjectivity
inherent to bender element testing, enabling reli-
able measurements of very small-strain stiffness
for a wide range of materials, including stiff ma-
terials, such as hard soils.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was developed under the research ac-
tivities of C-TAC from University of Minho. The
second author acknowledges the support of FCT
in the form of the PhD scholarship
SFRH/BD/32571/2006.
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[4] Ferreira, C. The use of seismic wave velocities in the
measurement of stiffness of a residual soil. PhD thesis
in Civil Engineering. Universidade do Porto, 2009.
[5] Viggiani, G.; Atkinson, J.H. Interpretation of bender
element tests. Géotechnique, 45 (1995), No. 2, pp. 149-
154.
[6] Š@‹ˆ†Œ!‘’“†‡!”!and Simic, M. Objective crite-
ria for determining Gmax from bender element tests.
Géotechnique, 46 (1996), No. 2, pp. 357-362.
[7] Greening, P.D.; Nash, D.F.T.; Benahmed, N.; Viana da
Fonseca, A. and Ferreira, C. Comparison of shear wave
velocity measurements in different materials using time
and frequency domain techniques, Proceedings of De-
formation Characteristics of Geomaterials, Lyon,
France, September 2003. Balkema, pp. 381-386.
[8] Greening, P.D. and Nash, D.F.T. Frequency domain de-
termination of G0 using bender elements, ASTM Geo-
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[9] Arroyo, M., Greening, P. and Muir Wood, D. An esti-
mate of uncertainty in current pulse test practice. Rivis-
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[10] Rio, J. Advances in laboratory geophysics using bender
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[11] GDS Instruments. Bender elements datasheet.
http://www.gdsinstruments.com/products/gdsbes.htm
(last acessed at February 2011), 2009.
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 185
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-185

Measurement of stiffness of Greek stiff soils

Mesures de rigidité des argiles raides en Grèce
V.N. Georgiannou1
National Technical University, Athens, Greece
P. Ferreira
University College London, U.K.
F. Altuhafi
Imperial College London, U.K.

ABSTRACT
Research into the stress-strain behaviour of many stiff clays and weak rocks has demonstrated conclusively that it is highly non-
linear. Hence, to calculate ground movements it is necessary to define stiffness parameters at strains which correspond to the
strains caused by the construction. In this paper the stiffness of five soils from various Greek construction sites was evaluated
through improved equipment and test techniques. These included measurement of shear wave velocity and the use of local strain
instrumentation. The latter comprised of miniature inclinometers and LVDTs. Tests were performed on natural (undisturbed)
specimens trimmed from block samples. The specimens were isotropically and anisotropically consolidated and stiffness pa-
rameters were measured for each soil for a range of effective stress levels. Despite the wide variation of the deposits all soils
contain less than 20% clay content and their Atterberg limits plot very close to the A line. The measured stiffness values fall
within the broader band of data reported in the literature for stiff clays.

RÉSUMÉ
La recherche sur le comportement contrainte-déformation de nombreuses argiles raides et roches tendres a démontré de façon
concluante qu'il est hautement non-linéaire. Par conséquent, pour calculer les mouvements de terrain, il est nécessaire de définir
les paramètres de rigidité à deformations qui correspondent aux contraintes provoquées par la construction. Dans cet article, la
rigidité de cinq sols provenant de divers sites de construction grecques a été évaluée grâce à l'amélioration des équipements et
des techniques des tests. Ces mesures inclus la vitesse des ondes de cisaillement et de l'utilisation de l'instrumentation des de-
formation locale. Ce dernier comprend des inclinomètres miniatures et LVDT. Des essais ont été effectués sur des spécimens
naturelles (intactes) taillés dans des blocs. Les échantillons ont été isotropiqument et anisotropiqument consolidés et les pa-
ramètres de rigidité ont été mesurés pour chaque sol pour une gamme de niveaux de la contrainte effective. Malgré la grande
variation des sédiments tous les sols contenant moins de 20% la teneur en argile et leurs limites d'Atterberg terrain sont très
proche de la ligne A. Les valeurs de rigidité mesurée se trouvent dans la large evantail de données rapportées dans la littérature
pour les argiles raides.

Keywords: stiffness, shear strength, compressibility, laboratory tests.

1 INTRODUCTION been established through numerical analyses and

in situ measurements that soil behaviour under
The highly non-linear nature of stiffness of stiff working conditions is controlled by its properties
overconsolidated clays at small strain levels has at small strain levels. This paper discusses this
been widely reported in the literature. It has also soil behaviour for five deposits associated with

1
Corresponding Author.
186 V.N. Georgiannou et al. / Measurement of Stiffness of Greek Stiff Soils

various construction activities all over Greece. cloth. They were stored in a chamber filled with
Block samples were extracted from an area of the water in its lowest compartment. Triaxial speci-
Ionian geotectonic zone studied in connection mens 38mm in diameter and 76mm in height
with the construction of the Egnatia motorway were hand trimmed in a soil lathe from the block
[1], an area in central Greece where a new samples.………………….
motorway (E65) is under construction, from the 100%
base of the Corinth Canal [2], and two locations 90%
in Athens. It is interesting to note that the 80%

Percentage passing (%)

average Atterberg limits for each of the deposits 70% Moshato
all plot very close to the A line on a plasticity
60%
chart and the clay fraction lies in the range of 10- lamia
50%
20%. Hence their behaviour might not show the
40% Egnatia
same coherence with the behaviour of natural
30%
clays in its broader sense. Marousi
20%
10% Corinth
0% marl
2 TESTED MATERIALS AND TESTING
PROCEDURES 0,001 0,01 0,1 1 10
Grain diameter (mm)

Five natural cohesive soils are presented in this Figure 1. Grading curves for natural soils.
paper. To minimize the effects of sampling
disturbance, block samples were extracted from The tested soils were initially saturated, and
vertical faces of cuts, with the exception of the B values measured in the triaxial specimens
Marousi low plasticity clay which was prepared were in excess of 0.95. The initial effective stress
from rotary-cored samples taken from a depth of in each specimen, pi’, was measured by applying
16-18m at the site of Kiffisias avenue in the a cell pressure and allowing the pore pressure to
OAKA area. Large block samples of Egnatia come to equilibrium, usually involving a period
high plasticity silt were extracted from the face of 24 h. Specimens were subsequently
of a tunnel in the Egnatia Motorway at a section consolidated to a range of effective stresses.
located some 35 km east of Igoumenitsa Port in Laboratory tests were carried out in computer
North-West Greece. Blocks of Marl were controlled Bishop and Wesley [3] triaxial stress
recovered from cuttings of the Corinth Canal path cells with an accuracy of ±0.5kPa in
about 60m deep and at elevations close to sea pressure and ±0.1N in load measurements. The
level. Finally, blocks of Moshato low plasticity instrumentation of the triaxial cells included a
clay from Athens and Lamia high plasticity silt pair of local strain measurement transducers,
from central Greece were obtained from a depth either the axial strain electro-level inclinometers
of 5 m after the removal of the overlying [4] or submersible linear variable differential
deposits. The blocks, 50 to 60 cm high, were transducers (LVDTs) mounted diametrically
covered with cling film and covered with wet opposite over a central gauge length of the
Table1. Index properties of the tested soils specimens, and a mid-height pore pressure probe
[5]. The shearing rate was 5%/day for the
w0 (%) Gs wL WP undrained tests and 4%/day for the drained tests
(%) (%) on Marl and Moshato clay. The index properties
Marl 25-26 2.69 31.0 25.0 of the five soils are summarised in Table 1. All
Lamia 27-29 2.62 57.0 32.0 soils apart from the low plasticity clays of
Moshato and Marousi, are silty albeit too close to
Moshato 20-22 2.70 29.9 17.5
the A line. Moreover, Marousi and Egnatia soils
Egnatia 18-20 2.66 53.0 30.0 include a high percentage (>25%) of sand. Their
Marousi 17-18 2.67 37.3 22.2
 V.N. Georgiannou et al. / Measurement of Stiffness of Greek Stiff Soils 187

grading curves are shown in Fig 1. All soils have probe and base measurement of pore pressure did
clay contents lower than 20%. not exceed 1% of the current effective stress.
p'=('1+2*'3)/3
1200
=ct (kPa)
1000
3 COMPRESSIBILITY 575

q=1-3 (kPa)
CHARACTERISTICS 800
430
600 400
Fig. 2 shows the oedometer compression curves 400
240
for the tests carried out on natural intact samples. 200
It can be seen that only the Moshato and Lamia 100
0
samples, which were obtained from shallow
0 2 4 6 8 10
depth, reach obvious normal consolidation
axial strain (%) (a)
curves with the Marl samples showing the
smallest volume change between subsequent
0,5
loading increments. Hence, for the stress range
0,0
examined during shearing only Moshato and
volumetric strain (%)
-0,5 0 2 4 6 8 10
Lamia samples are expected to be normally -1,0 p'=ct (kPa)
100
consolidated. -1,5
-2,0 575
-2,5
0,80 Marousi 430
-3,0
Marl 400
0,70 -3,5 240
Egnatia -4,0
0,60
Moshato axial strain (%)
(b)
0,50 Lamia
Figure 3. (a) Stress-strain and (b) volumetric
e

0,40
against axial strain curves for the Marl.
0,30

0,20 With the exception of the isotropically consoli-

0,10
0,00
10 100 1000 10000 100000
v '(kPa)
Figure 2. Compressibility characteristics of
natural soils.
4 SHEAR STRENGTH AND STIFFNESS
CHARACTERISTICS
Fig. 3 shows typical drained stress-strain and
volumetric against axial strain relationships for
isotropically and anisotropically consolidated
Marl samples, with the latter following a con-
stant stress ratio (^3’/^1’=0.46) path that resulted
in nearly zero lateral deformation. Shearing fol-
lowed a constant p’=( ^1’+2* ^3’)/3 path at a
shearing rate of 4%/day allowing for top and bot-
tom drainage. At this rate the difference between
dated specimen sheared at an initial effective
stress of pi’=100kPa which exhibits no post-peak
strength reduction, all specimens showed a sig-
nificant and rapid reduction in strength after
peak, resulting from the formation of a single
slip surface at 63-650 to the horizontal, after
which a plateau is reached such that the deviator
stress remains approximately constant with in-
creasing axial strain. Such brittle stress-strain
behaviour associated with the formation of single
slip surfaces has been observed in other stiff soils
described in [6]. In Fig. 3(b) significant dilation
occurs up to peak, but a sharp reduction is ob-
served after peak especially when brittleness is
introduced.
Fig. 4 shows the variations in the shear
modulus with shear strain, ¶s(%), derived from
the local measurements. For the constant p’ tests,
the shear modulus was obtained as the slope of
the appropriate stress-strain curve using the ex-
pression:3*G=eq/e¶s.
188 V.N. Georgiannou et al. / Measurement of Stiffness of Greek Stiff Soils

350000 p'=240 kPa, AC average value of these measurements has been

p'=430 kPa, AC indicated in Fig. 7 by an arrow.
300000
p'=400 kPa, AC
Fig. 5 shows the results of undrained tests for
250000 Lamia samples. The effective stress paths in Fig.
p'=570 kPa, AC
G (kPa)

200000 5(a) show initial contraction followed by dilation

p'=100 kPa, IC
150000
500 (a)
100000

50000
400
0

q (kPa)
0,001 0,01 0,1 1 10
300
shear strain (%) (a)

1000 p'=240 kPa, AC 200

p'=430 kPa, AC
800
100
p'=400 kPa, AC

600 p'=575 kPa, AC

0
G/p'

p'=100 kPa, IC 0 200 p' (kPa) 400 600

400

200 500 (b)

p'=500 kPa
0 400
0,001 0,01 0,1 1
shear strain (%) (b) 300 280 kPa
q (kPa)

200 kPa
Figure 4. (a) Variation of shear modulus with 200
145 kPa
strain and (b) variation of normalised shear 110 kPa
modulus with strain for the Marl. 100

0
The stiffnesses normalised with respect to effec-
0 5 10 15 20 25
tive stress shown in Fig. 4(b), at ¶s=0.01% vary axial strain (%)
between 370 and 460 for the stress range 100-
570kPa the higher value corresponding to
p’=100-200kPa, indicating that p’ can be suc- 300 (c)
cessfully used as a normalising parameter. The p'=500 kPa
stiffness data derived from the p’=ct tests on
Corinth marl fall within the band of data ob- 200
u (kPa)

tained from in-situ measurements (Gmax=180-

200MPa at a depth of 12.5m) and the broader 280 kPa
band of data obtained from laboratory tests for 100 200 kPa
other stiff clays i.e. Vallericca clay [7] 145 kPa
(G=210MPa at p0’=430kPa), London clay [8]
(Gmax=149-176Mpa at a depth of 54-58m). 110 kPa
0
Moreover, values of about 180-240MPa were ob-
0 5 10 15 20 25
tained through bender element measurements, for axial strain (%)
a range of frequencies 30-50kHz, performed on
marl samples consolidated in the oedometer cell Figure 5. (a) stress paths, (b) stress-strain curves
at normal stresses 200-400kPa respectively. An and (c) excess pore pressure-strain curves
 V.N. Georgiannou et al. / Measurement of Stiffness of Greek Stiff Soils 189

unlike the typical behaviour of normally to a much narrower band compared with the
consolidated clays. However, the stress-strain Marl (Fig. 4(b)).
curves are flat and do not show brittleness at
least for axial strains up to 10%. The diagram of 350000 Marg4, p'=240 kPa, AC
excess pore water pressures shown in Fig. 5(c) Egn1, p'=240 kPa, IC
300000 lamia4, p'=200kPa, IC
indicates that dilative tendencies take over long
Marousi, p'=160 kPa, IC
before peak at about 5% axial strain. Such 250000
Moshato2, p'=200 kPa, IC
dilative tendencies can be attributed to the 200000 London Clay, p'=190 kPa, IC
dominance of silt in this soil. The samples after
slight bulging developed single slip surfaces at 150000
Gmax
50-530 to the horizontal followed by a conjugate 100000
surface at large strains.

G (kPa)
50000

150000 p'=500 kPa 0

p'=280 kPa 0,001 0,01 0,1 1 10
shear strain (%)
p'=200 kPa
p'=145 kPa
Figure 7. Stiffness values for all soils at a similar
100000
initial effective stress.
G (kPa)

p'=110 kPa

In Fig. 7 stiffness values are compared for the

50000
five soils at similar initial effective stresses.
(a) Similar stiffness variation is observed for both
normally consolidated materials, Moshato and
0 Lamia. The Gmax value (115±15MPa for a range
0,001 0,010 0,100 1,000 10,000
shear strain (%)
of effective stresses 100-200kPa) obtained for
Moshato samples in the oedometer via bender
800 p'=500 kPa elements is indicated by an arrow in this figure.
p'=280 kPa Much larger stiffnesses are associated with the
p'=200 kPa rest of the materials the values being pretty simi-
600
p'=145 kPa lar for shear strains larger than 0.005% to the
stiffness of the Marl discussed previously in de-
G/p' (kPa)

400
200
0 of around 30m at the site of Waterloo Interna-
0,001 0,010 0,100
shear strain (%)
Figure 6. (a) Variation of shear modulus with
strain and (b) variation of normalised shear
modulus with strain for Lamia.
In Fig. 6 the stiffness variation with strain is
shown for these tests. Strong non-linearity and
dependence on stress level is evident. The effect
of the latter is taken into account in Fig. 6(b)
where stiffness has been normalised with respect
to effective stress and the results are normalised
p'=110 kPa
tail. The stiffness measurements for London Clay
also included in Fig. 7 appear to form the lower
band for this bunch of materials. The specimen
of London Clay was obtained from rotary cored
(b) samples 100mm in diameter taken from a depth
1,000 10,000 tional Terminal and sheared in the triaxial at an
initial effective stress of 190kPa under undrained
conditions.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The present study has provided some insight
into the stress-strain behaviour of five natural
soils with Atterberg limits close to the A line.
The intact strength properties of two of the soils
have been studied: a high plasticity silt from La-
190 V.N. Georgiannou et al. / Measurement of Stiffness of Greek Stiff Soils

mia, Greece, and low plasticity Marl from the urements of the Crag and Lower London Tertiaries at
Sizewell, Geotechnique, 47 (1997), 451-474.
Corinth Canal. Both soils developed slip
surfaces, with the Marl exhibiting brittle
behaviour contrary to the less sensitive behaviour
of the soil from Lamia. Small strain
measurements have been used to define the
stiffness for all five soils. Stiffness non-linearity
is evidenced. With the exception of the normally
consolidated Moshato and Lamia soils, which
show smaller stiffness than the other soils, the
stiffnesses of the overconsolidated soils are
similar, at the same effective stress level, and fall
within the band of data obtained from laboratory
tests for stiff clays in the literature.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work presented in this paper was supported

by the NTUA under the PEVE 2009 Funding for
Basic Research scheme. This support is grate-
fully acknowledged.

REFERENCES

[1] V.N. Georgiannou, Tunnelling through varying soil

conditions in north-west Greece, Geotechnical
Engineering, 156 (2003), 97-104.
[2] M.J. Kavvadas, A. Anagnostopoulos, V.N. Georgian-
nou, M.E. Bardanis, Characterisation and engineering
properties of the Corinth marl, Proceedings of a Work-
shop on Characterisation and Engineering Properties of
Natural Soils, Singapore, T.S. Tan et al, (eds), A.A.
Balkema Publishers, 2 (2001), 1435-1459.
[3] A.W. Bishop, L.D. Wesley, A hydraulic triaxial appara-
tus for controlled stress path testing, Geotechnique, 25
(1975), No. 4, 657-670.
[4] J.B. Burland, M.J. Symes, A simple axial displacement
gauge for use in the triaxial apparatus, Geotechnique,
32 (1982), No. 1, 62-65.
[5] D.W. Hight, A simple piezometer probe for the routine
measurement of pore pressure in triaxial tests on satu-
rated soils, Geotechnique, 32 (1982), 396-401.
[6] J.B. Burland, S. Rampello, V.N. Georgiannou, G.
Calabresi, A laboratory study of the strength of four
stiff clays, Geotechnique, 46 (1996), 491-514.
[7] V.N. Georgiannou, S. Rampello, F. Silvestrii, Static and
Dynamic Measurements of Undrained Stiffness on
Natural Overconsolidated Clays, Proceedings, 10th
European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Founda-
tion Engineering, Firenze, 1 (1991), 91-95.
[8] D.W. Hight, J.D. Bennell, B. Chana, P.D. Davis, R.J.
Jardine, E. Porovic, Wave velocity and stiffness meas-
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 191
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-191

Laboratory measurement of shear stiffness of

decomposed granite
Mesures en laboratoire de la rigidité de cisaillement d’un granite
décomposé
X.Q. Gu & J. Yang 1
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT
Decomposed granite soils, formed by weathering of the parent rock, exist widely in many areas of the world. The mechanical
properties of this type of geomaterial, compared to clay and sand, are less extensively studied. In this study the small-strain shear
modulus (G0) of a decomposed granite soil in Hong Kong was measured for a variety of packing densities and confining pres-
sures, using the resonant column (RC) and bender element (BE) techniques, and the values of G0 obtained by the RC and BE
tests were compared to study the effect of test method. It is found that the small-strain shear modulus of the decomposed granite
soil is considerably lower than that of a benchmark quartz sand. Furthermore, the G0 values of the decomposed granite soil ob-
tained by the bender element tests are significantly higher than those measured by the resonant column tests, whereas for quartz
sand the two test methods are found to provide quite similar results.

RÉSUMÉ
Les sols granitiques décomposés, qui sont le produit de la désagrégation de la roche-mère, sont trouvés dans de nombreuses ré-
gions du monde. Les propriétés mécaniques de ce type de géomatériaux ont cependant été moins étudiées que celles de l'argile et
le sable. Les résultats de mesures du module de rigidité de cisaillement aux petites déformations (G0) d'un sol granitique décom-
posé de Hong Kong sont présentés ici pour une variété de densités et de pressions de confinement. Les essais ont été faits par co-
lonne de résonnance (RC) et en utilisant la méthode aux piézocéramiques dits « bender elements ». Les valeurs de G0 obtenues
par les RC et BE tests ont été comparées pour étudier l'effet de la méthode d'essai. Les résultats montrent que le module de ci-
saillement aux petites déformations du granite décomposé est généralement très inférieur à celui des sables quartzitiques. Les va-
leurs de G0 du granite décomposé obtenues par les tests aux piézocéramiques sont nettement supérieures à celles obtenues par les
essais par colonne de résonnance, alors que ces deux méthodes donnent des valeurs assez similaires quand elles sont appliquées
à un sable quartzitique.

Keywords: Shear modulus, wave velocity, bender element, resonant column, decomposed granite

1 INTRODUCTION corresponding shear modulus is referred to as the

It is well known that the shear modulus of soil
depends on the shear strain amplitude due to the
nonlinear behavior of soil in nature. However, at
strain levels below 0.001%, the response of soils
can be reasonably assumed to be elastic and the
1
Corresponding Author.
small strain shear modulus G0 or the maximum
shear modulus Gmax. The small-strain shear mod-
ulus is an important parameter in earthquake
ground response analysis and soil liquefaction
evaluation ([1-2]). This parameter also plays a
192 X.Q. Gu and J. Yang / Laboratory Measurement of Shear Stiffness of Decomposed Granite

key role in the deformations associated with ex- compression waves (P-wave). The apparatus can
cavations and foundations ([3]). accommodate a sample of 50 mm in diameter
Among various methods for laboratory mea- and 100 mm in height and has a cell pressure ca-
surement of shear modulus, the resonant column pacity of 1 MPa. The advantage of this apparatus
(RC) test is recognized to be most reliable. In re- lies in that BE and RC tests can be performed on
cent years, the bender element (BE) test involv- identical specimens, which makes the compari-
ing direct measurement of shear wave velocity son of test results of the two methods more mea-
becomes increasingly popular ([3-4]). Both me- ningful and reliable and benefit the signal inter-
thods have different advantages and limitations. pretation in BE tests [9-10].
For example, while the interpretation of RC tests
has been well established, the BE tests can be in-
corporated in various devices such as triaxial and
oedometer configurations. Nevertheless, the in-
terpretation of BE signals is somehow difficult
involving uncertainty ([5-6]).
In the past several decades, the stiffness of
soils at small strain has been studied extensively.
It is now widely accepted that the value of G0 of
a granular soil mainly depends on the void ratio
(or packing density) and the effective confining
pressure. Research also indicates that the value
of G0 depends on the particle size distribution
([7-8]).
Unlike ordinary soils, decomposed granite
soils are formed by weathering of the parent
rock. They exist widely in Hong Kong and many
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the apparatus used
other parts of the world, and are generally re-
garded as sandy soils. In this study, a series of
bender element and resonant column tests have
3 TEST MATERIAL AND PROCEDURES
been performed on a decomposed granite soil at
various densities and effective confining pres-
The soil in this study, referred to as completely
sures. The objective of the study is to improve
decomposed granite (CDG), was collected from
our understanding of the stiffness property of de-
a loose fill slope in Hong Kong. It is composed
composed soils at small strain.
mainly of quartz and feldspar. Figure 2 shows
the particle size distribution of the soil. The basic
properties are: specific gravity Gs = 2.64, D10 =
2 TEST EQUIPMENT
0.0035 mm, D50 = 0.60 mm, D60 = 0.83 mm,
coefficient of uniformity Cu = 237, coefficient of
A state-of-the-art apparatus incorporating the curvature Cc = 6.75. The fines content (particle
bender element, slow-rate torsional shear and re- size < 63 m) of the soil is 25.3%.
sonant column functions has been set up at the Each specimen was prepared by the moist
University of Hong Kong, and has been success- tamping method with 5 sub-layers. After sample
fully used in the study of the shear stiffness of preparation, a suction of 25 kPa was applied to
sands under various conditions ([9-10]). The ap- stand the sample and support the weight of the
paratus is schematically shown in Fig. 1. The RC driving arm of the RC. Then, the dimensions of
is of bottom-fixed and top-free configuration the sample were measured accurately and the ini-
with internal LVDT for the measurement of spe- tial void ratio was determined. Finally, the sam-
cimen axial deformation. The BE is able to gen- ple was flushed with CO2 and then with de-aired
erate not only shear waves (S-wave) but also
 X.Q. Gu and J. Yang / Laboratory Measurement of Shear Stiffness of Decomposed Granite 193

water. Back pressure was increased accordingly
to ensure the saturation of the sample until the
Skempton’s B value was higher than 0.95. In
each test, an isotropic effective confining pres-
sure was applied in four steps, namely 50, 100,
200 and 400 kPa. During consolidation, the axial
deformation and volume change of the sample
were measured. The void ratio of the sample dur-
ing consolidation was updated at each loading
stage. Then, BE and RC tests were performed to
determine G0 for each specified stress state.
100
80
Percentage passing (%)
determine the travel time ([4-6]). However, no
firm conclusion can be drawn as to which me-
thod is free from the near-field effect.
For dry and wet sand specimens Yang and Gu
[9-10] have shown that performing BE tests at a
range of frequencies is much helpful for signal
interpretation. Following this practice Figure 3
shows typical wave signals in a CDG specimen
at the confining pressure of 100 kPa and the void
ratio of 0.458, for frequencies ranging from 1 to
80 kHz. It is clear that the characteristics of
waveforms in the soil depend on frequency, im-
plying the frequency dependence of the shear
wave velocity in the soil. The near-field effect,
which is obvious at low frequencies, tends to de-

crease with increasing frequency. But, it does not

60 disappear even at very high frequencies where
the ratio of the travel distance to the wavelength
40 is much larger than two. Moreover, as the input
frequency increases, the fast P-wave ([10-11])
20 appears in the output signals.

0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
Sinusoidal
Particle size (mm) 1kHz Saturated
ı ' = 100 kPa
e = 0.458

Figure 2. Particle size distribution of the tested CDG 2kHz

5kHz

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

10kHz
Voltage

4.1 Wave signals in BE tests 20kHz

In BE tests, the small-strain modulus G0 is de- 30kHz

termined as follows
40kHz

L
G0   (Vs )   ( ) 2 2
(1)
t 80kHz

where ȡ is the mass density, Vs is the shear wave 508 !

s (from RC)

velocity, L and t are, respectively, the travel dis- 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
tance and travel time of the shear wave. It is well Time (ȝs)
agreed that the distance between the tips of pie-
zoelectric transducers can be taken as the travel Figure 3. Typical output signals with sinusoidal inputs at dif-
ferent frequencies
distance L. However, the determination of the
By analyzing the characteristics of output sig-
travel time t is somehow difficult and subjective,
nals in a whole view and using signals at 10 and
due primarily to the near-field effect. Various
20 kHz specifically, it is reasonable to determine
methods, such as the start-to-start method and the
that the S-wave travel time is around 398 !s. By
cross-correlation method, have been proposed to
194 X.Q. Gu and J. Yang / Laboratory Measurement of Shear Stiffness of Decomposed Granite

comparison, the travel time deduced from the RC

test on the same specimen is around 508 !s, im- 300
plying that the effect of test method may exist for
0.52
the soil tested. 250
BE: y = 12.52x
2
R = 0.99

4.2 Comparison of RC and BE measurements 200

G0 (MPa)
The effect of confining pressure on the small- 150
strain shear modulus of the CDG is shown in
Figure 4 for a specimen at the initial void ratio of 100
0.475. Both BE and RC measurements show that RC: y = 7.52x
0.54

G0 values increase with confining pressure at a 50 R2 = 0.99

power function. Particularly, it is found that G0
values from BE tests are consistently larger than 0
0 100 200 300 400
RC measurements over the range of pressures.
Note that the mass density in converting S-wave Effective confining pressure ı' (kPa)

velocity to shear modulus is an effective density Figure 4. Small-strain shear modulus from BE and RC tests
rather than the saturated mass density in order to as a function of confining pressure (e =~0.458)
account for the coupling effect on elastic wave
propagation in porous media ([10-11]). 160
To account for both pressure and void ratio ef-
BE: y=70.51x0.44
fects, a general empirical expression for sand (R2=0.97)
120
([12]) is adopted here to analyze the test data:
G0/F(e) (MPa)

'
G0  AF (e)(
80
)n (2)
Pa
40
RC: y=43.51x0.47
where A is a constant reflecting soil properties
(R2=0.98)
and fabric, ı’ is the effective confining pressure
(in kPa), pa is a reference stress of 98 kPa, n is a 0
stress exponent, and F(e) = (2.17-e)2/(1+e) is a 0 1 2 3 4 5
Normalized pressure ı'/Pa
void ratio function reflecting the effect of pack-
ing density. Note that here G0 value are in MPa. Figure 5. Normalized small-strain shear modulus from BE
Figure 5 shows the normalized small-strain and RC tests
modulus G0/F(e) as a function of the normalized
pressure ı’/pa. Generally, the relation expressed Table 1 Fitting results of small-strain modulus for CDG and
in Equation (2) works for the CDG as well. The Toyoura sand
fitting parameters are given in Table 1. The stress Reference Soil Method Fitting parameters
exponent n is determined to be 0.44 for BE test A n
data and 0.47 for RC data; both values are This study CDG RC 43.5 0.47
BE 70.5 0.44
slightly higher than that for a benchmark quartz [9] Toyoura RC 92.5 0.41
sand, Toyoura sand, see Table 1. However, the BE 95.1 0.41
value of the constant A for the CDG is signifi- [7] Toyoura RC 88.2 0.40
cantly lower than that for Toyoura sand, meaning
that the stiffness of the CDG is quite smaller than
the quartz sand. One of possible explanations for
this observation is that the CDG tested is very
well graded with a large coefficient of uniformity.
 X.Q. Gu and J. Yang / Laboratory Measurement of Shear Stiffness of Decomposed Granite 195

400 fines content of about 25%, whereas Toyoura

sand has very uniform sizes (Cu=~1.39) without
y = 1.526x + 8.89 any fines. It is interesting to note that Souto et al.
R2 = 0.991
300 [13] had a similar observation in testing crushed
rock with grain size greater than 8 mm for road
G0 (BE) (MPa)

pavements. More data of high quality is needed

200
to study this issue.

100
5 CONCLUSIONS

0 The small-strain shear modulus (G0) of a decom-

0 100 200 300 400 posed granite soil was studied by means of the
G0 (RC) (MPa)
resonant column and bender element tests for a
Figure 6. BE test results versus RC test results: CDG
range of packing densities and confining pres-
sures. Comparisons were made between the stiff-
ness values obtained from these two methods.
300
The main results of the study are summarized as
follows:
250
(a) The G0 values of the decomposed granite
G0(BE)=1.1G0(RC)
200 soil obtained by BE tests are consistently
G0 (BE) (MPa)

higher than those obtained by RC tests.

150
100
G0(BE)=0.9G0(RC)
50
Toyoura sand
0
0 50 100 150 200 250
G0 (RC) (MPa)
Figure 7. BE test results versus RC test results: Toyoura sand
Figures 4 and 5 have shown that BE tests on
the CDG yield G0 values being significantly
larger than RC test results. Note that this effect
of test method was not observed on Toyoura
sand [9-10]. To have a further comparison, Fig-
ure 6 presents G0 values of the CDG obtained by
BE tests against those by RC tests, and Figure 7
shows the BE and RC data for Toyoura sand.
The values of G0 obtained for the CDG by BE
are around 52.8% higher than the RC measure-
ments, whereas the two methods offer quite simi-
lar results for Toyoura sand. This finding sug-
gests that the effect of test method may depend
on particle properties of soils, particularly on the
particle size distribution. Note that the CDG
tested has a wide range of particle sizes with a
The two methods however offer nearly
same results for benchmark quartz sand.
This finding suggests that the effect of test
method depends on the soil properties (e.g.,
particle size and uniformity coefficient).
(b) The G0 values of the decomposed granite
300
soil are about 50% (based on RC data) to
75% (based on BE data) of that for
benchmark quartz sand under similar test-
ing conditions, due probably to that the
granite soil is well graded with a large
range of grain sizes.
(c) The existing empirical expression for the
small-strain stiffness for sands, accounting
for both pressure and density effects,
works for the decomposed granite soil as
well. The stress exponent n determined for
the decomposed granite soil is in the range
reported in the literature for sands, but the
value of the constant A is significantly
lower.
(d) The near-field effect in BE tests on the de-
composed granite soil tends to decrease as
the input frequency increases, but it does
not disappear even at much higher travel
distance-to-wavelength ratios. Performing
BE tests at a wide range of frequencies can
196 X.Q. Gu and J. Yang / Laboratory Measurement of Shear Stiffness of Decomposed Granite
help determine the travel time of S-wave
with an increased reliability.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work presented in this paper was supported
by the University of Hong Kong under the Seed
Funding for Basic Research scheme. This sup-
port is highly acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1] R. D. Andrus and K. H. II. Stokoe, Liquefaction resis-
tance of soils from shear-wave velocity, Journal of
Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 126
(2000), 1015–1025.
[2] J. Yang and X.R. Yan, Site response to multi-
directional earthquake loading: a practical procedure,
Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 29 (2009),
710–721.
[3] J. H. Atkinson, Non-linear soil stiffness in routine de-
sign, Géotechnique 50 (2000), 487-508.
[4] E. G. M. Brignoli, M. Gotti and K. H. II. Stokoe, Mea-
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[5] V. Jovicic, M. R. Coop and M. Simic, Objective criteria
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[6] J.-S. Lee and J. C. Santamarina, Bender element, per-
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[7] T. Iwasaki and F. Tatsuoka, Effect of grain size and
grading on dynamic shear moduli of sand, Soils and
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[8] T. Wichtmann and T. Triantafyllidis, Influence of the
grain-size distribution curve of quartz sand on small
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[9] J. Yang and X.Q. Gu, Dynamic shear modulus of dry
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[10] J. Yang and X.Q. Gu, Measurement of shear waves in
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[11] M. A. Biot, Theory of propagation of elastic waves in a
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[12] B. O. Hardin and F. E. Richart, Elastic wave velocities
in granular soils, Journal of Soil Mechanics and Foun-
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[13] A. Souto, J. Hartikainen, and K. Ozudogru, Measure-
ment of dynamic parameters of road pavement mate-
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Géotechnique 44 (1994), 519–526.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 197
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-197

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 203
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-203

Laterally cyclic loading of monopile in dense sand

Chargement lateral cyclique de monopile dens le sable dense
R. T. Klinkvort1, O. Hededal and M. Svensson
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

ABSTRACT
In order to investigate the response from laterally cyclic loading of monopiles a large centrifuge tests series is ongoing at the
Technical University of Denmark (DTU). This paper will present some of the tests carried out with a focus on the influence of
accumulation of rotation when changing the loading conditions. In these tests the load conditions are controlled by two load
characteristics, one controlling the level of the cyclic loading and one controlling the characteristic of the cyclic loading. The
centrifuge tests were performed in dense dry sand on a pile with prototype dimensions as following: The diameter of the pile was
d = 2 m, the penetration depth of the pile was L = 6 d = 12 m and a load eccentricity of e = 15 d = 30 m. The loading of the pile
was performed with a load setup which applies the load on the monopile in a manner that corresponds to the load condition for a
monopile used for wind turbine foundation. This is important in order to get the right failure mechanism in the sand. The load
frame is controlled with a feedback system which enables force controlled load series. A total number of 8 tests have been car-
ried. In all of the tests, the pile was loaded with 500 load controlled cycles and for the entire test series accumulation of rotation
was seen.

RÉSUMÉ
Afin d'étudier la réponse de chargement latéral cyclique de monopieux, une importante série d'essais en centrifugeuse est en
cours à l'Université technique du Danemark (DTU). Ce document présente quelques-uns des tests effectués avec un accent sur
l'influence de l'accumulation de rotations pour des conditions de chargement variables. Dans ces essais, les conditions de charge
sont contrôlées par deux caractéristiques de charge, une contrôlant le niveau de la charge cyclique et l’autre contrôlant l'orienta-
tion du chargement cyclique. Les essais en centrifugeuse ont été effectués sur un pieu situé dans du sable dense et sec ; le pieu a
les dimensions suivantes : d = 2 m de diamètre, profondeur de L = 6 d = 12 m et excentricité de la charge de e = 15 d = 30 m.
Le chargement du pieu a été réalisé avec une configuration de charge qui applique la charge sur le monopieu d'une manière cor-
respondant au chargement rencontré lors de l’utilisation d’un monopieu comme fondation d’une éolienne. Ceci est important afin
d’obtenir le mécanisme de rupture correct dans le sable. Ce cadre de chargement est contrôlé à l’aide d’un système de rétroaction
qui permet des séries de chargement contrôlées par la force. Un total de 8 essais a été effectué. Dans tous les tests, le pieu a été
chargé avec 500 cycles contrôlés par la force et une accumulation de la rotation a pu être notée pour toute la série de tests.

Keywords: Foundations, monopiles, centrifuge testing, sand, load-amplitude effects

1
Corresponding Author.
204 R.T. Klinkvort et al. / Laterally Cyclic Loading of Monopile in Dense Sand
1 INTRODUCTION
Monopiles are today one of the most popular
foundation methods for offshore wind turbines.
The monopile is a single large diameter tubular
steel pile driven 5 to 6 times the diameter into the
seabed. The water depth for installation of wind
turbines is increasing. The design methodology
for monopiles therefore needs a reformulation if
the monopile concept shall succeed into deeper
waters. Monopiles for wind turbines are affected
by lateral loads from waves and winds which
subject the pile at seabed with shear forces and
corresponding moments due to the load eccen-
tricity. The design for these loads is today done
by model the pile as a beam and the soil as a sys-
tem of uncoupled non-linear springs. From this
e.g. rotation of the monopile can be calculated.
This method has successfully been used in pile
design for offshore oil and gas platforms. The
design methodology originates from tests on long
slender piles, [1] & [2]. In the case of monopile
foundation for wind turbines the relationship
proposed by [3], showed in equation 1, is often
used. Even though these curves were originally
calibrated to slender piles, they are still used for
design of large diameter monopiles with a slen-
derness ratio L/D as low as 5. With a slenderness
ratio of 5 the monopile for wind turbine founda-
tion acts as a stiff pile. Therefore it is relevant to
investigate the behaviour of stiff piles in more
detail. The tests series presented in this paper are
a part of a program that intends to investigate the
response of monopiles subjected to cyclic loads.
2 SCOPE OF WORK
The loading condition for a monopile for off-
shore wind turbines is dominated by environ-
mental loads from waves and wind. These loads
act on the monopile in a cyclic manner with a
variation in amplitude as well as orientation. This
study investigates the effect from load orienta-
tion and amplitude. For the design of a monopile
foundation for wind turbines, three issues are
important; the accumulation of rotation, the
change in secant stiffness and the damping in the
soil. Here we will focus on the accumulation of
the rotation.
3 DESIGN METHODOLOGY
The design method for sand presented here [3] is
based on the formulation proposed by [4]. As de-
scribed, the pile is modelled as a beam and the
soil is modelled as non-linear springs. The for-
mulation of the spring also known as the p-y re-
lationship is typically for sand approximated by
௞ή௭
‫ ݌‬ൌ ‫ ܣ‬ή ‫݌‬௨ ή ‫ ݄݊ܽݐ‬ቂ஺ή௣ ‫ݕ‬ቃ (1)
ೠ
The value k represents the initial subgrade reac-
tion modulus and z is the distance to soil surface.
pu is the ultimate soil resistance as determined by
plasticity theory. A is an empirical constant
which is used to fit the test results with theory.
For static loading A = (3.0-0.8X/ D) ≥ 0.9. For
cyclic loading A = 0.9. The non-linear system is
typically defined and solved using an FE pro-
gram.
4 EXPERIMENTS
The centrifuge test program was performed with
a solid steel pile. The pile was made of a 24 mm
steel core with a 2 mm epoxy coating leading to
a total diameter of d = 28 mm. The load eccen-
tricity e and the penetration depth of the pile was
also kept constant as e = 15d and L = 6d. The re-
sponse of the pile is influenced by load eccen-
tricity and penetration depth which was shown in
[5]. Therefore a load setup which applies the
load in a way similar to a wind turbine founda-
tion is used. A more detail description of the test
setup is given in [6]. A sketch of the pile with
definitions is shown in figure 1.The centrifuge is
used to increase the gravity so soil stresses corre-
sponds to a pile with a diameter of 2 meters.
Scaling laws for the test are quite standard, see
e.g. [7].
 R.T. Klinkvort et al. / Laterally Cyclic Loading of Monopile in Dense Sand 205

thus a measure of how close the cyclic loading is

to the maximum bearing capacity, and ]c is defin-
ing the characteristic of the cyclic loading. From
these non-dimensional parameters a test program
was designed. The procedure for the test program
was to start with a monotonic test (T1). From this
test the maximum bearing capacity was found.
Then four cyclic tests were performed changing
]c, the load orientation (T2-T5). From these four
tests the most critical load orientation was found
and used for the last four cyclic tests (T3, T6-
T8). In this test series the effect of load ampli-
tude is investigated by changing ]b. A total num-
ber of eight centrifuge tests were carried out -
one monotonic and 7 cyclic. All cyclic tests were
carried out with 500 cycles except one of the test
Figure 1. Sketch of pile which was performed with 1000 cycles (T7).

The static and all cyclic tests were performed 4.1 Installation of piles
in dry Fontainebleau sand. The classification pa-
rameters shown in Table 1 are taken from [7]. After the sand is prepared the piles are jacked in-
to the soil at 1g. Figure 2 shows the jacking force
Table 1. Classification parameters for the Fontainebleau sand
measured during installation. It can be seen that
Specific gravity of particles, Gs 2.646 the sand samples are homogeneous and that de-
Minimum void ratio, emin 0.548 viation can be attributed mainly to the variation
Maximum void ratio, emax 0.859
Average grain size, d50, in mm 0.18 in void ratio. From this it is concluded that the
Coefficient of uniformity, Cu 1,6 soil samples for all the performed tests can be as-
sumed identical. The installation data of T6 was
The test pile has a diameter of 22 mm. This not recorded - the relative density for this test
leads to a “model diameter/grain size diameter” was found to ID=0.84.
ratio of 22/0.18 = 122. This ratio should be large
enough to avoid particle size effects when apply-
ing the artificial gravity field according to the
observations described in [8].
A spot pouring hopper was used for the prepa-
ration of the sand sample. After the sand is pre-
pared, the pile is installed at 1 g. Only one test is
carried out per soil sample.
A set of non-dimensional parameters are used
to describe the applied cyclic loads. This ap-
proach is similar to the one chosen by [9].

ு೘ೌೣ ு೘೔೙ Figure 2. Monotonic test results.

ߞ௕ ൌ ǡߞ௖ ൌ  (2)
ு೘೚೙ ு೘ೌೣ
4.2 Monotonic test
Here, Hmon is the maximum bearing capacity
The monotonic test (T1) was performed as a de-
found from a monotonic test, Hmin is the mini-
formation controlled test where the pile was
mum force in cyclic loading and Hmax is the max-
moved at a constant rate until a displacement of
imum force in cyclic loading. The value ]b is
one diameter at sand surface was reached. The
206 R.T. Klinkvort et al. / Laterally Cyclic Loading of Monopile in Dense Sand

displacement, the applied force and the rotation maxima and minima from every cycle can be
were recorded. In Figure 3 the result from the found.
monotonic load test can be seen. Here the rota-
tion of the pile top is plotted against the applied
force. As it can be seen from the figure no max-
imum capacity is reached. Therefore a rotation
criterion was used for define the failure.

Figure 4. Load deflection result for cyclic test T3.

When the extremes are found, deflection, rota-

Figure 3. Monotonic test results.
The failure is defined at a rotation of 4 degrees =
0.0698 rad. The maximum prototype load is thus
found to be Hmon=2295 kN. The Winkler model
is here fitted to the monotonic test and shows
therefore a good agreement with the experi-
ments. For comparison, the load-displacement
curve for cyclic loading is also shown at figure 3.
Note that the design methodology leads to a gen-
eral reduction in capacity of stiffness, but does
not take load orientation, load level and number
of cycles into account for cyclic loading.
tion, damping and secant stiffness from every
cycle can be determined. Figure 5 shows the
maximum rotation from every cycle of test T3.
The accumulation of rotation may be fitted to a
power function, see equation (3). This corre-
sponds with observations done in [10].
ఏ೘ೌೣǡಿ
ൌ ܰఈ (3)
ఏ೘ೌೣǡభ
Some scatter in the data can be seen, but the
power function seems to capture the accumula-
tion of rotation quite well, see Figure 5. This is
the case for all the cyclic tests performed in this
test series.

4.3 Cyclic tests

With the maximum capacity found from the
monotonic test, the values for the cyclic testing
can be determined. The cyclic loading is carried
out using a feedback control system. A sinusoi-
dal signal is generated according to the non-
dimensional parameters wanted. Due to the feed-
back control system it is not always that the pile
response is exactly as wanted. This can lead to
difference between the measured non-
dimensional parameters and the planned. Figure 5. Maximum rotation from every cycle, test T3
In figure 4 an example of a cyclic test series is
shown. A small difference in maximum and min- From Figure 5, it can be seen that an asymp-
imum values can be seen. This is due to difficul- totic value of the rotation is not reached. Even
ties in the feedback control. From a test like this for test number T7 with 1000 identical cycles it
 R.T. Klinkvort et al. / Laterally Cyclic Loading of Monopile in Dense Sand 207

was not possible to assess that an asymptotic 4.3.2 Load amplitude, ]b

value was reached. Hence, tests with an even Having identified the most critical load orien-
larger number of cycles should be carried out in tation, the effect from the load amplitude was in-
order to get a more reliable estimate on the ac- vestigated. The non-dimensional cyclic parame-
cumulation law. ters and the results from the four tests can be
seen in Table 4.
4.3.1 Load orientation, ]c Table 4. Centrifuge test program, N = number of cycles
To investigate the load orientation, four cyclic
]c ]b N D Test nr.
tests was performed. Recently, [9] reported that a
-0.36 0.08 500 0.0132 T6
]c value of -0.6 was the most critical one, based -0.31 0.20 500 0.0406 T7
on tests carried out as 1g test. -0.41 0.30 500 0.0696 T3
-0.46 0.38 500 0.1148 T8
Table 3. Centrifuge test program, N = number of cycles
]c ]b N D Test nr. It is clear that an increase in amplitude leads to
-0.84 0.28 500 0.0154 T2 an increase in accumulation of rotation. Even
-0.41 0.30 500 0.0696 T3
0.17 0.30 500 0.0307 T4 though it has not been possible to keep ]c con-
0.55 0.30 500 0.0227 T5 stant for the four tests, it is seen in Figure 8 that
the deviation does not seem to affect the result. A
To investigate this, four tests were performed, power function seems to be a good approxima-
with the non-dimensional cyclic parameters as tion. This deviates with the 1g experiments from
listed in Table 3. ]b is more or less kept constant [9], where a linear relationship is reported. The
and the influence from changing ]c can therefore power function furthermore ensures that no ac-
be seen. cumulations occur for a ]b=0 which seems more
appropriate.
The power function can be written as:

ߙሺߞ௕ ǡ ߞ௖ ሻ ൌ ‫ ܣ‬ή ߞ௕ ஻ሺ఍೎ሻ (4)

A and B was found to A=0.4 and B ]c=-0.41=1.37.

The value A is independent of the load orienta-
tion and amplitude.

Figure 7. Load orientation effects from cyclic tests.

The results from the power fit of the first four

cyclic tests can be seen in Table 3 and Figure 7.
It confirms the observation made by [9]. A cyclic
load situation between one-way and two loading
results in larger accumulation of rotation com-
pared with pure one-way loading. It was there-
fore chosen to continue the cyclic testing with a Figure 8. Rotational accumulation parameter.
]c=-0.4. The value B can be found and calculated from
Figure 7 in the following way.
208 R.T. Klinkvort et al. / Laterally Cyclic Loading of Monopile in Dense Sand
First the D-value for a given load orientation is
found using Figure 7. This value is used in Equa-
tion 5 with the A value found from the test on
load amplitude effects.
ഀሺഅ೎ ሻ
௟௡ቀ ቁ
బǤర
‫ܤ‬ሺߞ௖ ሻ ൌ
୪୬ሺ଴Ǥଷሻ
When B is found, Equation 4 can be used to de-
termine the rotational accumulation parameter D
for the given load situation.
5 EXAMPLE
The maximum rotation is wanted for a 2 m in di-
ameter monopile. The cyclic loading is pure one-
way loading (]c=0) and has and amplitude of
25% of the maximum bearing capacity (]b=0.25).
The pile is subjected to 107 cycles which is the
fatigue limit state. The maximum bearing capaci-
ty was found to be H=2295 kN, giving Hmax =
2295 . 0.25 = 574 kN. The maximum rotation for
this load for the first cycle can then be found
from Figure 3 as: ߠ௠௔௫ǡଵ ൌ ͲǤͲͲͺ. From Figure
7, the rotational accumulation parameter Dfor
]c=0 can be found to D=0.04. This is used in
Equation 5, and the B value is found to:
బǤబరሻ
௟௡ቀ ቁ [4] J. M. Murchison & M. W. O’Neill, Soil modulus for
బǤర
‫ܤ‬ൌ ൌ ʹǤͻ
୪୬ሺ଴Ǥଷሻ
The rotational accumulation parameter D, for the
given load situation (]b=0.25) can then be calcu-
lated by Equation 4:
ߙ ൌ ͲǤͶ ή ͲǤʹͷଶǤଽ ൌ ͲǤͲͲ͹
The maximum rotation for the monopile subject-
ed to 107 cycles can then be found using equation
3 to:
ߠ௠௔௫ ൌ ͲǤͲͲͺ ή ሺͳͲ଻ ሻ଴Ǥ଴଴଻ ൌ ͲǤͲͲͻ‫݀ܽݎ‬
6 CONCLUSIONS
A series of cyclic centrifuge tests was carried out
at the geotechnical centrifuge at DTU. One of the
key issues for the design of a monopile for wind
turbine was investigated. It was clearly seen that
(5) the accumulation of rotation is highly affected by
the characteristic of the cyclic loading, and by
the load amplitude. A design procedure for
monopile with a diameter of 2 m has been given
and can be applied for any load amplitude, orien-
tation and number of cycles. This is not the case
for the current design methodology.
All the cyclic tests do not reach a steady state
and it can therefore be concluded that 500 cycles
is not enough. This should therefore be increased
in further cyclic centrifuge tests.
REFERENCES
[1] L. C. Reese & H. Matlock, Dimensional Solutions for
Laterally Loaded Piles with Soil Pile Modulus As-
sumed Proportional to depth, Proceedings of the 8 th
Conference on Soil Mechanics (1956), 1-41
[2] B. McClelland & J. A. Focht, Soil modulus for laterally
loaded piles, Journal of the soil mechanics and founda-
tion division – Proceedings of the American Society of
Civil Engineers (1958), 1-22
[3] API RP 2A-WSD, Recommended Practice for Plan-
ning, Designing and Constructing Fixed Offshore Plat-
forms - Working Stress Design (2000)
(5) laterally loaded piles in sand, Journal of Geotechnical
Engineering Vol.120 (1984), 174-191
[5] R. T. Klinkvort C. T Leth & O. Hededal, Centrifuge
modeling of a laterally cyclic loaded pile, International
Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics - 7th,
(2010), 959-964
[6] R. T. Klinkvort, Centrifuge modelling of monopiles,
Geotechnical Engineering 20, View of Young European
(6) Geotechnical Engineers (2010)
[7] C. T Leth, A. Krogsbøll & O. Hededal, Centrifuge fa-
cilities at Danish Technical University, 15th Nordic
Geotechnical Meeting (2008)
[8] J. Garnier et al., Catalogue of scaling laws and simili-
tude questions in centrifuge modelling, International
Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Vol 7 III
(2007)
(7) [9] C. Leblanc, G. T. Houlsby & B. W. Byrne, Response of
stiff piles in sand to long-term cyclic lateral loading,
Géotechnique 60 no 2 (2010), 79-90
[10] R. T. Klinkvort & O. Hededal, Centrifuge modelling of
offshore monopile foundation, Frontiers in Offshore
Geotechnics II (2010), 581-586
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 209
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-209

Evaluation of initial stiffness of natural

overconsolidated cohesive soils
Evaluation de la rigidité initiale des sols naturels, preconsolidés,
cohérents
‡!Š!•“–{ 1
Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Warsaw, Poland
W. ˜€–{
GEOTEKO Geotechnical Consultants Ltd., Poland

ABSTRACT
The paper concerns evaluation of initial stiffness in natural overconsolidated cohesive soils of various plasticity ranging from 10
to 80 %. Initial stiffness is here represented by shear modulus Gmax determined on the basis of shear wave velocity measured at
the end of consolidation stage during triaxial test. On the basis of representative number of tests it was shown that change in ini-
tial stiffness caused by mean effective stress increase is a soil kind dependent and can be described as a function of plasticity in-
dex. Some consideration concerning value of shear modulus for unconfined are also included. Thus, knowing both the above
components it is possible to evaluate initial stiffness of overconsolidated cohesive soils solely on the basis of index properties.

RÉSUMÉ

L’article comporte une etude de la rigidité initiale des sols naturels, preconsolidés, cohérents de la plasticité variable de 10%
jusqu’a 80%. La rigidité initiale est défini ici comme le module de cisaillement Gmax déterminé sur la base de la vitesse d’onde
de cisaillement mesurée à la fin de la phase de consolidation au cours d’essai triaxial. Sur la base du nombre représentatif
d’études on a montré que le changement de la rigidité initiale due à l’increment de la contrainte effective dépend du type de sol
et peut etre décri par la fonction de l’indice de plasticité. L’article contient également quelques réflexions sur la valeur de la rigi-
dité initiale en absence du stress latéral. De cette manière, prenant en compte ces deux éléments, on peut évaluer la rigidité ini-
tiale des sols preconsolidés cohérents seulement sur la base des propriétés physiques.

Keywords : shear modulus, shear wave velocity, overconsolidated natural soils, various plasticity

1 INTRODUCTION progress in enhanced quality of shear wave ve-

An interest in evaluation of initial stiffness of
soils on the basis of shear wave velocity mea-
surement has considerably increased during the
last three decades. This popularity results from a
few facts. The first one is an advantage of small
strain range to which a measurement is referred,
so on the basis of theory of elasticity initial shear
modulus Gmax can be simply calculated. The
second reason is associated with a considerable
locity measurement. This results from wide ap-
plication of bender elements in geotechnical la-
boratories [1] and large improvement in methods
of identification of an arriving signal [2][3]. The
third cause is a need for increased objectivity of
conventional geotechnical tests by accompanying
independent nondestructive measurements car-
ried out on the same soil, thus mechanical para-
meters determined during tests can be related to
measured values of shear wave velocity. At last

1
Corresponding Author
210 M.J. Lipiński and W. Tymiński / Evaluation of Initial Stiffness
but not least it should be emphasized that shear
wave velocity can be measured in the laboratory
and in the field, what considerably magnifies its
usefulness.
All the above advantages creates sound pre-
mises for use of shear wave velocity measure-
ment as a versatile tool in solution of practical
geotechnical engineering problems. This requires
experience in measurement of shear wave veloci-
ty in natural soils. However, the majority of geo-
technical papers concerning measurement of
shear wave velocity do not refer to overconsoli-
dated natural material. Those papers focus on re-
constituted academic sands [4] or soft cohesive
materials [5]. Little is known about natural over-
consolidated cohesive material which in the past
were very often subjected to complicated stress
history. Influence of stress history on evaluation
of very small strain stiffness has been addressed
in many works [6]. Majority of relationships
which have been proposed on the basis of expe-
rimental data consist of four elements depending
on: effective state of stress, void ratio, stress his-
tory, material constants.
Effective stress can be represented by effec-
tive component of vertical stress, mean stress or
separated vertical and horizontal stress. Void ra-
tio is taken into consideration in the form of var-
ious function depending on the kind of soil.
Stress history is usually represented by overcon-
solidation ratio related to vertical (OCR) or mean
effective stress (Ro). However, there are opinion
that effect of overconsolidation is to large extent
taken into account by void ratio function and ho-
rizontal stress component. There are few works
which consistently account for kind of soil [7]. In
this case kind of material is split among expo-
nents of stress and overconsolidation ratio (less
important) and factor A which varies significant-
ly with plasticity index. Just plasticity index is
the parameter which can change value of A, and
thus initial stiffness of a soil, even several times
over the range of plasticity feasible to appear in
natural soils.
In case of natural subsoil many different mate-
rials of various plasticity can be distinguished.
This fact makes difficult to select relevant value
of stiffness for load carrying structure. Therefore
it seems advisable to look for certain regularities
which might help to select representative value
of stiffness in a layered subsoil. This paper fo-
cuses on initial stiffness of natural overconsoli-
dated cohesive materials of various plasticity in-
dex ranging from 10 to 80%. Experimental data
created a basis for derivation of formula for ini-
tial stiffness of natural overconsolidated material
on the basis of index properties.
2 MATERIAL AND METHODS
Soil for tests were sampled in undisturbed state
(standard shelby tube) from various sites located
all other Poland. The soils are of Quarternary and
Tertiary origin. In general, soil was sampled
from upper moraine deposits, the lower pregla-
cial deposits and Pliocene clays. Laboratory tests
indicated that all soil can be classified as clays of
various plasticity from low through medium to
high in case of Pliocene clays. Wide range of
plasticity of tested soil is depicted on Casa-
grande's chart shown in Figure 1.
Figure1. Casagrande's plasticity chart of tested soils.
State of soil measured by liquidity index IL
oscillated around zero, with small positive values
for low plasticity soil and small negative value
for high plasticity clays. These values of liquidity
™ “  €   šžy range
1700÷2000 kPa. So it is quite clear that material
is stiff and heavy overconslidated.
All tests were carried out in triaxial apparatus
having cell with internal linking bars. Undis-
turbed material was set up in the cell, then satu-
rated by back pressure method to achieve full sa-
turation and then consolidated to predetermined
isotropic stress. Some of specimens were con-
 M.J. Lipiński and W. Tymiński / Evaluation of Initial Stiffness 211

solidated in stages. At the end of each consolida-

tion stage shear wave velocity was measured.
Laboratory equipment for shear wave velocity is
shown in Figure 2.
Oscilloscope
Preamp

Computer
Triaxial
Receiver cell Figure 3. Test results.
Source
IP < 30%
Wave generator 30 < IP <60%
IP> 60%
Figure 2. Laboratory setup for shear wave velocity measure- There are a few observation which can be
ment.
done on the basis of these data. The data cover
quite wide range of void ratio (0.3÷0.85), range
of stress (20÷600kPa) and shear wave velocity
3 TEST RESULTS
(150÷450m/s).
Regarding relationship between shear wave
Any presentation of the data should account for
velocity and mean effective stress the data
major variables contributing to state of soil. For a
among plasticity ranges differs significantly. The
given soil these variables are state of stress and
data clearly indicate that shear wave velocity in-
void ratio. Therefore the shear wave velocity da-
creases when plasticity decreases. It can be also
ta are shown in Figure 3 in the form of the fol-
noticed that for a given stress range a gradient of
lowing relationships:
shear wave velocity increases with plasticity in-
- Shear wave velocity against effective stress
dex decrease. It should be emphasized that trends
- Void ratio against shear wave velocity
for all three groups of data are curvilinear. Lower
Since one of the major objective of the paper was
plasticity soils show higher curvilinear trend of
evaluation of soil kind component contribution to
the data. For all soils a curvature of a trend line is
stiffness of soil, the data have been divided into
bigger for smaller stress (ie. less than 100kPa). It
three categories corresponding to various ranges
would be more convenient to analyze trends in
of plasticity index IP i.e
the form of straight lines. It can be done by con-
sidering elastic constant shear modulus G instead
of shear wave velocity. The conversion is based
on the well known formula derived from theory
of elasticity:
G   Vs2 (1)
_€$!
It can be discussed if modulus derived from
shear wave velocity should be marked with sym-
bol G0 or Gmax. For heavy overconsolidated soils
symbol Gmax seems to be quite adequate. In Fig-
ure 4 values of shear modulus Gmax determined
on the basis of shear wave velocity are shown
against mean effective stress. As it was antic-
212 M.J. Lipiński and W. Tymiński / Evaluation of Initial Stiffness

ipated the regression lines for each category of 60÷70%

plasticity are straight. The major observation re- 70÷80% very high plasticity
sulting from the chart is that plasticity index con- 80÷90%
trols to large extent an initial stiffness over the Values of shear modulus Gmax against mean
range of stress which can be encountered in the effective stress in these nine groups of plasticity
routine design. Especially as far as low to me- index are shown in Figure 5.
dium plasticity soils are concerned. On the con-
trary, high plasticity soils show relatively small
change in initial stiffness due to normal stress in-
crease.

Figure 5. Gmax against mean effective stress in 9 categories of

plasticity index of natural overconsolidated soils

Linear regression for each category of plas-

Figure 4. Change in initial stiffness due to stress increase for ticity index are also shown in the Figure 5. In
natural overconsolidated soils. spite of scatter of the data, what is explainable in
natural soils, slopes of regression lines exhibit
certain regularity. Applicability of linear regres-
4 ANALYSIS OF THE DATA sion of the data offers advantage of possibility to
characterize shear modulus increase due to stress
application by a single number i.e. slope of the
4.1 Increase of Gmax due to stress application trend line. These slopes (k) are shown in Figure 6
Three arbitrary imposed categories of points against plasticity index. Trend line in the form of
shown in Figure 4 reflects soils of low to me- power function is applied to fit the data.
dium, high and very high plasticity. Since range
of plasticity reaches almost 90 % the data were
divided proportionally to plasticity index. It can
be deduced from the chart that distribution of
shear modulus gradient against these three cate-
gories is not linear. Therefore it is worth trying to
better describe change of initial shear modulus
Gmax against normal stress and with respect to
plasticity index.
In order to realize this the data were divided
into 9 groups characterized by various range of Figure 6. Slope k against plasticity index.
plasticity index IP. These ranges are as follows:
8÷15% The formula describing change of slope
15÷20% low and medium plasticity against plasticity takes the following form:
20÷30%
30÷40% k  41
I P1.57 (2)
40÷50% high plasticity
50÷60%
 M.J. Lipiński and W. Tymiński / Evaluation of Initial Stiffness
It might be argued if this type of trend line is op-
timal. Especially that value of k changes most in-
tensively in plasticity range not exceeding
40÷50%. For high plasticity soils, gradient of
Gmax due to stress increase does not seem to vary.
This might suggest to consider value of k in two
separate groups i.e. soils of plasticity up to 40%
and very high plasticity clays. Taking into con-
sideration general behavior of these two groups
of soils under stress application such approach
might be rational. However application of power
function has advantage of applying one formula
for the whole range of plasticity.
Fairly wide range of stress makes possible to
set up slope of linear regression within each
small range of plasticity. However it is worth to
note that each of these regression lines intersects
vertical axis (Gmax at pž}{Ÿ$$“!
Therefore, in order to determine value of shear
modulus (within each of nine small ranges of
plasticity index) one has to take into considera-
tion two components:
G0 which is Gmax “ž}{Ÿ
G max  41
I P1.57 p ' (3)
thus the actual value of Gmax for any stress can be
calculated according to the following formula:
Gmax  G0  41
I P1.57 p ' (4) for smallest strain range. This term is used here
(value of plasticity index in %)
The scheme for calculation of Gmax is shown in
figure 7.
Gmax
tg = k
k = f(IP)
G0
Figure 7. Two components for calculation of shear modulus.
213
4.2 Gmax at small normal stress
The procedure shown in Figure 7 is very clear
and simple. However, degree of credibility of
both components contributing to the actual value
of Gmax is not the same. Different slopes k for
various value of plasticity index described by
equation 2 is quite certain. Nevertheless, it is
worth to note that various slopes of linear regres-
sions results in various values of intercept G0.
There are two possible ways to determine value
of G0. The first one is to treat it just as an inter-
cept without any physical meaning. Attractive-
ness of this approach results from its simplicity
and the fact that actually it relies entirely of mea-
surement of stiffness for various stress level.
However, it is not universal, since each time val-
ue of G0 should be determined. It is also worth to
point out that bigger slope resulting from lower
plasticity is associated with smaller intercept.
Proportions between G0  ¡max changes with
plasticity. In case of small to medium plasticity a
value of intercept is small comparing to increase
of stiffness resulting from stress increase. For
high plasticity soil value of initial stiffness G0 is
significant comparing the actual value of Gmax.
These geometrical observation can be clearly de-
duced from Figure 5. It must be emphasized that
the term initial stiffness G0 is used here not in a
sense of common meaning i.e. initial value of G
in a sense of notation introduced in Figure 7, i.e.
the first possible way to determine G0.
The second possibility to determine G0 should
rely on its physical meaning. However, it should
be noticed first, that it is not possible to deter-
mine value of shear wave velocity for effective
stress equal to zero for heavy overconsolidated
cohesive soil. Apart from experimental problem,
which results from the fact that for small stress

an identification of arriving signal is uncertain,
even for unconfined conditions cohesive soil has
a certain value of effective stress resulting from
suction acquired in process of unloading during
sampling. Due to a volume constrains any dis-
cussion on measurement of suction and its fur-
ther interpretation is beyond the scope of this pa-
p’
per. An alternative solution is to select arbitrary
value of effective stress. Taking into considera-
214 M.J. Lipiński and W. Tymiński / Evaluation of Initial Stiffness
tion various plasticity of soil and resulting from
this experimental problems (saturation, swelling
etc.) value of 50 kPa of effective stress was se-
lected. Figure 8 shows distribution of Gmax nor-
malized with respect to 50 kPa and showed
against void ratio within three categories of plas-
ticity index i.e. smaller than 20, 20÷40, and
higher than 40%. Categories of plasticity index
result from most intense change of stiffness in
the range of plasticity up to 40%. Use of this
chart makes possible to determine initial stiffness
in heavy overconsolidated cohesive soils of vari-
ous plasticity:
Gmax  G50  41
I P1.57 ( p '50) (5)
Where G50 is calculated on the basis of regres-
sions shown in Figure 8, with taking into account
void ratio value. Values of stress and shear mod-
ulus are in kPa.
Figure 8. Normalized Gmax with respect to 50kPa against void
ratio for various plasticity ranges
5 CONCLUSIONS
Large body of experimental data concerning la-
boratory shear wave velocity measurement was
the basis to formulate the following conclusions
concerning evaluation of initial stiffness in heavy
overconsolidated cohesive soils.
It is possible to derive formula for determina-
tion of initial stiffness Gmax in heavy overconso-
lidated cohesive soils of wide range of plasticity
index 8÷90 %. Degree of overconsolidation cor-
responds to €   šžy range 1700÷2000
kPa, and even higher in high plasticity soils,
what results in liquidity index oscillating around
0 with slightly higher positive value for low plas-
ticity soils and slightly negative value for high
plasticity clays.
Increase in stiffness due to stress increment in
cohesive soils of various plasticity can be de-
scribe by a unique formula (3).
If value of shear modulus G50 is determined
within identified plasticity index range from Fig-
ure 8, then it is possible to evaluate Gmax solely
knowing void ratio and plasticity index on the
basis of the formula (5).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper was partly supported by the Polish
Ministry of Science and Higher Education (re-
search grant N N506 0989 33).
REFERENCES
[1] E. T. Shirley, An improved shear wave transducer.
Journal of Acoustical Society of America 63 (1978),
1643-1645.
[2] E. Brignoli , M. Gotti, K.H. Stokoe, Measurement of
shear waves in laboratory specimens by means of pie-
zoelectric transducers, ASTM Geotech. Testing Jour-
nal, Vol.19 (1996), No. 4, 607-613.
[3] A. Viana di Fonseca, C. Ferreira, M. Fahey, A frame-
work interpreting bender element tests combining time-
domain and frequency-domain methods. ASTM Geo-
tech. Testing Journal, Vol.32 (2009), No. 2, 91-107.
[4] M. Bellotti, M. Jamiolkowski , D. C. F. L. Presti, D. A.
O’Neill, Anisotropy of small strain stiffness in Ticino
sand, Géotechnique, Vol. 46 (1996), No. 1, 115–131,
[5] M. Jamiolkowski, R. Lancellotta and D.C.F. Lo Presti,
Remarks on the stiffness at small strains of six Italian
clays, Proc. of the Intl. Symposium on the pre-failure
deformation characteristics of geomaterials, Hokkaido,
Japan., Vol. 2 (1995), - 817-836.
[6] B.O. Hardin, The nature of stress –strain behavior for
soils. Proc. Geot. Div. Specialty Conf. on Earthquake
Engng and Soil Dynamics, Pasadena1 (1978), 3-39.
[7] G. Viggiani, J.H. Atkinson, Stiffness of fine grained
soil at very small strain. Geotechnique 45 (1995), No.2,
249-265.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 215
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-215

Some comments on the grading entropy variation

and crushing of various sands
Quelques comments au variation d’entropie granulométrique et
rupture des carbonate sable
J. Lorincz, L. Kárpáti, P. Q. Trang
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
E. Imre1
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
Szent István University, Budapest, Hungary
S. Fityus
The School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle Callaghan, Newcastle, Australia

ABSTRACT
The well-known theories do not explain/predict the tendency of particle breakage for initially concave grading
curves. The paper presents the interpretation of the results of some particle breakage tests with initially A>0.5 and
with initially A<0.5 grading curves. The explanation seems to be the same for these.

RÉSUMÉ
Les théories bien connues n’expliquent (ne prédisent) point la tendance de rupture des particules ayant une courbe
granulométrique initialement concave. Le document présent une explanation aux résultats de quelques essais de
rupture de particules avec courbes initialement A>0.5 and A<0.5. Des explications semble d’être les mêmes pour
celles-ci.

Keywords : grading entropy, crushing, soil, grading entropy, fractal dimension

1 INTRODUCTION some artificial, initially optimal, multi-fraction,

In the ongoing research the change in the
grading curve of a soil during breakage is
investigated by considering the path of this point
as it moves within the (normalised) entropy
diagram. In this way, the directional properties of
particle breakage can be connected to the
grading entropy through the entropy principle.
In the first part of the research ([1]) the
normalized entropy path was considered for the
breakdown of some initially single-fraction soils.
Then some experimental tests were made on
unstable mixtures (A<0.5) (which are referred to
as concave down grading curves, the optimal
grading curves with A>0.5 are referred to as
convex down curves.) The results showed an
initial discontinuity in the normalized entropy
path ([2], [3]).
In this paper some theoretical issues are
presented to explain the measured discontinuity
results by the discontinuity of the normalized
grading entropy map.

1
Corresponding Author.
216 J. Lorincz et al. / Some Comments on Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands

2 GRADING ENTROPY
As a result, the distribution of the double cell
To begin, the grading entropy concept is briefly system is known and can be computed if the
summarized, and some mathematical and relative frequencies of the fractions xi (i = 1, 2,
physical features related to the breakage problem 3...N) are specified. The relative frequencies of
are treated in detail. Some aspects of the the fractions xi (i = 1, 2, 3...N) of each grading
previous results (([1]), ([4])) are repeated as curve satisfy the following equation:
needed, for clarity. jmax jmin  N 1
¦ xi 1, x i t 0, N t 1 (2)
2.1 Statistical cells (fractions and elementary cells) i j min

Equation (2) defines an N-1 dimensional, closed

The sieve hole diameters have a multiplyer of
two while uniform cell system is needed for the
statistical entropy theory of a discrete
distribution. That is why a double statistical cell
system is used: a uniform cell system in which
the width, d0, is arbitrary, and a non-uniform
sized cell system (‘fraction system’) which is
defined on the pattern of the classical sieve
aperture diameters. The diameter range for
fraction j (j =1, 2...see Table 1) is:
2 j d 0 t d ! 2 j-1 d 0 ,
where d0 is the elementary cell width.
2.2 Space of the possible grading curves
The probabilities are computed from the fraction
information exclusively, applying an extra
assumption, the distribution of the grading curves
is uniform within a fraction.
Table 1. Definitions of fractions and elementary cells
j 1 ... 23 24
Limits d0 to 2 ... 222 d0 to 223 223 d0 to 224
S0j [-] 0 ... 22 23
1234567
123456 234567
12345 23456 34567
1234 2345 3456 4567
simplex (which is the generalised N-1
dimensional analogy of the 2 dimensional
triangle or, 3 dimensional tetrahedron) if the
relative frequencies xi are identified with the
barycentre coordinates of the simplex points.
The vertices can be numbered ‘continuously’
from jmin to jmax, and, therefore, it is referred to as
continuous.
The continuous sub-simplexes of a simplex
has a lattice structure, as is indicated in Figure 1,
which can be drawn in the two dimensional
(1) space (i.e. the edges do not intersect each-other
except in the vertices).
By specifying the finest jmin and coarsest jmax
= jmin + N -1 non-zero fractions (N is the number
of fractions between jmin and jmax), a function
space is defined – called the spaces of the
grading curves – which be completed by those
grading curves that are on the ‘boundary’ in the
sense that the finest and coarsest fractions can be
zero.
The set of these spaces (defined by N and jmin)
have the same structure as the closed simplex
since each of them can be represented by an N-1
dimensional, continuous closed simplex, defined
by variables N and jmin which are integers from
closed intervals and, therefore, there is a largest
space containing all the others as a sub-space.
2.3 The grading entropy and the entropy coordinates

123 234 345 456 567 2.3.1 Definition of the grading entropy
The grading entropy S can be separated into the sum
12 23 34 45 56 67
of two parts ([1]):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 S S 0  'S
Figure 1. The lattice of the continuous sub- simplexes of
(3)
a continuous simplex (the one unit integers are serial number
of fractions, the k-unit integers denote k-component
mixtures: kN).
 J. Lorincz et al. / Some Comments on Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands 217

a'

Entropy increment, B [-]

2
¦ xi S0i ,
1.2
S0
b
xi z 0 0.8
b'

(4) B=1 A=0.5

line a 0.4
1
'S  ¦ xi ln xi .
B=1.4
1' 2' 3'
ln 2 xi z 0 3
0.0
1 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(5) (a) Relative base entropy, A [-]
(b)
which are referred to as base entropy S0 and Figure 2. The normalized entropy map for one simplex. (a)
The 2D simplex (N=3) and its A=0.5 hyper-plane section. (b)
entropy increment
S. S0i is the grading entropy The normalized entropy diagram with points of A = 0.5, B =
of the i-th fraction (see Table 2) is as follows: 1 and B = 1.4. (The inverse image of these points are shown
in the A=0.5 hyper-plane section of the 2D simplex. The
S oi i 1 inverse image of the maximum B line is line a.)
(6)
The normalized base entropy, the so-called relative
base entropy, A, is defined as: 2.8 N=7

Entropy increment,'S [-]

N=6
S o  S o min 2.4
N=5
A= , 2.0 N=4
S o max  S o min 1.6 N=3
(7) 1.2 N=2
where S0max and S0min are the base entropies of the 0.8
largest and the smallest fractions in the mixture, 0.4

respectively. The normalized entropy increment B is 0.0

0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0
defined as follows: Base entropy, S 0 [-]

'S (a) (b)

B (8)
ln N Figure 3. The entropy map for the continuous sub-simplexes of a
simplex with N = 7. (a) The normalized entropy map for N varying
from 2 to 7, the coinciding maximum B lines and the approximate
minimum B lines. (b) The non-normalized entropy diagram, the
3 THE ENTROPY DIAGRAMS maximum
S lines.

Table 2. Illustration for the discontinuity of the normalised

3.1 Entropy diagram entropy map: various entropy coordinates for the same
Two maps can be defined for a specified simplex
, grading curve
the non-normalized entropy map

[S0,
S] and the N [-] 2 3 3
normalized entropy map fn:

[A,B] ([4]). These S0min[-] 2 2 3
maps between the N-1 dimensional simplex and the S0max[-] 3 3 4
two dimensional space of the entropy coordinates are A [-]
continuous on the open simplex and can continuously 0.5 0.75 0.25
B [-] 1/ln2 1/ ln3 1/ ln3
be extended to the closed simplex. Therefore, the
images of normalized and non-normalized entropy
maps - the normalized and non-normalised entropy 1 1 a
diagrams, respectively – are compact, like the x1 , (9)
N
1 aN
simplex. It follows then, that the image of the compact ¦ a j 1
j 1
sub-simplexes has a maximum and a minimum value
for every possible A or S0. xj x1 a j 1 (10)
where parameter a is the root of the following
3.1.1 Maximum and minimum entropy increment
equation :
lines N
A point of the maximum B line can be best y ¦ a j 1 [ j  1  A( N  1)] 0. (11)
computed by conditional optimization ([1]). j 1

According to the solution, for a fixed N and A Following from the Descartes rule of signs,
the following grading curve or point of the polynomial y has one and only one positive root
simplex maps into this point: for a ([4]). As A varies between 0 and 1 then
positive root a varies between 0 and Õ, extreme
218 J. Lorincz et al. / Some Comments on Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands
values represent the extreme fractions 1 and N
([1]). These points of the simplex constitute a
continuous line which can be seen in Figure 2(a).
The minimum bounding line has a smaller
significance than the maximum bounding line,
and therefore generally, instead of the
cumbersome determination of the precise
conditional minimum, the image of edge 1 – N is
used as an approximate minimum B (or
S)
bounding line.
3.1.2 Multiple diagram
In a multiple diagram, a finite number of
continuous simplexes (with various N, dmin
values) are represented through the entropy map.
The continuous simplexes (with various values
for N and jmin) are not independent, as for any
finite number there is a ‘smallest possible large
simplex’ containing all smaller ones as
continuous boundary sub-simplexes.
If these simplexes are connected to each
other, we can refer the continuity of the multiple
diagram at the confluence of the individual
simplexes. At the confluence of the individual
simplexes N changes, due to the emergence or
disappearance of zero or non-zero fractions. In
this case the non- normalized entropy map is
continuous and, therefore, the single and the
multiple diagrams coincide.
The normalized entropy map is not
continuous (being the non-
normalized/normalized entropy coordinates are
independent of/dependent on N, respectively).
The discontinuity of the entropy path in the
normalized diagram is treated in Section 5.
In a multiple diagram, the global maximum
value of the maximum
S lines is lnN/ln2 and
the global maximum value of the approximate
minimum
S lines is In the case of the multiple
normalized entropy diagram the range of the
normalised coordinates and the location of the
global maximum point of B are independent of N
(B = 1/ln2). For small N values, the maximum B
lines nearly coincide with, and can be
approximated to, the simple specific entropy
formula valid for N =2.
4 THE DISCONTINUITY OF THE
ENTROPY PATH IN THE NORMALIZED
DIAGRAM
4.1 Method of investigation
The path of the grading curve during breakage on the
normalised entropy diagram, as its grading evolves,
will be discontinuous at the instant that new fractions
appear, or existing fractions are lost, even if the size
of the fraction is zero. In this section, the discontinuity
of the normalised entropy map with respect to the
fraction number N, and its consequences in terms of
the normalized entropy path, are treated.
The method of investigation is illustrated in
a simple example. Let us consider a two-fraction soil,
with relative frequencies x1 = x2 = 0.5. We can embed
it into a two dimensional simplex (i.e. triangle) in
such way that a larger or a smaller zero fraction is
added, as is done in the data in Table 2.
If the value of N is increased from two to
three, then the resulting jump in A is either an increase
(the zero fraction is added from the smaller side) or a
decrease (the zero relative frequency fraction is added
from the larger side).
It can be noted this computation is not
legitimate in the sense that – by definition – the value
of N cannot be increased from two to three if a zero
fraction is added from the smaller or larger side.
However, we can use arbitrarily small relative
frequency fractions instead of zero relative frequency
fractions.
4.2 The discontinuity of the normalised entropy path
Some formulae were derived for the
discontinuity of the normalized entropy map as
follows. The case is considered, where the zero
fractions are added from the smaller side
(degradation). The A changes for i=1, 2…
additional ‘zero fractions’ through degradation:
i>1  A( N )@
A( N  i )  A( N ) = (12)
N  i 1
The change in B is:
ln N
1
ln N  i
B ( N )  B ( N  i ) = 'S ( N ) (13)
ln N
4.3 Examples
It follows from the derived formulae that the
discontinuity in the A coordinate in the case
when the zero fractions are added from the
smaller side (degradation) is always an increase,
 J. Lorincz et al. / Some Comments on Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands 219

its size is increasing with decreasing A and N, 0.4 and 0.6, the zero fractions were added from the smaller
side. (a) N =2 . (b) N = 6
and increasing with increasing i, the number of
the additional zero fractions.
The discontinuity in the B coordinate is
always a decrease, its size is increasing with
increasing B and decreasing N, and increasing
with increasing i the number of the additional
zero fractions.
In case of N=1 - a single-fraction soil - there
is no discontinuity jump. The discontinuity for Figure 6. Reinforced crushing pot used in the soil crushing
fixed N and i is much larger on the A<0.5 side experiments.
than the A>0.5 side of the diagram, as it can be n=185, n=125, n=85

seen in Figures 4 and 5 for two initial condition

Entropy increment, B [-]

1.2
pairs assuming various the numbers for the n=45 2

additional zero fractions. 0.8

1

3
1.2 N=2, discontinuity when 0.4
n=0
i smaller fractions are
added
B [-]

0.8 0.0
i=0
A=2/3
i=1 0.6 0.8 1.0
i=2 Relative base entropy, A [-]
0.4
Figure 7. Normalised entropy path of a one-fraction soil
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(LÖrincz et al, 2006) (N is the treatment number)
A [-]

(a) Table 3. Initial grading curves

3 and 4 and
1.2 N=6, discontinuity when sample 1 2 6 5 7
i smaller fractions are
added d [mm]
B [-]

0.8
i=0
i=1
i=2
4 1 1 1 1 1
0.4
2 1 1 1 1 1
0.0 1 0.65 0.83 0.8 0.9 0.7
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
A [-] 0.5 0.38 0.62 0 0 0
(b) 0.25 0.17 0.35 0 0
Figure 4. Computed discontinuity of the normalized entropy 0.125 0 0 0 0 0
diagram for initially optimal soils with symmetric A values
0.1 and 0.9, the zero fractions were added from the smaller
side. (a) N =2 . (b) N = 6
5 BREAKAGE TESTS, RESULTS AND
1.2
EVALUATION
B [-]

0.8
5.1 Testing method and soils
N=2, discontinuity when
0.4 i smaller fractions are
added A testing procedure was developed in the frame
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 of this research (LÖrincz et al. 2005). The
A [-]
(a) sample is subjected to a series of crushing
treatments using a specially reinforced crushing
1.2
pot, made at the Geotechnical Department of the
Budapest University of Technology and
B [-]

0.8

0.4
N=4, discontinuity when
i smaller fractions are
Economics with a diameter of 50 mm, a height
added
of 70 mm and a wall thickness of 3 mm (see Fig.
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 6). The tests were made in the laboratory of the
A [-]
(b) Department of Construction Materials and
Figure 5. Computed discontinuity of the normalized entropy Engineering Geology.
diagram for initially optimal soils with symmetric A values
220 J. Lorincz et al. / Some Comments on Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands

Each treatment involves the application of a (b) Test 2, silica sand.

compressive load to the sample contained in the
crushing pot. After the compression, the sample 1.2
is removed from the crushing pot and the 40
initial
particle size distribution is determined by dry

B [-]
0.8 concave
sieving. The grading entropy value is computed 10

after each treatment. 0.4

5.2 Results
0.0
0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00
The results are shown in Figures 7 to 9. The A [-]
result of LÖrincz et al, (2006) for a single
(c) Test 3, silica sand.
fraction soil in Fig 7, shows a monotonic
normalized entropy path which is homothetic to
the A>0.5 side of the upper bounding line (the A 1.2
40
decreases as B increases). The normalized
entropy paths for the tests on multi-sized soils

B [-]
0.8
initial
(Table 3, Fig 8) show a significant jump at the concave 10
start of the test when the new smaller fractions 0.4 (number of
crushing
appear (A increases and B decreases). If no new treatment)

smaller fractions appeared then it becomes 0.0

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00

monotonic and homothetic to the A>0.5 side of A [-]

the upper bounding line (A decreases as B (d) Test 4, silica sand.

increases).
The non-normalized entropy paths are 30
1.2
considered also in Fig 9. The results show that 20 10

the non-normalized entropy path during

B [-]

0.8
breakage is always monotonic. The entropy initial
increment €S increases as the base entropy S0 0.4
decreases similarly in all cases.
0.0 0.10 0.30 0.50 0.70 0.90

0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

A [-]
30
1.2 10
(e) Test 5, carbonate sand
B [-]

0.8

1.2 30
0.4 20 10
initial
B [-]

0.8
0.0
0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00
A [-]
0.4
(a) Test 1, silica sand
0 0.0 0.10 0.30 0.50 0.70 0.90
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
10 A [-]
20
1.2
(f) Test 6, carbonate sand.
B [-]

0.8

0.4

0.0
0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00
A [-]
 J. Lorincz et al. / Some Comments on Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands 221

30 6 DISCUSSION
initial 20
10
6.1 The interpretation of the entropy path
The non-normalized entropy path during
breakage is characterized by a decrease in the
base entropy So and a monotonic increase in the
.0
0.10
0.2
0.30
0.4
0.50
0.6
0.70
0.8
0.90
1.0
entropy increment eS.
A [-] The S0, the weighted mean of the fraction
(g) Test 7, carbonate sand
entropies, is monotonically and uniquely related
to the mean grain size and it follows that a
Figure 8. Normalised entropy path of multi-fraction soils (a)
to (d) Silica sands, (e) to (g) Carbonate sands
decrease in the mean grain diameter should
cause a decrease in the base entropy S0.
The entropy increment
S is a measure of the
2.8 N=7 disorder of the grain system, which originates
Entropy increment,'S [-]

2.4
N=6 from the mixing of the fractions. It can be
N=5 related to the entropy principle.
2.0 The normalized entropy path has the same
N=4
0.4 0.6
1.6 N=3
behavior provided the number of fractions
remains constant. However, it has a
1.2 N=2
discontinuity if the number of fractions increases
0.8 due to the appearance of smaller fractions. In
0.4 this situation, the discontinuity is with ‘opposite
sign’ (A increases, B decreases) if a new smaller
0.0
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0
fraction appears.
Base entropy, S0 [-] Comparing the results of the carbonate and silica
sands with the same initial composition it can be
(a) found that the entropy path is about the same
(Fig 10), only the rate of breakage depends upon
2.8 N=7 soil type. The distance along a given entropy
Entropy increment,'S [-]

N=6 path can be measured with the use of the entropy

2.4
N=5 coordinates since these are pseudo-metrics in the
2.0
N=4 space of the grading curves ([4]).
1.6 N=3
6.2 The discontinuity of the normalized entropy path
1.2 N=2
According to the derived formulae, when N
0.8 0.3
0.2
varies (increases) during breakage, the size of
0.4 0.1
the ‘A-discontinuity’ seems to be directly related
0.0 to 1 – A for a given N, being equal to zero if the
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 starting point is a single-fraction 1. The size of
Base entropy, S0 [-] the A-discontinuity decreases with N.
This result is in agreement with the measured
(b) data (see e.g. Fig 10). The size of these jumps
Figure 9. Non-normalized entropy paths for (a) tests 1,2 and seems to be directly dependent on the magnitude
for (b) tests 5, 6,7. of (1-A), which can be traced back better for the
silica sands than for the carbonate sands since
the silica sands less brittle. In particular, it
explains why the discontinuity is not apparent if
the starting point is a single fraction with A = 1.
222 J. Lorincz et al. / Some Comments on Grading Entropy Variation and Crushing of Various Sands

The physical explanation is as follows. As is Concerning the size of the jump, it can be said
well-known ([1]), the relative base entropy A that the soils with unstable structure according to
(the weighted mean of the reduced fraction the well-known A criterion (the grain structure is
entropies) characterizes the stability of the grain unstable if A is less than 2/3, [1]) seem to be
structure, without any knowledge of the actual unstable during breakage having a relatively large
geometrical arrangement. The grain structure is initial jump at the start of the test.
unstable if A is less than 2/3. There is an initial, somewhat surprising result
The change in a soil’s grading, especially concerning the use of both carbonate and silica
through the appearance of some finer fractions, sands. For a given initial mixture composition
may cause a sudden change in the soil’s the entropy path seems to be the same, however,
structure, leading to an increase in its stability. there may be a significant difference in the rate
The relative base entropy A (a stability of breakage depending upon soil type. This fact
indicator) discontinuously increases, and the can be used to elaborate some simple geological
normalized entropy increment B (the ‘disorder’ testing methods to categorize the hardness of the
indicator) discontinuously decreases, if the various rocks.
number of the number of fractions in the grading
curve, N, increases.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
1.60

The support of the National Research Fund

1.20 Jedlik Ányos NKFP B1 2006 08 was used. This,
the discussions with Professor Itai Einav and the
help of the Department of Construction
B [-]

0.80

Materials and Engineering Geology are greatly

0.40
appreciated.
continuous breakage path from dolomitic and silica sand data
theoretical jump
0.00

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00

REFERENCES
A [-]

Figure 10 The similarity of the breakage path for tests 3 and [1] LÖrincz, J; Imre, E; Gálos, M; Trang, Q.P; Telekes, G;
6 (blue), 4 and 5 (pink), 7 (green). Open circles indicate Rajkai, K; Fityus, I. (2005) Grading entropy variation
silica sand, full circles carbonate sand, the starting point of due to soil crushing. Int. Journ. of Geomechanics. Vol 5.
the solid lines (indicating the jumps) is the initial state, the
Number 4. p. 311-320.
end point of the solid lines is computed.
[2] Lorincz, J. Imre, E. Kárpáti, L. Trang, P. Q. Gálos, M;
Telekes, G. (2009) Entropy concept to explain the
particle breakage. Proc. of 17th ICSMGE, Alexandria, p
7 CONCLUSION
139-143
[3] Trang, P. Q.; Kárpáti, L. , Nyári, I., Szendefy, J., Imre,
The non-normalized entropy path during E., Lõrincz, J. (2009) Entropy concept to explain particle
breakage is characterized by a decrease in the breakage and soil improvement Proc of Ygec Alexandria
base entropy So and a monotonic increase in the p 87-90.
entropy increment eS. The normalized entropy [4] Imre, E; LÖrincz, J; Trang, Q.P; Fityus, S. Pusztai, J;
path during breakage has the same behavior Telekes, G; Schanz, T. (2009) Some dry density transfer
provided the number of fractions remains function for sands. Invited paper. KSCE Journal of Civil
Engineering 13(4):257-272. DOI 10.1007/s12205-009-
constant. However, it has a discontinuity if the
0257-7
number of fractions increases due to the
appearance of smaller fractions. In this situation,
the discontinuity is with ‘opposite sign’ (A
increases, B decreases). It is found here that the
discontinuity can simply be computed, on
condition that the number of the new fractions is
given.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 223
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-223

Effectiveness of microfine cement suspension

grouting
Efficacité des ciments très fins en suspension d’injections
I.N. Markou 1 & A.I. Droudakis
Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece

ABSTRACT
A laboratory investigation was conducted in order to evaluate the influence of parameters pertinent to suspension composition on
the effectiveness of microfine cement suspension grouting. Four gradations each from three different types of cement (CEM I,
CEM II/B-M and CEM IV/B, according to EN 197-1) were used having nominal maximum grain sizes of 100 ¡m, 40 ¡m, 20 ¡m
and 10 ¡m. The effectiveness of cement suspensions with water to cement ratios of 1, 2 and 3 by weight was evaluated by con-
ducting one-dimensional injections into four clean, uniform sands using a specially constructed device and was quantified by
conducting unconfined compression and permeability tests on the resulting grouted sand specimens. Grouted sands obtained un-
confined compression strength values of up to 15 MPa and permeability coefficients as low as 1.3*10-6 cm/s or by up to 5 orders
of magnitude lower than that of ungrouted sands. The water to cement ratio of cement suspensions is the most important of the
investigated parameters since it affects drastically both strength and permeability of grouted sands. Cement type, cement fine-
ness and curing times greater than 28 days, have lower or negligible influence on the effectiveness of grouting.

RÉSUMÉ
Une recherche en laboratoire a été effectuée pour évaluer l’influence des paramètres pertinents à la composition de suspension
au sujet de l’efficacité des ciments très fins en injection. Quatre courbes de gradation, chacune composée de trois types de ci-
ment (CEM I, II/B-M et IV/B, conformément à EN 197-1) ont été utilisées avec des dimensions nominales maximales des grains
a 100, 40, 20 et 10 ¡m. L’efficacité des suspensions de ciment ayant un rapport de poids entre eau et ciment de l’ordre de 1, 2 et
3 a été évaluée par injections unidimensionnelles dans quatre sables, purs et uniformes, à l’aide d’un dispositif spécial construit à
ce propos, et a été quantifié, au moyen des essais de compression uniaxiale et de perméabilité sur des échantillons sableux injec-
tés. Les sables injectés ont obtenu des valeurs en compression uniaxiale jusqu’ à 15 MPa, ainsi que, des coefficients de perméa-
bilité aussi faibles que 1.3*10-6 cm/s ou de 5 ordres de grandeur inférieures par rapport aux sables non injectés. Le rapport eau –
ciment en suspension des ciments, est le paramètre le plus important parmi ceux qui ont été examinés, puisqu’ il affecte de ma-
nière drastique aussi bien la résistance, que la perméabilité, des sables injectés. Le type de ciment, la finesse du ciment et le
temps de durcissement supérieur à 28 jours, ont plus faible ou même négligeable influence sur l’efficacité des injections.

Keywords: permeation grouting, suspensions, microfine cements, laboratory injections, grouted sand, permeability, strength

1 INTRODUCTION the mechanical properties and behavior of soils

by permeation grouting using either suspensions
The safe construction and operation of many or chemical solutions. The former have lower
structures frequently requires improvement of cost and are harmless to the environment but can

1
Corresponding Author.
224 I.N. Markou and A.I. Droudakis / Effectiveness of Microfine Cement Suspension Grouting

not be injected into soils with gradations finer
than coarse sands. The latter can be injected in
fine sands or coarse silts but are more expensive
and, some of them pose a health and environ-
mental hazard. Efforts have been made to extend
the injectability range of suspension grouts by
developing materials with very fine gradations.
As a result, a number of fine-grained cements,
called “microfine” or “ultrafine” cements, has
been developed and manufactured. The behavior
of microfine cements in permeation grouting has
been the objective of many research efforts.
The experimental investigation reported
herein is part of an extensive research effort
aimed toward the development of a relatively
fine-grained material, suitable for permeation
grouting, obtained by pulverization of ordinary
cements produced in Greece. Suspensions of
three different cement types, each at four differ-
ent gradations, were tested. Scope of this presen-
tation is to quantify the improvement of the stre-
ngth and permeability of sands by grouting with
these coarse- and fine-grained cements and to
document the effect of cement type and fineness,
grout water to cement (W/C) ratio and curing
time. Unconfined compression and permeability
tests were conducted on grouted sand specimens.
ing a special laboratory mill, to produce three
additional cements with nominal maximum grain
sizes (dmax) of 40 ¡m, 20 ¡m and 10 ¡m. Charac-
teristic grain sizes and Blaine specific surface
values for all cements are presented in Table 2.
In terms of gradation, all cements with nominal
dmax = 10 ¡m can be considered as “microfine”
since they satisfy the requirements of Standard
EN 12715 (d95 < 20 ¡m and specific surface over
800 m2/kg) as well as definitions adopted by
ISRM, ACI Committee 552 and PCA [1]. Also,
cements with nominal dmax = 20 ¡m have ade-
quately small characteristic grain sizes to be con-
sidered, marginally, as “microfine”.
All suspensions tested during this investiga-
tion were prepared using potable water since it is
considered appropriate for preparing cement-
based suspension grouts. The suspension W/C
ratio was set equal to 1, 2 and 3 by weight, in or-
der to test both stable and unstable suspensions
in terms of bleed capacity. A superplasticizer
(patented new generation of admixture based on
polycarboxylate chemistry), at a dosage of 1.4 %
by weight of dry cement, was used to improve
suspension properties. The same dosage was ap-
plied to all cement suspensions, without optimi-
Table 1. Composition of cements.

2 MATERIALS AND PROCEDURES Oxides Cement type Components Cement type

(%) I II IV (%) I II IV
For the purposes of this investigation, three ce- SiO2 19.38 26.67 29.99
Clinker 90.3 63 58
ment types (Portland, Portland – composite and Al2O3 4.28 7.46 11.22
pozzolanic cement, code-named CEM I, CEM Fe2O3 3.24 4.30 3.83
Pozzolan 0 13.5 20
II/B-M and CEM IV/B, respectively, according CaO 64.11 49.37 47.92
to European Standard EN 197-1) were selected MgO 3.43 3.54 2.14
Fly ash 0 10 18
because of production cost differences. The SO3 3.09 3.07 2.60
composition of these cements is presented in Ta- other 1.29 1.96 2.43 Limestone 4.7 8.5 2
ble 1. Each ordinary cement was pulverized, us- LOI 3.73 6.06 2.56 Gypsum 5 5 2

Table 2. Gradation of cements.

Grain sizes Cement type
Specific Surface I II/B-M IV/B
dmax* (¡m) 100 40 20 10 100 40 20 10 100 40 20 10
d95 (¡m) 57.0 22.5 11.5 8.2 45.5 25.8 13.6 9.1 48.0 26.0 12.8 9.8
d50 (¡m) 16.6 8.6 4.2 3.2 14 9.4 5.8 4.2 14.2 9.3 4.4 3.9
d10 (¡m) 3.0 2.0 1.2 1.0 2.2 2.0 1.4 1.1 3.0 2.2 1.3 1.2
Blaine (m2/kg) 384 529 710 920 466 591 735 942 452 582 715 923
*: Nominal maximum cement grain size
 I.N. Markou and A.I. Droudakis / Effectiveness of Microfine Cement Suspension Grouting 225

zing the dosage for each specific suspension. All

suspensions were prepared using high speed
mixers, of the type used for the preparation of
soil specimens for hydrometer testing. As rec-
ommended by the superplasticizer producer, the
appropriate amount of cement and 70% of the
required water were placed in the mixer together
with the superplasticizer dosage and mixed for 5
min. Then, the rest of the water was added and
mixing continued for another 5 min.
The grouted soils were clean, uniform, lime-
stone sands with angular grains. Four different
sand gradations were used with grain sizes lim-
ited between sieve sizes (ASTM E11) Nos. 5 and
10, 10 and 14, 14 and 25, and 25 and 50, respec-
tively. The values of the properties of sands are
presented in Table 3. Permeability coefficient
values of the sands were obtained from constant
head permeability tests in dense specimens. The
sands were grouted in dense condition (mean Figure 1. Apparatus for grouting sand columns.
value of relative density, Dr, 98±1%) and were
dry prior to grouting. with a length of 9 cm were utilized for constant
The special apparatus shown in Figure 1 was head permeability testing under water pressures
used for injecting sand columns with cement ranging from 10 kPa to 200 kPa, using a spe-
suspensions. It allows for adequate laboratory cially constructed apparatus which allowed for
simulation of the injection process and investiga- testing of the grouted specimens in the PVC
tion of the influence of the distance from injec- tube. For the investigation of the effect of curing
tion point on the properties of grouted sand. The time on grouted sand properties, selected grouted
grouting column was made of PVC tube with an sand columns were cured for 90 days, uncon-
internal diameter of 7.5 cm and a height of 144 fined compression and permeability tests were
cm. Injection was stopped when either the vol- conducted on the resulting specimens and the re-
ume of the injected grout was equal to two void sults were compared with the ones obtained from
volumes of the sand in the column or when the grouted sand columns with equivalent composi-
injection pressure became equal to 700 kPa. Af- tions, cured for 28 days.
ter curing for 28 days, the grouted columns were
cut in alternating lengths of 16 cm and 9 cm. The
resulting specimens with a length of 16 cm were 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
tested in unconfined compression at an axial
strain rate equal to 0.05 %/min. The specimens The effect of cement type on the strength of
grouted sand is quantified in terms of the uncon-
fined compression strength ratio, defined as the
Table 3. Properties of sands.
ratio of the unconfined compression strengths of
Sand Gradation Permeability Void Ratios equivalent sand specimens, grouted with corre-
Limits d15 Cu Coefficient * emin emax
(mm) (mm) k20 (cm/s)
sponding suspensions of different cement types.
5-10 4.00-2.00 2.25 1.40 2.31 0.66 1.06 The results presented in Figure 2, indicate a
10-14 2.00-1.40 1.48 1.19 0.80 0.67 1.03 strength increase due to grouting with CEM I
14-25 1.40-0.71 0.80 1.43 0.22 0.67 1.07 suspensions. The other two cement types give
25-50 0.71-0.30 0.36 1.56 0.04 0.70 1.06 comparable but inferior results. The superiority
*: Sands in dense condition of CEM I suspensions expands with increasing
226 I.N. Markou and A.I. Droudakis / Effectiveness of Microfine Cement Suspension Grouting

160 2000

Unconfined Compression Strength (kPa)

CEM I / CEM II Cement: II/B-M
CEM I / CEM IV
U.C. Strength Ratio (%)

140 CEM ¦¦ /CEM IV

1500

120
Sand: 14-25, W/C: 2
1000 Sand: 10-14, W/C: 2
100 Sand: 14-25, W/C: 3
Cem. dmax: 20¡m
Sand: 14-25
(a)
80
500
0 1 2 3 4 400 600 800 1000
W/C Ratio 2
Blaine Specific Surface (m /kg)
Figure 2. Effect of cement type on grouted sand strength.
1E-2
W/C ratio of the grouts and can be attributed to Permeability Coefficient (cm/s)a Cement: II/B-M
the composition of the cements, since CEM I is a Sand: 14-25, W/C: 2
pure Portland cement consisting of a larger pro- Sand: 10-14, W/C: 2
portion of clinker in comparison with the other Sand: 14-25, W/C: 3
1E-3
two cement types and does not contain poz-
zolanic materials (Table 1).
The effect of cement fineness, expressed as
Blaine specific surface, on the strength and per- 1E-4
meability of sands grouted with CEM II/B-M
suspensions, is shown in Figure 3. It can be ob-
served (Figure 3a) that the unconfined compres- (b)
sion strength of grouted sands is not affected by 1E-5
cement fineness. It is known [2, 3] that use of 400 600 800 1000
microfine cements can lead to higher unconfined 2
compression strength values of grouted soil in Blaine Specific Surface (m /kg)
comparison with ordinary Portland cements. This Figure 3. Effect of cement fineness on (a) strength and (b)
observation was not verified by the findings of permeability of grouted sand.
the present research, possibly due to the high
W/C ratios of the suspensions used. However, it more effective filling of sand voids with grout
must be stated that suspensions with W/C ratio solids. This justification is also confirmed by the
equal to 1 were not used because, in the case of results of the present investigation shown in Fig-
cements with dmax = 100 ¡m, they present low in- ure 4. It is easily observed that permeability co-
jectability in 14-25 sand. efficient values of grouted sands decrease with
As it is shown in Figure 3b, permeability coef- decreasing bleeding capacity of the suspensions
ficient values decrease with increasing cement used in the injections. Therefore, it is evident that
Blaine specific surface, in agreement with the the mechanism of permeability reduction is
observations of other researchers [2, 3]. The ef- based on the reduction rate of soil voids induced
fect of cement fineness on the permeability of by grouting, as it has also been stated by other
grouted sands is attributed to the lower bleeding researchers [4, 5].
capacity (total proportion of the volume of bleed The results of permeability and unconfined
water to the initial volume of suspension) of mi- compression tests conducted on specimens ob-
crofine cement suspensions which leads to the tained from cement grouted sand columns, after
 I.N. Markou and A.I. Droudakis / Effectiveness of Microfine Cement Suspension Grouting 227

1E-2 grouted with relatively low injection pressures.

The equation resulting from the correlation of
Permeability Coefficient (cm/s)a

1E-3 unconfined compression strength with W/C ratio

(Figure 5a), is of the same form with the one de-
veloped by Dano et al. [7].
1E-4

Table 4. Range of strength and permeability values of

1E-5 grouted sands in relation to suspension W/C ratio.
Unconfined Comp. Permeability Permeability
W/C Strength (MPa) Coefficient (cm/s) Reduction *
1E-6 Ratio
min max min max min max
2
R = 0.81 1 7.20 13.73 1.3*10-6 8.5*10-5 4 5
1E-7 2 1.07 2.86 1.1*10-5 7.2*10-4 3 5
3 0.51 1.61 1.7*10-4 1.4*10-3 2 4
0 20 40 60 80 *: Orders of magnitude
Bleeding Capacity (%)
18
Figure 4. Effect of suspension bleeding on permeability of Unconfined Compression Strength (MPa) Maximum Injection Pressure:  160 kPa
grouted sand.
15
. -2.81
qu = 12.03 (W/C)
curing for 28 days, are summarized in Table 4 in 2
relation to W/C ratio of the suspensions. Uncon- 12 R = 0.96
fined compression strength of grouted sand in-
creases and permeability coefficient of grouted 9
sand decreases with decreasing W/C ratio of the
suspensions. More specifically, the permeability 6
coefficient of sands grouted by suspensions with
W/C ratio equal to 1 can be as low as 1.3*10-6 3
cm/s indicating an improvement (reduction) of (a)
sand permeability by 4 to 5 orders of magnitude. 0
The permeability reduction attained with these 0 1 2 3 4
suspensions is by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude W/C Ratio
higher than the ones achieved by suspensions
with W/C ratios equal to 2 and 3. The unconfined 1E-3
compression strength of sands grouted by sus- Maximum Injection
(b)
Permeability Coefficient (cm/s)a

pensions with W/C ratio equal to 1 ranged from Pressure:  160 kPa
7.2 MPa to 13.7 MPa (Table 4) and is generally
up to 7 and up to 20 times higher than the ones 1E-4
obtained by suspensions with W/C ratios equal to
2 and 3, respectively. The ranges of strength and
permeability values of grouted sands included in
Table 4 are in good agreement with values found 1E-5
in the literature for cement grouted soils [e.g. 2,
. -6 4.75
4, 5, 6, 7]. Thus, the end effect of grouting with k20 = 2 10 (W/C)
2
the suspensions used in this investigation is R = 0.94
comparable to that obtained by grouting with 1E-6
other ordinary or microfine cement suspensions.
0 1 2 3 4
As indicated in Figure 5, a good correlation
W/C Ratio
exists between unconfined compression strength
or permeability coefficient of grouted sands and Figure 5. Correlation of suspension W/C ratio with (a) strength
W/C ratio of suspensions, for sand columns and (b) permeability of grouted sand.
228 I.N. Markou and A.I. Droudakis / Effectiveness of Microfine Cement Suspension Grouting

Table 5. Comparison of strength and permeability values of grouted sands after curing for 28 and 90 days.
Cement W/C Unconfined Compression Strength (MPa) Permeability Coefficient (cm/s)
Sand
Type dmax (¡m) Ratio 28 days 90 days Increase (%) 28 days 90 days Reduction (%)
I 20 2 14-25 2.22 2.22 0.0 5.7*10-3 5.7*10-3 0.0
II/B-M 20 2 5-10 1.07 1.06 0.0 4.7*10-5 3.8*10-5 19.2
-5
II/B-M 20 2 10-14 1.36 1.51 11.0 4.6*10 3.5*10-5 23.9
II/B-M 20 2 14-25 1.93 2.11 9.3 4.5*10-5 3.2*10-5 28.9
II/B-M 10 2 10-14 1.36 1.46 7.4 5.1*10-5 3.9*10-5 23.5

The strength and permeability values obtained
after curing of grouted sands for 28 and 90 days,
respectively, are compared in Table 5. The ob-
served strength increase is considered as low
since it ranges from 0% to 11%, while the ob-
served permeability reduction attains generally
higher values with a maximum of 29%. There-
fore, the increase of curing time from 28 to 90
days affects grouted sand permeability more sig-
nificantly than it affects grouted sand strength.
Another interesting finding is that both strength
and permeability of sand grouted with CEM I
suspension remained unaltered after the first 28
days of curing, possibly due to the higher hydra-
tion rates of pure Portland cements in compari-
son with composite and pozzolanic cements.
cement suspensions having W/C ratio = 1.
x Increase of curing time from 28 to 90 days
leads to a permeability reduction of grouted
sands reaching a maximum value of 29%.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The information reported herein is part of re-
search project PENED-03ED527 which was co-
financed by the E.U. – European Social Fund
(75%) and the Greek Ministry of Development –
GSRT (25%). TITAN Cement Company S.A.
contributed chemical analyses, pulverization and
grain size analyses of the cements.

4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results obtained and the observa-
tions made during this investigation, the follow-
ing conclusions may be advanced:
x Grouting with CEM I (Portland cement)
suspensions improves the unconfined com-
pression strength of grouted sand.
x Increase of cement fineness improves blee-
ding capacity of suspensions and, conse-
quently, the permeability of grouted sands.
x Grouted sand strength increases and grou-
ted sand permeability decreases with de-
creasing suspension W/C ratio. Good corre-
lations were found between grouted sand
strength or permeability and W/C ratio.
x Unconfined compression strength values of
grouted sands ranging from 7 MPa to 15
MPa and satisfactory reduction (4 to 5 or-
ders of magnitude) of the permeability of
sands can be obtained by grouting with
REFERENCES
[1] Henn, R.W. & Soule, N.C., Ultrafine Cement in Pres-
sure Grouting, ASCE Press, Reston, Virginia, 2010.
[2] De Paoli, B., Bosco, B., Granata, R. & Bruce, D., Fun-
damental observations on cement based grouts (2): Mi-
crofine cements and the CemillR process, Proc., Conf.
on Grouting, Soil Improvement & Geosynthetics, New
Orleans, ASCE, GSP No. 30 (1992), Vol. 1, 486–499.
[3] Shibata, H., Study on long – term strength properties of
suspension grouts with ultra-fine-grain materials, Proc.,
Conf. on Grouting & Deep Mixing, Tokyo, A.A.
Balkema, (1996), Vol. 1, 71–76.
[4] Krizek, R.J. & Helal, M., Anisotropic behavior of ce-
ment grouted sand, Proc., Conf. on Grouting, Soil Im-
provement & Geosynthetics, New Orleans, ASCE, GSP
No. 30 (1992), Vol. 1, 541–550.
[5] Schwarz, L.G. & Chirumalla, M., Effect of injection
pressure on permeability and strength of microfine ce-
ment grouted sand, Proc., Geo-Denver 2007, Denver,
ASCE, GSP No. 168 (2007).
[6] Zebovitz, S., Krizek, R.J. & Atmatzidis, D.K., Injection
of fine sands with very fine cement grout, J. Geotech.
Engrg. 115 (1989), 1717–1733.
[7] Dano, C., Hicher, P.Y. & Tailliez, S., Engineering
properties of grouted sands, J. Geotech. & Geoenv.
Engrg. 130 (2004), 328–338.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 229
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-229

Reflections on primary and secondary

consolidation
Réflexions sur la consolidation primaire et secondaire
N. Mortensen
nmGeo / Rambøll DK

ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to establish a simplified model for evaluating whether primary and secondary consolidation may
develop as two simultaneous mechanisms. The classical 1D consolidation theory has been recomputed and used to establish a set
of equations covering an estimate of the theoretical strain rate. The theoretical strain rate, when applied on time-strain curves
from Oedometer testing (Incremental loading) on a high plasticity clay, reveals a match between theory and factual measure-
ments. Referring to the dimensionless time, T, introduced by Terzaghi, the math is typically seen for T < 0.8 considering the
pure 1D consolidation theory. For T > 2 the development of strain rate during secondary consolidation can also be predicted by
the equations introduced. The measured strain rate for the time 0.8 < T < 2.0 is consistently higher than what should be expected
by just using the 1D consolidation theory. Ideas for explaining this observation have been discussed.

RÉSUMÉ
L'objectif de cet article est d'établir un modèle simplifié pour évaluer si la consolidation primaire et secondaire peuvent se déve-
lopper comme deux mécanismes simultanés. La théorie de consolidation classique 1D a été recalculée et utilisée pour établir un
ensemble d'équations portant sur une estimation de la vitesse de déformation théorique. La vitesse de déformation théorique sur
une argile très plastique, lorsqu'il est appliqué sur les courbes de temps/déformation des essais oedométriques (chargement par
paliers), révèle une correspondance entre la théorie et les mesures observées. Se référant au facteur temps T sans dimension in-
troduit par Terzaghi, le calcul est généralement effectué pour T < 0.8 en utilisant la théorie de la consolidation pure 1D. Pour T >
2, le développement de la vitesse de déformation lors de la consolidation secondaire peut aussi être prédite par les présentes équ-
ations. La vitesse de déformation mesurée pour le moment 0.8 < T < 2.0 est conséquemment plus élevé que ce qui serait prévu
en utilisant simplement la théorie de consolidation 1D. Un échange d’idées pour expliquer cette observation a été discuté.

Keywords : Primary consolidation, secondary consolidation, creep rate, 1D consolidation theory, degree of consolidation

1 INTRODUCTION The idea with this paper is to follow the 1D

Vertical settlements of structures with a domi-
nating static load are traditionally divided into
three contributions: initial settlements, consolida-
tion settlements and creep settlements. These
components are usually superimposed to repre-
sent the total settlement. The initial settlement
has not been addressed in this paper.
consolidation theory strictly and to evaluate
whether creep may develop as the primary con-
solidation settlements develop.
In order to enlighten the link between theory
and practice, incremental loading Oedometer
tests on Palaeogene clay from Fehmarnbelt,
www.femern.com, have been included.
230 N. Mortensen / Reflections on Primary and Secondary Consolidation

With the objective of studying simultaneous u: Pore overpressure generated by the load
primary and secondary consolidation, only the increase
time-strain curves are discussed and the applied p: Load increase in the load step in question
load has thus no direct importance.
w: Unit weight of water
Section 2 shortly summarizes index properties h: Time dependent pressure head
of the clay investigated. Section 3 briefly touches h0: Pressure head before load increase
the basic principles from the Terzaghi consolida- t: Real time
tion theory including a reformulation into strain ck: Coefficient of consolidation
rates. Time-strain curves and strain rate curves z: Depth within specimen (sign convention,
are introduced in Section 4 with a discussion in- see Figure 1)
cluded in Section 5. H: Half the specimen height for double sided
drainage

2 KEY PROPERTIES OF SOIL INCLUDED
The time-strain curves included in this paper re-
fer to incremental loading Oedometer tests, per-
formed on Palaeogene clay from the glacially
folded Roesnaes formation. The tests applied are
based on soil specimens characterized by the fol-
lowing approximate properties: natural water
Figure 1 represent examples of the solved heat
equation showing the development of the nor-
malized pore overpressure versus normalized
time for various levels within the soil layer, as-
suming a rectangular pressure head distribution
immediately after the load has been applied.
0.0
T = 0.00
0.1
05

content of 38 %, plastic limit of 30 %, liquid lim- T=

0.00
1
it of 90 to 160 %, an effective unit weight of 8.5 0.2

kN/m3, a density of solids of 2.7-2.8 g/cm3 and 0.3

T=
0.0
0 5
with a clay content exceeding 50-60 %. T
=
0.
Specimens tested in the Oedometer cells have 0.4
15
0
a 60 mm diameter (trimmed from 100 mm cores)
T=
z/H

0.5
0.3

and an initial height of 20 mm, using a fixed ring

00
T=

setup. 0.6
0.50
T = 0.75

0.7
0

3 TRADITIONAL 1D CONSOLIDATION 0.8

T = 1.000

THEORY
T = 1.300

0.9

1.0
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00
3.1 Governing equations u/p = 1 -  '/p
Figure 1. Normalized pore overpressure versus normalized
The 1D consolidation theory, as established in depth for different time factors T = t ck/H2.
[1], may shortly be summarized by the heat eq-
uation defined in Equation (1): As shown in [1], the solution of the heat equa-
tion may be expressed as a Taylor series (not
"h1/"t1 = ("2h1) / ("z12) (1) shown here). The Taylor series is a number es-
tablished by (in theory) an infinite number of
where: terms. In this paper a sufficient number of terms
h1 = u / p =
w (h – h0) / p is defined by summing the absolute value of each
t1 = t ck / H2 (= T) of the last four terms. The ratio between this sum
z1 = z / H and all the terms used to define the Taylor series,
is established and if it exceeds 1e-5, more terms
The symbols are explained below: are added. Once the ratio < 1e-5, an approximate
 N. Mortensen / Reflections on Primary and Secondary Consolidation 231

value of the Taylor series is known. By this ap- Table 1. Constants to be applied in Equation (3).
proach, the examples illustrated on Figure 1 have [3] This paper. Intervals for T
been established. [0.001, 2.000] [0.001, 2.000] [0.010, 2.000]
a -6.0000 -5.1607 -5.1514
3.2 Degree of consolidation b 1.0000 0.9412 0.9408
c 0.5000 0.5103 0.5099
When the effective stresses in a soil layer increa- d -3.0000 -2.6017 -2.5980
ses, the settlement of the soil surface, #(T) will  1.82 0.46 0.26
increase too. The degree of consolidation, U re- : Maximum absolute error [%], relative to Figure 2.
presents a normalized way of illustrating #(T):
3.3 Strain rate
U = #(T)/#100 = $(1-h1) dz1 (2)
The strain rate for a time-strain curve in an incre-
mental loading Oedometer test has been addres-
#100 is the settlement corresponding to end of
primary. The degree of consolidation (Figure 2) sed. Replacing displacements in Equation (3) by
has been computed using the same computer rou- strains lead to U = %(t)/%100 and thus, the strain
tine as applied in establishing Figure 1. The inte- rate for one time-strain curve can be established
gration of Equation (2) is performed using Simp- by:
son’s rule as given in [2].
0.00 ("%t)/("T) = %100 "[U]/("T) (4)
0.10
= %100 U c d Td-1 / [a (b+c Td)]
0.20

0.30 The symbol %100 represents the strain at end of

0.40 Degree of consolidation, U primary consolidation. Equation (4) is establi-
u/p at centre of sample shed using the normalized time, defined by Ter-
U or u/p

0.50
zaghi. The result of this differentiation is illu-
0.60 strated in Figure 3, indicating that the strain rate
decreases linearly with two different tendencies:
one straight line to the left of point A (T  0.75)
0.70

0.80 and a second straight line for data below point A.

0.90 10

1.00
0.001 0.010 0.100 1.000 1 A
T []
(¶%/(¶T)/ %&''

Figure 2. Degree of consolidation versus normalized time and

with the normalized pore overpressure being shown in the 0.1

middle of the specimen (two-way drainage).

Brinch Hansen proposed a simple mathemati- 0.01

cal approximation to the degree of consolidation

in [3]: 0.001
0.001 0.010 0.100 1.000
T []
Ua = b + c Td (3) Figure 3. Strain rate normalized with %100 versus normalized
time. Constants a through d from 2nd column in Table 1.
Table 1 (left column) shows the constants “a”
through “d” as proposed in [3]. The two remain- It has been attempted to identify a physical
ing columns identify alternative constants esti- meaning behind the two straight lines, e.g. that
mated by the author using “least square” on data the gradients within the specimen exhibits a si-
from Figure 2. milar tendency, which could indicate that squee-
232 N. Mortensen / Reflections on Primary and Secondary Consolidation

zing out pore water would control the strain rate The time to reach end of primary, t100 is estab-
up to T  0.75. It has, however, not been possible lished in accordance with ASTM D 2435-04, [4].
to identify such an explanation by analyzing the It is seen that almost identical values of t100 are
equations involved. found using the two different methods, whereas
Equation (5) is a reformulated version of equ- the corresponding strains, %100 differ slightly. The
ation (4), where T is expressed by a factor “F” square root time method leads to %100 = 2.03 –
times the real time t. 0.13 = 1.90 % whereas the log time method im-
plies %100 = 2.10 – 0.13 = 1.97 %.
("%t)/("t) = %100 "[U]/("t) (5) The initial deformation on Figure 4 represents
the difference between the measurements within
= %100 U c d Fd td-1 / [a (b+c Fd td)] the presented time-strain series, relative to the
last measurement in the former time-strain series.
“F” is defined utilizing that T = 2 correspond
to end of primary, cf. Figure 2. Since T = t ck/H2 4.2 A strain rate philosophy
it is seen that ck/H2 = 2/t100 = F which represents
Figure 5 shows the strain rate plot from the time-
the transformation from T to t. The values %100 strain series in Figure 4. All plots drawn are ba-
and t100 therefore uniquely defines the theoretical
sed on constants “a” through “d”, extracted from
strain rate during primary consolidation.
the right column of Table 1.
1
n]
min
e [%/m

4 PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CONSO-

ate
n rra

LIDATION 0..1
ain
Sttrra

Trra
annssisstion
on
zzo
onnee
0 ..01
4.1 Time to end of primary consolidation %%110000:: 1..97
7%
tt100:: 2 285 5mmiin
n

Figure 4 shows an example of a time-strain cur-

ve, drawn versus log time and square root time. 0..001
(t [min0.5]
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80
0.0
0..00 01
Log time plot
0.2 Square root time
The orre
eo eticca
al
0.4 Meea
assuurre
ed vva ue
alu ess ccrre
ee ne
ep lliine
Equ
E ua on
attiio n (5)
0.6 1E--0 05

0..01 0..1 1 10 1 00 10 0 0 10 0 0 0
0.8
Time [m
me n]
min
1.0 Figure 5. Strain rate versus time; theory and measured values.
Axial strain [%]

1.2

1.4
The following comments may be given to Fi-
t100 = 270 min
gure 5:
1.6
A) The theoretical strain rate from Equation
1.8
%90/9
(5) is plotted using t100 and %100 as shown on the
2.0 t100 = 285 min Figure (and deduced in Figure 4).
2.2 B) The crosses represent a computed strain ra-
2.4 te, based on measured values of the strain and the
2.6
time. The time-strain measurements are filtered
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 in the following way: Extract three consecutive
Time [min]
Figure 4. Illustration of the evaluation of the time needed to readings of (time, strain); establish best fit re-
reach end of primary, t100 using square root time and log time. gression line, and use the inclination of this line
as the strain rate corresponding to the time defi-
 N. Mortensen / Reflections on Primary and Secondary Consolidation
ned by the central data set. The smoothening of
data is performed to minimize the noise in the
measurements for t > 1000 minutes, where the
change in displacement is close to the accuracy
of the transducers.
C) The line called “Theoretical creep line” has
an inclination of minus unity. For the plot type
used, the rate of secondary consolidation, C =
log10(1+t/ts) will, mathematically seen, plot with
an inclination of minus unity and plus unity for
loading and unloading, respectively; “ts” is a ref-
erence time.
0.0
0.2
0.4
Axial strain [%]
0.6
0.8
t100 = 160 min
1.0
1.2
1.4
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
Time [min]
Figure 6. Illustration of the evaluation of the time needed to
reach end of primary, t100 using log time.
Despite the simplifications introduced, and the
rigorous assumptions hidden within the 1D con-
solidation theory, Figure 5 shows reasonable
consistency between the theory applied and the
measurements established for t < 100 minutes,
corresponding to T = 0.7. Figure 5 also indicates
that the inclination of the theoretical creep line is
reached for t ) 400 min or T ) 2.8.
The transition zone from Figure 5 is covering
0.7 < T < 2.8. In this zone, the measured strain
rate exceeds the predicted rate using the consoli-
dation theory and the inclination of the theoreti-
cal creep line has not yet been reached.
Figures 6 and 7 are established for a different
time-strain curve, using the principles already
discussed. Figure 7 shows a similar transition zo-
ne, spanning the approximate interval of 0.8 < T
233
< 3.1. More plots may be shown revealing the
same tendencies as already discussed and the
principles applied seems to imply a transition zo-
ne where the measured strain rate is higher than
the predicted rate.
5 DISCUSSION / CONCLUSION
A brief discussion about the principle applied in
this paper is included in order to try to evaluate
how this transition zone may be understood. The
strain rate model as proposed in Equation (5) de-
pends solely on two properties: t100 and %100.
1
Strain rate [%/min]
Measured values
Equation (5)
0.1
0.01
t100: 160 min
0.001 %100: 1.08 %
0.0001
10000
1E-005
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
Time [min]
Figure 7. Strain rate versus time; theory and measured values.
Looking at Figure 4 indicates that two differ-
ent ways of defining t100 will, for any practical
purpose, lead to identical results. Referring to the
same figure, it is also seen that the deviation in
the value of %100 is less than 5 %, so there seems
to be no fundamental difference in the applied
values of t100 and %100 from the two methods.
Figures 5 and 7 combine two different mecha-
nisms: a) the 1D consolidation theory formulated
as a strain rate and b) the mathematical conse-
quence of the applied creep law, revealing an in-
clination of unity when plotted in log strain rate
versus log time. A smooth transition between the
two theories can thus only be obtained if the
theoretical creep line intersects the consolidation
strain rate at the time where the inclination of the
234 N. Mortensen / Reflections on Primary and Secondary Consolidation
two rates is identical. This will, however, corres-
pond to t100 deviating strongly from the estimates
illustrated in Figure 4 which probably is not rea-
listic. Alternatively, the two theories may inter-
sect at “a random” time. This will imply a first
order derivative of the strain rate having two dif-
ferent values at the same time (switching from
one mode to another), which is not supported by
the test results.
In conclusion, the theoretical strain rate, as es-
timated by the consolidation theory, deviates
from the strain rate during creep unless some sort
of transition zone is introduced. Based on meas-
ured data, the strain rate philosophy proposed
seems to be justified for the consolidation pro-
cess with T < 0.7-0.8. Possible explanations for
the deviation when T > 0.7-0.8 may be:
a) The constrained Oedometer modulus will
vary through the consolidation phase, which is
not included in the theory applied. If Figure 1 is
studied for T > 0.7-0.8, it is seen that more than
80 % of the applied total stress is transferred to
effective stresses, and for such a stress change,
the constrained modulus should also change. It is
not consistent that 1) the major change in effec-
tive stresses is seen along the strain rate curve
where the best match is obtained with measured
data and 2) use a change of the constrained Oe-
dometer modulus to argue for deviations between
theory and measured data along the curve part,
where the change in effective stresses is reasona-
bly small.
b) The change in pore pressure during the
consolidation phase must, in the end, be affected
by the creep phase, which must influence the
strain rate. The two phases must interact some-
how.
c) Although not proven, it cannot be rejected
that for T < 0.7-0.8, the strain rate may be heavi-
ly influenced by the amount of water leaving the
specimen. The consequence is that instead of try-
ing to explain a difference between measured
values and a theory, a new theory should be es-
tablished covering the transition zone and the
secondary consolidation phase. A more detailed
study of such mechanisms should include Oedo-
meter testing in a CRSC-setup where pore pres-
sures can be traced and where the load on the
specimen must be applied instantaneously so the
entire consolidation process can be followed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author is grateful for being given the oppor-
tunity to utilize and publish selected laboratory
results financed by the organization Femern A/S,
[5]. The presented data serves as a sub-group of
data established during the laboratory testing
programme for the fixed link across Fehmarn-
belt. In addition, the author is thankful for having
been given the possibility by Rambøll Arup Joint
Venture for serving in the actual position.
Thanks must also be given to Ph.D. and Asso-
ciated Professor at the Technical University of
Denmark, Ms. Anette Krogsbøll and Emeritus
Professor Niels Foged for fruitful discussions on
the subject addressed.
The laboratory work is performed by GEO,
Denmark. Finally, the author is very grateful for
the financial compensation made available by the
technical director of the company nmGeo, mak-
ing this paper possible.
REFERENCES
[1] Hansen, B., Advanced Theoretical Soil Mechanics, The
Danish Geotechnical Society, Bulletin 20, Copenhagen
2001.
[2] Press, W.H., S.A. Teukolsky, W.T. Vetterling, and B.P.
Flannery. Numerical Recipes, Third edition, ISBN 978-
0-521-88407-5.
[3] Hansen, J. Brinch. A model law for simultaneous pri-
mary and secondary creep. The Danish Geotechnical
Institute, Bulletin 13, Copenhagen 1961.
[4] ASTM D 2435-04. Standard test methods for one-di-
mensional consolidation properties of soil using incre-
mental loading.
[5] www.femern.com
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 235
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-235

UCS estimation for Maastricht limestones by

Needle penetration testing
Estimation de la resistance à la compression simple des
calcaires Maastrichtians par le test de resistance à
l’enfoncement d’une aiguille
D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard 1, H.K. Engin, W. Verwaal & A. Mulder
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Geo-engineering
section, Stevinweg 1, PO BOX 5048, 2600 GA Delft, Netherlands.

ABSTRACT
The Needle Penetration Test (NPT) is used to estimate the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the Maastrichtian lime-
stones. In parallel to UCS testing, NPT has been conducted for the future A2 tunnel in Maastricht, the Netherlands on borehole
cores ranging from very weak calcarenite to carbonate sands. NPT results are correlated to UCS values and clustered to give a
qualitative material strength estimation. The spatial distribution of the very low NPT values is tentatively related to the occur-
rence of faults. Then, the relationships between UCS and NP resistance observed in the laboratory for calcarenites are analysed.
The spreading of the results is related to the material microstructure. An accurate UCS estimation cannot be derived from a sin-
gle NPT value. To get an insight on the processes taking place during NP testing, the total needle resistance and shaft friction
have been recorded and microstructural damage has been observed. Final damage consists of crushing and compaction, related to
high stresses, rather than de-bounding of grains, observed in UCS testing. Despite this difference in damage type, resistance to
needle penetration and UCS values are related.

RÉSUMÉ
Le test de résistance à l’enfoncement d’une aiguille (REA) a été utilisé pour estimer la résistance à la compression simple des
calcaires Maastrichtians (RCS). En parallèle à des mesures RCS, le test REA a été conduit pour le future tunnel A2 à Maastricht
aux Pays-Bas sur des carottes faites de calcarénites de très faible résistance et de sables carbonatés. Les valeurs de REA sont cor-
rélées aux valeurs RCS et groupées pour estimer qualitativement la résistance des matériaux à partir de mesures REA. La distri-
bution des très faibles valeurs REA le long du tracé du tunnel peut être liée à la présence de failles. Ensuite, les relations obser-
vées au laboratoire entre REA et RCS sont analysées. L’éventail des mesures est expliqué par la microstructure des calcarénites
testées. Une détermination exacte de UCS ne peut découler d’une seule mesure REA. Pour mieux comprendre les mécanismes
du test REA, la résistance totale de l’aiguille à l’enfoncement ainsi que la force de friction le long de son corps sont mesurées..
De plus, l’endommagement du matériau a été observé. Autour de l’aiguille, les grains sont écrasés et compactés sous les larges
contraintes imposées par l’aiguille. En compression simple, une décohésion des grains est observée le long du plan de rupture.
Malgré tout, les valeurs de REA et RCS sont reliées.

Keywords: needle penetration test, Maastrichtian limestones, microstructural damage

1 INTRODUCTION penetrate into a lump or a core of rock for a

given depth of penetration. It is a non-destructive
The needle penetration test (NPT) consists of and easy test that was developed in Japan and is
measuring the maximum resistance of a needle to used in Japan and Turkey to predict UCS for

1
Corresponding Author.
236 D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard et al. / UCS Estimation for Maastricht Limestones by NPT
various rock types, mainly sedimentary and vol-
canic rocks ranging from very weak to strong
rocks [1].
In the Netherlands, a modified version of a
surface hand penetrometer manufactured by Ei-
jkelkamp, the Netherlands [2] has been adopted
for indirect estimation of the UCS of extremely
weak to very weak (according to [3]) carbonate
materials originating from the same geological
formation, the Maastrichtian limestones (Figure
1). The penetrometer is equipped with a spring of
a given stifnesss. As the needle is pushed into the
limestone, the spring is compressed. The com-
pression of the spring is read with the help of an
indicator ring. As the penetration depth of the
needle increases, it increases until reaching a
constant value. The needle penetration resistance
(MPa) is obtained by multiplying this value (cm)
by the spring stiffness (N/cm) and dividing it the
the cross section area of the needle (mm2). In this
paper, NPT results obtained for the future A2
tunnel in Maastricht, the Netherlands are ex-
posed and more insight is gained in the labora-
tory on the performance of NPT in these lime-
stones.
Figure 1. Needle penetration test with the modified Eikel-
kamp penetrometer on Maastrichtian limestones. a: Core. b: 1
mm diameter needles with a flat and 90 and 60o tip. c:
Springs of 100 and 150 N for 10 cm compression. d: Pene-
trometer equipped with a 1.4 mm diameter needle and a 60o
cone and a spring of 50 N for 10 cm compression. e: Ring in-
dicating the maximum spring compression ranging from 0 to
8.5 cm.
2 EVALUATION OF LIMESTONE
STRENGTH FOR CUT AND COVER
TUNNEL DESIGN
For the site investigation for the A2 cut and
cover tunnel project in the city of Maastricht, the
Netherlands, the needle penetrometer test was
used to estimate quickly, objectively, and with
minimal material disturbance, the strength of
borehole cores of Maastrichtian limestone. NPT
readings were taken every 10 cm. As the purpose
of testing was the detection of very low strength
material, the penetrometer was equipped with a
1.4 (instead of 1 mm) diameter needle and a soft
spring (50 N instead of 100 or 150 N for 10 cm
compression). Readings of 8.5 cm indicorre-
spond to a needle penetration resistance is equal
to or greater than 27.6 MPa.
In parallel to NPT, a number of cores were
subjected to UCS testing. Figure 2 shows the
correlation between needle penetration readings
and UCS values obtained for the A2 tunnel. Car-
bonate sands (cluster 1), very weak calcarenite
(cluster 2) and weak calcarenite (cluster 3) were
distinguished based on penetrometer values. The
presence of carbonate sands instead of cal-
carenite was tentatively related to faulting (Fig-
ure 3) [4], even if damage caused by rotary core
drilling could not be rejected [5].
4
Meersen
Nekum Cluster 3
3 Emael
Schiepersberg
UCS (MPa)
Gronsveld
2 Valkenburg
Cluster 2
1
Cluster 1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Penetrometer reading (cm)
Figure 2. Clustering of the NPT readings and UCS values for
the limestones of the A2 tunnel in Maastricht, the Nether-
lands.
 D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard et al. / UCS Estimation for Maastricht Limestones by NPT
Figure 3. Occurrence of low NPT readings at a fault zone in-
ferred from the paleontological description of the borehole
cores in terms of members of the Maastrichtian formation.
Profile shows adjacent boreholes around Voltastraat. Blue
represents the top soils, purple the gravels, light and, respec-
tively dark green, the younger and, respectively older mem-
bers of the Maastrichtian limestones. The black lines
represent the NPT readings. The fault has a vertical offset of
about 14 m.
3 NEEDLE PENETRATION TESTING IN
THE LABORATORY
In parallel to the routine testing for the A2 tun-
nel, the relation between test procedure, resis-
tance to penetration, material strengths and mi-
cro-structural damage was investigated in a
controlled environment.
237
3.1 Empirical relationship between NPR and
UCS
1 and 1.4 mm diameter needles with a flat or
conical tip with a 90 or 60o cone angle were
pushed in a 500 N servo-controlled compressive
machine at constant displacement rate. The load-
ing direction was better controlled than during
manual penetrometer testing and results were not
affected by friction of the penetrometer spring in
the body of the penetrometer. Moreover, during
pushing, the resistance to penetration was con-
tinuously measured. In some tests, the shaft fric-
tion was also recorded during needle retrieval.
Tests were performed on 36 cores taken from
three blocks with an average UCS of 1.9, 2.8 and
3.2 MPa and a standard deviation of 0.25 MPa.
For each needle, tests were repeated at least five
times in the same core. The following observa-
tions were made. The total needle resistance
(Figure 4) increased constantly as penetration
depth increased, without reaching a stable value,
even after a penetration of 8.5 mm. The increase
was sharp in the first 2 to 3 mm of penetration as
distance to free surface increased and a damaged
zone at the front of the needle tip was formed.
Afterwards, strain hardening occurred at a lower
rate and was of the same order of magnitude as
the force needed to pull out the needle (Fig. 4).
Maximum resistance to penetration was arbitrar-
ily chosen at 8.5 mm penetration. When results
obtained with any needle were analysed alto-
gether, the variance of the maximum resistance
per core was between 1 and 9% and the maxi-
mum resistance varied between 34 and 40 MPa
and, respectively 31 to 38 MPa for the blocks
with a 3.2 and, respectively 2.8 MPa average
UCS value [6]. No trend in the maximum resis-
tance was visible as a function of needle geome-
try and size. Based on the results obtained on 36
cores with UCS values varying between 1.36
MPa and 3.53 MPa and needle resistances vary-
ing between 25.1 and 45.8 MPa, the needle resis-
tance and UCS values were found to be weakly
linearly correlated with a square of the coeffi-
cient of linear regression (R2) of only 0.453 [6].
When averaged needle resistance per core and
UCS values were averaged per block, the needle
resistance could be expressed with a R2 of
238 D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard et al. / UCS Estimation for Maastricht Limestones by NPT

0.9972 [6] as function of the UCS value as fol- to migrate into the pores of the adjacent intact
lows: material. Crushing and compaction are also ob-
served in compaction shear bands in triaxial test-
UCS = 0.2176 NPT – 5.0816 (1) ing under high confinement. Under UCS condi-
tions, damage is different: cement connections
and more rarely connections between cement
0.08 0.08
fringes and grains are broken and grains remain
intact. Despite this difference in damage type,
Force during needle penetration (kN)

calcarenite- 5 cm diameter core 1 (penetration)

Force during needle retrieval (kN)

calcarenite- 5 cm diameter core 2 (penetration) resistance to needle penetration and UCS values
0.06 0.06
calcarenite- 5cm diameter core 1 (retrieval) are related.

0.04 0.04

0.02 0.02

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Penetration (mm)

Figure 4. Needle penetration force as function of penetration

depth during pushing and retrieval of needle in a loading
frame, for a 5 and a 1 cm core. Green and black lines: needle
penetration curves for 1 cm core. Red line: needle penetra-
tion curve for a 5 cm diameter core. Turquoise: force required
to overcome resistance along shaft during needle retrieval.

3.2 Micro-structural damage

A test with a 60o cone needle was also performed
in a mini-core that was scanned before and after
testing in a micro-CT scan to image the micro-
structural damage (Figure 5). After testing the
core was cut at the maximum penetration depth
and observed with the help of a ESEM (Figure
6). The Maastrichtian calcarenite is a well sorted
clastic carbonate rock with sand-sized grains be-
tween 100 to 400 !m. It has a porosity up to
50% and a grained-supported structure with no
mud between grains. Its particles are fragmented
skeletal components of foraminifera, sponges,
bivalves, bryozoa and brachiolods that are rec- Figure 5. Micro-CT scans before and after needle penetration
ognizable on both the micro-CT and ESEM im- in 1 cm diameter. core. Resolution: 7 x 7 x 7 !m3. a) section
ages. Few millimetric and centimetric fossils lay parallel to needle shaft. Zone ahead of needle tip b) before
and c) after needle penetration and retrieval.
horizontally in the calcarenite. Many grains show
a microcrystalline dog-tooth cement growth.
During needle penetration testing, up to 1 mm
ahead of the needle tip, grains were crushed and
compacted in a zone that looks like an extension
of the needle tip. As the needle was pushed for-
ward, the clay-sized crushed material was forced
to compact in a 0.55 mm thick dense powdery
zone surrounding the shaft of the needle and/or
 D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard et al. / UCS Estimation for Maastricht Limestones by NPT
a mm penetration and needle geometry or size was
b 1 mm
c trometer values is needed for a fair strength esti-
d the needle shaft increase. Final damage consists
Figure 6. ESEM observations of the damage caused by nee-
dle penetration. Top: view from the imprint of the needle tip
(a) to the undisturbed zone (d). Bottom: zooms on (b),
crushed zone, (c) the transition zone between the crushed
and the intact zones, and (d) intact calcarenite grains.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The needle penetration test can be used to distin-
guish qualitatively carbonate sands from very
weak and weak calcarenites. When weak cal-
carenites were tested in controlled conditions, the
resistance to penetration increased sharply in the
first 2 to 3 mm penetration. Then, it kept on in-
239
creasing without reaching a plateau even after
8.5 mm penetration, mostly because of shaft fric-
tion. No relation between needle values after 8.5
found. For weak calcarenites, UCS values cannot
be derived from a single needle penetrometer
value. The ratio of needle diameter over average
grain size less than 10 and the micro-structural
non-uniformity of the material explain the
spreading of the results. A large number of pene-
mation. During penetration, very high stresses
develop under the needle and stresses normal to
of crushing and compaction rather than de-
bounding of grains. Despite this difference in
damage type, resistance to needle penetration
and UCS values can be related.
It is proposed to gain knowledge from nu-
merical simulation of pile driving in weak porous
carbonate rocks to further develop the relation
between needle penetrometer resistance and shaft
friction and material properties.
REFERENCES
[1] Z.A Erguler and R. Ulusay. Water-induced variations in
mechanical properties of clay-bearing rocks. Interna-
tional Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences
(2009) 46, 355–370.
[2] http://www.eijkelkamp.com/Portals/2/Eijkelkamp/Files/
P1-53e.pdf (last visited on 15.01-2011).
[3] ISRM. ISRM suggested methods. Determining the
Uniaxial Compressive Strength and Deformability of
Rock Materials (1979).
[4] D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard, P. Kouwenberg, P.M. Mauren-
brecher, B. Vink. Data integration to assess geo-hazards
in Maastricht A2 tunnel. In:, Proceedings of Eurock
2010, Rock Mechanics in Civil and Environmental En-
gineering, J. Zhao, V. Labiouse, J.P. Dudt and J.F.
Mathier (eds.), CRC Press, Balkema, Leiden (2010),
301-304.
[5] D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard, W.Verwaal, P.M. Maurenbrecher,
L.A. van Paassen, Microstructural degradation of Maas-
trichtian limestones. Proceedings of Eurock 2009, En-
gineering in Difficult Ground Conditions Soft Rocks
and Karst, I. Vrkljan (ed.), CRC Press, Leiden (2009),
321-326.
[6] B. Chaudhary, 2004. Correlation between UCS and
Penetration Strength on weak Calcarenite of the Roman
mine pillar by TU Delft hand penetrometer. Memoirs,
ITC, Enschede, Netherlands.
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 241
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-241

Mechanical behavior of microfine cement

grouted sands
Comportement mécanique des sables injectés
par coulis de micro ciment
I. A. Pantazopoulos and D. K. Atmatzidis1
Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras, Greece

ABSTRACT
Microfine cements, produced by pulverizing cements of three different types, were injected into clean sand at a water-to-cement
ratio of 1:1 by weight. Unconfined and triaxial compression, resonant column and bender element tests were conducted to inves-
tigate the stress-strain-strength characteristics and the dynamic properties of the grouted sand. Microfine cement grouting re-
sulted in (a) average unconfined compressive strength of 6.4 MPa, (b) average cohesion of 1.7 MPa, (c) improvement of the in-
ternal friction angle by an average of 5°, (d) significant improvement of the initial modulus of elasticity by up to 25 times, (e)
significant reduction of the strain at failure by up to 10 times, (f) higher shear modulus by up to 25 times, (g) improved damping
ratio by 100%, (h) significantly improved dynamic modulus of elasticity and (i) increased Poisson ratio by an average of 35%.

RÉSUMÉ
On a injécté de micro-ciments de rapport eau/ciment 1:1, produits en pulvérisant des ciments de trois types différents dans un sa-
ble propre. On a effectué des essais de compression simple et triaxiale, de colonne résonnante et des éléments piézoelectriques
pour étudier les characteristiques contrainte-déformation-résistance et les proprietes dynamique du sable injecté. L'injection du
micro-ciment a résulté en (a) une compression simple moyenne de 6.4 MPa, (b) une cohésion moyenne de 1.7 MPa, (c) une
augmentation de l’angle de frottement de 5° en moyenne, (d) un module d’ élasticité initial jusqu’à 25 fois plus élévé, (e) une de-
formation à la rupture jusqu’à 10 fois moins grande, (f) un module de cisaillement jusqu’à 25 fois plus élévé, (g) une augmenta-
tion du coefficient d’ amortisement de 100%, (h) une augmentation significative du module d’ élasticité dynamique et (i) une
augmentation du coefficient du Poisson de 35% en moyenne.

Keywords: Grouted sand, microfine cement, unconfined compression, triaxial compression, resonant column, bender elements

1 INTRODUCTION Accordingly, the design of structural grouting

A number of microfine cements has been devel-
oped over the last decades in order to extend the
application range of ordinary cement grouts and
to reduce the use of harmful chemical solutions.
Limited information is available on the behavior
of microfine cement grouted sands under effec-
tive stress conditions and on dynamic properties.
projects is mostly based on results obtained from
unconfined compression tests and on assumed or
inferred parameter values, especially for model-
ing dynamic behavior.
The experimental investigation reported
herein is part of an extensive research effort to
develop a relatively fine-grained material, suit-
able for permeation grouting, obtained by pul-

1
Corresponding Author.
242 I.A. Pantazopoulos and D.K. Atmatzidis / Mechanical Behavior of Microfine Cement Grouted Sands
verization of ordinary cements produced in
Greece. Scope of this presentation is to enrich
the available information on deformability, shear
strength parameters and dynamic properties of
microfine cement grouted sands, to quantify the
improvement of sand properties by grouting with
thick suspensions and to document the effect of
cement grain size and type.
2 MATERIALS AND PROCEDURES
For the purposes of this investigation, a Portland,
a Portland-composite and a pozzolanic cement
(CEM I, CEM II/B-M and CEM IV/B according
to Standard EN 197-1) were used. Each cement
was pulverized to produce three additional ce-
ments with nominal maximum grain sizes (dmax)
of 40 ¡m, 20 ¡m and 10 ¡m and average Blain
specific surface values of 567, 720 and 928
m2/kg, respectively. Cements with dmax = 10 ¡m
can be considered as “microfine” according to
Standard EN 12715 (d95 < 20 ¡m and specific
surface over 800 m2/kg). Also, cements with dmax
= 20 ¡m have adequately small characteristic
grain sizes to be considered, marginally, as “mi-
crofine”. Typical gradations of these cements are
presented in Figure 1.
The water-to-cement ratio (W/C) of the grouts
was set equal to 1, by weight, to represent stable
suspensions in terms of total bleed capacity. A
superplasticizer (patented new generation of ad-
mixture based on polycarboxylate chemistry) at a
dosage of 1.4 % by weight of dry cement was
used to improve grout properties. All suspen-
sions were prepared using high speed mixers. As
recommended by the superplasticizer producer,
the total amount of cement, 70 % of the water
and the superplasticizer dosage were mixed for 5
min. Then, the rest of the water was added and
mixing continued for another 5 min.
The soil used was a clean, uniform, limestone
sand with angular grains and grain sizes limited
between sieve sizes (ASTM E11) Nos. 14–25
(d15 = 0.8 mm). This sand was groutable by all
1 00
C e m e n t : C E M I I/ B -M
N o m i n a l d m ax
80
10 m
Finer by Weight (%)
20 m
60 40 m
100m
40
20
0
100 10 1 0.1
G ra in S i z e ( m )
Figure 1. Typical cement gradations.
cement suspensions and was grouted at a dense
and dry state (relative density 90 %, angle of in-
ternal friction 42.6°).
Laboratory equipment similar to the arrange-
ment described in ASTM D4320-84, was used to
produce small-size grouted sand specimens
(height = 112 mm, diameter = 50 mm) ready for
testing. Injection was stopped when the volume
of the injected grout was equal to two void vol-
umes of the sand in the mold or when the injec-
tion pressure was equal to 200 kPa. The grouted
specimens were tested after curing for 28 days.
Unconfined compression tests and UU and
CU-PP triaxial compression tests (confining
pressures of 100, 200 and 400kPa) were con-
ducted at an axial strain rate equal to 0.1 %/min.
The dynamic properties of the grouted sands
were investigated at confining pressures up to
400 kPa by conducting torsional resonant column
tests for a shear strain range, a, of approximately
5:10-5 % to 5:10-2 % and bender element tests at
a shear strain of approximately 10-6 %. Testing
procedures and interpretation of raw data com-
plied with well established methods [1, 2]. For
comparison, similar tests were conducted on
clean sand and on neat grout specimens.
3 STRESS-STRAIN-STRENGTH
The stress-strain curves from unconfined com-
pression tests indicate similar behavior between
grouted sands and neat cement sediment. For the
grouted sand specimens, the strain at failure, ¶f,
ranged from 0.49 % to 1.10 % (av. 0.64 %) and
 I.A. Pantazopoulos and D.K. Atmatzidis / Mechanical Behavior of Microfine Cement Grouted Sands 243

the compressive strength, qu, ranged from 4.0
MPa to 11.2 MPa (av. 6.4 MPa). The respective
ranges for neat cement sediments were 0.4 % to
0.9 % (av. 0.68 %) and 6.5 MPa to 12.7 MPa (av.
8.85 MPa). Both grouted sand and neat cement
specimens exhibited brittle behavior at failure.
Similar observations on deformability were made
on the basis of the results from UU and CU-PP
triaxial tests.
All initial modulus of elasticity, Ei (slope of
the stress-strain curve at the origin) and failure
strain, ¶f, values obtained from UU and CU-PP
tests are presented in Figure 2 and allow an eval-
uation to be made of the effects of cement grada-
tion and triaxial test type. The initial tangent
modulus of the grouted sand decreased with in-
creasing cement grain size and ranged from 17 to
33 MPa (av. 25.7 MPa), from 14 to 36 MPa (av.
25.6 MPa), from 13 to 27 MPa (av. 19 MPa) and
from 13 to 20 MPa (av. 16.4 MPa), for nominal
maximum cement grain size (dmax) equal to 10,
20, 40 and 100 ¡m, respectively. The
40
35
30
Ei (MPa)
strain at failure ranged, with the exception of one
ordinary cement, from 0.5% to 2.5% (av. 1.0 %),
with no apparent effect of cement grain size.
These values are in good agreement with those
obtained for the neat microfine cement sediments
(dmax = 20¡m and 10¡m) which had Ei in the
range of 17.9 MPa to 29.0 MPa (av. 23.0 MPa)
and ¶f in the range of 0.4% to 1.2% (av. 0.8%).
The effect of grouting on the deformability of the
sand is significant. The initial modulus of elastic-
ity of the sand increases by more than one order
of magnitude (av. 12.4) and the failure strain de-
creases by a factor of 5 to 10.
The results obtained during this investigation in-
dicate that, in general, the Mohr-Coulomb failure
criterion represents adequately the behavior of
the grouted sand. Accordingly, the shear strength
of the grouted sand is quantified in terms of the
angle of internal friction, , and the cohesion, c.
However, it should be noted that some of the
CU-PP tests did not yield a satisfactory failure
envelope (Kf-line), leading to unexpectedly low
values for the angle of internal friction and, con-
sequently, overestimated values for the cohesion
Triaxial test of the grouted sands. As anticipated, grouting
UU CU-PP
had some effect on the angle of internal friction
W/C=1 of the sands. For the majority of the tests, a value
ranging between +7° and -3° of that of the clean

25 sand was obtained. In general, the values of the

20
internal friction angle, based on UU and CU-PP
triaxial tests, ranged from 45° to 61° (av. 51°)
15 and from 32° to 55° (av. 43°) indicating the re-
semblance to neat cement specimens which had
10
0 10 20 40
30 100
40 50
an average of 58.8° (range 53° to 61°) based on
dm ax (m) UU tests. Presented in Figure 3 are the results
obtained for the cohesion of the grouted sands as
6
Triaxial test a function of the nominal maximum cement
5 UU CU-PP grain size (dmax) and triaxial test type. It can be
W/C=1 observed that, in most cases, the CU-PP tests
4
yielded higher cohesion values than the UU tests.
f (%)

3 The cohesion values of the grouted sands ranged

from 627 to 863 kPa (av. 781 kPa) for the coarse
2 cement gradations (dmax = 100 and 40 ¡m) and
1
from 750 to 2694 kPa (av. 1744 kPa) for the fine
cement gradations (dmax = 20 and 10 ¡m). In
0 general, grouting with microfine cements,
0 10 20 40
30 100
40 50
dm ax (m)
W/C=1, provide double the cohesion provided by
ordinary cements.
Figure 2. Deformation characteristics of grouted sands.
244 I.A. Pantazopoulos and D.K. Atmatzidis / Mechanical Behavior of Microfine Cement Grouted Sands

3000 4500
Triaxial test Sand: #14 - #25 (a)
4000 Cement: I/B-M, dm ax=10m, W/C=1
2500 UU CU-PP
3500
W/C=1 Grouted sand
2000 3000

G (MPa)
c (kPa)

2500
1500
2000
Neat grout
1000 1500

1000
500 Clean sand
500 3=400 kPa
3=50 kPa
0 0
0 10 20 40
30 100
40 50 1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02 1.E-01
dm ax (m) Shear strain, (% )

4000
Figure 3. Cohesion of grouted sands.
(b)

3000
4 DYNAMIC PROPERTIES
G (MPa) 2000
Presented in Figure 4a are typical results ob-
tained for the shear modulus, G, of grouted sand, dm ax
clean sand and neat grout at two confining pres- 1000 10m
Sand: #14 - #25
20m Cement: I/B-M, W/C=1
sures (50 kPa and 400 kPa) as a function of shear
100m 3=400kPa
strain. It is evident that the shear modulus of 0
grouted sand attains significantly higher values, 1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02
compared to the clean sand, and more than dou- Shear strain, (% )

ble the values of the neat grout. The effect of 4000

confining pressure is pronounced only for the (c)

clean sand and not for the grouted sand or the

neat grout. The neat microfine cement sediments 3500
(dmax = 20¡m and 10¡m) had G values ranging
G (MPa)

from 2.3 GPa to 1.3 GPa for a shear strain range

of 10-4 % to 10-2 % and were not affected by con- Cement type
3000
fining pressure level. Shear modulus values of I42.5
Sand: #14 - #25
the clean sand did not exceed 380 MPa. II32.5 Cement: dm ax=20m, W/C=1
As generally shown in Figure 4, the shear IV32.5 3=400kPa
2500
modulus values decrease with increasing shear
1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02
strain as also observed for chemically grouted [3] Shear strain, (% )
and microfine cement grouted [4] sands. It was
also generally observed that, for shear strain Figure 4. Typical shear modulus values.
ranging from about 5:10-5 % to 10-3 %, the shear
modulus values of the grouted sand are practi- (dmax=10 and 20 ¡m) produced by pulverizing
cally constant indicating a range of elastic behav- the ordinary cements. Differences between ce-
ior where strains are still reversible. Cement ments with dmax=10¡m or 20¡m are insignificant.
grain size has a measurable effect on the shear In terms of cement type, it appears that type I
modulus values of the grouted sand, as typically cement suspensions yield shear modulus values
shown in Figure 4b. Sand grouted with ordinary lower by up to 10% or 15% compared to suspen-
cement grouts (dmax=100 ¡m) has lower shear sions of type II/B-M (Portland composite) and
modulus values, by 25 % to 40 %, compared IV/B (pozzolanic) cements which yield similar
to sand grouted with microfine cement grouts
 I.A. Pantazopoulos and D.K. Atmatzidis / Mechanical Behavior of Microfine Cement Grouted Sands
results for the full shear strain range and all con-
fining pressure levels, as shown in Figure 4c.
Presented in Figure 5 are typical results ob-
tained for the damping ratio values of grouted
sand, clean sand and neat grout at two confining
pressure levels (50 kPa and 400 kPa) as a func-
tion of shear strain. It can be observed that, up to
a shear strain level of about 10-2 %, the damping
ratio of the grouted sand has higher values than
that of the clean sand, while over this shear strain
limit this trend is reversed. The neat microfine
cement sediments (dmax = 20¡m and 10¡m) had
D values which ranged from 0.6 % to 1.9 % for a
shear strain range of 10-4 % to 10-2 % and were
not affected by confining pressure level. Within
the same shear strain range, clean sand values
ranged from 0.4 % to 2.0 %. Cement grain size
did not have a significant or systematic effect on
the damping ratio values of the grouted sand.
Usually, sand grouted with microfine cement
grouts (dmax=20 and 10 ¡m) had higher damping
ratio values compared to sand grouted with ordi-
nary cement grouts (dmax=100 ¡m) but the oppo-
site was also observed in some cases. In terms of
cement type, it appears that grouting with type
II/B-M cement suspensions yields damping ratio
values higher by up to 100% compared to sus-
pensions of type I and IV/B cements.
The dynamic modulus of elasticity, E0, ob-
tained for sand grouted with microfine ce-
ments(dmax = 10 ¡m and 20 ¡m) had an average
value of 9.4 GPa, was higher by about 30 %
compared to sand grouted with ordinary cements,
and showed no significant variation with cement
10
Sand: #14 - #25
Cement: I/B-M, dmax=20m, W/C=1
8 The improvement ratio of the dynamic mod-
50 kPa - 
245
type or confining pressure. As with the shear
modulus, the E0 values were higher than those
obtained for the neat cements (4.0 GPa to 5.8
GPa) and significantly higher than those obtained
for the clean sand (180 MPa to 950 MPa). The
computed dynamic shear modulus, G0, values are
in very good agreement with values obtained
from resonant column tests for lower (10-5 %)
shear strain levels. Finally, the Poisson ratio of
the microfine cement grouted sand, ranged from
0.31 to 0.36, was similar to that of the neat ce-
ment sediments (0.28 to 0.33) and higher than
that obtained for the clean sand (0.24 to 0.26).
For a more comprehensive presentation of the
effectiveness of grouting on the dynamic proper-
ties of the clean sands, all results are presented in
Figure 6 in terms of the ratios G/Gs, D/Ds and
E0/E0,s which are defined as the ratios between
the dynamic properties values of grouted sand to
those of the clean sand at the same shear strain.
Shear modulus improvement decreases as the
confining pressure increases. Specifically, for
confining pressure equal to 50 kPa and 400 kPa
grouting improves the shear modulus of the sand
by an average factor of 25 and 9, respectively.
The improvement in shear modulus is not af-
fected by shear strain.
The improvement of the damping ratio is
somewhat affected by shear strain and seems not
to be affected by the level of the confining pres-
sure. Specifically, the improvement ratio ranged
between 1 and 4 (av. 2.2), increased as the shear
strain increased up to approximately 10-3 % and,
then, decreased as the shear strain increased from
10-3 % to 10-2 %. This can be attributed to the
significant increase of the damping ratio of the
clean sand for shear strains greater than 5:10-3 %.


Grouted
50 KPa
sand
-

ulus of elasticity, at a shear strain of 10-6 % ob-
3=50 kPa Neat grout
6 50 - 
kPasand
Clean tained from bender element tests, is affected by
D (%)

400 
 
kPa -sand
Grouted the level of the confining pressure and ranges
3=400 kPa 400
NeatkPa -

grout
4 from 20 to 26 and from 8 to 10, for confining
Clean
400 - 
sand
kPa
pressures equal to 50 kPa and 400 kPa, respec-
2 tively. The improvement of the Poisson ratio of
the sand by grouting ranged from 10 % to 60 %
0
and seems not to be affected by cement type or
1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02 1.E-01
Shear strain, (% ) grain size and confining pressure level.

Figure 5. Typical damping ratio values.

246 I.A. Pantazopoulos and D.K. Atmatzidis / Mechanical Behavior of Microfine Cement Grouted Sands

30 2. The stress-strain-strength behavior of sand

(a)
grouted with a thick (W/C=1) grout is similar to
25
that of the neat cement sediment.
20 3. In terms of improvement, grouting with mi-
crofine cements results, on the average, in (a) in-
G / Gs

15
crease of the initial tangent modulus of the sands
10 and decrease of the strain at failure of the sands
by up to one order of magnitude, (b) develop-
5
3 = 50kPa
ment of cohesion up to 1.7 MPa and increased
W/C = 1 1:1 3 = 400kPa
1:1
0 internal friction angle by 5°, (c) increase of the
1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02 1.E-01 shear modulus and dynamic modulus of elasticity
Shear strain, (% )
by at least one order of magnitude for a confin-
4 ing pressure up to 400 kPa, (d) double the damp-
(b)
ing ratio, independent of confining pressure, up
3
to a shear strain of about 10-2 % and (e) increased
Poisson ratio by 30 %.
4. Compared to ordinary cements, grouting with
D/Ds

2
microfine cements results in higher initial mod-
ulus of elasticity by 50 %, lower failure strain by
1 20 %, higher cohesion by 100 %, similar angle of
W/C = 1 
1:1
3 = 50kPa 3 = 400kPa
1:1 internal friction, higher shear modulus by 25% to
0 40%, similar damping ratio, higher dynamic
1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02 1.E-01 modulus of elasticity by 30 % and similar Pois-
Shear strain, (% )
son ratio.
30
(c) W/C = 1
25
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
20

The information reported herein is part of re-

0/0, s

15
search project PENED-03ED527, co-financed by
10 the European Social Fund (75%) and the Greek
Ministry of Development (25%).
5

0
0 50 100 200
150 400
200 250
Confining pressure, 3 (kPa)
REFERENCES

Figure 6. Improvement of dynamic properties.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results obtained and the observa-
tions made during this investigation, the follow-
ing major conclusions may be advanced:
1. Grouting with microfine cements, produced by
pulverizing different types of ordinary cement,
improves significantly the stress-strain-strength
behavior and the dynamic properties of sands.
[1] P.L. Lovelady and M. Picornell, Sample coupling in re-
sonant column testing of cemented soils, Dynamic Elas-
tic Modulus Measurements in Materials 1045 (1990),
180-194.
[2] G. Viggiani and J.H. Atkinson, Interpretation of bender
element tests-technical note, Geotechnique 45 (1)
(1995), 149-154.
[3] M.H. Maher, K.S. Ro and J.P. Welsh, High strain dy-
namic modulus and damping of chemically grouted
sand, Soil Dynamic and Earthquake Engineering 13
(1994), 131-138.
[4] E. Delfosse-Ribay, I. Djeran-Maigre, R. Cabrillac and
D. Gouvenot, Shear modulus and damping ratio of
grouted sand, Soil Dynamic and Earthquake Engineer-
ing 24 (2004), 461-471.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 247
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-247

Essais de cisaillement direct sur interfaces sol

granulaire-structure chargées à très grand nombre
de cycles et interprétation préliminaire
Direct shear tests on granular soil-structure interfaces involving
a large number of cycles and preliminary interpretation
S. Pra-Ai , M. Boulon 1
Universités de Grenoble, Laboratoire 3S-R BP 53 38041 Grenoble cedex 9 France

ABSTRACT
A series of cyclic direct shear tests on sand (Fontainebleau)/rough material interfaces is presented. These tests simulate the situa-
tion along the shaft of metallic piles subjected to a large number of environmental or anthropic cyclic loads. These cycles (typi-
cally 104) are of small amplitude (10 kPa in shear stress) as the service loads don’t produce an early failure. The problem of loss
of sand between the box and the rough plate, typical phenomenon in this type of test, receives a special attention. It is interesting
to observe that according to the sand density, and to the position of the “center of cycles” in the stress plane, a dilatant or con-
tractant behaviour is exhibited, agreeing, with the characteristic state developed by Luong. The influence of the stress path (con-
stant normal stress or prescribed normal stiffness) is also highlighted. For numerical simulations by the FEM these tests will be
interpreted and formulated in the future according to a visco-plastic framework, the number of cycles being a fictitious time.
This work is part of the french project ANR SOLCYP, acronym of “Research on behaviour of piles subjected to cyclic loading”.

RÉSUMÉ
On présente une série d’essais de cisaillement direct cycliques sur des interfaces sable de Fontainebleau / matériau rugueux, re-
présentant la situation le long de pieux métalliques soumis à un grand nombre de cycles d’origine environnementale ou anthro-
pique. Il s’agit d’un grand nombre (104) de petits cycles (10 kPa en contrainte de cisaillement) car les charges de service ne sont
pas supposées conduire à une rupture rapide. Une attention particulière est portée à la prise en compte de la perte de sable entre
boîte et plaque rugueuse, inhérente à ce type d’essais. Il est intéressant de constater, selon la compacité du sable, et la position du
« centre des cycles » dans le plan des contraintes, un comportement dilatant ou contractant, conforme à « l’état caractéristique »
développé par Luong. Le rôle du chemin de cisaillement (contrainte normale constante, ou rigidité normale imposée) est égale-
ment souligné. En vue de simulations par la méthode des éléments finis, ces essais seront interprétés et formulés dans le futur se-
lon un cadre visco-plastique, le nombre de cycles tenant lieu de temps fictif. Ces travaux sont effectués dans le cadre de l’ANR
SOLCYP, acronyme de « Recherches sur le comportement des pieux soumis à des sollicitations cycliques».

Keywords: Direct shear tests, granular soil-structure interface, cyclic loading, mean cyclic path, large number of small cycles,
characteristic state, visco-plasticity

1 INTRODUCTION de la géotechnique. On parle souvent à ce sujet

de « dégradation du frottement », bien qu’on
L’action des sollicitations cycliques sur les fon- sache que le coefficient de frottement sol-
dations, notamment les pieux et micro-pieux, structure varie peu. Le mécanisme de dégrada-
reste un chapitre à écrire, ou du moins à parfaire, tion doit en fait être relié aux variations de con-

1
Corresponding Author.
248 S. Pra-Ai and M. Boulon / Essais de cisaillement direct sur interfaces sol granulaire-structure chargées
trainte normale sol sur pieu, même pour un petit
nombre de cycles (Schlosser et Guilloux, 1981 ;
Boulon et Foray, 1986 ; Boulon et al, 1986). La
problématique des sols sollicités cycliquement a
fait l’objet de très nombreuses publications. Une
des plus récentes (Wichtmann, 2005) est à men-
tionner. Les interfaces sol-structure ont jusqu’ici
été bien étudiées en laboratoire, pour un petit
nombre de cycles, typiquement < 10 2 (Al-Douri
et Poulos, 1991 ; Desai et al, 1985 ; Fakharian et
Evgin, 1997 ; Johnston et al, 1987 ; Tabucanon
et al, 1995). La modélisation des sollicitations
cycliques est également assez riche pour les in-
terfaces sol-structure (Desai et Nagaraj, 1988 ;
Aubry et al, 1990; Boulon et Jarzebowsky,
1991 ; Shahrour et Rezaie, 2002 ; Mortara, Bou-
lon et al, 2002). En revanche, les cycles sur les
interfaces sol-structure et sur les pieux ont été re-
lativement peu étudiés en laboratoire et in situ
pour les grands nombres de cycles, en raison de
la lourdeur des essais (Boulon et Puech, 1984).
Par ailleurs, le sujet a fait l’objet de peu de re-
commandations (API, 1993). L’étude présentée
ici concerne une campagne consistante d’essais
de cisaillement direct sable-structure rugueuse en
vue d’alimenter des simulations numériques,
dans le cadre du projet SOLCYP (ANR et Pro-
gramme National). Il s’agit de grand nombre de
petits cycles, correspondant par exemple aux
chargements au voisinage des pieux off-shore
fondations de plateformes flottantes ancrées, ou
d’éoliennes.
2 DISPOSITIF EXPERIMENTAL
La machine d’essai est une boîte de Casagrande
modifiée (Figure 1) en vue de simuler et de solli-
citer le plus généralement possible une interface
sol-structure. La première modification a consis-
té à remplacer la ½ boîte inférieure par une
plaque métallique rugueuse (2). Le second dispo-
sitif remplace le poids générateur de la contrainte
normale en bout du bras amplificateur classique.
Il s’agit d’un moteur électrique à double sens (1)
agissant sur ce bras, et commandé par une con-
signe (1) émise par le micro-ordinateur de com-
mande en fonction de la contrainte normale ins-
tantanée à appliquer. Les variables mesurées et
enregistrées sont le vecteur contrainte appliqué
sur l’interface (composantes normale n (com-
pression >0) et de cisaillement , anneaux à
jauges, résolution 0,5 kPa), ainsi que le vecteur
déplacement relatif sol-structure (composantes
normale [u] (dilatant > 0) et tangentielle [w],
LVDT, résolution 0,01 mm). La consigne C de
commande du moteur a pour expression (k rigi-
dité normale prescrite):
C   n  k[u ]  0 (1)
ce qui rend possible les chemins suivants de ci-
saillement direct :
 Cas I. k = 0 , contrainte normale constante
 Cas II. N ’ , volume constant
 Cas III. k > 0 , rigidité normale prescrite
(3) (2)
(1)
Figure 1. Dispositif experimental
Le groupe moto-réducteur (3) générant la con-
trainte de cisaillement est commandé par micro-
ordinateur. Dans le cas des essais cycliques, deux
seuils (haut et bas, ajustables) de contrainte de
cisaillement sont prescrits, provoquant les inver-
sions souhaitées du sens de cisaillement. La vi-
tesse de cisaillement est de 0,05 mm/minute.
Pendant le cisaillement, la consigne (1) est appli-
quée à 0,1 kPa près. La ½ boîte contenant le sol
cisaillé a un diamètre de 60 mm.
3 MATERIAUX
Le sol cisaillé est un sable de Fontainebleau
standard, siliceux, dont les principales caractéris-
tiques physiques sont résumées dans le tableau 1.
Ce sable a été testé aux indices de densité ID =
 S. Pra-Ai and M. Boulon / Essais de cisaillement direct sur interfaces sol granulaire-structure chargées 249

30 % (état lâche) et ID = 90 % (état dense). Les de rigidité d’interface normale kn (6), et tangen-
plaques rugueuses utilisées ont été constituées en tielle kt (7), la modification de résistance
collant sur une plaque d’acier d’épaisseur 10 mm d’interface #l (8) au cours des cycles. La granu-
une couche de 0,2 mm d’un mélange d’araldite et lométrie de la zone d’interface est également
de sable de Fontainebleau (60 g d’araldite pour analysée, ce qui est difficile vu la faible quantité
100 g de sable), ce qui donne une forte rugosité. de matériau disponible.
Il est prévu de tester ultérieurement des plaques
d’acier grenaillé de la rugosité d’un pieu modèle [w]cm = [w]cm (ID, n cm, *cm, N) (4)
du laboratoire. [u]cm = [u]cm (ID, n cm, *cm, N) (5)
kn = kn (ID, n cm, *cm, N) (6)
Tableau 1. Sable de Fontainebleau, caractéristiques physiques kt = kt (ID, n cm, *cm, N) (7)
d50
d max
d min emax emin Cu #l = #l (ID, n cm, *cm, N) (8)
(mm) (kN/m3) (kN/m3)
0.22 16.86 13.92 0.862 0.541 1.72

4 RESULTATS ATTENDUS

En vue de formuler les résultats de ces essais se-

lon un modèle constitutif visco-plastique dans
lequel le nombre de cycles constitue un temps
fictif, la mémoire des cycles se réduisant au
poids volumique à l’interface sol-structure, le
chemin moyen au cours des cycles nous intéresse
plus que le détail de chaque cycle. Nous avons
Figure 2. Caractérisation des cycles mis en œuvre
décidé de réaliser des essais à N = 104 cycles, du
moins si la rupture n’intervient pas avant cet ob-
jectif. Soient (Figure 2) :
5 MODE OPÉRATOIRE ET BIAIS
#l et #cr respectivement les angles de frottement
EXPÉRIMENTAUX
limite (pic) et critique (palier) sol-structure, *l
et *cr les taux de contrainte (*=/ n) corres-
Le mode opératoire découle des données requises
pondants ;
exposées ci-dessus, mais induit des biais expéri-
#ca (0 < #ca < #cr < #l) l’angle caractéristique mentaux inhérents à l’essai de cisaillement direct
d’interface sol-structure (séparant les domaines (cf. § 5.2), car les essais ne sont jamais idéaux, et
cycliques contractant et dilatant du plan des donc non complètement conformes aux souhaits
contraintes) ; de l’opérateur.
n cm et  cm respectivement les contraintes nor-
male et de cisaillement cycliques moyennes, 5.1 Mode opératoire
*cm le taux cyclique myen correspondant
*cm=cm/ n cm=tan(#cm) (2) La procédure d’essai comporte 5
c l’amplitude des cycles en termes de con- phases consécutives:
trainte de cisaillement, et le taux d’amplitude - Phase 1 : compression monotone depuis
cyclique: l’état neutre jusqu’à n cm ;
*c=c/ n cm (3) - Phase 2 : cisaillement monotone jusqu’à  cm
Les résultats visés au cours de ces essais secs - Phase 3 : N petits cycles de cisaillement
(parfaitement drainés) sont les déplacements re- d’amplitude contrôlée c ;
latifs irréversibles ou cycliques moyens tangen- - Phase 4 : un grand cycle de cisaillement,
tiel [w]cm (4), normal [u]cm (5), les modifications pour caractériser l’évolution de #l ;
250 S. Pra-Ai and M. Boulon / Essais de cisaillement direct sur interfaces sol granulaire-structure chargées

- Phase 5 : décharge en contrainte normale l’enchaînement de cycles de caractéristiques dif-

jusqu’à n = 0, pour caractériser l’évolution férentes.
de kn.
Tableau 3. Essais de validation
5.2 Biais experimental ID Chemin n cm (kPa) Uc (kPa)
Les plaques rugueuses (sable collé, paragraphe *cm
3) présentent une amplitude d’aspérités de 30% , KNC 100 , ½ *l 10
90% 1000(kPa/mm) 100 , ½ *l 10
l’ordre de 0,2 mm. Afin que la ½ boîte supé- 2000(kPa/mm) 100 , ½ *l 10
rieure ne frotte pas directement sur la plaque ru- 5000(kPa/mm)
gueuse, un espacement de 0,3 mm, créé par un 30% , CNC 100 , ½ *l 10, 20
clinquant de laiton, est ménagé entre la plaque et 90%
30% , CNC 100 , ½ *l 20, 10
la ½ boîte, lors de la construction de l’échantillon 90%
de sable à la densité désirée. Donc une certaine
« perte de sable » a lieu pendant l’essai entre la 6.2 Premiers résultats typiques
½ boîte et la plaque rugueuse, se manifestant
comme une contractance parasite. Cette perte, Les sollicitations cycliques à contrainte normale,
faible, est mesurée en fin d’essai. Comme cette *cm et * constants telles que décrites ci-dessus
perte intervient aussi pendant la phase 4, des es- conduisent toujours à une accumulation de dé-
sais sans phase 4 ont été réalisés pour isoler la placements relatifs cycliques moyens. A titre
perte spécifiquement due aux cycles. La correc- d’exemple, la figure 3 présente respectivement
tion de [u]cm choisie proportionnelle à [w]cm cu- les déplacements relatifs normal et tangentiel cy-
mulé, est systématiquement appliquée aux résul-
tats bruts.

6 RESULTATS OBTENUS

6.1 Programme d’essais

Ce programme a été bâti en référence aux plans

d’expérience. Les essais sont classés en deux
groupes à deux fins : identification (Tableau 2),
et validation de loi constitutive (Tableau 3).
Tableau 2. Essais d’identification, chemin CNC
ID n cm (kPa) *cm Uc (kPa)
30 % 40 0° 10
90 % 100 1/2 *l 10
300  9/10 *l 10

Les essais d’identification sont à contrainte

normale constante (CNC).Tous les essais sont
prévus à 104 cycles, sauf rupture anticipée (*cm
proche de *l). La première série d’essais de vali-
dation, à rigidité normale imposée (KNC) vise à
tester la loi de pseudo-fluage cyclique sur che-
min KNC. Les séries suivantes sont destinées à
tester la mémoire de la loi constitutive, lors de
Figure 3. Essais CNC: [u]cm et [w]cm fonction du nombre de
cycles (N), ID = 30 %, Uc = 10 kPa
cliques moyens, en fonction du nombre de cy-
cles, pour 3 niveaux de contrainte normale cy-
clique moyenne (40, 100 et 300 kPa), et pour un
sable lâche (ID = 30 %), avec une amplitude cy-
clique de 10 kPa. La figure 4 fournit les mêmes
 S. Pra-Ai and M. Boulon / Essais de cisaillement direct sur interfaces sol granulaire-structure chargées 251

informations pour le sable dense (ID = 90 %).
Pour le sable lâche comme pour le sable
dense, on constate une accélération exponentielle
de [w]cm lorsque #cm tend vers #l. L’interface est
toujours contractante à densité faible. Par contre,
à densité forte, l’existence de l’état caractéris-
tique est flagrante, un comportement dilatant se
manifestant aux angles #cm élevés. La figure 5
donne de même, pour le cas dense ( n cm=
40 kPa), l’évolution de la rigidité tangentielle lo-
cale (correspondant à #cm). Si l’on constate un
raidissement de l’interface aux faibles valeurs de
*cm c’est par contre un radoucissement violent,
conséquence de la dilatance mentionnée à la fig-
ure 4, qu’on observe lorsque *cm tend vers *l. Un
important aspect de notre étude a trait au com-
portement particulier d’interface sur chemin cyc-
lique KNC (à rigidité normale imposée).
à la liquéfaction de l’interface (annulation con-
comitante de n et ).
Figure 5. Evolution de la rigidité tangentielle tangente (mesu-
rée à l’angle de frottement mobilisé #cm) au cours des
cycles,U+ = 10 kPa, ID = 90 %, n cm = 40 kPa.
La figure 6 et les suivantes mettent en évi-
dence l’influence du niveau de rigidité normale
sur le cisaillement cyclique, selon la densité du
sable. A la figure 6, il s’agit de sable dense (ID =
90%) avec une rigidité normale prescrite kne =
2000 kPa/mm. Un grand nombre de cycles (N =
2500) est nécessaire pour atteindre la liquéfac-
tion. Cette dégradation est bien plus rapide avec
le sable lâche (figures 7 et 8), à tendance plus
contractante que le sable dense. La figure 7, dans
laquelle 15 cycles conduisent à la liquéfaction,
correspond à une rigidité normale prescrite de
1000 kPa/mm, et à une fourchette de contrainte
de cisaillement de 15kPa < cm < 25 kPa. A la fi-
gure 8, avec une rigidité normale élevée
(5000 kPa/mm) et une fourchette de contrainte
de cisaillement voisine de la précédente (10 kPa
< cm < 20 kPa), 6 cycles seulement mènent à la
liquéfaction.

Figure 4. Essais CNC: [u]cm et [w]cm fonctions du nombre de

cycles (N), ID = 90 %, U+ = 10 kPa

Cette série d’essais a été réalisée à contrainte

normale initiale n cm0 = 100 kPa, et à un taux
initial de contrainte *cm ¢*l. Le principal effet
observé consiste en une dégradation de la con-
trainte normale, et en conséquence de la con-
trainte de cisaillement, le tout résultant de la con-
tractance progressive et accumulée d’interface
soumise aux cycles. On aboutit dans tous les cas Figure 6. Chemin de contrainte, essai KNC, k = 2000
kPa/mm, n0 = 100 kPa, ID = 90 %, Uc = 10 kPa
252 S. Pra-Ai and M. Boulon / Essais de cisaillement direct sur interfaces sol granulaire-structure chargées
7. DISCUSSION ET CONCLUSION
Cet article présente les premiers résultats d’une
série consistante d’essais de cisaillement direct
cyclique sol granulaire (sable de Fontainebleau)-
structure (métal), et le début de leur interpréta-
tion, en vue de modéliser le comportement de
pieux sollicités cycliquement à très grand
nombre de cycles. Les phases contractantes et di-
latantes ont été bien identifiées, en fonction de la
position des cycles dans le plan des contraintes.
Figure 7. Chemin de contrainte, essai KNC, k = 1000
kPa/mm, n0 = 100 kPa, ID = 30 %, Uc = 10 kPa
Figure 8. Chemin de contrainte, essai KNC, k = 5000
kPa/mm, n0 = 100 kPa, ID = 30 %, Uc = 10 kPa
8. REMERCIEMENTS
Ces recherches sont conduites dans le cadre de
l’ANR SOLCYP 07 PGCU 005-06, pilotée par
l’IREX. Les auteurs adressent leurs vifs remer-
ciements aux responsables de cette action pour
leur soutien.
9. REFERENCES
[1] Al-Douri R. H. et Poulos H. G., Static and cyclic shear
tests on carbonate sands, ASTM GTJ 15(2) (1991), 138-
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[2] API (American Petroleum Institute), A.P.I. RP 2A-
LRFD–Section G: Foundation design, 64-77, 1993.
[3] Aubry D., Modaressi A. et Modaressi H., A constitutive
model for cyclic behaviour of interfaces with variable
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47-58.
[4] Boulon M.et Puech A., Simulation numérique du com-
portement des pieux sous chargement axial cyclique,
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[5] Boulon M. et Foray P., Physical and numerical simula-
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[6] Boulon M. et Foray P., Comportement d’interface et
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iour of sand-steel interfaces under constant normal
stiffness condition, ASCE JGGE 123(12) (1997), 1096-
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stant normal stiffness direct shear testing for socketed
pile design in weak rock, Géotechnique 37(1) (1987),
83-89.
[12] Luong MP, Stress–strain aspects of cohesionless soils
under cyclic and transient loading, International Sym-
posium on Soils under Cyclic and Transient Loading,
Swansea, 7–11 January, Pande GN, Zienkiewicz OC
(eds) 1980; 315–324.
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constitutive model for cyclic interface behaviour, Inter-
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forcement des sols, Revue Française de Géotechnique,
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A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-253

The performance of prefabricated vertical drain

(PVD) preloading with and without vacuum and
heat
Le Comportement du Drain Verticale Prefabriquee (PVD)
prechargee et non precharge avec Vacuum et Chaleur
J. Saowapakpiboon
Department of Highways, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand,
D.T. Bergado 1
School of Civil Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Khlong Luang, Pathumthani,
12120, Thailand,
N. Teerachaikulpanich
Maruyama Industry Co., Ltd., 58/1 Wangtonglang, Bangkok 10310, Thailand
P. Voottipruex
Department of Teacher Training in Civil Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology
North Bangkok, Bangkok 10800, Thailand

ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the performance of prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) improved soft Bangkok clay in accelerating the rate
of consolidation by using vacuum and heat preloading. Large scale consolidometer tests were performed with PVD improved
reconstituted specimens using surcharge preloading (PVD only), surcharge combined with vacuum pressure preloading (Va-
cuum-PVD) and surcharge combined with heat (Thermo-PVD), respectively. Subsequently, the flow parameters were back-
calculated based on Hansbo (1979) method by expressing in terms of the horizontal coefficient of consolidation (C h) and the ra-
tio between the horizontal hydraulic conductivity in undisturbed zone (kh) to the horizontal hydraulic conductivity in smear zone
(ks) or (kh/ks). The Ch were 1.93 m2/yr, 2.23 m2/yr and 4.17 m2/yr for PVD, Vacuum-PVD and Thermo-PVD, respectively, with
corresponding, kh/ks values of 3.0, 2.7 and 1.4, respectively. Thus, the Vacuum-PVD can increase the horizontal coefficient of
consolidation, Ch resulting in faster rate of settlement at the same magnitudes of settlement compared to PVD. The Thermo-PVD
can increase further the coefficient of horizontal consolidation, Ch with the associated reduction of kh/ks values by reducing the
drainage retardation effects in the smear zone around the PVD and consequently, faster rates of consolidation were obtained.

RÉSUMÉ
Cette comunication fait une descripton du drain vertical prefabrique (PVD) pour ammeileure les caracteristiques d' argile de
Bangkok. Le taux de consolidation est accelere par vacuum et precharge avec chaud. Des essais de consolidation sont efectuees
avec echantillons remanies avec surcharge, avec surcharge et vacuum (vacuum PVD) et aussi avec surcharge combine avec
chaleur (Termo PVD). Les parametres de flux ont ete compares avec la methodologie de Hansbo (1979) ,donc le coefficient
horizontal de consolidation (Ch), et la raison entre le coefficient horizontal hydraulic de conductivite de la zone non rema-
nie (kh) avec le coefficente horizontal hydraulic de conductivite de la zone remanie (ks), donc (kh/ks). Les valeurs obtenus de Ch
sont 1.93 m2/yr, 2.23 m2/yr et 4.17 m2/yr, pour le PVD, pour Vacuum-PVD et pour Termo-PVD, respectivement, que corres-
pondent aux valeurs kh/ks de 3.0, 2.7 and 1.4, respectivement. Donc le Vacuum-PVD peut augmenter le coefficient horizontal
de consolidation, Ch et le taux des tassements en comparaison avec PVD. Termo-PVD peut augmenter plus le coefficient hori-
zontal de consolidation, Ch avec reduction de valeurs kh/ks , donc avec reduction des effets des delais de la zone remanie autour
du PVD, et en consequence on obtien des taux de consolidation plus rapides.

1
Corresponding Author.
254 J. Saowapakpiboon et al. / Performance of PVD Preloading with and Without Vacuum and Heat
Keywords: PVD, Vacuum-PVD, Thermo-PVD, flow parameters, settlement
1 INTRODUCTION
Prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) with em-
bankment preloading method functions by drain-
ing the pore water mostly in the horizontal direc-
tion from the surrounding soft soil faster during
the consolidation process by shortening the drai-
nage path and by taking advantage of the higher
horizontal hydraulic conductivity in the soft clay
deposit. Then, the pore water can flow freely
along the drain vertically towards the permeable
drainage layers. However, the PVD installation
using a mandrel causes disturbances in the clay
surrounding the PVD resulting in lower horizon-
tal hydraulic conductivity in the smear zone ad-
jacent to the PVDs. (Hansbo, 1979, 1981, 1987,
1997; Bergado et al., 1991; Indraratna and Re-
dana, 1998; Sharma and Xiao, 2000). Moreover,
the disadvantage of PVDs with embankment sur-
charge preloading is the instability problem that
limited the height and the slope of the surcharge
embankment. Consequently, PVDs with em-
bankment preloading combined with vacuum
pressure (called Vacuum-PVD) has been utilized
to minimize the instability problem and to accel-
erate the rate of consolidation. Kjellman (1952)
first proposed the vacuum consolidation in early
1950s. Subsequently, the studies of vacuum con-
solidation continued up to the present (Choa,
1989; Bergado et al, 1998; Tang and Shang,
2000; Bergado et al, 2006; Chai et al, 2006a,
20080. Vacuum consolidation can reduce the
pore pressure and maintain constant total stress
instead of increasing the total stress. The effec-
tive stress is increased due to the reduced (less
than atmospheric) pressure in the soil mass. On
the other hand, Thermo-PVD is the combination
of heat with PVD. In this method, the horizontal
hydraulic conductivity in smear zone, ks, around
the PVD increases with heat application up to
90,C which was first proposed by Abuel-Naga et
al. (2006). The PVD combined with heat works
by the reduction of the smear effect due to the
increased clay permeability at elevated tempera-
ture. Consequently, faster rate of consolidation is
achieved but with larger magnitude of settlement
(Pothiraksanon et al., 2008). The effect of higher
temperature on clay permeability has been stud-
ied previously by many researchers (e.g. Delage
et al., 2000; Abuel-Naga and Bouzza, 2009). The
clay permeability increased due to the reduction
of pore water viscosity upon heat application. At
the same time, the clay structure collapses upon
heat application resulting in higher magnitude of
settlement. The purposes of this study were to
investigate the applicability of using the vacuum
pressure and/or higher temperature up to 90,C
preloading with PVD as a ground improvement
technique in reducing the smear effect and en-
hancing the PVD performance. New large con-
solidometers were utilized in the laboratory for
testing reconstituted soft clay specimens im-
proved with PVD, Vacuum-PVD, Thermo-PVD
and Thermo-Vacuum-PVD, respectively. These
large scale model tests were conducted to dem-
onstrate the benefits of the vacuum pressure and
heat preloading combined with PVD. Subse-
quently, the results were compared with the per-
formance of PVD only using conventional sur-
charge preloading.
2 TEST EQUIPMENT
2.1 New large consolidometer
The new large scale consolidometer as shown in
Fig. 1 which consists of a cylinder cell of 0.45m
in inner diameter and 0.95m in height made of
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with a thickness of 10
mm rested on steel base which can resist pressure
less than 500 kPa. Silicon grease lubricated “O”
rings were sealed between the upper pedestal and
the cylinder cell, between the lower pedestal and
the cylinder cell, between the piston and the cyl-
inder cell, between the shaft and the upper pedes-
tal and between the guide and the shaft. The air
pressure was applied through the upper pedestal
 J. Saowapakpiboon et al. / Performance of PVD Preloading with and Without Vacuum and Heat
to the top of the piston and the vacuum pressure
is applied through the shaft of the piston to the
bottom of piston and the PVD cap, respectively.
Air pressure was transformed to vacuum pressure
by a vacuum generator which was connected di-
rectly with an air pump during consolidation test.
Dial gauges were placed on top of the shaft for
settlement measurements. A pore pressure trans-
ducer was installed and connected with data log-
ger to monitored pore pressure in the specimen
during consolidation.
Figure 1. Large scale consolidometer.
2.2 Heat source
Flexible heater wire with a capacity of 120°C
and power of 6W per meter was attached to the
PVD as shown in Fig. 2 for the reconstituted
specimen improved with Thermo-PVD. Thermo-
couples were installed at radial distances of 25,
50, 100 and 200 mm and were connected to the
digital data logger to monitor the temperature
and heat transfer during the consolidation test
(Fig. 3). Before and after the laboratory tests, the
water contents and shear strengths were also
measured at the aforementioned locations, the
temperature sensor boxes were used to maintain
the heat temperature at heat source and shut
down automatically upon reaching the controlled
heat of 90,C, at the heat source.
Figure 2. Thermo-PVD used in laboratory tests.
255
Figure 3. Locations for measurement.
2.3 Vane shear apparatus
Customized vane shear equipment was used to
measure the undrained shear strength before and
after consolidometer tests. The vane blade made
of stainless steel, is 20mm in diameter and 40mm
in height. It is attached to an adjustable stainless
steel rod 5 mm in diameter, capable of measuring
the shear strengths at different locations and
depths. The vane shear tests were done at radial
distances of 25mm, 50mm, 100mm and 200mm,
respectively, at two different depths.
2.4 Vacuum generator
The vacuum generator was utilized to transform
the air pressure to vacuum pressure. This appara-
tus was connected directly with air pump during
consolidation test. The water generated from suc-
tion by vacuum pressure was stored in a closed
container.
3 TESTING PROCEDURES
3.1 Test specimen
The soil samples used in this study were obtained
from a site which is located at the area of Second
Bangkok International Airport (SBIA), Thailand.
The soft clay samples were collected from 3.0 to
4.0m depths. Disturbed samples were obtained
by digging the soils up to required depth with a
backhoe. Then, the disturbed soil samples were
placed in covered plastic containers for storage.
Undisturbed samples were collected by 10 inches
piston samples and immediately covered with
wax after sampling to prevent loss of moisture.
The physical properties of the soft Bangkok clay
are shown in Table 1. The PVD material used
256 J. Saowapakpiboon et al. / Performance of PVD Preloading with and Without Vacuum and Heat
was CeTeau drain (CT-D911) with 100 mm in
width and 3.5 mm in thickness.
The disturbed samples were mixed by using a
mixer. Water was added until the water content
was slightly greater than the liquid limit. The
mixed soil was placed into the large scale con-
solidometer cell layer by layer until to the de-
sired height. The appropriate loads were applied
for the reconstitution process to obtain the de-
sired water content and void ratio equal to the
initial conditions.
Table 1 Physical properties of soft Bangkok Clay in Suvar-
nabhumi Airport
Physical properties
Liquid limit (%) 102.24
Plastic limit (%) 39.55
Water content (%) 112.69
Plasticity index 62.69
3
Total unit weight (kN/m ) 14.70
Specific gravity 2.66
3.2 Consolidometer test program
For the reconstitution using the new large conso-
lidometer, a 50 kPa pressure was applied. Drai-
nage was allowed to flow to the top and bottom
of the apparatus. Silicone grease was applied to
the insides of the large consolidometer to reduce
the friction. Throughout the whole process, the
settlements were monitored. After reconstitution,
the water content, shear strength, and specimen
height were determined.
The vertical pressure of 50 kPa was increased
to 100 kPa after reconstitution under the applied
vertical pressure in the specimen improved with
PVD. For the specimen improved with PVD and
vacuum pressure (Vacuum-PVD), a vertical
pressure of 50 kPa and vacuum pressure of -50
kPa were applied. For the Thermo-PVD, the spe-
cimen was improved with PVD combined with
vertical pressure of 100 kPa together with appli-
cation of heat up to 90 ºC. The temperatures
were controlled by an electronic thermal-control
unit that received the signal from thermocouples.
Drainage was allowed to flow only one way. Set-
tlement was monitored during the test until the
soil specimen reached to 90% consolidation. The
method of Asaoka (1978) was used to estimate
the degree of consolidation and the magnitude of
final settlement.
3.3 Effect on the coefficient of consolidation,
Ch, and permeability ratio, kh/ks
The values of Ch for all tests were back-
calculated using the equations from Hansbo
(1979) for radial consolidation with PVD is
given as follows:
2  8Th /
U h  1  exp 0 (1)
1 F -.
where Uh is the degree of consolidation for hori-
zontal drainage; Th is the time factor for horizon-
tal drainage; F is the factor which expresses the
additive effect due to the spacing of the drains,
F(n), smear effect, Fs, and well-resistance, Fr.
The values of F(n), Fs and Fr are given by the
following equations:
2D / 3
F (n)  ln 0 e -  (2)
1 dw . 4
2k / 2d /
Fs  0 h  1- ln 0 s - (3)
1 ks . 1 d w .
2 K
Fr  L2 h (4)
3 qw
where De is the diameter of the equivalent soil
cylinder, dw is the equivalent diameter of the
drain, kh is the coefficient of horizontal perme-
ability, ks is the horizontal permeability of the
smear zone, ds is the diameter of the smear zone,
z is the distance from the drainage end of the
drain, L is the length of the drain for double
drainage and twice the length of the drain for
single drainage, qw is the discharge capacity of
 J. Saowapakpiboon et al. / Performance of PVD Preloading with and Without Vacuum and Heat 257

the drain at hydraulic gradient of 1 (one). The at higher the temperature, higher volume con-
time factor, Th, for horizontal drainage can be traction and higher rate of consolidation resulted
calculated using: from the increased hydraulic conductivity. The
compressibility increased due to thermally in-
Ch t duced irreversible contraction of saturated nor-
Th  2
(5)
mally consolidated soft Bangkok clay. Further-
De
more, Abuel-Naga et al. (2006) showed that the
Thermo-PVD indicated substantial amount of
where Ch is the coefficient of horizontal consoli- settlement of about 5 times using undisturbed
dation and t is the time elapsed after the applica- specimen of soft Bangkok clay in the laboratory
tion of the load. model test.

4.2 Heat transfer

4 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The heat transfers in the soil specimens at specif-
4.1 Consolidation behaviour of tested samples ic temperatures with respect to the specific dis-
tances from PVD were observed. Flexible wire
The comparison of settlement of specimens im- heaters attached to the core of PVD were used as
proved with and without vacuum and heat in the heat source to increase the temperature up to
new large scale consolidometers test are shown 90ºC. Temperatures of the heat source were
in Fig. 4. The specimen improved with Vacuum- measured by thermocouples which were embed-
PVD has higher rate of settlement than the ded at 150mm depth and at radial distances of
specimen improved with PVD but the final set- 25mm, 50mm 100mm and 200mm from the cen-
tlement magnitudes are the same. In contrast, ter of the specimen. The temperature variations
much faster and higher settlements were with time in the Thermo-PVD specimen in the
achieved from Thermo-PVD. Similar results large consolidometer are plotted in Fig. 5.
were obtained in experiments by Pothiraksanon
et al. (2008) where the use of the Thermo-PVD 100
resulted in increased settlements by about 30%. Thermo-PVD
80
Temperature, T (oC)

Time, t (day)
Time, t (days)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 60
0
10
PVD Improvement 40
20
Vacuum-PVD Improvement
30 Smear Undisturbed
Thermo-PVD Improvement
40 20 zone zone
50
Settlement,SS (mm)
(mm)

60
70
0
Settlement,

80
0 50 100 150 200 250
90
100
Radial distance, r (mm)
110
120 Figure 5. Heat transfer at radial distances of PVD improved
130
specimen with Thermo-PVD.
140
150
160 The temperature decreased with increasing
Figure 4. Comparison of settlement of PVD improved recon- distances from the heat source. The radius, r, of
stituted specimens with and without vacuum and heat. 25 mm corresponds to the location of the smear
zone with a mandrel dimension of 18.2 mm x
In addition, Saowapakpiboon et al. (2009a) 81.90 mm, and the diameter of the disturbed
showed that the Thermo-PVD has highest vol- zone can be calculated as 87mm. The tempera-
ume contraction and rate of consolidation due to ture of 80 ºC in the smear zone and decreased
thermal effects. These results demonstrated that with distance from the heat source. It took 40
258 J. Saowapakpiboon et al. / Performance of PVD Preloading with and Without Vacuum and Heat

hours for the temperature to reach equilibrium in Time, t (day)

the large consolidometer. The result is consistent 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
with the previous work of Abuel-Naga, et al. 0
(2006) where the temperature around the PVD Measured curve
20
decreased as the radial distance from the PVD Predicted curve

increased.

Settlement, S (mm)
40
Ch = 1.93 m2/yr
kh/ks = 3.0
60
4.3 Ch and kh/ks values
80
The test results from reconstituted specimens
in the new large scale consolidometer are back- 100
calculated to determine the values of Ch and kh/ks
by using the method from Hansbo (1987). The 120
(a)
back-calculated values of reconstituted specimen
Time, t (days)
improved with PVD is demonstrated in Fig. 8a,
where Ch value was 1.93 m2/yr with kh/ks of 3.0. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0
Figure 8b shows the results of reconstituted
specimen improved with Vacuum-PVD, the Measured curve
20
Predicted curve
back-calculated Ch value was 2.23 m2/yr with
Settlement, S (mm) 40
kh/ks of 2.7. This behavior was observed by Ch = 2.23 m2/yr
kh/ks = 2.7
Mohamedelhassan, E., and Shang, J.Q. (2002) 60
that the vacuum and surcharge preloading of the 80
same magnitude produces similar coefficients of
consolidation. For the reconstituted sample in 100

large consolidometer with heat (Thermo-PVD), 120

the corresponding back-calculated Ch and kh/ks
were 4.17 m2/yr and 1.4, respectively (Fig. 8c). 140

These values show that the thermal effects in- (b)

creased the permeability of the smear zone which Time, t (days)

resulted in the decrease kh/ks values and increase 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

in the Ch values. The result indicated that the in- 0
crease in hydraulic conductivity increased the 20 Measured curve
soil permeability in the smear zone as tempera- Predicted curve
ture increased (Abuel-Naga, et al., 2009). The 40
Ch = 4.17 m2/yr
Settlement, S (mm)

kh/ks = 1.4
values of the Ch and kh/ks for all specimens are 60
also summarized in Table 2.
80

The vacuum pressure can increase the hori- 100

zontal coefficient of consolidation, Ch because 120
applying vacuum pressure generated negative
140
pore water pressure along the drain so the effec-
tive stress of soil increased which resulted in 160
faster rate of settlement with the same magni- (c)
tudes of settlement compared to PVD only. Figure 6. The observed and predicted curves for settlements
While, the high temperature can increase the co- of all reconstituted improved specimens
efficient of horizontal consolidation, Ch with the
reduction of kh/ks that means permeability in-
creased by reducing the drainage retardation ef-
fects in the smear zone around the PVD.
 J. Saowapakpiboon et al. / Performance of PVD Preloading with and Without Vacuum and Heat
Table 2 Summary of changes in flow parameters for speci-
mens in large scale consolidometer
Flow
PVD Vacuum-PVD Thermo-PVD
parameters
Ch (m2/yr) 1.93 2.23 4.17
kh/ks 3.00 2.70 1.40
5 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Base on the analyses and results of this study, the
following conclusions can be made:
1. The PVD only had lower settlement rate com-
pared to Vacuum-PVD while their final settle-
ment were similar. The consolidation rate of
Thermo-PVD was faster with higher magnitude
of settlements than the Vacuum-PVD. The con-
solidation of Thermo-PVD resulted in fastest rate
of settlement and highest magnitude of the final
settlement.
2. The highest reduction of water contents oc-
curred around the Thermo-PVD within the radius
of the smear zone and slightly reduced at increas-
ing distances from the smear zone.
3. The highest increase in shear strength was
achieved in the smear zone and decreased with
increasing radial distances from the PVD. The
Vacuum-PVD treated specimen had lower
strength compared with the Thermo-PVD sam-
ple. Thermo-Vacuum-PVD improvement yielded
the highest shear strengths.
4. The Ch and kh/ks values for reconstituted sam-
ple with PVD were 1.93 m2/yr and 3, respective-
ly. Upon preloading with vacuum pressure in the
Vacuum-PVD the corresponding values were
2.23 m2/yr and 2.7. Meanwhile, the correspond-
ing values were 4.17 m2/yr and 1.4 for Thermo-
PVD. For the specimen with combined vacuum
and heat preloading, the Ch and kh/ks values were
4.38 m2/yr and 1.1, respectively. The permeabil-
ity of the smear zone increased due largely to
heat and vacuum pressure effects.
5. The high temperature can increase the coeffi-
cient of horizontal consolidation, Ch with the re-
259
duction of kh/ks by the consequent increase in
hydraulic conductivity and subsequently reduced
the drainage retardation effects in the smear zone
around the PVD.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the Royal Thai
Government (RTG) and Maruyama Industry Co.,
Ltd. which support budget in this research.
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 261
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-261

Compaction and liquefaction of sand caused by a

large number of loading cycles
Densification et liquefaction du sable chargé par un grand
nombre des cycles
£!¤{†¥!¦¨–{ 1 ©Š!‡¨€–{
Institute of Hydro-(QJLQHHULQJ,%:3$1*GDĔVN3RODQG

ABSTRACT

Compaction and liquefaction of sand caused by a large number of loading cycles were investigated ex-
perimentally and theoretical models of these phenomena were proposed. The experiments were per-
formed in the cyclic triaxial apparatus Enel-Hydro, which enables sinusoidal changes of the vertical
stress and measurement of both the vertical and horizontal strains. Firstly, the volumetric and deviato-
ric strains were determined for a dry sand, at different initial states. Experimental results were presen-
ted in the form of common curves, and then analytical approximations of these data were proposed as
functions of a number of loading cycles and the cyclic deviatoric stress amplitudes. Incremental equa-
tions describing the cyclic load induced strains, including compaction, were then derived. Secondly,
the saturated samples were investigated in undrained conditions in order to determine curves descri-
bing the pore pressure generation caused by cyclic loadings, up to sand liquefaction. Then, the dry soil
response was linked with the sand behaviour in undrained conditions, through the assumption that the
volumetric strains are zero in undrained conditions. As a result, the incremental equation describing the
pore pressure generation, up to the onset of liquefaction, was derived. It was shown that there was a
fair agreement between theoretical prediction and experimental results.

RÉSUMÉ

L’article présente des résultats des assais experiméntaux et la modélisation de la densification et de la

liquefaction du sable causée par un grand nombre des cycles de chargement. Les essais ont éte réalisés
dans un appareil triaxial cyclique avec des échantillons du sable sec et saturé non drainé. La réaction
du sable sec sous la forme des déformations volumiques et deviatoires pour differents états initiaux et
nombre des cycles a formée la base d’établir les équations differentielles. Des équations bien définis
ont servi puor la description de la création de la pression interstitlelle et de la liquefaction des échantil-
lons non drainées.

Keywords: compaction, pore pressure generation, liquefaction, triaxial experiments, constitutive equations

1
Corresponding Author
262 A. Sawicki et al. / Compaction and Liquefaction of Sand
1 INTRODUCTION
A simple and effective model for assessment of
cyclic loading induced compaction and liquefac-
tion of granular soils has been elaborated in the
Institute of Hydro-Engineering, and then suc-
cessfully applied to the analysis of various prob-
lems of practical importance, cf. [1]. That model
is useful in the case of rather low number of
loading cycles, as in earthquake geotechnics, but
should be improved when a number of loading
cycles is large, see [2]. Therefore, it was decided
to carry on a research program, devoted to the
behaviour of granular soils subjected to a large
number of loading cycles, cf. [3, 4]. Some of the
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
The experiments were performed in the cyclic
triaxial apparatus Enel-Hydro, as mentioned be-
fore, which enables investigations of soil
samples of 70 mm in diameter and height of 140
mm. The frequency of cyclic loading is up to 2
Hz, and accuracy of proximity transducers, mea-
suring displacements and subsequently strains, is
10-5.
The model quartz sand « Skarpa », used in
experimental investigations, has the following
characteristics : D50 = 420 !m; CU = 2.5; G =
main results of that program are summarized in
the present communication.
Compaction and liquefaction of sand caused
by a large number of loading cycles were inves-
tigated experimentally and theoretical models of
these phenomena were proposed. The experi-
ments were performed in the cyclic triaxial appa-
ratus Enel-Hydro, which enables sinusoidal
changes of the vertical stress at horizontal pres-
sure ketp constant and measurement of both the
vertical and horizontal strains.
Firstly, the volumetric and deviatoric strains
were determined for a dry sand, at different ini-
tial states. Experimental results were presented in
the form of common curves, and then analytical
approximations of these data were proposed as
functions of a number of loading cycles and the
cyclic deviatoric stress amplitudes. Incremental
equations describing the cyclic load induced
strains, including compaction, were then derived.
Secondly, the saturated samples were investi-
gated in undrained conditions in order to deter-
mine curves describing the pore pressure genera-
tion caused by cyclic loadings, up to sand
liquefaction. Then, the dry soil response was lin-
ked with the sand behaviour in undrained condi-
tions, through the assumption that the volumetric
strains are zero when the pore-water flow is pre-
vented. As a result, the incremental equation
describing the pore pressure generation, up to the
onset of liquefaction, was derived. It was shown
that there was a fair agreement between theoreti-
cal prediction and experimental results.
2.65; emax = 0.677; emin = 0.432;  =34o and 41o
for loose and dense sand respectively.
The experimental results are presented in
terms of the following stress and strain va-
riables :
p = ( 1 + 2 3)/3, (1)
q = 1 - 3, (2)
%v = (%1 + 2%3), (3)
%q = 2(%1 - 2%3)/3, (4)
where 1 = vertical stress; 3 = horizontal stress;
%1 = vertical strain; %3 = horizontal strain; p =
mean stress; q = deviatoric stress; %v = volume-
tric strain; %q = deviatoric strain. It is also conve-
nient to introduce a non-dimensional stress va-
riable :
* = q/p. (5)
The experiments were performed for different
initial stress states, defined by * = *0, as shown
in Fig. 1. Strating point for cyclic loading, cor-
responding to assumed initial stress state in par-
ticular test, was achieved after respective isotro-
pic compression of the sample followed by
conventional triaxial shearing. The initial stress
states included also the case of zero stress devia-
tor (*0 = 0), around the cyclic loading was con-
ducted.
 A. Sawicki et al. / Compaction and Liquefaction of Sand
Figure 1. Cyclic stress path around the initial stress state.
3 COMPACTION
3.1 Basic experimental results
Soil compaction (irreversible volumetric
changes) depends on the number of loading
cycles N and the amplitude of cyclic stress devia-
tor, as well as on some other parameters as the
initial stress state or the initial void ratio e0.
Compaction curves were determined experimen-
tally, and then they were plotted in the form %v =
%v (N) for different values of the cyclic shear
stress amplitude q. Fig. 2 shows such curves for
*0 = 0, e0 = 0.53 and for three different cyclic
shear stress amplitudes. Small oscillations
around mean trends were ignored and the num-
ber of loading cycles is treated as continuous va-
riable. The cyclic loading was carried out up to N
= 104.
Figure 2. Compaction curves for medium dense sand.
263
In order to express the experimental results
analytically, it is convenient to present compac-
tion curves in the form of common plots. As-
sume that general shape of such a curve is the
following:
%v = %v (q, N, 3), (6)
where 3 = *0/*’ and *’ corresponds to the insta-
bility line.
The instability line is a characteristic geome-
trical object in the stress space, which describes
some specific properties of granular soils before
the limit state is reached. For example, it is an
envelope of maximum shear stresses that can be
supported by saturated sand during undrained
shearing, for details and original literature see
[5]. For the sand investigated *’ = 0.96.
3.2 Compaction after a large number of cycles
In order to find a proper shape of relation (6),
consider first some data corresponding to com-
paction %v* after 104 loading cycles, for different
values of the cyclic shear stress amplitude and
different 3. Fig. 3 shows some approximation of
12 experiments performed at constant mean
stress p0 = 2x105 N/m2, using the following
function:
Aq 2
% v*  , (7)
3  Bq
where A = 4.48 and B = 0.243 are average values
of these coefficients.
Figure 3. Compaction after 104 cycles as function of 3 for
three different cyclic shear stress amplitudes.
264 A. Sawicki et al. / Compaction and Liquefaction of Sand
It is important to note that these values cor-
respond to stress unit 105 N/m2 and strain unit 10-
3
. cyclic stress history:
Eq. (7) can be re-written as:
% v* A d% v  0
 , (8)
q 3 / q  B
which can be presented as a single (common)
curve in the space 3/q, %v*/q, see Fig. 4. This
curve has been obtained by the method of trial
and error, as there is no general recipe of how to
deal with experimental data.
Figure 4. A common plot for compaction after 104 cycles.
3.3 Common compaction curve
Assume a common compaction curve in the fol-
lowing form:
%v* = %v* f(N), (9)
where %v* is given by Eq. (7) and f(N = 104) = 1.
The following function is a good candidate:
f = ln(1 + N), (10)
where = 0.02577 and = 0.18 for the data ana-
lyzed. Fig. (5) illustrates the relations (9) and
(10) against experimental data.
It seems that agreement between the analytical
approximation (9) and experimental data is ac-
ceptable, particularly as geotechnical experi-
ments are subjected to many uncertainties. Diffe-
rentiation of Eq. (9) with respect to N leads to the
following incremental equation, which enables
investigation of sand compaction for an arbitrary
2 d (% v*  ) % v* /
ln(1  N )  - dN . (11)
10 dN 1  N .-
Figure 5. Common compaction curve.
4 PORE-PRESSURE GENERATION AND
LIQUEFACTION
4.1 General remarks
When saturated sand samples are tested in un-
drained conditions, the pore-pressure is generat-
ed and liquefaction may take place if the initial
state of soil is contractive. Fig. 6 illustrates the
effective stress path followed during the cyclic
shearing. A characteristic feature of this beha-
viour is that the mean effective stress is decreas-
ing due to the pore-pressure generation. When
the effective stress path reaches the instability
line, two kinds of behaviour may take place. In
the case of initially contractive soil, the pheno-
menon of static liquefaction takes place. If the
initial state of soil is dilative, the other phenome-
non, designated as cyclic mobility, can be ob-
served.
It will be shown that there is a link between
the drained and undrained behaviours of sand
subjected to cyclic loadings, through the well
known relation:
 A. Sawicki et al. / Compaction and Liquefaction of Sand 265

dEv = d%v + d%ve = 0, (12) Eq. (16) has been solved numerically, using
where dEv = total volumetric strain increment an explicit, two-step Euler method, [4], [6]. The
and d%ve = volumetric strain increment due to the initial conditions are the following:
change of effective mean pressure
u(N = 0) = 0, p’(N = 0) = 0. (17)
p’ = p0 - u, (13)
The following relation between %v* and p0 was
where p0 = initial mean stress and u = pore pres- assumed after [2]:
sure. The volumetric strain increment d%v is giv-
en by Eq. (11). This equation enables the deriva- 2 p0 /
tion of equation describing the pore-pressure % v*  C1 exp 0 C p (  1)- , (18)
01 p ref -.
generation due to cyclic loadings.

where pref = 105 N/m2, C1 = 1.5 x 10-3 and Cp =

1.52 for “Skarpa” sand. The sand compressibili-
ty was determined experimentally: 4 = d%ve/dp’ =
1.63x10-8 m2/N.

4.3 Numerical results

The first example deals with a direct integration
of equations presented in Section 4.2. Fig. 7
shows respective numerical results against expe-
rimental data.
Figure 6. Effective stress path followed during the cyclic
shearing of undrained sand.

4.2 Basic equations for pore-pressure

generation
Eq. (11) can be re-written in the following form:

2 d% * dp ' df /
d% v  0 v f  % v* - dN . (14)
01 dp ' dN dN -.

There is Figure 7. Pore pressure generation. Numerical results against

d% e experimental data. For the model proposed in 4.2 the onset of
d% ve  v dp ' and dp’ = -du. (15) liquefaction is more rapid than observed in the experiment.
dp '
Note that the numerical procedure ends for N
Eqs. (14) and (15) lead to the following diffe- = 27000 cycles, when the pore pressure rapidly
rential equation for the pore pressure generation: increases, which corresponds to the onset of li-
quefaction. Formally, this means that the deno-
1
du df 2 d% v* d% ve / minator in Eq. (16) approaches zero.
 % v* 0f  - . (16) The numerical solution can be improved if the
dN dN 10 dp ' dp ' -. dependence of d%ve on the non-dimensional stress
ratio * will be taken into account. Experimental
266 A. Sawicki et al. / Compaction and Liquefaction of Sand
data suggest that the following relation can be
applied:
% ve ( N )   A1 exp5B1 (* / * ' ' )  16 ,
where A1  4x10-3, B1  10 and *’’ = 1.55 which
corresponds to the Coulomb-Mohr yield condi-
tion. In this case:
d% ve "% ve "% v* d*
 
dp ' "p ' "* dp '
instead of Eq. (15). Results of respective calcula-
tions are shown in Fig.8. It seems that agreement
between theoretical prediction and experimental
data is acceptable.
Figure 8. Pore pressure generation and onset of liquefaction.
Acceptable agreement between theoretical prediction and ex-
perimental data.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The main results presented in this paper can be
summarized as follows:
1. Compaction curves were determined experi-
mentally for a large number of loading
cycles, and for different cyclic stress ampli-
tudes and different initial stress states.
2. A common compaction curve was constructed
and respective analytical approximation pro-
posed. Incremental equations for compaction
were derived from analytical approximation
of experimental data.
3. Pore-pressure generation, caused by a large
number of loading cycles (6 x 104), was in-
vestigated experimentally and analytically.
(19) 4. Constitutive incremental equation for the
pore-pressure generation and onset of lique-
faction was derived on the basis of assump-
tion that there is a link between compaction
in drained conditions and undrained beha-
viour.
5. Theoretical results are conformable with expe-
rimental data with acceptable accuracy.
(20)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper was partly supported by the Polish
Ministry of Science and Higher Education (re-
search grant N N506 072938).
REFERENCES
[1] A. Sawicki & W. ¦¨–{† ¤“ 
model for assessment of seismic-induced liquefaction
of soils, Jnl Waterway, Port, Coastal & Ocean Eng.,
ASCE, 133 (2007), 50-54.
[2] T. Wichtmann, A. Niemunis & T. Triantafyllidis, Strain
accumulation in sand due to cyclic loading: drained tri-
axial tests, Soil Dynamics & Earthquake Eng. 25
(2005), 967-979.
[3] £!¤{†¥!¦¨–{©Š!‡¨€–{†¤
sand due to cyclic loading in triaxial conditions, Arch.
Hydro-Eng. Env. Mechanics 56 (2009), 85-98.
[4] Š!‡¨€–{©£! Sawicki, Pore pressure generation
and liquefaction of granular soil tested in triaxial condi-
tions, Arch. Hydro-Eng. Env. Mechanics 56 (2009),
139-147.
[5] £!¤{©¥!¦¨–{†‡ “-failure
instabilities of sand, Computers & Geotechnics 37
(2010), 781-788.
[6] D. Potter, Computational Physics (Polish translation),
PWN, Warsaw, 1977.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 267
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-267

The instrumentation of parameters of thermal

radiation and of acoustic emission as a source of
information concerning the processes of
deformation of soft rock specimens
L'instrumentation des paramètres du rayonnement thermique et
de l'émission acoustique en tant que source d'information
concernant le processus de déformation des échantillons de
roche molle
V.I. Sheinin 1, D.I. Blokhin, A.V. Favorov
NIIOSP Research Institute of PJSC “Research Centre “Civil Engineering”

ABSTRACT
The paper describes the testing of rock salt samples for monotonic loading under uniaxial compression, which was carried out
with synchronous recording of changes of acoustic emission (AE), infrared radiation (IR) and strain parameters. The purpose of
the work – to justify the effectiveness of techniques developed in NIIOSP for complex geomaterials deformation processes
diagnostic with respect to the considered type of soft rock. The obtained results show that the techniques may be a useful part in
the system of in-situ monitoring of the geomechanical events.

RÉSUMÉ
Le document décrit les essais sur des échantillons de sel gemme de chargement monotone en compression uniaxiale, qui a été
réalisée avec l'enregistrement synchrone des changements de l'émission acoustique (AE), les paramètres du rayonnement infra-
rouge (IR) et la souche. L'objectif de l'ouvrage - pour justifier l'efficacité des techniques développées dans NIIOSP pour la dé-
formation des géomatériaux processus complexes de diagnostic à l'égard du type considéré de roche molle. Les résultats obtenus
montrent que les techniques peuvent être un élément utile dans le système de surveillance in situ des événements géoméca-
niques.

Keywords: Processes of deformation, axial stress, axial strain, acoustic emission, infrared radiation, rock salt samples,
monitoring of the geomechanical events

1 INTRODUCTION radio-wave pulses [5 – 8], infrared thermal emis-

sion [9 – 13], luminescent flashes [14, etc.], etc.
Deformation and fracture of solids, including Due to the fact that modern high-sensitivity de-
geomaterials, are accompanied by emissions of tectors of acoustic and electromagnetic radiation
different nature, e.g. acoustic emission [1 – 4], can measure the variations of the radiation para-

1
Corresponding Author.
268 V.I. Sheinin et al. / Instrumentation of Parameters of Thermal Radiation and of Acoustic Emission
meters with a sufficient accuracy, there are a va-
riety of techniques which are based on the use of
these effects and which allow obtaining informa-
tion about the changes of stress-strain state of
solids, currently offered. However, attempts to
unambiguously identify the changes of the me-
chanical state of the geomaterials using such
measurements encounter significant difficulties.
These difficulties are mainly due to the following
factors: the complexity of the construction of
adequate theoretical models describing the de-
pendence of the measured physical parameters
on the changes of stresses and strains; the need to
solve the reverse problems; the lack of resolution
of the available experimental equipment and the
presence of background and noise components in
the recorded signals.
For efficient estimation of parameters of the
deformation processes occurring at different
stages of change of stress state of geomaterials,
an integrated approach is necessary, in which
these processes are studied by different methods
simultaneously. Such an approach enables the
most efficient use of the potential of each of the
methods at different stages of deformation and at
different loading conditions.
Earlier in NIIOSP it was shown [9 – 11] that it
is a promising approach to use the thermoradia-
tion contactless measurements data for the identi-
fication of "fast" processes of change of elastic
stresses in geomaterials. The procedure of [9–11]
makes use of two well-known thermodynamic
effects, namely, the change of temperature of
solids with the adiabatic change of the first inva-
riant of stress tensor [15] and the dependency of
the infrared radiation intensity on from the body
surface temperature [16].
During the studies that were initiated by these
works, more general methodological problems of
using different emission effects for the diagnosis
of the processes of deformation of geomaterials
were formulated.
In particular, the possibility of expanding the
range of IR diagnostics usage to non-adiabatic
deformation conditions and to the values of
loads, which approach pre-destructive and de-
structive values, was considered [11].
The most common approach to diagnose vari-
ous stages of deformation processes of materials
is to use AE measurements. The results of the
measurements allow to monitor the accumulation
of cracks and to estimate the crack sizes [17].
This approach was tested on different types of
geomaterials. On the other hand, in [18] it is
showed that the concentration and size of cracks
in a geomaterial sample strongly determine the
dynamics of variations in the intensity of the
infrared (IR) radiation that accompany changes
in the state of stress of the sample. As far as the
approaching of deformation of geomaterials to
the fracture stage is accompanied by active
cracking, and namely the cracking processes in
solids are the main source of intensification of
heat, so the efficiency of IR diagnosis of the
changes of the mechanical state of geomaterials
can be enhanced by complexing with the data of
synchronous measurements of the AE. The aim
of this work is to elaborate experimental tech-
nique that establishes a set of interrelated para-
meters of AE and IR signals that carry reliable
information about the occurrence and the stages
of deformation processes in geomaterials.
2 METHOD OF EXPERIMENTAL
STUDIES
2.1 Setup for testing samples of geomaterials
and apparatus for simultaneous recording
of changes of measured parameters
The studies were conducted on an experimental
stand that allowed to record mechanical, thermo-
radiation and acoustic emission parameters syn-
chronously and automatically for various
schemes and loading conditions. See the sche-
matic diagram of experimental stand on Fig. 1.
A noncontact detector of the changes of the
intensity of optical radiation in the infrared wa-
velength RTN – 31 [19] was used as a primary
IR radiation receiver. Detector (1) was set at
about mid-height of the sample (2) at a distance
of 0.5…1 cm from the sample surface. There was
a strain gauge element (6) installed between the
plate (4), which supports the sample, and the
plate (5) to measure changes of the force applied
to the sample. In addition, the measuring system
 V.I. Sheinin et al. / Instrumentation of Parameters of Thermal Radiation and of Acoustic Emission
included an indicator for the longitudinal strain
(7), located between the plate (5) and the rolling
cross-arm of the press.
Figure 1. A scheme of experimental setup and location of the
sensors.
The registration of the activity of the acoustic
emission dN/dt (the number of pulses per
second), which is one of the most frequently AE
measurements that are used in laboratory and
field studies of geomechanical parameters [1 –4],
was conducted by a piezoelectric transducer (3)
connected to the measuring complex A-Line 32D
[20] that worked in the frequency band from 30
up to 500 kHz. The converter of acoustic signals
was placed on the free surface at the same height
with the IR radiation sensor.
The tests were conducted on cylindrical spe-
cimens (diameter 36...38 mm and a height of
66...72 mm) of rock salt, which could be catego-
rized as "weak" rock. Two groups of samples
from two different fields were prepared for the
test. Uniaxial compression was performed in two
different modes: at a constant loading rate
(d 1/dt = const) (samples of the first group) and
at a constant rate of longitudinal deformation
growth (d%1/dt = const) (samples of the second
group).
269
2.2. Methodological features of application
of the acoustic emission and
thermoradiation measurements for
complex diagnostics of the stress state
changes in geomaterials
One of the methodological issues that were ad-
dressed in the described course of the experi-
ments was to identify the ranges of loading rates
at which one could quite clearly identify the
processes of deformation and their different stag-
es of change using the detected emission parame-
ters. One of the complexities of this choice is that
the informativity of the AE measuring increased
with the loading rate being decreased, while that
of IR measurements, on the contrary, decreased.
Ranges of rates of change of the strains for
different geomaterials, in which the AE mea-
surements are effective, are indicated in several
publications, e.g. [3, 4 and others]. The same es-
timates for IR measurement that are given, e.g.,
in [9 – 11, etc], are based on the requirements of
quasiadiabatic deformation during measure-
ments.
The adiabatic requirement on the deformation
process means, literally, that there should be no
heat transfer between the deformable solid body
and the environment [15]. Obviously, in the real
laboratory, as in any natural conditions, this re-
quirement can be satisfied only approximately.
However, if the rate of change in sample temper-
ature due to thermomechanical processes is much
greater than the speed of the changes due to heat
transfer, the degree of this approximation is quite
sufficient. The minimum threshold rate of
change of stressed state that is necessary for
temperature changes speed ratio requirement to
be carried out in fixed conditions of the experi-
ment, can be estimated in laboratory conditions
by performing a series of tests with different
rates of change in load [9]. It should be noted
however that in recently appeared and technical-
ly interesting papers [12 – 13] not enough atten-
tion is paid to the necessary conditions for effec-
tive thermoradiation measurements; thus the time
dependencies of the IR radiation parameters that
are provided in these reports largely loose their
representativeness. Virtually, an experimental
evaluation of the influence of loading rate on the
270 V.I. Sheinin et al. / Instrumentation of Parameters of Thermal Radiation and of Acoustic Emission

particular variation of the parameters of thermal

radiation, i.e. the quasiadiabatic compliance test,
is a necessary step for any methodology of IR di-
agnostics of the stress state changes in geomate-
rials.
With the account for the recommendations
[4, 9] during the experiments in the constant
loading rate mode d 1/dt = const the values of
d 1/dt were taken from 0.05 MPa/sec up to 0.5
MPa/sec. In the d%1/dt =const experiments, the
values of rates of change of the longitudinal de-
formation varied between 0.005 and Figure 3. Diagram of « 1-%1 » at d 1/dt =const=0,35 MPa/sec.
0.02 mm/sec.
Analyzing the dependence Vw(t) (Fig. 2, graph
(2)), we can notice that its growth becomes non-
3 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF EMISSIVE linear at a fixed a point 110 MPa. The value of
PROCESSES IN SPECIMENS OF ROCK 1, as it can be seen from the appropriate chart
SALT AT VARIOUS MODES OF « 1-%1» (Fig. 3), corresponds to the elastic limit
CHANGE IN THE AXIAL LOAD OVER of the specimen’s material. The tensile strength
TIME can be fixed even more clear at the point where
plots (1) and (2) reach maxima at the mode
d 1/dt =const cannot be hold any more. Similar
3.1 Results of experiments on uniaxial results were obtained when testing samples with
compression of rock salt samples at a different d 1/dt, in a range from 0,3 MPa/s to 0.5
constant rate of change in load over time MPa/sec. Therefore, in this range of d 1/dt, the
At Fig. 2, the time plots of axial stress 1(t)(1), start of the inelastic deformation of rock salt can
of IR radiation intensity Vw(t) (2) and of AE ac- be identified with the thermoradiation measure-
tivity dN(t)/dt (3) during a deformation of the ments quite reliably.
sample of rock salt at a constant rate of the load
increase 1/dt =const= 0,35 MPa/sec are shown.

Figure 4. The plots of axial stress 1(t) (1) and the AE activi-
ty dN(t)/dt (3) at deformation rate of d 1/dt=const=0,2
MPa/sec.

Figure 2. The plots of axial stress 1(t) (1), the intensity of IR

radiation Vw(t) (2) and the AE activity dN(t)/dt (3) at defor- The AE measurement results (see graph (3),
mation rate of d 1/dt=const=0,35 MPa/sec. Fig. 2) under such experimental conditions were
less informative; i.e. does not provide a clear
record moments of transition between the stages
 V.I. Sheinin et al. / Instrumentation of Parameters of Thermal Radiation and of Acoustic Emission
of deformation of test specimen. At the same
time, the records of the AE activity versus time
(Fig. 4) that were obtained at "low" rates of
d 1/dt ) 0,3 allows to "bind" fragments with dif-
ferent behavior of the values of dN(t)/dt to the
different stages of deformation of the specimen.
Fig. 4 and 5 for one of the experiments are ob-
tained dependence of dN(t)/dt and the corres-
ponding diagram of « 1-%1» at d 1/dt
=const=0,2 MPa/sec.
Let’s consider the dependence of dN(t)/dt on t
(Fig. 4, plot 1) with a monotonic load increase
over time, as shown in the same figure (Figure
(3)). After a typical burst of AE activity during
the initial load, the values dN(t)/dt remain low
until the time when the stresses 1 increase over
the value of (0,4…0,6)× =. Further, the second
fragment of increasing AE activity begins, within
which the dN(t)/dt values reach a maximum at
the end of linear elastic deformation zone (see
Fig. 4, 5). The following gradual decrease of the
values of dN(t)/dt ends with brief "lull" that pre-
cedes the "hurricane" AE activity growth after
the axial stress reaches the tensile strength = of
the specimen material.
Figure 5. Diagram of « 1-%1 » at d 1/dt =const=0,2
MPa/sec.
The diagnosis of the elastic deformation of
specimens of rock salt on the load change rates
d 1/dt ) 0,3 MPa /sec using the accompanying
thermal radiation is uninformative, since the re-
quirement of adiabaticity is not satisfied at such
speeds the loading process. For example, see Fig.
6 that represents the plots of the intensity of the
IR radiation versus the load when tested with a
loading rate 0.2 MPa/sec and 0.1 MPa/sec. There
is a "horizontal" fragment in the zone of elastic
271
deformations, corresponding to load range at
which the heat exchange with the surrounding
environment adds noise to the changes in tem-
perature of the sample by the thermomechanical
processes.
Figure 6. The intensity of the IR - radiation from the axial
stress at different loading rates:
1 – d 1/dt=const=0,5 MPa/sec;
2 – d 1/dt=const=0,35 MPa/sec;
3 – d 1/dt=const=0,2 MPa/sec;
4 – d 1/dt=const=0,1 MPa/sec.
In these experimental conditions, we cannot
fix the transition point + to the zone of inelastic
deformation according to thermoradiation mea-
surements clearly enough. Evaluation of + for
such values of d 1/dt can be obtained from the
results of the AE and (or) strain measurements.
3.2 Results of experiments on uniaxial
compression of rock salt samples at a
constant rate of change of axial strain
Let’s consider the designation of stages of de-
formation of rock salt starting from the results of
the tests in the mode of constant strain rate
d%1/dt =const. In these tests of emissive parame-
ters dependences on time or on load display
somewhat different character than the corres-
ponding dependencies obtained at d 1/dt =const.
Fig. 7 shows the plots of axial stress 1(t) (1),
the intensity of IR radiation Vw(t) (2) and the AE
activity dN(t)/dt (3) at "high" deformation rate of
d%1/dt =const=0,01 mm/sec.
272 V.I. Sheinin et al. / Instrumentation of Parameters of Thermal Radiation and of Acoustic Emission
Figure 7. The plots of axial stress 1(t) (1), the intensity of IR
radiation Vw(t) (2) and the AE activity dN(t)/dt (3) at defor-
mation rate of d%1/dt =const=0,01 mm/sec.
Under such loading schedule, the Vw(t) plot is
similar to 1(t) dependency throughout all the
stages of "prelimit" strain rather than for 1(t)< e
only. The tensile strength of the tested specimen
material is reliably fixed at simultaneous inflec-
tion point of 1(t) r Vw(t) plots. In addition, the
dependencies 1(t), Vw(t) and dN(t)/dt are tracea-
ble on «over – limit» stage.
To fix the elastic limit + reliably in tests with
d%1/dt =const mode, the dependencies of IR radi-
ation an AE level on the axial stress are to be
considered. The plots of Vw( 1) r dN( 1)/dt in
"prelimit" deformation stage are shown at Fig. 8
and the corresponding « 1-%1» diagram is shown
on Fig. 9.
Figure 8. The plots of the intensity of IR radiation Vw( 1) (1)
and the AE activity dN( 1)/dt (2) at deformation rate of
d%1/dt =const=0,01 mm/sec.
Figure 9. Diagram of « 1-%1 » at d%1/dt =const=0,01 mm/sec.
In this consideration, the character of the de-
pendencies Vw( 1) are similar to that of the de-
pendencies Vw( 1) that are obtained in
d 1/dt =const, mode. The quasiadiabatic condi-
tion is met for the latter dependency, too (see
plots 1 and 2 at Fig. 6). Consequently, the inflec-
tion point on Vw( 1) plot at 122 MPa can be
taken as the elastic limit of the sample, which is
confirmed by the analysis of « 1-%1» chart on
Fig. 9. The same value of 1 corresponds to the
maximum on the dN( 1)/dt plot.
With decreasing of d%1/dt=const values, as
well as with a reduction of d 1/dt, violation of
the quasiadiabatic condition takes place. The vi-
olation manifests itself in the appearance of the
typical horizontal segment on the Vw( 1) plots.
The presence of this segment is determined by
heat exchange between the sample and the envi-
ronment; it makes impossible to identify the
processes of deformation in the elastic region
and it decreases the reliability of identification of
the boundaries of the transition between the stag-
es of elastic and non-elastic deformation.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Joint analysis of the experimental curves
simultaneously recorded mechanical (stress and
axial strain of the sample under uniaxial
compression) and physical parameters (the
intensity of infrared radiation and the AE
activity) from time, as well as physical
parameters from mechanical, has revealed that
the nature of the parameters variations of
 V.I. Sheinin et al. / Instrumentation of Parameters of Thermal Radiation and of Acoustic Emission
emission processes for monotonic loading of
geomaterial samles essentially depends on the
rate of increase of the load.
The previously obtained conclusion that the in-
formativeness of the thermoradiation (IR) mea-
surements, both from point of view of the identi-
fication of elastic deformation processes, and in
terms of the fixation of boundaries between stag-
es of the process changes the stress state, in-
creases with increasing loading rate, was con-
firmed. On the other hand, it is shown that the
decrease in information content of IR measure-
ments for the «slow-loading», accompanied by
an increase informativeness of acoustic emission
measurements, in particular, on fixing the boun-
dary points between the stages of deformation.
Tests showed efficiency of nondestructive
emissive measurements as basis for complex
diagnostics of stress-strained mode changes of
rock salt sample including detection of stress
values in the boundary points of elastic and
nonelastic deformation and damage.
The developing methodology is supposed to
be used for geomaterials mechanical parameters
detection which is necessary for strength and
stability calculations of geotechnical structures in
rock masses.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to D.S. Dryginskaya for
help during experiments and M.L. Kholmyansky
for useful discussions.
The authors are also gratefully acknowledging
the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research (project number 10-05-00687-a).
REFERENCES
[1] Lockner D., The role of acoustic emission in the study
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This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 275
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-275

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 281
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-281

The effect of mechanical remoulding on the

compression and strength characteristics of a
Mercia Mudstone
L'effet de remaniement mécanique sur les caractéristiques de
compression et la force d'un mudstone Mercia
S. E. Stallebrass1
City University London
L. J. Seward
ETH Zurich
ABSTRACT
A series of laboratory tests have been undertaken as part of a larger study into the effect of continuous flight auger pile installa-
tion on the soil-pile interface in the Mercia Mudstone Group [1]. This paper reports the results of stress path triaxial tests on
bulk samples of the mudstone which have been subjected to varying amounts of mechanical remoulding representing the re-
moulding that occurs due to the action of the auger. In addition, the water content at which remoulding takes place has been var-
ied. The tests were undertaken to investigate whether the silt sized aggregates of clay particles that exist [2] within this soil
could be broken up by the mechanical remoulding and whether this would affect the compression and strength properties of the
mudstone. It was found that both mechanical remoulding and the water content at which this is carried out affect the subsequent
response of the soil.
RÉSUMÉ
Une série de tests de laboratoire a été entreprise dans le cadre d'un plus grande étude sur l'effet de l'installation de pieux fores à
la tarière sur l'interface sol-pieu dans le mudstone Mercia Group [1]. Cet article présente les résultats des tests de chemin de con-
trainte triaxiale sur des échantillons en vrac de la mudstone qui ont été soumis à des quantités variables de remaniement mé-
caniques représentant les remaniement qui se produisent en raison de l'action de la tarière. En outre, la teneur en eau au cours de
laquelle a lieu remaniement a été modifiée. Les essais ont été entrepris afin de déterminer si les agrégats de particules de limon
argileux qui existent [2], dans ce sol pourraiont être divisé par le remaniement mécanique et si cela affecterait les propriétés de
compression et la force du mudstone. Il a été constaté que les deux remaniement mécanique et la teneur en eau au cours de
laquelle ces opérations sont effectuées affectent la réponse du sol.

Keywords: Mudstone, stiff clay, strength, volumetric compression, remoulding, disaggregation

1 INTRODUCTION pile interface in the Mercia mudstone group [1].

In June 2007 a field trial was carried out at the
Ibstock Brick Pit in Leicestershire. Four test
piles were installed at a test site in the brick pit
using a continuous flight auger piling rig. The
aim of the trial was to study the effect of con-
tinuous flight auger pile installation on the soil-
About a week after installation the upper halves
of all four piles were excavated in sections to-
gether with substantial samples of the surround-
ing soil. These sections and the soil surrounding
them were transported back to City University
London for examination and testing. In addition,
a large bulk sample of the soil was also retrieved

1
Corresponding Author.
282 S.E. Stallebrass and L.J. Seward / The Effect of Mechanical Remoulding
and it is this bulk sample which has been used
for the tests reported in this paper.
It has been suggested [2] that the Mercia
Mudstone has an aggregated structure, which
means that clay minerals in the Mercia Mudstone
are bonded together into silt size particles, such
that a particle size distribution test will tend to
greatly underestimate the proportion of clay min-
erals actually present in the mudstone. If these
aggregations are broken up the clay minerals will
be released and it is possible that this will affect
the mechanical response of the mudstone.
The effect of breaking up aggregations of clay
particles on index properties has been investi-
gated for Mercia Mudstone for other sections of
the stratigraphy [3] [4] and differing results have
been obtained both in term of the energy required
to disaggregate the particles and the effect on the
index properties. It is likely that the later is
strongly dependant on the clay minerals present,
which varies significantly across the Mercia
Mudstone group.
This study looked at the effect on strength and
compressibility of subjecting samples of soil to
varying amounts of mechanical remoulding and
also of varying the water content at which re-
moulding takes place. The mechanical remould-
ing was undertaken to replicate the remoulding
effect of the auger used in continuous flight au-
ger piling and the water content was varied to in-
vestigate the effect of ground water entering the
pile bore from more permeable water bearing
layers. In the field trial water was added artifi-
cially during the excavation of two of the piles.
2 SOIL TESTED
Ibstock Brick Pit is in the Gunthorpe member of
the Mercia Mudstone. The typical lithology of
this member at Ibstock comprises red, and some-
times green and grey mudstones and siltstones
ranging from finely laminated to structureless,
with thin beds of coarse siltstone and very fine
sandstone [5].
The stratigraphy logged at the site was consis-
tent with this description with centimetre-scale
laminated brick red/brown silty clay beds, inter-
spersed with centimetre-scale red/purple hard
beds. At certain depths these were interbedded
with hard, olive green/grey sandy silt [1]. The
bulk sample of soil which was obtained con-
tained material from all three of the beds de-
scribed above.
A mineralogical XRD analysis of soil from
around the piles [1] showed that the clay fraction
ranges from 0 – 28% with an average of 15% and
that in most samples, illite is the most abundant
mineral, making up to 98% of the clay fraction,
and on average between 50-60%. Illite-smectite
interlayers were present in approximately 50% of
samples tested. The method used to test these
samples requires the soil to be ground to a fine
powder and it is thought that this would have
caused any silt sized aggregates of clay particles
to have been broken down. Consequently, the
average values obtained from these mineralogi-
cal analyses should give a reasonably accurate
picture of the clay fraction in the bulk soil sam-
ple used in these tests. It should noted that the
bulk sample contains a representative amount of
the sandy silt material which is unlikely to have a
significant clay content.
Particle size distributions for this soil were ob-
tained using wet sieving and sedimentation.
Samples were prepared by soaking the soil and
then by gentle agitation to separate uncemented
aggregates. Typical particle size distribution
curves are given in Figure 1. The distributions
vary due to the variability of the bulk sample.
This shows that in its natural state the mudstone
appears to be sandy silt with a clay fraction of
around 10%.
100
90
80
70
60
% passing
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
particle size (mm)
Figure 1. Typical particle size distribution curves for the un
remoulded bulk sample
 S.E. Stallebrass and L.J. Seward / The Effect of Mechanical Remoulding
Comparing the clay fraction observed in Fig-
ure 1 with the average clay fraction of 15% ob-
served from XRD analyses supports the sugges-
tion that the Mercia Mudstone tested contains silt
sized aggregations of clay particles [2], that can
broken up under the action of mechanical re-
moulding, but is not conclusive due to the vari-
ability of the soil. Further evidence was obtained
from particle size distribution tests carried out af-
ter the soil represented by the solid line in Figure
1 was remoulded, leading to a clay fraction of
just over 20%.
The index properties of the bulk sample prior
to remoulding were also obtained. The Liquid
limit was 27.7%, and the plastic limit 10.0%,
giving a plasticity index of 17.7% and an Activ-
ity of 1.42, which compares to the typical Activ-
ity for illite of 0.9.
3 EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Two series of stress path triaxial tests have been
carried out on samples of Mercia Mudstone
taken from the bulk sample described in the pre-
vious section. In both series of tests an effort
was made to start with a representative sample of
the soil. In test series A the soil used in the test
samples was mechanically remoulded, by pass-
ing through a meat mincer, at the average natural
water content of 18%. In test series B the soil
used in the test samples was mechanically re-
moulded at different water contents. Table 1
summarises the processes undergone by the soil
used in the various tests.
Table 1. Summary of mechanical remoulding and water con-
tents for soil samples tested.
Test ID No of times soil re- Water content at
moulded by passing which soil re-
through meat mincer moulded
Test A2 2 18%
Test A4 4 18%
Test A6 6 18%
Test B3L 3 19%
Test B3M 3 22%
Test B3H 3 26%
The use of a meat mincer to mechanically re-
mould soil was proposed by Atkinson et al. [4]
and was adopted for these tests. The aim was to
283
simulate the same churning action that might oc-
cur in continuous flight auger pile construction.
All the soil specimens tested were prepared using
the same approach as described below.
3.1 Preparation of test specimens
A sub sample of soil from the bulk sample re-
trieved from site was prepared by soaking in dis-
tilled water for a few days and then being placed
in a mixer. The sub sample used in the series A
tests was mixed to a water content of 18%. The
sub sample used in the series B tests was mixed
to a water content of 19%. This soil was then di-
vided into three batches and in two of these
batches the water contents were increased to
22% and 26% respectively. All three batches
were then mixed again before being passed
through the meat mincer three times. The soil at
26% was at too high a water content to pass eas-
ily through the mincer and soil became stuck in
the flights of the screw used in the mincer. All
the soil used in the Series A tests was passed
through the mincer twice. A third of the soil was
set aside and the remainder was passed through
the mincer a further two times. Another third
was set aside and the final third was passed
through the mincer two more times. This left six
batches of soil as described in Table 1 and these
were all separately mixed to a slurry with a water
contents of 40-60%. The procedures outlined
above were designed to ensure that the tests in
each series are comparable despite the variability
of the base bulk sample.
The 38mm diameter cylindrical specimens re-
quired for testing in the stress path triaxial appa-
ratus were prepared from slurry using Perspex
floating ring consolidation tubes. The specimens
were consolidated under a maximum vertical
stress of 60kN/m2. Because of the high silt and
sand content in the Mercia Mudstone it was dif-
ficult to minimise friction between the pistons
and the tube and consequently many of the
specimens created did not have uniform water
contents.
3.2 Testing procedure
The reconstituted specimens were carefully
placed in computer controlled Bishop and
284 S.E. Stallebrass and L.J. Seward / The Effect of Mechanical Remoulding
Wesley [6] type stress path triaxial cells as de-
scribed by Atkinson [7]. All specimens were
compressed isotropically to the states given in
Table 2 and then sheared under undrained condi-
tions at a constant strain rate.
Water contents were obtained at the start of
the tests from trimmings from the specimen and
at the end of the test. Due to the problems in
specimen preparation outlined above, the final
water content was considered to be the most reli-
able and was used to calculate specific volumes.
Table 2. Test details
Test ID p' after isotropic
compression
(kN/m2)
Specific volume
Test A2 100
Test A4 180
Test A6 155
Test B3L 150
Test B3M 150
Test B3H 150
4 RESULTS
Because of the variability of the soil in the bulk
sample each series of tests was effectively under-
taken on a unique soil. The compression curves
presented in Figure 2 should therefore be treated
as two sets of data; Series A tests for which there
are two reliable compression curves and Series B
tests for which three compression curves are pre-
sented. The curve for Test B3H starts from a
higher value of mean effective stress because the
first stage of this test was a one step consolida-
tion.
In all cases the soil was only lightly overcon-
solidated at the start of isotropic compression
and all samples reached a normal compression
line during the compression stage. As shown in
Figure 1 the mudstone has a very high silt con-
tent and low clay fraction, so it is not surprising
that the values of λ derived from the normal
compression lines in Figure 2 are relatively low.
They vary from 0.077 and 0.080 for Tests A4
and A6 respectively through 0.068 for Tests B3L
and B3M to 0.046 for tests B3H.
The low compressibility of the soil means that
the compression behaviour is very sensitive to
the measurement of water contents in the sample.
It was estimated that the final water content of
the specimens may vary due to water entering the
sample at the base of the specimen by as much as
0.5%. This gives a potential error in the specific
volume which is indicated by the vertical line
shown in Figure 2. This error will not only af-
fect the position of the curves in terms of an off-
set to the specific volume but also to a lesser ex-
tent the gradient of the curves.
1.8
Test B3H
Test B3M
1.75 Test B3L
Test A4
Test A6
1.7
1.65
1.6
1.55 potential error in specific volume
caused by 0.5% error in water content
1.5
1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5
Lnp'
Figure 2. Compression data for Series A and Series B tests
Despite the potential inaccuracy in the spe-
cific volumes it is clear that the two Series B
tests subjected to mechanical remoulding in the
meat mincer at 19 and 22% water content have
very similar normal compression lines whereas
the normal compression line for the soil re-
moulded at a higher water content (26%) charac-
terises a soil with a lower specific volume or
more closely packed grains. It also has a lower
value of λ, indicating the presence of a greater
proportion of silt and sand sized particles. The
gradients of the normal compression lines ob-
tained in the Series A tests are similar, but for
these tests it appears that the gradient and spe-
cific volume increase with greater mechanical
remoulding in the meat mincer.
Data from the undrained shear stages are pre-
sented in Figures 3 and 4 as q/p' against axial
strain. Figure 3 shows data for the Series A tests
and in these the value of stress ratio at failure in-
 S.E. Stallebrass and L.J. Seward / The Effect of Mechanical Remoulding 285

creases steadily with number of passes through Figure 4. Stress ratio against axial strain for Series B tests
the meat mincer from 1.11 through 1.22 to 1.43. The results from the Series A tests are slightly
In all cases the soil has reached a critical state counter intuitive as it might be expected that if
and these values of the critical state friction coef- the mechanical remoulding is causing particles to
ficient are consistent with angles of friction of disaggregate from silt sized to clay, the stress ra-
27.9°, 30.5° and 35.3° respectively. Figure 4 tio at failure should decrease from a value con-
shows stress ratio against axial strain for the Se- sistent with a silt, which would be greater than
ries B tests. The stress ratio against strain re- 1to a value consistent with a clay which would
sponse is not affected by the water content at be 1 or less. This is in contrast to the values of
which remoulding takes place. All the data for q/p' at failure reported earlier. However, this
the Series B tests are very consistent and give a may be explained with reference to the data from
value of stress ratio at failure of 1.31, equivalent the Series B tests
to a critical state angle of friction of 32.5°. The data from the Series B tests appear very
consistent when plotted as normalised stress
1.6
strain data as in Figure 4, they are less consistent
1.4 when the stress paths followed during the tests
are plotted in q:p' stress space as shown in Figure
1.2 5.
The stress path for Test B3H is characteristic
1
Stress ratio, q/p'

of a soil where the dominant particle fraction is,

0.8 sand or silt, whereas the stress paths for Tests
B3M and B3L are characteristic of soils where
0.6 Test A2
the clay fraction is dominating.
Test A4
0.4
This indicates that despite the consistent val-
Test A6
ues of stress ratio at failure, in the sample re-
0.2 moulded at the highest water content there has
been less disaggregation of particles. It is possi-
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
ble that in the other two samples the disaggrega-
axial strain, % tion of the silt into clay has not been sufficient to
reduce the angle of friction at failure, but has af-
Figure 3. Stress ratio against axial strain for Series A tests fected the pre-failure deformation.

1.4 140

1.2 120

100
1
Stress ratio, q/p'

80
q' (kN/m2)

0.8

60
0.6
Test B3L
Test B3M 40 Test B3L
0.4 Test B3M
Test B3H
20 Test B3H
0.2

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 p' (kN/m2)

axial strain, %
Figure 5. Stress paths for Series B tests
286 S.E. Stallebrass and L.J. Seward / The Effect of Mechanical Remoulding
Stress paths for the three Series A tests are
given in Figure 6. These tests were all com-
pressed to different initial states before shearing.
The curves are a little uneven due to lack of con-
trol of the stresses, but nevertheless are all essen-
tially the same shape and similar to the stress
paths in test Series B where it appeared that pre
failure deformations were dominated by the clay
fraction but failure was dominated by the sandy
silt fraction. It may be that when the soil is me-
chanically remoulded to low levels, aggregations
of clay particles are not split up but aggregations
of silt particles are resulting in the higher angles
of friction.
140
120
100
q' (kN/m2)
80
60
40
20
0 the laboratory testing reported here.
0 20 40 60 80 100
p' (kN/m2)
Figure 6. Stress paths for Series A tests
5 CONCLUSIONS
Two series of tests have been undertaken on
Mercia Mudstone from a bulk sample retrieved
from the Ibstock Brick pit. The data show that
mechanical remoulding does affect the strength
and compression characteristics of the soil, but
not by solely breaking up aggregations of clay
particles. The latter would result in a greater
clay content and to the specimen behaving more
like clay. The increase in the compressibility of
the soil with increased mechanical remoulding
(Series A tests), observed during isotropic com-
pression is consistent with this hypothesis.
However the increase in critical state friction co-
efficient with mechanical remoulding is not.
The Series B tests demonstrate that if the wa-
ter content at which remoulding takes place is
sufficiently high, remoulding is not efficient and
the specimen retains the characteristics of the
natural bulk sample. However, the other two
specimens are not sufficiently affected by the
remoulding for the critical state friction coeffi-
cient to change. Pre-failure deformations are al-
tered by the remoulding resulting in stress paths
which appear more typical of normally com-
pressed clay.
Further testing is required to establish how
sensitive the remoulding is to water content and
whether prolonged mechanical remoulding
would lead to a clay content that would start to
affect the critical state friction coefficient.
Test A2
Test A4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Test A6
The authors would like to acknowledge the sup-
port of Tony Suckling and Balfour Beatty
Ground Engineering who funded the PhD re-
search undertaken by the second author. They
would also like to acknowledge the contributions
of Alexandros Galatoulos, Athina-Freskita Konti
and Andreas Trapezaris who undertook much of
120 140 160 180 200
REFERENCES
[1] Seward, L.J. The Effect of Continuous Flight Auger
Pile Installation on the Soil-Pile Interface in the Mercia
Mudstone Group. PhD thesis, City University, London,
UK, 2009.
[2] Davis, A.G. The mineralogy and phase equilibrium of
Keuper Marl, Quarterly Journal of Engineering geolo-
gy, 1, 25-38, 1967.
[3] Atkinson, J.H; Fookes, P.G.; Miglio, B.F. & Pettifer,
G.S. Destructuring and disaggregation of the Mercia
Mudstone during full-face tunnelling; Quarterly Jour-
nal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 36,
293-303, 2003.
[4] Chandler, R.J. and Forster, A. Engineering in Mercia
mudstone (C570), Pub; CIRIA, ISBN: 0-86017-570-7,
2001.
[5] Howard, A.S., Warrington, G., Ambrose, K. and Rees,
J.G. A formal framework for the Mercia Mudstone
Group (Triassic) of England and Wales; British Geo-
logical Survey Report RR/08/04, 2008.
[6] Bishop, A.W. and Wesley, L.D. A hydraulic triaxial
apparatus for controlled stress path testing. Geotech-
nique, 25, 1, 657-670, 1975.
[7] Atkinson, J.H. Simple and inexpensive pressure control
equipment for conventional and stress path triaxial test-
ing of soils. Geotechnique, 35, 1 61-63,1985
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 287
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-287

An investigation of the long-term engineering

response of intact chalk
Étude de l’influence d’un ouvrage de génie civil à long terme
sur un calcaire intact
K. J. L. Stone1
University of Brighton, UK
K. I. Katsaros
Consulting Engineer, Greece

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of an experimental test programme to evaluate the long-term engineering response of water satu-
rated intact homogeneous samples of high porosity Seaford Chalk. The influence of the in situ stress path was investigated by
replicating idealised stress states adjacent to an underground excavation. Extensional tests were performed using modified triax-
ial cells. Axial and radial strains were recorded continuously over the duration of the tests. From the results of the test pro-
gramme, the response of chalk was both qualitatively and quantitatively assessed. A conceptual micro-mechanical model was
developed to illustrate the complex mechanism of dilation and creep.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article présente les résultats de test expérimental, dans le but d’évaluer l’impact de la saturation en eau d’échantillons à
porosité élevée, intact et homogène de calcaire de Seaford. L’influence du champ de contrainte in situ a été étudiée en
reproduisant l’état de contrainte théorique d’une excavation souterraine. Des tests supplémentaires ont été réalisés utilisant des
cellules triaxiales modifiées. Les déformations axial et radial ont été enregistrées en continues durant les tests. À partir des
résultats, une évaluation qualitative et quantitative de la réponse du calcaire a été faite. Une modélisation du mécanisme
microscopique a été développée afin d’illustrer le mécanisme complexe de la dilatation et de long terme.

Keywords: Soft rock, chalk, creep, stress path testing.

1 INTRODUCTION there is rarely sufficient time within the design

The design life of a structure may range from 25
to 100 years or more. It is thus necessary that
both short and long-term geotechnical parame-
ters are known at the design stage. Whilst the
short-term design parameters are readily deter-
mined from conventional ground investigations
and laboratory testing, the determination of long-
term parameters is more problematic. Although
long-term laboratory testing can be performed,
and construction programme for long-term tests
of more than a few months duration to be con-
ducted. Thus long-term design often relies on
considerable extrapolation of relatively short-
term test data. This paper presents the results of a
test programme to evaluate the long-term re-
sponse of intact homogeneous samples of high
porosity Seaford Chalk. The test programme in-
volved stress path testing for loading periods in
excess of 630 days.

1
Corresponding Author
288 K.J.L. Stone and K.I. Katsaros / An Investigation of Long-Term Engineering Response
The influence of the in situ stress path was in-
vestigated by replicating idealised stress states
adjacent to an underground excavation, as illus-
trated in Figure 1.
Figure 1a: Stress paths followed by elements of material at
three locations adjacent to an excavated cavern. b) Idealised
triaxial extension stress paths to represent locations around
an excavation, and conventional triaxial compression stress
path.
Whilst the short-term strength and deforma-
tion properties of chalk are reasonably well re-
ported in the literature and guidance for design
can be found in Lord et al. [1], there have been
only few studies of the long-term response of
chalk [2], [3], [4] and [5]. Consequently, there
remains little published guidance in terms of the
long-term strength and deformation parameters
especially at low stress regimes (less than 100 m
depth) for use in civil engineering design.
1.1 Stress path testing
Two approaches are usually adopted for deter-
mining the creep parameters of a rock. In the first
case multiple specimens are subjected to differ-
ent compressive loads ranging from 30-90% of
the short-term strength. In the second case, the
same specimen is subjected to incremental com-
pressive loads, i.e. a multi-stage loading. In both
cases the applied stress paths are normally those
of conventional triaxial compression.
However it is known that for some rocks their
strength is generally less in extension than in
compression. The difference for rock salt for ex-
ample, is up to 4 MPa [6]. It is therefore likely
that the long-term behaviour may be influenced
by the in situ stress paths, and in particular those
leading to extensional behaviour associated with
the reduction in confining stress as in the vicinity
of tunnels and slopes, refer to Figure 1.
In the laboratory test programme, three long-
term conventional axial compression tests, and
three long-term extensional tests were carried
out. The extensional tests were performed using
conventional triaxial cells modified for stress
path testing. The extensional tests followed a
combination of conventional axial compression,
axial extension and lateral extension stress paths.
It should be noted that the tests were con-
ducted at relatively low stress levels correspond-
ing to depths 35-70 m to be consistent with stress
levels associated with major civil engineering
projects and natural features such as cliff faces.
2 TEST PROGRAMME AND
METHODOGY
Seven static load frames with a cantilever type
arrangement of dead weights were constructed
and placed in an environmentally controlled
laboratory, see Figure 2.
Figure 2: Load frame arrangement and triaxial cell. Total
length 1.7 m, width 0.6 m and height 1.6 m (after Katsaros
[2]).
 K.J.L. Stone and K.I. Katsaros / An Investigation of Long-Term Engineering Response 289

Extensional tests were undertaken in modified 2.1 Long term test programme
conventional triaxial cells. The modified cells A total of 6 long-term creep were conducted,
encompass a balanced ram and provide axial four of which are presented in more detail. Load
stresses unaffected by changes in the cell pres- increments were generally held for periods rang-
sure and are described elsewhere [7]. ing from a few days to almost 10 months. Radial
The stress state at any stage of a creep test is and axial strains were recorded together with cell
often expressed as a percentage of the ultimate pressures and environmental parameters. The test
peak failure stress for a corresponding short-term programme is summarised in Table 1.
test. Figure 3 presents the short-term strength en-
velope for the high porosity water saturated Sea-
ford Chalk used in this study. These data
3 RESULTS

3.1 Long-term compression tests

Figure 4 shows the strains recorded for the con-

ventional compression tests R2 and R4. In test
R2 axial and radial strains were recorded
whereas in R4 only axial strain was measured.
The axial strain response for both tests is very
similar. No discernable axial creep strains were
observed below 92%-99% of the expected peak
deviatoric strength.

Figure 3: Short-term peak strength envelope for Seaford

Chalk and stress paths for test R1, R2, R4 and R7
were derived from the short-term testing pro-
gramme together with additional data from un-
published studies.
The peak strength envelope (PSE) is de-
scribed by Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria inter-
secting the unconfined compression envelope de-
fined by q/p’=3.
Figure 4: Strains recorded for conventional compression tests
Table 1. Summary of creep tests.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ R2 and R4. The numbers indicate percentage of deviatoric
Test ID Initial stress Stress path strength applied to samples over the expected deviatoric peak
____ __________________ _ _____________________________________________
strength from the PSE (i.e. qapplied/qshort-term).
(stress path*) q (MPa) p’(MPa) Axial Radial
R1 (3) 0.00 1.03 Decr. Const.
The radial strains observed in test R2 show
R2 (1) 0.28 0.70 Incr. Const.
R4 (1) 0.00 0.93 Incr. Const. that dilation occurs from the onset of axial com-
R5 (1) 0.72 0.84 Incr. Const. pression. These dilative strains reduce over the
R6 (2) 0.02 0.98 Const. Incr. course of each load increment, and have effec-
R7 (2) -0.02 0.98 Const. Incr.
* Numbers in brackets refer to stress path types of Figure 3.
290 K.J.L. Stone and K.I. Katsaros / An Investigation of Long-Term Engineering Response
tively ceased towards the end of the 73% load
increment (~ 145 days). In the subsequent load
increment at 92% of the estimated peak strength,
the onset of axial creep strain is associated with
contractive radial strains. These contractive
strains are also seen to reduce over the load in-
crement and become dilative once the creep
strains seize. The radial strains remain practically
unaffected at the 101% increment and above.
3.2 Long-term extension tests
The results for the extension tests are shown in
Figures 5 and 6 for test R1 and R7 respectively.
Test R1 was a conventional axial extension
test. During the axial extension phase (up to load
increment 53%) the sample is elongating. In the
following two lateral extension increments (43%
and 71%) the axial strain increases and continues
to increase during the conventional axial com-
pression phase as well (from 41% until failure).
The sample was initially consolidated at
Figure 5: Axial strains recorded for test R1 (stress path in
Figure 3).
^1=0.74MPa and ^3=0.93MPa which corre-
sponds to an in situ depth of about 40 m. Reduc-
tion in the axial stress to zero results in a devia-
toric stress level which is only at about 50% of
the estimated peak strength. Consequently, no
discernable axial creep strains where observed
during this stage (Figure 5). Axial creep strains
were only observed under axial compression (>
98% peak strength) as was also observed for the
triaxial compression tests R2 and R4.
Test R7 was a conventional lateral extension
(up to 81% peak strength) followed by axial
compression to failure (Figure 3). Figure 6 pre-
sents an overview of the strains recorded. During
the 23% load increment the sample contracted
and plateaued whereas the radial strain dilated
rapidly. At 63% some initial axial expansion
Figure 6: Axial and radial strains recorded for test R7
(stress path in Figure 3).
took place primarily due to an unplanned loss of
confining stress. Concurrently lateral contraction
continued until day 105, then becoming dilatant.
At 81% peak strength limited axial expansion
was noted followed by minor axial creep strains.
At 121% peak strength discernable creep strains
were noted coupled with limited lateral contrac-
tion. Further load increments exhibited axial con-
traction without creep and practically no radial
strains.
4 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
In order to research the micromechanical be-
haviour of chalk the Scanning Electron Micro-
scope (SEM) has been the main investigative
tool for several studies [9], [10], [11], [12] and
[2]. Figure 7 (a) illustrates the high porosity Sea-
ford Chalk matrix which is mainly built up of
fine grained skeletons of calcareous planktonic
algae known as coccolithophorids. These com-
 K.J.L. Stone and K.I. Katsaros / An Investigation of Long-Term Engineering Response
-a-
-b-
Figure 7a: SEM image of undisturbed Seaford Chalk (41%
porosity). b) Stress visualised as network of contact forces
with hypothetical crumbling network columns (adapted from
Bolton [8])
prise of calcite tablets/grains (0.5 ¡m across)
which are the smallest visible particles of chalk
together with grain clusters and nannofossils.
A stochastic model is proposed where the
chalk fabric is represented as a three dimensional
puzzle; the particles being the puzzle pieces and
the puzzle connections represent the bonds be-
tween the particles. These bonds can fail or re-
duce in strength and at the same time particle
breakage may also occur depending on their in-
trinsic strength. This behaviour is stress depend-
ent, and highly localised within a sample tested
at low confining stresses. The stochastic model
pre-supposes that the effective stress tensor de-
volves a pattern of inter-particle contact forces
within the chalk matrix that are analogous to a
force network model of granular materials (Fig-
ure 7b).
Studies by Bowman [13] and Bolton [8] have
shown that a strong force network (depicted in
291
Figure 7 (b) by thicker lines) conveys the devia-
toric load with high normal contact forces.
The weak force network (depicted by thinner
lines) props the strong one and at the same time
carries low normal forces and high frictional
forces. Such networks of forces shift and rear-
range as the particles of granular materials move
about under load. Similar force networks de-
velop within the chalk matrix where an increase
of the deviatoric stress will initially cause reduc-
tion/breaking of the bond strength followed by
particle segregation/relocation with subsequent
load path alterations. Since chalk particles exert
cohesive forces between them, the changes in the
load paths are likely to be less abrupt.
The load paths may result in crumbling and
segregation of clusters and nannofossils causing
dilation. Figure 9 (a and b) illustrates a simplistic
representation of a crumbling network “column”
leading to dilation in the minor stress direction,
^3. In Figure 7 (b) the crumbling columns are
placed within the contact force network to visu-
alise the proposed model.
If the individual network column constituents
are able to withstand the load and avoid crum-
bling, then buckling may occur as in Figure 10
(c). Under low confining stress, conditions that
do not provide adequate propping, the network
columns may cause “barrelling” and macro-
scopic dilation.
Figure 9a and 9b: Hypothetical illustration of a crumbling
network column comprising of two coccoliths with a calcite
grain cluster in the middle. c) Hypothetical illustration of a
buckling network column of calcite grains. Arrows represent
the load application (after Katsaros [2]).
This is observed in R2 and R7 (Figures 4 and
6 respectively) at the early stages of loading
(load increments 73% and 63% respectively).
This outward movement will continue until the
strong network of columns will fail locally under
292 K.J.L. Stone and K.I. Katsaros / An Investigation of Long-Term Engineering Response
buckling with subsequent lateral contraction as
noted in R2 at the start of the 92% and 99% load
increments. The newly formed dilatant voids
around the failed columns are slowly occupied
by the segregated loose material resulting in ax-
ial compaction. This material rearrangement is a
time dependant process driven by the weak con-
tact force network and perceived macroscopi-
cally as creep. The process will continue until the
voids are filled and newly formed strong network
columns also start to fail. This model is consis-
tent with creep stabilisation taking place coinci-
dent with the onset of small dilative strains (see
for example R2 at day 179 and 232).
5 CONCLUSIONS
At the low stress levels used of this study, the
macroscopic deformation is only significant once
localisation of deformation has commenced. A
simple micro-mechanical model is introduced to
describe the macroscopic response observed. The
main conclusions for the long-term mechanical
response of chalk under low stress regimes can
be summarised as follows.
• At the strain levels experienced in the tests
no significant influence due to the applied
stress path was observed.
• Even in the absence of significant axial
creep strains, radial or dilative strains are
observed.
• No axial creep strains are observed below
80-90% of the expected peak strength (as
determined by conventional testing).
• Axial creep strains are relatively small
(<1%).
• The micromechanical processes involved
under deviatoric loading can explain the
macroscopic experimental observations.
In the low stress regime dilation and creep are
intricately intertwined and an attempt to explain
this process with a stochastic model of microme-
chanical deformation has been briefly presented.
Further evidence to support this approach to-
gether with recommendations for further re-
search are presented in Katsaros [2] where it is
also suggested that the same stochastic model
can be applied to describe he short-term response
of chalk at low stress levels.
REFERENCES
[1] J.A. Lord, C.R.I Clayton and R.N. Mortimore, Engi-
neering in chalk. CIRIA Publication CP574, London:
CIRIA (2002).
[2] K.I Katsaros, The long-term stress-strain behaviour of
chalk. PhD Thesis, University of Brighton, 2008.
[3] M. A. Andersen, N. Foged, & H.F. Pedersen, The rate-
type compaction of a weak North Sea chalk. In: Tiller-
son & Wawersik (eds),. Rock Mech. Proc. of the 33rd
U.S. Symp., Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 3-5. Rotter-
dam: Balkema,1992.
[4] A. Dahou, J.F. Shao, & M. Bederiat, Experimental and
numerical investigations on transient creep of porous
chalk. Mechanics of Materials, 21, (1995).
[5] E.Maranini, & M.Brignoli, Creep behaviour of a weak
rock: experimental characterization. Int. J. Rock Mech.
Min. Sc., 36, (1999).
[6] N. D. Cristescu, & U. Hunsche,. Time Effects in Rock
Mechanics. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.,1998.
[7] K. J. L Stone, & K. I Katsaros, A Modified Triaxial Cell
for Stress-Path Testing of Weak Rock (Hard Soils),
ASTM Geotch. Testing Journal, Vol 31, No.5, (2008).
[8] M.D. Bolton, The role of micro-mechanics in Soil Me-
chanics. International Workshop on Soil Crushability,
Yamaguchi University, Japan, (1999).
[9] R.N. Mortimore, & P. M. Fielding, The relationship be-
tween texture, density and strength of chalk. In: Bur-
land, J. B., Mortimore, R. N., Jones, D. L., & Corbett,
B. O., (eds), 1990. Chalk, Proc. Int. Chalk Symp.
Brighton Polytechnic,Thomas Telford, London, (1989).
[10] D.Petley, M.Jones, C. Fan, C.Stafford, M.Leddra, &
N.Kageson-Leo, Deformation and fabric changes in
weak fine-grained rocks during high pressure consoli-
dation and shear. In: Anagnostopoulos, A., Schlosser,
F., Kalteziotis, N., & Frank, R., (eds), Geotechnical
Engineering of hard soils-soft rocks. Rotterdam,
Balkema,(1993).
[11] N. M. Kageson-Loe, M.E. Jones, D.N. Petley, & M.J.
Leddra, Fabric evolution during the deformation of
chalk. Int. J. Rock Mech. & Min. Sci. & Geomech.
Abstr., 30, (1993).
[12] N. Kageson-Loe, R.N. Mortimore, M.E. Jones & S.
Willis, On chalk fabrics and their influence on defor-
mation behaviour. Extended abstract for EAPG Chalk
Conference, Copenhagen. (1994).
[13] E. T. Bowman, The ageing and creep of dense granular
materials. Ph.D. Thesis, Cambridge University, 2002
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 293
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-293

Statistical evaluation of geotechnical laboratory

round robin tests in Hungary
Evaluation statistique des resultats des tests de plusieurs
laboratoires géotechniques de la Hongrie
A. Takács, A. Mahler 1
Budapest University of Technology and Economics

ABSTRACT
In year 2005 sixty-six laboratories took part in the round robin test, almost all the laboratories working in the country. Laborato-
ries has analysed the required parameters of artificially produced (or eventually natural) soil samples. The main goal is to get an-
swers to this questions: what is the degree of homogeneity of the physical charactheristics of samples, and the possibly existing
significant differences between laboratories participating in the round robin test. In the paper there is a summary of results of the
most common geotechnical laboratory tests: grain size distribution, plastic limit, liquid limit, plasticity index and Proctor com-
paction tests. The evaluation of the measurements calculated by variance analysis, but used some approximative processes too..

RÉSUMÉ
Dans l'année 2005 presque tout les laboratoires notament soixante-six ont participé aux essai. Les laboratoires ont analysé les pa-
ramètres requis de produit artificiel (ou éventuellement naturelles) des échantillons de sol. L'objectif principal est d'obtenir des
réponses à ces questions: quel est le degré d'homogénéité des caractéristiques physiques des échantillons, et les différences signi-
ficative entre les résultats des laboratoires participant aux essai. Dans le document il y a un résumé des résultats statistique des
tests les plus fréquent de laboratoire géotechnique: la distribution granulométrique, la limite de plasticité, la limite de liquidité,
indice de plasticité et des essais de compactage Proctor. L'article contient une évaluation de la fiabilité des résultats de mesure.

Keywords: Laboratory tests, reliability, statistical parameters

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Homogenization
In 2005 a set of round robin tests was performed
The soil samples were taken on sites where large
to evaluate the reliability of the laboratory test
volume of relatively homogenous soil was avail-
results. The 63 participating laboratories have
able. Than the soil sample was placed on a rigid
performed 8 particles size distribution tests, 8 at-
platform, the lumps were broken and the soil was
terberg limits test and 8 modified Proctor tests.
commixed several times. The homogeneity of the
The laboratories received parts of the same soil
large sample was analyzed by the means of soil
samples.
classification tests: the large sample was divided
to four parts and one specimen was taken from
each to perform the tests.

1
Corresponding Author.
294 A. Takács and A. Mahler / Statistical Evaluation of Geotechnical Laboratory Round Robin Tests

In the case of grain size distribution the crite- In the case of the sand and gravel content (i.e.
rion of homogeneity was the following: the in the case of sieving) the coefficients of varia-
measured “percent passed” value for Dmax/2 par- tion range between 0.03 and 0.17 and it has an
ticle size should not deviate from the average average value of 0.08. In the case of fine content
value by more than 10%. In the case of atterberg significantly larger values can be experienced.
limit test, the plasticity index’s maximum ac- The values vary between 0.09 and 0.31 and have
ceptable deviation from the average was 2%. an average of 0.18. This also confirms the pre-
After the homogenization smaller specimens sumed fact that sieve test is more reliable than
were created and then sent to the participating the hydrometer test.
laboratories.
Sample No. 2. 3. 4. 6. 8.
n1 66 66 62 66 66
2 RELIABILITY OF THE PERFORMED
n2 61 61 61 62 58
LABORATORY TESTS
average 28.0 23.6 9.1 45.8 56.0
stand. deviation 4.24 5.07 2.83 6.23 4.82
2.1 Particle size distribution test coeff. of variation 0.15 0.22 0.31 0.14 0.09
maximum 39.0 36.0 16.0 63.0 69.0
Altogether more than 500 tests were per-
minimum 16.0 10.0 3.0 29.0 45.0
formed on 8 different sample groups. In this
work the accuracy of the sand+gravel and the range 23.0 26.0 13.0 34.0 24.0
fine content values are discussed. According to Table 2. Summary of fine contents’ results
the Hungarian standard relevant that time, the
sand+gravel content is defined as the percent of A similar trend can be observed in the case of
soil particles larger than 0.1 mm and the fine extreme values. The sand and gravel content’s
content is the particles smaller than 0.02 mm. It maximum deviation from the average is less then
must be noted that the sand and gravel content is ±20% in four cases, only the Sample 2. is an ex-
determined by sieving and the fine content is de- ception; in the case of this soil sample the devia-
termined by hydrometer analysis. So the coeffi- tions were significantly larger for the extreme
cients of variation values refer to the reliability values as well as for the standard deviation val-
of these two different testing methods. ues. The extreme values of the fine content differ
The determined statistical parameters are by about ±40% in general, but in the case of
shown in Table 1. and Table 2., in these tables n1 Sample 3. ±70% deviations can be observed.
represents the total number of tests and n2 is the 0,20
0,18
number of the tests taken into account (after eli- 0,16
coefficient of variation, C v

R2 = 0,8801
mination of erroneous results). 0,14
0,12
0,10

Sample No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 7. 0,08

0,06
n1 66 66 62 66 66 0,04
0,02
n2 57 59 59 58 60 0,00
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
average 82.2 21.7 47.7 78.5 80,0 Sd>0,1 mm (%)

stand. deviation 4.35 3.79 3.98 2.29 4,67

coeff. of variation 0.05 0.17 0.08 0.03 0,06 Figure 1. Coefficients of variation in the case of sand & gra-
vel content
maximum 91.0 31.0 58.0 85.0 93,0
minimum 72.0 11.0 40.0 73.0 66,0 It is an obvious question if the deviations depend
range 19.0 20.0 18.0 12.0 27,0 on the measured values or not. Therefore the co-
efficient of variation has been plotted against the
Table 1. Summary of sand and gravel contents’ results
average values in both cases (Figure 1. and 2.).
 A. Takács and A. Mahler / Statistical Evaluation of Geotechnical Laboratory Round Robin Tests 295

The tendencies are clear: the smaller the average The plastic limit results’ coefficients of varia-
(i.e. gravel & sand or fine content) the larger the tion vary between 0.053 and 0.153 and the aver-
coefficient of variation (i.e. the smaller the reli- age value is 0.105. In the case of liquid limit
ability). these values vary between 0.054 and 0.128 and
0,40 have an average of 0.087.
0,35 These values are similar to the values experi-
coefficient of variation, C v

0,30 enced for the sand and gravel content, so the reli-
0,25
ability of the plastic limit and liquid limit are
0,20

0,15
R2 = 0,8847 similar to that of sieving and are definitely better
0,10
than that of hydrometer test.
0,05 Generally the extreme values fall in a range
0,00 ±20%, but in the case of soil Samples 3 and
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Sd<0,02 mm (%)
Sample 5 the extremes differed from the average
by about 30%.
Figure 2. Coefficients of variation in the case of fine content Similarly to the grain size distribution values,
the coefficient of variation values are plotted
2.2 Atterberg limit test against the average values (Figure 3. and 4.). but
in this case no significant correlation can be ex-
The atterberg limits were determined on soils perienced between theses values.
having a plasticity index range of 15-35%. Near-
ly 500 test on 8 homogenized sets of soil sam- Sample No. 1. 2. 3. 4.
ples. The reduced number of tests taken into ac- n1 62 62 62 62
count (n2) was determined as it was described in n2 60 62 62 61
the case of particle size distribution test.
average 54.6 53.5 45.5 48.2
Sample No. 1. 2. 3. 4.
standard deviation 3.61 3.06 5.26 4.02
n1 62 61 59 62 coeff. of variation 0.066 0.057 0.116 0.083
n2 58 54 59 61 maximum 64.2 60.8 54.9 56.0
average 23.3 22.7 27.6 23.6 minimum 47.5 46.3 33.0 39.3
standard deviation 1.87 1.21 4.22 2.42 range 16.7 14.5 21.9 16.7
coeff. of variation 0.080 0.053 0.153 0.103 Table 5. Summary of liquid limits’ results
maximum 27.9 25.2 38.4 30.4
minimum 19.4 20.9 16.4 16.7 Sample No. 5. 6. 7. 8.
range 8.5 4.3 22.0 13.7 n1 62 62 62 62
Table 3. Summary of plastic limits’ results n2 56 61 58 58
Sample No. 5. 6. 7. 8. average 43.3 41.5 40.6 43.3
n1 62 62 62 62 standard deviation 5.52 2.24 2.62 5.52
coeff. of variation 0.128 0.054 0.064 0.128
n2 61 60 60 58
maximum 55.2 46.5 47.2 48.0
average 20.0 19.0 19.8 20.0
minimum 31.5 35.7 34.2 37.8
standard deviation 2.35 1.75 2.50 2.35
range 23.7 10.8 13.0 10.2
coeff. of variation 0.118 0.092 0.126 0.118
maximum 26.6 23.2 26.1 23.8 Table 6. Summary of liquid limits’ results

minimum 15.0 16.2 15.7 17.4

range 11.6 7.0 10.4 6.4

Table 4. Summary of plastic limits’ results

296 A. Takács and A. Mahler / Statistical Evaluation of Geotechnical Laboratory Round Robin Tests

0,20
Sample No. 5. 6. 7. 8.
0,18
n1 64 64 64 64
coefficient of variation, C v

0,16
0,14 n2 63 63 59 64
0,12
0,10
average 2.25 1.93 2.15 2.25
0,08 standard deviation 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.04
0,06
coeff. of variation 0.018 0.015 0.012 0.018
0,04
0,02 maximum 2.35 2.00 2.22 1.99
0,00
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
minimum 2.16 1.86 2.08 1.81
plastic lim it, w P range 0.19 0.14 0.14 0.18
Table 8. Summary of maximum dry densities’ results
Figure 3. Coefficients of variation in the case of plastic limit

0,05
0,20
0,18

coefficient of variation, C v
0,04
coefficient of variation, C v

0,16
0,14 0,03
0,12
0,10 0,02
0,08
0,06 0,01
0,04
0,02 0,00
1,70 1,80 1,90 2,00 2,10 2,20 2,30
0,00
40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 r max
d

liquid lim it, w L

Figure 5. Coefficients of variation in the case of maximum

Figure 4. Coefficients of variation in the case of liquid limit dry density

2.3 Modified proctor test The maximum dry densities’ coefficients of

Altogether more than 500 tests were per- variation are much smaller than that of the other
formed on 8 different sample groups. The deter- tests. The average coefficient of variation is
mined maximum dry density values vary be- 0.017, the maximum is 0.03 and these values do
tween 1.70 and 2.25 g/cm3. The basic statistical not depend on the average values (Figure 5.).
parameters of the results are summarized in Ta-
ble 7. and Table 8.
3 STOCHASTIC PARAMETERS
Sample No. 1. 2. 3. 4.
n1
The Pearson method was used to evaluate the
64 64 64 64 distribution type of the previously shown soil
n2 58 63 64 60 properties. The distribution is evaluated based on
average 1.70 1.80 2.01 1.95 the values of µ1 and µ2 parameters which are the
standard deviation 0.02 0.05 0.04 0.04 functions of the density diagram’s peakness and
coeff. of variation 0.009 0.030 0.020 0.019
skewness. The calculated µ1 and µ2 are plotted in
maximum Figure 6.
1.73 1.92 2.11 2.04
The points are concentrating at point µ1=0 and
minimum 1.66 1.69 1.92 1.88
µ2=3 with some scatter. This point represents the
range 0.07 0.23 0.19 0.16 normal distribution in this interpretation, so the
Table 7. Summary of maximum dry densities’ results
results show that this distribution fits best to the
investigated soil properties.
 A. Takács and A. Mahler / Statistical Evaluation of Geotechnical Laboratory Round Robin Tests 297

It is worth noting that the scatter in the case of - In the case of plastic limit, liquid limit and
plastic limit seems definitely larger than that of proctor tests, the coefficient of variation
the other properties, in addition the µ1>0 values do not depend on the measured values.
represent a non-symmetric distribution. - The measured data has shown a distribution
1 that can be best described by normal dis-
wL
I.U tribution, although slightly asymmetric
wP
E distribution has been observed for the
2 lim F (Sd<0,02mm)
it
of plastic limit results.
II. t he G+S (Sd>0,1mm )
po
ss max
ib d
le
3N Be di
st
ta rib
(U ut
i on
2
- sh
a pe
s ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
d)

4
Be

This work is connected to the scientific program

ta

VII.
(J
- sh

III.
of the “Development of quality-oriented and
ap

5
ed
)

harmonized R+D+I strategy and functional mod-

Lo

G
am
gn

m
or

el at BME” project. This project is supported by

a
m
al

6 the New Hungary Development Plan (Project ID:

0 1 2 3 4
1
TÁMOP-4.2.1/B-09/1/KMR-2010-0002).
Figure 6. The determined values of µ1 and µ2

4 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES

In this project the reliability of five common [1] L. Rétháti. Probabilistic solutions in geotechnics.
geotechnical laboratory tests (sieving, hydrome- Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest. 1988.
ter test, proctor test, plastic limit and liquid limit [2] L. Nagy. Dike breaches in the Carpathian Basin. Peri-
odica Polytechnica-Civil Engineering 50:(2) pp. 115-
test) was evaluated. Each test types were per- 124. 2006.
formed on 8 different soil types and on more [3] Regulation of control processes. Institute for Transport
than 500 soil samples. Sciences Non-profit Ltd. (KTI), Commitee of Road La-
Based on interpretation of the results the fol- boratory Control (ULEB). (in Hungarian)
lowing conclusions can be drawn:
- The tests of plastic limit, liquid limit and
sieving have nearly the same reliability
(the typical values of coefficients of vari-
ation are between 0.08 and 0.11).
- The reliability of the hydrometer test is def-
initely worse, the average coefficient of
variation was 0.18 and deviation as large
as 70% was also observed.
- The maximum dry density values (deter-
mined by modified Proctor test) are much
more reliable than the other tests. The ex-
perienced coefficient of variation values
are between 0.009 and 0.030.
- In the case of grain size distribution tests
the coefficient of variation depends on the
measured value (sand & gravel content,
fine content) too: The smaller the meas-
ured value the larger is the coefficient of
variation.
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 299
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-299

Engineering properties of marls from small to large

strains
Propriétés mécaniques des marnes de petites à grandes
déformations
Th. Tika1, P. Kallioglou, & St. Elpekos
Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

ABSTRACT
The paper presents results from laboratory investigations into the behaviour of marls from small to large strains. In particular, re-
sults are presented concerning the following engineering properties: (a) shear modulus and damping ratio, as determined by
means of resonant column tests, (b) undrained shear strength, as determined by means of triaxial and uniaxial compression tests,
and its correlation with the preconsolidation pressure of the soils, determined by means of oedometer tests, and (c) residual
strength, as determined by means of ring shear tests and its correlation with the critical strength. The implications of the test re-
sults on the engineering behaviour of marls from small to large strains are discussed.

RÉSUMÉ
L'article document présente différents résultats de laboratoire qui ont permis d'étudier le comportement des marnes de petites à
grandes déformations. En particulier, on présente les résultats obtenus sur les propriétés mécaniques suivantes: (a) le module de
cisaillement et le coefficient d'amortissement, déterminés par des essais de colonne de résonnance,(b) la résistance au cisaille-
ment non drainé, déterminée par des essais de compression triaxiale et uniaxiale et sa corrélation avec la pression de préconsoli-
dation des sols, déterminée au moyen d'essais d'oedométre, et (c) la résistance résiduelle, déterminée au moyen d'essais de cisail-
lement annulaire et sa corrélation avec l' état critique. On discute également les implications des résultats des essais sur le
comportement mécanique des marnes de petites à grandes déformations.

Keywords: Marls, cementation, shear modulus, damping ratio, undrained shear strength, preconsolidation pressure, residual
strenght, critical strength

1 INTRODUCTION self weight. As a consequence, these soils have

Marls belong to hard soils – weak rocks group of
sendimentary geomaterials and are characterized
by the development of strong structure. Structure
develops during the diagenetic process (forma-
tion of cementation bonds), following material
deposition and gravitational consolidation under
developed interparticle bonding between the in-
dividual particles, as a result of the precipitation
of calcium carbonate, and possess a bonded
structure. Leroueil and Vaughan (1990) hig-
hlighted the importance of the effects of structure
in determining the engineering behavior of natu-
ral soils and weak rocks and concluded that these

1
Corresponding Author.
300 Th. Tika et al. / Engineering Properties of Marls from Small to Large Strains
effects are as important as are the effects of ini-
tial porosity and stress history.
Marls are often encountered in Greece and
their behaviour is of great interest in geotechnic-
al engineering dealing with problems, such as
seismic site response analysis, design of founda-
tions, deep excavations and tunnels, earthworks,
slope stability and others (Tika et al, 2010).
Typical strain levels most important to engi-
neering design are in the range of 10-5 to 10-3
(Simpson, 1999). Therefore stiffness from very
small to medium strains is required for the pre-
diction of soil response to both static and dynam-
ic loading. On the other hand, the study of the
stability and kinematics of potential sliding soil
masses requires the knowledge of soil behavior
post-peak and at large strains.
The paper presents results from laboratory in-
vestigations into the behaviour of marls from
small to large strains. In particular results are
presented, concerning the following engineering
properties: (a) shear modulus and damping ratio,
(b) the correlation between preconsolidation
pressure and undrained shear strength and (c) the
correlation of drained residual and critical state
strengths with index properties.
2 SOILS TESTED
The soils tested were retrieved from various parts
of Greece and Cyprus, from quaternary and neo-
gene sediments of depth ranging from 3m to
105m, using rotary coring and Shelby sampling.
The plasticity index, PI, varied between 7% and
66% and the overconsolidation ratio, OCR, be-
tween 1 and 11. The calcium carbonate content,
CC, ranged from 26% to 100% and was deter-
mined using HCl or radiographic methods as a
percentage of the soil dry mass. The soils had ei-
ther uniform, or layered structure with calcareous
concretions in some cases and a variety of co-
lours.
3 LABORATORY TESTS
A resonant column apparatus of the fixed-free
type was implemented for the measurement of
shear modulus and damping ratio of the soils
(Drnevich, 1967, Kallioglou, 2003). The tests
were performed on solid cylindrical specimens of
intact soils (diameter: 71.1mm, height:
142.2mm), which were consolidated at various
levels of isotropic effective stress, o. Two types
of dynamic torsional excitation were imposed:
small strain loading under drained conditions and
a sequence of loadings with increasing strain un-
der undrained conditions. As the test is consi-
dered to be non-destructive, o, was usually in-
creased to various levels in order to assess the
dependence of dynamic properties on o.
Preconsolidation stress, p, was determined
from conventional incremental oedometer tests
( /v/ /v=1) on intact soils and reconstituted
samples, prepared at a water content of about 1.2
times the liquid limit of the soils. Each load step
lasted 24 hours.
Undrained shear strength was determined
from either uniaxial compression tests, or triaxial
compression tests on isotropically consolidated
specimens (UU and CU). Drained shear strength
was determined from triaxial compression tests
on isotropically consolidated specimens (CU and
CD), or shear box tests. Conventional triaxial
(diameter: 35mm, height:70mm) and shear box
(diameter 63.5mm, height 25.4mm) apparatuses
were used for the above types of tests, carried out
on intact soils.
Drained residual shear strength was deter-
mined from ring shear tests on remoulded speci-
mens (Bromhead, 1979). Details for the tests are
given in Elpekos (2010). Test specimens were
placed at a water content below or at plastic limit
into the annular space of the apparatus (internal
diameter: 70mm, external diameter: 100mm,
height: 5mm). After placement, the specimens
were consolidated to the desired level of vertical
stress (about 400kPa). Shearing was then per-
formed at a rate of displacement of
0.018mm/min and at various levels of vertical
stress, 400kPa, 200kPa and 100-150kPa, in order
to assess the normal stress dependence of drained
residual strength.
 Th. Tika et al. / Engineering Properties of Marls from Small to Large Strains 301

4 BEHAVIOUR FROM SMALL TO 1000

Small-strain shear modulus, Gmax (MPa)

MEDIUM STRAINS

4.1 Shear modulus and damping ratio

It has been well established that the stress-strain 100
behaviour of soil at very small shear strains
(10-5) is linear elastic, shear stiffness has its
maximum value, G=Gmax, and damping ratio its
minimum value, DT=DTmin. With increasing
shear strain, the behaviour becomes initially non-
=4x10-7 - 2x10-5
linear elastic and then inelastic and is accompa-
10
nied by shear stiffness degradation and da-mping
10 100 1000
ratio increase (Jardine, 1992). Isotropic effective stress,  7 (kPa)
Figure 1 shows results from resonant-column
tests for the variation of small-strain shear mod- Soil eo LL(%) PI(%) %<2! m CC(%)
ulus, Gmax, with isotropic effective stress, , af- 0.785 34 10 18 42
ter 24hr confinement for marls of low to high 0.965 39 12 24 86
plasticity. A linear relationship between Gmax and 0.872 63 34 35 40
 in a log-log plot is indicated for each soil for 0.780 44 18 4 31
both normal consolidation and overconsolidation 0.719 52 27 31 31
states. 1.118 59 28 50 28
Kallioglou et al. (2008) proposed the follow- 1.024 58 32 51 52
ing equation for the estimation of Gmax of unce-
mented natural cohesive soils (CC<5%): Figure 1. Variation of small-strain shear modulus, Gmax, with
G max   6290  80 PI  o0.50 e 0.60 (1) isotropic effective stress, , for intact marls

where Gmax and  are expressed in kPa and PI 103

Normalized small-strain shear modulus,

as percentage value (%).

Figure 2 shows the normalized small-strain PI=7-66 %
LL=32-108 %
shear modulus, Gmax/[f(e) g(PI)], versus the es- CF(<2! m)=4-73 %
=4x10-7 - 3x10-5
Gmax /f(e)g(PI) (kPa)

timated in situ mean effective stress, insitu, for 102 CC=26-86 %

thirty intact marls. The above plasticity index, e o=0.504-1.689
g(PI)=6290-80 PI, and void ratio, f(e)=e-0.63, OCR=1-11
functions were used for normalization. All marls
exhibit equal or higher values of normalized Gmax 10
in comparison with the corresponding values
predicted by equation (1) due to cementation. Equation (1)
As far as the minimum damping ratio is con-
cerned, DTmin values at insitu are comparable
1
with the corresponding values for natural unce-
10 100 1000
mented cohesive soils (CC<5%) with similar Insitu mean effective stress,  7insitu (kPa)
void ratios, Figure 3.
Figure 2. Variation of normalized small-strain shear modulus,
The degradation of normalized shear modulus Gmax/[f(e) g(PI)], with insitu mean effective stress, insitu, for
of marls, expressed by G/Gmax, with increasing intact marls
shear strain, , at insitu is shown in Figure 4a. In
Figure 4a the results of a cyclic triaxial strain that plasticity index is the main parameter con-
controlled test conducted on a k0 consolidated i- trolling degradation of shear modulus with in-
ntact sample of a marl are presented. It is shown creasing shear strain and that the degradation
302 Th. Tika et al. / Engineering Properties of Marls from Small to Large Strains

10 curve is unaffected by the degree of cementation.

The increase of DT with  at insitu for marls
Small-strain damping ratio, DTmin (%)

8 of various plasticities is shown in Figure 4b. It is

Bounds for natural again confirmed that plasticity is the main factor
cohesive soils with controlling the increase of damping with increas-
6 CC<5% ing shear strain, similarly with the uncemented
Kallioglou et al.,2008
cohesive soils.
4
4.2 Preconsolidation pressure and undrained
shear strength
2

=4x10-7 - 3x10-5
Insitu preconsolidation pressure is considered as
one of the most important soil properties
0
representing a yield stress during one-
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
dimensional loading and separating small-strain
Insitu void ratio, e insitu
elastic behaviour from plastic behaviour. It has
Figure 3. Variation of small-strain damping ratio, DTmin, at been also proved particularly suitable as the basis
/oinsitu with void ratio, einsitu, for intact marls
for normalization of the stress-strain behaviour
1.1
of cohesive deposits (Ladd & Foott, 1974, Jami-
1.0 (a) olkowski et al., 1985). It is also well known that
0.9 preconsolidation stress, /p, as determined from
0.8 one-dimension consolidation tests with constant
0.7 load step is some-times considerably higher than
G/Gmax

0.6 the maximum effective vertical stress imposed to

0.5 the soil over its geological history. This differ-
PI=5%, 25% & 60%
0.4 Kallioglou et al. (2008) ence can be attributed to various factors, such as
0.3
soil structure, secondary compression, ageing
0.2
0.1
Cyclic Triaxial Test and presence of diagenetic and cementation
0.0 bonds among the grains.
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 Figure 5 shows results from oedometer tests
14
 (%) on an intact marl together with the sedimentation
PI=0, 15%, 30%, 50%, 100% (b) compression (SCL) and intrinsic compression
12
Vucetic & Dobry (1991) and swelling lines (ICL, ISL) (Burland, 1990).
10
The latter were obtained from an oedometer test
DT (%)

8
on reconstituted sample of the marl. The natural
6
state of the soil at stresses above v0 lies above
4 the SCL line. However, loading beyond p in
Cyclic Triaxial Test
2 the oedometer results in desruption of cementa-
0 tion bonds and fabric of the soil, so that the natu-
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 ral compression line becomes steeper than the
 (%)
SCL line and falls towards the ICL line.
Soil   (kPa) e PI(%) CC(%)
Figure 6 shows the variation of the undrained
55 0.615 7 61 shear strength ratio, su/ vo, with overconsolida-
135 0.804 28 60 tion ratio. The log-log plot indicates a linear rela-
159 0.911 66 >35 tionship, expressed by the following equation:
s u / o  A  p /  o 
0.70
Figure 4. Variation of normalized shear modulus, G/Gmax, (a) (2)
and damping ratio, DT, (b) with shear strain,
, at /oinsitu for
intact marls where A is the undrained shear strength ratio for
normally consolidated marls (OCR=1).
 Th. Tika et al. / Engineering Properties of Marls from Small to Large Strains 303

1.7 5 BEHAVIOUR AT LARGE STRAINS

1.6 SCL intact
reconstituted
PI=22% Back analyses of slides in stiff soils have shown
1.5 LL=53% that the operational strength is mainly controlled
1.4 CF(<2! m)=3%
by strain-softening due to brittleness of the intact
ICL CC=>85%
Void ratio, e

1.3 'vo soil and the presence of fissures and the strength
'p along them (Skempton, 1977, Sotiropoulos &
1.2
Cavounidis, 1980, Skempton & Vaughan, 1995).
1.1 Skempton (1977) suggested that for a first-time
1.0
slide in stiff fissured clay, the shear strength at
ISL failure can be approximated by the full softened
0.9 or critical state strength. Skempton (1964, 1977)
0.8 also suggested that the strength of a clay will be
1 10 100 1000 10000 at or close to the residual on slip surfaces in old
Vertical effective stress, v'(kPa)
landslides or soliflucted slopes, in bedding shears
Figure 5. Compression curves for a marl in folded strata, in sheared joints, or faults.
Lupini et al. (1981) demonstrated three me-
10 chanisms controlling drained residual shea-ring:
su/ 'vo = A x OCR 0.7 a turbulent mode in soils with high portion of ro-
tund articles, a sliding mode in which a low
strength shear surface of strongly orientated par-
93
1.2 PI=18-34 % ticles forms and a transitional mode involving
A=
LL=46-73 % both turbulent and sliding shear. They concluded
su/ 'vo

71
1 0.8 CF=3-51 %
A= CC=28->85 %
e o=0.751-1.677
Uniaxial compression test
Triaxial compression test (UU)
Triaxial compression test (CU)
0.1
1 10
OCR
Figure 6. Variation of undrained shear strength ratio, su/ vo,
with overcosolidation ratio, OCR= /p //vo, for intact marls
The value of A depends on the stress path, fol-
lowed by soil up to failure, and therefore the type
of test used for the determination of undrained
shear strength. A value of A=1.293 was derived
from the consolidated undrained triaxial co-
mpression tests and a value of A=0.871 from the
unconfined compression and unconsolidated un-
drained triaxial compression tests. The above re-
sults indicate that the undrained shear strength
ratio for marls is about 3 to 5 times greater than
the corresponding value of su/vo=(0.23±0.04)
proposed for uncemented normally consolidated
clays (Jamiolkoswki et al., 1985).
that these modes are related to the packing and
porosity of rotund articles present. Correlations
between drained residual strength of cohesive
soils and index properties are effective in soil
strata of constant mineralogy.
Figure 7 shows the variation of residual fric-
tion angle, r=arctan (r/n), of marls tested in
30 the ring shear apparatus, with plasticity index at
a normal stress of n=200 kPa. In the same fi-
gure, the critical state friction angle, cs, mea-
sured in triaxial compression (CU and CD) and
direct shear tests on intact marls, is also pre-
sented. A good correlation between both the re-
sidual and critical state friction angles with plas-
ticity index is observed. Similar correlations with
the other index properties have been observed. It
is shown that at the above normal stress level, the
difference between the two angles and therefore
brittleness increases considerably for marls with
a plasticity index greater than PI 20%. For such
marls therefore, the presence of pre-existing
shear surfaces may be the most influential factor
controlling engineering design.
304 Th. Tika et al. / Engineering Properties of Marls from Small to Large Strains
40
30
8r (deg) or 8cs(deg)
20
10 PI=8-52 %
LL=36-84 %
CF=12-53 %
CC=25-100 %
0 co (1985), 57-153.
0 10 20
Plasticity index,PI(%)
Figure 7. Variation of residual, r, and critical state, cs,
friction angles with plasticity index, PI, for marls
6 CONCLUSIONS
Cementation has a controlling influence on the
engineering behavior of marls. The following
conclusions can be derived from the results pre-
sented in the paper:
Cementation results in an increase of small-
strain shear modulus of marls, but it does not af-
fect the other dynamic properties, such as small-
strain damping ratio, degradation of shear mod-
ulus with shear strain and increase of damping
ratio with shear strain.
Cementation, besides stress history, results in
an increase of preconsolidation pressure and u-
ndrained shear strength. The correlation between
undrained shear strength ratio and preconsolida-
tion pressure for marls indicates that this stress
ratio is considerably higher than the correspond-
ing value for uncemented natural cohesive soils.
For the tested marls, a good correlation be-
tween both residual and critical friction angles
and index properties was found. The difference
between the critical state and residual state fric-
tion angles increases considerably for marls with
PI 20%. For such marls therefore, the presence
of pre-existing shear surfaces may exert a con-
trolling influence in engineering design.
REFERENCES
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Triaxial test (CU, CD) [1] E.N. Bromhead, A simple ring shear apparatus, Ground
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8cs
[3] V. Drnevich, Effects of strain history on the dynamic
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[4] S. Elpekos, Drained residual strength of natural cohe-
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 305
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-305

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 311
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-311

The transitional behavior of loosely compacted

completely decomposed granite
Le comportement transitoire de granit faiblement compacté
complètement décomposé
J.J. Zhang 1
Research Student, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong kong
C.Y. Cheuk
Senior Engineer, AECOM Asia Company Ltd., Hong Kong

ABSTRACT
Recent research reveals that sandy soil with different portions of fines exhibit very different behavior and may not be explained
by established soil mechanics theories. This study aims to shed light on the various aspects of loosely compacted completely de-
composed granite (CDG) through stress-path controlled triaxial tests. A series of consolidated undrained tests (CU) were con-
ducted on remoulded CDG specimens, which were prepared at different densities. It has been observed that the isotropic com-
pression line and critical state line are not unique if soil specimens were prepared at different initial compactions. This behavior
deviates from the critical state soil mechanics framework for pure clays or pure sands. The remoulded soil appears to display
transitional behavior. The second part of the investigation involved stress-path controlled triaxial tests including anisotropic con-
solidated undrained tests (KU) to simulate the stress path of a soil element in a slope subjected to rainfall infiltration.

RÉSUMÉ
Des recherches récentes révèlent que les sols de sable avec des parties différentes de l'exposition des amendes des comporte-
ments très différents et ne peut être expliquée par la mécanique des sols mis en place des théories. Cette étude vise à faire la lu-
mière sur les divers aspects de lâche compacté granite complètement décomposé (CDG) à travers le stress-chemin contrôlées des
essais triaxiaux. Une série d'essais non drainés consolidés (CU) ont été effectués sur des échantillons remaniés CDG, qui ont été
préparés à des densités différentes. Il a été observé que la ligne de compression isotrope et la ligne d'état critique ne sont pas un-
iques, si des échantillons de sol ont été préparés à différents compactage initial. Ce comportement diffère du sol cadre critique
mécanique Etat pour les argiles pures ou les sables purs. Le sol remanié semble afficher un comportement de transition. La deux-
ième partie de l'enquête a porté sur le stress-tests chemin contrôlée triaxial, y compris anisotrope consolidés essais non drainés
(KU) pour simuler le parcours de tension d'un élément de sol en pente soumis à l'infiltration des précipitations.

Keywords: Triaxial, transitional behavior, stress path, completely decomposed granite, slopes.

1 INTRODUCTION material in a semi-liquid state [1]. Therefore,

In Hong Kong, there are many man-made loose
fill slopes, which were generally constructed by
end tipping loosely compacted completely de-
composed granite (CDG) or completely decom-
posed volcanic (CDV). There have been a few
major failures of these slopes due to heavy rains-
torm, showing a sudden rapid moving of failed
these slopes need to be upgraded to reach a high-
er standard of safety.
Since 1976, many loose fill slopes have been
treated by excavating and replacing with well-
compacted soil the upper three meters. However,
it may be difficult to implement in many cases
such as limited working space for compaction
equipment, which has led to the search for alter-

1
Corresponding Author.
312 J.J. Zhang and C.Y. Cheuk / The Transitional Behavior of Loosely Compacted CDG

native methods to improve the stability of loose yellowish brown sandy residual soil with some
fill slopes. A possible method is the use of soil amounts of fine contents. The particle size distri-
nails to enhance the stability of these slopes [1]. bution is illustrated in Figure 1.
The soil nail design needs to determine the
steady state shear strength of soil through triaxial
tests. Once the critical state line (CSL) is deter-
mined, the steady state shear strength of soil can
be easily found using the correlation between
specific volume v, mean effective stress p´ and
deviator stress q. However, some researchers [2]
[3] recently found that some soils with an inter-
mediate state between sands and clays display a
characteristic of non-uniqueness of CSL in the
lnp´-v plot. Since some CDG soils are mainly the
mixture of sands and fines, the CSL of CDG may
be also not unique.
For the soil of which the grain size distribu-
tion is well graded, the mechanism is very differ-
ent from pure sands and pure clays. The CSL and Figure 1. Particle size distribution
normal compression line (NCL) on the lnp´-v
plane seems to be not unique. Nocilla et al. [2]
defined this behavior as ‘transitional behavior’ Basic index tests on the soil specimens were
and named this soil as ‘transitional soil’. The key conducted in accordance with BS1377 (BSI
feature of the transitional soil is the non- 1990). The liquid limit is around 37% while the
uniqueness of CSL and NCL. Martins et al. [4] plastic limit is approximate 21%. It has been
also showed that some soils with an intermediate found that the maximum dry density is 1875
state between clays and sands have no unique kg/m3, which is corresponding to the optimum
NCL. Ferreira and Bica [3] extended the work of moisture content of around 13%.
Martins et al. [4] and founded that some reconsti-
tuted soils do not have unique CSL and isotropic
NCL in triaxial tests. 3 TEST PROGRAM
In this paper, two series of triaxial tests (CU
and KU) and a series of odeometer compression Two series of triaxial tests were conducted in this
tests were conducted using reconstituted CDG in study. The first series included 14 isotropic con-
Hong Kong to study the transitional behavior of solidated undrained tests (CU) to investigate the
loosely compacted CDG. The objective of these non-uniqueness of CSL. Soil samples were pre-
tests is to investigate whether the soil has unique pared at different initial relative compactions,
CSL and NCL or not, and look into the loose soil which are defined as the dry densities relative to
behavior subjected to stress paths simulating the maximum dry density determined by stan-
rainfall infiltration in slopes. dard proctor test. Specimens were prepared at
75%, 85% and 90% relative compactions and
these samples were isotropically consolidated to
2 TEST MATERIAL different effective stresses (see Table 1), fol-
lowed by undrained shearing until 30% axial
The CDG taken from Beacon Hill in Hong Kong strain was reached.
were used in this study. The soil samples were The second series contained 8 anisotropic
collected from the site at the depth of 0.5m to 2m consolidated undrained tests (KU) to study the
measured from the ground surface. Visual in- influence of pre-shearing on the CSL and failure
spection indicated that the Beacon Hill soil is
 J.J. Zhang and C.Y. Cheuk / The Transitional Behavior of Loosely Compacted CDG 313

Test no. RC (%) vi vc p´(kPa) q(kPa)

CU75_1 75 1.86 1.54 100 0
CU75_2 75 1.86 1.50 200 0
CU75_3 75 1.86 1.45 300 0
CU75_4 75 1.86 1.43 400 0
CU75_5 75 1.86 1.41 500 0
CU85_1 85 1.65 1.51 100 0
CU85_2 85 1.65 1.46 200 0
CU85_3 85 1.65 1.41 300 0
CU85_4 85 1.65 1.39 400 0
CU85_5 85 1.65 1.37 500 0
CU90_1 90 1.56 1.41 125 0
CU90_2 90 1.55 1.37 200 0
CU90_3 90 1.56 1.35 300 0
CU90_4 90 1.56 1.33 400 0
KU75_1 75 1.87 1.51 121 86
KU75_2 75 1.85 1.47 242 136
KU75_3 75 1.87 1.43 366 219
KU85_1 85 1.65 1.45 121 82
KU85_2 85 1.66 1.43 240 133
KU85_3 85 1.66 1.39 365 214
KU85_4 85 1.66 1.37 485 279
KU85_5 85 1.66 1.34 608 358

Table 1. Summary of triaxial tests

Symbols: RC, relative compaction; vi, initial specific volume; vc, final specific volume; p´, mean effective stress before shearing;
q, deviator stress before shearing

mechanism under undrained conditions. Since
the CSL may be affected by different stress paths
and failure mechanisms, results of KU tests can
be compared with CU tests to see whether the
CSL is unique or not under different stress paths.
Soil samples of 75% and 85% relative compac-
tions were pre-sheared to different initial stress
states (see Table 1), followed by undrained
shearing to simulate the stress state of a soil ele-
ment in a slope.
Apart from triaxial tests, a series of odeometer
compression tests were also conducted to check
whether the NCL would converge at high stress
levels. Soil specimens were prepared at different
relative compactions ranging from 70% to 95%
and consolidated up to 1600 kPa.
4 TEST PROCEDURE
Soil samples of 76 mm in diameter and 152 mm
in height were prepared by moist tamping [5],
which could easily produce specimens of differ-
ent relative compactions. A pre-determined
amount of water (i.e. 13% moisture content) was
added to the oven-dried soil and the mixture was
kept in a sealed plastic bag for 24 hrs to obtain
its equilibrium condition. Each specimen was
compacted in ten layers by dropping a small
hammer from a given height each time. In order
to check the uniformity of specimens, the 152
mm long specimen was cut into three sections
and it was found that the different of density is
less than 5% [6].
314 J.J. Zhang and C.Y. Cheuk / The Transitional Behavior of Loosely Compacted CDG

For the preliminary saturation, each specimen mens were prepared at different initial relative
was flushed by CO2 and de-aired water. A cell compactions ranging from 75%, 85% and 90%.
pressure of 30 kPa was applied during the satura- However, if the CSL and isotropic compres-
tion process in order to maintain the stability of sion line (ICL) are plotted in the lnp´-v plane
the specimen while the pressure of CO2 and de- (see figure 3), it seems that each initial compac-
aired water flushing was 20 kPa. After prelimi- tion has its own set of parallel ICL and CSL. It
nary saturation, back pressure saturation was car- can be observed that the ICL and CSL are not
ried out by increasing the pore water pressure unique for specimens with different initial com-
while cell pressure was kept 10kPa greater than pactions, showing a very different behavior from
the back pressure. B-value checking was con- clean sands and pure clays. The reconstituted
ducted for each specimen and the B-value for CDG exhibits the non-uniqueness of CSL and
each specimen was greater than 0.97. ICL, which is the main feature of transitional soil
After saturation, each sample was isotropical- as described by Nocilla et al. [1].
ly consolidated to different initial mean effective
stresses p´ (See table 1) in CU tests. While the
KU tests were first isotropically consolidated to a
given p´, followed by drained shearing to a spe-
cific deviator stress q. The axial strain rate for
CU and KU tests is 0.065% per min in undrained
condition and each specimen was tested up to
30% axial strain.
Final moisture content was obtained after each
test by putting the sample into a freezer for 6 hrs
and then drying it in an oven for 24 hrs. Once the
final water content was determined, the final
void ratio can be calculated. Error in the mea-
surement of volumetric strain due to membrane
penetration was considered by using the method
suggested by Sivathayalan and Vaid [7]. The
maximum error in terms of void ratio is around Figure 2. Critical state of CU tests in p´-q plot
1%, which may have minor influence on the lo-
cation of CSL in lnp´-v plot.
For odeometer tests, each specimen was pre-
pared at 13% moisture content and saturated in
the water for 24 hrs. The loading sequence of
compression was 50kPa, 100kPa, 200kPa,
400kPa, 800kPa and 1600kPa. The unloading
was also conducted from 1600kPa to 50kPa in a
reverse sequence corresponding to compression.

5 TRANSITIONAL BEHAVIOR OF CDG

Figure 2 shows the critical states of all CU tests

in p´-q plot and it was found that M value is ap-
proximately 1.48 (i.e. friction angle ’= 34.6°),
which is typical for CDG. In this p´-q plot, the
Figure 3. Critical state line (CSL) and isotropic compression
CSL seems to be fairly unique although speci- line (ICL) of CU tests in lnp´-v plot
 J.J. Zhang and C.Y. Cheuk / The Transitional Behavior of Loosely Compacted CDG 315

Figure 4. Odeometer compression test Figure 5. Results of KU tests in p´-q plot

Figure 4 illustrates the results of odeomter

tests and it can be seen that the normal compres-
sion line (NCL) displays a feature of non-
convergence even when the applied confining
stress was up to 1600kPa. For specimens with
different initial compactions ranging from 70%
to 95%, no unique NCL could be identified and
the patterns of NCLs for 75% to 90% compac-
tion seem to be fairly parallel to each other.
For the sample of 95% compaction, it exhibits
a very stiff behavior and no obvious yield point
could be observed. While for the sample of 70%
compaction, it demonstrates a behavior similar to
shear failure with a large amount of settlement
when only 50kPa was applied. Apart from 95% Figure 6. Results of KU tests in lnp´-v plot
and 70% relative compactions, most of the com-
pression paths seems to be initially flat and the certain q value under drained condition and a
gradient increases after yield point is reach once peak q value was observed during undrained
particle breakage starts to take place [8]. It may shearing. After the stress path went through the
be possible that the NCL in odeometer tests and peak q value, it had a slightly drop in q as pore
ICL in tri-axial tests would converge at a very water pressure increased. The slope of the insta-
high stress level, but in the stress region consi- bility line Minst was found to be around 1.0,
dered in this study which is typical stress level in which was also similar to that of CU tests. As the
engineering design, reconstituted CDG displays stress path approached the CSL, a phase trans-
transitional behavior. formation occurred as the specimens changed
from contraction to dilation. But the phase trans-
formation didn’t affect the CSL in p´-q plot since
6 BEHAVIOR UNDER CONTROLLED the q value seemed to have only a slight incre-
STRESS PATH ment along the CSL.
As shown in Figure 6, the initial state (ISL)
For KU tests (see Figure 5), the M value is simi- before undrained shearing and the critical state
lar to that of CU tests and the CSL is also unique for each test were plotted in lnp´-v plane. The in-
in p´-q plot. The specimens were pre-sheared to a itial state lines (ISL) for 75% and 85% compac-
tions after anisotropic consolidation are fairly pa-
316 J.J. Zhang and C.Y. Cheuk / The Transitional Behavior of Loosely Compacted CDG
rallel to each other, which is similar to the ICLs
for CU tests. Again, each initial relative compac-
tion seems to have its own CSL, which is similar
to the result of CU tests. It was found that the
transitional behavior is independent of the stress
path through which the critical state is ap-
proached.
7 CONCLUSION
Reconstituted CDG displays transitional beha-
vior which does not conform to the framework of
critical soil mechanics. Triaxial tests have shown
that the CSL and ICL are dependent on the initial
relative compaction while odeometer tests have
illustrated that the NCL is non-convergent even
under a high confining stress of 1.6 MPa. The
CSL and ICL seem to be independent of the
stress path through which the critical state is ap-
proached.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The financial support provided by the research
fund of the University of Hong Kong throughRe-
search Grants HKU 717008E is truly appreciated.
REFERENCES
[1] Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Soil nails in loose
fill slopes—A preliminary study, 2003, The Geotech-
nical Division of Hong Kong Instituion of Engineers
[2] Nocilla, A., Coop, M. R. and Colleselli, F., The me-
chanics of an Italian silt: an example of transitional be-
havior, Geotechnique 56 (2006), 261-271.
[3] Ferreira, P. M. V. and Bica, A. V. D., Problems in iden-
tifying the effects of structure and critical state in a soil
with a transitional behavior, Geotechnique 56 (2006),
445-454.
[4] Martins, F. B., Bressani, L. A., Coop, M. R. and Bica,
V. D., Some aspect of the compressibility behavior of a
clayey sand, Can. Geotech. J. 38 (2001), 1177-1186.
[5] Junaideen, S. M., Failure of saturated sandy soils due
to increase in pore water pressure, PhD Thesis, Uni-
versity of Hong Kong, 2005.
[6] Ng, W. W., Fung, W. T., Cheuk, C. Y. and Zhang L.,
Influence of stress ratio and stress path on behavior of
loose decomposed granite, Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering 130 (2004), 36-44.
[7] Sivathayalan, S. and Vaid, Y. P., Truly undrained re-
sponse of granular soils with no membrane-penetration
effects, Can. Geotech. J. 35 (1998), 730-739.
[8] Coop, M. R. and Lee, I. K., The behavior of granular
soils at elevated stresses, In Predictive soil mechanics,
proceedings of C. P. Wroth Memorial Symposium
(1993), 186-198. London: Thomas Teldord.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 317
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-317

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1.3. Classification
Classification
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 325
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-325

Classification des sols et des roches à partir d’essais

d’expansion cylindrique en haute pression
Soil and Rock Classification Based on High Pressure Borehole
Expansion Tests

J. P. Baud 1
Eurogéo, Avrainville, France
M. Gambin
Apagéo, Magny-les-Hameaux, France

ABSTRACT
Physical and mechanical properties used to characterize soil and rock are different according to the approaches and targets of the
various activities involved, namely soil mechanics, rock mechanics or engineering geology. The Authors suggest that the data
obtained during a borehole expansion test, which can be summarized by a Ménard E-modulus and a limit pressure, be used in an
overall classification ranging from loose soils to hard rock without any discontinuity, based on the soil Pressiorama® developed
some years ago.

RÉSUMÉ
Les propriétés physiques et mécaniques utilisées pour caractériser les sols et les roches sont différentes selon les approches et
les objectifs, ceux de la géotechnique, de la géologie de l’ingénieur ou de la mécanique des roches. Les auteurs suggèrent que les
mesures faites lors de l’expansion de la cavité cylindrique d’un forage, et qui peuvent se ramener aux deux paramètres fonda-
mentaux, un module pressiométrique et une pression limite, soient utilisés pour une classification passant sans discontinuité des
sols aux roches, fondée sur le diagramme Pressiorama® mis au point pour les sols il y a quelques années.

Keywords: Pressuremeter, flexible dilatometer, rock moduli, rock limit pressure, hard soils, weak rocks, weathered rocks.

Mots-clés : Pressiomètre, dilatomètre, modules des roches, pression limite des roches, sols raides, roches tendres, roches altérées.

1 INTRODUCTION. LA FRONTIERE mesure. Pour le géologue depuis l’émergence de

ENTRE SOLS ET ROCHES EST-ELLE
UTILE ?
Définir une limite entre les sols et les roches est
une démarche qui semble naturelle à tout
homme, de l’agriculteur néolithique au bâtisseur
du XXIème siècle, et qui pourtant reste une dé-
marche sinon subjective du moins contingente,
fonction de la perception d’usage du matériau
naturel sur lequel il évolue et avec lequel il se
1
Corresponding Author.
cette discipline, tous les constituants de l’écorce
terrestre sont des roches, de l’eau à la matière des
socles continentaux, indépendamment donc de
leur état, solide ou liquide voire gazeux. Toutes
ces roches ont des histoires et des devenirs parti-
culiers, plus ou moins essentiels au développe-
ment mondial plus ou moins durable, à l’exemple
du pétrole, « l’huile-de-pierre ». Pour tout cons-
tructeur, cette classification globale est incon-
grue, et la roche se distingue par son caractère
326 J.P. Baud and M. Gambin / Classification des sols et des roches à partir d’essais d’expansion cylindrique
solide des sols qui sont tous les terrains qui ne
sont pas roches, et caractérisés par leur manque
plus ou moins marqué de solidité : altérables, ter-
rassables, friables, compressibles, mous jusqu’à
la limite de la liquidité.
Historiquement, la définition de Terzaghi [1],
à la double culture de géologue et d’ingénieur,
institue la limite mécanique entre sols et roches :
« Le sol est un agrégat naturel de grains miné-
raux qui peuvent être séparés par de légères ac-
tions mécaniques telles que l’agitation dans de
l’eau. La roche au contraire est un agrégat natu-
rel de grains minéraux liés par des forces de co-
hésion fortes et permanentes. Comme ces termes
« fort » et « permanent » sont sujets à diverses
interprétations, la distinction entre le sol et la
roche est nécessairement arbitraire. En fait, il y a
beaucoup d’agrégats naturels de grains minéraux
qui sont difficiles à classer, soit comme sols, soit
comme roches » [1].
Figure 1. Cycle de la matière minérale (et organique) des
roches aux sols.
Un des objectifs du colloque d’Athènes 2011 est
de s’intéresser aux terrains dont le champ
d’action est revendiqué à la fois par la mécanique
des sols et la mécanique des roches. Et bien que
les spécialistes des deux disciplines soient le plus
souvent dans des rapports cordiaux et fructueux,
et développent leur expertise dans le cadre de
lois physiques universelles, la revendication va
parfois jusqu’à contester à l’autre la pertinence
de son approche : « Une forte cohésion et une
fissuration développée, deux critères souvent ci-
tés pour les roches, restent insuffisants. La sépa-
ration entre sols et roches dépend beaucoup de
l’école de pensée et du domaine d’expérience de
l’ingénieur ; les congrès qui ont tenté de regrou-
per les sols raides et les roches tendres n’ont fait
qu’ajouter à la confusion. C’est à la géologie
qu’il appartiendrait de faciliter une clarifica-
tion. » [2]. Le schéma ci-après (Figure 1) se base
Modifié et augmenté des concepts géologiques classiques,
d’après une présentation « à faire hurler un géologue » (sic)
de J. Hurtado [3]
 J.P. Baud and M. Gambin / Classification des sols et des roches à partir d’essais d’expansion cylindrique
donc sur la distinction que fait la géologie clas-
sique, avant la tectonique des plaques, entre les
facteurs de formation des roches de l’écorce ter-
restre, ou géodynamique interne, et les facteurs
de dégradation des roches et recomposition des
roches sédimentaires, ou géodynamique externe.
C’est, en première approximation, ce qui forme
frontière entre les domaines de la mécanique des
roches et de la mécanique des sols. Le cycle géo-
logiquement très long d’une particule minérale,
par exemple un grain de silice magmatique au
sein d’un granite, devenant grain d’un sable de
plage avant de retourner à la base de l’écorce ter-
restre, le conduit à être composant de roches et
de sols de résistances mécaniques extrêmes,
symbolisées en marge du schéma par le module
de cisaillement de ces formations. La caractéris-
tique génétique essentielle des roches, c’est la
liaison de plus en plus forte entre les grains qui la
composent, par cimentation au cours de la diagé-
nèse des roches sédimentaires, cristallisation ou
recristallisation des roches métamorphiques et
magmatiques. Leur devenir à la surface du
Globe, c’est la destruction de ces structures
fortes, progressive jusqu’à la juxtaposition de
grains sans liaisons. Vouloir comparer les carac-
téristiques mécaniques d’un sol très raide et
d’une roche assez altérée, même si elles semblent
presque identiques, doit se faire en gardant en
perspective le fait qu’elles sont aux antipodes de
ce cycle.
2 CARACTERISATION DES SOLS ET DES
ROCHES PAR LES PARAMETRES
PRESSIOMETRIQUES CLASSIQUES
La loi de comportement de tout matériau
soumis à l’expansion d’une cavité cylindrique
peut se ramener essentiellement à une règle hy-
perbolique assez simple [4].
Dans les sols les deux paramètres fondamen-
taux EM et p*LM (module pressiométrique et
pression limite) qui s’en déduisent permettent
une classification des sols, en raison de la rela-
tion étroite entre le rapport EM/p*LM, et le type de
comportement des sols, entre les pôles extrêmes
sableux et argileux, fonction de la proportion et
de la granulométrie des composants des sols.
327
Cette classification est illustrée par exemple dans
le diagramme Pressiorama® [5], et elle est tota-
lement liée au coefficient de structure  défini
par Ménard comme le rapport EM/E où E serait
un « module d’Young » acceptable [6] [7].
Le devenir de cette classification, et la perti-
nence du coefficient de structure  des sols, est
une question qui se pose lorsque l’essai pressio-
métrique est appliqué à des « sols » de plus en
plus raides, qui peuvent être, soit des terrains sé-
dimentaires dans un état de consolidation géosta-
tique élevé, soit des roches dans un état
d’altération et de décompression plus ou moins
avancé, ou des roches moins altérées, fracturées
ou peu fracturées et enfin aux roches massives.
3 LE COMPORTEMENT
PRESSIOMETRIQUE DES SOLS
INDURES, DES ROCHES TENDRES ET
DES ROCHES MASSIVES
La loi de comportement hyperbolique des sols
soumis à un essai de chargement radial, corres-
pond à la mesure globale de la déformation de la
paroi sous la contrainte de cisaillement que subit
le sol. Le réarrangement des grains au cours de la
déformation et de la généralisation de la rupture
à une zone de sol, est un phénomène dont le
principe est bien établi et compréhensible [6] [7],
même si le détail de son apparition et de ses mo-
dalités suivant les sols fera encore longtemps
l’objet de recherches géomécaniques.
Lors du passage progressif à des sols de plus
en plus indurés, à des roches altérées, et à des
roches fracturées, le comportement en expansion
radiale des terrains ne change pas brutalement de
nature, mais l’échelle des contraintes associées
change progressivement d’une ou deux puis-
sances de 10 par rapport aux sols « meubles », et
la limitation des essais à 5 MPa due au matériel
disponible ne permet plus que d’accéder à la
phase initiale des déformations. L’essai ne com-
porte alors que la mesure d’un module sur cette
plage limitée de contraintes, sans connaissance
de la pression limite de l’évolution du module
sous contraintes plus élevées. La mise au point
de matériel pressiométrique rendant possible
d’atteindre des pressions d’essai de 25 MPa [8],
328 J.P. Baud and M. Gambin / Classification des sols et des roches à partir d’essais d’expansion cylindrique
on peut commencer à entrevoir si le mode de
rupture des matériaux situés dans la plage de
pressions commune entre sols et roches reste
comparable à celui des sols.
3.1 Mode de cisaillement et de rupture des
sols indurés et des roches
L’accroissement du rapport EM/p*LM avec
p*LM est une observation courante. Sur la courbe
pressiométrique cela correspond à une augmenta-
tion du rayon de courbure des tracés, et à une
tendance pour le coefficient de structure  des
sols très indurés à se rapprocher de 1 ; autrement
dit dans les roches massives non fracturées, il est
d’usage de penser que l’essai d’expansion me-
sure directement un module d’Young :
- la cimentation entre leurs composants miné-
raux limite un réarrangement de ces miné-
raux sous les contraintes de cisaillement
fortes ;
- la densité, la continuité, l’ouverture et l’état de
surface des épontes, et le remplissage de
cette fracturation influencent la déformation
de la paroi d’un forage en expansion radiale.
3.2 Comportement pressiométrique des
roches altérées ou fracturées
La fracturation des roches se manifeste sur
la courbe pressiométrique de façon très claire,
par la présence d’une très longue phase de dimi-
nution de la pente de la courbe lors de
l’augmentation de la pression, qui correspond à
la fermeture progressive des fissures proches du
forage, puis la prise en compte par l’essai de fis-
sures de plus en plus éloignées du forage.
Quelle que soit la pression finale atteinte,
entre 5 et 25 MPa, on trouve comme pour les es-
sais pressiométriques standards, trois types de
courbes d’essai au moment de leur interruption :
celles qui sont encore en phase de fermetures des
fissures et de diminution de la pente DV/DP,
celles pour lesquelles un point d’inflexion a été
passé avec croissance de DV/DP sans fluage, et
enfin celles pour lesquelles apparaît en fin
d’essai une amorce de fluage et de plus grandes
déformations.
Figure 2. Classification des roches et des sols à l’aide de
leurs caractéristiques pressiométriques. Le cycle génétique
des unes aux autres est celui de la figure 1.
 J.P. Baud and M. Gambin / Classification des sols et des roches à partir d’essais d’expansion cylindrique 329

Ces 3 types de courbes permettent une classifica-
tion basique :
- roches massives plus ou moins fracturées ;
- roches fracturées et altérées, mais dont la
matrice rocheuse reste peu compressible ;
- roches altérées et décomposées évoluant en
un comportement de type sol.
4 PASSAGE SOL INDURE / ROCHE
TENDRE ET ROCHES ALTEREE / SOL :
PROGRESSIF OU BRUTAL ?
sols, avec une phase de fluage et de grandes dé-
formations.
La différence notable est la tendance à
l’augmentation du rapport EM/p*LM avec la pres-
sion limite, qui dépasse rapidement les valeurs
usuelles des sols meubles, pour atteindre 50 ou
100, et même 200. Les courbes pressiométriques
correspondant à de telles valeurs élevées de
EM/p*LM présentent une « pliure » de plus en plus
nette entre les deux phases, avant et après appari-
tion du fluage.

4.1 Utilisation du diagramme spectral

[EM/p*LM , p*LM] pour visualiser la
transition sols-roches (fig. 2 et 3)
Nous proposons, à titre de cadre de réflexion,
l’extension au domaine des pressions d’essai su-
périeures à 10 MPa, le diagramme spectral
[EM/p*LM , p*LM] ou Pressiorama® que nous uti-
lisons habituellement dans les campagnes de re-
connaissance au pressiomètre [5], d’une part
pour détecter les anomalies dans la réalisation
des essais ou dans le sol proprement dit, et sur-
tout pour classer les terrains rencontrés.
Les cas réels de sols très indurés et roches al-
térées que nous pouvons positionner dans cette
extension du diagramme au domaine rocheux
sont assez nombreux jusqu’à des pressions li-
mites extrapolées vers 15 à 18 MPa. Au-delà, les
premiers essais Hyperpac [8] nous donnent des
points à 25 MPa et permettent d’envisager des
extrapolations possibles de pressions limites
jusque vers 30 à 40 MPa, si du moins la corréla-
tion pF-pLM des sols reste validée. Au-delà en- Figure 3. Quelques exemples de roches tendres ou altérées, et
de sols consolidés à raides. Par comparaison, module
core, les essais au dilatomètre réinterprétés selon d’Young de deux matériaux du génie civil, le béton et l’acier.
la méthode pressiométrique peuvent donner des
modules EM supérieurs à 105 MPa, mais dans ce Au fur et à mesure de la progression des investi-
type d’essai on est très loin de l’estimation de la gations vers les roches massives, il semble appa-
pression limite [9]. raître que le comportement du matériau se rap-
proche du type « fragile » dans lequel la rupture
4.2 Rupture fragile ou ductile en essais se produirait pratiquement sans prémices au
d’expansion in situ terme d’une plage quasi-élastique. Cette intuition
est généralement partagée, par exemple par la
Les exemples précédents montrent que, lors- crainte exprimée à l’encontre d’essais à 25 MPa
que l’on peut pousser suffisamment loin en pres- dans le béton (cas de pieux ou de colonnes), et
sion l’essai de type pressiométrique, les terrains Ménard lui-même envisageait « d’éclater » la
raides ou rocheux suffisamment tendres présen- roche [10]. Pour l’instant, même dans les me-
tent un comportement assez peu différent des
330 J.P. Baud and M. Gambin / Classification des sols et des roches à partir d’essais d’expansion cylindrique
sures poussées à 25 MPa, ce type de comporte-
ment n’a pas été observé, et tous les matériaux
testés présentent un fluage progressif annonçant
le début d’une phase de rupture.
A des pressions supérieures, la rupture de la
roche par expansion en forage peut être obtenue,
de façon industrielle, par les procédés d’injection
de mousse expansive sous pression (tel le procé-
dé DMX de Colas-Rail). Dans ce type
d’arrachement de zones rocheuses proches de la
surface d’un front de taille, avec mise en pres-
sion rapide sous environ 50 à 60 MPa, on peut
observer deux modes distincts de rupture du ro-
cher : la plus fréquente est la décomposition im-
médiate en blocs polyédriques découpés par
l’ouverture de fractures fermées préexistantes ;
plus rarement, dans les roches moins fissurées,
l’expansion provoque un déplacement de la paroi
pendant quelques secondes, avant un émiette-
ment de la masse rocheuses en éléments dont
toutes les faces ne sont pas planes et semblent
correspondre à l’ouverture de joints intergranu-
laires (Delaporte, communication orale, [11]).
L’état des connaissances sur la rupture sous
contrainte triaxiale d’échantillons de roches non
fracturés, et sur la résistance au glissement des
joints rocheux est résumé par Parriaux [12] et dé-
taillé dans une abondante bibliographie par Al
Bied [13]. La rupture de la matrice se fait par ap-
parition de bandes de cisaillement dans les zones
de concentration de contraintes.
Au cours d’un essai d’expansion sous très
haute pression, le confinement assuré par la
masse rocheuse environnante devrait donc con-
duire à une rupture combinant à la fois la mise en
jeu des glissements selon les joints préexistants,
et la formation près de la paroi de bandes de ci-
saillement, permettant de garder dans les roches
la notion de pression de fluage pressiométrique.
5 CONCLUSION PROVISOIRE ET
DEVELOPPEMENTS FUTURS
La mise au point récente de matériel d’essais
d’expansion en forage à 25 MPa doit encore
donner lieu à des mesures dans des conditions de
terrain variées pour que le retour d’expérience
vienne étayer les hypothèses faites ici sur la rup-
ture des roches par cisaillement. Nous envisa-
geons assez rapidement de porter les pressions
d’essai jusque vers 50 MPa.
Le diagramme de classification continue des
sols et des roches par les valeurs pressiomé-
triques nous sert de cadre pour ces travaux, ainsi
que la mise au point parallèlement, de lignes
d’isovaleurs du coefficient rhéologique  compa-
tibles avec la pratique des méthodes pressiomé-
triques Ménard [7].
REFERENCES
[1] K. Terzaghi et R.B. Peck, Mécanique des sols appli-
quée, traduction française J. Baudrillard et C. Meunier,
Dunod, Paris (1957).
[2] Comité Français de Mécanique des Roches, Manuel de
mécanique des roches, tome I, Presses de l’Ecole des
Mines, Paris (2000).
[3] J. Hurtado, Introduction à la géomécanique, Sols et
structures ed., Paris (1988).
[4] J.-P. Baud et M. Gambin, Déduction d’une loi de ré-
ponse hyperbolique unique par compilation de courbes
pressiométriques dans un sol de lithologie homogène,
ISP5 – PRESSIO 2005, Vol. 1. Gambin, Magnan et
Mestat (ed.), Presses ENPC, Paris (2005), 175-186.
[5] J-P. Baud, Analyse des résultats pressiométriques Mé-
nard dans un diagramme spectral [Log(pLM), Log
(EM/pLM)] et utilisation des regroupements statistiques
dans la modélisation d’un site, ISP5 – PRESSIO 2005,
Vol. 1. Gambin, Magnan et Mestat (ed.), Presses
ENPC, Paris (2005), 167-174.
[6] L. Ménard et J. Rousseau, L’évaluation des tassements,
tendances nouvelles. Sols-soils, n°1, (1962), 167-174.
[7] M. Gambin, Le pressiomètre, in I. Sharour et R. Gour-
vès, Reconnaissance des terrains in situ, Hermès
Sciences - Lavoisier Ed. (2005), Chapitre 4, 104-146.
[8] G.Arsonnet, J.-P. Baud, M. Gambin, R. Heintz,
L’HyperPac 25 MPa comble le vide entre le pressio-
mètre Ménard et le dilatomètre flexible, Geotechnics of
hard soils and weak rocks, XV ECSMGE, Athens
(2011).
[9] M. Galera, M. Alvarez, Z.T. Bienawski, Evaluation of
the deformation modulus of rock masses. Comparison
by pressuremeter and dilatometer test, ISP5 – PRESSIO
2005, Vol. 2. Gambin, Magnan et Mestat (ed.), Presses
ENPC, Paris (2005), 239-256.
[10] L. Ménard, Le pressiomètre éclateur de roches, Notice
technique Etudes Pressiométriques Louis Ménard D23
(1974).
[11] T. Delaporte, Process DMX (Démoliton par Mousse
eXpansive), Abattage de roche sans emploi d’explosifs,
DVD de démonstration et notice technique (2009).
[12] A. Parriaux, Géologie, bases pour l’ingénieur, Presses
Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, 2e éd.,
Lausanne, (2009).
[13] A. Al Bied, Etude expérimentale et modélisation du
comportement des roches granulaires : écrouissage, ra-
doucissement et rupture en mode localisé. Thèse Doct.
LCPC, Paris (2002).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 331
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-331

Rock mass characterization for tunnels in

limestone in Copenhagen and Malmö area
Caractérisation de Massifs Rocheux Calcaires pour de Tunnels à
Copenhague et dans la Région de Malmö
N. Foged 1
Technical University of Denmark, Department of Civil Engineering
S. Stabell and B. Foged
COWI A/S, Denmark

ABSTRACT
Rock mass classification in limestone in Denmark and Scania are described in relation to tunnelling underneath Copenhagen and
Malmö. Recent developments using face logs and optical and acoustic televiewer borehole logging (OATV) in order to cope for
core sample disturbance from drilling and huge variations in induration and fissuring are discussed with reference to new tunnels
in the area.

RÉSUMÉ
Les classifications de massifs rocheux calcaires du Danemark et de Scania sont appliquées aux tunnels sous Copenhague et
Malmö. Des développements récents sont réalisés en utilisant des levés de front et un examen en forage par imagerie OATV (op-
tique et acoustique) afin de pallier les perturbations des échantillons par le forage et les énormes variations d’induration et de fis-
suration. Ils sont discutés dans le cas de nouveaux tunnels dans la région.

Keywords: Rock mass characterization, limestone, induration, fissuring, RQD, face logs, OATV- logging, GSI-evaluation.

1 BACKGROUND favourable geological conditions for tunnels with

Tunnels in the Copenhagen and Malmö area in
Southern Scandinavia are drilled through highly
anisotropic limestone comprising alternating
strongly lithified and less lithified parts. The
mass quality of the limestone is usually defined
from fracture spacing in core samples. The depo-
sit is, however, affected destructively by drilling
activity, and samples are artificially fractured
yielding a low RQD. However, in-situ observa-
tions of the limestone in excavations, face logs in
tunnel exposures and televiewer logs reveal only
few natural discontinuities, indicating a very
good suitability for tunnelling. It has relatively
stiff glacial tills overlying the Danian Limestone.
It is however, a sensitive environment for tunnel-
ling as the centre of the city contains many his-
toric buildings which are sensitive to settlement
and ground water lowering, constructing tunnels
beneath the city must therefore be carried out
with great caution. This contribution will de-
scribe tunnel in the Øresund region and relates to
upscaling from element tests and core evalua-
tions to rock mass properties of very inhomoge-
neous and fractured limestone.
The Citytunneln project in Malmö, Sweden,
is constructed from the existing Malmö Central
Station to the junction with the Øresund Link and

1
Corresponding Author.
332 N. Foged et al. / Rock Mass Characterization for Tunnels in Limestone
consists of 12 km of double track railway where
6 km is in bored tunnels approx. 20 m below the
ground surface through Bryozoan Limestone.
The tunnels were constructed using tunnel boring
machines (TBM) and a major underground sta-
tion at Triangeln was constructed as a rock ca-
vern being 12 m high, 27 m wide and 250 m long
with a limited weak rock cover under the cultural
center of Malmö involving significant engineer-
ing challenges. The engineering geological mod-
el applied and the investigations carried out be-
fore construction has been discussed by Jackson
et al. [1] and Stabell [2] and comparison between
core logging and face logging results during con-
struction are reported by Pade [3] and Wilhelm
[4] in 2006.
In Copenhagen a number of existing tunnels
have been constructed in Danian Limestone. The
first rock tunnel in Denmark was done in 1856 to
1858 for water and gas pipe lines below the Co-
penhagen Harbour. The total list of old tunnels
includes further 3 tunnels build between 1900
and 1942 bored by hand assisted by drill and
blast under the Harbour with cross sections be-
tween 5 and 10 m2. The first modern bored rock
tunnel in Copenhagen was the old heat transmis-
sion tunnel bored with a road header tunnelling
machine without use of shields with a horseshoe
face area of 25 m2 and a length of 1600 m. It
passes from a shaft at Amager Power Plant under
Urban districts and the harbour to a shaft at
Østerport and was constructed from 1984 to
1986, [5]. Based on an extensive ground investi-
gation it was possible to evaluate rock mass
properties and inflow of water to the unlined
tunnel during construction and to design and
construct the water tight liners for tunnels and
shafts with local dewatering. Rock mass proper-
ties were conservatively evaluated from RQD on
double barrel drilled cores especially in biotur-
bated sections of the Middle Copenhagen Limes-
tone.
The Copenhagen Metro was predominantly
founded on or bored through the Upper and Mid-
dle part of Copenhagen Limestone with a major
construction period from 1996 to 2001. The work
comprised of 5 deep stations constructed using
secant piled retaining walls, nine shafts and three
major sprayed concrete lined caverns together
with 8.4 km of twin bored tunnel. Project and the
experiences from the construction are described
in the Proceedings of the Copenhagen Metro In-
auguration Seminar [6]. DGF 19 [7] is a mono-
graph on earlier and new findings on engineering
geology in Copenhagen gained through this
project.
A new district heating tunnel was constructed
in the period 2005 to 2008 that links Amager
Power Plant with the central Copenhagen district
heating system crossing beneath the harbour and
the old town. The tunnel is 4 km long and has
three shafts and was constructed using an earth
pressure balanced TBM. Project investigations
and detailed face logging carried out in the shafts
and comparison to the Metro Cross-over Cavern
at Sjæleboderne have been discussed by Foged et
al. [8] and by Pade [3] in order to develop a base
for upscaling towards rock mass properties using
the Palmstrøm Jv-method [9] and the GSI-
method described by Marinos et al.[10].
Based on the experiences from Malmö and
from the last two projects we developed metho-
dologies for weak rock tunnelling which formed
the base for the ongoing investigations for a ma-
jor extension of the Copenhagen Metro system
(Cityringen) including 17 km tunnels, 17 sta-
tions/shafts and 5 larger cross-over and bifurca-
tion chambers to be carried out in the coming 7
years.
Figure1. Alignments of the major tunnelling
projects in Copenhagen. Scale ~1:100.000.
 N. Foged et al. / Rock Mass Characterization for Tunnels in Limestone
2 ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
The bed rock under the glacial and postglacial
deposits in the eastern part of Denmark and the
adjacent southern part of Scania consists domi-
nantly of Tertiary deposits of Danian limestone
and Selandian Greensand. The interface to Qua-
ternary deposits is often glacially disturbed, i.e.
showing evidence of glacial shear and compres-
sion but with original stratigraphy preserved. The
bed rock is divided into three lithostratigraphical
units; Selandian Lellinge Greensand and Copen-
hagen Limestone and informally Bryozoan Li-
mestone which in Scania is denoted Limhamn
formation. In Fig. 1 the geological subdivision is
illustrated and logging characteristics stated [11].
Figure2. Geological outline of chalk, limestone
and greensand deposits in Øresund area [11].
The bryozoan limestone forms an approx-
imately 60 m thick unit resting on the Maastrich-
tian white chalk found ca. 80 to 100m below sur-
face level in Copenhagen but is outcropping at
Stevns Klint (60 km south of Copenhagen) The
bryozoan limestone is very variable as it is for-
med by asymmetrical mound structures with am-
plitudes of 5-10 m and width and length of 20 to
100 m being subdivided in three bioherms or
mound complexes divided by hardgrounds. The
bryozoan limestone could be used as rock type
for tunnelling in Malmö.
333
The Copenhagen limestone overlies the bryo-
zoan limestone. It is characterized by alternating
indurated and less indurated beds and can gener-
ally be classified as a biomicrite of carbonate
mud made up of coccoliths with a minor propor-
tion of foraminifera which may give it a sandy
appearance. The Copenhagen Limestone is sub-
divided into three informal units originally set up
by Stenestad [12] as shown in Fig. 2. The lower
Copenhagen Limestone is characterized by the
frequent occurrence of indurated beds and flint-
rich layers being relatively dark in colour and
laminated with relatively high content of glauco-
nite and pyrite. The overlying middle Copenha-
gen Limestone has fewer indurated beds and has
often a nodular appearance due to burrowing an-
imals and variations in induration as the flint oc-
curs as silicified burrows and nodules together
with opal flint (such limestone variety is in Da-
nish nick-named “krøllekalk”). The upper Co-
penhagen Limestone is horizontally bedded with
layers of different induration and thickness from
a few centimetres up to one meter. The variable
flint content (up to 20%) indicates that the origi-
nal unconsolidated carbonate mud had a high
content of siliceous sponges. Some flint beds
may be followed continuously over long dis-
tances > 500m. The Upper and Middle forma-
tions are used for most tunnelling in Copenha-
gen.
The Lellinge Greensand overlies Copenhagen
Limestone with a contact developed as an indu-
rated conglomerate rich in fossils overlain by
slightly indurated calcareous sand rich in glauco-
nite and glauconitic silt and clay. The maximum
thickness of Greensand deposits is up to 4 to 6m.
Most occurrences are partly eroded and found in
shallow synclines in the Copenhagen limestone
surface.
The rock mechanical description of the be-
drock is determined using the Danish classifica-
tion system as defined in Larsen et al. [13]. The
rock mechanical properties are evaluated go-
verned by the degree of induration related to cal-
cite cementation and silification and the charac-
ter of fracturing mainly as observed on rock
cores but also as seen doing facelogs during ex-
cavations and in open profiles. The induration
processes are extreme variable; being weak dur-
334 N. Foged et al. / Rock Mass Characterization for Tunnels in Limestone
ing periods of rapid sedimentation and strong in
periods of little or no sedimentation which cause
establishment of “hardground”. However, there
is often a clear relation between induration and
bulk density of limestone and by that towards the
strength and deformation properties. Conse-
quently, the limestone formation may vary sub-
horizontally and/or in space (“krøllekalk”) which
calls for detailed descriptions on cores including
a determination of induration grade (H1 to H5)
and fissuring (S1 to S5) for each 50 mm of cores
or open profile together with core loss and RQD.
The geological model set up for the Copenha-
gen area has been updated concurrently and in-
cludes at present information from about 5000
boreholes, 13 km of refraction seismic data and
257 geophysical borehole logs integrated in a
combined engineering geological and hydrogeo-
logical model in a geotechnical data management
system Holebase easily available to end-users,
Hansen & Nielsen [14].
3 FIELD INVESTIGATIONS
Recent project investigations of the limestone
in the Copenhagen area have been carried out ei-
ther using the Geobor S wireline coring system
or with the “down the hole hammer” (DTH)
drilling system, the latter for establishing large
diameter holes for ground water lowering and
other special purposes. Only coring provides
core samples for rock mechanical classification
and testing. The cores from the Geobor S system
are 100mm in diameter and are described in de-
tail on the borehole logs. A suite of geophysical
logs have been run in the cored boreholes and in
some of the DTH boreholes. These allow for the
identification and correlation of geophysical log
markers and for correlation of the stratigraphical
units between boreholes.
The division in units in Copenhagen Limes-
tone is based on lithological identifiers and geo-
physical log stratigraphy, DGF Bulletin 19 [7].
The strongly indurated limestone or flint layers
are seen as intervals of relatively high resistivity
and low porosity on the geophysical logs. The
transition between upper and middle Copenha-
gen Limestone is found using log marker H1;
a minimum in conductivity and a maximum on
resistivity log and a distinct maximum on the
gamma log GM3 3 m above. Based on the GM3
marker a structural outline in the central Copen-
hagen area indicates gently folded structures with
fold axes oriented in a NNW-SSE direction. The
most pronounced syncline is observed running
west of Rådhuspladsen. In the Frederiksberg area
the Copenhagen Limestone is steeply inclined
(1:40) alongside the NNW–striking Carlsberg
fault approx. 500 m west of coming tunnel
alignments. Some local discontinuities in the
GM3 marker could be interpreted as minor faults
or ondulations / erosional variations in the limes-
tone formation, DGF Bulletin 19 [7].
Many of the fractures observed in cores are
likely to be caused by the coring process either
due to damage induced by the drilling technique
or due to opening of incipient fractures once the
in-situ confining stress is removed. Especially,
very variable local changes in indurations as in
the so-called “krøllekalk” in middle Copenhagen
Limestone and passage of thin flint layers may
be destructive compared to in-situ face logs dur-
ing construction, Foged et al. [8]. The core de-
scription often states “crushed and rolled” for in-
tervals of the core indicating that the engineering
geologist estimates drilling disturbances. Con-
servatively, it is included in the S5 fraction of the
cored length, i.e. the fracture distribution ob-
served in the cores is only indicative of the quali-
ty of the intact limestone. The disturbance is va-
riable and highly dependent on the skill of the
driller and quality of the coring equipment used.
The less indurated horizons may be eroded by
the drilling process and are therefore often un-
derrepresented in the logged core. The majority
of lost core is believed to represent H1 and H2
material or the “krøllekalk”. General experience
with Copenhagen and Bryozoans limestone has
shown that the RQD values found from the cores
are likely to underestimate the rock mass quality
due to the before-mentioned sample disturbances
from the drilling activity, Kryger & Foged in
DGF Bulletin 19 [7], Stabell [2], Pade [3] and
Wilhelm [4]. These values should not be used di-
rectly to classify the limestone as field face log-
ging shows in-situ RQD being a factor of ca. 3
higher than the laboratory assessment of cores.
 N. Foged et al. / Rock Mass Characterization for Tunnels in Limestone 335

4 OATV (OPTICAL AND ACOUSTIC
TELEVIEWER LOGGING)
In order to provide a better visualization of the
fractures and lithology in the boreholes we have
introduced image logging of the borehole walls
providing much more detailed information about
the penetrated rock mass. Using an optical and
acoustic televiewer (OATV) in combination with
traditional borehole logs in Malmö Citytunneln
and the Copenhagen District Heating Tunnel a
much more relevant fracture description could be
developed, Stabell, [2]. The OATV method was
further developed during the investigations and
construction of the Copenhagen District Heating
Tunnel, Foged et al. [8], Fugl-Meyer [15] and
Pade [3]. The OATV’s were carefully compared
with face logs in all three shafts, which provided
a better method analysis and by this the rock
mass evaluation in the frames of Palmstrøm Jv
[9] and the GSI method (Geological Strength In-
dex) [10] was improved too. For Cityringen 40
boreholes have been
logged with OATV and core photos and charac-
terization have been added to the OATV logs. A
preliminary evaluation shows a rise in GSI from
20-50 on recovered cores to 40 to 75 based on
OATVs and a much more distinct positioning of
real fractures. An example on a section of a typi-
cal reported OATV is shown in Fig. 3.
The acoustic televiewer transmits ultrasonic
vibrations from a transducer and the sound is re-
flected by the borehole wall by a rotating acous-
tic mirror and the reflections are registered as
amplitude and travel time. These parameters de-
scribe the shape of the borehole wall and local
diameter and allow for identification of brea-
kouts, open and closed fractures and their linea-
tion. The amplitude log illustrates the reflection
response indicating induration and fracturing lo-
cally by coloring. The optical televiewer pro-
vides a continuous optical image of the borehole
wall to be used for identification of lithology and
structures such as fractures, bedding planes and
foliation.

Figure 3. An example of an OATV log with from left an acoustic caliper log including a natural
gamma track (red). It shows also area pictures of the wall smoothness, its reflectivity and the optical
image (360 degrees around up-folded). Furthermore, a track of relative induration (purple), core pho-
tos, fracturing and induration indexes from cores and geological evaluations and GSI-grading.
336 N. Foged et al. / Rock Mass Characterization for Tunnels in Limestone
5 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we were facing severe prob-
lems in up-scaling rock mechanical properties
from laboratory element tests to rock mass prop-
erties due to the very variable rock element and
rock mass properties. Most methods available in-
clude RQD or similar parameter as scaling fac-
tor. We have used the Hoek-Brown approach us-
ing the Hoek-Brown failure criterion [17] in
combination with the computer program ”Roc-
Lab” (www.rocscience.com) using the geologi-
cal strength index GSI as discussed Marinos et
al. [10]. By combination of Palmstrøm´s Jv index
[9] with the Marinos and Hoek estimation of GSI
for limestone we assume to have established a
more realistic rock mass modeling of limestone
in Malmö and Copenhagen. The methodology
used to derive rock mass strength and deforma-
tion properties from element tests includes the
density, induration, fracturing and weathering
evaluated taking in consideration sample distur-
bance from face logs and OATV.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
More than 10 years developments discussed in
this overview should be acknowledged to the co-
operation between the Technical University of
Denmark and Institutions (GEO – Danish Geo-
technical Institute, GEUS- Geological Survey of
Denmark and Greenland), consulting engineers
(COWI and RAMBØLL and SWECO) and con-
tractors (COMET – Metro Construction Group,
MCG – Malmö Citytunnel Group, Aarsleff, Pihl
&Søn and M.T.Højgaard). Thanks to Metrosels-
kabet for support during the Cityringen studies.
REFERENCES
[1] Jackson, P.G., Steenfelt, J.S., Foged, N. & Hartlén, J.:
“ Evaluation of Bryozoan limestone properties based
on in-situ and laboratory element tests. Proc.ISC-2
Geotechnical and Geophysical Site Characterization,
19-22 September 2004, Porto.
[2] Stabell, S.R.: ”M.Sc. thesis; Rock mass classification
for construction in the Øresund region”, Technical
University of Denmark, March 2004 (Unpublished).
[3] Pade, E.: “M.Sc. thesis; Parameter study based on
jointed limestone” Technical University of Denmark,
April 2006 (Unpublished).
[4] Wilhelm, D.: “M.Sc. thesis; Comparison between
core logging and face logging results. An example of
the Malmö City Tunnel.” Technical University of
Hamburg–Harburg and Technical University of
Denmark, 2006 (Unpublished).
[5] Hansen, H.K., Baumann, J., Bjørn, O. & Larsen, G.:
“Ground investigations for a tunnel below urban dis-
tricts and harbour”. Proc. IX ECSMFE, Dublin, pp
51-54,1987.
[6] Proceedings of the Copenhagen Metro Inauguration
Seminar, COWI A/S 2002.
[7] Frederiksen, J.K., Eriksen, S.E., Kryger Hansen, H.,
Knudsen,C., Jørgensen, M.E., Friis Møller, H.M. &
Brendstrup, J.: “Ingeniørgeologiske forhold i
København” Danish Geotechnical Society, DGF-
Bulletin 19, pp 1-254. December 2002.
[8] Foged, N., Jacobsen, L., Jackson, P. & Erichsen, L.:
“Rock mass characterization for tunnels in the Co-
penhagen limestone”, Proc. 11th ISRM Congress,
Lisboa, 2007.
[9] Palmstrøm, A.: “Measurements of and correlation be-
tween block size and rock quality designation
(RQD).” Tunnel and Underground Space technology,
20: 362-377, 2005.
[10] Marinos, V., Marinos, P. and Hoek, E.: “The geolog-
ical strength index: applications and limitations” Bul-
letin of Engineering Geology and the Environment,
Vol. 64, Number 1: 55-65, April 2005.
[11] Knudsen, C., Andersen, C., Foged, N., Jakobsen,
P.R., Larsen, B.: ”Stratigraphy and engineering geol-
ogy of København Limestone”, Proc. 11th Eur. Conf.
Soil Mech. Fndn. Eng., Copenhagen, 28 May - 1 June
1995, DGF-Bul.11 Vol. 5, pp 5.117-5.126.
[12] Stenestad, E.: “Københavnsområdets geologi især
baseret på Citybane-undersøgelserne,” Danmarks
Geol. Unders. 1976, Series 3, Vol.45, pp 1-149.
[13] Larsen, G., Frederiksen, J., Villumsen, A., Fredericia,
J., Graversen, P., Foged, N., Baumann, J.: ”A guide
to engineering geological soil description”, Danish
Geotechnical Society, DGF-Bulletin 1, Copenhagen
1995.
[14] Hansen, S.L. & Nielsen, O.F.: “Building a geological
Model of the Copenhagen area using HoleBASE,
MIKE Geomodel and KeyHOLE”, Proc. ICITG-
Shanghai, 2010.
[15] Fugl-Meyer, A.:”M.Sc.thesis; Optical and Acoustic
Televiewer – Limestone classification in the Copen-
hagen region by use of borehole geophysics”. Tech-
nical University of Denmark, 2007.
[16] Ulusay, R. & Hudson, J.A., Ed.: “The complete
ISRM suggested methods for rock characterization,
testing and monitoring: 1974-2006”. ISRM, Ankara,
Turkey, 2007.
[17] Hoek, E. and Marinos, P.: “GSI. A geologically
friendly tool for rock mass strength estimation”,
Rocscience.com, February 2009.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 337
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-337

Specific features of weak rock laboratory testing

Les caractèristiques spéciales des essais de laboratoire des
roches faibles
J. Frankovská 1
Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovakia
T. Durmeková
Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Slovakia

ABSTRACT
The paper deals with laboratory testing of weak rocks. Circumstances influencing the laboratory research, quantity and quality of
obtaining geotechnical characteristics are specified as well. For many lithological types of weak rock it is impossible to specify
in advance the total range of properties which can be obtained by the laboratory research. Generally, the laboratory investigation
begins by sampling and preparing the testing specimens. The choice of the test methods for determination of the geotechnical
properties depends on the ability to prepare regular (prismatic or cylindrical shapes) or irregular specimens and on the stability in
contact with water. The necessity of individual approach when determining geotechnical characteristics of weak rocks is
documented on the example of Neogene siltstones from the territory of Slovakia that have been suggested as a host rock
environment for the perspective deep geological repository of the high-level radioactive waste. They represent rock material with
uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) about 30 MPa that is unstable in water. General chart for the identification of ambiguous
rocks is presented in the paper. The Point load test was evaluated as suitable tests for identification and characterization of this
rock type. The correlation of the Point load test index (Is50) with the UCS was analysed to propose appropriate Is50 to UCS
conversion factor for weak rocks.

RÉSUMÉ
Ce document concerne des analyses de laboratoire des roches faibles. Il spécifie des conditions qui influencent la récherche de
laboratoire, la quantité et qualité de l’obtention des caractèristiques géotechniques étant spécifiées. Dans le cas de plusieurs types
lithologiques des roches faibles, il est impossible de spécifier en avance l’étendue totale des propriétés qui peuvent être obtenues
par une récherche de laboratoire. En général, l’investigation au laboratoire commence par la collection des échantillons et par la
préparation des échantillons d’essai. Le choix des méthodes d’essai pour la détermination des propriétés géotechniques dépend
de la capacité de préparer des éprouvettes régulières (de forme de prisme ou cylindrique) ou irrégulières et de la stabilité ou
instabilité dans le contact avec de l’eau. La nécessité d’une approche individuelle pour la détermination des caractéristiques
géotechniques des roches faibles est documentée sur l’exemple des siltstones du Néogène du territoire slovaque. Ces siltstones
ont été proposés comme l’environnement de roche pour un dépôt profond géologique perspectif du déchet radioactif de haut
niveau. Ils représentent des matériels de roche avec résistance à la compression uniaxiale (RCU) d’environ 30 MPa qui ne sont
pas stabiles dans l’eau. Le tableau géneral pour l’identification des roches ambigues est présenté dans le document. L’ Essai de
charge ponctuelle a été évalué comme un essai convenable pour l’identification et caractérisation de ces types de roches. La
corrélation de l’ Essai de charge ponctuelle (Is50) avec RCU a été analysée afin de proposer Is50 à RCU facteur de conversion
approprié pour les roches faibles.

Keywords: weak rock, rock identification, laboratory testing, Point load test

1
Corresponding Author.
338 J. Frankovská and T. Durmeková / Specific Features of Weak Rock Laboratory Testing
1 INTRODUCTION
Weak rocks occur almost in all lithological
formations in the territory of the Western
Carpathians in Slovakia, either as a final product
of lithogenesis or as a result of retrograde
changes of originally hard rocks. In general the
occurrence of these rocks shows the rising trend
towards younger geological units. With regard to
their variability and transition position between
soils and rocks are also named as borderline
geotechnical materials [1, 2]. They are
characterized by significantly changeable
properties under external moisture and stress
conditions, low strength, high deformability,
anisotropy of properties and often also by
instability or volume changes in contact with
water. It is almost impossible to avoid these rock
materials in contemporary engineering
construction in the territory of Slovakia [3]. They
require a specific approach in the assessment of
their geotechnical properties and engineering
behaviour. Predominantly their behaviour in
contact with water is very important for further
laboratory testing and geotechnical properties
determination.
For many weak lithological types of rock, it is
impossible to specify the total range of properties
that can be obtained by the laboratory research in
advance. Generally, the laboratory investigation
begins by sampling and testing methodology
specified in standards. The choice of testing
methods for determination of geotechnical
properties depends on the ability to prepare
regular prismatic or cylindrical specimens.
The point load test (PLT) is often the only
possibility to obtain strength parameters of rock,
primarily because of the specimen’s shape and
dimensions requirements for testing. Rock
specimens in the form of core, cut blocks, or
irregular lumps may be used for field or
laboratory testing. Test specimens for the
uniaxial compressive strength (UCS)
determination should be cubes or right circular
cylinders having a diameter not less than 50 mm.
Relationship between the UCS and PLT could
be expressed by the conversion factor K using
the following equation:
UCS = K . IS(50) (1)
The value of K is not universal for all types of
rocks, and it is often questionable and discussed.
The conversion of the Point load index Is(50) to
the UCS value is required in consideration of the
rock strength classification.
2 LABORATORY RESEARCH OF
NEOGENE SILTSTONES - EXPERIENCE
The necessity of individual approach when
determining geotechnical characteristics of weak
rock is documented on the example of Neogene
silts or siltstones from the southern Slovakia that
have been suggested as a host rock environment
for the perspective deep geological repository of
a high-level radioactive waste [4, 5]. In the first
stage of the engineering geological research for
site selection, basic physical and mechanical
characteristics have been determined. Rock
samples have been taken from various depth of
a borehole 250 m deep. Lithologically
monotonous clastic sediments with sufficient
thickness for a construction of a geological
repository are a typical example of rock material
from the group Hard Soils - Weak Rocks. The
evaluated rock material was identified and
described as the fine-grained sedimentary rock -
siltstone, sporadically with higher content of
sandy fraction, light brownish grey or grey
colour.
At the beginning 13 samples have been taken
away from various depths of the exploratory
borehole RAO-5 for laboratory research. The
borehole diameter was changing with depth,
from 113 mm to 87 mm. Regular cylindrical
specimens were prepared (dry sawing was used)
to determine standard mechanical properties
including the modulus of elasticity and modulus
of deformability. The determination of some
physical and durability properties turned out to
be problematic. Because of rock instability in
water, it was impossible to perform the
determination of water absorption, index
durability by Slake durability test or frost
resistance. On the other hand, because of total
slaking of rock in water it was possible to
 J. Frankovská and T. Durmeková / Specific Features of Weak Rock Laboratory Testing 339

complete the general characteristics of rock by

soil mechanics testing – to determine the grain
size distribution, the plasticity and the
consistency of the samples. Results of performed
laboratory tests are given in Table 1. Figure 1
shows the grading curve of specimens after their
disintegration to soil. Classification of samples
based on particle size distribution alone is fine
soil (clay or silt). The degree of plasticity of the
sample can be classified according to their
plasticity characteristics (the liquid limit wL and
plastic limit wP) as intermediate plasticity.
Table 1. Properties of the Neogene siltstone
Min – max value
Dry density (g.cm-3) 2.10 – 2.30
Moisture content (%) 6.1 – 9.3
Porosity (%) 15.2 – 22.9
UCS (MPa) 16.4 – 34.1 Figure 1. Grading curves of Neogene siltstone
Tensile strength (MPa) 1.6 – 2.6
Young´s modulus (MPa) 2071 - 4459
Deformation modulus (MPa) 1478 – 3449
Poisson´s ratio 0.10 – 0.18
3 DISCUSSION
Liquid limit (%) 39 – 44
Plasticity limit (%) 22 – 24 The laboratory research of the rock material from
the group Hard Soils - Weak Rocks, quantity and
Based on the macroscopic evaluation it could quality of their determined geotechnical
be stated that the rock material from any depth of characteristics are influenced by two main
the drill hole was all alike. According to the circumstances: ability to prepare specimens with
results of laboratory determination of the regular geometrical shapes (prismatic or
physical properties, small differences were cylindrical) and their eventual stability in contact
observed in rock material from different depths. with water.
These small differences were caused probably by Occurrence of anisotropy planes in rock
changing of beds with different proportional causes another complication in laboratory testing
content of silty and sandy fractions, as well as by and determination of their physical and
greater consolidation of rock material with depth. mechanical properties.
Total porosity of the rock material is relatively
high, from 15 up to 23 %. The rock is very 3.1 Rock identification and classification
sensitive in contact with water – all samples have
been totally disintegrated in water to individual Another question come out from the
grains after 24 hours. The uniaxial compressive identification and classification of the tested
strength of rock material ranges between 16 and Neogene sedimentary rocks. Can it be identified
34 MPa and together with results from other as silt or siltstone? Which conditions are
strength tests it shows relative homogeneity of determinative for the rock identification – dry or
the studied rock environment. The Point load wet?
tests have been carried out on the remaining According to the standard EN ISO 14 689-
fragments of the borehole cores. Results of the 1:2003 [6], the tested rock is unstable in water
PLT can be considered only as additional values. (grade 5) with weak or medium strong
In this case they are not representative because of compressive strength in dry condition, it means it
insufficient number and size of specimens is classified as siltstone. The behaviour of the
suitable for the test. rock in contact with water was quickly changing.
The weak rock becomes muddy and disintegrates
340 J. Frankovská and T. Durmeková / Specific Features of Weak Rock Laboratory Testing

to soil and as soil it can be classified as fine- 3.2 Point load test suitability for weak rocks
coarse soil. According to the Slovak technical
Despite the great territorial occurrence of weak
standard STN 72 1001:2010 [7], the sample is
rocks on the surface, there is relatively little
classified as clay with medium plasticity,
information about their mechanical properties. It
according to European standard EN ISO 14 688-
is probably caused by their frequent decay during
1:2002 [8] it is identified as the fine sandy silt –
the sampling and consequently by difficulties of
fsaSi).
laboratory determination of particular strength
The proposal of the identification chart based
and deformation characteristics.
on rock behaviour in contact with water and
The Point Load Test is an important index test
consequently on the value of the UCS is
for determination of rock strength. It is
presented in Figure 2. Both laboratory
frequently used, as the preparation of regular
determined characteristics are important for
specimens is too demanding as regards time and
correct identification of rocks and further
expenses, often to the point of being impossible
selection of laboratory testing methods.
because of low rocks strength and their tendency
to fall apart in contact with water. PLT appears to
Rock material be an ideal method to discover the strength
characteristics of the rock, although some
authors, as Bieniawski [9], Hawkins [in 10], or
Stability in water Hoek & Brown [11], state that in the case of the
rocks with pressure strength lower than 15 to 25
MPa, the testing of strength with the PLT method
Stable Fairly stable Unstable
Grade: 1 Grade: 2, 3
is not satisfactory. This statement has been made
Grade: 4, 5
obsolete by newer experimental research [10],
[12].
Hard or Weak rock Soil or Generally the value of conversion factor K
Weak rock Weak rock from Is(50) to UCS for all rocks type is suggested
to be 22 [13, 14]. Experience with weak rocks
testing shows that such value of conversion
UCS factor K is not always suitable.
In case of weak rocks, a significant problem
of strength characteristics determination is rock
anisotropy, as it complicates the correlation
> 50 MPa 1 - 50 MPa < 1 MPa relations between point load index and UCS.
Point load strength reaches its maximum at a
loading direction normal to the planes of
Hard rock Weak rock Soil weakness, and its minimum parallel to the planes
of weakness [15]. In case of minimal uniaxial
compressive strength it cannot be expressed that
simply. Greminger states in his paper that the
Rock Soil UCS normal to the planes of weakness is
mechanics mechanics
methods methods
generally higher than that parallel to it.
However, the minimal value UCS is generally
Figure 2. Rock material identification chart according to the observed and also predicted by the Mohr-
results of laboratory tests. Coulomb criterion, i.e. for a load direction in the
angle of 45, - /2 to the planes of weakness ( is
the angle of sheer strength). Mentioned author
supports his statements by experimental research
of 4 lithological types, where the differences in
 J. Frankovská and T. Durmeková / Specific Features of Weak Rock Laboratory Testing 341

achieved strength were more than 60% between state, is presented on the Figures 4 and 5. The
the measured and expected values. His research conversion factor ranges from 12 to 27 (see fig.
leads him to a conclusion that in case of 4), at average 18,5 [17]. Tested sample set was
anisotropic rocks (gneiss, shales etc), the stating not very large, but it is evident from results, that
of their uniaxial compressive strength from the K is lower for weak and weathered granitoids
values of Point Load Index may lead to with lower strength to 50 MPa than for strong
significant errors. and very strong rock types (see fig. 5).
The strength determined by the point load test
is therefore recommended to be used only as an
independent, additional, easily performed
strength parameter. It implies the necessity to
state the index of rock anisotropy, as the ratio of
index of strength in the strongest and the least
strong direction.
Based on the studies of weak rock samples,
the value of K is always lower than 22 or 24, it is
in the range from 10 to 20. Rusnak & Mark [16]
found that a conversation factor K = 21 worked
Figure 4. The range of conversation factors K between the
well for a variety of sedimentary rock types and uniaxial compressive strength and Point load index for
geographic regions in USA (shale, siltstone, granitoids from Western Carpathians in Slovakia.
sandstone and limestone).
Strength properties of Neogene siltstones from
southern Slovakia have been determined by the
standard UCS test on regular geometrical
specimens and by the Point load test with using
irregular lumps. Test results and the regression
equation are illustrated on the Figure 3. For these
rocks the conversion factor varies between 16
and 27. The mean value of K is 20,4. However,
the higher number of tested samples would be
needed for clear conclusions.

Figure 5. Correlation between the uniaxial compressive

strength and Point load index of granitoids from Western
Carpathians in Slovakia.

4 CONCLUSION

Weak rocks present problematic types of rock

Figure 3. Neogene siltstones – relationship between the
uniaxial compressive strength and Point load index.
Another study of 15 samples of granitoid
varieties that were tested in various weathering
because of their unfavorable properties that need
to be considered for civil engineering purposes.
The selection of testing methods for strength and
deformation properties depends on the possibility
to prepare the required specimens and on their
behavior in contact with water.
It is necessary to combine both rock
mechanics and soil mechanics methods for
342 J. Frankovská and T. Durmeková / Specific Features of Weak Rock Laboratory Testing
complex evaluation of behavior and mechanical
properties.
The PLT is often the only suitable test for
strength determination for weak rocks. Generally
used value of K between 22 and 24 is considered
not always applicable, based on comparable
experience with testing of weak rocks. To
minimize errors when determining the strength
of weak rocks, it is recommended to reduce the
value of K below 20, to test larger amount of
specimens and to present the resulting pressure
strength as a possible range, not as an exact
number.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors thank to the Ministry of Education,
Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak
Republic for support the grants VEGA No.
1/0413/09, 1/0944/11 and to Slovak Research
and Development Agency for support the project
APVV-0641-10.
REFERENCES
[1] A. Anagnostopoulos, F. Schlosser, N. Kalteziotis & R.
Frank, Prologue. Geotechnical Engineering of Hard
Soils – Soft Rocks, Volume 1 (1993), Anagnostopoulos
et al. (eds). Balkema, Rotterdam, V-VI.
[2] I. W. Johnston & E. A. Novello, Soft rocks in the
geotechnical spectrum. Geotechnical Engineering of
Hard Soils – Soft Rocks, Volume 1 (1993),
Anagnostopoulos et al. (eds). Balkema, Rotterdam,
177-183.
[3] T. Durmeková, R. Holzer & P. Wagner, Weak rocks in
engineering practice, Geotechnical measurements and
Modelling, (2003), Natau, Fecker & Pimentel (eds),
Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, 185-191.
[4] J. Frankovská, T. Durmeková & I. Slaninka, 2008:
Engineering geological characteristics of host rock
environment for deep geological repository of
radioactive waste in Slovakia. Geotechnika, 1, (2008),
17 – 22.
[5] R. Adamcová, J. Frankovská & T. Durmeková,
Engineering geological clay research for a radioactive
waste repository in Slovakia. Acta Geologica Slovaca,
AGEOS (2009), 1, 2, 71- 82.
[6] EN ISO 14689-1: 2003 Geotechnical investigation and
testing. Identification and classification of rock. Part 1:
Identification and description.
[7] STN 72 1001: 2010 Classification of soil and rock (in
Slovak).
[8] EN ISO 14688-1: 2002 Geotechnical investigation and
testing. Identification and classification of soil. Part 1:
Identification and description.
[9] Z.T. Bieniawski, The point load test in geotechnical
practice, Engineering Geology, 9 (1975), 1-11.
[10] G.R. Lashkaripour, Predicting mechanical properties of
mudrock from index parameters, Bull Eng Geol Env 61
(2002), 73-77.
[11] E. Hoek & E.T. Brown, Practical estimates of rock
mass strength. International Journal of Rock Mechanics
and Mining Sciences, Vol 34, No 8 (1997), 1165-1186.
[12] A.J. Bowden, J. Lamont-Black & S. Ullyott, Point load
testing of weak rocks with particular reference to chalk,
Quarterly Journal of Eng. Geology 31 (1998), 95-103.
[13] ISRM, The complete ISRM suggested methods for rock
characterization, testing and monitoring: 1974-2006,
R. Ulusay & J.A. Hudson (eds), Ankara, Turkey, 2007.
[14] EN 1926: 2006 Natural stone test methods.
Determination of uniaxial compressive strength.
[15] M. Greminger, Experimental Studies of the Influence of
Rock Anisotropy on Size and Shape Effects in Point-
Load Testing. Technical Note, Int. J. Rock Mech. Min.
Sci. & Geomech. 19 (1982), 241-246.
[16] J. Rusnak & Ch. Mark, Using the Point load test to
determine the uniaxial compr. strength of coal measure
rock, Available online:
www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pdfs/utplt.pdf, 28. 8.
2007.
[17] T. Durmeková & P. Wagner, Correlation factor
between the Point load strength and the Uniaxial
compressive strength of rocks, Geology and
Environment (2002), Bratislava, 7-10 (in Slovak).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 343
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-343

Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche

sénonienne pour la réalisation de deux tranchées de
grande profondeur
Classification and characterization of an upper white chalk for the
construction of two deep railway cuts
M. Haghgou
ARCADIS France: 9 Avenue Réaumur 92354 LE PLESSIS-ROBINSON Cedex FRANCE

ABSTRACT
The construction of the East European High speed Line (LGV Est), comprised the realization (in the south of Rheims-France) of two
deep railway cuts: the steeped slope cut of “Trois Puits”, 1500m length, 28 m depth; and the “Taissy” cut of 1700 m length, 27 m depth,.
These cuts were located in the upper chalk, with variable thicknesses (and locally important thickness) of highly weathered chalk. For the
design and the optimization of the nailed walls works of Taissy and steeped slope cuts of Trois Puits, it was necessary to proceed to a suf-
ficiently detailed classification of the chalk substratum (with mechanical characterization of different classes).
This paper presents the engineering grading of the white chalk substratum established for the site (inspired from the French and English
classifications), the mechanical characterization of these different grades for their use in the stability analyses, and the definition of the
variation of the stratigraphy and the thickness of different chalk grades along the two hills where the cuts were located.

RÉSUMÉ
La construction de la Ligne LGV Est européenne, a comporté la réalisation (au sud de Reims) de deux tranchées de grande profondeur
dans la craie blanche : la tranchée raidie de « Trois Puits » de 1500m de longueur et 28 m de profondeur, et la tranchée de Taissy de 1700
m de longueur et 27 m de profondeur. Ces ouvrages étaient implantés dans la craie blanche sénonienne, avec des épaisseurs variables et
par endroit importantes de craie altérée. Pour la conception et l’optimisation de ces ouvrages, il s’est avéré nécessaire de procéder à une
classification puis à une caractérisation mécanique des différents faciès de la craie plus détaillées que celles initialement envisagées dans
le cadre du projet.
Cet article présente la classification géotechnique de la craie blanche établie pour ce site (inspirée des classifications françaises et an-
glaises existantes), ainsi que la caractérisation mécanique de ces différentes classes utilisée dans les calculs de stabilité, ainsi que pour le
modèle géotechnique représentant la variation de la stratigraphie et de l’épaisseur des différentes classes de craie le long des ouvrages.

Keywords: weathered chalk, geotechnical grading of the chalk, mechanical properties of the white chalk, deep excavation, nailed wall-
Mots clés : craie altérée, classification géotechnique de la craie, caractéristiques mécaniques de la craie blanche, tranchée profonde, paroi
clouée

1 INTRODUCTION de Trois-Puits et de Taissy . Afin de limiter

Le tracé de la Ligne LGV Est européenne con-
tourne la ville de Reims par le sud en traversant
en tranchée, dans sa section Est, deux coteaux vi-
ticoles AOC, respectivement sur les communes
l’emprise de l’ouverture de ces tranchées pro-
fondes (jusqu’à 27 à 28 m) pour préserver au
maximum les terrains viticoles, RFF (Réseaux
Ferrés de France) a prévu des aménagements
particuliers pour ces deux tranchées.
344 M. Haghgou / Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne
Des talus raidis ont été prévus pour la tran-
chée de Trois puits, de 1500 m de longueur [1].
La tranchée de Taissy longue d’environ 1 700 m,
coupe les vignobles sur près de 700 m. RFF a
décidé de traverser ce secteur de vignes de renom
par le biais d’une tranchée couverte de 500 m de
long, prolongée par des murs de soutènement. En
fin de travaux, le terrain naturel a été reconstitué
au-dessus de l’ouvrage béton, pour pouvoir être
replanté. Afin de minimiser l’emprise des terras-
sements dans les vignobles, la tranchée de Taissy
(ouvrage provisoire) a été réalisée à l’abri de pa-
rois clouées verticales en partie basse (sur une
hauteur de 10,6 m) et avec une pente très raide
(10V/1H) en partie haute. La figure 1 montre la
tranchée de Taissy en cours de construction.
Figure 1: La tranchée de Taissy en cours de construction
Ces ouvrages sont implantés dans la craie
blanche sénonienne, avec des épaisseurs va-
riables et par endroit importantes de craie altérée
atteignant la base des terrassements. Pour la con-
ception et l’optimisation de ces ouvrages, il s’est
avéré nécessaire de procéder à une classification
et une caractérisation mécanique des différents
faciès de la craie plus détaillées que celles initia-
lement envisagées dans le cadre du projet.
En effet, dans le dossier « projet », le substra-
tum crayeux avait été subdivisé seulement en
deux classes (craie altérée et craie saine), avec
attribution à chaque classe de caractéristiques in-
trinsèques jugées très conservatrices.
En phase études d’exécution du projet, une
subdivision plus détaillée du massif crayeux a
donc été définie. Pour cela, des investigations
complémentaires in situ ont permis d’établir une
subdivision plus fine du massif crayeux au droit
des futurs ouvrages, tout en se référant aux clas-
sifications françaises et anglaises existantes.
Chaque classe a fait l’objet d’essais triaxiaux en
laboratoire afin de pouvoir lui attribuer des ca-
ractéristiques de résistance au cisaillement, en
mettant également à profit les données dispo-
nibles dans la littérature scientifique.
L’application de cette méthodologie a permis
d’optimiser la réalisation de ces ouvrages (cons-
truits essentiellement en 2004).
2 CLASSIFICATIONS EXISTANTES
POUR LA CRAIE
La craie est un matériau spécifique en géotech-
nique par sa nature, la complexité de son com-
portement, sa porosité généralement élevée, sa
friabilité, ainsi que la variété des états méca-
niques sous lesquels elle se présente. On désigne
en fait sous l’appellation de craie suivie d’un
qualificatif, des terrains qui peuvent varier d’un
sol mou à une roche résistante.
Chimiquement et minéralogiquement, la craie
blanche est une roche presque entièrement for-
mée de carbonate de calcium CaC03, à l’état de
calcite. L’altération de la craie blanche se dis-
tingue de la plupart des autres roches par le fait
que le produit de l’altération est également de la
craie (remaniée, déstructurée et/ou avec une den-
sité plus faible).
Pour les travaux de terrassements, la norme
française NF 11300 [2], ainsi que le GTR
« Guide Technique – Réalisation des remblais et
couches de forme » [3], fournissent une classifi-
cation de la craie qui est basée sur sa densité
sèche ( d) :
 d > 1,7 : craie dense (classe R11)
 M. Haghgou / Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne 345

 1,5 < d 

: craie de densité moyenne tructurée très altérée. Les critères de classifica-
(classe R12) tion utilisés pour la craie structurée sont :
 d 
 : craie peu dense (classe R13)
Une classification similaire (basée sur d) a
été également établie en Grande Bretagne (G.B.).
La craie est toutefois subdivisée en quatre classes
(avec ajout d’une classe de craie très dense : d >
1,95).
En France, l’ingénieur géotechnicien dispose
aussi de la classification fournie en annexe E1 du
Fascicule n° 62 Titre V [4], dans laquelle le mas-
sif crayeux est subdivisé en trois classes (A à
C) en se référant essentiellement aux résultats de
l’essai pressiométrique (la valeur de la pression
limite nette Pl*) et dans une moindre mesure à la
valeur de la résistance de pointe (qc) de l’essai au
pénétromètre statique (cf. tableau 1).
Tableau 1: Classification géotechnique française du massif
crayeux (pour dimensionnement des fondations)
Description Classe Pl* qc
sommaire (MPa) (MPa)
Craie molle A <0,7 <5
Craie altérée B 1-2,5 >5
Craie compacte C >3,0 - utilisée en GB par les géotechniciens, en utilisant
A partir de cette classification, des recom-
mandations sont fournies (formules empiriques
basées sur les résultats d’un nombre significatif
d’essais de chargement in-situ en vraie grandeur)
pour le dimensionnement des fondations superfi-
cielles et des fondations profondes (pour diffé-
rents types de pieux), ainsi que pour le calcul des
tassements.
Mais ces données sont insuffisantes quand il
s’agit de dimensionner des soutènements pour
lesquels il est nécessaire de définir les caractéris-
tiques équivalentes de résistance au cisaillement
de chaque classe du massif crayeux (par exemple
pour les calculs de parois clouées, murs de sou-
tènement, ou calculs de stabilité de pente).
En G. B., les travaux de recherches effectués
dans les années 1960 à Mundford (Norfolk) dans
la craie turonienne (« middle chalk »), ont consti-
tué la base de la pratique courante pour la des-
cription et la classification du massif crayeux. Le
massif crayeux à Mundford a été subdivisé au
départ en cinq classes ou « Grade » par Ward et
al en 1968 [5]. Les classes I à IV comprennent
les craies structurées, et la classe V la craie dés-
l’espacement et l’ouverture des fissures, le degré
d’altération, et dans une moindre mesure : la ré-
sistance des blocs (essentiellement pour la dis-
tinction des deux premières classes I et II, avec
les joints fermés et espacés à plus de 200 mm).
Une sixième classe (VI) a été ajoutée plus tard
par Wakeling en 1970 [6], correspondant à la
craie déstructurée complément altérée (craie
molle ou craie sol).
La classification de Mundford a été reprise par
le BS 8004 [7], en fournissant des gammes de
variation de portance pour différentes classes de
craie.
Wakeling [6] a également attribué des
gammes de valeurs N de l’essai SPT (« Standard
Penetration Test ») à chaque classe du massif
crayeux, ainsi que des valeurs de module de dé-
formation reliées à N, essentiellement en se ba-
sant sur les résultats obtenus sur le site de Mund-
ford.
La classification de Mundford a été largement
les valeurs de N pour distinguer les différentes
classes de craie, et par voie de conséquence le
dimensionnement des fondations. Cette dernière
pratique a été par la suite critiquée par plusieurs
auteurs (e.g. Dennehey, 1975[8]; Lord et Smith,
1976 [9] ; Burland, 1990 [10]), en concluant que
la valeur N, qui dépend en particulier de la densi-
té de la craie, n’est pas bien adaptée pour déduire
une classification du massif crayeux du type de
Mundford.
Power, 1982 [11] a proposé des corrélations
pour distinguer différentes classes de craie
d’après les résultats de l’essai au pénétromètre
statique (la résistance de pointe qc et le rapport de
frottement Rf), en se basant essentiellement sur
des données issues du site de Mundford. Powell
et Quarterman, 1994 [12] ont présenté des résul-
tats provenant de plusieurs sites, y compris le site
de Mundford. D’après ces auteurs, les corréla-
tions proposées par Power sont globalement véri-
fiées (augmentation de qc et de Rf en passant des
classes V à II) ; néanmoins, les gammes de varia-
tion de qc et de Rf pour une classe donnée peu-
vent se différencier d’un site à un autre, avec une
tendance d’accroissement de qc avec
346 M. Haghgou / Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne
l’augmentation de la densité de la craie.
D’autres résultats ont été publiés et il est actuel-
lement admis que les résultats de l’essai péné-
trométrique (CPT) ne permettent pas, à eux
seuls, de définir de manière fiable la classifica-
tion du massif crayeux, à l’exception de la classe
VI (craie sol), avec qc < 4 à 5 MPa.
Le schéma de Mundford a été établi pour la
craie turonienne («midle chalk »). Dans son ap-
plication à la craie sénonienne (« upper chalk »),
souvent une classe supplémentaire III/IV a été
utilisée, liée à une ouverture de fissure habituel-
lement plus faible pour la craie sénonienne ([13]
et [14] ).
Spink & Norbury, 1990 [13] ont amélioré le
schéma de Mundford et ont apporté des préci-
sions et des indications utiles pour la description
et la définition de différentes classes de la craie.
Dans le rapport n° 11 de CIRIA (Construction
Industry Research and Information Association),
Lord et al ont présenté en 1994 [15] un nouveau
schéma de classification plus détaillé du massif
crayeux en prenant toutefois comme base celui
de Mundford. La classification de CIRIA se dis-
tingue de celle de Mundford essentiellement en
ce qui concerne la craie structurée (classes I à
IV). Les deux classes V et VI de la craie dés-
tructurée très altérée à complètement altérée sont
maintenues en les désignant respectivement par
Dc (matrice crayeuse<35%) et Dm (matrice
crayeuse>35%). Les craies structurées sont dési-
gnées par les classes A à C (en fonction de
l’ouverture des fissures), suivies d’un chiffre (1 à
5) en fonction de l’espacement des fissures.
Toutefois, la méthodologie et la terminologie
fournies par Spink et Norbury [13] sont jugées
plus rigoureuses (Spink, 2002, [16]) et plus pra-
tiques, et sont utilisées dans le cadre de cette
étude. La « classification de Mundford » ou
« classification anglaise » citée ci-après est celle
décrite par Spink et Norbury [13].
3 INVESTIGATIONS
COMPLEMENTAIRES
Les investigations de la phase réalisation pour les
études d’exécution ont comporté des sondages
carottés avec prélèvement d’échantillons intacts
pour essais en laboratoire, des puits de recon-
naissance relativement profonds (5 à 10 m), ainsi
que des sondages pressiométriques et pénétromé-
triques (pénétromètre statique).
Des doublets de sondages carottés- pressiomé-
triques et pressiométriques–pénétrométriques
sont également réalisés pour la comparaison et
le calibrage de ces derniers. Les relevés
d’excavations déjà réalisées à proximité des deux
sites (par exemple pour la réalisation d’un pont
provisoire) sont également utilisés pour le cali-
brage des profils pressiométriques.
Les essais en laboratoire ont comporté en par-
ticulier la réalisation d’essais triaxiaux CD et
CU+U, sur différentes classes de craie, avec dif-
férents diamètres d’éprouvettes testées (essentiel-
lement 35 et 70 mm).
4 CLASSIFICATION ET STRATIGRAPHIE
DU MASSIF CRAYEUX
Pour établir une subdivision du massif crayeux, il
a été d’abord procédé à l’analyse et la comparai-
son des résultats de différents types de sondages
réalisés à faible distance, ainsi que des relevés
d’excavations déjà réalisées à proximité des deux
sites. Globalement, une assez bonne concordance
est observée pour ce site entre les classes A et B
de la classification française (tableau 1) et les
« grades » VI et V de la classification anglaise.
Le « grade » III s’est avéré peu présent au droit
du site. Les deux grades III et IV de la craie
structurée plus ou moins altérée sont regroupés
ensemble dans le cadre de cette étude, sous la
nomination de « craie de transition ». Le grade I
de Mundford (craie peu fissurée, identique au
grade II, mais dure) n’a pas été détecté au droit
du site. Le massif crayeux a donc été subdivisé
en quatre classes, en établissant également des
équivalences avec la pression limite nette de
l’essai pressiométrique (pl*). Les profils péné-
trométriques se sont avérés utiles pour la détec-
tion de la craie sol (qc< 4 MPa) ; mais au-delà il
est apparu difficile d’établir une bonne corréla-
tion entre les classes de la craie et qc (les chevau-
chements sont fréquents). La description de
chaque classe est présentée ci-après (la four-
chette de valeurs approximatives de Pl* établie
 M. Haghgou / Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne 347

dans le cadre de cette étude pour chaque classe d’après la norme française NF P11-300 [2], la
est également indiquée): craie du site a été majoritairement classée en R13
(craie peu dense), et pour partie R12 (craie de
 CR1 – Craie pâteuse (Pl*< 0,9 à 1 MPa): densité moyenne, en partie inférieure des dé-
cet horizon correspond à la classe A de la blais).
classification française, et le "grade VI" de Les conditions stratigraphiques au droit des
la classification de Mundford. Il s'agit de la déblais Taissy et Trois Puits se caractérisent par
craie complètement altérée, totalement dés- la présence d’un substratum crayeux sénonien
tructurée (craie sol) constituée d'une pâte surmonté de terrains quaternaires. D’après les
crayeuse abondante, enrobant des nodules investigations de sol effectuées (cf. figures 2 et
et morceaux de craie rocheuse tendre plus 3), l’épaisseur des terrains quaternaires est faible
ou moins fréquents : le comportement de pour Taissy (environ 1 à 2 m de limon graveleux
l'ensemble est conditionné par la matrice à limon crayeux), elle est plus variable pour le
crayeuse, déblai Trois Puits (0,5 à 6 m de limons et « gra-
 CR2 – Craie très altérée fragmentée à mor- veluches », avec de faibles épaisseurs pour le
celée (1 à 1,2< Pl*<2,5 MPa): cet horizon versant Ouest et des épaisseurs plus importantes
correspond à la classe B suivant la classifi- pour le versant Est).
cation française, et le "grade V" de la clas- PS 1901
sification de Mundford. Il s'agit de la craie 140 PR 513-1
PR 1938 PR 513-3 PS 1939
SC 901 TH 938 PR 1939 PR 513-4
PM 513-2 SC 1939 PM 513-3
très altérée, déstructurée (les surfaces de 135
SC 513-1
Limons
T 939 PR 1902
TH 1940
SC 902
discontinuité de la roche mère sont ab- 130
TH 937
Craie CR 2 Graveluche
PR 513-2
PM 513-4
SC 903
sentes) où coexistent la matrice crayeuse 125
PR 1936
TH 936
PR 1904
PR 1905
PM 513-5

avec des fragments et morceaux (plus ou 120

PS 1936
SC 1936 Craie CR 3
TH 1942
Cote (NGF)

PMP 513-1
moins angulaires) de la craie rocheuse 115 TH 935
PM 513-1
tendre. Le pourcentage de fines (<35 % en- 110
Ligne rouge de Projet
viron, d'après la classification anglaise) dé- 105
Craie CR 4

croît avec la profondeur et devient généra- 100

Inclusion CR 3
dans CR 4
lement faible vers la base de cet horizon, 95

 CR3 – Craie de transition (2,5< Pl*<4,5 90

MPa) : les franges séparant la craie altérée 20 120 220 320 420 520 620 720
Distance (m) depuis KM Tronçon 51+ 737.474
820 920 1 020 1 120 1 220 1 320

de la craie franche, sont placées sous cette Figure 2: stratigraphie le long de la tranchée de Trois puits
nomination (grades IV et III de la classifi-
cation anglaise). Il s'agit de la craie partiel- 150
Représentation stratigraphique schématique deTaissy
PR 905 PR 515-1
lement altérée à saine, morcelée à fractu- SC 904
145 PROP 1
PROP 2 PR 906
L 515-2
PR
rée : la structure de la roche mère (surfaces PM 515-4 PM 515-5
SC 515-2
140
de discontinuité) est présente. Les joints,
Cote toit paroi verticale PR 515-3
faiblement espacés, sont généralement peu 135
CR1 PMP 515-2
SC 907
cote (NGF)

ouverts dans le cas présent (ouvertures gé- 130 CR4

CR2

néralement inférieures à quelques mm), 125

CR3

 CR4 – Craie saine fissurée (Pl*>4,5MPa): 120

Base excavation
cet horizon correspond à la craie franche, 115

rocheuse, saine à faiblement altérée (grade 110

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

II de la classification anglaise), les joints 0 50 100 150 200

Distance en mètre depuis la tête Ouest et n° de section de
250 300 350 400 450 500

sont moyennement espacés à espacés (plus calcul

de 200 mm) et fermés. Figure 3: stratigraphie le long de la tranchée de Taissy

Comme déjà mentionné, l’équivalent de la Au droit des versants Est des deux déblais,
classe I de la classification anglaise (craie dure) l’épaisseur de la craie très altérée mise en évi-
n’a pas été rencontré par les sondages de recon- dence par les investigations complémentaires est
naissance réalisés au droit du site. En effet, nettement plus élevée que celle prévue dans le
348 M. Haghgou / Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne

"Mémoire de synthèse géotechnique" (base de la

craie très altérée détectée à plus de 10 m pour le
Craie CR2 (essais trixiaux CD)
déblai Taissy, et 15 à 19 m pour Trois Puits par 1200

les investigations complémentaires). 1000

Phi' = 39° ; c' = 18 kPa

t' (kPa)
800
R2 = 0.991

600
5 RESULTATS DES ESSAIS TRIAXIAUX
400

200
Le programme des essais en laboratoire compor-
0
tait la réalisation de plusieurs séries d’essais 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

triaxiaux : essais UU (sur la craie très altérée), s' (kPa)

CU+U et CD. Les principaux résultats des essais

Figure 5: Résultats des essais triaxiaux CD sur la craie CR2
CD, réalisés sur des éprouvettes de diamètre 70
mm (hormis pour la craie CR1, diamètre 35
Craie CR 3 ( essais triaxiaux CD)
mm), sont analysés ci-après. Trois à quatre essais 1200

CD ont été réalisés sur chaque classe de craie, 1000

avec trois éprouvettes testées par essai.

800
Pour différentes classes de craie, les résultats Phi' = 40° ; c' = 28 kPa
R2 = 0.996
t' (kPa)
des différentes éprouvettes d’un même essai CD 600

ont montré une bonne cohérence (coefficient de 400

corrélation proche de l’unité pour les trois points 200

portés sur le diagramme de Lambe), à 0

l’exception des essais sur la craie plus rocheuse 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

s' (kPa)
CR4, comme on pouvait s’y attendre.
Pour chaque classe de craie, les valeurs de pic Figure 6: Résultats des essais triaxiaux CD sur la craie CR3
de s’ et t’ mesurées pour différentes éprouvettes
testées ont été portées sur le même diagramme Pour les craies CR1 à CR3, les résultats des
afin de définir la droite moyenne (régression li- différentes éprouvettes testées sont assez bien re-
néaire) correspondant à l’ensemble des points de groupés autour de la droite moyenne, avec des
mesure. Les figures 4 à 7 montrent les résultats coefficients de corrélation (R² sur les graphiques
des essais triaxiaux CD (Consolidé-Drainé) sur présentés) proches de 0,99.
les classes de craie CR1 à CR4. On observe également une bonne cohérence
Le tableau n° 2 résume les résultats bruts dans la succession des valeurs mesurées pour les
fournis par les droites moyennes des différentes différentes classes de craie.
classes de craie.
Craie C1 (essais triaxiaux CD) Craie CR4 (essais triaxiaux CD)

800 1200

1000

600 Phi' = 32,5° ; c' = 30 kPa

800
R2 = 0.986
t' (kPa)

600 Phi' = 40° ; c' = 62 kPa

t' (kPa)

2
400 R = 0.897
400

200
200

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
0
s' (kPa)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
s' (kPa)
Figure 7 : Résultats des essais triaxiaux CD sur la craie CR4
Figure 4: Résultats des essais triaxiaux CD sur la craie CR1
 M. Haghgou / Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne 349

Tableau 2 : Valeurs fournies par les essais triaxiaux CD repos, la craie remaniée peut présenter une cohé-
(droites moyennes)
sion apparente de 10 kPa (par recimentation de
Classe de Craie c’ (kPa) 

 calcite aux points de contact des particules de

CR1 30 32,5 craie).
CR2 18 39
Pour la craie structurée, l’angle de frottement
CR3 28 40
CR4 62 40 mesuré au droit des discontinuités de la craie
blanche est généralement élevé ; Cawsey et Far-






!
#$
@\
rar [21] ont mesuré des valeurs de 37 à 38° pour
kPa fournie par la droite moyenne (figure 4) pa- le premier glissement sur une surface lisse entre
rait surestimée ; en effet, l’essai effectué sur les les blocs de craie. D’après Lord et al [14],
éprouvettes de la craie sol reconstituée a fourni : l’angle de frottement effectif de la craie séno-
#^`
{|

#$
@@. nienne varierait entre 36° et 42°. Ils proposent le

!

!
#^`\
{|

#^@‚
€€

valeurs plutôt conservatives. Pour la craie ro-

6 CARACTERISTIQUES DES cheuse massive des valeurs nettement plus éle-
DIFFERENTES CLASSES DE CRAIE vées de c’ sont mesurées (supérieures à 100 kPa).
Les valeurs retenues pour le massif crayeux
Malgré la cohérence des résultats des essais intact, issues des résultats des essais triaxiaux et
triaxiaux, il ne faut pas oublier l’effet d’échelle des considérations précédentes, sont reportées
entre la résistance au cisaillement, mesurée au dans le tableau n° 3.
laboratoire sur des éprouvettes de taille réduite, Tableau 3 : Valeurs retenues pour les calculs de stabilité
et le cisaillement in-situ en grande masse. Il a Classe Pl * (MPa) c’ (kPa)  (°)
donc été décidé de ne pas utiliser directement les craie
CR1 <0,9 à 1 10 32
résultats bruts issus des essais triaxiaux pour les
CR2 1 à 1,2-2,5 15 36
calculs de stabilité du massif crayeux. Ce pro- CR3 2,5- 4,5 30 37
blème d’effet d’échelle se pose plus particuliè- CR4 >4,5 45 à 60 38
rement pour les craies CR3 et CR4, pour les-
quelles il s’agit de sélectionner des Ces valeurs jugées plutôt conservatives sont
caractéristiques équivalentes en grande masse du nettement plus élevées que celles de la phase
massif semi-rocheux à rocheux fracturé. La prise projet (avec subdivision du massif crayeux en
en compte de l’effet d’échelle, pour le passage deux classes).
des valeurs brutes fournies par les essais aux va-
leurs jugées caractéristiques du massif in-situ, est 4m 140,8 NGF

empirique et approximative. Les données dispo- 2m

Limons
nibles dans la littérature scientifique ont égale-
2m 4m Craie CR1
ment été prises en compte, en particulier celles
des documents de synthèse présentés par Clayton
[17] et Lord et al [14].
D’après Clayton (1978, [18]), en se basant sur
10 °

Craie CR2
un nombre important d’essais effectués sur des 5H
1V
craies avec des teneurs en Ca CO3 variables, la

!
#}
!
€

#
!


Craie CR3
craie totalement remaniée (« pâte de craie ») va-
rierait peu pour différents types de craie : essen-
tiellement entre 31 et 33°. Des valeurs plus éle- Craie CR4
vées sont néanmoins rapportées par d’autres 120,7 NGF

auteurs : Fletcher et Mizon [19], Twine et Wrigth

[20]. Par ailleurs, d’après Clayton [17], après Figure 8 : Plan de clouage d’une section de la tranchée de
Taissy
350 M. Haghgou / Classification et caractérisation d’une craie blanche sénonienne
La figure 8, présentée ci-dessus montre le plan
de clouage retenu pour une section de calcul de
la tranchée de Taissy, avec une épaisseur signifi-
cative de craie très altérée (CR1+CR2).
7 CONCLUSION
La réalisation de deux tranchées profondes dans
la craie sénonienne, dans le cadre de la construc-
tion de la LGV est européenne, a permis de
mettre au point une méthodologie pour
l’optimisation des ouvrages de soutènement dans
ce type de matériau.
La réalisation de sondages carottés, de
fouilles, de forages pressiométriques et pénétro-
métriques, d’essais en laboratoire (surtout essais
triaxiaux) ont permis d’une part de définir quatre
classes de craie avec leurs caractéristiques intrin-
sèques équivalentes, d’autre part la stratigraphie
correspondante au droit des ouvrages à cons-
truire.
Ces données géotechniques ont permis
d’optimiser le dimensionnement des ouvrages de
soutènement.
Cette méthodologie peut être appliquée à
d’autres ouvrages à construire en site crayeux,
pour lesquels il est nécessaire de définir la varia-
tion stratigraphique et les caractéristiques de ré-
sistance au cisaillement de différentes classes du
massif crayeux.
Cette étude a également montré l’intérêt d’une
classification suffisamment détaillée du massif
crayeux.
REFERENCES
[1] HAGHGOU, M. & ROSSI, P.: “Technique nouvelle
pour la réalisation de talus raidis dans la craie altérée »,
15th ECSMGE, Athènes sept. 2011.
[2] NF P 11-300, norme française : « Exécution des terras-
sements- Classification des matériaux utilisables dans la
construction des remblais et des couches de forme
d’infrastructures routières », sept. 1992, AFNOR, 21p.
[3] LCPC-SETRA : « GTR : guide technique- Réalisation
des remblais et couches de forme », septembre 1992.
[4] “Fascicule n°62- Titre V : Règles techniques de con-
ception et de calcul des fondations des ouvrages de gé-
nie civil» : Ministère de l’équipement, du logement et
des transports, Imprimerie des Journaux officiels, Paris.
[5] WARD, W. H.; BURLAND, J. B. & GALLOIS, R. W.:
“Geotechnical assessment of a site at Mundford, Nor-
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18, n° 4 (1968), 399-431.
[6] WAKELING, T.R.M.: “A comparison of the results of
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of a detailed geotechnical investigation in Middle Chalk
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tions in Soils and Rock Brit. Geol. Soc., London, 1969
(published: 1970), 17-22.
[7] BRITTSH STANDARDS INSTITUTION: “BS 8004:
Code of practice for Foundations; Formerly CP 2004”;
British Standards Institution, London (1984).
[8] DENNEHY, J.P.: “Correlating the SPT N value with
chalk grade for some zones of the Upper Chalk », Geo-
technique, vol. 25 (1975), 610-614.
[9] LORD, E. R. F. & SMITH, W. E. “The misuse of SPT
N value correlations with Upper Chalk grades”, Geo-
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[10] BURLAND, J.B.: Preface in: “CHALK”: Proc Int.
Chalk Symp. , Brighton, 1989; Thomas Telford, Lon-
don (1990), 1-4.
[11] POWER, P.T.: “The use of the electric static cone pene-
trometer in the determination of the engineering proper-
ties of chalk”, Proc. 2nd Eur. Symp.: Penetration Test-
ing, Amsterdam (1982), vol. 2, 769-774.
[12] POWELL, J. J. M. & QUARTERMAN, R. S. T.: “A
reappraisal of CPT testing in chalk”, BRE Report No
G/GP/9412 (1994).
[13] SPINK, T.W. & NORUBY, D: "The engineering geo-
logical description of chalk", In CHALK. proc. Int.
Chalk Symposium, Brighton, Sept. 1989, Thomas Tel-
ford, London (1990), 153-159.
[14] LORD, J.A.; CLAYTON, C.R.I. & MORTIMORE,
R.N.: “Engineering in chalk”, CIRIA, London, 2002.
[15] LORD, J. A.; TWINE, D. P. & YEOW, H.: “Founda-
tions in chalk”, Project Report 11, CIRIA, London,
1994.
[16] SPINK, T.W.: “The CIRIA Chalk description and clas-
sification”, Quarterly J. of Engineering Geology and
hydrogeology, Vol. 35 (2002), 363-369.
[17] CLAYTON, C.R.I.: “The mechanical properties of the
chalk”, In CHALK proc. Int. Chalk Symp., Brighton,
Sept. 1989, Thomas Telford, London (1990), 213-232.
[18] CLAYTON, C.R.I.: “Chalk as Fill”, PhD thesis, Uni-
versity of Surrey, 1978.
[19] FLETCHER, M. S. & MISON, D. H. (1984): "Piles in
chalk for Orwell Bridge", proc. Instn. Civ. Engrs. Conf.
Piling and Ground Treatment, Thomas Telford, Lon-
don, 203-209.
[20] TWINE, D. & WRIGHT, R.H.: “Farmers Avenue Road
Crossing, Castle Mall development, Norwich”, Proc.
4th Int. Deep Foundations Conf., Stresa, AA Balkema,
Rotterdam (1991), 147-155.
[21] CAWSEY, D. C. & FARRAR, N S: “A simple sliding
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 351
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-351

Some basic trends on the geotechnical

characteristics of Lisbon Miocene clays
Certaines tendances de base sur les caractéristiques
géotechniques des argiles du Miocène de Lisbonne
M. Lopes Laranjo1
Viana do Castelo Polytechnic Institute, Portugal
M. Matos Fernandes
Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal
J. Almeida e Sousa
Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra, Portugal
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a collection of data obtained at different locations concerning Miocene clays, which form a significant part
of Lisbon subsoil. The data includes both laboratory and in situ tests, namely: mineralogical characterization; determination of
index properties; grain size distribution; natural water content and Atterberg limits; uniaxial compression tests; triaxial compres-
sion tests; SPT and cross-hole seismic tests. The characterization of a particular site concerning Miocene clays and including
both laboratory and in situ tests is presented. The amount of information is very significant allowing for the establishment of
some basic trends on the geotechnical characteristics of these soils.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article présente une collection des données obtenues à différents endroits sur les argiles du Miocène, qui forment une partie
importante du sous-sol de Lisbonne. Les données comprennent essais en laboratoire et essais in situ, à savoir: caractérisation mi-
néralogique; détermination des paramètres physiques, détermination de la distribution granulométrique; détermination du teneur
en eau et des limites d’Atterberg; essais de compression simple; essais triaxiaux; SPT et essais cross-hole. Cet article présente
également la caractérisation d'un site où ils ont exécuté des essais en laboratoire et essais in situ. La quantité d'information est
importante et il est possible d’établir certaines tendances dans les caractéristiques géotechniques de ces sols.

Keywords: Miocene clays, mineralogy, physical properties, mechanical characteristics

1 INTRODUCTION information is very considerable, results have not

Miocene clays form an important part of Lisbon
subsoil, where many relevant constructions have
been undertaken in the last decades. These in-
clude the extension of some subway lines, deep
excavations for buildings and underground park-
ing facilities, road tunnels, among others. The
design of such works has naturally required de-
tailed ground investigations, including both in
situ and laboratory tests. Although the amount of
yet been compiled and treated in order to allow
the establishment of some basic trends on the
geotechnical characteristics of Miocene clays.
This paper focuses on the main characteristics
of Lisbon Miocene clays, namely their geological
history, physical properties and some aspects of
their mechanical behaviour.
The characterization of a particular site in-
volving both laboratory and in situ tests is pre-
sented.

1
Corresponding Author.
352 M. Lopes Laranjo et al. / Some Basic Trends the Geotechnical Characteristics
2 BACKGROUND
2.1 Geology
The Lower Tagus basin is situated in the western
margin of the Iberian plate. Its geological history
is very complex and derives from the interaction
between tectonic events and variations on the sea
level. The basin was formed in the beginning of
the Tertiary when the region sank between faults
and was filled with detritic sediments from pe-
ripheral areas. This sedimentation is believed to
be a continuous phenomenon that is still active
[1]. The Lisbon Miocene Series has been used in
the Western Europe referential due to its geo-
graphical location and the alternation of conti-
nental and marine deposits, allowing the identifi-
cation of a rigorous chronologic series of events.
The Miocene Series, which results from about
16 Million Years of sedimentation, is around
300 m thick and comprises several geological
formations that include hard soils and soft rocks.
In this paper only clayey layers have been con-
sidered. The main clayey formations are:
Prazeres clay and Forno do Tijolo clay. Prazeres
clay form the base of the Miocene Series and in-
clude argillites, silty argillites, marly argillites,
marls and limes [2], and Forno do Tijolo clay
comprise fine silts with fossils, clays, marls and
fine stoneware clay.
These formations occupy an important part of
Lisbon subsoil, including areas of historical in-
terest, as shown in the Lisbon Geological Chart
[3].
2.2 Composition
To determine the mineralogical composition
of Miocene clays, several X-Ray diffraction
analyses have been undertaken. The results show
a large percentage of phyllosilicates (mica) and
quartz, and the presence of sodium and potas-
sium feldspar, chlorite, pyrite and gypsum in
smaller quantities.
The mineralogical composition of these sam-
ples was observed using both Optical Microscope
and SEM. The soil was air-dried to preserve its
original structure. In soft soils this is usually
done by freeze-drying the samples, but in stiff
soils the shrinkage due to air-drying does not
seem to affect microstructure [4].
All the minerals identified by X-Ray diffrac-
tion were observed in the Optical Microscope,
together with a very significant number of micro-
fossils, as shown in Figure 1. In these formations,
carbonates can appear as fossils, as calcareous
concretions or carbonated minerals such as cal-
cite and dolomite.
Figure 1. Microfossil
2.3 Fabric and microstructure
The spatial arrangement of solid particles and
aggregates and the size and shape of voids is of-
ten referred to as fabric, and its importance is
well recognized, as it influences the mechanical
behaviour of natural soils [5, 6]. In sedimentary
formations the speed of deposition and the still-
ness of the water in which it occurs cause distinct
types of fabric: more open when the deposition is
slower, leading to lamination, and more compact
and oriented when the deposition is turbulent [7].
On the other hand, post-depositional events, as
cementation or bioturbation contribute to alter
microstructure, providing natural soils with
higher pre-yielding stresses, higher stiffness and
fragile behaviour [6].
In order to study fabric and microstructure, six
samples of Prazeres clay were observed using
SEM. Sample preparation is very simple con-
sidering such sophisticated instrument. The sam-
ples were mounted directly on the stub, an alu-
minum disc of about 15 mm diameter, and using
an epoxy resin as embedding medium. Since
clays are nonconductors of electrons, the samples
were coated with a thin layer of gold-palladium
by evaporation under high vacuum to avoid
 M. Lopes Laranjo et al. / Some Basic Trends the Geotechnical Characteristics
charge build-up [8]. This thin coating does not
modify the surface details nor hinders viewing,
since the resolution of the SEM equipment over-
comes the thickness of the coating layer.
Results from the observation show a large va-
riety of contacts between particles. The overall
structure seems to be of a honeycomb (Figure 2),
suggesting that deposition has occurred quickly
in a turbulent environment. Both face-to-face and
Figure 2. Honeycomb-type structure
Figure 3. Face-to-face and edge-to-face contacts;
Figure 4. Different forms of iron sulfide (pyrite and marca-
site)
353
edge-to-face contacts were observed, as shown in
Figure 3. This can be explained by the variety of
particles in grain size and composition. The pres-
ence of pyrite (iron sulfide) was very strong, and
different crystalline structures of iron sulfide
were detected, as shown in Figure 4. Post-
deposition events, such as oxidation and dissolu-
tion of pyrite debris can lead to the formation of
marcasite.
3 INDEX PROPERTIES
The collection of data concerned 250 different
sites of construction works in Lisbon carried out
between 1975 and 2008, in which laboratory and
in situ tests were performed. Identification tests
are more common, and data comprises 452 sam-
ples, being 345 from Prazeres clay and 107 from
Forno do Tijolo clay. Depth varies significantly
between 1 m and 58 m, as does the ground eleva-
tion.
The results presented herein include grain size
distribution, water content, Atterberg limits, par-
ticle specific gravity and soil unit weight.
3.1 Grain size distribution
Prazeres clay shows a significant variety of parti-
cle sizes, being silt the most significant fraction.
The clay fraction was not available for every
sample, and to evaluate it a linear correlation
between the clay (CF) and the fine fraction (FF)
was used [9]:
CF 0.414 * FF  0.263 (1)
Using the above correlation to classify the
samples it is possible to identify silty clays
(68 %) and clayey silts (about 20 %), the re-
mainder being silty and clayey sands (12 %).
The grain size distribution in depth shows that
the percentage of clay does not significantly
vary, unlike the percentages of silt and sand. The
latter tends to diminish in depth, although the
number of samples analysed diminishes too.
Forno do Tijolo unit is typically more clayey
than Prazeres, although the grain size distribution
in depth is more variable.
354 M. Lopes Laranjo et al. / Some Basic Trends the Geotechnical Characteristics

60
The number of samples (n), the mean value
(P) and standard deviation (V) of the clay, silt 50
and sand fraction for both units are summarized
in Table 1. 40

IP (%)
Table 1. Descriptive statistics for grain size distribution 30
Prazeres clay Forno do Tijolo clay
Clay Silt Sand Clay Silt Sand 20
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
n 304 102 10 Prazeres clay
P 33.8 49.9 15.9 40.0 49.3 13.9 Forno do Tijolo clay
V 10.2 10.9 16.8 18.6 19.9 14.8 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
wL (%)
3.2 Water content
Figure 5. Casagrande plasticity chart for 300 samples of
Water content was determined for a very signifi- Prazeres clay and 102 samples of Forno do Tijolo clay
cant number of samples. The statistical values
are shown in Tables 2 and 3 for both Miocene 3.3 Soil weight
clays. The values are typical of low plasticity Soil unit weight and particle specific gravity do
stiff soils. not show significant variation either between dif-
Table 2. Descriptive statistic values for water content and At- ferent formations or within the same layers.
terberg limits - Prazeres clay
Mean values are as expected and follow the
w (%) wL (%) wP (%) IP (%) Ic (%) ranges reported in the literature [9]. Descriptive
n 299 301 301 304 255 statistic values are summarized in Table 4.
Min. 7.50 19.00 13.00 4.00 0.06
Max. 53.50 77.00 53.00 66.00 2.23 Table 4. Descriptive statistic values for soil unit weight and
P 19.91 40.38 20.41 20.27 1.06 particle specific gravity
V 5.29 11.80 5.15 9.42 0.29
Prazeres clay Forno do Tijolo clay
Table 3. Descriptive statistic values for water content and At- J (kN/m3) Gs J (kN/m3) Gs
terberg limits - Forno do Tijolo clay n 164 139 74 20
Min. 16.13 2.33 16.50 2.57
w (%) wL (%) wP (%) IP (%) Ic (%) Max. 23.76 2.76 23.60 2.78
n 102 103 103 103 98 P 20.37 2.64 20.28 2.70
Min. 5.70 21.00 9.70 2.00 0.03 V 1.02 0.09 1.10 0.06
Max. 33.50 65.00 32.00 41.00 2.30
P 19.92 38.65 21.22 17.43 1.10
V 4.47 9.74 3.71 8.08 0.31
Using Casagrande’s plasticity chart, as shown 4 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
in Figure 5, it is possible to observe that most of
the samples are classified as CL and CH. A The mechanical properties of Prazeres clay pre-
linear correlation between the plasticity index sented herein derive from both laboratory and in
and the liquid limit can be established for situ tests. Laboratory tests comprise uniaxial
Prazeres clay (2) and for Forno do Tijolo clay (3) compression and triaxial compression. The in
as follows: situ tests here reported concern cross-hole seis-
mic tests and SPT tests. The latter are typical for
stiff clay. Nevertheless, on top of the Miocene
IP 0.78 * ( wL  13.8) (R2=0.93) (2)
layers there is usually some decompression and
N60 values are often lower than 60.

IP 0.77 * ( wL  16) (R2=0.87) (3) 4.1 Uniaxial compression tests

Several uniaxial compression tests were under-
taken in samples from both Prazeres and Forno
 M. Lopes Laranjo et al. / Some Basic Trends the Geotechnical Characteristics 355

1200
do Tijolo clays. Uniaxial compression strength
values (qu) in depth are shown in Figure 6.
qu (kPa) 1000
y = 0,581x + 5,855
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000 R2 = 0,956

0
800 Prazeres clay

Forno do Tijolo clay

s (kPa)
10 600

y = 0,545x + 30,000
400 R2 = 0,838
20

200 Prazeres clay

Depth (m)

30 Forno do Tijolo clay

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
t' (kPa)
40 Figure 7. Failure envelope for Prazeres clay and Forno do Ti-
jolo clay

50 4.3 An example of characterization

Prazeres clay
Forno do tijolo clay
60
Figure 6. Uniaxial compression strength values
Despite the scatter for both units, uniaxial
strength values are generally lower for Forno do
Tijolo clay.
4.2 Triaxial compression tests
Data presented herein include triaxial compres-
sion tests performed on 50 samples of Prazeres
clay and 24 samples of Forno do Tijolo clay.
Some were isotropic consolidated and others
were sheared after K0 consolidation. Prazeres
clay samples were collected at depths between
2 m and 34 m in 14 different locations and Forno
do Tijolo clay samples were collected in 5 differ-
ent locations and at depths varying between 13 m
and 35 m.
Figure 7 shows the failure envelope for effec-
tive stresses for both clays. The linear correla-
tions presented provide values of 34 º and 33 º
for the angle of shearing resistance and 15 kPa
and 36 kPa for the effective cohesion, for
Prazeres clay and Forno do Tijolo clay, respec-
tively.
Some physical and mechanical parameters
obtained during geotechnical investigations for
the construction of Terreiro do Paço metro sta-
tion in Lisbon, which involved both laboratory
and in situ tests, are presented in this section. The
Miocene unit is Forno do Tijolo clay, and the re-
sults presented in Figure 8 include natural water
content and Atterberg limits, SPT results,
undrained shear strength from triaxial compres-
sion tests and deformation modulus (E0) obtained
from cross-hole seismic tests.
Natural water content results tend to decrease
in depth, as expected, and clearly indicate a stiff
clay, with Ic higher than or equal to 1.0. The
standard penetration tests generally provided
values over 60 blows.
Undrained shear strength values range from
200 kPa to 560 kPa, and do not show a clear
trend of variation with depth. The higher values
correspond to tests under higher consolidation
pressures.
E0 results range from 2400 MPa to 6600 MPa
and tend to increase with depth, especially if
minimum and mean values are considered. In-
terestingly, the evolution in depth seems to be
consistent with the one of SPT results.
356 M. Lopes Laranjo et al. / Some Basic Trends the Geotechnical Characteristics
w, wL, wP (%)
0 20 40 60 0 20
22
26
30
Depth (m)
34
38
42
46
50
Figure 8. Geotechnical parameters for Forno do Tijolo clay in the site of Terreiro do Paço station of Lisbon metro
5 CONCLUSIONS
The paper presented some general trends of the
geotechnical parameters of Prazeres and Forno
do Tijolo Miocene clays, which form a signifi-
cant part of the Lisbon substratum.
In Prazeres clay, the angular shape of the ag-
gregates and the presence of micas, detritic feld-
spars, and pyrite, clearly show that the deposition
occurred under direct influence of the sea.
Prazeres clay and Forno do Tijolo clay do not
reveal substantial differences in what physical
properties are concerned, except that the latter is
typically finer graded and more diverse.
The mechanical properties are in good agree-
ment for both units and suggest that Forno do Ti-
jolo clay is somewhat softer than Prazeres clay.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper was developed within the
PTDC/ECM/64167/2006 research project. SEM
analyses were performed at CEMUP using a de-
vice funded by REEQ/1062/CTM/2005 and
REDE/1512/RME/2005 research projects.
The authors wish to thank Metropolitano de
Lisboa, Geocontrole, Geotest, Tecnasol-FGE and
N60 cu (kPa) E0 (MPa)
40 60 0 200 400 600 0 1500 3000 4500 6000 7500
Mota-Engil for providing access to their geo-
technical database.
REFERENCES
[1] Antunes, M.T., et al., High resolution stratigraphy and
miocene facies correlation in Lisbon and Setúbal Penin-
sula (Lower Tagus basin, Portugal). Ciências da Terra
(UNL), 2000. 14: p. 183-190.
[2] Zbyszewski, G., Panorama sur la Geologie de la Ville de
Lisbonne. Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa,
1947. 65 Série(9-10).
[3] Moitinho de Almeida, F., Carta Geológica do Concelho
de Lisboa, S.G.d. Portugal, Editor. 1986, Serviços
Geológicos de Portugal.
[4] Gasparre, A., Advanced Laboratory Characterization of
London Clay. PhD in Department of Civil and Environ-
mental Engineering. Imperial Colege of London. 2005.
London. 598
[5] Leroueil, S. and D.W. Hight. Behaviour and properties
of natural soils and soft rocks. in Characterisation and
Engineering Properties of Natural Soils. 2002. Singa-
pore: A.A. Balkema.
[6] Hight, D.W. and S. Leroueil. Characterisation of soils
for engineering purposes. in Characterisation and Engi-
neering Properties of Natural Soils. 2002. Singapore:
A.A. Balkema Publishers.
[7] Burland, J.B., On the Compressibility and Shear Strength
of Natural Clays. Géotechnique, 1990. 40(3): p. 329-378.
[8] Bohor, B.F. and R.E. Hughes, Scanning Electron Mi-
croscopy of Clays and Clay Minerals. Clays and Clay
Minerals, 1971. 19(1): p. 49-54.
[9] Almeida, I., Características Geotécnicas dos Solos de
Lisboa. PhD Thesis in Geology. University of Lisboa.
1991. Lisboa. 485
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 357
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-357

 

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 363
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-363

On the properties of Cambrian clay and sandstones

Les caractèristiques de l'argile Cambrien et les pierres calcaires
poreuses
M.Mets 1, J. Miljan
Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
R. Raudsepp
Tallinn University of Technology

ABSTRACT
In present paper a overview of properties of Cambrian clay and sandstone in Estonia is given.

RÉSUMÉ
Les caractèristiques de l'argile Cambrien et les pierres calcaires poreuses.

Keywords: over consolidated clay, soft sandstone

1 GEOLOGICAL SITUATION method entails determining the distinctive points

The 500 million years old Cambrian sediments
have been subjected to various geological situa-
tions and conditions and the variety of this his-
tory is the reason why Cambrian sediments and
their behaviour under stress is very hard to pre-
dict. The formation of Cambrian sediment prop-
erties has been vastly influenced by the last ice
ages. The huge pressure induced by the weight of
the ice cap surely compacted the Cambrian clay.
However, large vertical stress and the tempera-
ture variance due to the ice load caused micro
cracks both in clay and in sandstone. The me-
chanical properties of Cambrian sediments vary
to a remarkable degree because of the micro
cracks.
The method of distinctive points [1] has been
used to describe Cambrian sediments. This
on the stress definition graphs from the compara-
tive analyses of the shear test and plate load test
results that show fundamental change in devel-
opment of deformations. In order to evaluate
these changes the method of settlement temporal-
ity is used [2]. This allows us to consider the ini-
tial deformation and the variations in settlement
speed. The structural strength (the pressure under
which the soil does not deform), the end of linear
deformation (creep point), the maximum strength
and residual strength are distinguished.
2 CAMBRIAN CLAYS
Cambrian clays crop out at the foot of the Klint
in Northern Estonia. In other parts of Estonia,
they are covered by later Palaeozoic sediments.

1
Corresponding Author.
364 M. Mets et al. / On the Properties of Cambrian Clay and Sandstones
The thickness of Cambrian clay sediments is
50…60 meters and it is made up by highly over-
consolidated layer. Natural water content at the
saturation degree of of 1 is Wn=8…20%, which
is lower than Wn=20…23% that was attained in
the course in the course of a Proctor test at
maximum compaction. This fact indicates that
the Cambrian clay has compacted under very
high pressures.
The weathering processes have influenced the
properties of Cambrian clays to the depth of a
couple of meters and have given rise to a signifi-
cant web of micro cracks that determines their
further activities. The formation of micro cracks
has been evoked by the movement of glaciers
above them or the rocks covering them. This was
accompanied by changes in temperature and wa-
ter content, as well as the earth respiration and
the subsequent changes in temperature. The an-
nual temperature changes sporadically affect the
layers in the depth of up to 10 m.
Depending on the geomorphology, the follow-
ing varieties among the Cambrian clays may be
differentiated according to their weathering de-
gree:
 The clays that lie deeper than 20…25 m are
very strong varieties and micro fissures oc-
cur in them only in case of geological dis-
orders. Their strength can rather accurately
be estimated by the drained test and on the
bases of laboratorial testing, their com-
pressibility usually appears much higher
than it is in reality. The building of the un-
derground in St. Petersburg and the founda-
tion of tunnels in Talinn have corroborated
the last assertion. The water content of
these clays is Wn= 8…12%.
 The micro-fissured clays that crop out in
the horizontal part of the relief or are cov-
ered with a few meters thick Quaternary
sediment layer. The greater water content
(Wn= 14…18%) is connected with the de-
velopment of micro fissures; due to these,
the strength of those clays is considerably
smaller than that of the previous variety.
Their strength has been influenced by cen-
turies – long changes in temperature and
the moisture regime and the shear deforma-
tions accompanied with the movement of
glacier (the majority of them must have ini-
tially been quite elastic). The surface of
these clays (in outcrops) has weathered
even more in the depth of 2…3 m and the
water content is Wn= 18…20%. This is
connected with annual temperature influ-
ences.
 The micro-fissured clays that crop out on
slopes and in pre-glacial relief deforma-
tions. Among those there are the clay mas-
sifs displaced in the course of old land-
slides - fissured material with the water
content of 22…24% and the strength con-
siderably smaller than the others described
above. These varieties have been influ-
enced by the shear deformations with the
plastic character accompanied brought
about by the movement of glaciers and the
rotational deformations accompanied with
them later. They have doubtless also been
influenced by the development of slope de-
formations, especially in the sea.
 The fourth variety of clays occurs only in
the Cambrian clays on the coast of the Bal-
tic Sea – in the area that gets incendated
during the storms. Due to the salty water
the Cambrian clays swell up with greater
intensity, their micro fissures widen and the
water content increases Wn= 28…30%. The
strength of these clays regardless of their
hard consistency does not differ from the
strength of weak soils. The Devonian clays
that have been in the outcrop for a long
time, also belong among this clay type.
These clays have strongly been weathered
by cold and water and that has affected
their bearing capacity.
 M. Mets et al. / On the Properties of Cambrian Clay and Sandstones 365

Table 1. The geotechnical properties of Cam- achieved using creep point. An example is given
brian clay. in what follows.
Wn,% 8-10 14-18 23-28 30-32 The Toolse castle was founded in the 15th
WL,% 38 38 40 43 century and immediately after the constuction
WP,% 24 26 28 30 works had ended,, the cracking and the horizon-
IP 14 12 12 13
’ƒ 26 30 28 28 tal settling of walls could be observed. These
C’ƒ, kPa 250 100 50 40 have lasted for five hundred years and are still
Yr 16 15 14 12 going on today. The reasons are simple enough:
Cuy, kPa 140 60 30 20 the castle of Toolse was built on Cambrian clay
Cuƒ, kPa 180 100 55 40
qy, MPa 1.0 0.4 0.15 0.1 near the sea. The clay layer is inclined towards
qƒ, MPa 1.4 0.8 0.6 0.3 the sea (inclination 1:5), this layer is covered
E0-pr, MPA 75.0 30.0 10.0 5.0 with a gravel layer (thickness 5…10 cm) and to-
M, MPa 20.0 10.0 8.0 5.0 wards the water flow to the sea. The upper layer
R, MPa 1.8 0.92 0.45 0.40
N0, MPa 7.8 3.5 1.4 1.2 of the Cambrian clay is decomposed and its
properties are given in the following table (table
Signs given in the tables: 2):
’ƒ – angle of internal friction of the so il, WL = 47…45% WP = 30…32% IP = 14…16%
drained test
C’ƒ – soil’s cohesion, drained test Table 2.
M – soil’s deformation modulus on the com- Layers Wn Cuy Cuƒ Y C’
pression test depth % kPa kPa kPa
0-1.0 30 20 40 28 40
R – bearing capacity calculated by the formula 1-3.0 25 30 50 - -
7 of SNiP 2.02.01.83 Over 3.0 22 40 70 28 50

N0 - bearing capacity calculated by the formu-

la 16 of SNiP 2.02.01.83 ( 
 TC?CL/
bigger than Cuy and smaller than Cuƒ and namely
E0-pr – deformation modulus with the test on this has caused the creep process during the cen-
the proportionality limit turies; that may be influenced also by the higher
value of the residual shear strength  r =14.
qy – proportionality limit fixed by the test
The assessment results of undrained strength
plate
and water content are given in figure 1. The data
qƒ – pile-driving load fixed by the test plate shows a good correlation between strength and
water content. On this figure, two areas can be
Cu – undrained shear strength on the creep
distinguished with Wn>13% and Wn13%. The
threshold
first area represents one with micro fissures,
Cuƒ – undrained shear strength. where the water content is connected with the
spreading of the cracks. This spreading is always
An analysis of the data from the table shows that accompanied by a loss in strength and in this
if one uses parameters obtained by undrained area Cuƒ can be determined on the bases of the
tests, the parameters are equal to the parameters water content.
obtained from field tests (creep point and ulti-
mate load). If using the parameters obtained by
drained tests, the bearing capacity (plate load
test) becomes overestimated multiple times. Also
for estimating slope stability, the only suitable
parameters are the undrained ones. Slope analy-
sis has shown that better results have been
366 M. Mets et al. / On the Properties of Cambrian Clay and Sandstones
Figure 1. Cuƒ = f(Wn).
If the water content is 13% or less, then there are
few or no micro fissures. In this area, strength is
determined by sandy interlayers which have usu-
ally become cemented. Cementation improves
strength parameters and these parameters are not
determined solely by water content.
The bearing capacity of piles in Cambrian
clay is determined by geological and geomor-
phological factors. In the lowland in front of the
Klint, Cambrian clay with the water content of
14…16% can be found. A decrease of micro
cracks can be observed when using the Vibrex or
the driven pile method, due to caused the ex-
pense of consolidation during pile works. The
side friction of a pile can rise up to 1 MPa and
the pressure under the pile's tip increases up to
7.5…8.5 MPa at creep limit and up to 100…120
MPa in the ultimate load. Near the coastline the
proportion of micro fissures is greater, probably
caused also by sea water. At the water content of
18% and above, the side friction of a pile is
0.02…0.05 MPa and at the water content above
25%, side friction is 0.15 MPa. Pressure under
the pile tip at creep limit is 4 and 2.5 MPa re-
spectively. Many settlements are recorded near
the shore line under the pressure that is less than
the creep limit. Hence, there must have been a
  
 
decrease in the creep limit and an increase of set-
tlement in time. There are many different expla-
nations proposed by several authors, nevertheless
there is still a long way to go to the final conclu-
sions.
3 CAMBRIAN SANDSTONES
The properties of Cambrian sandstone are highly
variable (uniaxial strength varies between
0,2…20 MPa) and they depend on the geological
history and also the gradation of sand and ce-
ment. The strongest sandstones can be found in
plains and the sand in it is coarse or medium
grained and combined with with iron cement.
The uniaxial strength of this sandstone is 10…20
MPa. The sandstone near the Klint are consid-
erably weaker, because of the micro cracks in-
duced by glacier movement. The uniaxial
strength of coarse grained sandstone is 5…8
MPa, fine grained sandstone 2.5…6 MPa and
siltstones (great content of silt and clay cement)
0.2…2.0 MPa.
In spite of the weakness of sandstone, no
problems with the bearing capacity or settle-
ments occurred when constructing 2…7 storey
buildings on shallow foundations. However, es-
timating slope stability and the excavation of
deep pits remains a greater problem.
Laboratory tests overestimate the strength of
sandstones, due to the fact that the weaker parts
of sandstone do not end up in the laboratory as
they tend to disintegrate during field-works.
A study of extremely weak sandstone showed
that Cuƒ=50…60 kPa was achieved during field-
works and in the laboratory the respective value
was Cuƒ=90…140 kPa. The direct shear test in
the laboratory showed the resultsTDL 
C=40 kPa (repeated shear test r=22…25I(
back calculations of a collapsed slope showed
the suitability of using back calculated shear
strength when evaluating slope stability.
A field study of weak sandstones showed the
values of Cuƒ=800 kPa and in the laboratory
Cuƒ=1700 kPa. During the inverted shear test the
values of =26…28 - 
with slope stability can be found in those sand-
stones and hence no inverted calculations have
been made.
The study of siltstone turned out to be more
complex. The strength of siltstone is greatly af-
fected by their silt and also water content. The
water content of siltstone may vary vastly; the
natural water content of siltstone is
Wn=12…25%; WP=19%; WL=29%; IP=10%.
 M. Mets et al. / On the Properties of Cambrian Clay and Sandstones 367

Based on field tests Cuƒ=40 kPa (Wn=18%) and

laboratory tests Cuƒ=200 kPa (Wn=18%). This
indicates a large difference between field and
laboratory test results and also the impact of wa-
ter content.
The laboratory tests of particular interest were
the ones in which soil was loaded with 0.7 of the
ultimate stress (water content was constant). As a
result, deformations subsided during these test.
However, when the sample was skirted with a
saturated towel, a break in the sample occurred
in 3…16 hours. The back calculated shear
strength of siltstone was r =14…16
Also in siltstone the suitable properties for
slope calculations is r and Cuƒ in case of field
tests. The pile load test carried out in sandstone
revealed that the ultimate bearing capacity of the
pile tip is bigger than it should be according to
Skempton’s formula. Pressure under the pile tip
%  ^u=20…40 MPa.

REFERENCES

[1] M. Mets, Iseloomulike punktide meetod, V Eesti Ehi-

tusgeoloogia kogumik (1991), 42-63.
[2] M. Mets, The soil’s strength, Baltic Geotechnics ’95
(1995), 35–39.
[3] M. Mets, P. Talviste, H. Torn, Strength of Paleozoic
clays, Baltic Geotechnics ’95 (1995), 43-46.
[4] M. Mets, A. Niin, L. Smirnov, Tiskre kihistu savika lii-
vakivi tugevusest, IX Eesti Geotehnika Konverents,
Teesid (1988), 66-67.
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 369
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-369

Les “Terres Noires” du Dauphiné, un cas de roche

très sensible aux variations climatiques
The Dauphiné “Black Marls”: a very sensitive weak rock
J. Monnet1
UJF-Grenoble 1 , CNRS UMR 5521, 3SR, Grenoble F-38041, France
D. Fabre
CNAM-Chaire de Géotechnique, Paris, France
M. Zielinski
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Strathclyde, UK

ABSTRACT
The Black Marls extend about a hundred of square kilometer in the South East of France. This Jurassic geological formation is
locally known under the name of “Black Marls”. The altered section of this formation is subject to many instability phenome-
non: slow and regular erosion of the bare sectors, slide slopes, mud flow. To understand the spatial extension and the evolution
mechanisms of this material, it was decided within the GIS Draix organization to carry out measurements by geological surveys,
, in-situ geo-mechanical tests and laboratory tests. To measure the vertical extension of the altered section of the Black Marl, it
the University of Grenoble carried out a series of in situ tests with the dynamic penetrometer Panda. These tests were completed
with laboratory experiments for geotechnical classification. Measurements of degradation under cycle drying-saturation follow-
ing standard NFP 94-067 were carried out and it was developed a new test of degradation under the influence of the cycle freez-
ing-thawing. The results indicates that the Black Marl is a rock which is altered along a decimeter vertical extension, with a geo-
technical classification SC (USCS) and A1-A2 (GTR).The results show an evolutive rock, very sensitive to the conditions of
water and freeze. The tests of degradation indicate a degradable rock under the cycle of water, but more degradable under the ac-
tion of freezing. The prevention of its evolution should be conducted by a spatial protection preventing it from the saturation-
dessiccation and freeze-thaw mechanism. This could be achieved by a surface filling of earth, whith a sufficient thickness to pre-
vent the observed degradations
RÉSUMÉ
Les Terres Noires couvrent plusieurs centaines de km2 dans les Alpes du Sud. Il s’agit d’une formation géologique jurassique,
connue localement sous le nom de “Terres Noires”. La tranche altérée de cette formation est sujette à de nombreux phénomènes
d'instabilité: érosion lente et régulière des secteurs non végétalisés, glissements de versants, coulées boueuses. . Pour mieux
comprendre l’extension spatiale et les mécanismes de l’évolutivité de ce matériau, en liaison avec les travaux du GIS Draix, il a
été décidé de réaliser à la fois des reconnaissances géologiques, géomécaniques in situ et des essais de laboratoire. Pour mesurer
l’extention verticale de la couche altérée des Terres Noires, il a été entrepris par l’Université de Grenoble une série de mesures in
situ au pénétromètre dynamique léger Panda. Ces essais ont été complétée par des expériences au laboratoire de classification
d’après les propriétés physiques. Des mesures de dégradalités sous cycle dessication-saturation selon la norme NFP 94-067 ont
été réalisées et il a été mis au point un nouvel essai de dégradabilité sous l’influence du cycle gel-dégel. L’ensemble de ces résul-
tats indique que la Terre Noire est une roche qui se présente sous un aspect dégradée selon un extension verticale décimétrique
de classe SC (USCS) et A1-A2 (GTR). Les essais de dégradabilité indique une roche peu dégradable sous le cycle de l’eau, mais
plus dégradable sous l’action du gel. La prévention de son évolutivité passe par une protection efficace contre les phénomènes de
saturation-désaturation réalisée par des couches protectrices de terre végétale suffisamment épaisse et plantée pour permettre la
prévention des mécanismes de dégradation identifiés.

Keywords: Weak rock, Weathering, Geotechnical properties, hydric cycle, freeze-unfreeze cycle
Mots clés : Roche tendre, Altération, Propriétés géotechniques, Cycle hydrique, Cycle gel-dégel

1
Corresponding Author.
370 J. Monnet et al. / Les “Terres Noires” du Dauphiné

1 INTRODUCTION L’épaisseur de la série est de plusieurs centaines

de mètres et atteint même 2000 m dans le Diois.
Les Terres Noires couvrent une superficie de
plusieurs centaines de kilomètres carrés dans le
Sud-Est de la France. Cette formation géologique
se présente sous la forme d’une roche tendre fi-
nement stratifiée à l’état intact. Sa composition
argilo-marneuse la rend très sensible à l’érosion
et elle se dégrade rapidement en formant un sol
composé de grains en plaquettes plus ou moins
argileuses et évolutives. Les Terres Noires sont
le siège de plusieurs grands glissements de ter-
rain notamment dans la région de Barcelonnette
(La Valette, Super Sauze…) ; et, plus générale-
ment, de phénomènes d’érosion de surface in- Figure 1 : Localisation des Terres Noires / Location of the
tense, maintenant bien étudiés sur le bassin ver- Black Marl
sant de recherche expérimentale de Draix près de
Digne, avec ravinement des versants et création
de nombreux chenaux de ruissellement.
Pour mieux comprendre l’extension spatiale et
les mécanismes de l’évolutivité de ce matériau,
en liaison avec les travaux du GIS Draix [1], il a
été décidé de réaliser à la fois des reconnaissan-
ces géologiques, géomécaniques in situ et des es-
sais de laboratoire. Les différents objectifs de
cette recherche ont portés successivement sur, la
reconnaissance de l’extention verticale de la cou-
che altérée par la résistance à la pénétration dy-
namique, sur la classification géotechnique de la
tranche altérée par identification physique, sur
les mécanismes d’altération de ce matériaux par
mesure de la dégradabilité sous le cycle de l’eau
et sous celui du gel.
Figure 2 : Paysage typique de “badlands” dans les Terres
Noires de la region de Draix / Typical landscape of badland
2 LOCALISATION DES TERRES NOIRES in Black Marl near Draix

Les principales régions où affleurent les Terres

Noires sont, du Nord au Sud ([2] et Figure 1), le
Trièves, le Diois, le Gapençais, les secteurs de
Barcelonnette, Laragne et Digne. Des variations
de faciès (intercalation de lits plus calcaires) sont
surtout présentes à la base de la série (Batho-
nien), à son sommet (Oxfordien moyen) et au
milieu (marno-calcaires du Bathonien sup. et
Callovien inf.). Ce dernier niveau sépare la série
en un « membre inférieur » et un « membre supé-
rieur » tous deux presque uniquement marneux.
3 PROBLEMES RENCONTRES
Les phénomènes d’érosion régulière y sont im-
portants et donnent des paysages de « badlands »
(Figure 2) avec de nombreux ravinements ; le
maintien de la végétation y est difficile. Des glis-
sements et des coulées de toutes tailles s’y pro-
duisent également, mettant en danger les voies de
communications, les aménagements hydrauli-
ques, les aires de loisir (nautisme au Lac de
Serre-Ponçon, stations de ski des Orres, de Pra-
 J. Monnet et al. / Les “Terres Noires” du Dauphiné
loup et du Sauze). De grands glissements de ter-
rain sont notamment observés dans la région de
Barcelonnette (La Valette [3], Super Sauze [4])
4 CARACTERISATION GEOTECHNIQUE
GENERALE
Les Terres Noires non altérées peuvent être con-
sidérées comme des roches tendres [5]. Dans cet
état leur résistance à la compression est de quel-
ques MPa. A l’interface avec l’atmosphère, elles
s’altèrent rapidement en réponse aux conditions
hydriques et aux cycles gel-dégel (voir plus loin).
Elles deviennent alors un sol de moins en moins
dur, au fur et à mesure que progresse l’altération.
Ce sol est constitué de grains en plaquettes plus
ou moins argileuses. La détermination de
l’épaisseur de la tranche altérée (le plus souvent
de l’ordre de 1 à 2m) a fait l’objet d’études sys-
tématiques à Draix, où l’on a utilisé conjointe-
ment des méthodes géophysiques (sismique,
électrique) et géomécaniques avec notamment de
nombreux essais [6] au pénétromètre dynamique
léger de type Panda (Figure 3).
Figure 3 : Exemple de diagramme de pénétration dans la
tranche altérée des marnes / Example of penetration diagram
into altered marl
4.1 Minéralogie
Sur le plan de la composition minéralogique [7],
nous retiendrons d’abord les valeurs caractéristi-
ques de la teneur en CaCO3 qui varie de 33 à 45
371
% selon les secteurs pour les marnes saines. Les
autres composants minéraux sont le quartz, les
micas, les argiles.. ; ceux-ci, déterminés aux RX
sur la fraction inférieure à 2μ sont l’illite (40 à
80 %), la chlorite (10 à 40 %) et les interstratifiés
illite-smectite (< 30 %). Ces derniers ne sont tou-
tefois pas toujours présents.
4.2 Granularité
Concernant les analyses granulométriques de la
tranche altérée, une grosse différence existe entre
les résultats des essais « à sec » et « par voie
humide » ; car ces derniers perturbent davantage
la structure de l’échantillon, tandis que les résul-
tats à sec sous-estiment largement les fines. Il est
donc difficile d’indiquer des valeurs caractéristi-
ques : globalement, il y a peu de fines « libres »
dans les essais à sec (30% < 2μ ) et elles appa-
raissent nettement pour les essais par voie hu-
mide où le pourcentage inférieur à 2μ peut at-
teindre 70 %.
4.3 Limites d’Atterberg. Valeurs de Bleu
Sur un ensemble de 52 échantillons [8],
l’interprétation des caractéristiques physiques
des Terres Noires montre une grande variabilité
des caractéristiques selon les échantillons choi-
sis. En général il s’agit de matériaux peu plasti-
ques (IP moyen de 11%) avec une limite de li-
quidité moyenne (wL moyen de 30 %).
On trouve également une Valeur de Bleu
moyenne (1,5 cm3/100g) qui est en concordance
avec la valeur moyenne de l’indice de plasticité.
L’étude de l’ensemble des résultats conduit à
bien distinguer deux états d’altération. Dans le
premier cas (régolite peu altéré), il s’agit d’un
matériau très granulaire et très peu plastique dont
le comportement s’apparente à celui d’une grave
très compacte. Dans le second cas (tranche alté-
rée), le matériau est décomposé et fin, et son
comportement est globalement celui d’un limon
peu plastique de classe USCS « SC » (sable argi-
leux) et de classe GTR « A1-A2 » sol fin peu
plastique à plastique)
372 J. Monnet et al. / Les “Terres Noires” du Dauphiné

5 ESSAIS MONTRANT LA SENSIBILITE hydriques ont une influence sur la granulométrie

AUX VARIATIONS CLIMATIQUES des Terres Noires sans doute par l’action de la
tension superficielle de l’eau. Cette dégradation
se traduit par une évolution du diamètre d10 qui
5.1 Programme expérimental est mesuré avant et après l’application des 6 cy-
Pour mesurer le caractère évolutif de cette for- cles [10].
mation [9], il a été décidé de réaliser des pré-
lèvements d’échantillons intacts, sur le site de
Draix, et de déterminer leur susceptibilité à la
dégradation de deux points de vue différents,
d’abord par rapport aux cycles dessication-
saturation qui sont le plus fréquents, et aussi par
rapport aux cycles gel-dégels qui se produisent
en hiver. Les échantillons ont été prélevés à la
pelle, pour 11kg, et divisés en deux parts, l’une
de 5,65kg et l’autre de 5,35kg.

Figure 5 : Etat initial avant essai de dessication-saturation /

Initial state before the dessication-saturation test

Figure 4 : Principe de l’essai de dessication-saturation / The

test of drying – saturation

5.2 Essai dessication-saturation

La Figure 4 montre le principe de l’essai réalisé
selon la norme NFP94-067 [10]. La granulomé-
trie de l’échantillon est mesurée avant l’essai de
dégradation en dessiccation-saturation pour con-
naitre la distribution de la taille des particules de
sol. Pour mesurer la susceptibilité de cette roche
sous condition hydraulique, l’échantillon est
soumis à 6 cycles de dessiccation-saturation. La Figure 6 : Etat final après essai de dessication-saturation /
Final state after the dessication-saturation test
dessiccation est obtenue par passage au four à
103°C pendant 16h, et la saturation est obtenue
5.3 Essai gel-dégel
par immersion de l’échantillon dans l’eau pen-
dant 8h. La figure 7 présente le principe de cette nouvelle
L’évolution de la granulométrie peut expérience qui permet d’estimer l'influence du
s’observer visuellement (Figure 5 et 6). Avant cycle gel-dégel sur la dégradation des Terres
essai l’échantillon est composé essentiellement Noires. Comme pour le premier échantillon, une
de grosses particules, et après les 6 cycles analyse granulométrique initiale a été effectuée
d’essai, la part de fines dans l’échantillon est pour connaitre la distribution en taille des parti-
plus importante. Ceci montre que les variations cules de sol. L'échantillon a ensuite été disposé
 J. Monnet et al. / Les “Terres Noires” du Dauphiné 373

dans un conteneur en plastique et placé au congé- grande augmentation de la partie fine de

lateur à -8°C. Après 16 h de gel, l'échantillon a l’échantillon. Cet essai montre l’influence
été dégelé et saturé entièrement par immersion qu’exerce la température et notamment le pas-
dans l’eau pendant 8h. La même procédure a été sage du gel au dégel sur la dégradation des Ter-
répétée 6 fois res Noires
Tableau 1 : Résultat des essais / Results of the tests
d10 d10 DG
avant essai après essai
mm mm
Essai dessica- 2,62 1,31 2
tion-saturation
Essai gel- 2,94 0,51 5,8
dégel

Figure 7 : Principe de l’essai de gel-dégel / The test of freez-

ing-unfreezing Avant
Dessication- 100
saturation
90
Après
80
dessication-
saturation 70
60
% Tamisat

50
40
30
20
10
0
0,1 1 10 100
Log(D) mm

Figure 8 : Etat initial avant essai de gel-dégel / Initial state

before the freeze-unfreeze test Figure 10 : Granulométrie avant et après essai de dessication-
saturation / Initial and final curves for the dessication-
saturation test

Avant Gel
100
AprEs Gel 90
80
70
60
50
40
% Tamisat

30
20
10
0
0,1 1 10 100
Figure 9 : Etat final après essai de gel-dégel / Final state after
the freeze-unfreeze test Log(D) m m

.
Figure 11 : Granulométrie avant et après essai de gel-dégel /
L’évolution de la granulométrie peut Initial and final curves for the freeze unfreeze test
s’observer visuellement (Figure 8 et 9) avec une
374 J. Monnet et al. / Les “Terres Noires” du Dauphiné
5.4 Résultats des essais
Les courbes granulométriques avant et après es-
sai sont indiquées pour les deux expériences (Fi-
gures 10 et 11). Le Tableau 1 donne l’évolution
du diamètre d10 avant et après essai.
Pour l’essai en dessication-saturation on me-
sure un indice de dégradabilité DG de 2 (rapport
des d10 avant et après essai). Les Terres Noires
se classent dans une gamme de matériau peu dé-
gradable (DG<5) pour les cycles hydriques avec
les seuils préconisés pour les travaux de terras-
sement [11]. Elles sont moins sensible à l’eau
que d’autre matériaux comme les grès pélitiques
micacés et/ou argileux de l’A89 [12], classés très
dégradable avec un coefficient DG supérieur à
100.
La sensibilité en gélifraction est plus impor-
tante avec un indice de dégradabilité au gel de
5,8. Ceci s’explique par l’effet de la prise en
glace de l’eau dans les fissures, avec une aug-
mentation de volume. Au dégel, les particules de
sol sont désolidarisées de la matrice et ont pro-
duit de nouvelles fines. Le matériau est moyen-
nement dégradable en gélifraction (5<DG<20).
6 CONCLUSION
Une série d’essais a été entreprise pour reconnai-
tre, identifier et mesurer la sensibilité des Terres
Noires à l’action de l’eau (cycle dessication-
saturation) d’une part et à l’action du gel (cycle
gel-dégel) d’autre part. Les résultats des essais
montrent un matériau évolutif, qui se présente
sous la forme d’une roche à l’état intact, et sous
un aspect dégradé sur une vingtaine ce centimè-
tre en surface. La forme altérée est un sable argi-
leux SC (USCS) et A1-A2 (GTR). La mesure de
la sensibilité au cycle de l’eau a montré une ro-
che peu sensible (DG=2). La mesure de la sensi-
bilité au gel a été réalisée par un nouvel essai de
gel-dégel qui indique un matériau deux fois plus
dégradable que sous l’eau (DG=5,8).
Ce matériau est donc très sensible aux varia-
tions climatiques. La prévention de l'érosion fait
appel aux techniques de végétalisation, lesquelles
sont de plus en plus difficiles à mettre en œuvre
quand la pente augmente. Si celle-ci dépasse 15°
la seule solution reste la construction de soutè-
nements souples et la constitution de terrasses
agricoles.
REFERENCES
[1] D. Richard, N. Mathys, Historique, contexte technique
et scientifique des BVRE de Draix. Caractéristiques,
données disponibles et principaux résultats acquis au
cours des dix ans de suivi, Les bassins versants expéri-
mentaux de Draix, laboratoire d'étude de l'érosion en
montagne. Cemagref éditions, collection Colloques,
Antony, 2009, 11-28
[2] P. Artru, Les Terres Noires du bassin rhodanien (Bajo-
cien supérieur à Oxfordien moyen). Stratigraphie, sé-
dimentologie, géochimie, Thèse es Sciences, Université
Claude Bernard, Lyon, 1972, 178 p.
[3] O. Maquaire, J.-P. Malet, A. Remaître, J. Locat, S.
Klotz, J. Guillon, Instability conditions of marly hill-
slopes: towards landsliding or gullying. The case of the
Barcelonnette basin, South East France. Engineering
Geology, 2003, 70(1-2), 109-130
[4] O. Maquaire, J.-C. Flageollet , J.-P. Malet. et al., Une
approche multidiscipliaire pour la connaissance d'un
glissement-coulée dans les marnes noires (Super-Sauze,
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France). Revue Fr. Géotech.,
2001, n° 95-96, 15-31.
[5] A. Guilloux et al., Note sur la définition des « Sols In-
durés Roches Tendres », Revue Fr. Géotech., 2005,
no111, 59-66.
[6] O. Maquaire, A. Ritzenthaler, D. Fabre, B. Ambroise,
Y. Thiery, E. Truchet, J.-P. Malet, J. .Monnet, Caracté-
risation des profils de formations superficielles par pé-
nétrométrie dynamique à énergie variable : application
aux marnes noires de Draix (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence,
France), Comptes Rendus à l’Académie des Sciences,
Géosciences, 2002, 334, 1-7.
[7] T.S.H. Phan, Propriétés physiques et caractéristiques
des Terres Noires du Sud-Est de la France, Thèse Uni-
versité Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, 1993, 246 p.
[8] J. Monnet., D. Fabre, Propriétés géotechniques de la
tranche altérée des Terres Noires (Alpes du Sud,
France), Workshop GIS Draix, Digne, 2003, 8 p.
[9] M. Zielinski., Low and high temperature reaction ef-
fects on black marls degradations in the experimental
area ORE Draix, Master 2 work, Gdansk University of
Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering., 2005
[10] Afnor, Norme NFP 94-067, Sols : reconnaissance et es-
sais – Mesures du coefficient de dégradabilité des maté-
riaux rocheux, 1992.
[11] Guide technique SETRA-LCPC, Réalisation des rem-
blais et des couches de forme, Fascicule 1, Principes
généraux, 1992
[12] S. Bernhard, J.Bimbard, J.P. Lejeune, Réutilisation de
pélites évolutives en remblai : un chantier expérimental
sur l’autoroute A89, Bul.Liais.Ponts Chaus. • n°274 •
janvier/février/mars 2009, 47-62.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 375
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-375

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 381
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-381

A new concept to identify and characterize active

clays
Un concept nouveau d’identifier et caracteriser les argiles
actives
A. Stanciu, 1 I. Lungu, L. Ciobanita & M. Aniculaesi
Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi, 43 D. Mangeron, 700050 Iasi, Romania

ABSTRACT
The paper proposes to geotechnical engineers a new concept to identify active clays based on the meaning of a graphical repre-
sentation – the soil chart – originated from a Romanian Standard, that unifies the Casagrande’s chart (LL-PI), the Skempton’s
chart (IA) with the granulometric curve of the investigated soil. The normalized area of the soil chart An = f(LL; PI; IA;P90 ;A2P)
is considered a composite indicator of the soil swelling-contraction potential. Thus, a new index is proposed, based on a similar
structure with the soil liquidity index (IL=1-IC) to estimate the soil swelling-contraction potential, as the activity coefficient. This
one correlates the normalized areas of the soil chart for two clays developing extreme behaviour, kaolinitic clay ( ACn ) and
montmorillonitic clay respectively ( AMn ), with the normalized area of the investigated soil ( AOn ), resulting in the activity coeffi-
cient (CA). This new and original concept has been calibrated by laboratory tests using kaolinitic and montmorillonitic clays
from Romania and as the investigated soil, and active clay present in the flat area of the Bahlui River, frequently found as the
foundation soil in Iasi city and county. The obtained results compared with the other indices ( UL; IA; A2¡; Cp; ws; Cv, w15; qmax;
pu) presented in the corresponding literature are considered relevant and useful to acknowledge the activity coefficient (CA) as a
new physical parameter integrating all the other classical ones, that characterizes the intensity of the swelling-contraction phe-
nomena anticipated during the geotechnical design on construction sites on active clays.

RÉSUMÉ
A partir de l'interprétation d'une représentation graphique appelée l'empreinte du sol, propre à un standard roumain, qui réunit le
diagramme Casagrande (LL - PI), le diagramme Skempton (IA) et la courbe granulométrique du sol étudié, le papier soumet a
l'attention des géotechniciens un nouveau concept d'identification des argiles actives. La taille de la superficie normalisée de
l'empreinte An = f(LL; PI; IA; P90 ;A2P) est considérée comme un indicateur composite du potentiel de gonflement-contraction
d'un sol. En conséquence, par la similitude de structure avec l'indice de liquidité (IL = 1-IC) des sols, on propose une nouvelle
grandeur physique pour l'estimation du potentiel de gonflement-contraction des sols, sous la forme d'un coefficient d'activité. Ce
coefficient met en corrélation les superficies normalisées de l'empreinte pour deux argiles avec des comportements extrêmes, ar-
gile kaolinique ( ACn ) et respectivement argile montmorillonique ( AMn ), avec la superficie normalisée du sol étudié ( AOn ), en ob-
tenant un coefficient d'activité (CA). Ce nouveau concept original a été calibré par des tests de laboratoire, utilisant les argiles
kaoliniques et montmorilloniques en provenance de Roumanie. Le sol étudié a été une argile active présente dans les plaines de
la rivière Bahlui, fréquemment rencontré comme terrain de fondation dans la ville et le comté de Iasi. Les résultats obtenus,
comparés avec d'autres indices (UL; IA; A2¡; Cp; ws; Cv, w15; qmax; pu) présents dans la littérature, sont considérés relevants et
utiles pour consacrer le coefficient d'activité (CA) comme une nouvelle grandeur physique intégrant les grandeurs classiques qui
caractérisent l'intensité des phénomènes de gonflement-contraction anticipés dans la fondation sur des emplacements contenant
des argiles actives.

Keywords: active clay, kaolinitic clay, montmorillonitic clay, soil chart, new and original coefficient of activity

1
Corresponding Author.
382 A. Stanciu et al. / A New Concept to Identify and Characterize Active Clays
1 GENERALITIES
Soils with high swells and shrinkages (active
clays) can determinate, when moisture content
varies, volume variations (swells-shrinkages) of
the foundation soil, generally non-uniform both
in plan and depth. Constructions founded directly
on these soils are subjected to supplementary ac-
tions because of the swelling pressure and/or
support failure (settlements due to shrinkages)
that can determinate in some situations failure or
severe alteration of the functionality or stability
of these constructions. Assurance against the oc-
currence of such phenomena requires a set of
measures regarding both the foundation soils and
the construction structures. These measures need
to be designed as adaptable according to the es-
timated volume variations, without endangering
the service state, stability and bearing capacity.
Consequently, the identification and characteri-
zation of these soils is required, since they are
similar with others from the granulometric view-
point but they display a swell-shrinkage poten-
tial, and at the same time the quantification of
this potential based on certain parameters estab-
lished either theoretically or experimentally. The
available investigation options [1], [2], [3], [4],
are not only very diverse, but they also provide
many times controversial results.
2 HYPOTHESES ON THE SOIL
SWELLING AND SHRINKAGE
Swelling and contraction of clayey soils, as dis-
plays of the solid-liquid-gas interface phenom-
ena, have been and are still explained based on
the following hypotheses: [1], [5], [6]: the capil-
lary pressure hypothesis and the electro-
molecular attraction hypothesis. According to the
capillary pressure hypothesis [1], [5], the soils
shrinkage would develop due to the deform-
ability of the mineral skeleton/reduction of po-
rosity under the induced capillary pressures
within their mass by the capillary meniscuses.
The soil swell, according to this hypothesis
would develop mostly due to the elastic recovery
of the solid skeleton, by the capillary meniscus
disappearance, the capillary pressure respectively
accompanying the soil saturation. It cannot be
explained still, according to this hypothesis why
soils display larger swells than shrinkages when
the last ones, as elastic recoveries, should be
smaller due to the permanent deformations.
Swell and shrinkage, based on the electro-
molecular hypothesis [1], [6], are determined by
the modification of the particle inter-distances,
based on the wedge effect induced when the
layer thickness of the adsorbed water increases
or decreases, as consequence of the system equi-
librium tendency, as to provide the same neu-
tralization degree of the electrostatic fields
around particles, and implicitly to create equal
adsorbed water envelopes around them. When
soil swell would be detained, then swelling pres-
sures (pu) develop on the restricting element as
larger (2-3 daN/cm2) as the initial soil moisture
content is reduced and the thickness of the ad-
sorbed water layer according to the soil type is
higher.
2.1 Factors influencing the swell-shrinkage
potential
The soil volume variations, in the same condi-
tions of moisture content variations, are differen-
tiated by the interfacing phenomena intensity,
displayed as thickness of the adsorbing complex.
Consequently, the factors determining the swell-
shrinkage potential of a certain soil are [1], [5],
[6] the same factors that induce the thickness of
the adsorbing complex which are: particle di-
mensions and shape, mineralogical composition,
environment conditions (electrolytic concentra-
tion, pH, salinity), nature of the adsorbed cations.
These factors provide the soil with a certain
value of the swell-shrinkage potential, which can
be activated or not depending on the existence or
not of the moisture content variations. The swell
potential activation is determined by the follow-
ing factors [1], [4]: the climatic factor, that im-
poses the temperature and moisture content
variations within the soil; the hydrological condi-
tions; the densification state; the vegetation on
the site location; the moisture content variation
during the construction process or during the
service period.
 A. Stanciu et al. / A New Concept to Identify and Characterize Active Clays 383

3 PREDICTION AND
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ACTIVE
CLAYS

The swell-shrinkage potential is dependent on

the granulometric composition (as available spe-
cific surface for the interfacing phenomena to
manifest) directly correlated with the chemical
and mineralogical composition of the solid parti-
cles (montmorillonite displays the largest avail-
able adsorption potential of the hydrated ions and
the Van der Waals forces between the threefold
platelets [1], [5], [6] are reduced). Indirectly, this
causality can be considered as explicated by the
value of the liquid limit (LL), the one displayed
in the Casagrande’s chart (PI, LL) developed
later with the location of the main clayey miner-
als by Chleborad [7], and by Skempton (IA =
PI/A2¡) with later adaptations of the domains
given by Seed [4], Van der Merwe [8].
In all cases, the fundamental indices (PL, LL,
A2¡) are correlated with the derived indices (PI, Figure 1. Soil chart structure according to Silvan Andrei
IA) in order to estimate for a particular clay the
activity level as swell-shrinkage potential. The
first step towards structuring a composite index
was made for the first time graphically [2] [3], by
charts unification in a single structure, the soil
chart (figure 1). This one includes the identifica-
tion Casagrande’s chart, the Skempton’s chart
and the granulometric curve. The size of its area
constitutes a prime criterion to characterize the
swell-shrinkage potential of a certain soil [2],
[1]. A reference circle is introduced to scale the
drawing along the four axes, intercepting the
points for 50% value of LL, PI, Xd and 1mm di-
ameter along the diameter axis, with the corre-
sponding surface considered to compute the
normalized surface of the chart ( An A Acircle ).
Compared to the classical display of the soil
chart (figure 1) [3], the present paper introduces
several improvements (figure 2). Thus,
Casagrande’s – Chleborad’s chart is proposed
within the Ist quadrant [7] and Skempton’s chart
in Van der Merwe’s form [8] within the IInd
quadrant. Two soils with extreme behaviours are Figure 2. Soil chart structure according to Stanciu et all
considered to establish the variation limits of the developed with a maximum content of kaolin,
minimum and maximum soil chart surface. Thus, the clayey mineral that induces a certain rigidity
soil charts from each specific country will be of the clayey soil structures against water action.
384 A. Stanciu et al. / A New Concept to Identify and Characterize Active Clays
These are presently used for pottery making, be-
cause it is considered that they provide a negligi-
ble shrinkage potential during the burning proc-
ess.
The average value of these charts will be de-
noted with AC and normalized by being divided
to the reference circle surface, resulting in
ACn AC Acircle . For soils that would display
maximum variation of volume, the ones with
montmorillonite with sodium complex will be
considered. The average normalized surface of
these soils corresponding chart will be denoted
n
as AM AM Acircle .
An ordinary soil considered as the foundation
soil ( AOn ), will behave, depending on the mois-
ture content variation, in between the behaviour
of the kaolinitic clay and the montmorillonitic
clay respectively. Thus, one considers that the
normalized surface of this soil ( AOn ) will fit in
between the two limits previously established,
similar to the soil moisture content between the
two limits of plasticity ( PL d w d LL ) and re-
spectively ( ACn d AOn d AMn
).
Representing the values of these normalized
surfaces along the axis (figure 3) one can define
an activity coefficient ( C A ), similar as structure
with the liquidity index ( I L 1  I C ), that would
characterize the swell-shrinkage potential for a
certain clay with a relationship as it follows:
Figure 3. Defining the activity coefficient and
characterization of soils activity according to Stanciu et all
The extreme values of the activity coefficient
for a specific soil with the normalized surface of
the chart result as:
x CA  0 – for AOn d ACn , fact that would in-
dicate that the soil does not possess a
swell-shrinkage potential / inactive or at
the most to the level of the kaolinitic clay.
x CA = 1 – for AO
n
AMn , fact that would
indicate that the soil possess a maximum
swell-shrinkage potential, to the level of
the montmorillonitic clay with a sodium
complex.
For values 0 < CA < 1 the activity domain has
been divided in 4 zones and thus:
x 0 < CA < 0.25 – soils with low activity;
x 0.25  CA < 0.50 – soils with medium ac-
tivity;
x 0.50  CA < 0.75 – soils with high activ-
ity;
x 0.75  CA < 1.00 – soils with very high
activity.
4 CHARACTERIZATION OF THE
KAOLINITIC CLAY FROM SUNCUIUS
Samples have been extracted from deposit of
kaolinitic clay (kaolinite) located in the village
Suncuius, Romania, to establish the chart of the
n
kaolinitic clay ( AC ) that enters the relationship
(1).
Laboratory investigations resulted in characte-
ristic geotechnical indices for the kaolinitic clay
with the following mean values:
x granulometric fraction less than 2 ¡
A2¡ = 18.45%
x plasticity index PI = 20.74%
x activity index IA = 1.12
x plasticity criterion Cp = 14.84
x free swell UL = 78.33%
One can conclude that by activity, depending
on the classical indices, the kaolinitic clay would
fit between the active and less active soils. Fig-
ure 4 presents the kaolinitic clay chart with the
normalized dimensionless surface ACn 2.43 .
 A. Stanciu et al. / A New Concept to Identify and Characterize Active Clays 385

Figure 5. Chart of the montmorillonitic clay with sodium

complex (bentonite) from Valea Chioariului, Romania
Figure 4. Chart of the kaolinitic clay from Suncuius, Romania

6 CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BAHLUI

5 CHARACTERIZATION OF THE
CLAY
MONTMORILLONITIC CLAY FROM
VALEA CHIOARIULUI
The Bahlui clay is present in 5-9m thickness
within an alluvium complex from the plain of the
Samples have been extracted from the deposit of
Bahlui River – Iasi. The chemical analyses per-
montmorillonitic clay (sodium bentonite) located
formed on the Bahlui clay [9] indicate the mas-
in Valea Chioariului, Romania, in order to de-
sive participation of the montmorillonite – figure
termine the maximum values of the soil chart.
6, the Ist quadrant. Laboratory investigations re-
Laboratory investigations resulted in charac-
sulted in characteristic geotechnical indices for
teristic geotechnical indices for the sodium ben-
the Bahlui clay with the following mean values:
tonite with the following mean values:
x granulometric fraction less than 2 ¡
x granulometric fraction less than 2 ¡
A2¡ = 69.68%
A2¡ = 44.68%
x plasticity index PI = 59,89%
x plasticity index PI = 99.48%
x activity index IA = 0,90
x activity index IA = 2.24
x plasticity criterion Cp = 52.27
x plasticity criterion Cp = 81.81
x free swell UL = 185.33%
x free swell UL = 633.33%
To predict and characterize the Bahlui clay,
Thus, the sodium bentonite is included in the
classical indices with their mean values have
category of very active soils, with the highest ac-
been analyzed against activity limits for clay
tivity from all investigated soils. The chart of this
characterization [1], [3]. Thus, the Bahlui clay is
soil is presented in figure 5, with the normalized
n
very active A2¡ = 69.68% > 30%; PI = 59.89% >
dimensionless surface AM 7.21 . 35%; PI = 59.89% > Cp = 52.27%; UL =
185.33% > 140% and only active based on the
386 A. Stanciu et al. / A New Concept to Identify and Characterize Active Clays
Skempton’s activity index IA = 0.9, as being be-
tween 1.00 and 1.25. One can conclude that the
clay from the Bahlui plain is very active. The
Bahlui clay chart is presented in figure 6, with a
normalized dimensionless surface AOn 5.09 .
Figure 6. Chart of the Bahlui clay, Romania
The activity coefficient of the Bahlui clay, ac-
cording to relationship (1) is based on the nor-
malized surfaces of the kaolinite and sodium
bentonite charts (figure 4 and 5), resulting in:
AOn  ACn 5.09  2.43
CA 0.556
AMn
 ACn 7.21  2.43
Based on the value ( C A 0.556 ) of the new
activity coefficient defined as a composite-
integrating index (PI, IA, LL) and the proposed
characterization (figure 3) the clay from the plain
of the Bahlui River is a clay with high activity.
7 CONCLUSIONS
It often resulted from the analysis of the existing
indices from literature where active soils are
identified and characterized, that there are some
contradictions on the final results, especially re-
garding the scaling of the activity potential (e.g.:
after Van der Mewre – very high, after Skempton
– medium). The proposed activity coefficient
( C A ), as a composite index that integrates the
updated charts of Casagrande-Chleborad and
Skempton-Van der Merwe with the granulomet-
ric curve, is considered to better describe the in-
timacy of the swell/shrinkage phenomena and
that to provide a higher reliability than the previ-
ous ones. As a consequence of the above men-
tioned issues and in order to take into account the
specific characteristics specific to the formation
of each sedimentary deposit of clay, it is neces-
sary for using CA to establish the extreme nor-
malized surfaces of kaolinitic ( ACn ) and mont-
n
morillonitic with sodium complex ( AM ) clays.
These will be reference elements for clay activ-
ity, an intrinsical property as plasticity. C A in-
dex is alike as structure with I L 1  I C , the
and calculus requires only routine geotechnical
laboratory tests.
REFERENCES
[1] A. Stanciu, I. Lungu, Foundations – I, Technical Pub-
lishing House Bucarest, Romania, 2006 (in Romanian)
[2] S. Andrei, S. Manea, - La systematisation, le stokage,et
la reutilisation de information geotechniques, Revue
française de Géotechnique 78 (1997)51-61
[3] *** STAS 1913/12, Determination of the physical and
mechanical characteristics for soils with swellings and
shrinkages, Romanian Standardization Institute, 1988
[4] C. Lucian - Geotechnical Aspects of Buildings on Ex-
pansive Soils in Kibaha, Tanzania:, Preliminary Study -
Licentiate Thesis, Royal Institute of Technology Stock-
holm, Sweden, 2006
[5] De Rattan Lal - Principles of Soil Physics, Taylor Fran-
cis Publisher, 2004
[6] A.A. Abed - Numerical Modeling of Expansive Soil Be-
havior - Institut für Geotechnik der Universität Stutt-
gart , Germany, 22, 2008
[7] A.F. Chleborad, M.A. Osman, E.M. Ali, Geotechnical
properties of selected materials from the Slimgullion
landslide,http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/b2130/Chapter1.html
[8] D.H. Van der Merwe, Contributions to Speciality Ses-
sion B, Current theory and practice for building on ex-
pansive clay: Proceedings of the 6th Reg. Conf. for Af-
rica on SMFE,(1975), Durban, vol.2
[9] N. Boti, Contributions on studying the shrinkage soils
from the foundation ground in the Iasi city area, Doc-
toral Thesis, Romania, 1974 (in Romanian)
2.1. Selection of Parameters
Sélection des paramètres
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 389
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-389

Foundation of a gravity dam on layered soft rock.

Shear strength of bedding planes in laboratory and
large “in situ” tests
Fondations d’un barrage en arc sur des bancs de roc tendre.
Resistance en cisaillement des plans de stratification en
laboratoire et essais in situ à grande échelle
E.E. Alonso1, N.M. Pinyol and J.A. Pineda
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Dep. Ingeniería del Terreno, Cartográfica y Geofísica,
Barcelona, Spain
ABSTRACT
A 100 m high gravity dam (Castrovido dam, Burgos, Spain) is founded on a soft Weald red siltstone with interbedded sandstone
strata. Dam stability is essentially controlled by the available shear strength of sedimentation planes. Block samples were recov-
ered for the different types of contact identified. They were tested in high capacity shear box machine (30x30 cm) and in large
scale shear tests. The roughness of the sheared plane was determined after each one of the tests. Additional information includes
the results of residual strength tests performed on clay fillings on a ring shear apparatus.
The results of all the tests performed are compared in the paper showing the effect of field surface roughness. The paper also
discusses the procedure followed to select an appropriate strength envelope for design purposes on the basis of all the available
information. The case points out the difficulty to select unambiguously a suitable design strength for the critical sedimentation
surfaces despite the efforts displayed in the field and in the laboratory.

RÉSUMÉ
Un barrage en arc de 100 m d’hauteur (Barrage de Castrovido, Burgos, Espagne) a été fondé sur de limonites Weald rouges et
tendres avec des bancs inter stratifiés en grès. La stabilité du barrage est essentiellement contrôlée par la résistance au cisaille-
ment disponible des plans de sédimentation. Des échantillons en bloc ont été récupérés pour les différents types de contact iden-
tifiés. On les a testés dans une boîte de cisaillement d’haute capacité (30x30 cm) et dans des essais à grande échelle. La rugosité
du plan de cisaillement a été déterminée après chacun des essais. L’information additionnelle inclut les résultats de tous les es-
sais de résistance résiduelle effectués sur les remblais en argile dans un appareil de cisaillement annular.
Les résultats de tous les essais effectués sont comparés dans cet article, qui montre l'effet de la rugosité de surface. L’article
traite également de la procédure suivie pour sélectionner une enveloppe de résistance appropriée à des fins de conception sur la
base de toutes les informations disponibles. Le cas souligne la difficulté de choisir sans ambiguïté un calcul de résistance appro-
priée pour les surfaces de sédimentation critique malgré les efforts sur le terrain et en laboratoire.

Keywords: shear strength, sedimentation planes, dam foundation, insitu shearing tests.

1 INTRODUCTION At the site of the dam, the rock structure is

Castrovido gravity dam, a 100 m high structure
in its central part, is founded on sedimentary
rocks deposited in the upper Jurassic, lower Cre-
tacic period (Weald facies). Rocks are dominated
by siltstones and interbedded sandstones.
dominated by the sedimentation planes. This is
shown in Figure 1a. The plot provides density
contours of 194 discontinuity planes taken during
a geological survey of the excavation for the dam
foundation. The dominant orientation corre-
sponds to sedimentary planes, which dip on av-

1
Corresponding Author.
390 E.E. Alonso et al. / Foundation of a Gravity Dam on Layered Soft Rock

erage 18º. Figure 1a shows also the orientation,

in plan view, of the dam. Dam thrust is therefore
directed against the dip of sedimentation planes.
The situation in a cross-section of the dam is
given in Figure 1b. It is clear that the dam stabil-
ity is essentially controlled by the shear strength
available on sedimentation planes.

Family orientations
1m 20/154
3m 26/246
6m 75/266

Dam orientation

Equal angle Figure 2. A representative cut of the Weald formation up-

Lower hemisphere
194 poles stream of the dam.
194 entries

(a) This paper describes the methodology fol-

lowed to obtain the representative shear strength
of these planes. Excavations for the dam founda-
tion offered an excellent opportunity to observe
“in situ” the geomechanical characteristics of the
sedimentation planes. Block samples including
discontinuities could be taken at different loca-
tions and tested in a 30×30 cm shear box. In ad-
dition, large scale “in situ” test (80×80 cm) were
also performed on sandstone- siltstone planar
transitions. These basic tests were completed by
additional information coming from annular
shear tests on remolded samples taken from
(b)
some joint infillings and also from an evaluation
Figure 1. (a) Density contours of sedimentation planes; (b) of the roughness of some sedimentation planes.
Cross-section of the dam showing the dip of sedimentation The set of results exhibited a significant scatter
planes.
but it helped to adopt a shearing strength crite-
rion adopted later in dam stability calculations.
A representative cut of the weald formation
immediately upstream of the dam position is
shown in Figure 2. The photograph shows the
sequence of siltstone and sandstone layers. The
photograph illustrates also the expected contacts
between the lithological units. Sedimentation
contacts are expected inside the siltstone and the
sandstone banks. In addition, a frequent contact
is given by a sharp transition between sandstone
levels and clays.

Figure 3. Sedimentation planes inside sandstone banks with

high content of mica.
 E.E. Alonso et al. / Foundation of a Gravity Dam on Layered Soft Rock
2 FEATURES OF SEDIMENTARY PLANES
It is useful, before examining the results of shear
tests, to present some “in situ” observations on
the geometry, texture and materials exposed on
sedimentation discontinuities.
Consider first the sedimentation planes sepa-
rating beds of sandstone. They are often covered
by high concentrations of muscovite mica (Fig.
3). Mica was a mineral present also in the silt-
stone levels, but it seemed to concentrate on
sandstone layering planes. An x-ray diffraction
analysis of the filling of a sandstone sedimenta-
tion plane provided de following results: musco-
vite (high content), quartz (medium), caolinite,
chlorite, albite and microcline (low). The lateral
extent and persistence of mica concentrations in
sandstone layers was difficult to establish, how-
ever.
Sedimentation surfaces in the siltstone were
rougher. When wetted, the surfaces had a shiny
appearance although no clear evidence of pre-
shearing was found.
Contacts between sandstone layers and silt-
stone received special attention. Large scale
shearing tests concentrated on these surfaces. In
one of the test emplacements, a relatively large
area (10×5 m) was excavated to show the scale
of roughness of the sedimentation plane. Jumps
providing some interlocking could be observed.
Some of the shear tests performed included one
of these features within the 80×80 cm test sur-
face. In other locations, the sandstone- siltstone
contact was shown to be planar. Again the lateral
continuity of the planar joints was difficult to es-
tablish.
The mineralogy of the siltstone was investi-
gated by x-ray tests: quartz (high concentration),
illite or mica (medium), calcite (medium), chlo-
rite and caolinite (low concentration). This com-
position can be attributed to the planes siltstone
sedimentation.
3 DIRECT SHEAR TESTS ON BLOCK
SAMPLES
Block samples containing a discontinuity were
often irregular. They were first cut to a maxi-
391
mum dimension of 30×30 cm. Often, available
blocks had smaller dimension. In this case the
test required a previous conditioning of the sam-
ple. Each of the blocks separated by the joint was
placed in a mould, in which a mortar was poured.
In this way the irregular rock sample would fit
precisely into the shear box. The lower half of
the sample was first prepared. After a 24 hour
curing period, a fine sand layer was placed on
top of the concrete to separate the lower and up-
per blocks. This thin intermediate sand layer
marks the position of the shear plane.
Tensión de corte (kg/cm2)
4
J4
3 J10
J14
2 J15 20º
1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Efective normal stress (kg/cm2)
Figure 7. Direct shearing test on siltstone - siltstone contacts.
The strength envelopes of siltstone - siltstone
contacts are given in Figure 7. Three of the joints
tested exhibited friction angles in the vicinity of
24º. In one additional sample (J10) the friction
was lower (# 19º). In all cases joints were soaked
for a 24 hour period before testing. Relative dis-
placement rates were very low to ensure drained
conditions. No apparent cohesion was measured
in all the tests performed on the 30×30 cm shear
box. Table 1 provides a summary of the tests per-
formed.
Ring shear tests on the joints infillings were
also performed. Results are also given in Table 1.
Mica content has a definite effect in reducing
friction. Smooth planar planes within the sand-
stone banks exhibit frictions equal to residual
values. On the other hand, the rougher sedimen-
tary surfaces within the siltstone reach higher
friction angles (24º). Residual friction of the rock
matrix material in these cases is again controlled
by the mica content. Some comments on the
scale effect on strength, inspired by the results
obtained, are also given in the table.
392 E.E. Alonso et al. / Foundation of a Gravity Dam on Layered Soft Rock

Table 1. Direct shear laboratory tests on sedimentary planes. A plot of shear load-shear displacements for
30×30 cm shear test box.
test MD-1 on the right abutment of the dam is
Type of Friction Residual shown in Figure 9. Shear behavior was ductile in
Observations
joint angle friction
all the tests performed. A limiting shear-stress
Sandstone
14º 14º Limited scale effect was usually found for very small relative dis-
+ mica
Sandstone- Residual friction placements (a fraction of 1 mm). In the case rep-
siltstone 19º 13º18º controlled by con- resented in Figure 10, four loading stages were
contacts tent of mica applied within the first 2 mm of shearing relative
Friction angle con-
displacements.
Planes in- trolled by rough-
side silt- 24º 14º20º ness/dilatancy
20
stone Residual friction
controlled by mica
16

Shear load (Ton)

12

4 LARGE SCALE “IN SITU” DIRECT

SHEAR TESTS 8

4
A testing protocol was established to define the
0
preparation of the specimen, the methodology to 0 2 4 6
apply loadings and to measure displacements, Displacement (mm)

and the presentation of results. In all cases, sand- Figure 9. Insitu shear test results of sample MD-1 (right ab-
stone- siltstone contacts were selected. This utment of the dam).
choice facilitated the arrangement of the tests. 8
Sample MD-1
The joint was located on top of a sandstone layer, 7 Sample MD-2

which constituted the lower immobile shearing 6

Sample MD-3
Shear stress (kp/cm2)

Sample MI-1
block. Shear forces were applied in the direction Sample MI-2
5 Barton
of the dam thrust. The square 800×800 mm Sample MI-3

Barton-Choubey Criterion
Criterion
4
“sample” was aligned with the direction of dam
3
thrust. The rock was cut by means of a continu-
ous diamond-wire saw device, often used in 2

marble and granite quarries. 1

The normal load was applied by jacks reacting 0

against reaction beams, which were connected to
rod anchors away from the testing area. Samples
were confined by a rigid steel frame and a mortar
filling. The steel frame received also the jacks’
loading. Shear loading was applied in the direc-
tion of the plane investigated, at a short distance
normal to the plane to minimize overturning
moments. Displacements in the direction of the
normal and shear loading were measured by a set
of transducers installed in several positions cov-
ering the block.
A multistage shear testing technique was ap-
plied in all cases. Shear loading followed the ap-
plication of each new increment of normal load.
Every new application of a normal load was fol-
lowed by a consolidation period.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Normal stress (kp/cm2)
Figure 10. Shear strength envelope from insitu shear tests in
right (MD) and left (MI) abutment. Barton-Choubey Crite-
rion calculated is also indicated.
The failure envelopes of the three multistage
tests performed on the right abutment of the dam
are plotted together in Figure 10. The maximum
applied vertical stress was 0.62 MPa, somewhat
smaller than the maximum calculated effective
normal stress applied by the dam under full hy-
drostatic load. Despite the close proximity of the
three tests, the measured failure envelopes were
significantly different. This result created a diffi-
culty to select the appropriate design strength
envelope.
 E.E. Alonso et al. / Foundation of a Gravity Dam on Layered Soft Rock
Figure 11 shows the sheared plane, after the
test for test #MD3. It may be considered as the
“rough” surface because of the ridges crossing
the plane in different directions. This geometry
led to the highest strength (Fig. 11). Figure 12
shows a profile of the shear plane in the direction
of the applied shearing displacements determined
by a laser scanner device.
Figure 11. Sheared plane of sample MD3 after insitu shear
test.
Figure 12. Profile of the shear plane of sample MD3 in the di-
rection of applied shearing obtained by laser scanner device.
The three large scale tests performed on the left
margin provided the strength envelopes plotted
in Figure 10. This time the maximum applied
normal stress reached 1 MPa. Again the scatter is
significant especially because of the short dis-
tances (# 2 m) among sample positions. Rough-
ness profiles showed in occasions an “inter-
locked” geometry. However, the effect of this
geometry was not very marked in the overall
shear strength behavior.
The measured roughness profiles provided al-
so an opportunity to derive a strength envelope
following Barton & Choubey [1]. They propose:
393
ª § JCS · º
W V nc tan «Ir  JRC log 0 ¨ ¸» (1)
¬« © V nc ¹ ¼»
where Irc is the residual friction angle; JRC, the
roughness value (in degrees), and JCS, the un-
confined compressive strength of joint walls.
Hoek [2] introduced a scale effect that modifies
JRC and JCS as follows:
0.02 JRCLo
§L ·
JRCLn JRCLo ¨ n ¸ (2)
© Lo ¹
0.03 JRCLo
§L ·
JCS Ln JCS Lo ¨ n ¸ (3)
© Lo ¹
where Lo is the reference distance for JRCLo and
JCS Lo and Ln the reference length of the proto-
type structure. In our case Lo = 0.80 m. The re-
sidual friction angle for the siltstone was deter-
mined as 18º. This value may be taken as a
suitable approximation for the residual friction
angle of siltstone sedimentary planes.
Then, for estimated values JCS Lo = 20MPa
and a JRCLo = 13, based on the measured
roughness profiles, Figure 10 gives the Barton-
Choubey strength envelope. The secant friction
angle for Vn = 0.8 MPa is 22º in this envelope.
5 SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUDING
REMARKS
Detailed field survey of the dam foundation ex-
cavations allowed the definition of main types of
sedimentary planes, which control dam stability.
Joints in siltstones or sandstone- siltstones con-
tacts had friction angles of 17º23º. Residual
friction for the siltstone reduces to 15º18º. This
variability reflects changes in mineral composi-
tion. High mica contents explains the low resid-
ual friction in clay materials having a relatively
low plasticity (IP = 1012%). The lowest meas-
ured joint friction angles (13º) are found in joints
having a high concentration of mica minerals.
Shear box and ring shear cells provide the same
friction values in these cases.
Large scale shear tests are more representative
of field conditions. They were performed on
394 E.E. Alonso et al. / Foundation of a Gravity Dam on Layered Soft Rock

sandstone- siltstone contacts. A ductile response
was obtained in all cases. In general, the multi-
stage testing technique provided non-linear enve-
lopes. Friction angles were relatively high
(30º45º) for confining stresses in the range
00.1 MPa. However dam foundations are ex-
pected to apply reflective normal stresses reach-
ing 1 MPa on the sedimentary planes immedi-
ately below the concrete foundations.
ring shear tests performed, despite the low plas-
ticity of the clay friction of siltstone.
The proposal for a suitable strength envelope
for the sedimentation planes is given in Figure
16. It provides a variation of secant friction angle
with normal stress. It was obtained favoring the
large scale in situ tests and disregarding extreme
values.
30

28

Secant friction angle (º)

26

24

22

20

18

16
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Efective normal stress (kp/cm2)

Figure 16. Secant friction angle variation with normal effec-

tive stress.
Figure 15. Measured shear strength envelopes on natural
joints.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All measured shear strength envelopes on nat-
ural joints are collected in Figure 15. The small The authors would like to acknowledge the sup-
dimension (< 30×30 cm) of samples tested in the port of Proyecto del Plan Nacional de I+D+i
laboratory does not include the effect of natural BIA2008-06614 del Ministerio de Educación y
undulations of large wavelength. This may affect Ciencia (Gran Riesgo-BIG RISK), Fomento,
the differences observed in Figure 15. However, Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) and Insitu
sandstone layers are often separated by siltstone Testing.
layers, a few centimeters thick, which may ac-
commodate the wave amplitude of a true sedi-
mentation surface. Despite the roughness ob- REFERENCES
served in the sheared planes, the actual friction
angles were relatively low and the stress-strain [1] Barton, N.R., and Choubey, V. (1977) The shear
response was ductile in all cases. The ubiquitous strength of rock joints in theory and practice. Rock Me-
chanics, 10, 1-54.
presence of mica in all the weald materials stud- [2] Hoek, E. (2000) Practical rock engineering. Published
ied is probably the most characteristic and singu- online www.rockscience.com.
lar aspect of this case. Muscovite mica has a low
basic friction angle (12º). In addition, mica plate-
lets align themselves parallel to joints.
Mica is present in thin interstratifications be-
tween sandstone banks, in infillings and inter-
stratifications of siltstone and, also, disseminated
in the siltstone matrix. The high mica content
explains the low residual friction measured in
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 395
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-395

Deformation of cylindrical cavities in cross-

anisotropic rock
Déformation de cavités cylindriques dans la roche anisotrope
transverse
A. Blioumi 1 and D. Kolymbas
University of Innsbruck, Division of Geotechnical and Tunnel Engineering

ABSTRACT
Rocks composed of parallel layers (sedimentation or schistosity) belong to the so-called cross-anisotropic materials. The deter-
mination of the material properties of these rocks requires laboratory tests in samples whose foliation has variable orientations
with respect to the loading axes. However this is often not feasible for rocks with pronounced foliation: the rock disintegrates
during the extraction of the samples.
Another possibility for the estimation of the material properties could be the execution of field tests which capture the beha-
vior of the rock mass in-situ, e.g. cavity expansion tests. An analytical solution describing the displacements of the cavity wall
with respect to the applied pressure and the orientation of the foliation is still missing. Thus, the determination of the material
properties by means of in-situ measurements has been impossible.
A new approximate solution is presented in this paper. Based on the known analytical expression for the ground line in elastic
isotropic rock, it is observed that the displacement of the cavity wall can be obtained by considering the stress state in the rock
adjacent to the cavity wall, i.e. the consideration of the entire stress field in the rock is not required. This result was transferred to
the case of linear-elastic cross-anisotropic rock and thus, yielded the approximate solution. Measurements from large-scale cavi-
ty expansion tests (radial jack tests) were used to back calculate the material constants.

RÉSUMÉ
Des roches composées de couches parallèles (sédimentation ou schistosité) font par des matériaux que l’ on appelle anisotropes
transverses. La détermination des propriétés des matériaux de ces roches nécessite des tests de laboratoire avec des échantillons
dont l’ orientation de la foliation est variable par rapport aux axes. Toutefois, ce n’ est souvent pas possible pour les roches avec
foliation prononcée: la roche se désintègre lors de l’ extraction des échantillons.
Une autre possibilité pour la définition des propriétés des matériaux pourrait être des essays sur site qui capture le comporte-
ment de la masse rocheuse in-situ, par exemple des tests à expansion de la cavité. Une solution analytique décrivant le displace-
ment de la paroi de la cavité par rapport à la pression appliquée et l’ orientation de la foliation est encore manquante. Ainsi, la
détermination des propriétés des matériaux a été jusqu’ à présent pas possible.
Une nouvelle solution approximative sera présentée dans se document. Sur la base de l’ expression analytique connue pour la
ligne de charactéristique du terrain pour la roche élastique isotrope, on constate que le déplacements de la paroi de la cavité peut
être obtenus en considérant l’ état de tensions dans la roche adjacente à la paroi de la cavité, c’ est à dire la prise en compte de l’
ensemble du champ de tensions de la roche n’ est pas nécessaire. Ce résultat a été transféré pour le fait de roches linéaires-
élastiques anisotropes transverses et a donné ainsi la solution approximative. Des mesures sur des tests d’ expansion de la cavité
à grande échelle (tests de la presse radiale) ont été utilisées pour recalculer les constantes du matériau.

Keywords: Cross-anisotropy, foliated rock, field tests, cavity expansion, material properties, back analysis

1
Corresponding Author.
396 A. Blioumi and D. Kolymbas / Deformation of Cylindrical Cavities in Cross-Anisotropic Rock

To determine the elastic constants in-situ the

following tests are available: uniaxial flat jack
1 CROSS-ANISOTROPIC ROCKS tests, radial jack tests, flat jack tests, dilatometer
tests, borehole seismic tests etc. In this paper,
cavity expansion tests are considered. During
1.1 Definition cavity expansion tests an internal pressure is ap-
plied into a cavity and the displacements of the
Anisotropic rocks have different properties in cavity wall are measured. Such tests are radial
various directions. These properties can be me- jack tests [1], hydraulic chamber tests [2], dila-
chanical, hydraulic or thermal. In some engineer- tometer tests [3] etc. The basic mathematical
ing problems, the anisotropy of rock may consti- principles describing cavity expansion tests fol-
tute an important part of the engineering low in Section 2.
planning. Anisotropy can strongly affect the
properties of the rock and, in many cases, it is
not acceptable to be considered as isotropic.
Rocks composed of parallel layers (due to se-
dimentation, schistosity, etc.) are cross-
anisotropic materials. Throughout this paper, the
term foliation will be used to denote the parallel
layers of such rocks regardless of their precise
geological determination. To define the arrange-
ment of the foliation planes in the three-
dimensional space, the strike and the dip angles
as defined in Figure 1 are used. The unit vector n
normal to the foliation planes (Fig. 1) is given by
n=( cosĮ• sinȕ, -sinĮ• sinȕ, cosȕ). Cross-anisotro-
pic rocks exhibit no variation of their mechanical
properties while rotating around the unit vector
n.

1.2 Determination of the material properties Figure 1. Definition of vector n, as well as strike and dip an-
gles.

For the determination of the elastic constants

of cross-anisotropic rocks, laboratory and field
tests are used. Uniaxial compression tests, triaxi-
al compression tests, Brazilian tests and hollow
cylinder tests belong to the mostly used static la-
boratory tests, while ultrasonic measurements
and resonant bar tests are the commonest dynam-
ic laboratory tests used for this reason. Laborato-
ry tests on rocks are however problematic. They
involve scale effect problems and require special
and expensive sampling equipment. Especially
for cross-anisotropic rocks, the execution of la-
2 THE MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM
2.1 The boundary value problem
A cylindrical cavity (e.g. tunnel) with circular
cross-section, radius r0 and infinite length in a
weightless medium is considered in this study.
The definition of the used Cartesian coordinate
system x1, x2, x3 and the corresponding cylindric-
boratory tests is often impossible as the material al coordinate system r, , z are given in Figure 2.
fails along the foliation planes during extraction The tunnel axis coincides with the direction x2.
and preparation.
 A. Blioumi and D. Kolymbas / Deformation of Cylindrical Cavities in Cross-Anisotropic Rock 397

9  p r02
ur  . (1)
2G r1

Thus, the stiffness ˜p/˜ur reads

"p 2G
 . (2)
"u r r0

The same stiffness ˜p/˜ur is obtained by ob-

serving an element of rock at the tunnel wall.
The radial stress acting on a rock element is giv-
en by

Figure 2. Cartesian and cylindrical coordinate system in re-

spect to the infinite cylindrical cavity. r  p (3)

The assumption of a hydrostatic internal pres- and its deformation reads:

sure p applied into the cavity (Fig. 3) is made.
The pressure results in a radial displacement ur in 2% 0 0/
the x1-x3 plane. Eij  00 0 - % 0 -- (4)
01 0 0 0 -.

where (İ=-ur/r0).
With Hooke’s law the radial stress is then ob-
tained as

u
r  2G%  2G r . (5)
r0

Combining Equations 3 and 5 yields the stiff-

ness ˜p/˜ur as follows:

"p 2G
 . (6)
"u r r0

Figure 3. Cross-section of the loaded cylindrical cavity.

2.2 Constitutive equation
In case of linear-elastic cross-anisotropic materials
The displacement ur is given by the solution the stress T depends on the strain E and the unit
of Lamé for a thick linear-elastic cylindrical tube vector n according to the function:
under internal and external pressure [4] when the
external radius of the tube tends to infinity and
the external pressure to the primary hydrostatic T  f(E, n) . (7)
pressure ı’ as [5]:
398 A. Blioumi and D. Kolymbas / Deformation of Cylindrical Cavities in Cross-Anisotropic Rock

The tensorial Equation 7 must fulfill the gen- A1 : a1  2a 2  a3  a 4  2a5

eral principle of objectivity [6] and for the spe- A2 : a1  a 2
cial case of linear elasticity, it reads: A3 : a1  a3
A4 : a1
T  (a1trǼ  a2n En)1  a3Ǽ  (a4 trǼ
(8) A5 : a3  a5  2 .
 a5n En)n : n  a6 (n : En  En : n)

with 6 material constants, a1 , a2 , . . . a6 . Thus, it 3 THE APPROXIMATE SOLUTION

is obtained
To derive the approximation, the cavity expan-
"Tij sion in a cross-anisotropic rock is considered as a
 ( a1# kl  a 2 nk nl )# ij
"E kl plane strain problem. A material element adja-
 a3 1
2
# ik # jl  # il # jk  cent to the tunnel wall undergoes deformation
similar to that in Equation 4. Now, the difference
 a 4# kl  a5 nk nl ni n j (9)
is that the displacement ur may depend on the
 a6 12 (# jk ni nl  # ik nl n j angle ; of the cylindrical coordinate system.
 # jl ni nk  # il nk n j ) . Imagine the two unit vectors m=(0, 1, 0) and
k0=(1, 0, 0) as shown in Figure 4. If k0 rotates
By using hyperelasticity, the indices ij and kl around m, then for every ; the wall stiffness can
are interchangeable, and thus, a2=a4. In this case, be obtained from Equation 8
the number of the coefficients ai is reduced by
one. S ubstituting a4:=a2, a5:=a4 and a6:=a5 in 1  "T11 "T11 
"p "u      . (11)
Equation 9 returns: r0  "E11 "E22 

"Tij ˜711/˜(11 and ˜711/˜(22 are the only non vanish-

 (a1# kl  a2 nk nl )# ij
"Ekl ing components of the stiffness matrix and read
 a3 1
2
# ik# jl  # il# jk 
 a2# kl  a4 nk nl ni n j (10)

 a5 12 (# jk ni nl  # ik nl n j
 # jl ni nk  # il nk n j ) .

In the usual contracted index notation the

stiffness matrix is given as follows:

2 A3 A4 A2 0 0 0/
2T11 / 0 - 2 E11 /
0 - 0 A4 A3 A2 0 0 0 -0 -
T
0 22 - E22 -
0 A2 A2 A1 0 0 0 -0
0T33 - 0 - 0 E33 -
0 -0  A3  A4  0
0 0 - 0 E12 -
-
0T12 - 0
0 0 0
-
0T - 2
0 - 0E -
0 23 - 00 0 0 0 A5 0 - 0 23 -
0
1T13 -
. 0 0 A5 -
0 . Figure 4. Vectors m and k0 .
1 E13 -
10 0 0 0 .

where:
 A. Blioumi and D. Kolymbas / Deformation of Cylindrical Cavities in Cross-Anisotropic Rock 399

"T11 between the theoretical predictions, as calculated

 a1  a2 (n1n1  n1n1 ) using Equation 14, and the measurements.
"E11 (12)
 a3  a4 n1n1n1n1  2a5 n1n1 ,

"T11
 a1  a2 (n1n1  n2 n2 )
"E22 (13)
 a4 n1n1n2 n2 .

In the usual geotechnical engineering praxis

compression is taken positive (İ=ur/r0). Hence
the displacement ur( ; ) is given as

p r0
u r ;   .
"T11 "T11 (14)

"E11 "E22

The unit vector n, i.e. the orientation of the fo-

liation, must be also expressed in the cylindrical Figure 5. 3-D model of the TIWAG radial jack.
coordinate system (the symbol k is used to ex-
press the rotated vector k0,):

nr  n k , n  n (m  k ), n z  n m .

4 BACK CALCULATION OF THE

MATERIAL PROPERTIES

To back calculate the material parameters, data

from cavity expansion tests executed with the
TIWAG radial jack in several hydroelectric pow-
er plants were used. During such a test a gallery
with 2.50 m excavation diameter and 2 m length
is radially loaded with flat jacks. A 3-D model of
the TIWAG radial jack is illustrated in Figure 5.
The corresponding displacements of the rock Figure 6. Radial displacement curve (in mm) obtained from
mass are measured in several directions. The dis- radial jack tests in calc-mica phyllite at the power plant Kau-
nertal.
placement curves obtained from radial jack tests
are rarely smooth (Fig. 6).
The back calculation of the material constants
It turns out that the obtained solution is not
has been attempted. With the internal pressure p,
unique [7]. The resulting system of 5 linear equa-
the radius r, the orientation of the foliation as
tions has a rank of 3. Hence, many combinations
well as the field measurements ur( ; ), the values
of ai-values produce radial displacement curves
a1 ,..., a5 can be obtained by means of a least which agree with the in-situ measurements. Ad-
square optimization to minimize the difference
400 A. Blioumi and D. Kolymbas / Deformation of Cylindrical Cavities in Cross-Anisotropic Rock

ditional measurements are required to calibrate of the International Society of Rock Mechanics Vol. 2.
Beograd, 1970, 509-516.
all 5 material constants.
[4] L. E. Malvern, Introduction to the mechanics of a con-
tinuous medium, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs,
1969.
CONCLUSIONS [5] D. Kolymbas, Tunnelling and tunnel mechanics: a ra-
tional approach to tunneling, Springer, Berlin, 2008.
[6] C. Truesdell & W. Noll, The Non-Linear Field Theories
This paper deals with the problem of the deter- of Mechanics (2nd ed.), Springer, Berlin, 1992.
mination of the material constants of cross- [7] D. Kolymbas, P. Wagner & A. Blioumi, Cavity expan-
anisotropic rock. For this purpose, in-situ cavity sion in cross-anisotropic rock, International Journal of
Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics
expansion tests, e.g. radial jack tests, are sug- n/a, doi :10.1002/nag.998.
gested. The mathematical problem is presented
and a new approximate solution is introduced.
The new method aims at assessing the mate-
rial properties by assuming linear-elasticity and
plane strain deformation around the cavity. The
attempt to back calculate the material properties,
by means of the approximate solution and data
from radial tests, proved that measurements from
only one test are insufficient for the calibration.
We are currently trying to obtain the unique solu-
tion of the problem by consideration of con-
straints or by using data from other tests done in
the same material.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The work has been financially supported by the

Austrian Science Fund (FWF): I 703-N22 and
the vice-rectorate for research of the university
of Innsbruck through the Young Researcher’s
Grant 2009 to A. Blioumi. The authors also wish
to thank the electricity company TIWAG for the
provision of the data.

REFERENCES

[1] H. Lauffer, Ein Gerät zur Ermittlung der Felsnachgie-

bigkeit für die Bemessung von Druckstollen und
Druckschachtauskleidungen. Geologie und Bauwesen
25 (1960), Nr,2-3, 114–129.
[2] G. Oberti, L. Goffi & P. Rossi, Study of stratified rock
masses by means of large-scale tests with a hydraulic
pressure chamber. In Proc. 5th Congress of the Interna-
tional Society of Rock Mechanics Vol. 1. Melbourne,
1983, 133-141.
[3] M. Rocha, A. Da Silveira, F. P. Rodrigues, A. Silverio,
& A. Ferreira, Characterization of the deformability of
rock masses by dilatometer tests. In Proc. 2nd Congress
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 401
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-401

Re-assessment of the shear strength of the

oligocene clay from the Buda area based on the site
investigation of the Metro line 4
Re-évaluation de la résistance au cisaillement de l'argile
oligocène de la région de Buda basée sur l'étude du ligne 4 du
métro
Gy. Horváth, B. Móczár1
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Geotechnics

ABSTRACT
On the Buda side of Budapest the Metro line 4 is constructed in a length of several kilometres in the Oligocene clay forma-
tion known as Kiscell clay. For the line and the stations a great number of boreholes with continuous sampling was carried out.
Using core samples taken from depths of 10 to 40 metres triaxial compression tests were carried out on large diameter (10 cm)
specimens. The original objective of the tests was to obtain geotechnical parameters required for the design of the tunnel and the
station structure. The processing and evaluation of the results of the great number of tests made it possible to re-assess on the ba-
sis of available former investigations the shear strength, deformations and existing state of the highly overconsolidated stratum
which is as firm as soft rocks, which however experienced expansion to a degree decreasing with depth.
Our investigations have revealed that the in situ state of stress in the Kiscell clay is not exactly known and therefore the in-
terpretation of the obtained shear strength parameters is ambiguous and based on assumptions. In this clay, which appears ho-
mogeneous on the basis of the soil identification parameters, the strength and deformation characteristics may differ significantly
from the expected values depending on the location and the depth. The paper gives an explanation among others for the varying
degree of overconsolidation, the existing vertical-horizontal stress proportions, the interpretation of how shear strength parame-
ters develop during failure and the associated strains

RESUME
La nouvelle ligne de metro M4 de Budapest coté Buda, traverse sur plusieurs km la formation geologique de l’argile oligo-
cène, appelée argile de “Kiscell“. L’étude des tunnels et des ouvrages des stations avait demandé de nombreux sondages per-
mettant la prise d’échantillons continus les cehantillos de 10 cm de diamétre prélevés des profondeurs de 10 à 40 m ont été sou-
mis à des essais triaxiaux. Le but initial de ces essais était de déterminer les paramétres néccesaires à l’étude des tunnels et des
stations. L’étude détaille des résultats de ces essais nous a rendu possible de réviser la résistance au cisaillement, les déforma-
tions at l’état actuell (K0) de l’argile fortemenet surconsolidée et très expansible dansles zones plus profondes.
les résultats de nos essais récents ont mis évidence que, l’état de contrainte de l’argile “Kiscell“ située dans la zone des for-
mations originales, n’est past conne actuellement. Il en résulte que l’interprétation classique des paramétres de résistance au ci-
saillement nous est impossible. L’explication en est que les caractéristignes de contrainte et de déformation de l’argile jugée ho-
mogéne auparavant varient dans une large mesure en fonction de la profondeur et différent des valeurs attendus. Dans cette
exposée nous essayons de formular une explication entre autre sur le degré de surconsolidation sur l’état actuel de K0, sur
l’interprétation des paramétres observés au cours des essais à la rupture et sur les déformations des échantillors.

Keywords: oligocene clay, overconsolidation, shear strength, K0 state

1
Corresponding Author.
402 Gy. Horváth and B. Móczár / Re-Assessment of the Shear Strength of the Oligocene Clay
1 INTRODUCTION
In Budapest, the Metro line 4 on the Buda side
was mainly constructed in an oligocene forma-
tion locally known as Kiscell clay. For the struc-
tural design of the underground stations the so
called hardening soil model - isotropic hardening
was applied. The required soil physical parame-
ters (M, c, E50, Eur,m etc.) were determined on
large specimens (d = 10cm, h = 15 to 20 cm) in
the triaxial apparatus according to requirements.
During performing and evaluation of the tests we
experienced that the tested oligocene Kiscell clay
often exhibited a behaviour different from the as-
sumed model. It turned out from the tests that
this very hard, almost soft rock like soil thought
to be homogeneous in macro dimensions exhib-
ited a behaviour significantly different from the
assumed failure mechanism. These observations
prompted us to try and re-interpret the properties
and physical characteristics of this oligocene
clay.
2 GROUND CONDITIONS AT THE
INVESTIGATED SECTION OF THE LINE
The typical soil profile is as follows. Under a
flat ground surface with elevation changing from
105 to 115 mBf, in the vicinity of the stations the
top layer consists of a mixed man made fill in an
average thickness of 1 to 3 m, underlain by a se-
ries of quaternary (holocene) layers: silt, clay,
gravel and silty fine sand to the depth of 5 to 8
meters. Below the quaternary layers a tertiary
formation, the Kiscell clay mainly of mid-
oligocene, partly of upper-oligocene facies oc-
curs. This sediment layer in a thickness of ap-
proximately 150 to 200 m is made up of hard and
very firm clay changing downwards to clayey
marl which however can be considered in a
macro scale as a homogeneous entity.
3 SITE INVESTIGATIONS, SAMPLING
AND TESTS
Borings were made by Wireline technology,
with continuous core sampling using Geober S
type triple wall core barrels. The site investiga-
tions on the Buda section from Etele square to
Gellért Square were carried out between 2004
and 2008. On completion of each borehole, the
barrels containing continuous samples were
transferred to the lab, split open and sound, un-
disturbed parts fit to testing were removed on
which the required test were carried out within
the shortest time (max. 1 day).
The lab tests were aimed at determining the
parameters required for a hardening-soil model.
However, during the tests we noticed that with
samples looking almost identical on the basis of
visual inspection and the usual identification
tests the strength and deformation parameters
showed substantial differences up to several
hundred per cent in certain cases within the
tested cca. 20 m depth. These anomalies
prompted us to revise from a different view and
reassess the results of all the tests on the Kiscell
clay samples that were taken at several station
sites during the 3 to 4 years time interval.
4 PROCESSING OF TEST RESULTS
At the start of the re-evaluation we gave due
consideration to the geological features, descrip-
tion of the origin of the Kiscell clay and the geo-
logical profiles constructed for the station sites
and the intermediate tunnel sections.
Figure 1.Change in moisture content with depth
 Gy. Horváth and B. Móczár / Re-Assessment of the Shear Strength of the Oligocene Clay 403

We studied the lab test results from all bore- shows again as a function of depth, the major
holes made at four consecutive stations, involv- stress at failure V1 derived from a test starting
ing altogether some 60 samples covering a depth from hydrostatic stress conditions corresponding
domain of 10 to 36 m. Figure1 shows the change to the respective depth.
in moisture content with depth. Note, that almost
all the samples were quasi-saturated (Sr >0,9).
Figure 2 shows the change in density in terms of
void ratio.

Figure 4.Major stress at failure (V1) with depth

Note that here also a tendency can be ob-

served in that both strength values and deforma-
Figure 2.Change in density in terms of void ratio with depth tion characteristics tend to increase significantly
with depth, though with a narrower scatter.
A tendency can be observed that with the
width both the moisture content and the void ra-
tio significantly reduce approximately to the half
within the depth tested. At the same time, it is
conspicuous that there is a wide scatter of accu-
mulated results even at a given depth. On graphs
constructed for individual boreholes, the same
tendency can be observed but with a narrower
scatter.

Figure 5.Clay specimen from 13 m depth

As an illustration, Figs. 5 to7 show pictures of

failures of three clay specimens taken from dif-
ferent depths (Fig.5: 13 m, Fig.6: 21 m and
Fig.7: 32 m).

Figure 3.Relation between the values of E50 and Eur in func-

tion of depth

Figure 3 shows the relationship between the

values of E50 and Eur associated with the harden-
ing soil model and the depth, while Figure 4
404 Gy. Horváth and B. Móczár / Re-Assessment of the Shear Strength of the Oligocene Clay

difference was then accepted as representing the

Ko state of stress for the respective depth. The
variation of Ko as obtained by this interpretation
is shown as a function of depth in Fig. 8.

Figure 6.Clay specimen from 21 m depth

Figure 8.K0 as a function of depth

With a rather wide scatter of overall data, a

tendency can also be observed here, just as in the
previous cases. But again, the scatter is consid-
erably narrower if a graph is plotted with data of
a single borehole as is shown by the respective
curve in the figure.
The tendency shown in Fig. 8 is of great im-
portance and provides an evidence that the pre-
history of the clay caused major changes in K0
ranging from 0,1 to 0,4 in the relatively small
Figure 7.Clay specimen from 32 m depth. upper part of the clay stratum having a total
thickness of several hundreds meters, while the
Both the diagrams and the failure patterns
lower part remained virtually less affected . This
evidence that within the tested depth domain the
means that in the Kiscell clay, over geological
Kiscell clay cannot be treated as a homogeneous
times up to now, different stages of preconsolida-
material.
tion (initial- denudation-current state) may have
taken place in the depth domain tested. This is
5 EVALUATION OF RESULTS evidenced by Fig. 9 where in a V vs. V1 diagram
stresses pertaining to K0 state and failure state,
The non-homogeneity of the Kiscell clay respectively, are plotted.
within the given small depth domain is evidently
related to the prehistory of the clay.
During the failure tests, we also measured the
lateral strains which are required for the determi-
nation of the Poisson number. The lateral strain
was obtained by way of measuring the change in
the length of the perimeter of the specimen. The
measurement error was less than one thousandth.
Thus, while observing the failure mechanism
during a test, it became possible to read the max.
deviatoric stress value (V1 - V ) at which no
measurable lateral strain occurs yet. This stress Figure 9.V vs. V1 diagram
 Gy. Horváth and B. Móczár / Re-Assessment of the Shear Strength of the Oligocene Clay 405

A probable explanation of events leading to 20 meters is grey in colour, is generally uniform

the present state is as follows. and has a sound, compact state. At that depth the
The Kiscell clay was initially formed by destructive climatic agents were less effective or
sedimentation and compaction under natural Ko not felt at all. Naturally the load relief due to de-
conditions. nudation reached that zone as well and at loca-
Under lasting great pressure and normal tions where the bonds were weaker or did not ex-
stress, the particles of the clay were caused to re- ist at all a certain expansion may have occurred
arrange and with the formation of new contact to an extent permitted by bonds in the environ-
points between particles and governed by laws of ment. Samples taken from this zone behaved in a
physics, chemistry, electrical actions and heat rocklike manner. (See picture of failure in Fig.
brought about strong interpartical bonds during 7.)
consolidation of the clay. The likely prehistory of the Kiscell clay out-
Due to subsequent denudation the clay was re- lined in the preceding and the different failure
lieved from overburden pressure. This denuda- mechanisms have been processed also in terms
tion (which according to some geologists may of the Mohr-Coulomb relationship. Fig. 10
have amounted to several hundred meters) re- shows the Mohr-circles at failure from points
sulted in expansion. However, besides the elastic plotted in Fig 9. for all the tests carried out in the
rebound due to the load relief significant perma- investigations. As can be seen from the rather
nent deformations remained since a great part of chaotic scatter of data it would be extremely hard
the bonds formed during consolidation were irre- to obtain any tangent Coulomb line of best fit,
versible. As a result of load relief, the weaker in- thus the shear strength parameters required for
terparticle bonds were broken or relaxed, while structural design are practically impossible to de-
numerous stronger bonds continued to exist. fine. Interestingly, when p and q values based on
Thus, an overconsolidated state was formed. all the points in Fig 9 are plotted in Fig 11 a
During an ice age subsequent to denudation the straight line with very closed scatter would re-
lasting frost alternating with periods of thermal sult.
changes (thawing and freezing) led to gradual
break down or complete loss of remaining strong
bonds. This degradation is depth-dependent and
as a result of the abovementioned agents the up-
per 1 to 5 meters of the Kiscell clay became
completely weathered, and its colour changed
from grey to yellowish-greyish brown. The for-
mer strong bonds responsible for the overcon-
solidation of the stratum were almost completely
destroyed and the clay in the affected upper zone
Figure 10.Mohr-circles at failure from points plotted in Fig-
behaves like strain-hardening clays during failure ure 9.
mechanism. In the underlying zone to a depth of
5 to 15 m the destructive agents were less de-
structive. Naturally, the strength of the interparti-
cle bonds formed during the sedimentation of the
clay was not uniform. Therefore the lesser strong
bonds ceased to exist under the action of destruc-
tive agents, fell apart and a macroscopically frac-
tured, fissured zone with strongly heterogeneous
state of stress was formed. Some of the test
specimens failed like clays others failed like
rock. (See fracture photos in Figs. 5 – 6.) The Figure 11.p and q values based on all the points in Figure 9.
clay stratum from a depth of approximately 15 to
406 Gy. Horváth and B. Móczár / Re-Assessment of the Shear Strength of the Oligocene Clay
Fig. 12. shows the Mohr circles obtainable
from the trend line pertaining to failure in Fig. 9,
based on which to by way of fitting a tangent
Coulomb envelope can be identified. The slope
of the Coulomb envelope increases rapidly indi-
cating that the Kiscell clay within the depth do-
main investigated cannot be regarded as a uni-
form entity also in respect to shear strength. Each
point on the curvilinear tangent Coulomb enve-
lope represents the shear strength of the Kiscell
clay as a function of the respective principal
stresses. However, in the present case this shear
strength cannot be divided in the classical con-
ventional sense into the two usual components
i.e. internal friction and cohesion, since in certain
stress intervals it would result in very high inter-
nal friction and negative cohesion.
Figure 12.Mohr-circles from the trend line
The same follows from Fig 11. and Fig 13.
where the trend line (curve) on the p-q chart was
drawn according to the trend line of Fig.9. In re-
ality, the stresses eventually leading to failure
first have to overcome the internal resistance due
partly to strong bonds between clay particles and
partly to suction which combined action can ini-
tially, up to a certain strain, be interpreted as co-
hesion and then with increasing movement the
resistance initially exerted by cohesion will
gradually passed over at an increasing rate to
friction. At the final stage of the failure mecha-
nism when a sliding surface is formed the shear
strength of the stratum can overwhelmingly be
attributed to internal friction.
Figure 13.The trend line (curve) on the p-q chart according to
Figure 9.
After several years on investigations involving
the upper approximately 25 to 30 m thick layer
of the tested Kiscell clay we arrived at the fol-
lowing conclusions.
The Kiscell clay regarded in macroscopic di-
mensions as a homogeneous stratum in reality
exhibits significant variations in soil mechanical
parameters.
- The degree of overconsolidation reflect-
ing the prehistory of the stratum
changes with depth.
- The Ko values characterising the aggre-
gate states of stress that may have de-
veloped during the prehistory of the
Kiscell clay also vary significantly with
depth (Ko = 0,1 to 0,4).
- The shear strength of the stratum in-
creases exponentially while Ko values
reduce logarithmically with depth.
- These findings imperatively call for a
new approach to find another model
with (new) parameters which more truly
characterise the behaviour of the stra-
tum.
REFERENCES
[1] Kézdi, Á., Talajmechanika I-II., Tankönyvkiadó,
Budapest, 1970.
[2] PLAXIS 3D Handbook, The hardening-soil model, 5.1-
5.12
[3] Nagymarosy, A., Magyarországi oligocén, nanoscript
[4] Görög, P., Budai eocén és oligocén korú agyagtartalmú
k‰zetek mérnökgeológiai értékelése, PhD. Thesis
[5] Laczó, A., Jámbor, Á., A vitrinreflexió-mérések mag-
yarországi vonatkozásai, MÁFI évi jelentése az 1986-
as évrÖl, 1988.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 407
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-407

Advances in tunneling simulation-

a probabilistic approach
Des progrès dans la simulation des tunnels-
une approche probabilistique
M. Huber 1 , P. A. Vermeer, P. M. Stroehle, C. Moormann
Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Germany

ABSTRACT
Balancing risk and reliability engineers have to take variability of soil properties into account within the design process.
Reliability based design offers a scientific base, which is explained exemplarily within the evaluation of the tunnel face stability.
Within this framework, the variability of soil, geometry and construction process is considered in a comprehensive way.
Parametric studies enlighten the evaluation of the failure probability and help to understand this concept via showing the
influence of the different sources of variability.

RÉSUMÉ
Équilibrant les risques et la fiabilité, des ingénieurs doivent prendre en considération la variabilité des propriétés du sol déjà au
sein du processus de conception. Une base rationnelle et scientifique est offerte par une conception basée sur la fiabilité, ce qui
est expliqué de façon exemplaire au sein d’une évaluation de la stabilité du front de taille d’un tunnel. Dans ce cadre, la variabili-
té du sol, de la géométrie et du mode de construction est considérée en manière globale. Des études de cas mettent en évidence
l’évaluation de la probabilité de défaillance et aident à saisir ce concept en démontrant l’influence des diverses sources de
variabilité.

Keywords: tunnel face stability, soil variability, reliability based design, partial safety factors

1 INTRODUCTION offers an alternative way to deal with soil vari-

The variability of soil has to be considered by the
geotechnical engineer. In the past global safety
margins offered the possibility to take variability
of soil into account. Later, this concept was
substituted by partial safety factors, which cover
uncertainties of actions and material resistances.
These safety factors are derived through deter-
ministic or probabilistic methods, as described in
CEN (2002) [1]. Reliability based design, which
is presented amongst others by PHOON [13],
ability. Herein, probabilistic techniques are used
to evaluate the reliability of a system and the
probability of failure instead of the determining a
deterministic factor of safety.
Within this contribution, the basics of reliabil-
ity based design are presented within two para-
metric studies in tunneling. The evaluation of the
face stability is based on numerical simulations
carried out by VERMEER ET AL. [19]. The stabil-
ity of a tunnel face is calculated considering the
variability of soil, of the geometry and of the

1
Corresponding author.
408 M. Huber et al. / Advances in Tunneling Simulation – A Probabilistic Approach

construction process. The influence of these q

variabilities on the probability of failure is
discussed. H J’c’, M’

D p
2 EVALUATION OF THE TUNNEL
HEADING STABILITY OF A SHALLOW
CIRCULAR TUNNEL Figure 1. Geometry of the tunnel.

During construction of shallow tunnels using § 1 ·

p collapse = -cc cot M ' + a' D ¨  0.05 ¸ (1)
earth pressure balanced machines, the face © 9 ˜ tan M ' ¹
stability is an important issue. To minimize the soil and D the diameter of the circular tunnel
settlements at the ground surface and to prevent (Figure 1). Is the ratio of overburden and diame-
an uncontrolled collapse of the soil, the tunnel a ter of the tunnel D bigger than H/D  1.5, the
necessary support pressure must be calculated. overburden and the load q at the surface have no
This estimation of the required support pressures influence onto the failure pressure pcollapse as well
for e.g. earth pressure balance (EPB) shields to as the stiffness, the dilatation angel and the
ensure the stability of the face has been a topic of Poisson’s ratio of the soil [19].
research until the present day [3, 8, 9, 12, 16, 17,
19]. 3 RELIABILITY EVALUATION
LECA & DORMIEUX [9] present an upper
bound solution for the face stability of shallow
As an alternative to the partial safety factors, the
tunnels by using a kinematic approach. This
EUROCODE 7 [1, 2] offers reliability techniques
upper bound solution involves three solutions
to take the variability of the parameters into
based on consideration of three mechanisms,
account.
which are derived form the motion of rigid
The evaluation of the probability of failure pf
conical blocks. They identified three collapse
is defined as the occurrence of a negative per-
mechanisms including two active and one pas-
formance function (equation 2) describing the
sive mechanism. The passive blow-out mode of
collapse of the system. For the evaluation of the
failure does not occur for the cases currently
probability of failure pf (equation 3) different
encountered in practice, as reported by MOLLON
methods like Monte Carlo Simulation, First-
ET AL. [12]. Therefore this collapse mechanism is
Order-Reliability-Method (FORM), Importance
not investigated within this contribution. The
Sampling, Directional Sampling, Subset Simula-
concept of the limit state design has been picked
tion or Line Sampling can be used amongst
up by ANAGNOSTOU & KOVÀRI [3] later. Re-
others according to BUCHER [5]. Within this
cently SOUBRA [17] and MOLLON ET AL. [12]
contribution FORM will be used to evaluate the
presented elaborations on this limit state design.
time invariant structural reliability of the tunnel
VERMEER ET AL. [19] as well as RUSE [16]
face because of its robustness and simplicity.
followed a different approach in evaluating the
stability of a tunnel heading. Herein, no assum- g = p/pcollapse-1 (1)
tions on the shape of the collapse mechanism are
¬ 
p f = P r o b ª g X 1 ,X 2 ,....X n  d 0º
¼
...
(3)
made. By using Finite Element Method (FEM) a
formula was derived for the failure pressure
= ³ ... ³ f X (x )d x
g (X ) d 0
pcollapse of the tunnel face (equation (1)). For this FORM aims at using a rst-order approximation
purpose a 3D FEM program was used to model of the limit-state function in the Gaussian space
the stability of a tunnel heading under drained at the so-called most probable point (MPP) of
conditions using the Mohr-Coulomb failure failure pf (or design point), which is the limit-
criteria. Herein c’ is the effective cohesion, M’ state surface closest point to the origin (Figure
the effective friction angel, J the unit weight of
 M. Huber et al. / Advances in Tunneling Simulation – A Probabilistic Approach 409

2). Finding the coordinates of the MPP consist in Gaussian space

solving a constrained optimization problem [4]. uM’
In case of dependent variables, the Cholesky original space uc’
decomposition of the correlation matrix is used
to transform the dependent into independent DM’
Dc’
variables in the Gaussian space [5]. In addition to E
the coordinates of the MPP, also the influencing
factors c’ and M’ can be evaluated via FORM, PM’
g>0

tan
which describe the contribution of the random
(c’*|M’*)

ge
variable to the probability of failure. This can be

nt
g>0 g<0
interpreted also in a graphical way, as shown in g<0
Figure 2. The reliability index µ represents the Pc’
distance from the origin to the MPP in the
Gaussian space. The rst-order approximation of
the failure probability is then given by Figure 2. Definition of the design point within the FORM.
pf = (µ), where (•) is the standard normal
cumulative distribution function [5]. The values used in this paper for the statistical
The values c’* and M’* of the MPP corre- moments of the shear strength parameters belong
sponding to the tunnel face pressure p give an to the intervals proposed by the above cited.
idea about the partial safety factors of each of the
strength parameters in equation (2). 4.2 Reliabiltiy calculations
Jc = ¡c’/c’* The aim of the presented parametric studies is to
(2) evaluate the reliability of the face stability and to
JM = tan ¡M’/ tan M’* quantify its influencing factors.

4.2.1 Parametric study 1

4 PROBABILISTIC NUMERICAL
CALCULATIONS
4.1 Soil characteristics
For the stochastical soil properties, PHOON &
KULHAWY [14] stated from an exhaustive study
of cone penetration test and triaxial tests results
that the coefcient of variation
(COVc’ =
^c’/¡c’) of the cohesion c’ could vary from 10 %
to 55 %; CHERUBINI ET AL. [7] recommended the
interval COVc’ = 12 - 45 % for the stiff clays and
a higher limit of 80 % for very soft clays. For the
COVM’ of the friction angle M’, PHOON &
KULHAWY [14, 15] proposed the interval of
As a first step, just the soil parameters of the
limit state equation are treated as random vari-
abiles as summarized in Parametric 1, to show
the influence of the soil strength on the probabil-
ity of failure pf. As shown in Figure 3, the
probability of failure pf decreases with an in-
creasing face pressure p and vice versa in case of
the reliability index µ.
In Figure 4 the influence of the coefficient of
variation on the probability of failure is shown.
Table 1. Soil properties of the parametric study 1.
c’ = 2.5 kN/m² COVc’ = lognormally
10 / 20 / 40 / 60 % distributed

COVM’ = 5 – 15 %. COVM’ = lognormally

M’ = 35 °
5 / 10 / 20 / 30 % distributed
The correlation between cohesion and friction
angle was found by CHERUBINI [6] ©c, = - 60 %, J’ = 18 kN/m² deterministic
LUMB [10], PHOON & KULHAWY [14], WOLFF D = 10 m deterministic
[20], YUCEMAN ET AL. [21] and SPEEDIE [18]
p = 0 – 160 kN/m² deterministic
amongst others to vary between ©c, = 0 % and
©c, = - 70 %.
 410
probability of failure pf [-] M. Huber et al. / Advances in Tunneling Simulation – A Probabilistic Approach

0 (a)

friction angel M’ [°]

10
25 (a)
-10 20
10
15
10
-20
10 5
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 1 2 3 4 5
cohesion c’ [kN/m²]

probability of failure pf [-]

face pressure p [kN/m²] (b)
0
(b) 10
reliability index E [-]

10
-50
10
5
-100
0 10
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60
-5 correlation coefficient between
0 10 20 30 40 50 cohesion c’ and friction angel M’
face pressure p [kN/m²] Uc’M’>@
Figure 3. Probability of failure pf in (a) and reliabiltiy index µ
in (b) versus increasing face pressure p by using a Figure 5. Limit state surfaces for p = 40 kN/m² , 70 kN/m²,
COV c’ = 10% and a COV M’ = 20 %. 100 kN/m² and 130 kN/m² in (a) and probability of failure
and correlation coefficient between cohesion c’ and friction
angel M’ for tunnel different face pressure p.
partial safety factors

(a)
0 1.6
Jc’ [-]

10 1.4
probability of failure pf [-]

1.2
-4 1.0
10
0 10 20 30 40 50
-8 face pressure p [kN/m²]
10

-12
10
(b)
partial safety factors

-16 3
10
0 40 80 120 160 2
JM’ [-]

face pressure p [kN/m²]

1
Figure 4. Variation of the COV of the cohesion c’ and of the 0.5
friction angel M’ versus probability of failure pf. 0 10 20 30 40 50
face pressure p [kN/m²]
Figure 6. Partial safety factors for cohesion c’ (a) and friction
angel M’ (b) versus face pressure p in comparison to the
partial safety factors of the EC7 as grey shaded area.
 M. Huber et al. / Advances in Tunneling Simulation – A Probabilistic Approach 411

Table 2. Soil properties of the parametric study 2 correlation between the cohesion c’ and the
lognormally friction angel ’ can be seen cleary. A positive
c’ = 2.5 kN/m² COVc’ = 20% distributed correlation ©c’,’ increases slightly the probability
lognormally of failure pf. The influence of a negative correla-
M’ = 35 ° COVM’ = 10 % distributed
lognormally tion is more severe. In this parametric study it
J’ = 18 kN/m² COVJ’ = 10 % can be found to be conservative to neglect a
distributed
lognormally negative correlation ©c’,’, because the probability
D = 10 m COVD = 10 % distributed of failure pf is higher in the presence of ©c’,’ = 0.
p = 50 kN/m² lognormally
COVp = 10 % distributed In Figure 6 the influence of cohesion c’ and
friction angle ’ on the probability of failure in
Table 3. Sensitivity factors i values of parametric study 2
relation to the face pressure p is clearly depicted.
The influence is shown via the partial safety
-1
friction angle M’ -1.30 10 factors Jc’ and JM’ derived in equation (2) in
-1 comparison to the partial safety factors presented
cohesion c’ -6.16 10
face pressure p
-1 in the DIN EN 1997 [1]. The comparision of
-7.77 10
-3
Figure 6 a and Figure 6 b proves that the failure
diameter D’ 4.58 10 probability pf is more sensitive to the friction
-5
soil unit weight J’ 4.58 10 angel ’ than to the cohesion c’. The scatter of
the partial safety factors in Figure 6 b can be
10
0 neglected. The comparison of Figure 4 and
Figure 6 clarifies the higher probability of failure
probability of failure pf [-]

in the presence of high scatter of the friction

-2
angle ’, which is also reported by MOLLON ET
10 AL. [11].

COVp = 20 % 4.2.2 Parametric study 2

-4
10 COVp = 40 % In an additional probabilistic investigation all
COVp = 60 % parameters have been treated as random vari-
COVp = 80 % ables in order to investigate the consequences of
-5 COVp = 100 % variability of soil properties (c’, M’, J’), of
10 geometry (represented by the tunnel diameter D
20 30 40 50 60 70
coefficient of variation COVc’ [%] and by the construction process represented by
the face pressure p. The stochastic properties are
defined in Table 2.
10 15 20 25 30 35 The reliability assessment has been carried out
coefficient of variation COVM’ [%]
by using FORM. The sensitivity of each random
Figure 7. Variation of the coefficients of variation for the
coehsion c’, the friction angel M’ and the tunnel face pressure
variable is listed in Table 3. One can deduce that
p together with the corresponding probabilites of failure pf. the cohesion c’ and the friction angle M’ have the
largest influence on the probability of failure of
For this purpose, the ratio between COVc’ and pf = 1.48·10-5. This probability of failure is much
COVM’ was varied. It can be deduced that the higher than the probability of failure
higher the coefficient of variation the higher is pf = 1.17·10-13 including solely the variability of
the probability of failure pf. The limit state the strength parameters. Additional calculations
surfaces for different face pressures p are shown have to be carried out to get a more detailed
in Figure 5 (a) and emphasis the key message in insight into this problem. For this purpose, the
Figure 3: the higher the face pressure p, the more influence of the soil variability (c’, M’) and of the
unlikely is the collapse of this system. In process (p) has been evaluated in additional
Figure 5 (b) the effects of positive and negative calculations. The results of this study are shown
412 M. Huber et al. / Advances in Tunneling Simulation – A Probabilistic Approach
in Figure 7. Herein the soil variability is in-
creased and compared to different levels of
variability of the face pressure p. Again, it can
clearly be seen that a high level of variability of
the variables causes a high probability of failure
pf.
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The concept of reliability based design has been
used to examine the stability conditions of the
face of a shallow tunnel driven in a cohesive,
frictional material. The results of two parametric
studies show the influence of the variability of
soil, geometry and construction process on the
probability of failure.
The assumption of uncorrelated shear strength
parameters was found conservative (i.e. it gives a
greater probability of failure) in comparison to
that of negatively correlated parameters. More-
over, it was shown that the probability of failure
is more sensitive on the friction angle than on the
cohesion.
The results of the parametric studies suggest
that the strength parameters of soil and the tunnel
face pressure have the major influence on the
probability of failure in comparison to the soil
weight and tunnel diameter. This contribution
clearly showed the severe influences of soil
variability on tunneling. Therefore additional
studies will be carried out to get more experience
in modeling variability in geotechnical problems.
In addition to this, benchmark studies will be
carried out to study the effects of spatial variabil-
ity.
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test results. In Proceedings of the 2nd Australia-New
Zealand Conference on Soil Mechanics and Founda-
tion Engineering, pages 107–109, Wellington, 1965.
[19] P.A. Vermeer, N. Ruse, and T. Marcher. Tunnel
heading stability in drained ground. Felsbau, 20(6):8–
18, 2002.
[20] T.F. Wolff. Analysis and design of embankment dam
slopes: a probabilistic approach. PhD thesis, Purdue
University, Lafayette, Ind., 1985.
[21] M.S. Yucemen, W.H. Tang, and A.H.S. Ang. A
probabilistic study of safety and design of earth slopes.
Technical report, University of Illinois Engineering
Experiment Station. College of Engineering.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1973.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 413
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-413

Mechanical behaviour of disintegrated rockfill

Comportement mécanique d´enrochement désagrégé

K. Kast
Dr.-Ing. Karl Kast + Partner, Ettlingen, Germany

ABSTRACT

An important factor of the material behaviour of rockfill is the influence of the disintegration of the
rock grains, caused by geological processes. With the help of appropriate test methods, it is possible to
c1assify rock materials with regard to the micro-mechanical as well as the chemical degree of disinte-
gration. Investigations in the field of rockfill technology of three selected types of granite material,
covering the range of variations, from fresh to severely decomposed rock, provided quantitative infor-
mation regarding the influence of the geological degree of disintegration on the mechanical properties
of the fills. In addition to fundamental results regarding the different conditions in the stress-strain be-
haviour of dry and water-saturated materials, findings related to the influence of precompaction were
also obtained. In this case it was important to be able to produce realistic rockfill samples by using
suitable testing apparatus with sample diameters up to 800 mm.
RÉSUMÉ

L´influence de la désagrégation des grains de roche, provoquée par des processus géologiques, est un
facteur important du comportement des matériaux d´enrochement. Avec l´aide de mesures de test ap-
propriées, il est possible de classifier les matériaux rocheux en ce qui concerne la micromécanique aus-
si bien que le degré chimique de désagrégation.
Des investigations dans le domaine de la technologie d´enrochement menées sur une sélection de trois
types de granit, couvrant toute la plage de variations -d’un degré de décomposition léger à fort-, ont
fourni des informations quantitatives quant à l´influence du degré géologique de désagrégation sur les
propriétés mécaniques des remblais.
En plus de résultats fondamentaux relatifs aux différentes conditions dans le comportement « con-
trainte - déformation » des matériaux secs et saturés d´eau, des découvertes concernant l´influence de
la surcompression ont également été faites. Dans ce cas, il était important d’être capable de produire
des échantillons d´enrochement réalistes en utilisant des équipements de test appropriés avec des di-
amètres d’échantillons allant jusqu´à 800 mm.
Keywords : rockfill, disintegration, compaction, stress strain behaviour, saturation behaviour, point load test, compression test,
granite quality, decomposition
414 K. Kast / Mechanical Behaviour of Disintegrated Rockfill

1 CLASSIFICATION OF breakdown, is not possible in the lab only by

DISINTEGRATION OF GRANITIC means of vibration.
ROCKFILL

To classify the disintegration it was found, that it

is helpful to use two key performance indicators:
One to describe the chemical disintegration
and another to describe the mechanical disinte-
gration.

The Chemical Disintegration can be de-

scribed with the help of the so called Differen-
tial-Thermo-Analyses (DTA) [1] and its result,
the key figure Ivc , the chemical degree of weath-
ering.
The Mechanical Disintegration can be de-
scribed by the intensity of micro fractures and
thereby the key figure Imf , which is a result of an
evaluation of thin section technique as numbers
of micro fractures per cm. The mechanical be-
haviour of the rock grains corresponds to the re-
sult of the well-known point load test as shown
in fig. 1 [2].
Fig. 2: Differences in stress strain curves: triaxial tests with
different sample preparation, ©d= 1,77 g/cm³, ^3 = 0,2 MN/m²
The inner structure of lab samples, prepared only
by vibration, is not found to be similar to the
structure given in real embankment structures
[3]. The differences found in comparison tests
(e.g. in triaxial tests) are evident (see fig. 2)
As a result it was suggested to develop a tech-
nique in order to prepare realistic samples [4].
All reported results of the lab tests were prepared
with such improved sample techniques.

3 OEDEMETRIC COMPRESSION

3.1 Behaviour under first saturation

Figure 1. Results of point load tests. Tests with different dis-
integrated materials.
In this study, all the tests were realized with 3
different rockfill types, named A, B and C in
their different weathering states as indicated in
fig. 1.
2 COMPACTION OF ROCKFILL, NEED OF
PREPARING REALISTIC SAMPLES
In extended tests it was found, that an effective
compaction of disintegrated rockfill, which gen-
erally shows the well-known effect of particle
Extended experimental oedometric compression
tests approved, that for weathered rockfill mate-
rials the compressibility is significantly higher
for a wet, than for a dry material as illustrated in
fig. 3.
For a pre-compressed material under dry con-
ditions (path A-B) a following wetting leads to
an additional settlement along the path B-C. For
a continuing loading, the load-displacement
curve (path C-D) follows the curve A-D obtained
for an initially wet material, i.e. the memory of
the material of the pre-compaction under dry
conditions is swept out, if the load-displacement
curve, obtained for the wet material (path A-D),
 K. Kast / Mechanical Behaviour of Disintegrated Rockfill
starts from the same initial density. In this con-
text it is important to note, that for different ini-
tial densities the compression curves are different
for both dry and wet states of the material [3].
Figure 3. Compression behaviour of weathered rockfill in dry
and wet states
3.2 Time dependency during first saturation
The settlement caused by a first water satura-
tion (path B-C in fig. 3) is a time dependent
process (see Fig. 4). This time dependency origi-
nates from the activation of grain breakage due
to weak grains in connection with the disintegra-
tion of the materials (see chapter 1, for further
details see [5]).
Figure 4: Time dependency of saturation settlements (granite
type B) under oedometric load during first inundation
415
4 BEHAVIOUR UNDER TRIAXIAL LOAD
4.1 Sample diameter and test conditions
It is well known that the results in the stress
strain behaviour and shear resistance of triaxial
tests with rockfill material depend also on the
sample dimensions (diameter [6] and the diame-
ter/height relation [7]).
Fig. 5 shows that the largest sample dimen-
sion (800 mm sample diameter) leads to the low-
est shear resistance. That means, that in the given
case, all other tests with smaller samples lead to
an overestimation of the shear strength.
It should be mentioned, that all the test series
conducted in the study were done with an
equipment of lubricated end plates and D/H rela-
tions of 1/1. However, the tests were realized
with a deviatoric stress path.
Fig. 5: Deviatoric triaxial test on granite rockfill. Results de-
pending on different sample dimensions (diameter D and the
diameter/height relation), source [5].
416 K. Kast / Mechanical Behaviour of Disintegrated Rockfill

One of the aims in this connection was to get with

data for the development of a constitutive law for Ts = (^1 – ^3)saturation / (^1 – ^3)¶1=10% (1)
the stress strain behaviour of rockfill with respect
to the behaviour during first water satura- it can be seen that, similar with the behaviour
tion/inundation of a rockfill embankment. of the oedometric compression stress path, the
time dependent axial deformation due to first sa-
4.2 Test results turation, regains the axial strain difference be-
tween dry and, right from the beginning water
In this paper it is not possible to show the full
saturated samples.
range of the tests, done on all granite types and
With the completion of the test results in the
all test parameters. A good presentation can be
stress path of the isotropic load, it is possible to
gathered from [5].
develop the parameter for a stress strain law from
Fig. 6 shows, as an example, the result of a se-
the set of the test. This parameter is needed for
ries of deviatoric triaxial tests on the different
an extended finite element calculation to predict
disintegrated granite types A, B and C in dry and
the behaviour of an embankment-dam during the
water saturated condition.
load of the first inundation.
The influence of the disintegration of the ag-
gregates of the rockfill types A, B, and C is ob-
vious in the expected decreasing of the shear
strength but also in the stress strain behaviour 5 CONCLUSIONS
and the volume changes during shearing. This
behaviour is accompanied with an increasing The objective of this paper deals with the in-
particle breakage during the test. fluence of the disintegration of different

Figure 6: Stress-strain-curves of deviatoric triaxial tests on Figure 7: Stress-strain-curves of deviatoric triaxial tests (gra-
the different disintegrated granite types A, B and C in dry and nite type B) in different conditions (dry, water saturated and
water saturated condition as well. meanwhile saturation in different stages shear loading Ts)

Looking at fig. 7 at the behaviour of the satu- granitic rockfill qualities (caused by geological
ration effect in different shearing stages Ts = processes) on the mechanical behaviour of those
33% or 66 % of the shear resistance, fills.
 K. Kast / Mechanical Behaviour of Disintegrated Rockfill
The first step was to determine the degree of
geological disintegration. With the help of ap-
propriate test methods, it was possible to classify
the tested rock materials with regard to the mi-
cro-mechanical as well as the chemical degree of
disintegration. Investigations in the field of rock-
fill technology on three selected types of granite
material covering the range of variations from
fresh to severely decomposed rock, provided
quantitative information regarding the influence
of the geological degree of disintegration on the
mechanical properties of the fills.
In addition to fundamental results regarding
the different conditions in the stress-strain behav-
iour of dry and water-saturated materials, find-
ings related to the influence of precompaction
were also obtained. In this case it was important
to be able to produce realistic rockfill samples by
using suitable testing apparatus with sample di-
ameters up to 800 mm.
The following main conclusions can be de-
rived from the investigations.
a) During compaction, rockfill shows a more or
less intensive particle breakdown behaviour,
which depends on the specific geological de-
gree of disintegration.
b) By applying further compaction energy, the
porosity of the rockfill decreases, due to fur-
ther grain breakage.
c) In general, water-saturated rockfill is more
deformable and has smaler shear strength
than dry one. An initially dry fill deforms so
much when first saturated, that it equals the
larger deformations, which would occur in
fills, if saturated from the start. In the case of
a further increase of stress, the saturated ma-
terial follows the initially saturated curve of
the fill.
d) Regarding similar stress levels, rockfill under
shear stress shows essentially more deforma-
tions due to saturation, than under isotropic
stress.
e) In the case of shear stress - with an approxi-
mate ratio of the main stresses as can be ex-
417
pected in large areas of a dam body – the
rockfill shows mainly oedometric deforma-
tions, which means, that deformations occur
only in the direction of the greatest main
stress.
f) Deformations due to saturation may be influ-
enced by the application of “breakdown”
compaction and, if necessary, can be largely
avoided. Here, the inner structure resulting
from compaction is of great importance. In
general, in case of use of geologically disin-
tegrated rocks, the structure should have a
low porosity, which provides almost no op-
portunity for the occurrence of deformations
due to saturations. This is due to the wide
spread gradation, which initially exists or is
caused by the grain breakage due to the low
strength of the rock aggregates.
The results can serve as a basis for further in-
vestigations, to improve the results of numerical
analyses regarding the mechanical behaviour of
embankments compounded with rockfilI. There
is a need to integrate the relationships found in
stress strain laws [7].
Within the framework of the given study, it
was possible to prepare analytical calculation
methods to estimate saturation settlements of
rockfill, which are to be expected due to initial
water-saturation.
REFERENCES
[1] SMYKATZ-KLOSS, W & GÖBELBECKER, J: Au-
thor, Der chemische Verwitterungsgrad von Gesteinen
als Maß für ihre Ingenieurgeologische Verwendbarkeit.
Ingenieurgeol. Probl. im Grenzbereich zw. Locker- und
Festgesteinen, K.K. Heitfeld (Publisher), Springer Ver-
lag, Berlin, Heidelberg , 1985.
[2] KAST, K., BLINDER, A:, BRAUNS, J.: Verdichtungs-
, Verformungs-, und Sättigungsverhalten von Schüttun-
gen in Abhängigkeit von der geolog. Gesteinsentfesti-
gung. Ingenieurgeol. Probl. im Grenzbereich zw. Lo-
cker- und Festgesteinen, K.K. Heitfeld (Publisher),
Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1985.
[3] MARSAL, R.: Mechanical Properties of Rockfille Ma-
terials. Embankment-Dam Engineering. Casagrande
Volume John Wiley a. Sons, New York, 1973.
[4] KAST, K., BRAUNS, J.: Dynamic Compaction of
Rockfill samples. Proc. X ICSMFE, Stockholm, 1981.
418 K. Kast / Mechanical Behaviour of Disintegrated Rockfill

[5] KAST, K.: Mechanisches Verhalten von Granitschuet-

tungen. Heft 125: Veroeff. Inst. f. Bodenmech. u. Fels-
mech. der University Fridericiana, Karlsruhe, Ger-
many, 1992).
[6] MARACHI, N.D., CHAN, C.K., SEED, H.B.: Evalua-
tion of Properties of Rockfill Materials. PASCE 98,
SM1, 01/1972.
[7] BAUER E., TANTONO S. F., ZHU Y., LU SIHONG,
KAST, K.: Modeling Rheological Properties of materi-
als for rockfill dams. Zhu, Liu & Qiang (eds) © 2008.
Proc. of the 1st International Conference on Long Time
Effects and Seepage Behavior of Dams (LTESBD08),
2008.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 419
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-419

Vibrational reliability of rigid structures on soil

with random elastic parameters
La fiabilité de vibration de structures rigides sur le sol avec
paramètres élastiques aléatoire
M.L. Kholmyansky 1
NIIOSP Research Institute of PJSC “Research Centre “Civil Engineering”

ABSTRACT
A probabilistic problem of vibrational reliability of structures on the soil with significant uncertainty is stated. For the simplest
dynamic models the dependence of the response on the level of the elastic stiffness is investigated. The problems of reliability
determination for the deterministic and random loads are solved. The numerical results are obtained and analyzed.

RÉSUMÉ
Un problème de fiabilité probabiliste de vibration de structures sur le sol avec une grande incertitude est indiqué. Pour les plus
simples des modèles dynamiques de la dépendance de la réponse au niveau de la rigidité élastique est étudié. Les problèmes de
détermination de la fiabilité pour les charges déterministes et aléatoires sont résolus. Les résultats numériques sont obtenus et
analysés.

Keywords: Deterministic dynamic models, random system parameters, probabilistic model, failure probability, reliability, ma-
chine foundations, soil elasticity

1 INTRODUCTION safe side" is generally impossible. For example,

Uncertainty plays a significant role in geotechni-
cal engineering [1]. That is particularly true for
dynamic problems [2] because soil dynamic pa-
rameters are often left undetermined in course of
geological survey. Generally, the only way to ob-
tain the parameters for the vibration calculation
is using of correlation dependencies for dynamic
parameters. This may lead to significant errors.
Uncertainty is usually accounted for using
partial safety factors for soil parameters [3, 4].
Nevertheless, in the problems of vibration calcu-
lation the selection of input parameters "on the
reducing the soil stiffness in the calculation may
lead to both increase and decrease of the ampli-
tude; in the latter case vibration level underesti-
mation is possible that is non-conservative. Pro-
viding reliability through sound allowance for
uncertainty in structural vibration calculation re-
quires the development of new methods of calcu-
lation.
Probabilistic approach to uncertainty is used
as the most developed in geotechnical engineer-
ing [5, 6]. It consists in representing soil parame-
ters by random variables having specific distribu-
tion laws instead of taking soil variability into

1
Corresponding Author.
420 M.L. Kholmyansky / Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil
account by introducing partial safety factors for
soil parameters. Some publications based on that
approach are reviewed in [2]. This approach de-
scribes reliable operation by the condition of re-
liability [7], when the norms are set for probabil-
ity of failure or of reliable operation.
The paper is devoted to studying of failure
probability dependence of soil random stiffness.
In necessary cases dynamic load amplitude is
supposed a random variable. The structure is
supposed rigid that is made rather often, for ex-
ample in vibration calculation of massive and
wall-like machine foundations [8].
To achieve the stated goal the first task is es-
tablishing a possibly simple dependence “system
response - soil stiffness level” in deterministic
case.
The second task is the probabilistic problem
statement. Due to the shortage of data it is expe-
dient to choose the simplest models. Then the
techniques for probabilistic problem solutions
are developed, solutions obtained and analysed.
2 DEPENDENCE OF RIGID STRUCTURE
VIBRATIONAL RESPONSE ON SOIL
STIFFNESS LEVEL
2.1 General equations
The matrix equation of small vibrations of the
soil-structure system (a rigid body on a viscoe-
lastic soil mass) reads as follows:
&& + Bq& + Kq = Q
Mq
where q and Q are column vectors of generalized
displacements and forces, M, B and K are the
matrices of inertia, damping, and stiffness of soil
correspondingly.
Generally the system has 6 degrees of free-
dom (3 translational and 3 rotational displace-
ments). In case of symmetry instead of vector
equation (1) several equations for vectors of
lower dimension (or for scalars) may be derived;
the code [8] contains some solutions for the case
of harmonic excitation.
In case of harmonic dependence of excitations
and responses on time t with angular frequency
ω, i.e. Q = P exp(iωt), q = U exp(iωt) one ob-
tains
U = ( −ω 2 M + iωB + K ) P .
−1
(2)
Under linear dependence of all the compo-
nents of generalized force vector on one scalar
value (Q = fg, f = F exp(iωt) and with single ob-
served quantity u linearly dependent on general-
ized displacement vector (u = lTq), the expres-
sion u = A exp(iωt) is derived. The complex
amplitude A is determined using the scalar trans-
fer function:
A = A(ω ) = HF = H (ω ) F (ω ) ; (3)
the expression for the transfer function (imped-
ance) may be found in [9]:
H (ω ) = l T ( −ω 2M + iωB + K ) g .
−1
(4)
2.2 The single parameter of soil stiffness
Only simple dynamic models from the code [8]
are considered below. They imply the propor-
tionality of all the components of soil stiffness to
the main elastic characteristic of soil for spread
foundations — coefficient of elastic subgrade re-
action Cz = C.
Elastic soil parameters determine not only
(1) system stiffness but its damping also. In dynamic
models [8] it is supposed that damping ratios are
dependent only on foundation inertial parame-
ters. This implies that damping matrix is propor-
tional to C½. Therefore
A = l T ( −ω 2 M + iωC 1/ 2 B0 + CK 0 ) gF ,
−1
(5)
where the matrices B0 and K0 do not depend on
C = Cz.
It is easily established that the complex ampli-
tude A is equal to the ratio of two homogeneous
polynomials of ω and C½; the degree of the nu-
 M.L. Kholmyansky / Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil
merator polynomial is (2n–2), and the degree of
the denominator polynomial is 2n; n — amount
of system degrees of freedom, i.e. the order of
the matrices M, B and K. In case of single de-
gree of freedom system the complex amplitude is
the inverse of the homogeneous polynomials of
the second degree of ω and C½.
2.3 Complex dynamic stiffness of the system
Instead of using impedance, its inverse value,
scalar dynamic stiffness D = D(C,ω) may be
considered:
A = F / D (C , ω ) ;
it is a complex quantity.
The most important variable describing sys-
tem response is the real amplitude a = |A|. It is
found by the equation
a = F / D (C , ω ) .
The dynamic stiffness is the ratio of a homo-
geneous polynomial of degree 2n to a homoge-
neous polynomial of degree (2n–2) of C½. Hence
follows that for large values of C dynamic stiff-
ness along with its modulus are is asymptotically
proportional to C.
Henceforth we do not take into account the
phase lags, suppose that the force amplitude F is
real and consider only the real amplitude a.
3 PROBABILISTIC PROBLEM
STATEMENT AND MAIN FORMULAE
3.1 Sufficient reliability condition
The common condition of no failure [8] reads as
follows:
a ≤ au .
Under probabilistic problem statement it is
changed for the condition of sufficient reliability:
421
R = Prob[a ≤ au ] ≥ Ru , (9)
i.e. sufficiently large probability of no failure.
The equivalent condition of smallness of failure
probability is
Prob[a > au ] = Pf < Pu = 1 − Ru . (10)
Here au — vibration amplitude a limiting value,
Ru — reliability, Pf — failure probability, Ru —
limiting reliability, and Pu — limiting failure
probability.
3.2 Deterministic parameters
(6)
Damping ratio depending both on damping and
stiffness is taken deterministic. That fact pro-
vides the correctness of equation (5) which gives
the general dependency of response on soil elas-
tic stiffness.
Remaining parameters of the soil-structure
system (dimensions, densities of structural mate-
(7) rials and soil, machine parts masses) have sig-
nificantly less uncertainty and also are supposed
deterministic.
3.3 Dynamic load
The amplitude of harmonically time-dependent
dynamic load may be taken deterministic. In case
of machine foundations this assumption corre-
sponds to crank mechanisms, cone and jaw
crushers etc.
The random amplitude of harmonically time-
dependent dynamic load corresponds to the ac-
tion of theoretically balanced machines with uni-
formly rotating parts. There are some reasons to
suppose that this amplitude is a random variable
with well-known Rayleigh distribution. In par-
ticular, it may be derived with supposition that
the load is caused by random variations of iner-
tial and geometrical properties of the rotating
parts. The random load is assumed statistically
independent of soil stiffness.
(8)
3.4 Random stiffness
Determining of failure probability requires estab-
lishing the law of distribution of random parame-
422 M.L. Kholmyansky / Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil

ter C, determining the stiffness matrix. Earlier The method of determining of failure prob-
in [10] uniform and normal laws of distribution ability Pf depends on the type of the random
were adopted. load; the load may be either deterministic or ran-
Due to some limited experimental data [11] it dom variable.
may be supposed that the soil elastic stiffness
(affecting the vibration amplitudes) is log-
normally distributed random variable (i.e. with 4 FAILURE PROBABILITIES FOR
normally distributed logarithm) with the coeffi- DIFFERENT TYPES OF LOADS
cient of variation close to 0.3 [9]. This distribu-
tion law corresponds to elastic stiffness deter-
mining using its correlation [8] to soil 4.1 Deterministic load
deformation modulus.
In case of deterministic dynamic loads (say, for
3.5 Sufficient reliability condition in terms of machines with crank mechanisms) the failure
loads probability is

The condition (8) may be written down in an nS U j nS

equivalent form [12, 2] using (6): Pf = ∑ ∫ pC (C )dC = ∑ ⎡⎣QC (U j ) − QC ( L j ) ⎤⎦ ,(15)
j =1 L j j =1

F ≤ Fu = Fu (C ) , (11)
where Lj and Uj are lower and upper bounds cor-
where respondingly of nS failure intervals (Lj, Uj) of
stiffness axis where F > Fu(C);
Fu (C ) = au D (C , ω ) (12) (Fu(Lj) = Fu(Uj) = 0; see figure 1); QC(C) is the
cumulative distribution function for log-normal
distribution of C.
is the limiting value of the load. Figure 2 shows special cases for single degree
Equation (10) implies the following form of of freedom systems:
the condition of reliability: (a) L1 = 0: for zero stiffness the dynamic load
exceeds the limiting value;
Pf = Prob[ Fu (C ) < F ] < Pu . (13) (b) nS = 0, i.e. for any stiffness the load is
lower than the limiting value;
The problem of reliability determination is re- (c) general case.
duced to calculation of random event probability
(failure) and testing of sufficient smallness of
that probability. The failure consists in that the
load F, being a random variable in general, ex-
Fu(C)
ceeds its limiting value Fu.
The domain SCF of random parameters C and
F corresponding to failure is introduced and a se- F
ries of equations is derived:

Pf = ∫SCF
pC (C ) pF ( F ) dF dC =

= ∫0
∞
pC (C ) {∫ ∞

Fu ( C ) }
pF ( F )dF dC = . (14) L1 U1 L2 U2 C
∞
= ∫ pC (C )Prob [ F > Fu (C )] dC Figure 1. Failure intervals of stiffness axis for deterministic
0 loads and random stiffness.
 M.L. Kholmyansky / Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil
Figure 2. Special cases for failure intervals of the stiffness
axis (deterministic loads and random stiffness for single de-
gree of freedom systems): (a) L1 = 0, for zero stiffness the
dynamic load exceeds the limiting value; (b) nS = 0, i.e. for
any stiffness the load is lower than the limiting value;
(c) general case.
4.2 Random load
In case of dynamical action of machines with ro-
tating parts the load amplitude F in accordance
with the adopted Rayleigh law is supposed to
have the following cumulative distribution func-
tion:
⎛ πF2 ⎞
QF ( F0 ) = Prob [ F < F0 ] = 1 − exp ⎜ − 02 ⎟ . (16)
⎝ 4F ⎠
In this equation F0 > 0; F is the mathematical
expectation of the random load amplitude F; co-
efficient of variation of F equals 0.523. The ran-
dom load is supposed stochastically independent
of soil stiffness.
Failure probability in this case is given by the
following integral:
∞ ⎛ π F 2 (C ) ⎞
Pf = ∫ pC (C ) exp ⎜ − u 2 ⎟ dC . (17)
0
⎝ 4F ⎠
423
where pC(C) is the probability density function
for log-normal distribution of C:
1⎛ ( ln(C ) − μ )2 ⎞
pC (C ) = exp ⎜ − ⎟. (18)
Cσ 2π ⎜ 2σ 2 ⎟
⎝ ⎠
The distribution parameters σ and μ define the
stiffness expectation C0 and coefficient of varia-
tion CV:
C0 = e μ +σ ; CV = eσ − 1 .
2 2
/2
(19)
Since for large values of C the dynamic stiff-
ness (and consequently the limiting load) is as-
ymptotically proportional to C, the argument of
exp function in (17) is proportional to C2 and the
integral converges rapidly.
5 NUMERICAL RESULTS AND THEIR
ANALYSIS
5.1 Deterministic load
The simplest case is considered when the system
has a single degree of freedom. Figure 3 shows
the family of domains for dimensionless parame-
ters that provide reliable operation or failure for
the various levels of desired limiting probability
of failure Pu under deterministic dynamic loads.
The dimensionless parameters are Φ = F/(auK0),
Ω = ω/ω0 and the damping ratio ξ; K0 is the sys-
tem stiffness mathematical expectation and ω0 —
corresponding system non-damped frequency.
For Pf > Pu we have failure domain, and for
Pf ≤ Pu — the domain of reliable operation. The
coefficient of variation of soil stiffness CV = 0.3.
The load growth expectedly lowers the reli-
ability. For high damping ratio (ξ = 1) the fre-
quency growth always causes the reliability
growth (meaning that resonant phenomena are
absent), and for small and medium damping ra-
tios the dependence of reliability on frequency is
non-monotonic.
424 M.L. Kholmyansky / Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil

ξ = 0.1

CV = 0.1

ξ = 0.3

CV = 0.5

ξ=1

Figure 4. Domains of failure and reliable operation for single

degree of freedom system with deterministic load for differ-
ent levels of limiting probability of failure: 0.01; 0.25; 0.50;
0.75; 0.80; 0.85; 0.90; 0.95; 0.98 and 0.99 with coefficients
of variation of soil stiffness CV = 0.1 and CV = 0.5; ξ = 0.3.

Figure 3. Domains of failure and reliable operation for single

degree of freedom system with deterministic load for differ-
ent levels of limiting probability of failure: 0.01; 0.25; 0.50;
0.75; 0.80; 0.85; 0.90; 0.95; 0.98 and 0.99.
 M.L. Kholmyansky / Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil 425

5.2 Stiffness variability effect ξ = 0.1

Stiffness variability effect is of certain interest.
Figure 4 shows different reliability levels for
lowered and increased coefficients of variation of
soil (CV = 0.1 and CV = 0.5); damping ratio ξ is
taken 0.3.
The results of the calculations show that
change of the coefficient of variation for soil
stiffness do not influence qualitatively the gen-
eral dependence of reliability on system parame-
ters.
For small stiffness variability the interface be-
tween domain of failure and domain of reliable
operation moves insignificantly with limiting
probability of failure change.
ξ = 0.3
5.3 Random load
Figure 5 shows the results for random loads in
case of system with single degree of freedom for
the coefficient of variation of soil stiffness hav-
ing standard value of 0.3; in this case
Φ = F /(au K0 ) .
It is seen from the results that except for large
damping (ξ = 1) the least adoptable load expec-
tancy corresponds to certain non-zero frequency
(resonance). The analogous phenomenon was
observed for the deterministic load.

6 CONCLUSIONS ξ=1

For examining vibrational reliability of rigid

structures on soil it is necessary to consider inde-
terminacy of elastic soil properties. That purpose
may be obtained by using probabilistic problem
statement with simplest dynamic models of soil-
structure system.
The paper contains the analysis of dependence
of system vibrational behaviour on the single pa-
rameter of stiffness — coefficient of elastic sub-
grade reaction (or some other, say soil elastic
modulus). Time harmonic loads of two types are
considered — with deterministic amplitudes and
with random amplitudes distributed according to Figure 5. Domains of failure and reliable operation for single
the Rayleigh law. degree of freedom system with random Rayleigh load for dif-
ferent levels of limiting probability of failure: 0.01; 0.25;
0.50; 0.75; 0.80; 0.85; 0.90; 0.95; 0.98 and 0.99.
426 M.L. Kholmyansky / Vibrational Reliability of Rigid Structures on Soil
For the both types of load closed form formu-
lae are derived, calculations performed and their
results analysed.
The results found provide the possibility of
more sound decision making when designing
with required reliability; fore some cases eco-
nomic benefit may be obtained by removing un-
necessary reserve.
REFERENCES
[1] F. Nadim, Tools and Strategies for Dealing with Uncer-
tainty in Geotechnics, Probabilistic Methods in Geo-
technical Engineering (eds. D.V. Griffiths, V.A. Fen-
ton), 2007, 71-95.
[2] M.L. Kholmyansky, Dynamic soil-structure interaction
considering random soil properties, Proceedings of the
12th International Conference of IACMAG, 2008,
2704–2711.
[3] GOST 27751-88, Reliability of constructions and foun-
dations. Principal rules of the calculations, Izdatel’stvo
Standartov, Moscow, 1989. (Soviet Standard; in Rus-
sian).
[4] EN 1997–1, Eurocode 7 – Geotechnical design, Part 1:
General rules, European Committee for Standardiza-
tion, Brussels, 2004.
[5] N.N. Yermolaev, V. V. Mikheev, Reliability of struc-
ture foundations, Stroyizdat, Leningrad, 1976. (In Rus-
sian).
[6] V.I. Sheinin, Yu. V. Lesovoi, V.V. Mikheev,
N.B. Popov, An approach to reliability assessment in
engineering calculations of foundation beds, Soil Me-
chanics and Foundation Engineering, 27 (1990), 32–
36.
[7] V.V. Bolotin, Random vibrations of elastic systems, Ni-
jhof, Hague, 1984.
[8] SNiP 2.02.05-87, Foundations for machines under dy-
namic loadings, TsITP, Moscow, 1988. (Soviet Build-
ing Code; in Russian).
[9] M.L. Kholmyansky, Vibration calculation of founda-
tions for machines with random dynamic loads as sys-
tems with random parameters, Earthquake Engineering,
1998, 6–8. (In Russian).
[10] A.I. Tseytlin, N.I. Guseva, Statistical methods for cal-
culations of structures under group dynamic loading,
Stroyizdat, Moscow, 1979. (In Russian).
[11] D.D. Barkan, Yu.G. Trofimenkov, M.N. Golubtsova,
Relation between elastic and strength characteristics of
soils, Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, 11
(1974), 51–54.
[12] M.L. Kholmyansky, Probabilistic method of calculation
of machine foundations under periodic loading, Proc.
Russian Conference on Soil Mech. and Foundation
Engng, 4 (1995), 669-674. (In Russian).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 427
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-427

Triaxial, DSS, CRS tests and numerical

simulations of soft soils at river dike
Essais triaxiaux , essais de cisaillement direct, essais de
cisaillement à taux constant de déformation, et simulations
numériques de sols mous pour une digue fluviale
H.J. Lengkeek 1, R. Bouw
Witteveen+Bos, Deventer, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT
Within the framework of the Dutch SBW project “Strength and Loads on Dikes” extensive soil investigations, analysis, numeri-
cal simulation and stability calculations have been performed. The aim of the project is to investigate the design method for a
dike slope failure in a high water situation. Various locations in The Netherlands have been selected where the stability is criti-
cal. The authors are involved in a project concerning the Northern dike of the river Lek, east of Rotterdam.

One of the unique aspects of this project is that different tests have been performed on one same set of samples for two main soil
types, for example Classification tests, Constant Rate of Strain tests, Oedometer tests, Anisotropic Consolidated Undrained Tri-
axial tests and Direct Simple Shear tests. The main soil types are Holland peat (11 kN/m3) and Tiel Clay (16 kN/m3). Both layers
are Holocene deposits, very compressible, organic and anisotropic.

The strength and stiffness parameters have been derived from the laboratory tests. In addition, the advanced model parameters
have been adjusted by numerical simulation of the soil tests. Two sets of strength parameters are finally used in a stability analy-
ses of the river dike, both for drained as undrained conditions.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans le cadre du projet Hollandais "SBW - Strength and Loads on Dikes" (Résistance de rupture et Contraintes sur les Digues),
de nombreuses investigations de sols, analyses, simulations numériques et calculs de stabilité ont été effectués. L'objectif du pro-
jet est d'étudier la méthode de design pour une rupture de digue dans une situation où le niveau d'eau est élevé. Plusieurs endroits
des Pays-Bas ont été sélectionnés pour leur stabilité critique. Les auteurs sont impliqués dans le projet de la digue Nord de la ri-
vière Lek, à l'est de Rotterdam.

Un des aspects uniques de ce projet est que beaucoup d'essais différents ont été effectué sur un même set d'échantillons, pour
deux principaux types de sols, notamment des essais de classifications, essais de cisaillement à taux constant de déformation, es-
sais œdométriques, essais triaxiaux consolidés non drainés anisotropes, et des essais de cisaillement direct. Les principaux types
de sols sont Holland peat (tourbe) (11 kN/m3) et Tiel Clay (argile) (16kN/m3). Tous deux sont des dépôts Holocène, très com-
pressibles, organiques et anisotropes.

Les paramètres de résistance de rupture et de rigidité du sol sont dérivés des essais de laboratoire. De plus, les paramètres de
modélisation avancée ont été ajustés par simulation numérique des essais de sols. Deux sets de paramètres de résistance de rup-
ture sont ainsi utilisés dans les analyses de stabilité de la digue fluviale, autant pour les cas drainés que non drainés.

Keywords: Triaxial test (TA), Direct Simple Shear test (DSS), Constant Rate of Strain test (CRS), Soft soil, Organic clay, Peat,
Stability, River dike

1
Corresponding Author
428 H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw / Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils
1 INTRODUCTION
The Dutch SBW program “Strength and Loads
on Dikes” is a research program for improve-
ment of knowledge of present defences. Within
the framework of the program a new calculation
method for macro-stability of inner slopes is va-
lidated. The new method consists of:
 Slip plane analyses with Bishop and Finite
Elements Methods.
 Shear strength model based on Critical
State Soil Mechanics (CSSM).
 Single stage Triaxial tests and DSS tests for
peat.
 Shear strength at failure in combination
with a check of the deformations of the
dike.
Several specific locations in The Netherlands
have been selected where the stability is critical.
The authors investigated the Northern dike along
the river Lek, east of Rotterdam [1]. The pore
pressure and deformation data from this location
are known over the period 1994-2000.
The deformation measurements showed the
start of a slip plane, indicating that the stability is
close to unity. Around 1999 the stability of the
dike has been improved by reprofiling. The vali-
dation has been done for the situation during the
high water of 28 January 1994.
Figure 1. Schematization soil profile
2 GEOTECHNICAL TESTING
An extensive geotechnical investigation program
is conducted, consisting of seven CPT’s and five
Boreholes with continuous sampling in one cross
section of the dike. After the field work the fol-
lowing laboratory tests have been performed on
the subsoil’s and dike material:
 Classification tests (50x)
 Conventional Oedometer tests (15x OED)
 Constant Rate of Strain Oedometer tests
(15x CRS)
 Anisotropic Consolidated Undrained Tri-
axial tests (40x ACU-TA)
 Direct Simple Shear tests (40x DSS).
The main soil types are Holland Peat and Tiel
Clay (Figure 1). The typical unit weight of Hol-
land Peat is 11 kN/m3 and of Tiel Clay 16 kN/m3.
Within a geological deposit the density (), water
content (w) and the organic content (org) varies
rather strong. Below the dike the unit weight is
higher, beside the dike the water content and or-
ganic content are higher. In Table 1 and 2 some
statistics of both layers are given.
Both Holland Peat and Tiel Clay are Holocene
deposits, compressible and organic. The proper-
ties under the dike are however much better than
in the floodplains due to the high overburden
pressure of the dike. This should be taken into
account in the design calculations.
 H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw / Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils 429

Table 1. Statistics Clay Tiel

0
Parameter Unit Minimum Average Maximum
 kN/m3 12,1 15,7 17,9
w % 36 64 144 0,1
org % 1 7 16
loading phase
0,2
Table 2. Statistics Holland Peat

Hencky strain [-]

Parameter Unit Minimum Average Maximum
 kN/m3 9,9 11,1
w % 102 338
org % 12 44
2.1 CRS test
The CRS test is a more advanced oedometer test.
In this test method the sample is constrained
axially between two parallel, rigid platens and
laterally to remain the cross sectional area con-
stant. The top site of the sample is axially
drained and the fluid pressure is measured at the
sealed base. A back pressure is applied to satu-
rate both the sample and the base pressure mea-
surement system. The sample is deformed axially
at a constant rate while measuring the time, axial
deformation, reaction force and base pressure.
Within the project the following loading sche-
dule was followed during the CRS tests:
 Start at a stress of 2 to 5 kPa.
 Increase the load until 6 to 10 times the ini-
tial vertical effective stress (with a maxi-
mum of 300 kPa).
 Relaxation during 16 hours.
 Reload until 8 to 14 times the initial vertic-
al effective stress (with a maximum of 400
kPa).
 Unload until 40 % of the maximum vertical
effective stress.
 Reload until at least the maximum vertical
effective stress.
As example the results of one CRS test on a
Holland Peat sample under the dike is plotted in
Figure 2.
13,6 0,3
637
78
0,4
relaxation phase
un-/reloading cycle
0,5
0,6
1 10 100 1000
axial stress [kPa]
Figure 2. Result CSR tests on sample of Holland Peat
The CRS tests are executed on samples of the
same soil layer as the samples for the ACU-TA
and DSS tests. The initial height of the samples
(before consolidation) was 25.4 mm and the di-
ameter 63.5 mm. The rate of strain during the
test was approximately 1 %/hour. Both the com-
pression parameters and the pre-consolidation
stress have been derived.
2.2 Triaxial test
The ACU-TA tests are executed as single stage
test with consolidations pressures above the pre-
load to avoid over-consolidated (OC) behavior.
The aim of the tests is to find the Critical State
Line (CSL) for the soil layers. The following
steps have been completed to find the CSL:
 Estimate the pre-consolidation of the sam-
ple using the results of the OED and CRS
tests.
 Define the anisotropic consolidation stress
(1.2 to 3 times the preload with a maximum
of 300 kPa).
 Prepare the undisturbed sample (height
76 mm and diameter 38 mm).
430 H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw / Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils

 Consolidate the sample isotropic with a cell 0,6

pressure of half the anisotropic consolida-
0,5
tion stress.
 Continue to consolidate the sample to ani- 0,4

CR, RR [-]
sotropic stress level (K0 = 0.5). 0,3
 Execute Triaxial test until failure (strain
0,2
rate 1 %/hour) or 20% axial strain, to de-
rive peak and ultimate strength parameters. 0,1
0,0
10 100 1000
2.3 DSS test
w [%]
The DSS tests are executed on samples of the
same soil layer as the samples for the ACU-TA Tiel Clay, CR Holland Peat, CR
tests. Therefore the same consolidation stresses Tiel Clay, RR HollandPeat, RR
are applied to the saturated samples. The consol- CR Correlation
idation periods were typically 1 day. The initial Figure 3. Results CRS tests
height of the samples (before consolidation) was
25.4 mm and the diameter 63.5 mm. The rate of 3.2 Triaxial test
strain during the test was approximately 0.02
mm/min. The test is performed to a shear strain Thirteen samples were tested from the layer Tiel
of 40% to derive peak and ultimate strength pa- Clay and twelve samples from the layer Holland
rameters. Peat. The results (ultimate strength) are plotted in
Figure 4. Besides the test results, the linear trend
line per layer is shown.
3 RESULTS CRS, TRIAXIAL AND DSS 120
TEST
100

3.1 CRS test 80

t [kPa]

The CRS tests are executed on five samples of

60
Tiel Clay and seven samples of Holland Peat.
The pre-consolidation (pc) stress below the dike
40
is approximately 10 kPa (Holland Peat) to 40 kPa
(Tiel Clay) above the vertical stress, beside the
20
dike this is 10 kPa. The compression results are
plotted in Figure 3.
0
The CR values of the tests on both layers fit
0 50 100 150 200
well with the correlation of Figure 22.1c of
Lambe [3]. The CR/RR ratio is approximately 9, s' [kPa]
which is lower (stiffer) than generally for soft Tiel Clay Holland Peat
clay. The C/CR ratio is approximately 5 % for Trend (clay) Trend (peat)
Tiel Clay and 7 % for Holland Peat, with a few
Figure 4. Results ACU-TA tests (ultimate strength)
higher values of 10 %.
The cohesion (c) and the angle of internal fric-
tion () for the peak and ultimate strength are
listed in Table 3 and 4. In the -line no cohesion
is assumed, in the trend line the cohesion is de-
 H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw / Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils 431

rived from the intersection (see figure 4). It can 120

be argued that the -ultimate is also the CSL, as
the samples are consolidated ( c) tested well 100
beyond the pre-consolidation stress (pc) with
shearing up to 20% strain and no significant pore 80
pressure change occurring at large strains.

 [kPa]
60
Table 3. Peak strength parameters ACU-TA tests
Soil c’ ’ cu/ c 40
[kPa] [,] [-]
Tiel Clay (-line) 0 44.0 0.46 20
Tiel Clay (Trend) 5.7 37.6
Holland Peat (-line) 0 60.4 0.50 0
Holland Peat (Trend) 0 61.0 0 50 100 150 200 250
v '[kPa]
Table 4. Ultimate strength parameters ACU-TA tests Tiel Clay Holland Peat
Soil c’ ’ cu/ c Trend (clay) Trend (peat)
[kPa] [,] [-]
Tiel Clay (CSL) 0 40.8 0.41 Figure 5. Results DSS tests (ultimate strength)
Tiel Clay (Trend) 7.9 32.8
Holland Peat (CSL) 0 56.3 0.43
Holland Peat (Trend) 0 55.0 Table 5. Peak strength parameters DSS tests
Soil c’ ’ cu/ c
[kPa] [,] [-]
The angle of internal friction and cu ratio are
large compared to soft soils, but not uncommon Tiel Clay (-line) 0 25.4 0.33
for organic soils, reference is made to Den Haan Tiel Clay (Trend) 14.1 20.5
Holland Peat (-line) 0 29.3 0.40
[2]. The cohesion is limited as can be expected Holland Peat (Trend) 2.5 26.2
for tests in the normal consolidated (NC) range.
The unit weight of the thirteen TA samples of
Table 6. Ultimate strength parameters DSS tests
Tiel Clay depends in a large extent on the organ-
ic content and varies from 12.3 kN/m3 to Soil c’ ’ cu/ c
[kPa]
17.7 kN/m3. The organic content also influences [,] [-]
the angle of internal friction. The angle of the Tiel Clay (CSL) 0 24.9 0.25
Tiel Clay (Trend) 9.4 20.7
CSL becomes for example 36.9, instead of Holland Peat (CSL) 0 31.7 0.39
40.8,, if the samples beside the dike with a unit Holland Peat (Trend) 5.4 26.2
weight below 14 kN/m3 (four in total) are not
taken into account. The DSS undrained shear strength is approx-
imately 75% of the TA undrained shear strength,
3.3 DSS test which is in line with literature. The DSS angle of
internal friction is significantly lower than for the
The DSS tests are executed on fifteen samples of
ACU-TA tests. The cohesion on the other hand is
Tiel Clay and eighteen samples of Holland Peat.
higher. The difference (approximately 50 %) in
The results (ultimate strength) are plotted in Fig-
angle of internal friction is expected to be largely
ure 5 and the strength parameters are given in
determined by anisotropy. This Holland Peat
Table 5 and 6. The effective strength parameters
layer and organic Tiel Clay have predominantly
are derived using Coulomb’s failure envelope:
horizontal oriented fibers, parallel to the DSS
shear plane and across the TA shear plane. The is
  c' v' tan  ' (1) causing a reinforcing effect for the TA test more
then for the DSS test.
432 H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw / Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils

In addition another factor might be of influ-
ence. In a ACU-TA test the total and effective
vertical stress increases. In an “undrained” DSS
test the height is kept constant. But due to the
consolidation beyond the pre-consolidation
stress, the organic samples continues to creep
during shearing. To compensate this, the vertical
stress is automatically reduced. The reduction in
effective vertical stress is almost the same as the
applied shear stress and almost 50% of the initial
vertical stress. Both effects, the reinforcing and
the creep account for the significant anisotropy
in angle of internal friction, more then for non
organic soils.
In the approach of the authors the E’50;ref is fit-
ted with the SoilTest program to the laboratory
TA-test. To achieve the significant shear induced
pore pressures as in the laboratory tests, the
E’50;ref needed to be as high as possible, a factor
2.5 compared to the E’oed;ref. Also the model pa-
rameter K0;nc has been increased compared to the
default to achieve stiffer undrained behavior (Eu)
and lower undrained shear strength. The model
parameter Rf (hyperbolic factor) has been re-
duced compared to the default to achieve a peak
strength at approximately 10% shear strain.

4 SOILTEST SIMULATIONS

The main challenge is to come to one set of de-

sign parameters for the two calculation methods:
Bishop and Finite Element Method (Plaxis). To
derive the best set of parameters, firstly a basic
set of strength, stiffness and model parameters
have been derived from the laboratory tests, ex-
tended with default model parameters. Secondly,
the actual laboratory tests have been simulated in
Plaxis SoilTest (Figure 6) and the parameters
have been adjusted such that the various tests and
stress paths are best simulated.
Two parameter sets have been derived, one
for Mohr-Coulomb (MC) model and one for
Hardening-Soil (HS) model, reference is made to
Brinkgreve [4].
The SoilTest module appears to be a very use- Figure 6. ACU-TA simulation Plaxis SoilTest
ful tool to match the drained and undrained
stress-strain paths of the laboratory tests with the Figure 5 presents the Plaxis SoilTest output
input parameters, in particular for an advanced for the simulation of a Triaxial test in MC model
constitutive model as the HS model. (bold straight lines) and HS model (curved lines)
The CR value has been used as input for the of Tiel Clay. With the fitted parameter set and
E’oed;ref together with the effective strength para- the formulation of the HS model, the stress-strain
meters to get a good fit with the DSS and ACU- behavior and excess pore pressures due to shear-
TA test. The RR value has been used to derive ing are correctly modeled (stress path bends to
E’ur;ref. The E’50;ref cannot be derived directly, as the left with lower undrained shear strength). It
the ACU-TA tests provides the undrained stiff- can be concluded that undrained analyses of this
ness. The ratio of undrained to drained stiffness stress path with effective stress parameters are
for actual soils is approximately a factor 3, as can not well predicted with an isotropic linear elastic
be find in Lambe[3]. Also, the ratio’s of stiffness perfectly plastic MC model.
parameters within the HS-model is restricted. To get a good fit with the DSS test, the same
parameters are used as for the ACU-TA test, ex-
 H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw / Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils
cept for effective strength parameters. From the
SoilTest module it appears that the angle of in-
ternal friction should not be derived with equa-
tion (1) but with the following equation:
 5
 sin  
'v
Equation (2) is correct in case the shear stress
() is equal to the t’=( 1’- 2’)/2 and s’v is equal
to s’=( 1’+ 2’)/2. This condition appears to be
the case in SoilTest simulations, for typically this
set of parameters and the HS-model. Care should
be taken for other parameter sets of other soils
and other constitutive models to generalize this
condition.
It should be noted that the values in Table 5
and 6 have been derived with the Tangent (Cou-
lomb criterion, project convention) instead of the
Sinus and underestimate the strength properties
with approximately 15%. Reference is made to
Wroth [5] on this subject. This also contributes
to the large difference found with the ACU-TA
angle of internal friction test results.
100
75
 [kPa]
50
25
0
0 50 100 150 200
'v [kPa]
Plaxis Soiltest, Tiel Clay
Labtest B2-6656, Tiel Clay
sin(phi=28), tan(phi=25)
Figure 7. Comparison DSS laboratory test and Plaxis SoilTest
Figure 7 presents the comparison between the
laboratory test result and the simulation of the
DSS test for a Tiel Clay sample. The stress paths
433
match well. The laboratory test however tends to
soften more, which is probably due to the ten-
dency of the sample to creep, as discussed in 3.3.
STABILITY ANALYSES
(2)
The inner slope stability is calculated with the
computer program MStab (Bishop slope stability
calculation with uplift) and Plaxis (Finite Ele-
ment Method). Two constitutive models have
been used, the MC and HS model. The MC mod-
el has been used in undrained stability analyses
(type b) in which stiffness is defined in terms of
effective properties and strength is defined as
undrained shear strength. The HS model has
been used for drained and undrained stability
analyses (type a) in which stiffness and strength
are defined in terms of effective properties. The
stability factor in Plaxis has been determined
phi-c-reduction.
The advantage of the HS model type a
undrained analyses is that both the deformations
and also generation of excess pore pressures due
to shearing are better calculated then in a MC
model. The advantage of the MC model type b
analyses (and also MStab) is the robustness of
the calculation. Due to near uplift behind the
dike the effective stresses are low and also the
stability factor is near unity. This creates numeri-
cal problems within the HS model. Additional
calculations where the angle of internal friction
is combined with the cohesion in Table 3 to 6
provide more stability, both numerical as the
overall stability factor.
The initial conditions are considered to be
drained. The river high water is typically a few
weeks event with the maximum water level for a
250
few days. Therefore the river high water case is
modeled as both drained and undrained condition
in Plaxis. The stability calculations have been
executed for both the parameters based on ACU-
TA and DSS test.
The actual stress paths in the dike deviates
however from the standard Triaxial compression
test, which is in particular important for aniso-
tropic soils. A river high water case causes main-
ly changes in water pressures, combined with up-
lift at the flood basin. There is no significant
434 H.J. Lengkeek and R. Bouw / Triaxial, DSS, CRS Tests and Numerical Simulations of Soft Soils
loading as in case of a new embankment. Based
on a stress path analyses of the Plaxis calcula-
tions it is concluded that at the crest of the dike
the actual stress path corresponds better with a
Triaxial compression test with a decreasing cell
pressure. At the toe of the dike and flood plane
the actual stress path corresponds better with a
Triaxial extension test with a decreasing vertical
pressure. In the deeper section which is the main
part, the DSS test corresponds best with the ac-
tual stress path.
The stability factors are presented in Table 7.
A typical slip plane, calculated with the program
MStab, is given in Figure 8 and with Plaxis in
Figure 9.
Table 7. Stability factors
Analyses ACU-TA
Drained (MStab) 1.90
Undrained type b (MStab) 1.56
Drained (Plaxis HS) >1
Undrained type a (Plaxis HS) >1
Undrained type b (Plaxis MC) >1
Figure 8. Slip plane MStab (Undrained, DSS)
Figure 9. Slip plane Plaxis (Undrained MC)
6 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the reported analyses it is concluded
that:
 The strength parameters based on the
ACU-TA test give significant higher stabil-
ity factors then based on the DSS.
 The DSS results should however be in-
creased with approximately 15% as angle
of internal friction should be derived with
the Sinus.
 Various deformation measurements in the
past showed the start of a slip plane, indi-
cating that the stability is close to unity. It
is concluded that the strength parameter set
based on correctly interpreted DSS test
gives therefore the best prediction of the
DSS stability.
0.96  The Plaxis drained analyses give slightly
1.04 lower stability factors then undrained,
<1 which can be expected in a more unloading
1,14
1.04 then loading situation.
 The MStab and Plaxis results correspond
reasonably well.
 The SoilTest module appears to be a very
useful tool to match the drained and un-
drained stress-strain paths of the laboratory
tests with the input parameters, in particu-
lar for an advanced constitutive model as
the HS model.
 It is advised to verify the stability of the
river dikes in case of high water with the
correctly derived DSS parameters, in both
drained (HS model) and undrained condi-
tion (MC model).
REFERENCES
[1] M.G. Kruse, Deformation of a river dike on soft soil,
Netherlands Geographical Studies, Utrecht, 1998.
[2] E.J. Den Haan and S. Kamao, Obtaining isotache para-
meters from a CRS K0-Oedometer, Soils and Founda-
tion, Vol 43, 2003.
[3] T.W. Lambe and R.V. Whitman, Soil mechanics, 1979.
[4] R.B.J. Brinkreve and W. Broere, Plaxis Manual 2D V9,
2008.
[5] C.P. Wroth, The interpretation of in situ soil tests, Géo-
technique 34, No 4, 1984.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 435
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-435

Estimation of geotechnical properties and

classification of geotechnical behaviour in
tunnelling for flysch rock masses
Estimation des propriétés géotechniques et classification du
comportement des massifs rocheux du flysch aux tunnels
V. Marinos 1
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
P. Fortsakis & G. Prountzopoulos
National Technical University of Athens
ABSTRACT
Flysch formations are generally characterised by diverse heterogeneity, presence of members with low strength and tectonically
disturbed structures. The complexity of these geological materials demands a more specialized research and geological characte-
rization, due to the special features of their rock mass types regarding both their structure and their lithological characteristics.
The present paper proposes a standardization of the qualitative engineering geological characteristics, the geotechnical classifica-
tion, the assessment of the behaviour in underground excavations and the qualitative instructions-guidelines for the primary sup-
port measures for flysch rock masses. In order to investigate flysch rock mass properties, 12 tunnels of Egnatia Highway, in
Northern Greece, were examined taking into account data from their design and construction records. More specifically, flysch
formations are classified here in 11 rock mass types (I to XI), according to the siltstone-sandstone participation and their tectonic
disturbance. A modified GSI chart for heterogeneous rock masses such as flysch is presented, where a certain range of GSI val-
ues is proposed for every rock mass type. The engineering geological behaviour of flysch in tunnel excavation lies within a large
spectrum. A further classification of every flysch rock mass type based on their geotechnical behaviour during tunnel excavation,
in relation to categorised failure mechanisms (deformation due to overstressing, overbreaks or wedge failure, “chimney” type
failure, ravelling ground) and in situ stresses, is presented. Finally, general principles and guidelines for the selection of the im-
mediate support measures are proposed.

RÉSUMÉ
Les formations de flysch sont généralement caractérisées par une hétérogénéité diverse et la présence de membres de faible ré-
sistance avec une structure tectonique perturbée. Ce développement de caractéristiques spéciales de massif de flysch au niveau
de sa structure et sa lithologie exige une caractérisation géologique plus délicate. Dans un premier temps ce document propose
une normalisation des caractéristiques géologiques qualitatives et une classification géotechnique. Or, dans un deuxième temps,
il présente une méthode d’évaluation de leur comportement pendant les excavations souterraines et une approche qualitative de
direction concernant les mesures de support principal pour les masses de flysch rocheux. Afin d'étudier les propriétés de flysch,
12 tunnels de l'autoroute d’Egnatia, dans le nord de la Grèce, ont été examinés prenant en compte les données de leur conception
et leur construction. Plus précisément, les formations de flysch sont ici classées dans 11 différents types des roches (I à XI) en
fonction de la participation de siltstone-grès et de leurs perturbations tectoniques. Un nouveau diagramme pour le GSI des roches
hétérogènes telles que le flysch est présenté, où un certain éventail de valeurs est proposé pour chaque type. Le comportement de
flysch en cours d’excavation du tunnel présente une large gamme, principalement en raison de l'hétérogénéité de la masse ro-
cheuse et ses perturbations tectoniques. En outre, pour chaque type du massif de flysch rocheux, un classement additionnel est
proposé par rapport à son comportement géotechnique, au cours d’excavation de tunnel, lié aux mécanismes de rupture (défor-
mation due à la surcharge, hors profils, chute de dièdres ou de type cheminée, on éboulement) et aux contraintes développées in
situ dans chaque cas. L’article conche avec des principes généraux et des recommandations pour le soutènement immédiat.

Keywords: Flysch, tunnel, GSI, tunnel behaviour, temporary support

1
Corresponding Author.
436 V. Marinos et al. / Estimation of Geotechnical Properties
1 INTRODUCTION
In the last decades there has been a rapid devel-
opment in almost all stages of geotechnical de-
sign. Analysis and computational methods are
fields where great progress has been made. How-
ever, regardless the great capabilities offered by
the state of the art computational tools, the re-
sults still involve uncertainties due to the diffi-
culties in defining design parameters. Hence, at-
tention should be given to the definition of the
geotechnical parameters and behaviour of the
rock mass in engineering works.
Flysch formations are generally characterized
by diverse heterogeneity, presence of members
with low strength and tectonically disturbed
structures. Such formations are classified here in-
to certain rock mass types according to the silt-
stone-sandstone participation and their tectonic
disturbance and a new GSI chart for heterogene-
ous rock masses such as flysch is presented.
A further classification of flysch rock masses
based on their geotechnical behaviour (deforma-
tion due to overstressing, overbreakes or wedge
failure, “chimney” type failure, raveling ground
and their equivalent scale) is presented hereafter.
Finally, temporary support measures concept and
principles for every rock mass type are presented
based on the available tunnelling experience.
A fundamental tool of this research was the
TIAS database (Tunnel Information and Analysis
System – [1], [2]), with a great number of geo-
logical and geotechnical data from the design
and the construction of 12 tunnels of Egnatia
Highway in Northern Greece, driven in flysch
environment.
2 GEOTECHNICAL CLASSIFICATION
Flysch is composed of varying alternations of
clastic sediments that are associated with oroge-
nesis, since it ends the cycle of sedimentation be-
fore the paroxysm folding process. It is characte-
rized mainly by rhythmic alternations of
sandstone and pelitic layers (siltstones, silty or
clayey shales). The thickness of sandstone or
siltstone beds ranges from centimeters to meters.
The variety of geological conditions under
different in situ stresses, in mild and heavy tec-
tonism, provided significant amount of informa-
tion regarding the engineering geological condi-
tions and geotechnical behaviour of several
flysch rock mass types. These behaviours were
analysed and evaluated so as to define the geo-
technical characteristics for every flysch type.
In order to investigate the rock mass proper-
ties of flysch, 12 tunnels driven in various geo-
logical environments were examined. The 2001
chart [3] is being revised here with adjustments
in values and additions of new rock mass types.
Flysch formations are classified into 11 rock
mass types (I to XI) according to the siltstone-
sandstone participation and their tectonic distur-
bance. Hence, a new GSI diagram for heteroge-
neous rock masses such as flysch is presented,
where a certain range of GSI values for every
rock mass type is proposed (Figure 1). In the new
diagram, GSI values are increased from 10 to 35
units for the “Blocky” to “Undisturbed” struc-
tures, respectively, particularly for the siltstone
type. The high presence of siltstone beds does
not decrease the GSI value, but only in the highly
disturbed forms. When a rock mass is undis-
turbed or slightly disturbed, independently of
siltstone or sandstone predominance, high GSI
ratings have to be considered. This was con-
firmed from tunnel construction, where lighter
temporary support categories (correlated with
high GSI values) were implemented and margin-
al measured deformations were observed.
Another addition to the GSI chart is the bed-
ding thickness consideration of the competent
sandstone beds. In types IV and V (slightly dis-
turbed structures) when the thickness of sand-
stone beds exceeds 50cm, an increase of the GSI
value by 5 is suggested.
In addition, it is necessary to consider values
of the “intact” rock properties ^ci, mi and Ei for
the heterogeneous rock mass as a unit. Some
quantitative estimates of heterogeneous intact
rock properties via laboratory tests [4], [5] have
already been presented. For cases when labora-
tory tests are not feasible, a “weighted average”
of the intact strength properties of the strong and
weak layers is proposed in Table 1.
 V. Marinos et al. / Estimation of Geotechnical Properties 437

Figure 1. A new GSI classification chart for heterogeneous rock masses such as Flysch

Table 1. Suggested proportions of values for the “intact rock” properties estimation of each flysch rock type
Flysch type Proportions of values for the weighted “intact rock” property estimation
I, III Use values for sandstone beds
II, VI, XI Use values for siltstone or shale
Thin beds: Reduce sandstone values by 10% and use full values for siltstone
IV
Thick beds: Use equivalent values for siltstone and sandstone beds
V, VII, VIII Reduce sandstone values by 20% and use full values for siltstone
IX Use initial values for siltstone and sandstone beds without reduction according to their participation
X Reduce sandstone values by 40% and use full values for siltstone
Note: if adjusted values are found lower than the value of the weak layer, use that value.

3 ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL viour of various flysch types was based on a

BEHAVIOUR DURING TUNNELLING
Flysch can be stable, even under high overbur-
den, exhibit wedge sliding and wider chimney
type failures, or cause serious deformation even
under low to medium overburden. Its behaviour
is controlled by its main geotechnical characte-
ristics, as well as by the in-situ stress and
groundwater conditions. The study on the beha-
large set of data (TIAS database) from excava-
tion face mapping, rock fall records, convergence
measurements and in-situ observation of many
excavation faces. A range of geotechnical beha-
viour during tunnelling for a number of flysch
rock mass types (I to IX) is presented hereafter.
Types I and III. The rock mass behaviour is
purely anisotropic and is controlled by the orien-
tation of discontinuities, mainly the bedding, in
438 V. Marinos et al. / Estimation of Geotechnical Properties
relation to the orientation of the tunnel. As a re-
sult, there is a possibility of wedge detachment
and sliding. Sliding can occur along thin siltstone
layers with low shear strength that are often
present on bedding planes, especially in Type III.
Type II. The behaviour of the rock mass is
controlled by the low strength of the siltstone and
the excavation depth. In great depths limited de-
formation can develop, whereas in small depths
the tunnel is generally stable and, depending on
the orientation of the tunnel and the discontinui-
ties, sliding and fall of wedges can occur.
Type IV. The behaviour of the rock mass is
anisotropic. In case of unfavourable discontinuity
orientation, mainly of the bedding, in relation to
the tunnel orientation, detachment and sliding of
blocks can be observed, possibly along siltstone
layers. When the layers are close to horizontal
and especially when the rock mass is thin-
bedded, overexcavation problems can appear. In
places where the rock mass is locally more loose
and weathered with no significant confinement,
limited chimney type failures can occur.
Types V and VI. The rock mass behaviour is
close to isotropic concerning deformation. Beha-
viour is controlled by the low strength of silt-
stone and limited deformation can develop under
medium overburden. In small depths the tunnel is
generally stable, but depending on the orientation
of discontinuities, sliding and fall of wedges can
occur. Close to the surface extended overexcava-
tion and chimney type failures can appear, due to
weathering and foliation, especially in Type VI
(reduced sandstone presence).
Type VII. The behaviour of the rock mass
can be well considered as isotropic. It is con-
trolled by the low strength of the intact rock and
limited deformation starts to develop under me-
dium overburden. Yet, there is a possibility of
local wedge detachment and sliding, enhanced
by the siltstone layers, if the geometry of joints
favours it. As a result of the relatively good “in-
terlocking” of the rock mass due to its folded
structure, no extended falls are expected, except
only in weathered zones close to the surface.
Type VIII. The rock mass behaviour is clearly
isotropic. Due to the low strength of the siltstone,
deformation starts to develop under medium
overburden. Detachments and slides of blocks
may locally occur. As a result of the relatively
good “interlocking” of the rock mass due to its
folded structure, extended falls are only expected
in weathered parts in very small depths. Such
cases need great care, as extended overexcava-
tion and chimney failures can be observed, due
to weathering and foliated structure.
Type IX. This rock mass type is not characte-
ristic of a typical flysch, as siltstone formations
do not usually exhibit brittle behaviour. It is
however often encountered in meta-flysch like
series, such as the “Athenian Schist” excavated
for the Athens metro. The behaviour of the rock
mass is isotropic, governed by the disintegrated
structure, and after excavation it can start to col-
lapse. Although the equivalent friction angle is
high, the equivalent cohesion of the disintegrated
mass is practically negligible, except if some
secondary fine binding material gives a small
cohesion to the rock mass. In cases of open struc-
ture and strong presence of water, raveling is
immediate and extensive and can not be easily
limited until the induced void creates a ground
arch or reaches the ground surface. In great
depths, as the intact rock has a considerable
strength, no significant deformation is expected.
Types X and XI. The behaviour of the rock
mass is clearly isotropic, controlled by its low
strength and high deformability that are respon-
sible for the development of important deforma-
tion, even under low to medium overburden. In
greater depths, squeezing conditions can be ad-
verse [6], [7], [8], causing sometimes failure of
rigid support sections due to overloading of the
shell, especially in Type XI. This can lead to
adoption of a yielding support that can undertake
the high loads without failing. Additionally, par-
ticular care is needed close to the surface, where
important overexcavation can occur, due to wea-
thering and the foliated, fragile structure. Finally,
an additional problem arises, regarding estima-
tion of intact rock parameters, as it is difficult to
take representative intact samples. Marinos et al.
[6] and Grasso et al. [7] propose geotechnical pa-
rameters values for flysch rock masses of Type
XI through back analyses.
 V. Marinos et al. / Estimation of Geotechnical Properties 439

Figure 2. General directions for the immediate support measures for every flysch type
440 V. Marinos et al. / Estimation of Geotechnical Properties
4 CONCEPT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
OF TEMPORARY SUPPORT
The wide range of engineering geological beha-
viour leads to a corresponding range of tempo-
rary support measures that can be applied in
flysch rock masses. The temporary support pro-
posed in the specific tunnels examined in the
present paper varies from very light to very rigid
or yielding for severe squeezing conditions.
Some indicative suggestions for the philosophy
of temporary support in tunnel excavation
through each flysch type are presented in Figure
2. These proposals take into account both the
rock mass behaviour and the critical failure me-
chanism, but do not replace the detailed design
analysis of the tunnel support, adjusted to the in
situ conditions and particularities of each project.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The present paper presents a new GSI chart for
heterogeneous rock masses such as flysch, de-
scribes the critical failure mechanisms in tunnels
and proposes guidelines for the immediate sup-
port for each flysch rock mass type.
New rock mass types are included in the new
GSI chart, compared to the initial proposed for
flysch-like rock masses by Marinos & Hoek in
2001 [3], whereas increased GSI values are gen-
erally assigned to undisturbed rock masses, even
if they are dominated by siltstone.
Concerning its geotechnical behaviour, flysch
can be stable, exhibit wedge sliding and wider
chimney type failures or raveling, or develop se-
rious deformation even under low overburden.
Its behaviour is controlled by the siltstone-
sandstone participation and the tectonic distur-
bance, as well as by the in-situ stress and
groundwater conditions.
Finally, conceptual temporary support meas-
ures are proposed based on both the expected
failure mechanism and some indicative geotech-
nical parameters values for intact sandstone and
siltstone. Yet, they cannot replace the detailed
analysis and the application of engineering
judgement adjusted for each particular project
separately.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge Ms. D.
Papouli, Geologist, MSc for her assistance in the
editing of the paper.
REFERENCES
[1] V. Marinos, Geotechnical classification and engineer-
ing geological behaviour of weak and complex rock
masses in tunneling, Doctoral thesis, School of Civil
Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering Department,
National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Ath-
ens, 2007. (In greek)
[2] V. Marinos, P. Fortsakis, G. Prountzopoulos, P. Mari-
nos, K. Korkaris, K. Mirmiris & D. Papouli. TIAS
database: A tunnel information and analysis system. In
Proceedings of the 11th IAEG Congress, Auckland, New
Zealand, 2010.
[3] P. Marinos and E. Hoek, Estimating the geotechnical
properties of a heterogeneous rock mass such as flysch,
Bulleting of Engineering Geology and the Environment,
60 (2001), 82-92.
[4] I. Mihalis, A. Parathyras, G. Prountzopoulos, A. Pa-
pazachariou and L. Schwarz, 2010. “The Tunnels of
Panagia-Anilio Section of the New Kalambaka-
Ioannina-Igoumenitsa Railway. Evaluation of Geotech-
nical Investigation”. Proceedings of the 6th Hellenic
Conference on Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Engineering, Volos 29 September – 1 October 2010, 2,
343-350. (In Greek)
[5] H. Saroglou and H. Steiakakis, Prediction of strength of
anisotropic and layered flysch-type rocks, Proceedings
of the 6th Hellenic Conference on Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering, Volos 29 September –
1 October 2010, 2, 243-249. (In Greek)
[6] V. Marinos, P. Fortsakis and G. Prountzopoulos. Esti-
mation of rock mass properties of heavily sheared
flysch using data from tunnelling construction. Pro-
ceedings of the 10th IAEG International Congress, Not-
tingham, United Kingdom, 2006.
[7] P. Grasso, G. Scotti, G. Blasini, M. Pescara, V. Floria,
and N. Kazilis, Successful application of the observa-
tion design method to difficult tunnel conditions -
Driskos Tunnel, Underground Space Use: Analysis of
the Past and Lessons for the Future, London, Erdem &
Solak (eds), 463–470, Taylor & Francis Group, 2005.
[8] C.P. Tsatsanifos, P.M. Mantziaras and D. Georgiou
Squeezing rock response to NATM tunneling: A case
study, Proceedings of the International Symposium on
Geotechnical Aspects of Underground Construction in
Soft Ground, Japan, Kusakabe, Fujita & Miyazaki
(eds), 167-172, Balkema, Rotterdam, 2000.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 441
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-441

Determination of the physical parameters of soil from

pressuremeter tests
Calcul des paramtres physiques des sols à partir des résultats des
essais préssiométriques

J. Mecsi
University of Pécs, Faculty of Engineering and Informatics

ABSTRACT
The paper deals with the application of the cavity expansion theory for the determination of soil strengths and non linear deformation
parameters using pressuremeter tests. The developed cavity expansion theory takes into consideration the facts that even the initial soil
stress-strain state itself is anisotropic, and that due to expansion soil density increases. The deformation modulus is not in a linear cor-
relation with the soil pressure. By having introduced the deformation modulus, we have introduced two soil constants; (EO) that is the
basic deformation modulus, and (a): an exponent. The basic value of the deformation modulus depends first of all on the initial density
of the soil, and the exponent value “a” is in very close correlation with the angle of friction of the soil. The soil strength parameters,
namely cohesion (c) and angle of friction (I), as well as the deformation parameters represent the soil properties. We can determine
the combination of the interrelated and suitable soil parameters from the pressuremeter test. The paper presents an example, and
proves that the measured diagram very well approximates the theoretically calculated diagrams with different cohesion - basic defor-
mation modulus combinations.

RÉSUMÉ
L’exposé a pour objet le calcul des caractéristiques de résistance au cisaillement et de deformation non linéaire des sols. Ces calculs
reposent sur les résultats d’essais préssiométriques en exploitant la théorie des cavités cylindriques élargies dans le sol.
La corrélation entre modul de déformation et contrainte n’est pas linéaire. Avec la présentation de la correlation du modul de déforma-
tion, il convient d’introduire deux caractéristiques neufs, à savoir, deux constant (Eo) la valeur de base du modul de déformation du
sol et (a) une puissance. (Eo) sera fonction avant tout de la grandeur de la densité initiale, et (a) est en liaison étroite avec l’angle de
frottement du sol. Les paramèters de résistance, à savoir, la cohesion (c) et l’angle de frottement (I ainsi que ceux de déformation re-
présentent les propriétés de résistance et de rigidité des sols. Les corrélations théoriques traitées dans l’exposé permettent de détermi-
ner les différentes combinaisons des caractéristiques de sol, en exploitant les résultats des essais préssiométrques. Dans cette exposé
on trouve un exemple praqtique déjà publié dans la littérature précedente et on va démonstrrer que les diagrammes de cohésion/modul
de déformation établis suivant la théorie, coïncident bien avec les diagrammes basés sur les mesures praqtiques.

Keywords: pressuremeter test, plastic stress state, Mohr-Coulomb theory, non-linear deformability, volume change of soil.

1 INTRODUCTION interpretations, based on constitutive models for

The pressuremeter test covers the in situ measu-
rement of the deformation of soils and weak rock
to the expansion of a cylindrical flexible mem-
brane under pressure. The pressuremeter is re-
cognized as a field test applied worldwide, with a
good potential to be used together with analytical
soils. The expansiometric characteristic of the
test has a good agreement with the expansion of
cylindrical cavity. The parameters identification
by inverse analysis of pressuremeter test for soil
strength and deformation parameters renders it
possible to interconnect the conventional geo-
technical models to the in situ tests.
442 J. Mecsi / Determination of the Physical Parameters of Soil from Pressuremeter Tests
The pressuremeter tests involve a fairly large vo-
lume of soil in its in situ condition and may be
the most suitable method for ground which is dif-
ficult to sample.
The Mènard type pressuremeter is popular in the
geotechnical praxis.
Two basic test procedures can be differentiated:
a procedure to obtain a pressuremeter modulus
EM, and limit pressure, pLM, that may be used in
design procedures formulated for the Mènard
pressuremeter; and a procedure to obtain other
stiffness and strength parameters.
This paper presents the possibility to determine
the soil strength and deformation paramameter
combinations by using the cavity expansion the-
ory.
2 SOME ELEMENT OF THE CAVITY
EXPANSION THEORY
Let us assume an axial symmetric stress conditi-
on in normally consolidated soil with incompres-
sible soil grains. At the initial stage we can find
the compressive stresses in vertical direction
(Vv), and earth pressure at rest in horizontal di-
rection (VH), which means that the soil is an
anisotropic stress/strain condition, and that due
to the expanding process enforces to increasing
of the extension of the zone where the soil densi-
ty increases. The multi-phase granular or slight-
ly bonded media (soil) have a special behaviour,
which differs from that of solid and rigid bodies.
In the soil, a relatively small force may produce
plastic stress conditions whereby the density of
the medium increases.
It is evident that the pressure equals the stress ac-
ting along the surface of the cylinder and that the
radial displacement of the soil at the shaft of the
cylinder equals the expansion rate of the cylin-
der.
The expansion of the cylinder has a complex ef-
fect on the stresses, the displacement of soil gra-
nules and the soil compaction as well; the cavity
stress/-strain diagram is obtained as a result and
consequence of these effects.
In this diagram, we can not distinguish elastic or
plastic sections, nevertheless, professional engi-
neering literature often refers to the initial secti-
on of the diagram as ’quasi elastic’. In every ca-
se, if the soil stresses increase in a way that this
stress level has never been reached before, an
’energy loss’ develops, that is a non-linear corre-
lation occurs between the growing stress and the
specific compaction.
If we want to determine the diagram demon-
strating the expansion process of the basic (not
derived) properties of the soil, we need to carry
out a detailed analysis of the volumetric changes
of the soil.
The parameters of soil are in correlation with
each other. The deformation parameters are not
independent from the soil strength parameters.
The relation between soil stress and specific
compression is not linear, that is the deformation
modulus of the soil is not permanent, it depends
on the applied stress level and the stress envi-
ronment, too. The specific deformations are con-
ceived as macro-variations and not micro-
variations, but the change in density results from
the micro-movements of the individual soil
grains.
2.1 Mohr –Coulomb relationship
By making use of the unconfined compressive
strength, Vu, (i.e. the maximum axial stress on an
axially symmetric soil cylinder) we can derive a
new expression for the relationship of the princi-
pal stresses.
Figure 1. Mohr-Coulomb relationship.
Let us write from the right-angled triangle ABC:
 J. Mecsi / Determination of the Physical Parameters of Soil from Pressuremeter Tests 443

V1  V 3  / 2  V u / 2 dVr Vr  Vt
 0 Ÿ Vt [ ˜ Vr  Vu  Ÿ Vr
sin I (1) 

V1  V 3  / 2  V u / 2 dr
r 
forceequilibrium
MohrCoulomb
(6)

V3 1  sin I 2˜c 2˜sin I

where V u (2,3)
§ c · § U ·1sin I c
V1  V u 1

sin

 I [ Ÿ V r ¨¨ V UH  ¸¸ ˜ ¨ ¸  (7)
[ © tan I ¹ © ¹r tan I
Vu is the (theoretically) unconfined soil strength, Where U is the radius of the compacted (plastic
and [ 1  sin I  / 1  sin I  . (4)
For the pressuremeter test V1
Near the expanded cylindrical cavity in the sub-
soil this ratio tends to achieve its minimal value,
because it can be conceived that the ratio of the
reduced principal stress decreases until it reaches
the achieved stage, where it then remains con-
stant. The Mohr-Coulomb relationship represents
a constant ratio between the minor and maximum
reduced principal stresses. (Mecsi 1992,1993).
The Mohr-Coulomb relationship shown with the
V3-V1 principal stress coordinations in the Fig.2.
V1 =Vu +1-sin
1+si
Compacted soil
mr > 0 W V t
1+sinI  I
Shear stress
stress) zone, and VUH is the soil stress at the radial
(horizontal) direction. If rSU the ring (tangential)
V r , V3 Vt stresses can be determined on the assumption of
constancy of the volume (density) of the soil.
2.3 Specific soil strains
Specific deformations are always conceived as
changes in the dimensions of a soil mass. Clear-
ly, change in density due to changes in the com-
plex state of stress results from the micro-
movements of the individual soil grains. The mi-
cro-movements of the grains are determined by
themselves and occur at random, but as the result
c
I+ of the cumulative movements they are useful for
an

soil
V1 1-sinI 3
W
Co
mp
act
ed the engineering calculations.
1
2 The specific deformations (strains) are defined
3
1 mr=0 as the compression (or dilation as the case may
mr=0 1 be) of a layer of soil of unit thickness. By con-
Initial stage
2 c Cohesion
Volume change
VH Vv V
vention, compression of the soil is taken as a po-
V -V V3
mr = i o minimum Normal stress sitive value, while loosening (expansion) will
Vo
Vu 1 Initial stage have a negative sign.
When the cylindrical hole in the soil is expanded,
Vu 2
At the beginning whwn the soil
unconfined compacting
compression strength
3 In the plastic stress/strain condition
and a certain grade of radial stress is reached, the
Vu V3 V3 plastic stage begins to develop.
Initial stage The radius to the boundary of the zone in which
Figure 2. Mohr-Coulomb relationships in the principal stress the plastic condition developed shall be identi-
coordinations. fied by U.
Along with increasing the continuous increase of
2.2 Force equilibrium the external pressure on the wall of the cylinder,
The force equilibrium differential equations on the pressures in the elementary soil cube also in-
the basis of the balance of forces exerted on the crease proportionally and the soil becomes ever
element of soil: denser and less compressible.
dV r V r  V t The basis of the Mohr-Coulomb condition,
 0 (5) that increments of the radial and tangential
dr r (ring-) stresses are in linear relationship with
The distribution of soil stresses within the com- each other, therefore, the relationship correlation
pacted (plastic stress) zone is statically determi- between the average soil pressure and volumetric
ned from the force equilibrium and the Mohr- deformation of the soil is similar to the correlati-
Coulomb condition (if rU: on which evolves between the radial pressure
and the radial specific deformation.
444 J. Mecsi / Determination of the Physical Parameters of Soil from Pressuremeter Tests

While the expansive pressure is increased, the • There is no volume change, no density chan-
radius of the compressed zone becomes ever ge
longer. So, the relation between specific radial At the border of the plastic stress zone:
deformation and radial soil stresses can be de- • The same effects apply as for the area outside
scribed in the following form: the zone, but they are supplemented
§ V ·
a2 • the Mohr-Coulomb relation has an effect.
H r a1 ˜ ¨¨ ¸¸ (8)
© Vref ¹ Effects applied within the plastic stress zone:
Vref is the reference stress introduced to keep • Force equilibrium differential equation,
dimensional consistency between the two sides • the Mohr-Coulomb relation,
of the equation. (Vref =100 kN/m2 ) • nonlinear relation between radial deformati-
By derivation and reversed we get ons and stresses (compression),
1 a
dV r Ve § V ·
2
§V·
a
(9,10) • nonlinear or linear relation between stress
˜ ¨ ¸ Ÿ E r E o ˜ ¨¨ ¸¸
dH r a 1 ˜ a 2 ¨© V e ¸¹
and deformation depending on whether the
V
© e¹
,
 stresses exceed the initial stress.
Er Eo

By having introduced the deformation modulus,

we have introduced two soil constants: - (Eo):
the initial deformation modulus, and (a): the stif-
fness exponent. These soil constants are in close
connection with the shear strength parameters of
the soil. In the case of normally consolidated soil
we can calculate with a value of a=0.35-0.7,
while in overconsolidated or preloaded soils the
value is a0.
2.4 Volume change (density change) of soil
2.6 At the boundary of the plastic stress zone
The radial soil stress due to the expansion is con-
tinuously increasing, and the tangential stress at
the beginning of the expansion phase is decrea-
sing, and achieves a minimum value, after incre-
asing and beginning the soil compaction. At the
boundary of the compacted zone we can derive
the volume change of the soil (mr=0) from the
combination of the soil parameters and initial
stresses.
V Q Mohr Coulomb

The volume change of the soil (the change of
density) can be derived from its specific defor- 0
^©
H
1 a
^ H
1 a



^ H  [ ˜ ^©  ^ u
H
 Ÿ ^© (13)
mation. We can approximately calculate with the 1 a  ˜ Eo 


^H ˜ Eo

 
a H

sum of three specific deformation changes de- 'H r 'H Q ( 'HE 0 )

termined at normal angles to one another. Compression Expansion

V  Vo
mr | 'H r  'H t  'HE (11)
Vo , 2.7 Determination of cavity expansion
|0
The soil displacements are interconnected with
2.5 Conditions applied for the model the soil strains, in that they are the integrated
values of the strains.
Possible effects applied to the area outside the The radial displacement vector is:
plastic stress zone (compaction zone): - Mohr  Coulomb -
mr 0
1 a 1 a 1 a 1 a
• Force equilibrium differential equation, U V V vV V
• Nonlinear relation between radial deformati- uro ³ro r1 a  ˜ Eo H ˜ dr  ³U r1 a  ˜ EH o ˜ dr (14)
 
   
 
ons and stresses (compression), inside of the comp. zone outside of the comp. zone
• Linear relation between circumferential stres- n
§ 'H ri  'H ri1 ·
ses and deformations (expansions), uro ¦ ¨¨ ¸¸ ˜ ri  ri 1  (15)
i 1© 2 ¹
VH  Vt
'H t  (expansion) (12) where n is the number of the segmentation of the
Eo ˜ VH
a
radius.
 J. Mecsi / Determination of the Physical Parameters of Soil from Pressuremeter Tests 445

It is practical to represent the sum of the com- The indirectly measured soil displacements, at
pression of the individual soil segments by be- the pressuremeter surface are:
ginning at the initial radius, because it is clear
that beyond a certain range the extent of soil Calculated
 n
compression is not considerable; therefore we uro ˜ Eo
, ¦A1
i Ÿ (18)
can draw an asymptote to the curve of the aggre- measured
gate compression values. Figure 3. where n is the number of the sections of the ra-
dius.
§§ § ··
¨ ¨ V 1a  V 1a ·¸ ¨ V 1a  V 1a ¸ ¸
n n
r r
¦1 A i ¦1 ¨¨ ¨¨ 1  a ¸¸  ¨¨ 1  a ¸¸ ¸¸ ˜ i 2 i1
ri H ri  1 H

¨ ¨© 
   ¸ ¨ 

¹ ©
 ¸¸
© 'Hr 'Hri 1 ¹¹

Calculated N
n

¦ A the average is
i
¦E
1
oi
Eo (19,20,21)
Eoi 1
n
uroi
,
measured

Where N is the number of the measured points of

Figure 3. Determination of the cavity expansion.
3 VALIDATION OF THE CURVE
The measured pressure, can be determined with
the combination of the soil strength parameters
in the following equation:
the pressuremeter curve.
Remark: Different n- the number of the segment
of the radial strain section, N- number of the
measured points)
To sum up the essence of the presented method
is: we first assume the soil strength parameters
(I, c), and the power index “a” and we determine
only the unknown value Eo. The result of gradual
approximations is to determine the value of Eo
which most closely approximates the calculated
chart diagram of the measured, i.e., where the
standard deviation is minimum.
EXAMPLE
A talajszámítás néhány
The initial data source:Reiffsteck P. (2005)



from the soil parameters
2˜sin I ISP5 Pressio 2005 Symposium international 50
-
measured
§ c · § U ·1sin I c (16)
p { V ro ¨¨ V UH  ¸˜¨ ¸  ans de pressiométres. Marne–la Vallée 22-24
© tan I ¸¹ ¨© ro ¸¹ tan I août 2005. Edited by M. Gambin, J.P. Magnan,
The measured values of the pressuremeter curve P. Mestat ISBN 2-85978-417-9 Volume 2.
are the water pressure p=Vro, and water volume pp521-535.
that must be conversed to the cavity expansion Some details of the computer program results are
V  Vo  Ÿ u ro ) shown by Table 1. and Figure 4.
The interpretation of the pressuremeter test data
The radius of the plastic zone is: is based on the assumption of a cylinder of infi-
1  sin M
§ c · 2 ˜ sin M nite length expanded in the soil, while in reality
¨ V ro  ¸
M the expanded cylinder has finite length. At the
ro ˜ ¨ ¸
tan
U (17)
¨ c ¸ ends of the probe the strain conditions do not ex-
¨ V UH  ¸
© tan M ¹ hibit axial symmetry, the soil can up lift.
446 J. Mecsi / Determination of the Physical Parameters of Soil from Pressuremeter Tests

Table 1. Some details of the pressuremeter curve analysis 4 SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS

The pressuremeter is a well-known, but not often

used in-situ method. The limitation of its applica-
tion isthe using is, that the classical civil engi-
neering models do not use the pressuremeter pa-
rameters, and so far we did not had a reliable
method for determining the shear strength and
deformability parameters of the soil.
The developed cylindrical cavity theory renders
it possible to determine more details of soil pro-
perties characteristics combinations.
The paper presents the major elements of the ca-
vity expansion theory, namely the Mohr-
Coulomb theory, non-linear deformability, densi-
ty change of soils, and using these elements it
presents a calculation model for determining the
strength and deformation soil parameter combi-
nations.
The foundation values of the deformation relati-
onship (Eo) is close to the cohesion and the initial
density of the soil, and the power index (a) de-
pends on the angle of friction of soil.
We achive the best fit to the meausured curve by
using the soil parameters at the different cohesi-
on-Eo combinations.
We do not use the end of the measured curve,
because the cylinder of infinite length expanded
in the soil, but the theory of the expanded cylin-
76 Cavity expansion curve der has finite length.
Expanded probe diameter mm

74 RR Vo
10 ˜
535
28,5m m
b
S ˜L 3,14 ˜ 21 74,07mm
72 Vro uro o
Vo 535 cm 3
70

68
68,10mm REFERENCES
65,70mm
66
63,11mm
63,78mm [1] J. Mecsi, Stress-strain condition around an expanded
64
64,63mm
62,05mm cylinder in the soil. PhD. Dissertation Hungarian
62 61,06mm
Initial diameter of the probe at σ Ho Academy of Sciences.1993 (In Hungarian)
60
58,00mm Pressure kPa [2] J. Mecsi, Stresses, displacements, volume changes
58 around the expansion cylinder in the soil. Proc of the
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
7
10th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Measured and from the theory fitted curves 6,09mm Foundation Engng. Florence. Volume IV. Special Bul-
Horizontal displacement [mm]

6 letin. 1992
Combination of soil parameters Infinite-finite length effect
5 Angle of friction φ=23,4o
[3] J. Mecsi, Some inspiring ideas for the application of the
Cohesion c=102 kPa cylindrical cavity theory, The Pressuremeter and its
4 Eo =16,5 MPa, a=0,44
Deformation modulus at
New Avenues, Ballivy (ed.) 1995. Fourth International
3,10mm 3,59mm
3
σ=228kPa Es =23,7 MPa Symposium of Pressuremeters (1995 May 16-19. Sher-
2,75mm
Measured 1,90mm
brook, Canada), Balkema, Pages 461-471. ISBN 90-
2 1,37mm 1,91mm 5410 545 3
"Calculated"
0,94mm
1 0,46mm
1,19mm [4] O. Reiffsteck, Bearing capacity and settlement of a
0,00mm 0,40mm 0,87mm Pressure kPa deep foundation presentation of the results of the pre-
0
diction exercise, ISP5 International Symposium of pres-
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
suremeters. Paris Aug. 2005. Vol. 2. pp. 507-535
Figure 4a,4b,4c. Approximation of the pressuremeter curve.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 447
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-447

Geotechnical mapping of the SGGW Campus

in Warsaw applying the Bayesian approach
La cartes géotechniques du Campus SGGW à Varsovie
an appliquant de l'approche bayésienne
S. Rabarijoely1, K. Garbulewski & J. Rajtar
Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Warsaw, Poland
S. Jabłonowski
Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Department of Informatics, Warsaw, Poland

ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the applicability of geotechnical mapping using the Bayesian approach to compilate geotechnical informa-
tion obtained from comprehensive investigation of the SGGW Campus in Warsaw. The main engineering problem identified in
the case of deep excavations is the swelling of Warsaw clays and the effect of potential swelling on behavior of the clay. There-
fore, geotechnical design of deep excavation in Warsaw areas is widely regarded as being difficult engineering task. In order to
determine geotechnical parameters of layers distinguished in the foundations of Campus buildings the archival documentation,
aerial photographs, resistivity measurements, borehole data logging, and CPT, DMT tests results were all taken into account.
The first part of this paper focuses on the geological and geotechnical conditions in the SGGW Campus area and the theoretical
foundation of the Bayesian approach. In order to collect data for geotechnical mapping, integrated geospatial databases will be
transcribed generating the soil profile, including the accuracy of the soil classification and comparison between the results ob-
tained from the DMT and CPT experiments. The second part involves the application of the Bayesian theory to evaluate the cha-
racteristic strength and deformation properties for two layers of boulder clay existing in the SGGW Campus area using the dila-
tometer DMT and CPT test results and its variability in a given area. This paper is supplemented with conclusions and future
prospects. In general the conclusion is that all examples of applying Bayesian analysis show that it is a powerful and promising
statistical tool in decision-making processes related to geotechnical problems.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article traite de l'applicabilité de la cartographie géotechnique an appliquant de l'approche bayésienne pour compiler
l’informations géotechniques obtenus à partir de l'enquête globale du Campus SGGW à Varsovie. Le principaux problème
d'ingénierie identifiés dans le cas des excavations profondes est le gonflement des argiles de Varsovie et l'effet de potentiel de
gonflement sur le comportement de l'argile. Par conséquent, la conception géotechnique des travaux d'excavation profonde dans
les zones de Varsovie est largement considérée comme étant la tâche difficile d'ingénierie. Afin de déterminer les paramètres
géotechniques des couches de distinguer dans les fondations des bâtiments du campus de la documentation d'archives,
photographies aériennes, des mesures de résistivité, les données diagraphie et CPT, tests DMT résultats ont tous été pris en
compte. La première partie du présent document se concentre sur les conditions géologiques et géotechniques dans le domaine
SGGW Campus et le fondement théorique de l'approche bayésienne. Afin de recueillir des données pour la cartographie
géotechnique, bases de données géospatiales intégrées seront transcrites pour créer le profil du sol, y compris la précision de la
classification des sols et la comparaison entre les résultats obtenus à partir des expériences DMT et CPT. La deuxième partie
porte sur l'application de la théorie bayésienne pour évaluer la caractéristique de cisaillemnt et les propriétés de déformation pour
deux couches d'argile à blocaux vigueur dans le domaine SGGW Campus en utilisant le dilatomètre DMT et les résultats des
essais CPT et de sa variabilité dans une zone donnée. Cet article est complété par les conclusions et les perspectives d'avenir. En
général, la conclusion est que tous les exemples d'application montrent analyse bayésienne qu'il est un outil puissant et
prometteur statistiques dans les processus décisionnels liés à des problèmes géotechniques.

Keywords: geotechnical mapping, field investigation, CPT & DMT tests, Bayesian approach

1
Corresponding Author
448 S. Rabarijoely et al. / Geotechnical Mapping of the SGGW Campus in Warsaw
1 INTRODUCTION
The key element for successful in geotechnical design
is a combination of mapping and logging plus analysis
specialised geological, structural and geotechnical
maps. These are carried out with geophysical surveys
by in situ investigation using different sounding meth-
ods and laboratory tests on disturbed and undisturbed
soil samples. During the mapping a collection of
measurement data systematically expands, therefore,
without going into detail, it can be seen that the Bayes-
ian approach may be useful to integrate new and exist-
ing data and to detect the changes in probability of
analysed phenomena. Deduction in classic mathemati-
cal statistics is based on a random sample drawn from
the population. In an alternative approach, derived
from the Bayes’ theorem, deduction can be based not
only on a random sample but also on so-called a priori
information. It allows the designers to combine new
data with their existing knowledge and explains how
their beliefs should be changed in the light of new evi-
dence. In recent years we have observed more and
more trials using Bayesian analysis to solve geotech-
nical issues [1][2][3][4]. Posteriori information is gen-
erated from these two sets of data. A priori knowledge
may be so-called expert knowledge, it may derive
from earlier investigation, from which results are
known but data is incomplete. The nature of the
knowledge character does not allow us to make use of
it in the classic approach. The Bayesian approach
should then be used. The population parameters to be
estimated e.g. parameter ¬ (for example mean, stan-
dard deviation, specified type fraction of elements) are
treated differently in the both cases. In the classic ap-
proach, the values of parameters are specific although
not known. In Bayesian analysis they are treated as
random variables. The statistical methods prove highly
useful in the selection of characteristic values for
ground properties [5].
In order to determine geotechnical parameters of
layers distinguished in the foundations of SGGW
Campus buildings (Fig.1): civil engineering structures,
transportation infrastructure, underground car parking,
a water centre plus student and faculty accommodation
the archival documentation, aerial photographs, resis-
tivity measurements, borehole data logging, and CPT,
DMT tests results were all taken into account. To eva-
luate the characteristic strength and deformation prop-
erties for two layers of boulder clay existing in the
SGGW Campus area using the dilatometer DMT and
CPT test results and its variability in a given area the
Bayesian theory was applied.
48
38
37 34
32 22
49
23
26
Figure 1. Plan of the SGGW campus under development
(campus number 22 – Clinic for Small Animals, 23 – Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine, 26 – Sport Hall, 32 – Faculty of
Food Science & Faculty of Human Nutrition and Consumer
Science, 34 – Faculty of Forestry & Faculty of Wood Tech-
nology, 37 – Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Architec-
ture & Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, 38 – Limba Dor-
mitory & Ambulatory, 48 – Main Library and Archive, 49 –
Water Center, recently established)
2 GEOTECHNICAL CONDITIONS AT
SGGW CAMPUS
The geological characteristics of grounds in the
buildings designed in the frame of SGGW campus de-
velopment were recognized by the interpretation of
boring data (102 boreholes), CPT & DMT tests (69
and 41 profiles, respectively) and comprehensive labo-
ratory investigation. Analysing data gathered in the
Ground Investigation Report, five geotechnical layers
were identified in the campus test site (Fig. 2), includ-
ing a layer of brown glacial boulder clay noted in this
paper as layer No. III (acc. to geotechnical classifica-
tion sandy clay - saCL and sasiCL) of the Warta gla-
ciation (gQpW), for which liquidity index values IL =
(0.0÷0.11) and a layer of grey glacial boulder clay of
the Odra glaciation (gQpO), sandy clay with boulders
as layer No. IV, for which IL = (0.0÷0.12). The layers
III and IV were pointed out as layers with comfortable
geotechnical conditions for foundation of the Campus
buildings.
In order to create the 3 dimensional model of geo-
technical layer distribution in the ground tested the
Surfer software program v. 8.0 was applied. Each geo-
technical layer was drawn by the program separately
and then all layers were jointed together.
 S. Rabarijoely et al. / Geotechnical Mapping of the SGGW Campus in Warsaw 449

qc [MPa]
B34 Parking
[m] B22 B33 48
38 0 10 20 30
B23 24
B37
B32 CPT1_III_IV
23
CPT3_III_IV
CPT4_III_IV
22 CPT5_III_IV
CPT0

layer No III 21

Elevation [m a. s. l]
layer No IV
20

19

18
Figure 2. 3D geotechnical model of the SGGW campus, nota-
tions like Fig. 1. 17

16
The depths of layers Nos III and IV and their thick-
nesses were determined using the kriging approach in 15
the Surfer program. The distribution of isolines show- 14
ing the thickness of layer No III - brown boulder clay
was presented in figure 3. Figure 4. Results of CPT tests at the SGGW campus

[m] The results of selected DMT tests at the SGGW

campus are shown in figure 5. Based on the two cor-
$
OW4/C

2700 rected pressures p0, p1 obtained from DMT tests three

go

DMT indexes were calculated further using the well

kie
ws

known formulae [7][8][9]. The distributions of dila-

e

2600 ul.
isz

N ow
C

ou
ul.

rs yn
ow tometer modulus (ED) in ground tested were presented
B22 ska
2500 in figure 5.
B23 Ce
B33 B34
ntr
um
2400 DMT 2/H

"H"
OW 30/H
Material index ID Dilatometer modulus ED [MPa]
D MT1/H

Hala "L" C PT5/H 0 1 2 0 50 100 150

OW27/H

Parking Biblioteka
2300 OW1/L

"F" "D" 0 0
B32 ID_DMT1

%
OW 12/F
CP T1/L

OW6/F

C PT3/F

D MT2/F

ID_DMT2 ED_DMT1

%
CP T3/M

ED_DMT2
C PT4/D

1
OW15/F

2200
OW2/M

ID_DMT3 1
CP T5/N
OW12/N
C PT7/F

ID=0.6 ED_DMT3
B37 "N"
CP T5/F

ID=1.8
2 2
OW 10/N

Ka C P T2/N

2100 ba
ty
Al.
3 3
N

J.
Ro
do
2000 wic
za
N

"A
no 4 4
dy" Limba "G"
D e p th [m ]

$
Ce
1900 ntr OW 3/G

um C PT4/G

OW6/G
5 5
-8900 -8800 -8700 -8600 -8500 -8400 -8300

6 6
Figure 3. Distribution of isolines showing the thickness of
boulder clays - layer No. III 7 7

To recognize the geotechnical conditions of ground 8 8

at the SGGW campus the CPT and DMT tests were
9 9
carried out. The distribution of cone resistance qc for
selected CPTs was presented in figure 4. The CPT test 10 10
results were applied to determine undrained shear
strength (Wfu) distribution in the foundations of the Figure 5. Results of DMT tests at the SGGW Campus.
SGGW campus buildings, according to the well
known formulae [5][6] with assumption of empirical Because of the availability of all test data both the
cone coefficients (NK) equal 20. classical and Bayesian approach could be applied.
450 S. Rabarijoely et al. / Geotechnical Mapping of the SGGW Campus in Warsaw

3 SELECTION OF CLAY PARAMETERS applied, as specified for such a situation (normal dis-
WITH APPLICATION OF BAYESIAN tribution of the parameter).
APPROACH
3.2 Design values of Wfu and M parameters
Statistical analysis has been applied to measure-
3.1 Background ment results obtained from the CPT/DMT field tests.
In the first case, CPT field tests’ results have been ana-
In the present paper Bayesian analysis has been
lyzed. The cone resistance (qc) has been measured 64
adopted for a case when an unknown distribution pa-
times in 5 profiles in the layer III (first group of tests)
rameter is to be estimated and T is the mean in a nor-
and 71 times in 5 profiles in the layer IV (second
mal population. The standard deviation V0 is known, group of tests) at SGGW campus. As a second case,
on the other hand. It is derived from the prior knowl- DMT field tests’ results have been analysed. Besides
edge that the mean ¬ is a normal random variable with A, B, p0 and p1 coefficients, material index (ID), dila-
parameters m1 and V1. If, in turn, the average of an n- tometer modulus (ED) and horizontal earth pressure
element sample drawn from the population is equal to index (KD) have been measured. For each of indicators
m2, the posterior distribution of the random variable ¬ there were 239 measurement results (in 17 screenings)
is also normal, with mean m and standard deviation V, in the layer III (third group of tests) and 320 results (in
calculated as follows: 15 tests) in the layer IV (fourth group of tests). The
§ 1 · § n · (1) measurement results can be treated as observations of
¨ ¸˜m  ¨ ¸˜m
¨ V2 ¸ 1 ¨ V2 ¸ 2

m © 1¹ © 0¹ continuous random variables with specific probability

§ 1 · § n · distributions. For each profile there were from 12 to 14
¨¨ 2 ¸¸  ¨¨ 2 ¸¸
© V1 ¹ © V 0 ¹ results in the layer III and from 6 to 19 results in the
(2) layer IV for CPT tests and for DMT tests from 6 to 35
1 results in the layer III and from 9 to 33 results in the
V layer IV.
§ 1 · § n ·
¨¨ 2 ¸¸  ¨¨ 2 ¸¸ The Bayesian approach was used in the calculation
© V1 ¹ © V 0 ¹
of credible sets of parameters (highest posterior den-
sity set). Below, some of our results of Bayesian
Bayes’ theorem gives a valuable practical possibility analysis for layers no. III and IV are summarized (Fig.
to include new information successively coming from 6 & Fig 7).
consecutively drawn random samples. On a consecu-
tive step, the knowledge of the T parameter in the pos-
Statistical parameters

terior distribution is treated as a priori knowledge of

this parameter. An instruction to include new portions
of information does not affect the final result. When
the normal distribution of the parameter under exami-
nation has been estimated a credible set of parameters
can be built. The credible set (highest posterior density
set) is an interval to which the value of the parameter tests consecutively included to
drops with a defined probability. This is an analog of a calculations; the final credible
set: (10,46; 11,93), prob.: 0,95)
confidence interval idea used in classic statistical
analysis. The confidence interval covers unknown pa- Figure 6. Statistical parameters calculated for the mean of in-
dicator qc on Bayes" approach basis (layer III).
rameter values with an assumed probability. 10
tic a l p ar am e te rs

The Bayesian approach was used in the calculation

8
s ta tisparameters

of credible sets of parameters (highest posterior den-

6
sity set), as opposed to the confidence intervals used in
4
classical statistical analysis. In the case of CPT tests
2
the value of qc was taken into account. In the case of
Statistical

0
DMT tests similar analysis was performed for the pa-
CPT 1 CPT 2 CPT 3 CPT 4 CPT 5
rameter KDMT and quantities IDMT, EDMT , in the teststests
consecutively included to
consecutively included to
layer lll and layer IV. calculations; the final credible
calculations; the final credible
Some assumptions about parameter distributions set: (7,88; 8,70), prob.: 0,95)
set: (7,88;8,70), prob.:0,95
were checked and formulae from Bayes’ theorem were Figure 7. Statistical parameters calculated for the mean of in-
dicator qc on Bayes' approach basis (layer IV).
 S. Rabarijoely et al. / Geotechnical Mapping of the SGGW Campus in Warsaw 451

The credible sets (based on the final results of cal-

culations provided) with a probability of 0.95 for aver-
age value of qc for the layers no. III and IV are as fol-
lowing: (10.46, 11.93) MPa for layer III and (7.88,
8.70) MPa for layer IV (Fig. 8).

Fig. 9. Characteristic values of constrained modulus recom-

mended for geotechnical design

For comparison, the confidence intervals for the means

of the indicators with confidence coefficient = 0,95 for
the mean of indicator ED on Bayes’ approach basis
was presented in figure 10.

Figure 8 Characteristic values of shear strength recommended

for geotechnical design

In the case of DMT tests similar analysis was per-

formed for the distribution of the constrained modulus
(M) in ground tested. The distributions of M values
were calculated using the following correlations [9]:
M RM ˜ ED (3)
where RM was obtained using proposed by Mar-
chetti, (1980) formula:
R M 0.14  0.15I D  0.6   (4)
>2.5  0.14  0.15 ˜ I D  0.6@ ˜ log K D
Figure 10. Final estimators of statistical parameters for the
The credible sets of M parameters for the layer lll mean of indicator ED calculated on Bayes' approach basis
and layer IV are as follows respectively (Fig. 9): (layers III & IV)
MIII = 95,168 ± 0,14 MPa; MIV = 125,444 ± 0,06
MPa).
452 S. Rabarijoely et al. / Geotechnical Mapping of the SGGW Campus in Warsaw
4 FINAL REMARKS AND CONCLUSIONS
When some prior knowledge is available and which
cannot be adopted in a classical statistical approach,
that is, it does not derive directly from a random sam-
ple possible to be drawn, the Bayesian approach are
very promising.
In this paper Bayesian analysis has been used to
improve knowledge of mean values of geotechnical
parameters measured on the CPT & DMT tests bases.
Due to the availability of all test data both the classical
and Bayesian approach could have been applied and
the latter has been presented to illustrate its use, par-
ticularly the possibility of successively including new
portions of data into the calculations. Some assump-
tions about the distribution of parameters were
checked and formulas derived from Bayes’ theorem
specified for such a situation have been applied.
Based on statistical studies presented in this paper the
main following conclusions can by drawn.
The geotechnical mapping consists: 1) the data ga-
thering or desk study, 2) reconnaissance survey, 3)
field mapping, 4) laboratory analysis, 5) compilation
of the geotechnical map and 6) report writing. During
the mapping a collection of data expands, therefore the
Bayesian approach may be useful to integrate new and
existing data. The 3-D model gives the picture of
changes in subsoil properties and is the most expected
model when designing the foundation for a given ob-
ject. Geotechnical parameters determined using differ-
ent in-situ techniques are a collection of oriented
points in the 3-D half-space of subsoil.
The application of the Bayesian theory to evaluate
the characteristic strength and deformation properties
of soils required for design verification should be
treated as a promising statistical tool. In the case of
SGGW Campus the characteristics strength Wfu and
constrained modulus M were obtained using the Baye-
sian theory for two boulder clay layers based on the
DMT and CPT test results and its variability in a given
area. The Wfu and M values recommended for III & IV
layers obtained using Bayes theories are as follows:
(Wfu_III = 640 ± 0,75 MPa; Wfu_IV = 420 ±0,28 MPa,
MIII = 95,168 ± 0,14 MPa; MIV = 125,444 ± 0,06
MPa).
In general the conclusion is that all examples of
applying Bayesian analysis including SGGW Campus
case show that it is a powerful and promising statisti-
cal tool in decision-making processes related to geo-
technical problems.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was supported by two Grants no.
N N506 432436 and N N506 218039 from the Minis-
try of Science and Higher Education, Warsaw, Poland.
REFERENCES
[1] C.G. Alén, On probability in geotechnics. Random cal-
culation models exemplified on slope stability analysis
and ground-superstructure interaction. PhD thesis.
Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, 1998.
[2] R. Frank, C. Bauduin, R.Driscoll, M. Kavvadas, N.
Krebs Ovesen, T. Orr, B. Schuppener. Designers’
Guide to EN 1997-1 Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design –
General rules. Thomas Telford, 2004.
[3] K. Garbulewski, S. Rabarijoely, S. Jabłonowski: Bayes-
ian approach in interpretation of CPT/DMT tests. Proc.
of the 11th Baltic Sea Geotechnical Conference, Geo-
technics in Maritime Engineering, GdaŠsk, Poland.
(2008), 391-398.
[4] B. Schuppener, A. J. Bond, P Day, R Frank, T. L. L.
Orr, G. Scarpelli, B. Simpson, Eurocode 7 for geotech-
nical design – a model code for non-EU countries?
Proc. of the 17th International Conference on Soil Me-
chanics and Geotechnical Engineering. Vol. 2, (2009),
1132 – 1135.
[5] Zb. Młynarek. Site investigation and mapping in urban
area. Proc. of the 14th European Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. Madrid,
Vol. 1, (2007), 175-202.
[6] P.W. Mayne, (2006). "Interrelationships of DMT and
CPTU readings in soft clays", Flat Dilatometer Testing
(Proc. 2nd Intl. Conf. DMT), Washington, DC: 231-236.
[7] J. Briaud, J. Miran, The flat dilatometer test. The Fed-
eral Higway Administration. TX, USA, 1992.
[8] A. J. Lutenegger, M.G. Kabir, Dilatometer C-reading
to help determine stratigraphy. J. de Ruiter (ed.) Proc.
of the First International Symposium on Penetration
Testing ISOPT-1, Orlando. Balkema, Rotterdam, 1
(1988), 549–553.
[9] S. Marchetti, In situ tests by flat dilatometer. Journal
of Geotech. Eng. Div. ASCE, 106, GT3, (1980) 299 -
321.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 453
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-453

Aspects on the laboratory frost heave testing

procedure
Aspects sur la procédure d'essai de laboratoire de soulèvement
dû au gel
S. Saarelainen, H. Gustavsson 1
Aalto University, Finland
T. Ono
Hokkai-Gakuen University, Japan

ABSTRACT
In this paper, some general features of freezing behaviour of frost susceptible soils are presented and discussed to improve the
compatibility between field and laboratory characteristics. As an engineering approach, a theory for establishing frost-heave pa-
rameters is a modified segregation potential theory. The model of frost heaving at a site, back-calculation of frost heave co-
efficient, as well as estimation of the parameter from the results of frost heave testing in the laboratory is discussed.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans cet article, certaines caractéristiques générales du comportement de gel, le gel des sols sensibles sont présentés et discutés
pour améliorer la compatibilité entre les caractéristiques de terrain et de laboratoire. Comme une approche d'ingénierie, une
théorie pour établir les paramètres de soulèvement dû au gel est une théorie modifiée du potentiel de ségrégation. Le modèle de
soulèvement dû au gel sur un site, le rétro-calcul du coefficient de soulèvement dû au gel, ainsi que l` estimation du paramètre à
partir des résultats des tests de soulèvement dû au gel en laboratoire sont discutés.

Keywords: Laboratory tests, frost heave, frost susceptibility, freezing index, segregation potential

1 BACKGROUND The frost heaving susceptibility is an impor-

Expansion due to ice segregation and lensing is
characteristic for a freezing, frost susceptible soil
material. A freezing soil may expand also result-
ing from other phenomena:
- expansion of a saturated, freezing soil may be
about 9% of the freezing pore water volume
- heaving has been observed also in a non
frost-susceptible crusher-run embankment on a
blasted rock base, where pressurised ground wa-
ter is anticipated to flow up to the freezing front.
tant parameter for many earth structures and
foundations, and the amount of critical heave
varies. Thus, heaving characteristic should be a
continuously varied parameter and based on a
verified model theory to ensure the compatibility
between laboratory test and field behaviour. At
this moment, it would be preferable to make
separation between freezing (frost heaving) and
thawing (thaw weakening).

1
Corresponding Author
454 S. Saarelainen et al. / Aspects on the Laboratory Frost Heave Testing Procedure

2 SITE BEHAVIOUR

2.1 Natural freezing and frost heaving

Frost penetration in a uniform subsoil can be re-
lated to the square root of surface freezing index
according to site observations 1958-1983 [1], [2]
(Fig. 1). Frost heave also is related to the square
root of surface freezing index (Fig.2). The ratio
between frost heave and frost penetration is Figure 1 Frost heave and frost penetration vs. square root of
somewhat constant. freezing index in the years of 1959-1982 Alajärvi, Finland
[1], [2].
Frost heaving starts, when frost penetrates into
a frost-susceptible layer (Fig. 2) Frost heave ratio
is a site characteristics, and as such, less varied
(Fig. 1).
The local parameters describing frost penetra-
tion are the surface freezing index F, the tem-
perature gradient of the frozen layer gradT and
frost penetration coefficient k.
The local parameters describing frost heaving
are F, gradT, k, frost heave factor m and frost
heave coefficient SP.
The frost heave coefficient SP can be ap-
proximated from site observations using eq. (1):

k2 h (1)
SP  (  0.09wvol )
2 ( z  z0 ) Figure 2 Frost heave and frost penetration in situ vs. square
where root of freezing index. Joensuu, snow-free street 1982-83 [2].
SP Frost heave coefficient, mm2/Kh
k Frost penetration coefficient, mm/ Kh
wvol Volumetric moisture content
z0 Thickness of the non frost-susceptible 3 ESTIMATION OF FROST HEAVE CO-
embankment, mm EFFICIENT SP USING CLASSIFICATION
PROPERTIES OF THE FREEZING SOIL
z Frost penetration k F , mm
h Frost heave, mm
Frost heave coefficient SP can be estimated us-
F Freezing index, Kh
ing the characteristics of the freezing soil [3], [4].
In Finland, the relationship between SP and clay
content, based on back-calculated values from
site observations, confirmed using laboratory
testing is illustrated in Fig. 3 ([4], representative
specimens). Estimation may be applied for pre-
liminary design, in the generalisation of labora-
tory test results as well as in the quality control
of laboratory testing.
 S. Saarelainen et al. / Aspects on the Laboratory Frost Heave Testing Procedure 455

quantitatively (model test). A model test can be

defined on the basis of an approved frost heave
model.

Figure 3. Frost heave coefficient vs. clay content [4].

Konrad [3] presented an estimation procedure,

where the normalised frost heave coefficient can
be related to the normalised specific surface of
the soil (Fig.4).

Figure 5. Procedures fo estimating and determining the frost

susceptibility [5]. .

According to the original definition, the seg-

Figure 4. Normalized segregation potential vs. normalized
specific surface area [3]. regation potential described the rate of water
flow to the frozen fringe. Later applied frost
heave coefficient describes the resulting rate of
expansion (heave), and it is analogical with the
4 LABORATORY TESTING OF FROST segregation potential (1.09x).
SUSCEPTIBILITY AND FROST
HEAVING 4.2 Specimen preparation
The procedure was developed applying the Ca-
nadian test [6]. An undisturbed, natural, frozen
4.1 General specimen or a reconstituted, frozen specimen,
Procedures for the estimation and determination simulating natural soil, was installed in a ther-
of frost susceptibility applying different ap- mally insulated split-barrel cell, where the wall
proaches are illustrated in Fig. 5. Frost suscepti- supports the specimen during thawing and freez-
bility can be tested qualitatively (index test) or ing. The specimen can be drilled from a frozen
456 S. Saarelainen et al. / Aspects on the Laboratory Frost Heave Testing Procedure

ground (clay, silt or sand, Fig. 6) or mixed and

compacted into a mould to a given density and
moisture content. The specimen is then frozen in
the mould, and installed as frozen into the test
cell as above, thus ensuring that the specimen
properties correspond to those in situ. In this
manner the side friction between the specimen
and cell wall can be kept in minimum. Determi-
nation of frost heave coefficient in the laboratory
in various countries and during recent decades, Figure 6. A drill for sampling in frozen soils [2].
various procedures and equipments have been in-
stalled for use, but they are not based on no con- In the frost heave test, the testing procedure is
sistent, verified, physical theory. In the following determined so that frost heaving will be con-
a procedure, based on the segregation potential trolled and simulates site conditions (Fig. 7).
theory is illustrated [6], [7].

Figure 7. Scheme of a frost heave test installation [2], [8].

For a good practice of frost heave testing, fol-  Reconstituted, not bound (laboratory
lowing aspects should be considered: compacted)
Installation in the cell
Specimen preparation  Unfrozen specimen
 In situ- specimen, unfrozen  Frozen specimen
 Frozen, drilled from frozen ground Testing conditions
 Reconstituted, bound (stabilised etc.) o Temperature scale (minimum and maxi-
mum temperature, precision)
 S. Saarelainen et al. / Aspects on the Laboratory Frost Heave Testing Procedure
o Low thermal gradient
o Access to external water
o Uniaxiality (minimised radial heat flow)
o Stress state
Figure 8. An example of the results of a frost heave test [8].
In the thawing mode, thaw-consolidation be-
haviour can be measured. It can be used to de-
termine thaw consolidation coefficient, which
can be used in estimating pore pressure devel-
opment during thaw. It is one of the key parame-
ters controlling post-consolidation and strength-
ening (resilient modulus) of the thawed soil layer
5 OTHER ESTIMATION METHODS
Various testing procedures are used in different
countries (e.g. CRREL, Norway, Germany,
United Kingdom, Austria etc.), but test results
have not been mutually compared. It would be
useful to know, for reference, about frost heave
estimation models, others than the SP model ap-
plied in other countries.
As an example, a model (Eq. (2)) is described
which has been frequently used for more than 40
years in Japan at various construction sites, ap-
plying ground freezing method [9], [10]. It is an
experimental formula, based on plenty of labora-
457
An example of test results from the VTT
procedure is presented in Fig. 8. SP is esti-
mated, when the net frost penetration (z-h) ap-
proaches zero.
tory test data. It has not yet been, however, ap-
plied to natural frost heave design.
U0
3 3 0 0 (1  ) (2)
U
where
3 Frost heave ratio (frost heave/original
thickness),
Overburden pressure (kPa),
U Rate of frost penetration (mm/hour),
3 0 , 0 , U0 Model parameters.
A series of one-dimensional frost heave tests
with different applied stress and freezing rate are
carried out to determine soil constants using sa-
turated undisturbed specimen, or appropriate in-
formation is retrieved from a data base. Applied
stresses and freezing rates for the tests are deter-
mined according to the site conditions. Freezing
rate is kept constant during test by decreasing
temperature of one end of specimen, and keeping
it constant on the other end.
458 S. Saarelainen et al. / Aspects on the Laboratory Frost Heave Testing Procedure
 In order to improve the comparison between
results from different test procedures, a mutually
approved frost heave theory is needed.
6 CONCLUSIONS
According to the above description, following
basic lines may be recommended as characteris-
tics of a good frost heave test in the laboratory:
 The test procedure should be a model
test that simulates field process and is
described using verified physical
model both in situ and in the labora-
tory.
 The test equipment should be techni-
cally simple and economical.
 The basic test parameters like depth
of frost penetration and frost heave
should be determined.
 The specimen should correspond to
the material simulated and its charac-
teristics should be well known and
controlled.
 The impacts from the test equipment
and procedure on the determined
frost heave characteristics should be
minimised and known.
 The stress state should be basically
pre-stated, and stress-dependence of
frost heave could be an option.
 The hydraulic head should be con-
sidered.
 The cell wall friction should be
minimised.
 The thermal gradient over the test
specimen should be controlled, small
and in a scale with that in situ.
 The heave resulting from the expan-
sion of in situ pore water may also be
large, and thus should be considered
in the testing.
 The size of the specimen height, di-
ameter) should be related to the
maximum grain size of the tested ma-
terial.
 The needed resulting test parameters
should be determined.
7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors will express their gratitude for the sup-
port from the frost committee of the Finnish
Geotechnical Society in preparing the early
drafts of this paper.
8 REFERENCES
[1] Kivikoski 1983. On factors influencing on frost depth
and frost heave at observation sites in Finland (in Finnish
with English summary). Tampere University of Technol-
ogy, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Diploma thesis. 112p.
[2] Saarelainen S. 1992. Modeling frost heaving and frost pe-
netration at some observation sites in Finland. The SSR
model. VTT Publications 95. 120p +app. 1p.[3] Konrad
J-M. 2005 Indirect estimation of segregation potential
based on soil index properties. Proc Int Conf on SMGE,
Osaka 2005. 4p.
[4] Saarelainen S. 2001. Determination of frost heaving coef-
ficient (in Finnish). Finnish Road Administration, TPPT
method description 7. 13p.
[5] ISSMGE, TC8 on Frost 1989. Slunga E. & Saarelainen
S. (eds.) 1989. Work Report. ISSMFE, Technical Com-
mittee on Frost TC8. 13 p. + app. 34p.
[6] Konrad J-M, Morgenstern NR. 1981. The segregation po-
tential theory. Can. Geot. Jrnl. vol 18, pp. 482-491.
[7] Konrad J-M, Morgenstern NR. 1980. A mechanistic the-
ory of ice lens formation in fine-grained soils. Can. Geot.
Jrnl. vol 17, pp. 473-486.
[8] Onninen H. 2001 Frost heave test. Determination of
frost heave coefficient (SP) in the laboratory (translated in
English). Finnish Road Administration, Method descrip-
tion TPPT 6.15p.
[9] Takashi T., Yamamoto H., Ohrai T. and Masuda M. 1978
Effect of penetration rate of freezing and confining stress
on the frost heave ratio of soil, Proceeding of 3rd Interna-
tional Conference on Permafrost, Vol.1, 737-742.
[10] The Japanese Geotechnical Society 2009. Test method
for frost heave prediction of soils, JGS0171-2009.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 459
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-459

Propriétés mécaniques d'une marne

Mechanical properties of a marl
JF Serratrice 1
CETE Méditerranée, Aix en Provence, France

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results from high pressure triaxial tests, creep tests and swelling tests performed on a clayey marl to mar-
ly sandstone within a tunnel project. Analysis of deformability, strength, creep and swelling properties is based on the know-
ledge of marls behaviour as well as the experimental results obtained on similar hard soils. Part of the mechanical properties
scattering in each type of test is explained by the variability of the marl density. But it depends also on local variations of the ma-
terial lithology.

RÉSUMÉ
La communication présente les résultats d'essais triaxiaux à haute pression, de fluage et de gonflement qui ont été réalisés sur
une marne argileuse à gréseuse dans le cadre d'un projet de tunnel. L'analyse des propriétés de déformabilité, de résistance de
fluage et de gonflement s'appuie sur la connaissance du comportement des marnes et fait référence à des résultats expérimentaux
obtenus sur des sols indurés similaires. La dispersion des propriétés mécaniques observée dans chaque type d'essais s'explique en
partie par la variabilité de la compacité de la marne. Mais elle dépend largement aussi des variations lithologiques locales du ma-
tériau.

Keywords: Marl, Laboratory tests, Strength, Creep, Swelling

1 INTRODUCTION tantes variations latérales de faciès. Les maté-

Les propriétés physiques et mécaniques d'une
formation marneuse ont été recueillies à l'occa-
sion de l'étude du tracé d'un tunnel dans la région
des Pyrénées (France). Le tracé du tunnel re-
coupe des formations molassiques tertiaires
d’âge Miocène-Pliocène qui forment un en-
semble consolidé de piémont représenté par des
argiles sableuses, des marnes, des molasses, des
poudingues et, localement, des petits éléments
calcaires. L'ensemble se caractérise par d'impor-
riaux fins sont décrits comme des argiles plas-
tiques jaunes bariolées de gris et bleu, com-
pactes, plus ou moins marneuses à passées
sableuses et des niveaux calcaréo-gréseux
minces.
Des essais triaxiaux à haute pression, des es-
sais de fluage et des essais de gonflement, ac-
compagnés par des essais d'identification, ont été
réalisés en laboratoire sur ces matériaux prélevés
dans des sondages profonds. Cette communica-
tion résume les principales caractéristiques géo-

1
Corresponding Author.
460 J.F. Serratrice / Propriétés mécaniques d’une marne

mécaniques mesurées à l'occasion de ce pro- tillon. Mais la plupart des mesures ont été effec-
gramme expérimental. Dans ce qui suit, pour tuées sur les éprouvettes découpées dans les
simplifier, l’ensemble des divers faciès molas- échantillons.
siques sera dénommé marne.
Des analogies étroites peuvent être établies à
l'issue de ce travail entre les propriétés des ter-
rains marneux étudiés ici et ceux rencontrés sur
un site de tunnel en Savoie [1].

2 PROPRIETES PHYSIQUES DES

MARNES

2.1 Description des terrains

L'étude porte sur près d'une quarantaine d'échan- Figure 2. Histogramme des poids volumiques.
tillons carottés dans six sondages profonds (jus-
qu'à 108 m), réalisés dans le cadre des reconnais- Le poids volumique
et le poids volumique
sances géotechniques du site. Une description sec
d sont calculés avec g = 9,81 m/s2. L'indice
précise des échantillons carottés est effectuée à des vides e et le degré de saturation Sr sont calcu-
l'ouverture des conteneurs. Les molasses sont lés avec une masse volumique solide
qualifiées de marnes beiges argileuses à silto- s = 2,70 Mg/m3, soit un poids volumique solide
sableuses, avec des passages argilo-gréseux et de
s = 26,5 kN/m3.
rares passages de poudingue. De nombreuses La figure 1 représente l'histogramme de la te-
concrétions carbonatées blanchâtres tendres, mil- neur en eau des marnes. La figure 2 montre l'his-
limétriques à centimétriques apparaissent, dissé- togramme des poids volumiques. Le tableau 1
minées dans la marne. Il apparaît aussi des pas- récapitule les caractéristiques moyennes. Le ta-
sages vert-grisâtres ou des passages de teinte bleau 2 donne les caractéristiques d'état
rosée à lie de vin, plus ou moins étendus et per- moyennes des marnes, d'après le tableau 1.
sistants. Les terrains ne sont pas fissurés.
Table 1. Teneurs en eau et poids volumiques.
teneur en eau w (%) poids volumique
(kN/m3)
n x s n x s
352 14,2 2,3 155 21,7 0,57
N : nombre de mesures, x : moyenne, s : écart-type

Table 2. Caractéristiques d'état.

w

d e Sr
(%) (kN/m3) (kN/m3) (-) (%)
14,2 21,7 19,0 0,39 98

Figure 1. Histogramme des teneurs en eau.

2.2 Caractéristiques d'état
Quelques mesures des caractéristiques d'état des
marnes sont réalisées sur des fragments d'échan-
2.3 Propriétés physiques
Les valeurs au bleu de méthylène VB mesurées
sur les molasses sont comprises entre 1 et
5 g/100 g. Les teneurs en carbonates (% CaCO3)
 J.F. Serratrice / Propriétés mécaniques d’une marne 461

sont comprises entre 0 et 80 %. Pour beaucoup autre) des matériaux testés dans une large
de mesures, ces grandeurs sont complémentaires gamme de pressions [2].
(% CaCO3 = 100 – 17 VB).

2.4 Propriétés minéralogiques

Vingt-cinq analyses minéralogiques semi-
quantitatives par diffraction X ont été effectuées
sur des fragments d'échantillons issus des son-
dages carottés. En moyenne, le quartz, la calcite
et les argiles se répartissent en parts à peu près
égales (33 % environ). Néanmoins, en comparant
entre-elles les différentes analyses, le quartz et la
calcite apparaissent en proportions variées (de 16
à 72 % et de 0 à 62 % respectivement), contrai-
rement aux argiles (de 20 à 50 %). Les smectites
et les interstratifiés contenant de la smectite
constituent la phase dominante des argiles (67 % Figure 2a. Courbes contrainte-déformation.
en moyenne, contre 20 % d'illite et 13 % de kao-
linite).
En considérant les pourcentages de quartz
(Qz), de calcite (Ca) et des argiles (Ag) qui cons-
tituent la roche totale, puis, parmi les argiles, les
smectites (Sm) associées à l'ensemble des inters-
tratifiés (smectite, illite/smectite et kaolo-
nite/smectite), l'illite (Il) et la kaolinite (Ka), des
tendances entre les proportions des constituants
peuvent être établies.
Ces relations sont identiques à celles obtenues
à partir des analyses minéralogiques réalisées sur
les molasses prélevées en Savoie [1]. Les propor-
tions variables du quartz et de la calcite, pour une
proportion plus homogène d'argiles, justifient
l'appellation de marnes argileuses à silto-
Figure 2b. Chemins des contraintes effectives.
sableuses données aux molasses. Ces analyses
soulignent la variabilité de la composition des
molasses au sein du massif.

3 ESSAIS TRIAXIAUX A HAUTE

PRESSION

3.1 Programme d'essais et exemple

Les essais triaxiaux à haute pression ont pour but
de mesurer les propriétés de déformabilité (mo-
dule de Young, coefficient de Poisson, dilatance)
et les résistances (critère de Mohr-Coulomb ou
Figure 2c. Pressions interstitielles.
462 J.F. Serratrice / Propriétés mécaniques d’une marne

Le programme d'essais comprend des essais Les essais triaxiaux UU HP, réalisés pour des
triaxiaux CD, CU+u et UU à haute pression (HP) pressions de confinement comprises entre 1 et
en compression, pour des pressions effectives 4 MPa donnent des cohésions non drainées com-
moyennes comprises entre 0,5 et 10 MPa (CD prises entre 270 et 1400 kPa. Malgré une grande
éprouvettes consolidées drainées, CU+u éprou- dispersion, les résistances en compression
vettes consolidées non drainées avec mesure de uniaxiale c dépendent de l'indice des vides e,
la pression interstitielle, UU éprouvettes non c  -8 e + 3,1 (en MPa), ce qui est un signe sup-
consolidées non drainées). plémentaire de l'analogie entre ces terrains et
Les graphiques de la figure 2 montrent les ré- ceux prélevés en Savoie.
sultats d'un essai triaxial CU+u réalisé sur six
éprouvettes consolidées sous des pressions effec-
tives isotropes comprises entre 0,7 et 10 MPa.
Deux cycles de chargement-déchargement ont
été effectués sur l'éprouvette consolidée sous
6 MPa (au début et en fin de chargement).
Les chemins des contraintes effectives (p, q)
de la figure 2b (p pression effective moyenne, q
déviateur) montrent une réponse typique de la
marne, de type surconsolidée à basse pression
(pics de résistance et dilatance) et normalement
consolidée à haute pression (pas de pic et con-
tractance). La droite de Coulomb représentée sur
le graphique a pour pente Mc = 0,79, soit un
angle de frottement interne ' = 20,4 °, sans co-
hésion (c' = 0).
Figure 3a. Résistances dans le plan des contraintes effectives.
3.2 Récapitulation des résistances
La figure 3a récapitule les résistances de la
marne dans le plan des contraintes effectives
(p, q) et pour l'ensemble des éprouvettes testées
au moyen d'essais triaxiaux CD HP et CU+u HP.
Quelques points ont été écartés, qui représentent
des marnes plus denses et gréseuses ou des
marnes fissurées (losanges creux). Des enve-
loppes de forme parabolique encadrent les résis-
tances à basse pression et se raccordent sur la
droite de Coulomb de pente Mc = 0,79 à haute
pression. Ces enveloppes courbes représentent le
dos de la courbe d'état limite de la marne en
compression [3], [4], [2].
La figure 3b récapitule les résistances mesu-
rées pendant les essais triaxiaux CU+u HP (lo-
sanges) et pendant les essais de compression Figure 3b. Résistances dans le plan des contraintes totales.

uniaxiale (triangles) dans le plan des contraintes

Les courbures exprimées par ces différentes
totales (pT, q). Deux expressions paraboliques
enveloppes indiquent que les paramètres c' et '
encadrent ces résistances sur l'ensemble de la dépendent de la pression moyenne dans le do-
plage des contraintes totales appliquées. maine des basses pressions.
 J.F. Serratrice / Propriétés mécaniques d’une marne 463

4 ESSAIS DE FLUAGE

Les essais de fluage en compression uniaxiale

sont réalisés simultanément sur trois éprouvettes
qui sont soumises à des taux de chargement dif-
férents (le taux de chargement est exprimé en
pourcentages de la résistance). Les éprouvettes
sont montées dans une cellule triaxiale, qui as-
sure le guidage de la charge axiale, et sur un bâti.
Elles sont chargées sous un palier de fluage pen-
dant une durée de un mois au moins. Le dépla-
cement axial est mesuré manuellement à l'aide de
comparateurs. Les essais se terminent par une
phase de déchargement. Puis les éprouvettes sont
cassées en compression uniaxiale afin de mesurer Figure 4a. Déformation axiale en fonction du temps pour la
leur résistance. Les essais de fluage ont pour but durée totale des essais.
de mesurer l'amortissement progressif des vi-
tesses de déformation sous différents taux de
chargement.
Le graphique de la figure 4a montre l'évolu-
tion de la déformation axiale pendant toute la du-
rée de l'essai sur trois éprouvettes chargées à
30 %, 40 % et 48 % de leur résistance en com-
pression uniaxiale. Un premier palier de
quelques kilo-pascals et d'une centaine d'heures
est appliqué au début de l'essai afin d'ajuster le
zéro des déformations pour la suite de l'essai.
Puis le palier de fluage est effectué sur les
trois éprouvettes simultanément pendant
42 jours. Les déformations axiales enregistrées
au cours de cette phase d'essai sont représentées
en fonction du temps sur la figure 4b en échelles Figure 4b. Déformation axiale en fonction du temps pendant
la phase de fluage.
semi-logarithmiques. Le temps, est compté à par-
tir du début du palier de fluage. La comparaison
des figures 4a et 4b montre que l'évolution de la
déformation axiale est amortie, mais elle est lé-
gèrement plus rapide qu'une évolution logarith-
mique
Les éprouvettes sont déchargées ensuite, ce
qui permet d'observer la recouvrance et les dé-
formations irréversibles en fin d'essai.
La figure 4c montre la vitesse de déformation
axiale en fonction du temps en échelles loga-
rithmiques pendant la phase de fluage. La pente
de ces courbes, qui représente l'exposant d'une
loi puissance du temps, vaut –0,85 au début du
fluage, puis –0,70 au bout de 1000 heures. Cette
évolution traduit un amortissement non loga- Figure 4c. Vitesse de déformation axiale en fonction du
temps pendant la phase de fluage.
rithmique de la déformation.
464 J.F. Serratrice / Propriétés mécaniques d’une marne
5 ESSAIS DE GONFLEMENT
Les essais oedométriques de gonflement en pa-
rallèle sont réalisés sur quatre éprouvettes simul-
tanément qui sont soumises à des contraintes dif-
férentes. Ces essais ont pour but de mesurer une
pression de gonflement et un potentiel de gon-
flement.
Sept essais ont été réalisés à partir de diffé-
rents échantillons carottés. Après découpage, les
éprouvettes sont montées dans les cellules oedo-
métriques sur des plaques poreuses sèches, qui
sont placées à leur tour sur les bâtis de charge-
ment. Un premier cycle de chargement-
déchargement par paliers est appliqué sur cha-
cune des éprouvettes dans leur état naturel jus-
qu'à une contrainte axiale 'a = 1500 kPa envi-
ron. Puis les éprouvettes sont chargées sous des
contraintes égales à 'a = 30, 100, 400 et
1500 kPa environ et laissées sous ces différentes
charges pendant deux à quatre jours, jusqu'à la
stabilisation de la déformation axiale %a. Elles
sont mises alors en imbibition avec de l'eau dé-
saérée par les plaques poreuses de pied et de tête
et maintenue dans cet état pendant une durée de
trois semaines à un mois. La déformation axiale
est enregistrée à l'aide d'une chaîne de mesures
pendant toute la durée de l'essai.
Figure 5. Déformation axiale de gonflement en fonction de la
contrainte axiale.
Les courbes de la figure 5 montrent la défor-
mation axiale de gonflement %a, entre le début
de l'imbibition et la fin du palier, en fonction de
la contrainte axiale, en échelles semi-
logarithmiques. Deux droites encadrent les don-
nées, qui sont de la forme %a = K lg( a/ ag) où
K est le potentiel de gonflement et ag la pression
de gonflement associée. Ces droites sont telles
que 0,008 < K < 0,015 et 670 < ag < 950 kPa.
Ces résultats montrent à nouveau la dispersion
des propriétés des marnes.
6 CONCLUSION
Cette étude expérimentale présente divers as-
pects du comportement mécanique d'une marne
prélevée dans le Pyrénées. Les propriétés phy-
siques et mécaniques sont dispersées et elles
s'apparentent aux propriétés mesurées sur un ter-
rain similaire prélevé dans les Alpes. Dans les
deux cas, la dispersion des propriétés méca-
niques observée dans tous les essais s'explique en
partie par la variabilité de la compacité de la
marne. Mais elle dépend largement aussi des va-
riations lithologiques locales du matériau. Ces
nouvelles données expérimentales contribuent à
améliorer la connaissance du comportement des
sols indurés et des roches tendres dans leur état
naturel [5].
REFERENCES
[1] B. Gaudin, J.F. Serratrice, Etude en laboratoire du
comportement mécanique d’une molasse, 2nd. Int.
Symp. on Hard Soils and Soft Rocks, Naples, tome 1
(1998), 173-1810.
[2] J.F. Serratrice, Outils et procédures de caractérisation
des sols indurés et des roches tendres : l'expérience du
LRPC d'Aix en Provence, Symp. Int. Identification et
détermination des paramètres des sols et des roches,
PARAM2002, Paris (2002), 313-326.
[3] J.F. Serratrice, Essais de laboratoire à haute pression
sur des marnes, Colloquium Mondanum, Bruxelles
(1995), 1.1.61-1.1.70.
[4] J.P. Magnan, J.F. Serratrice, Détermination de la courbe
d'état limite d'une marne, Proc. 11th ECSMFE, Copen-
hague, vol. 3 (1995), 167-172.
[5] C.R.I. Clayton, J.F. Serratrice, Les propriétés méca-
niques et le comportement des sols indurés et des
roches tendres. Rapport général de la session 2. Symp.
Int. sur les sols indurés et les roches tendres, Athènes,
vol. 3 (1993), 1839-1877.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 465
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-465

Stiffness of the soil determined from in situ testing

La raideur du sol déterminé sur des essais en place
Z. Skutnik 1, M. Bajda & M. Lech
Warsaw University of Live Sciences, Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Poland

ABSTRACT
The geotechnical engineering parameters determined from in situ testing are not affected by the level of disturbance and degra-
dation then results of laboratory testing of soil samples obtained from conventional soil borings. In this paper talk will focus on
the Piezocone Penetration Test (CPTU), Seismic Cone Penetration Test (SCPTU), Resistivity Cone Penetration Test (RCPTU)
and Dilatometer Test (DMT). The tests were performed in the Warsaw area subsoil which is located within the tectonic unit
known as the Mazovian Basin, a vast depression developed during the Tertiary glaciation’s period. Tertiary comprises the Pli-
ocene deposits represented by clays, silts and locally sands. Pliocene clay behavior constitutes a significant threat to foundation
systems and underground structures. In DMT test the pressures required to expand the membrane provide a direct measurement
of the soil modulus (stiffness). Shallow and deep foundation design can then be performed by using the derived geotechnical da-
ta. A main benefit of the dilatometer test is that it directly measures the soil modulus (stiffness). This parameter controls founda-
tion design since almost all foundations are designed based on their potential for settlement and not bearing capacity (i.e. fail-
ure).

RÉSUMÉ
Les paramètres géotechniques de sols déterminés sur l’essais en place ne sont pas dérivés par l’influence des perturbations pos-
sibles au cours du prélèvement des échantillons. Ce papier se fixe sur le Test de Pénétration de Piezocone (CPTU), le Test de
Pénétration de Cône Sismique (SCPTU), le Test de Pénétration de Cône de Résistivité (RCPTU) et le Test de Marchetti de Dila-
tometer (DMT). Les essais ont été faire in Varsovie, sur les sols formés pendant la période de la glaciation Tertiaire et localisés
au Basin de Mazovien. Ces dépôts sont représentés par des argiles, des limons et localement des sables, en général définies
comme les argiles bariolées. Le comportement des argiles pliocène a influence sur les systèmes de fondations et les structures
souterraines. Le DMT test, par le rembourrage de la membrane, laisse mesurer en directe du modulus de sol (la raideur). C’est la
principale valeur du DMT test parce‘que presque toutes les fondations on n’est pas projeté sur leur capacité portante (c.-à-d.
l'échec) mais sur leur potentiel tassement.

Keywords: Soil stiffness, in situ testing, cone penetration test, dilatometer test, initial shear modulus.

1 INTRODUCTION struction of many high-rise buildings, pavement

roads and extension of subway lines. Recently,
The last few years have shown dynamic devel- after the UEFA decision on the organization of
opments of the Warsaw City, involving the con- the EURO’2012 Cup by Poland and Ukraine, the

1
Corresponding Author
466 Z. Skutnik et al. / Stiffness of the Soil Determined from in Situ Testing

need for construction of playing fields and sport

infrastructure is receiving considerable attention.
Therefore, numerous planned projects require
geotechnical data, soil parameters and the history
of subsoil deposits. In situ testing of soil, which
essentially consists of evaluating the geotechnic-
al engineering properties of soil in their natural
environment instead of the laboratory, has been
proven to be a cost effective means of develop-
ing economical foundation engineering design
criteria.
Geotechnical engineering parameters are
therefore more representative of actual in situ
strength and stiffness than commonly determined
from laboratory testing. In situ testing has been
used to provide economical foundation design by
substantiating the use of higher foundation bear-
ing pressures than typically developed from la-
boratory testing. The higher foundation bearing
capacities generally result in significant savings
to the owner.
Figure 1. The map of Warsaw – location of tested sites and
borehole profiles.

2 IN SITU TESTING
2.1 Tested sites
The study area lies within a regional geomorpho-
logic unit called the Warsaw Basin. The test sites
are located in Warsaw in the Vistula River valley
(Fig. 1).
The Stegny site is the place where for the last
few years a wide research program is executed
by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences and
other research institutions. The main purpose of
these investigations is the estimation of the phys-
ical properties and mechanical parameters of Pli-
ocene clays. The Stegny site is located in the
southern district of Warsaw. The stratigraphy
consists of Quaternary deposits developed as fine
and medium dense sand layers of thickness not
exceeding 4,5 m, underlain by overconsolidated
Pliocene clays. The clay beds reveal a clear
layered structure characterized by different color
of the particular layers. The free groundwater ta-
ble is at a depth of 3.2 m.
The second study area is located in Bielany in
the northern part of Warsaw. On the basis of the
results of field investigations (boreholes, RCPTU
tests, SDMT tests) and laboratory investigations
the surface soil conditions should be regarded as
complex. The stratigraphy consists of Quaternary
deposits. Generally, they are represented by
boulder clay described as grey and dark grey,
clayey sands and sandy clays. To the depth of
approximately 10 – 15 m under the ground sur-
face there are lacustrine sandy deposits which are
not suitable for any construction purposes. The
water table stabilizes at depths from 4 m below
ground surface to 6.3 m below ground surface.
Typical borehole profiles from Stegny and Bi-
elany sites are shown in Figure 1.
2.2 Test procedures and equipment
The in-situ testing program was very extensive
and depends on the site. It consisted of both pie-
zocone penetrometer tests (RCPTU and SCPT)
and dilatometer tests (DMT and SDMT), which
are continuous or at least near continuous soil
profiling techniques to delineate subsurface stra-
tigraphy and soil properties. The CPTU data re-
 Z. Skutnik et al. / Stiffness of the Soil Determined from in Situ Testing 467

quires a good estimation of correlation coeffi- Elastic wave theory relates the small strain
cients to determine geotechnical parameters [1]. shear modulus (G0) using:
These coefficients depend on the geologic forma- G 0   Vs 2
tion and can be site-specific. The DMT is a cali- (2)
brated static deformation test. The lift-off pres- where: G0 – initial shear modulus [MPa],  – soil
sure, p0, and the pressure at full expansion, p1, mass density [Mg/m3], Vs – shear wave velocity
are measured. These two independent parameters [m/s].
are used to compute other soil parameters The RCPTU cone is equipped with the mod-
through triangulation (two variables to get a third ule made of two electrodes separated by insula-
variable). Marchetti’s correlation [2] was used to tors. The measuring system of the penetrometer
calculate the constrained modulus and shear enables registration of electrical conductivity
modulus. These module are obtained after com- within the range from 0 to 400 mS. The mea-
bining the dilatometer modulus, ED, with the ho- surement is carried out with AC current at the
rizontal stress index, KD, which is an indicator of frequency level of 2000 Hz. The conductivity
stress history. measurement gives additional information about
There are several kinds of geophysical tests the type of soil or sometimes allows for the de-
that can be used for the delineation of stratigra- tection of the probable presence of certain sub-
phy and determination of soil parameters. Re- stances (conatamination).
cently, techniques, which are the combination of SCPT and RCPTU cones have the advantage
standard geotechnical tests with the geophysical of providing continuous shear wave velocity and
module, have been used in the field. The combi- electrical conductivity measurements in combi-
nation of seismic measurements and standard pe- nation with all traditional CPTU data.
netration tests and Marchetti’s dilatometer has
cable oscilloscope
made a significant improvement to the CPTU
and DMT test. The measurement of shear wave hammer
velocity gives the possibility to obtain the initial
shear modulus of soil at a very low strain level. upper
geophone
Knowledge about the G-modulus is important in
practical geotechnical solutions, particularly in
the prediction of soil structure interaction [3],
[4]. The shear wave velocity is calculated from
lower
the fundamental relationship: geophone
h shear
Vs  (1) slope
sensor wave
upper
geophone
t
where: Vs – shear wave velocity [m/s], t – travel
strain guages for
time of seismic waves between the transmitter friction load cell
(hammer) and the receiver (geophone) [s], or in friction sleeve
the case of SCPT with two geophones – travel strain guages for lower
cone load cell geophone
time from 1st (upper) to the 2nd (lower) geo- pressure transducer
phone, h – distance between transmitter and re- porous filter
t
ceiver (geophones) [m] (Fig.2). conical tip
seismic
The seismic dilatometer is the combination of cone
the traditional flat dilatometer with a seismic
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of SCPT probe (a) and schemat-
module placed above the blade. The SDMT ic layout of the SCPT test (b).
module is a probe equipped with two geophones
spaced 0,5 m. The SDMT procedure for obtain-
ing the shear wave velocity is the same as SCPT
probe.
468 Z. Skutnik et al. / Stiffness of the Soil Determined from in Situ Testing

2.3 Tests results The CPT, RCPTU and SDMT tests at Bielany
site were carried out in 11 profiles to the depth of
The example of CPT and RCPTU tests results
about 20 m (CPT and RCPTU tests in 9 profiles
carried out at Bielany site are presented in Fig-
and SDMT tests in 2 profiles). The selected re-
ures 3 and 4. The in situ penetration tests were
sults of SDMT performed at Bielany site are pre-
carried out by using Van den Berg Penetrometer
sented in Figures 5 and 6.
type Hyson 200kN.

qt (qc) [MPa] ID [-] ED [MPa] KD [MPa]

Rf [-] fs [MPa]
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0 1 10 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 5 10 15 20 25
0 0
1
1
2
2
3
3
4

5 4

6 5
7
6
8
7
9
8
10

11 9

12 RCPTU_BIELANY 10
13 11
CPT_BIELANY
14
12
15
13
16

17
14

18 15
19 16
20
17
21
18
22
19
23

24 20

Figure 3. Example of RCPTU soundings at Bielany site. Figure 5. Example of SDMT soundings at Bielany site.

MDMT [MPa] Vs [m/s] G0 [MPa]

Conductivity [mS/m] u [MPa] G0 [MPa]
0 50 100 150 200 0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300
0 20 40 60 80-0,05 0 0,05 0,1 0,15 0 100 200 300 400
0 0
1 1
2
2
3
3
4

5
4

6 5
7 6
8
7
9
8
10

11 9
12 10
13
11
14
12
15

16
13

17 14
18 15
19 Rix and Stokoe (1991)
16
20 Sanneset et al. (1988)
17
21 Mayne and Rix (1993)
22 18 elastic wave
23 19
theory
Hryciw (1990)
24
20

Figure 4. Plots of conductivity, pore water pressure and esti- Figure 6. Plots of constrained modulus shear wave velocity
mated shear modulus from RCPTU at Bielany site. and estimated shear modulus from SDMT at Bielany site.
 Z. Skutnik et al. / Stiffness of the Soil Determined from in Situ Testing 469

Measurements of conductivity and pore water GDMT  M /[2(1   8&  R 6 (3)

pressure during RCPTU tests at Bielany site (Fig.
and next assuming  = 0,20 and MDMT using eq.
4) were very useful for soil stratification and it
(4):
was much easer to distinguish sometimes very
thin layers in alluvial deposits. Deformation cha- GDMT  M DMT / 2.67 (4)
racteristics from SDMT tests such as constrained The ratio GDMT/M0 has been calculated and plot-
modulus M and shear modulus G0 (Fig. 6) were ted vs. KD for sand and clay (Fig. 11).
calculated according to the elastic wave theory qt [MPa] Rf [-] fs [MPa]
and formula given by [5]. For comparison the G0 0 5 10 15 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 120 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4
0
modulus were also estimated from qc measure-
1
ments in CPT tests based on formulas given by
2
[6], [7] and [8] and are presented in Figure 4.
3
The example of RCPT & SCPT tests results
4
carried out at Stegny site are presented in Figures
5
7 and 8. Figure 7 shows the example of RCPT
6
test results in the form of continuous soil profiles
7
of cone resistance qc, friction ratio Rf, sleeve fric-
8
tion resistance fs. Values of cone resistance for
9
sand vary from about 8 MPa to 25 MPa while for
10
clays from 2 MPa to 5 MPa. The type of soil can
11
be classified using friction ratio Rf. It sharply in-
12
creases from 1 to 8 at the depth of about 4.2 m
13
and it separates sands and clays. Similarly as
14
cone resistance and friction ratio results, the con-
15
ductivity and shear wave velocity plots show dif-
ferences between soil layers. In Figure 8 sands Figure 7. Example of RCPT soundings at Stegny site.
showed lower conductivity (higher resistivity)
values than clays. Also in Figure 8 there is a sig- 0
Conductivity [mS/m]
50 100 150 200 2500 200
Vs [m/s]
400 600 800 0 250
G0 [MPa]
500 750 1000

nificant difference between values of shear wave 0

velocity at the depth of about 4 m due to effect of 1

soil type changes and influence of ground water 2

table. Values of shear wave velocity in sands ex- 3

ceed 500 m/s while in cohesive soils vary from 4

150 to 200 m/s. It was also noticed that conduc- 5

according to
tivity plot correlates with shear wave velocity, 6 elastic wave
theory
cone resistance and friction ratio plots. The shear 7

modulus G0 calculated directly from shear wave 8

velocity measured during SCPT test gives values 9

in range of about 70 to 85 MPa for clays and 10

from 450 to 1000 MPa for sands. 11

In Figure 9 the results of DMT tests at Stegny 12

site are shown. The diagrams in Figure 10 have 13

been constructed using same-depth values of G0 14

(from Vs measured during SCPT) and MDMT and 15

ED (average values for one-m soil intervals) for

Figure 8. Plots of conductivity from RCPT, shear wave ve-
sand and clay. Next diagram involves the addi- locity and estimated shear modulus from SCPT performed at
tional modulus GDMT using the formula of linear Stegny site.
elasticity (3):
470 Z. Skutnik et al. / Stiffness of the Soil Determined from in Situ Testing

ED [MPa] KD [MPa]

0,1 1
ID [-]
10 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 5 10 15 20 25
is very difficult to collect a good quality undis-
0

1
turbed soil sample for laboratory tests.
2 The Bielany site is located near the second
3

4 line of Warsaw Subway and it was necessary to

5

6
investigate the dynamic interaction between soils
7 and foundations [9]. The value of the shear mod-
8

9
ulus G0 received by means of empirical formulas
10

11
from CPT and DMT results differ from values
12 obtained on the basis of direct measurement of
13

14
the seismic wave velocity in SDMT. The value
15 of G0 for sand and clay at Stegny site was calcu-
16

17 lated from shear wave velocity during SCPT.

18

19
The MDMT, ED and GDMT were obtained from
20 DMT results. Figures 10 and 11 confirm the ap-
plicability of Hryciw formula [5] for G0 estima-
Figure 9. Example of DMT soundings at Stegny site. tion from DMT results if the subsoil is homo-
gonous.
14 25
sand
12 sand
clay 20
10 clay REFERENCES
G0/MDMT

15
G0/ED

6 10 [1] T. Lunne, P.K. Robertson, & J.J. M. Powell, Cone Pe-

4 netration Testing in Geotechnical Practice, Blackie
5
2 Academic and Professional, London, 1997, pp.312.
0 0 [2] S. Marchetti, In Situ Tests by Flat Dilatometer, Journal
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25 of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol.
KD KD 106, No. GT3, Proc. Paper 15290, (1980), 299-321,
[3] D.C.F. LoPresti, O. Pallara, M. Jamiolkowski, A. Ca-
Figure 10. Ratio G0/MDMT vs. KD and ratio G0/ED vs. KD for vallaro, Anisotropy of small stiffness of undisturbed
sand and clay from Stegny site. and reconstituted clays. Pre-failure Deformation of
Geomaterials, Jamiolkowski, Lancellotta&LoPresti
1 (eds), Balkema, 1999, 3-10,
0,8 sand
[4] K.H.II Stokoe, E.M. Rathje, P.J. Axtell, Development
of an in situ method to measure the nonlinear shear
GDMT/G0

0,6 clay
modulus of soil. Proceedings of the 16th International
0,4 Conference on Soil Mechnics and Geotechnical Engi-
0,2 neering, Osaka, Millpress, Rotterdam, 2005, 751-754,
[5] R.D. Hryciw, Small Strain Shear Modulus of Soil by
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Dilatometer, JGED, ASCE, Vol. 116, N°. 11 (1990),
KD
1700-1716,
[6] G.J Rix, & K.H. Stokoe, Correlation of initial tangent
Figure 11. Ratio GDMT/M0 vs. KD for sand and clay from modulus and cone resistance, Calibration Chamber
Stegny site. Testing, Elsevier, New York, (1991), 351-362,
[7] K. Senneset, N. Janbu & G. Svanø, Strength and de-
formation parameters from cone penetration tests. Pro-
ceedings of the 2nd European Symposium on Penetra-
3 CONCLUSIONS tion Testing, Vol. 2, (1982), 863-870,
[8] P. W. Mayne, & G. J. Rix, Gmax and qc Relationships for
Clays, Geotechnical Testing Journal, 16(1), (1993), 54-
In situ tests CPTU and DMT supplemented with 60,
additionally measured parameters like resistivity [9] R.J. Jardine, D.M. Potts & A. Fourie, & J.B. Burland,
in RCPT, shear wave velocity in SCPT or SDMT Studies of the Influence of Non-Linear Stress-Strain
is probably the best way of geotechnical parame- Characteristics in Soil-Structure Interaction, Geotech-
nique, Vol. 36, N°.3 (1986), 377-396.
ters estimation. Especially for soils from which it
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 471
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-471

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 477
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-477

On the shear strength of weak rocks

Sur la résistance de cisaillement des roches tendres
E. Togrol1
Istanbul Technical University
F.Kıran
STFA Soil Investigation

ABSTRACT
The study evaluates the value of the correlation factor between unconfined compressive strength and the point load index for five
different rocks encountered in North Africa through statistically sufficient number of field and laboratory tests.

RÉSUMÉ
Cette étude évalue la valeur du coefficient de corrélation entre la résistance à la compression simple et l'indice de charge ponc-
tuelle pour cinq types de roches différents en Afrique du Nord par un nombre statistiquement suffisant d' essais in situ et en labo-
ratoire.

Keywords: Weak rocks, unconfined compressive strength, point load index

1 INTRODUCTION The situation is further complicated by the

Foundations on rock must satisfy the same de-
sign principles as do any other type of founda-
tion: reliability, adequacy and economy. In geo-
technical terms a foundation must have adequate
bearing capacity, its deformations must be within
tolerable limits and its construction must be cost-
effective.
Weak rocks are usually anisotropic and non-
homogeneous, possessing variable weathering
with depth beneath the ground surface and natu-
rally occurring discontinuities such as joints,
seams, faults, shear surfaces and bedding planes
(Kulhawy and Goodman, 1980). Such divergent
characteristics thus often inhibit a reliable deter-
mination of mass properties of weak rocks.
imprecise distinction between hard soils and soft
rocks. Pease and Kulhawy (1984) define rock as
a substance with an unconfined compressive
strength of 1 MPa or higher. They also exclude
porous, crushable materials such as some sand-
stones and limestones from that definition. Our
intention is to concentrate on weak rocks since
they are encountered in many areas of the world
and to establish their engineering properties.
Field investigations for the characterization of
rock include geophysical methods, rock core
drilling, and in situ testing. Rock core drilling
provides direct information about subsurface
conditions. Such data also provide means to de-
termine equivalent rock mass properties.

1
Corresponding Author.
478 E. Togrol and F. Kıran / On the Shear Strength of Weak Rocks
In order to determine the behaviour of the
rock mass it is important to know its mass prop-
erties. Such properties are determined by the
combined properties of the intact rock and natu-
rally occurring discontinuities. To exacerbate as-
sessment, classification systems for intact rock
and rock mass do not always coincide.
This study compares sample data obtained
from weak rocks encountered in North Africa.
Unconfined compressive strength obtained from
point load tests was compared with unconfined
compressive strength as determined from uniaxi-
al tests.
It is interesting to note that the value of C was
found to be much smaller than the generally rec-
ommended value of 24 for weak rocks.
2 STRENGTH AND DEFORMATION
PROPERTIES
The description of a rock mass depends on
rock material properties, discontinuities, type of
infilling, and groundwater.
Strength properties of intact rock are ex-
pressed in terms of unconfined compressive
strength (qu) and deformation modulus (Em).
Weak weathered rocks and rocks with open dis-
continuities possess a degree of compressibility.
The deformation modulus of rock mass is ob-
tained from the relationship
(1)
where j is a mass factor related to the discon-
tinuity spacing in the rock mass, Mr is the ratio
between the deformation modulus and the uncon-
fined compression strength qu of the intact rock.
The common laboratory tests for intact rock
samples are as follows: (1) unconfined compres-
sion test, (2) split tensile test, (3) point load test,
(4) direct shear test, and (5) durability test. For
foundation engineering purposes, laboratory tests
on rock cores are usually limited to point load
tests and uniaxial compression tests (Tomlinson,
1995).
The point load test is conducted by compress-
ing a core sample between hardened steel cones,
causing failure by the development of tension
cracks parallel to the axis of loading (ASTM
D5731-95). The load is steadily increased to
reach failure in 10 to 60 s.
The point load index is given by
(2)
where P is the load at rupture, and D is the
distance between the cones. The point load index
is reported as the point load strength of a 50 mm
rock core.
The point load index is correlated to uncon-
fined compressive strength by
(3)
Where qu is the unconfined compressive
strength, and C is a correlation factor that should
be determined on a site specific basis by con-
ducting a number of unconfined compression
tests on core samples. ASTM D5731 recom-
mends the use of 24 for C for a 54 mm (NX core
size) sample. According to ISRM the value of C
varies between 17.5 to 24.5 according to the
core size.
Another valuable source of information on the
properties of rock mass is obtained through the
determination of RQD (rock quality designation)
value of the rock core. RQD is equal to the sum
of the lengths of recovered sound core pieces
greater than 100 mm in length, expressed as a
percentage of the total length of the core.
3 GENERAL GEOLOGY OF THE
INVESTIGATION AREA
A large number of samples recovered from
sites at North Africa were tested in this study. In
those sites, especially in northern and eastern
parts of the Tarabulus sheet the Quaternary de-
posits cover large areas. During the early Qua-
ternary period, the marine Gargaresh Formation
was deposited along a narrow coastal region,
then overlaid and interfingered by Jeffara Forma-
 E. Togrol and F. Kıran / On the Shear Strength of Weak Rocks 479

tion sediments and which unconformably settled
down on the Al Khums Formation.
The Gargaresh Formation makes steep cliffs
along the shore of the Mediterranean coastline.
The Formation typically consists of calcarenite,
calcareous sandstone, detrital limestone, thin
layers of siltstone and claystone including shell
fragments and minor sandy grains which are in-
terbedded with occasionally silty sand, sandy
lean clay and silty clayey sand layers.
The Calcareous Crust mainly consists of ca-
liche. These sediments are derived from the sur-
face weathering of rocks under arid conditions
and subsequent cementation of the weathered
material.
Al Khums Formation typically comprises
slightly to highly weathered layers of calcareous
sandstone, siltstone and claystone. The color of
this unit varies from light green to light grey, and
is generally strong with the inclusion of shelly
fossil fragments with solution cavities. The For-
mation is also generally composed of calcareous
sandstone and sandy limestone with gypsum
beds.
Overlying sandstone layers are encountered at
various depths and are occasionally interbedded
by sand as well as silty sand layers.
Claystone layers are commonly encountered
between sandstone layers.
Comparison of unconfined compression test
and point load test results
Point load tests and unconfined compression
tests were performed on a sufficiently large
number of calcarenite, calcareous sandstone,
claystone, detrital limestone, and caliche sam-
ples. Except for caliche samples, test results of
all samples recovered both from depths above
and below ground water level were evaluated
separately. The results of the unconfined com-
pression tests and point load tests are given in
Table 1.
Unconfined compressive strengths and point
load indices of samples recovered from levels
above and below ground water level varied as
well (Table 2).

Table 1 Unconfined compression and point load test results

Rock Above GWL Below GWL

qu (MPa) Is (Mpa) C qu (Mpa) Is (Mpa) C
Calcarenite 6.27 ± 0.47 0.74 ± 0.03 8 3.27 ± 0.59 0.44 ± 0.06 7
Calcareous 5.65 ± 0.04 0.40 ± 0.05 14 5.22 ± 0.96 0.33 ± 0.05 16
sandstone
Claystone 16.16 ± 2.07 0.88 ±0.09 18 3.83 ± 0.51 0.41 ± 0.23 9
Detrital limes- 17.88 ± 1.05 2.39 ± 0.14 7 6.20 ± 0.23 1.17 ± 0.34 5
tone
Caliche 29.07 ± 2.64 3.53 ± 0.22 8 - - -

Table 2 Influence of GWL on test results

Rock qu-above /qu-below Is-above /Is-below RQDabove/RQDbelow RQDabove/RQDbelow
(Related to qu) (Related to Is)
Calcarenite 1.92 1.68 1.06 1.13
Calcareous sandstone 1.08 1.21 1.13 1.11
Claystone 4.21 2.15 0.86 1.05
Detrital limestone 2.88 2.04 0.75 1.02
480 E. Togrol and F. Kıran / On the Shear Strength of Weak Rocks

Table 3.Variation of RQD

Above GWL
Rock qu (Mpa) Related to qu Is (Mpa) Related to IS Reliability
RQD (%) RQD (%) of RQD (%)
difference
Calcarenite 6.27 ± 0.47 0.76 ± 0.03 0.74 ± 0.03 0.72 ± 0.04 0.05
Calcareous sandstone 5.65 ± 0.04 0.71 ± 0.03 0.40 ± 0.05 0.63 ± 0.05 0.05
Claystone 16.16 ± 2.07 0.65 ± 0.05 0.88 ± 0.09 0.61 ± 0.01 0.05
Detrital limestone 17.88 ± 1.05 0.50 ± 0.03 2.39 ± 0.14 0.44 ± 0.03 0.05
Caliche 29.07 ± 2.64 0.25 ± 0.06 3.53 ± 0.22 0.32 ± 0.03 0.05
Below GWL
Calcarenite 3.27 ± 0.59 0.58 ± 0.05 0.44 ± 0.06 0.47 ± 0.04 0.05
Calcareous sandstone 5.22 ± 0.96 0.63 ± 0.03 0.33 ± 0.05 0.57 ± 0.03 0.05
Claystone 3.83 ± 0.51 0.74 ± 0.03 0.41 ± 0.23 0.59 ± 0.05 0.05
Detrital limestone 6.20 ± 0.23 0.67 ± 0.05 1.17 ± 0.34 0.57 ± 0.03 0.05

RQD values at the same depths as unconfined
compressive strength test samples or point load
test samples are also compared (Table 3).
To use singular ratios in comparing uncon-
fined compressive strength as obtained from un-
confined compression tests and unconfined com-
pressive strength calculated from point load
indices may be somewhat misleading. Hence un-
confined compressive strength and point load in-
dex were determined on a large number of sam-
ples. In order to discover whether two groups
differ sufficiently in mean performance, we
compared their RQD values which are related to
samples used in tests to determine unconfined
compressive strength and point load index. The
confidence with which the results will be re-
jected or retained depended upon the level of
significance reached.
The reliability of the RQD mean value de-
pends upon the variability of the separate meas-
ures around the obtained mean. Reliability is thus
always relative and can be stated in terms of
probability. A given difference is called reliable
or significant when probability is high and dif-
ference cannot be explained as temporary or ac-
cidental. Several arbitrary standards of levels of
significance, of which 0.05 and 0.01 levels are
the most frequent, were used. The confidence
with which the results are rejected or retained
depends upon the level of significance reached.
In other words we assert that both RQD popula-
tions belong to the same gross population. There
is no true difference between two population
means (i.e., for RQD values, one relates to un-
confined compression test results, the other, to
point load indices), and that the difference found
between measurements is, therefore, accidental
and insignificant. It is shown that two RQD
populations belong to the same gross population
with a level of significance of 0.05 (Table 3).
From that result we can infer that Table 1 corre-
lation factors, between unconfined compressive
strength and point load index are reliable.
4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In this study a large number of field and labora-
tory tests were evaluated in order to determine
the correlation factor C between unconfined
compressive strength and point load index of five
different weak rocks, namely, calcarenite, calca-
reous sandstone, detrital limestone, claystone and
caliche. It is shown that the value of C could be
very different from the commonly used value of
24.
REFERENCES
[1] [1] Pease, K.A. , F.H. Kulhawy (1984). “Load transfer
mechanisms in rock sockets and anchors”, EL-3777,
Research Project 1483-1, Electric Power Research In-
stitute, California,
[2] [2] Kulhawy, F.H., G.E. Goodman (1980). “Design of
foundations on discontinuous rock”, Proc.Int.Conf.on
Structural Foundations on Rock, Sydney, Vol.1,
pp.209-222.
[3] [3] Tomlinson, M.J. (1995). Foundation Design and
Construction. 6th Ed. Longman, 536p.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 481
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-481

Geotechnical experiences with Most clay

Expérience de Géotechnique avec Most argile
I. Vaníek1
Czech Technical University in Prague. Czech Republic

ABSTRACT
Large area of the north part of the Czech Republic is covered by Most clays, tertiary over consolidated fissured clays, stiff to
hard consistency, thickness of which is up to 400 m. Very often this clay overlays brown coal seams. Geotechnical problems are
not only connected with material properties in situ but also after the excavation and re-deposition. Therefore the clay properties
as a function of depth will be described in more detail as well as the problems of stability of high excavation slopes or the set-
tlement of structures situated on this material. Special attention is devoted to the changes of properties after excavation and also
to the changes after re-deposition, as the amount of excavated material is extremely high, part of the material is deposited in the
form of outer spoil heaps and limited part is used for other purposes. Therefore the problems of spoil heaps deformation and sta-
bility will be mentioned together with problem of utilization of surface of spoil heaps for new construction as well as the utiliza-
tion of this material as construction material even for geo environmental earth structures.

RÉSUMÉ
Une grande partie de la région nord de la République Tchèque est constituée d’argile de Most, argile tertiaire reconsolidés
dont la consistance va de solide à dur. Son épaisseur peut aller jusqu’à 400m. Très souvent, cette argile recouvre des veines du
charbon brun. Les problèmes géotechniques ne sont pas seulement liés aux propriétés matérielles de l’argile sur site mais aussi
après son extraction et sa réimplantation. Par conséquent, les propriétés de l’argile en fonction de la profondeur seront décrites
en détails ainsi que les problèmes de stabilité des pentes d’excavations hautes ou les contraintes sur les structures situées sur ce
matériau. Une attention particulière est portée au changement des propriétés de l’argile après l’extraction ainsi qu’aux
modifications après réimplantation car la quantité de matériaux d'excavation est extrêmement élevée. La majorité de la matière
est déposée sous forme de terrils et une petite partie est utilisée à d’autres fins. En conséquence, les problèmes de déformations
et de stabilités des terrils seront décrits plus précisément. L’utilisation des surfaces des terrils pour de nouvelles constructions ou
l’utilisation de l’argile extrait comme matériaux de construction (par exemple pour les constructions de terre géo-
environnemental) est aussi discutée.

Keywords: tertiary over consolidated fissured clays, mechanical properties, slope stability, deformation characteristics after re-
deposition.

1
Corresponding Author.
482 I. Vaníček / Geotechnical Experiences with Most Clay
1 INTRODUCTION
North – western part of the Czech Republic is
called also as North – Bohemian Brown-Coal
Basin. This brown coal is the main source of en-
ergy and many electric power stations and
chemical factories are situated in this region.
This basin is roughly 80 km long and 15 km
wide and the north boundary are composed by
rock massif of Krusne Hory Mountains, which
are crystalline origin. Typical geological profile
is composed from the surface by quaternary de-
posits, mostly colluvial and fluvial sediments
coming from the weathered parts of the Krusne
hory Mountains, followed by tertiary sediments
where brown coal seam is situated as well. The
thickness of the tertiary sediments reaches 150 m
in average with maximum up to 400 m. Under
most part is composed by crystalline complex of
the same character as Krusne Hory Mountains.
The thickness of the tertiary sediments
reaches 150 m in average in the North-Bohemian
Brown-Coal Basin. Besides brown coal this layer
is composed mainly of clays and of claystones.
But sand, underclay, slate coal, sandy clay and
sandy claystone are also present.
The properties of tertiary clays have signifi-
cant impact on many construction and mining ac-
tivities in this area. Therefore the good knowl-
edge of geotechnical properties in natural state or
after excavation and re deposition is very impor-
tant and will be briefly described in this paper.
2 GEOTECHNICAL PROPERTIES IN SITU
Index properties
Clays and claystones have the following char-
acteristics:
 Plasticity limit wp = 30-35%
 Liquidity limit wL = 70-80%
 Plasticity index Ip = 35 – 50
From clay minerals mainly the kaolinite and
illite are in abundance, montmorillonite is also
present but with variable low percentage. The
proportion of clay particles ranges from 10 to 40
% and silt particles from 20 to 60 %. The other
parameters are strongly influenced by the depth
of deposition:
 Bulk density U increases from the value of 1
800 kg.m-3 near the surface to 2 100 kg.m-3 for
the depths of 70 – 100 m,
 Moisture content decreases approximately
from 20 – 45 % for the depth up to 30 m to the
value 13 – 32 % for the depths 30 – 60 m,
 Porosity decreases from roughly 45% near the
surface to 30 – 37 % for the depth up to 100
m,
 Degree of saturation Sr is close to 1,
 Unconfined strength increases with depth and
for the depths around 40 – 80 m is in the range
of 1-3 MPa.
Generally we can say that the overlying clays
have a character of overconsolidated fissured
soils with stiff to hard consistency.
Mechanical properties
As the sampling and following laboratory tests
are influenced by many different factors, the me-
chanical properties will be specified from field
experiments.
50 m high earth fill dam Nechranice was situated
on these tertiary clays, e.g. , [1] ; [2] . Subsoil
settlement was measured during the phase of
construction and also over some following years.
At the footing bottom steel plates were situated
and their settlements measured via steel tube
passing through dam fill so that it was possible to
obtain settlement of the subsoil in different cross
sections. Total maximum settlement 163 cm was
calculated based on laboratory tests. After 14
years of measurement the total maximum settle-
ment was recalculated to an expected value 137
cm. Therefore the prognosis and expected reality
are rather close to each other. However settle-
ment in time calculated and measured had higher
difference, as the subsoil consolidated more rap-
idly as expected.
Additionally in boreholes drilled below the dam
plan fixed marks were situated in different
depths. Deepest marks situated in depth 80 m
showed settlement 8 cm after 4 years. For esti-
mated imposed load it was possible with the help
of back calculation to determine 1 D modulus of
 I. Vaníček / Geotechnical Experiences with Most Clay 483

deformation, roughly in the range of 14 to 22 wp = 40.2 %; Ip = 55.9; w = 32.7 %; Ic = 1.14; Sr

MPa, depending on the range of loading. = 1.0.:
Shear strength was determined by field tests on Shear strength of intact soil/rock (compact
block samples, with area about 2500 or 5 000 strength):
cm2, and with high about 16 to 20 cm. Blocs are  = 170 c = 120 kPa
usually prepared in excavated trench or gallery. Residual strength – shearing close to 30 mm:
Seyek [3] determines two basic types of field r = 7.80 cr = 43 kPa
tests – with directed stress or with directed Post peak strength (disturbed strength after
strains and prefer the last one. Vertical loading is shearing 7 mm):
arranged via loading bridge and shear stress ap- d = 7.40 cd= 77 kPa
plied by press in inclined direction so that no From the results we can see that the angle of in-
moment loading. For tests with directed stress, ternal friction is very early close to the residual
vertical loading is increased up to demanded one and cohesion is strongly falling down with
value. Shearing phase starts when vertical set- shearing. The peak strength can be used only for
tlement is smaller than 0.01 mm/min what is short stability, for longer one post peak values
roughly 1 hour. Rate of shearing is limited by are generally applied in this region. The residual
shear deformation 0.03 mm/min. After reaching strength can be used only in the case when older
the peak resistance vertical load is decreased step shear planes were determined.
by step and for each step the shearing resistance
is determined when the rate of shearing is steady.
Shear strength determined from this procedure is 3 PROPERTIES AFTER EXCAVATION
called as post peak value. For claystones the ob- AND RE-DEPOSITION
tained values are considered as effective values,
even the tested material is fully saturated. From the place of excavation to the place of
Tests with directed rate of shearing are prepared deposition into spoil heap body the clayey mate-
and arranged similarly however supplemented rial is transported by train or by belt, during last
with units enabling constant rate of shearing. period preferably by belt.
Maximum shear deformation is about 30 mm.
Final resistance is called the residual one.
There is a significant discussion what type of the
shearing resistance can be used for the calcula-
tion, which are in this area mostly connected
with the stability of excavated slopes. Peak value
is called also shear strength of intact soil/rock but
only in the case if tested samples were not dis-
turbed by any previous activity e.g. by tectonics,
deep mining, blasting on one side or by block
disturbance during its preparation, e.g. by exca-
vation or wetting on the other one. Post peak
shear strength characterizes the strength with dis-
turbed structure, for short with disturbed
strength. Therefore the peak resistance can in
some cases corresponds as to this disturbed Fig. 1. Transport of clayey clods and spoil heap filling.
strength or to the shear strength of intact
soil/rock depending on the previous disturbance
and therefore the results are in rather wide range.
Nevertheless one result is shown for claystone
with following index properties: wL = 96.1 %;
484 I. Vaníček / Geotechnical Experiences with Most Clay
Before the belt transport (width of belt roughly
2-3 m) the excavated great clods are in some
cases crushed down. During this transport the in-
dividual clods are round off and during wet
weather their moisture content is increased. At
the end of the transport the individual clods are
partly compacted by free fall (for overburden
conveyor bridge it is up to 20 m), (Fig. 1).
By free fall individual clods are partly crushed
and compacted but their bulk density is approxi-
mately 1500 – 1600 kg.m2 and so the macro po-
rosity is around 30 %. The individual macro
pores between the individual clods are intercon-
nected and air is in continuous form and so the
permeability of soil for air is relatively high.
Character of the fill is close to rock fill. Under
this condition an air pore pressure is relatively
quickly equalized to the atmospheric pressure.
On the contrary the pore water pressure inside of
individual clods is negative due to great unload-
ing. Under this condition such soil will easily ab-
sorb water – free water or water from saturated
air – even from air inside of the spoil heap’s
body – [4] .
Important role is there connected with possibility
of direct contact of deposited clay clods with wa-
ter as the properties of the deposited clayey soils
are changing with time due to two basic contra-
diction aspects:
- process of softening as a result of
weathering, moisture content increase
and kneading,
- process of hardening as a result of sur-
charge by new deposited layers.
Result of these contradictory processes is a sig-
nificant heterogeneity of the deposited material.
Therefore also spoil heap sampling is a rather
difficult task as the character of the deposited
material is changing very quickly from one place
to the other one.
4 SPOIL HEAP SLOPE STABILITY AND
SHEAR PARAMETERS
Soil sampling and laboratory testing is again
very complicated problem. Therefore field ex-
periments are often utilized for solving new
problems.
From the view of slope stability there are two
contradiction factors:
- The demand to store on limited area as much
of the excavated materials (in this region it is
roughly 200 mil. m3 per year) – which leads to
he very steep slopes, thereafter very sensitive to
sliding.
- The demand to satisfy long term stability as
the surface of spoil heaps have to be utilize for
future construction.
The long term experiences in this area lead to
the following recommendations:
- Material should be deposited on the dry sub-
soil and the surface of the spoil heap should be
rearranged in such a way that a penetration of
rain water into spoil heap body is reduced as
much as possible;
- Slopes inclination should be decreased from
the first phase of filling to prevent sliding and so
development of slip surfaces where shear
strength can fall to the residual one.
These two recommendations were accepted after
some problems with slope stability as slopes
were at the beginning very steep (even 1:1 as
clay clods behaves as rock fill –( Fig. 2) and final
inclination was the result of many local land-
slides. At the end of eighties four large landslides
occurred in this region each with moving vol-
umes more than 50 mil. m3. Final slope was very
slow, even 1:18.
 I. Vaníček / Geotechnical Experiences with Most Clay
Fig. 2. Initial character of clay clods
With the help of back calculation and laboratory
tests on large volume shear boxes, angle of the
internal friction ef = 13-170 was determined and
residual angle r = 7 – 110. Later on a special at-
tention was devoted to the long term stability, for
final groundwater table and for heavy rainfalls –
[5] . For this case we assumed that intermediate
layer, which was up to now partly saturated, is
closed between two layers which are fully satu-
rated and therefore the air pore pressure inside of
this layer is directed by pore water pressure of
the upper layer (in the extreme case by geostatic
vertical pressure) and is therefore increasing pore
water pressure in the lower layer, (Fig. 3). The
final recommendation is to construct the spoil
heaps with general inclination roughly in the
range of 1:6 – 1:7 where steeper lower slopes are
combined with benches.
485
c Upper layer saturated by rainfall
d Layer with interconnected air pores – ua > uw
e Fully saturated layer.
Fig. 3. Modelled layers distribution for long term stability
5 SPOIL HEAP SETTLEMENT AND
DEFORMATION CHARACTERISTICS
Specification of deformation characteristics was
performed along two main lines, with the help of
laboratory tests on the large volume oedometer
or with the help of back analysis of the settle-
ment of the spoil heap surface.
While the laboratory tests make possible to ob-
serve the influence of individual factors as range
of loading, sample wetting etc. e.g. [6] ; field in-
vestigation make possible to define practical
findings. Nevertheless for example for estimation
of the settlement of the Ervenice corridor (which
is probably largest earth structure in the world –
ca 540 mil. m3) as a function of time for the indi-
vidual cross sections there were documented
very good agreement between settlement based
on calculation utilizing laboratory tests and
measured settlement – [7] ; [8] .
Reference values of spoil heap surface settlement
based on experience gained in various sites are:
 Final value of settlement s = (0.02 -0.03) H
where H is total height of spoil heap
Lower values are valid for lower soil heaps
roughly H =30 m a higher values are valid for
higher spoil heaps H = 100 m.
From the time path the settlement is estimated as:
 25 – 50 % of the final value during first year,
 70 – 75 % within 5 years,
 85 – 90 % within 10 years
When the construction of spoil heap is com-
pleted then the most specific forecast of further
course of the surface settlement could be based
on geodetic monitoring. Theoretically this moni-
486 I. Vaníček / Geotechnical Experiences with Most Clay

toring can start immediately after the end of fill-
ing but in fact the initial (zero) measurement is
usually done after certain time delay. The accu-
racy to forecast the further settlement develop-
ment depends on the duration of monitoring. 5
years seams to be minimum time.
Different functions st = f(t) was checked, es-
pecially these in which the accession of settle-
ment drops down logarithmically of exponen-
tially. Now the equation
st = a + b. ln t
is recommended in which a and b are parame-
ters determined from the firsts measurements,
[7] .
[5] I.Vaníek, S. Chamra. The influence of extreme rainfall
on the stability of spoil heaps.In: Proc. 10th Int. Symp.
on Landslides and Engineering Slopes. Xian, 2008,
Chen et al. (eds), Taylor and Francis Group, London,
pp. 1653 – 1658.
[6] I.Vaníek. Behaviour of soil of the high clayey spoil
heap. In: Proc. 8th DEC SMFE, Nurnberg, DGD,
pp.235-240
[7] I. Dykast. Properties and behaviour of high clayey spoil
heaps in the North-Bohemian Brown-Coal District. (In
Czech), Ph.D. thesis, CTU Prague, 1993, 126 p.
[8] I. Dykast, R.Pg ímek, E.Pichler, M. !eho ,
M.Havlíek, I.Vaníek. Ervenice corridor – 130 , high
spoil heap from clayey material – with transport infra-
( on its surface. In: Proc. XIIIth EC SMGE,
structure
Prague, 2003, Vol. 4, pp. 57-76

During last two decades the greatest attention is

devoted to the foundation of new structures on
the surface of spoil heaps. A special care is con-
nected with surface of spoil heap improvement to
be able reduce especially differential settlement.
Also appropriate selection of the construction
system can help in the case when settlement is
higher then usually demanded.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The paper was written with support from the re-

search project MSM 6840770005 “Sustainable
construction”, which is supported by the Czech
Ministry of Education.

REFERENCES

[1] J. Škopek, Deformation of the earth fill dam Nech-

ranice subsoil, In: Proc. of the Terzaghi memorial
symposium – New achievements in soil mechanics,
Vol. 2, 1969, Prague
[2] J. Seyek. Measured settlement of clayey dam subsoil
and calculated based on oedometric tests. (in Czech).
In: Proc. Seminar “Field and laboratory tests of soils”
VÚHU, Most, 1975,p.1-10.
[3] J. Seyek. Field shear tests on blocks with directed
strain. (In Czech). Research report, Stavebni geologie,
Prague, 1989, 42 p.
[4] I.Vaníek , M. Vaníek. Earth Structures in Transport,
Water and Environmental Engineering. Springer, 2008,
637 s.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 487
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-487


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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 493
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-493

Petrographic and textural characteristics and

mechanical behaviour of Sicilian calcarenites
Caractéristiques pétrographiques et structurelles et
comportement mécanique des calcarénites de Sicile
M. Zimbardo1, N. Nocilla & L. Ercoli
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale, Aerospaziale e Geotecnica, Università di Palermo

ABSTRACT
This study reports about the correlation between the petrographic and textural characteristics of some Sicilian calcarenites of
Quaternary age and their mechanical behaviour. The composition and the texture of the different lithotypes are analysed by
means of optical microscopy. The pores texture is the basis of the proposed classification. Laboratory tests are carried out for the
determination of physical properties such as porosity; the mechanical behaviour is assessed by isotropic tests. Results indicate
that the type and the distribution of the pores between the grains greatly influence the mechanical behaviour, specifically at the
onset of yielding.

RÉSUMÉ
Cette étude présente la corrélation entre les propriétés pétrographiques et la structure de certains calcarénites siciliennes du Qua-
ternaire et le leur comportement mécanique. La composition et la structure des différents lithotypes ont été analysées par micro-
scope optique et elles sont à la base de la proposition de classification décrite dans la mémoire. Autres investigations de labora-
toire ont été effectuées pour la détermination de propriétés physiques, parmi lequel la porosité. Le comportement mécanique a
été évalué avec des d'essais isotropes. Les résultats indiquent que le type et la distribution des pores entre les grains influence
grandement le comportement mécanique au début de la limite d’élasticité.

Keywords: calcarenites, texture, yielding, destructuration.

1 INTRODUCTION the structure begins to decay. The position of the

In structured soft rocks, the original structure
due to fabric, i.e. orientation, distribution and
density of particles and / or bonding, coming
from any type of interparticle bonding ([1],[5]),
is responsible for an increase in strength com-
pared to the same non-structured material [6].
These rocks subjected to compressive stresses
show an initial almost linear behaviour up to a
value of effective stress, the yield point, at which
yield point with respect to the normal compres-
sion line (NCL), in the plane Q - ln p’, specific
volume vs mean effective stress, is a measure of
bonding. In fact, strong or weak bonding be-
tween the particles is detected, respectively, by
yielding occurring to the right or to the left of the
NCL [3]. In the first case, yield is assumed to be
associated to the simultaneous rupture of cement
and particles. On the contrary, in the case of
weak bonding, after initial failure of the cement

1
Corresponding Author
494 M. Zimbardo et al. / Petrographic and Textural Characteristics and Mechanical Behaviour
at a point called true yielding, there will be a
second yield point, or gross yielding, at the onset
of particle breakage [2].
According to [1], the yield stress, as well as
the position of the NCL, depends on the grains
strength, hence on the mineralogical composition
of the rock, on the initial void ratio, which is a
measure of the number of contacts between the
grains, and on the grains contact stress. At low
void ratio, the number of contacts between parti-
cles increases. The external load is distributed
over larger contact areas, and lower contact
stresses result. It follows that the individual par-
ticles, subjected to the same external loads, are
less susceptible to breakage. The contrary occurs
when the void ratio is high [3].
An experimental investigation was carried out
on different Sicilian calcarenites outcropping in
Sicily, to verify whether the previous theoretical
framework may be adopted to describe their me-
chanical behaviour. The present contribution re-
fers to the studies conducted up to now on some
calcarenitic lithotypes coming from the territo-
ries of Palermo and Marsala (Fig.1).
Figure 1. Location of the Calcarenites
2 SICILIAN CALCARENITES
Calcarenitic lithotypes of Quaternary age widely
outcrop in the coastal plains and low hills of Sic-
ily. Since ancient ages, most of them are being
extracted as construction materials to produce
ashlars for masonry. Besides calcarenite forma-
tions constitute the bedrock of many important
towns near to the sea coast.
The wide natural outcropping formations, to-
gether with quarries and drilling holes for foun-
dation purposes, allow sampling of different
lithotypes in Western Sicily.
2.1 Materials and methods
Samples of calcarenites from the different loca-
tions were retrieved from hand corings, commer-
cial ashlars, and drilling holes. Specimens for the
laboratory tests were prepared by means of hand-
saw and diamond disk saw. The petrographic and
textural characterization was carried out by
means of reflected light optical microscopy
(O.M.) on selected specimens and by transmitted
light microscopy (PPL: plane polarized and XPL:
cross polarized light) on thin sections. Thin sec-
tions were prepared from samples of the natural
rock before testing, and, in some cases, also from
the specimens subjected to mechanical tests. In
addition to the mineralogical composition, great
care was taken in the qualitative analysis of po-
rosity. In particular, the pores were classified on
the basis of their size compared to grain size, and
with reference to their textural location, inter-
granular or intragranular. Pore size is referred to
the area intersected by the plane of the thin sec-
tion. Those pores whose area is almost five times
the characteristic grain size were classified as
macropores; the ones having size comparable to
that of the grains were identified as mesopores.
Micropores are not visible at the microscope
maximum magnification (200x). On the basis of
the previous size classification, the ratio between
macropores and mesopores was evaluated. In the
following paragraph, the different textural types
of calcarenites are labelled with capital letters.
Physical and mechanical characterisation was
performed by means of determination of particle
density and dry unit weight, Js, Jd, uniaxial com-
pression tests and isotropic tests. For the iso-
tropic compression tests, a testing programme
using triaxial apparatuses with maximum confin-
ing pressure of 10 MPa or 70 MPa was carried
out [7]. In both cases increments of stress be-
tween 0.5 MPa and 1 MPa were applied, and the
stress increment was kept constant for time peri-
ods ranging from 1 day to 5 days, depending on
the variation of specific volume.
Table 1 lists the initial void ratio of the sam-
ples tested in isotropic compression. The label
indicates the provenance of the samples, which
are subdivided according to the textural classifi-
cation described in the following.
 M. Zimbardo et al. / Petrographic and Textural Characteristics and Mechanical Behaviour 495

Table 1. List of isotropic compression test bridges between grains are from 0.025 to 0.1 mm
Litothype Provenance code v0 thick. Porosity is due to uniformly spreaded
10ic 1,38 mesopores, while macropores are rare, less than
Palermo c14 1,29
A Cala 2%.
15ic 1,25
c8 1,35
mb1 1,72
B1 Marsala cmb2 1,71
mb3 1,70
ma1 2,03
B2 Marsala ma1b 2,18
ma2 1,99
mc1 2,60
C Marsala mc2 2,64
mc3 2,63
mc4 2,68

3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
3.1 Textural and petrographic characterisation
Three main textural groups (fig.2) have been
identified on the basis of macropore/mesopore
evaluated ratio:
A) dense: no or rare macropores are present, in
any case less than mesopores. Intergranular
interstices and intragranular voids are almost
or totally obstructed by carbonatic cement,
with few spread mesopores;
B) sponge: macropores are a little less (Type B1),
as much as or a little more (Type B2) than
mesopores. Mesopores are widespread since
the cement patina that wraps the grains does
not fills totally the intergranular interstices;
intragranular voids are open or partially filled
or obstructed;
C) card-house: macropores are widespread and
much more than mesopores; intragranular
pores are open.
In the lithotype A, 50% of clasts are quartz
monocrystalline grains, highly spherical and
rounded; 40% are rounded fragments of
rhodolites, with micritic texture, and the last 10%
are foraminifera, fragments of shells (mollusca,
anellida, echinodermata) with some grains of
carbonatic rocks. The grain size varies from
0.025 mm to 1 mm, the mode is about 0.035 mm.
The contour of the clasts is very sharp. Cementa-
tion is made of microsparitic calcite. It forms a
thin coating all around the grains. The cement
Figure 2. Textural classification. Type A “dense” ; Type B
“sponge”: B1 total area of macropores << mesopores; B2 total
area of macropores > mesopores; Type C “card-house” total
area of macropores >> mesopores
In the lithotipes B1 e B2, 60% of clasts are
rounded fragments of rhodolites, with micritic
texture, 30% are foraminifera, fragments of
shells (mollusca, anellida, echinodermata, brio-
zoa), and the grains of carbonatic rocks are about
8%. Quartz monocrystalline grains, high in
sphericity and medium in roundness, are no more
than 2%. The grain size varies from 0.025 to
1.5 mm, the mode is about 0.05 mm. The contour
of the clasts is not sharp because of muddiness of
cement and indentation between the grain sur-
face and the microsparitic crystals of the cement.
In B1 macropores are rare, less than 5%. On the
contrary, mesopores are numerous because they
are localized in the areas of divergence of granu-
lar contours, even though many of the inter-
granular voids are filled by cement. The cement
bridges have a thickness of 0.025 mm to 0.3mm.
The lithotipe C is composed of about 45%
fragments of rhodolites, few molluscs fragments
(prevali lamallibranca), with not more than 10%
entrochs and anellida. Quartz monocrystalline
grains, are very rare (0,1%) and their size is
about 0.05 mm. Grain size varies from 0.8 to
0.15 mm, with mode at about 0.25 mm. The po-
rosity is mainly due to macropores.
496 M. Zimbardo et al. / Petrographic and Textural Characteristics and Mechanical Behaviour

In all the calcarenite lithotypes, the thin coat- as EM and EL. Their strength and stiffness are
ing of clear microspar cement (dog tooth shaped) clearly influenced by the structure of the material
wrapping the clasts could be interpreted as pri- (Zimbardo et al, 2010).
mary cement; in the lithotypes A and B this pat-
ina is 25- 27 Pm thick, in C its thickness is not
more that 10 Pm. The microspar mosaic which
fills intergranular voids, could be originated in a
secondary phase of cementation (i.e. vadose).

A B C

Figura 3. Microphotographs from XPL, 144X, of the cement

in lithotypes A,B,C.

3.2 Physical characterization Figure 4. Miller Diagram

Particle density and dry density of the lithotypes 3.4 Yielding of the Calcarenites in isotropic
investigated are summarised in Table 2. compression
The data indicate slight differences in specific
weight. In particular, for the calcarenites of the Specific volume recorded with time at increasing
groups B2 and C specific weight is identical to cell pressure on the sample c14 (lithotype A) is
that of calcium carbonate. Slightly higher values shown in the diagram (Q-log t) in Figure 5. The
were determined, however, for the calcarenites of curves show the onset of a destructuration proc-
the groups A and B1. ess at a cell pressure of 18 MPa, which further
developed at the pressures of 22 MPa and 26
Tab. 2. Mean unit weights of the four lithotypes. MPa.
lithotype Js (kN/m3) Jd (kN/m3)
A 27,6 20
B1 27,5 17
B2 27,4 14
C 27,4 10

3.3 Uniaxial compression tests

The average value of uniaxial strength of cal-
carenites equals 0.8 MPa for group C, 2.5 MPa
and 6 MPa respectively for group B2 and group
Figure 5. Specific volume changes during isotropic compres-
B1, and 15MPa for group A. The stiffness sion for test c14
modulus ranges between 200 MPa and 1800
MPa. In the Miller diagram, the experimental The compression curves of all samples are
points related to the calcarenite A fall in the summarised in the diagrams Q-ln p’ (Fig.6). In
range of high modulus ratio, and the rock is clas-
the same figure the average values of yield stress
sified as EH (Fig.4). The lithotypes B1 and B2
for each lithotype are also reported and the NCLs
fall in the range of medium values and the rocks
obtained by interpolating the data of the last 3-4
are classified as EM, while the calcarenites of
increments of the applied stress for each iso-
group C fall in the range of medium and low
tropic test are represented.
modulus ratio range, and they may be classified
 M. Zimbardo et al. / Petrographic and Textural Characteristics and Mechanical Behaviour
Figure 6. Isotropic compression data for lithotype A,B1,B2,C
and determination of the respective NCL.
Two intervals are obtained for the NCLs of
the different samples. The first one, delimited by
the straight lines
Q= 2.20 – 0.098 ln p’; Q = 2.29 – 0.09 ln p’,
concerns the results of the isotropic tests on the
lithotypes C, B1 and B2. The second one is
bounded by straight lines
Q = 3.59 – 0.230 ln p’; Q = 3.85 – 0.234 ln p’ (2)
and describes the results of the isotropic tests on
the lithotype A. The stress-paths of lithotypes C,
B2 , and in part B1, reach stress states beyond the
assumed isotropic compression lines, while those
of lithotype A lie below the corresponding NCL.
3.5 Destructuration’s effects
The microstructural effects of the destructuration
process, for lithotypes A and B1, were studied in
O.M. in transmitted light by means of thin sec-
tions.
In the lithotype A , the isotropic compression,
at the stress level achieved, induced no substan-
tial changes of the original texture: the size, the
shape and the contour of the clasts are unaltered,
that is the grains are absolutely intact. Mesopores
keep open, perhaps a barely detectable reduction
of pores volume occurs (Fig.7).
In the same way, in the lithotype B1 the clasts
are absolutely intact, but marked changes occur
in the texture. In fact, even though macropores
and intragranular mesopores persist, more than
90% of intergranular mesopores disappears.
497
Moreover irregular microcracks arise between
grain contacts and develop for a length more than
50 times the grains diameter. The grain contour
becomes very sharp, because the coating of clear
primary cement, 25 Pm thick, remains tied to the
grain. On the contrary, the cement filling the in-
tergranular voids becomes more turbid, and ac-
quires typical birefringence of aggregate possibly
because the forming a fine inter-crystalline mor-
tar (Fig.7).
The lithotype C, after isotropic compression,
becomes a loose sand, made of grains with ir-
regular shape, therefore unsuited for thin sec-
tions. For this reason observation was performed
in reflected light by means of a stereoscopic mi-
croscope. Grains surfaces are entirely coated by
calcitic cement and no fresh broken surface is de-
tectable.
(1)
Figure 7. Microphotographs of the different lythotipes after
isotropic tests in XPL.
4 DISCUSSION
The destructuration mechanism, as detected from
the shape of the stress-strain curves of lithotypes
B and C, which is compatible with the micro-
scopic observations on thin sections, can be in-
terpreted as follows. For these lythotypes, the de-
structuration process is promoted by a fracture
mechanism of the cement, which is softer than
the grains, occurring in correspondence of the
knee of the compression curves. The grains re-
main perfectly intact.
Starting from this point, the curves of any
lithotype converge towards a single band, which
should be identified with the NCL of the inter-
granular material, as confirmed by the observa-
tion in optical microscopy. At further stress in-
crease, the volume of the mesopores reduces, and
the material becomes stiffer.
In the lithotype A, whose original texture is
uniform and characterised by bridges of inter-
granular cement of small thickness (often made
498 M. Zimbardo et al. / Petrographic and Textural Characteristics and Mechanical Behaviour
of the primary coating of dog tooth crystals),
yielding occurs at very high stress levels. The
low slope of NCL indicates a different deforma-
tion mechanism which, anyway, does not cause
grains breakage, and which gives no evident ef-
fects on the texture of the pores, as confirmed by
O.M. observations.
The position of the yield points with respect to
their own NCL is the main difference between
the studied lithotypes. To stick with the settled
nomenclature of the pertaining literature [3], cal-
carenites B and C fall in the category of strong
bonding, while type A in the category of weak
bonding, even if its yield stress is higher than
that of the B and C types.
In the cases studied, strong or weak deforma-
tion process, do not concern the strength of the
grains. In fact they keep intact both in the case of
rich quartz calcarenite, and in the case of prevail-
ing carbonate bioclasts. The mechanism of de-
formation involves only the cementing pattern.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The analyses performed by optical microscopy
corroborate the interpretation of the results of the
isotropic tests, since they allow for correlating
the observed mechanical effects to the primitive
texture of the calcarenites, and to explain
changes occurring in porosity during the iso-
tropic tests. Optical microscopy highlighted that,
for the stress levels achieved, the textural charac-
teristic sensitive to isotropic compression, in the
different calcarenitic lithotipes of Sicily, is the
intergranular mesoporosity. This is due to the
pattern of cementing, while the intragranular po-
rosity and the macroporosity do not undergo any
striking influence. The intragranular voids keep
open because fragmentation of hollowed grains
does not occur. Moreover, macropores do not
collapse up to 50 MPa, which is the maximum
stress reached in the present investigation.
For the Sicilian calcarenites, with non uni-
formly distributed pores of variable size (types B
and C), the NCL should not be referred to the
clastic component, which does not undergo any
breakage. It should be better related to the aggre-
gation state of the crystals forming the secondary
intergranular cement, since the coating of pri-
mary cement keeps tied to the clasts surfaces.
Because the clasts are not affected by fractur-
ing, the mineralogic composition of the studied
calcarenites, both for quartz rich calcarenites and
carbonate biocalcarenites, does not influence the
deformation process during isotropic tests.
With respect to the previous technical litera-
ture, particularly as for the conceptual behaviour
ascribed to strong and weak bonding, the results
of the study suggest to consider in deeper detail
the role of the cementing pattern, rather than
simply the clasts/cement relative strength.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was supported by the Università
degli Studi di Palermo with its share of the re-
search funds assigned by the MIUR – Ministero
Istruzione, Università e Ricerca (Ercoli and No-
cilla - Miur ex 60%). Regrettably, this and other
research works could be not further developed
due to the drastic cuts - made for the years from
2010 onwards - by the Government and the Par-
liament of the Repubblica Italiana to the funds
for University, Public Education and Scientific
Research.
REFERENCES
[1] M.R. Coop, J.H. Atkinson, The mechanics of cemented
carbonate sands, Gèotechnique 43 (1993), 53-67.
[2] M.R Coop, S.M. Willson, On the behaviour of Hydro-
carbon Reservoir Sands and Sandstones, ASCE, J. of
Geot. and Geoenvi. Eng. 129 (2003), 1010-1015.
[3] T.Cuccovillo, M.R. Coop, Yielding and pre-failure de-
formation of structured sands, Gèotechnique 47
(1997b), 491-508.
[4] T.Cuccovillo, M.R. Coop, On the mechanics of struc-
tured sands, Gèotechnique 49 (1999), 741-760.
[5] R. Lagioia, R. Nova, An experimental and theoretical
study of the behavior of a calcarenite in triaxial com-
pression. Gèotechnique 45(1995),633–648.
[6] S. Leroueil, PR Vaughan, The general and congruent
effects of the structure in natural soils and weak rocks,
Geotechnique 40 (1990),467–488.
[7] M.Zimbardo, Comportamento meccanico di rocce
tenere: le calcareniti di Palermo e Marsala, Phd. Thesis
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (2010).
[8] M.Zimbardo, N.Nocilla, A.Evangelista, M.Ramondini,
A. Scotto di Santolo, Destructuration of typical Sicilian
calcarenites, Bull. of Eng. Geol. and the Env. (2010).
2.2. Modelling
Modélisation
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 501
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-501

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 507
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-507

Application of a constitutive model for structured

soils in hard soils
Application d’un modèle de comportement pour les sols
structurés dans les sols durs
G. Belokas 1, M. Kavvadas
National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.), Greece

ABSTRACT
The combination of the micro- and macro- structural characteristics of hard soils – soft rocks control their mechanical behaviour.
In the absence of macro fissures, the micro structural characteristics have a dominant role and the use of soil mechanics ap-
proaches surpass those of rock mechanics. In particular, the concept of soil structure is applicable to the modelling of their me-
chanical behaviour. To portray this, the recently proposed constitutive Model for Structured Soils – 2 (MSS-2) was applied to
the modeling of the laboratory test data of a hard soil (Todi clay). The model simulated satisfactorily the mechanical behaviour
of both reconstituted and natural soil samples.

RÉSUMÉ
La combinaison des caractéristiques micro- et macro- structural des sols dures - roches tendres désigner leur comportement mé-
canique. En l'absence de fissures macro, les caractéristiques micro structurelles ont un rôle dominant et l'utilisation d'approches
de mécanique des sols dépassent les roches mécanicien. En particulier, le concept de la structure du sol est applicable à la modé-
lisation de leur comportement mécanique. Pour illustrer cela, la récente proposition de modèle de comportement pour les sols
structurés - 2 a été appliqué ici aux données expérimentales matériau de sol dur (Todi clay). Le modèle simule de façon satisfai-
sante le comportement mécanique à la fois des échantillons reconstitués et naturels du sol.

Keywords: hard soils, soft rocks, structure, plasticity, constitutive model

1 INTRODUCTION mechanics approaches, such as the ones that em-

The modelling of the mechanical behaviour of
hard soils and soft rocks is traditionally placed
on the border line of soil and rock mechanics
(e.g. [1], [2]). In the absence of macro fissures
(e.g. discontinuities), the micro structural charac-
teristics have a dominant role in the overall me-
chanical response of the material. These charac-
teristics can be described by means of soil
1
Corresponding Author.
ploy the concept of soil structure [3].
According to this concept, a soil material is at
a structureless state, when its mechanical re-
sponse can be completely defined by its current
state, i.e., the current effective stresses and void
ratio ([4]). On the contrary, a structured material
has components of stiffness, strength, dilatancy
and anisotropy that cannot be described solely by
the current state ([3]). Typical structure-inducing
agents are stress history (e.g. overconsolidation)
508 G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas / Application of a Constitutive Model for Structured Soils

and bonding (e.g. cementation, aging, thixotro-  one reference surface: the Intrinsic Strength
py), which result in increased interparticle resis- Envelope (ISE) to model the characteristics
tance (compared to the corresponding structure- of the corresponding structureless state.
less state) and can influence the anisotropic M
SSE PYE
characteristics of material response. L M
The effect of bonding has been experimentally s SE c


investigated by comparing the mechanical re-

sponse of natural samples with that of the recons- L M

tituted material (e.g. [5]). This provided data for
*
the development of a series of bounding surface PYE

plasticity constitutive models for the description K L c

= +

of structured soils behaviour (e.g. [6], [7], [8]).

These models can also be used to hard soils – * =
= * +
*=
+
*=2

*=22
*

soft rocks, provided that macro fissures do not  *

*
exist. Most of these models use a bounding sur- 

face, which models the effects of structure, and a

Figure 1. Characteristic surfaces of the MSS–2 model.
reference surface, which corresponds to an
equivalent structureless state and presents a low-
The model is described in detail by Belokas
er limit for the bounding surface. Such a model
and Kavvadas [9] and therefore only its basic
was recently proposed by the authors [9] under
principles are presented herein.
the name Model for Structured Soils 2 (MSS-2)
to model the influence of stress history and bond-
ing on soil stiffness, strength, dilatancy and ani- 2.1 Intrinsic Compressibility
sotropy. A variance of an Intrinsic Compressibility
The MSS-2 model has been herein in order to Framework presented by Belokas & Kavvadas
simulate the experimental test data of Todi clay [10] is employed (Figure 2 and Equation 1).
presented by Burland et al [5], which can be
classified as a hard soil. n
 s:s / 
2
lnȃ*  lnS  (ln1 iso  lnS ) 1 
* * * *
 (1)
 — 
2 PRINCIPLES OF THE MSS–2 MODEL
where S* and N** define the position of the Criti-
The MSS–2 is an incremental plasticity, bound- cal State and Intrinsic Compression Lines in the
ing surface, critical state model. The model has ln - lnv plane.
been formulated using tensorial effective stresses
= &+s) and strains (%=%&+e), where "p is the
(  or lnv
ICL1: Isotropic Intrinsic
isotropic mean effective stress, s is the deviatoric N1=Niso
Compression Line = ICLiso
stress tensor, Ž=Žv is the volumetric strain and e is
N2
the deviatoric strain tensor. Three characteristic N3 , c
surfaces (distorted ellipsoids) are used (Fig 1) :
N4 , c 1
ICL
 two kinematic yield envelopes: the internal N5=
, c 2
Plastic Yield Envelope (PYE) to bound the ICL3
, c 3 ICL4
elastic states and the external Structure , c
4
Strength Envelope (SSE) to describe the ICC5: Critical State
5
magnitude of structure and bound all possible Line (CSL) lnp
states, 1kPa

Figure 2. Intrinsic Compressibility Framework for Intrinsic

Compression Curves (ICC˜) dependence on stress ratio *=q/p
 G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas / Application of a Constitutive Model for Structured Soils 509

Each Intrinsic Compression Line corresponds Žvp is the plastic volumetric strain increment,
to a radial stress path *=s/ =constant or
*=(s:s/ 2)0.5=constant, where “:” stands for the Žqp U 2
3

e p : e p  is the modulus of the plastic
internal tensorial product.
deviatoric strain increment), ( Žvp , Ž qp ) are the ac-
2.2 Characteristic surfaces properties cumulated plastic and deviatoric strains, c and
s are the intrinsic compressibility parameters
The SSE defines the region of all possible ma-
terial states and it generally encompasses ISE (as during virgin compression and rebound and Vv,
it happens in structured soils), while ISE *v, Wq, Vq, *q, are structure degradation constants.
represents a lower boundary of the SSE (when all Equation (3) ensures that as plastic strains ac-
cumulate the scalar (– ) diminishes towards
*
effects of structure are eliminated – typically by
intense straining). Thus, in structureless soils, the zero upon complete destructuring.
SSE and ISE coincide and the model reduces to a The kinematic hardening rules control the
Cam-Clay type twin-surface model with a ro- evolution of the kinematic hardening variables
tated-distorted bounding surface (ISE) and an in- ( K) and ( L) of SSE and PYE respectively ([9]).
ternal bubble (PYE). Hardening variable ( K) controls the orientation
Therefore, for the structured material the size of SSE and therefore both stress and structure in-
( o= K+) of the SSE is greater than the size duced anisotropy. Hardening variable ( L) con-
( o*= K*+*) of the ISE, and the scalar (–*) is trols the position of the PYE (i.e. the elastic re-
a measure of the magnitude of structure. The size gion) within the SSE ([9]).
(*) corresponds to an equivalent structureless
state ([9]) given by: 2.4 Dilatancy
The plastic flow rule incorporates a phase para-
1  ln v  ln N ˜*  meter (X ), with respect to a Phase Transition
 *  ™ o* / 2  exp   (2)
2  c Line (PTL, see Figure 3):
 
X =1- PTC/ (4)
2.3 Destructuring
lnv
The above features are modeled by coupled iso- N* X =1- A< PTC: X A<0
tropic and kinematic hardening rules for the yield N** B= PTC: X B=0
surfaces. Following classical plasticity, it is as- S C> PTC: X C>0
sumed that the material hardens only during plas- S* X >0
tic deformation. X <0
The isotropic hardening rule controls the evo- vcurrent
lution of the size () by an exponential structure SCL
degradation mechanism ([6], [9]) of the SSE: ICL
PTL
CSL
 1  p A B= PTC C o ln
   T   Žv  (  * )( Av Žvp  Aq Žqp ) (3)
 c   s  Figure 3. Definition of the Phase Transition Line.

where, Its sign distinguishes contractant behaviour

Aq  “q  š q exp( ˜q Ž qp ) (X >0, for states to the right of PTL) from dila-
tant behaviour (X <0, for states to the left of
Av  š v exp(˜v Žvp ) , PTL). A conceptual differentiation from the cor-
responding state parameter defined by Been &
510 G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas / Application of a Constitutive Model for Structured Soils

Jefferies [10] is that the phase parameter (›™) de-
pends on the magnitude of bonding. This is con-
trolled by the position of the PTL in the ln - lnv
plane (variable S) with respect to a Structure
Compression Line (SCL, see Figure 3), which
depends on the size ( o) of SSE:
3 SIMULATION OF STIFF TODI CLAY
Experimental data of the hard Todi clay have
been chosen as an application of the model. Ac-
cording to Burland et al [5], Todi clay has the
index properties shown in Table 1.

lnS=lnN*– (lnN**–lnS*) (5) Table 1. Index properties of stiff Todi Clay according to Bur-
land et al [5]
where N*=exp(lnvcurrent–cln o) is for the SCL. wL (%) wP (%) Ip (%) Gs
Moreover, X is defined with respect to stresses. 67.2 39.1 28.1 2.78

2.5 Elasticity Herein, only the directly estimated model con-

stants are presented. For further reference about
A variance of hyperelasticity [9] is used herein: the procedure reader is referred to the one out-
lined by Belokas and Kavvadas [12].
™ e $™
™  Žv  s:e e (6)
ȡs ȡs ( $™  %) 3.1 Intrinsic properties constants
These include the constants of Equation 1. The
data presented by Burland et al [5] lead to a criti-
A™ cal slope of M=1.05 and to the constants of the
s  sŽve  2G ee e , one dimensional intrinsic compression line (i.e.
ȡs ( A™  B)
Ko): a) NKo=3.861 or lnNKo=1.351 (position of
A2 s:s curve in the lnv – lnp plane) and b) constant
2G e  2( A™  B )  ™ (7)
ȡs ( A™  B ) 2 c=0.115 (slope of curve in the lnv – lnp plane).
Applying Jaky’s equation it gives a coefficient of
where A, B and s are the elastic constants. earth pressure at rest Ko=1-sin=0.5532 or
*o=(q/p)o=0.6364. The available compression da-
2.6 Model constants ta are in v, v pairs and therefore the validity of
these constants is checked by the model predic-
The implementation of the MSS-2 model requires tions.
the initial state which is described by the follow- As there is no available data of intrinsic com-
ing state variables: initial stress and specific vol- pression lines for *=0 (isotropic) and *=M (criti-
ume ( , v), location and size of the SSE ( K, ), cal state), constants Niso and ī were estimated
location of the PYE ( L) and the values of the with the help of the empirical equations proposed
material constants (for more details on their se- by Belokas and Kavvadas [10]. Intrinsic constant
lection see Kavvadas & Belokas [9], [10], [12]): n of Equation 1 is determined from the constants
ƒ eleven (when using poro-elasticity) or twelve Niso, NKo, ī, *o, c (see [12]). All intrinsic con-
(when using hyper-elasticity) material constants stants for Todi clay are summarized in Table 2.
estimated directly from standard laboratory tests
ƒ ten material constants estimated indirectly
Table 2. Addopted intrinsic properties of stiff Todi Clay
from laboratory tests or empirically.
In the following simulations, the constitutive c M Niso NKo ī M Ko
model parameters have been determined accord- 0.115 1.05 4.015 3.861 3.706 1.05 0.5532
ing to the procedure outlined by Belokas & Kav-
vadas ([9] and [12]). 3.2 Elastic constants
A recompression index s=0.035 resulted
from the one dimensional unloading and reload-
 G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas / Application of a Constitutive Model for Structured Soils 511

ing curve of the reconstituted soil. However, data

from isotropic unloading - reloading would be
more appropriate.
Moreover, constants A=30 and B=50000 have
been chosen based mainly on the simulation of
the initial portion of the undrained stress paths.

3.3 Simulation results

The simulated experiments include both reconsti-
tuted (unbonded) and natural (structured) soil
samples tested in one dimensional compression
and triaxial undrained shear conditions. All dia-
grams presented hereafter compare the experi-
mental test data with the MSS-2 model predic-
tions.
The one dimensional compression test on nat-
ural soil sample extends up to 10MPa vertical ef-
fective stress. However, it exhibits small struc-
ture degradation (Figure 4), as it barely passes
the apparent preconsolidation stress (about
8MPa). That means that the material is strongly
structured and can be therefore classified as a
hard soil. The model simulates satisfactorily the
one dimensional curves on both reconstituted and
natural soil samples (Figure 4).
Figure 5. Simulated undrained stress paths of reconstituted
Todi clay.
The undrained triaxial shear tests on natural
soil include three samples tested at mean effec-
tive stresses lower than 600kPa, which result in
apparent OCR=pmax/pcurrent S?E in terms of mean
effective stress. As expected, the material exhi-
bits strongly dilatant behaviour. The model has
reproduced satisfactorily the undrained stress
paths (Figure 6) and the excess pore pressure dis-
tribution (Figure 7), while it did not reproduce
that well the deviatoric stress – strain response
(Figure 8), which was extremely brittle.

Figure 4. Simulated compression curves of reconstituted and

stiff intact Todi clay.

Moreover, the model has reproduced well the

undrained stress paths (Figure 5) for the various Figure 6. Simulated undrained stress paths of stiff natural
overconsolidation ratios. Todi clay.
512 G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas / Application of a Constitutive Model for Structured Soils
Figure 7. Simulated undrained tests of stiff natural Todi clay:
excess pore pressure response
Figure 8. Simulated undrained tests of stiff natural Todi clay:
stress – strain response
CONCLUSIONS
The recently proposed Model for Structured
Soils 2 MSS-2 ([9]) was applied to simulate
some experimental data of the hard strongly
structured Todi clay. The model was able to re-
produce well the experimental results of both re-
constituted and natural soil samples satisfactorily
enough.
It has been therefore portrayed that structured
soil models can be applied not only to natural
soft soils or lightly structured soils, but also to
hard soils – soft rocks, which exhibit little de-
structuring. Such an approach applies to the case
where macro fissures are absent and therefore the
micro structural characteristics have a dominant
role.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge the assistance of their
colleague at NTUA, Prof. V. Georgiannou, who
kindly provided the laboratory test data on Todi
clay.
REFERENCES
[1] L. Dobereiner and M.H. de Freitas. Geotechnical prop-
erties of weak sandstones. Géotechnique 36 (1986), 79
–94.
[2] I.W. Johnston and E.A. Novello. Soft rocks in the geo-
technical spectrum. Proc. Int. Symp. on the Geotech-
nical Engineering of Hard Soils – Soft Rocks, in
Athens. Balkema. Rotterdam. Vol.1 (1993), 177–183.
[3] S. Leroueil and P.R. Vaughan, The general and congru-
ent effects of structure in natural soils and weak rocks,
Géotechnique 40 (1990), 467–488.
[4] G. Belokas & M. Kavvadas. An intrinsic compressibili-
ty framework for clayey soils. Geotechnical and Geo-
logical Engineering. (2011). Accepted for publication.
[5] J.B. Burland, S. Rampello, V.N. Georgiannou and G.
Calabresi, A laboratory study of the strength of four
stiff clays, Géotechnique 46 (1996), 491–514.
[6] M. Kavvadas and A. Amorosi, A constitutive model for
structured soils, Géotechnique 50 (2000.), 263–273.
[7] R. Lagioia and R. Nova, A constitutive model for soft
rocks, Proc. Int. Symp. on the Geotechnical Engineer-
ing of Hard Soils – Soft Rocks, in Athens. Balkema.
Rotterdam. Vol.1 (1993), 625–632.
[8] M. Rouainia and D.M. Wood, A kinematic hardening
model for structured clays, Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. on
the Geotechnics of Hard Soils – Soft Rocks. in
Napoli, Balkema, Rotterdam 2 (1998), 817–824.
[9] G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas, An Anisotropic Model
for Structured Soils. Part I: Theory, Computers and
Geotechnics 37 (2010), 737–747.
[10] G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas, An intrinsic compressi-
bility framework for clayey soils, Submitted for possi-
ble publication in Geotechnical and Geological Engi-
neering. 2009
[11] K. Been and M.G. Jefferies. A state parameter for
sands, Géotechnique 35 (1985), 99–112.
[12] G. Belokas and M. Kavvadas, An Anisotropic Model
for Structured Soils. Part II: Verification, Submitted for
possible publication in Computers and Geotechnics
(2011).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 513
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-513

Mechanisms of hydraulic fracturing in clay, sand

and rock
Mécanismes de fracturation hydraulique dans l'argile, le sable
et la roche
A. Bezuijen1, A.F. van Tol
Deltares / Deft University of Technology

ABSTRACT
Hydraulic fracturing is studied, mainly in the context of compensation grouting. It appeared that different from hydraulic fractur-
ing in rock and clay, the flow from the fracture to the surrounding subsoil cannot be neglected. Due to this flow there is a mini-
mum thickness over length ratio of a fracture in sand, which is a function of the drainage of fracture fluid and the percentage of
solid material in the fracture fluid. A description will be given as well as experimental results confirming the theory developed.
The necessary injection pressure and the shape of the fracture, depends on the properties of the injection fluid, the permeability
of the surrounding soil material and the discharge rate during injection. A consequence is that the grout bodies made in compen-
sation grouting differ from what is usually assumed.

RÉSUMÉ
La fracturation hydraulique est étudiée, principalement dans le cadre de la compensation par cimentation. Il est apparu que
contrairement au cas de la fracturation dans la roche ou l’argile, le débit de la fracture vers le sous-sol environnant ne peut pas
être négligé. En raison de cet écoulement il y a un minimum pour le ratio largeur sur longueur de la fracture dans le sable, qui
est une fonction du drainage du fluide de fracture et du pourcentage de solides dans le fluide de fracture. Une description sera
donnée ainsi que des résultats expérimentaux confirmant la théorie développée. La pression d'injection nécessaire et la forme de
la fracture, dépend des propriétés du fluide injectée, de la perméabilité du sol environnant et du debit d'injection. Une consé-
quence est que les corps de coulis dans le cas de la compensation par cimentation diffèrent de ce qui est habituellement estimé.

Keywords: Hydraulic fracturing, compensation grouting, model tests.

1 INTRODUCTION avoided, for example in tunnelling, horizontal di-

Hydraulic fracturing of soils is sometimes a nec-
essary process to achieve a certain goal. In com-
pensation grouting it is used to create heave. At a
different scale and at larger depths it is used to
increase the productivity of oil wells, or more in
general to increase the permeability of soils. In
other situations it is a process that has to be
rectional drilling and permeation grouting.
The importance of hydraulic fracturing for
various situations has resulted in research on the
mechanisms of fracturing in rock, clay and sand.
Experimental research has shown that the frac-
ture mechanisms in stiff clay and rock are com-
parable. However, for hydraulic fracturing in
sand the fracture mechanism is different. Rea-
sons for this difference are that sand is a friction

1
Corresponding Author.
514 A. Bezuijen and A.F. van Tol / Mechanisms of Hydraulic Fracturing in Clay, Sand and Rock
material without cohesion, like in clay and rock,
and that sand has a much higher permeability
than clay of rock.
Due to the higher permeability of sand, the
fracturing process will be (partly) drained. Con-
sequence of this drained behaviour is that when a
liquid is injected in sand to create a fracture, the
first result will be that due to the increased effec-
tive stress at the injection point, the strength of
the sand against plastic deformation increases.
Another consequence is that there will be an in-
teraction between the injected liquid and the soil,
as will be explained later.
Experiments on sand fracturing have been
performed to study compensation grouting in
sand. In compensation grouting bentonite-cement
slurry is used as fracturing fluid. This slurry
normally has a significant solid particle content
that appears to influence the fracture properties
and the injection pressure. Experiments have
shown that the injection pressure can be a factor
4 different when fracturing sand with the same
relative density and confining stress (see for ex-
ample Figure 6 that will be discussed later). The
difference is caused by differences in the injec-
tion fluid only.
This paper briefly describes the fracture
mechanisms that can be expected in clay and
rock and focuses on the fracture mechanism in
sand, especially on the interaction between sand
and the injection liquid, the influence of cake
building in a fracture on the injection pressure
and the fracture shape. Experiments will be pre-
sented that show the various mechanisms.
2 HYDRAULIC FRACTURING IN
IMPERMEABLE SOILS
2.1 Hydraulic fracturing in rock
Hydraulic fracturing of rock is a quite often used
in oil industry. The purpose is to enhance the
flow of oil from a reservoir to an oil well. Frac-
turing increases the surface area in the reservoir.
This facilitates the flow of oil from the reservoir
to the well. After hydraulic fracturing, the frac-
ture is kept open by injection of permeable sand.
The theory describing the mechanisms that
play a role (Smith and Shlyapobersky, 2000) as-
sumes that the fluid exerts a pressure on the two
sides of a fracture and this pressure cause the
fracturing of the rock. The width of the fracture
is determined by the viscosity of the fracture
fluid and the pressure necessary to propagate the
fracture and the elastic properties of the rock, see
Figure 1.
Vsoil
s
d Pnet=P-Vsoil
P fracture
'P pressure in fracture
Vsoil
Figure 1. Definition sketch, fracture dimensions stresses and
pressure distribution.
According to Smith and Shlyapobersky, the
following relations apply:
s/d 'P /(2W y ) (1)
for the fluid flow and for the width:
d max 2 Pnet L / E ' (2)
Where s the length of the fracture, d the width of
the fracture, 'P is the pressure drop in the frac-
ture, Wy the yield stress, dmax the maximum width,
Pnet the fracture pressure minus the minor in situ
soil stress, L the largest length in the fracture
(can be length or height) and E’=E/(1-Q2), the
plain strain modulus. Q is Poisson’s ratio. In frac-
ture experiments in rock the injection pressures
will be at least in the order of 10-100 MPa, the
yield stress of the usually used injection fluid is
less than 1 kPa. Assuming a pressure drop of
20% in the fracture, according to Eq. 1, the frac-
tures will be very thin with a thickness that is
only 0.1% of the length. Thus a fracture with a
length of 1 m has a width of only 1 mm or less.
According to (Eq. 2) such a fracture would need
an average net injection pressure of approxi-
mately 65 kPa above the minor initial soil stress.
In reality also the ‘fracture toughness’ of the rock
 A. Bezuijen and A.F. van Tol / Mechanisms of Hydraulic Fracturing in Clay, Sand and Rock
plays a role and the fluid tip does not reach the
end of the fracture. Therefore, the injection pres-
sure will be higher and a fracture starts around
1.5- 2 times the confining pressure.
Smith and Shlyapobersky (2000) describe the
possibility of fluid loss and how this can be re-
duced by using a ‘wall building’ fracture fluid
that makes an external (in the fracture itself) and
internal (in the soil around the fracture) filter
cake. However, the possible consequence that the
thickness of the filter cake determines the shape
of the fractures is not considered.
2.2 Hydraulic fracturing in clay
Fracturing clay is done in compensation grouting
or occurs as an unwanted mechanism in tunnel-
ing and horizontal directional drilling.
When fracturing clay, the permeability of the
soil material will be too low to have direct inter-
action between the fluid in the fracture and the
soil to be fractured, therefore thin fractures are
possible (Jafari et al. 2001).
Here another interaction was found. The de-
formation induced by a hydraulic fracture into
normally consolidated clay may lead to excess
pore pressures (Jafari et al. 2001). Consolidation
of these excess pore pressures will lead to long
term settlements. It was shown that the applica-
tion of compensation grouting in soft normally
consolidated clay may lead to a temporary heave,
but that at the end it has only increased settle-
ments. It is therefore advised by Au et al. (2002)
that when compensation grouting is necessary in
soft unconsolidated clay, to create only limited
heave with each injection and to try to heave the
surface that has to be heaved as horizontal as
possible and avoid the generation of shear
stresses in the clay.
3 FRACTURING IN SAND
3.1 Principle
In relatively permeable soils like sands, the
flow from injection fluid into the sand during in-
jection to create a hydraulic fracture has an influ-
ence on the fracture shape. During injection, the
injection fluid itself and some smaller particles in
515
that fluid will penetrate into the soil around the
fracture; see Figure 2, where a fracture is created
by the injection of cement-bentonite slurry. The
water from the slurry and some (small) bentonite
particles penetrate into the sand. The larger ce-
ment particles will be blocked by the sand grains
and make a filter cake with the bentonite parti-
cles in the slurry. A calculation model has been
developed to understand the mechanism during
grout injection and the resulting injection pres-
sure. The model, see Bezuijen et al. (2010) for
details, describes the deformation of the sand as-
suming cavity expansion around the fracture, and
thus elasto-plastic soil behaviour around the frac-
ture and not only elastic behaviour as in the
model described for rock. It further assumes that
the fracture is wide enough for full filter cake
development. Also in this model, as in the elastic
model shown in Eq. 2, the injection pressure will
be higher as the d/s becomes larger and thus a
thicker filter cake will lead to higher injection
pressures.
(external filter cake)
(internal filter cake)
Figure 2. Sketch of the formation of a filter cake (the larger
grout particles filtered by the sand) (Gafar et al. 2008).
3.2 Compensation grouting
As mentioned in the introduction, fracturing in
sand was studied in the context of compensation
grouting. This context is of importance because
in different applications the properties of the
fracture fluid are different. The principle of com-
pensation grouting, the installation procedure and
an injection is sketched in Figure 3.
516 A. Bezuijen and A.F. van Tol / Mechanisms of Hydraulic Fracturing in Clay, Sand and Rock
Figure 3. Three stages during compensation grouting: the in-
stallation of the TAM (inner tube) with a casing to protect the
rubber sleeves (top), the retraction of the casing after injec-
tion of sleeve grout (middle) and injection of grout (bottom).
The figures show an artist impression of a
cross-section through a TAM (tube-á-manchette)
and the soil during installation and compensation
grouting. First the TAM is installed by pressing
it, together with a protective casing into the soil
horizontally. Bentonite slurry is used to lubricate
the casing. After installation, sleeve grout is in-
jected in between TAM and the casing to prevent
soil settlement and after that the casing is re-
tracted. The retraction and the consolidation of
the grout will lead to unloading of the surround-
ing soil. In the next stage a packer is installed
and the grout is injected to create the necessary
heave. The unloading of the soil decreases the in-
jection pressure and leads to thinner and longer
fractures (Bezuijen and van Tol, 2011).
4 EXPERIMENTS
Tests were performed in a pressurized container
at 100 kPa effective stress and approximately 10
kPa of pore pressure. to investigate the shape of
the grout body for different grout mixtures.
The results of some of these tests can be used to
check the model. A sketch of the container with
its dimensions is shown in Figure 4. The sand
used was Baskarp sand with a d50 of 135 Pm.
The sand was wet pluviated and densified to a
relative density of 65%. The method used, is de-
scribed by Rietdijk et al. (2010) and results in
homogeneous sand samples. The sand was pre-
loaded to 300 kPa vertical stress before the test.
The preload was removed before start of the test.
The idea was to increase the horizontal stress as
could also be the case during pre-grouting. In the
field pre-grouting is executed before the actual
compensation grouting to increase the horizontal
stress to values above the vertical stress, which
should lead to horizontal fractures. In our ex-
periments however, this influence of stress ratio
on the fracture direction was not found.
Three test series were performed with this set-
up, more details can be found in Bezuijen et al.
(2010) and Bezuijen (2010).
Experiments in this set-up by Sanders (2007)
show the relation between the injection pressure
and the shape of the fractures. See Figure 5 and
Figure 6. The results of these tests show that a
more permeable filter cake and more solid mate-
rial in the injection fluid (grout) leads in most
tests to a higher injection pressure corresponding
with shorter and thicker fractures. Only Test 2-10
is an exception, probably due to a sand sample
with a bit lower relative density.
Figure 6 shows that the injection pressures are
relatively high. The ratio between the injection
pressure and the confining stress (100 kPa) is al-
ways more than 10 and thus much higher than
the ratio found in rock, except for Test 2-4. This
test was not performed with grout but with x-
linked gel solved in water, a material used in the
 A. Bezuijen and A.F. van Tol / Mechanisms of Hydraulic Fracturing in Clay, Sand and Rock
oil industry capable of building a rather thin and
impermeable filter cake.
Figure 4. Set-up of the experiments. Note that changes in
pore volume and sand volume can be measured as changes in
the water levels. (dimensions in mm)
Figure 5. Shape of fractures for increasing cement content.
The tube in the figures is the injection tube, see Figure 4.
WCR = water-cement ratio (by weight).
517
The results of the calculation model have
been compared quantitatively with results of
model tests. Only four suitable tests (Kleinlug-
tenbelt, 2005) could be selected from the model
tests series performed in Delft, because the
model only simulates the external filter cake and
not the internal. The tests of Sanders (2007) were
performed with a higher WCR (water cement ra-
tio) value and had, due to infiltration of fines also
an internal filter cake and could therefore not be
used for the comparison. Since the shear
modulus of the sand was not known, this value
was used as a fit parameter. For one of the tests,
the value of the shear modulus in the calculation
was adapted in a way that the calculated injection
pressure corresponded with the measured one.
The sand preparation procedure and relative den-
sity was the same for all tests selected and there-
fore it was assumed that also the shear modulus
was the same for all tests. The parameters from
Table 1 were used in all tests and furthermore for
each test the values presented in Table 2 were
used to calculate the injection pressure. These re-
sults were compared with the measured values –
see Figure 7 - and although quite different con-
fining stresses were applied and the permeability
of the grout cake (which was measured for each
experiment) also varied quite significantly, there
was reasonable agreement.
3,500
3,000
test nr:
injection pressure (kPa)
2-4
2,500
2-7
2,000 2-8
2-9
1,500
2-10
1,000
500
-500
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
time (s)
Figure 6. Injection pressures in various tests.
From the comparison with tests results it can
be concluded that there is qualitative agreement
found with the tests of Sanders and reasonable
quantitative agreement with the tests of Kleinlug-
tenbelt.
518 A. Bezuijen and A.F. van Tol / Mechanisms of Hydraulic Fracturing in Clay, Sand and Rock

In field tests there is a significant variation in 1-7

2,000
injection pressures even when the same TAM is
used several times (Bezuijen, 2010). Unloading 1,750
1-8
of the soil around the TAM, see Section 3.2, may 1,500

P_theory (kPa)
lead to lower injection pressures. The formation 1,250
of a thick filter cake as described in this section 1-6
1,000 1-5
will lead to high injection pressures. Since a high
injection pressure leads to a thicker filter cake 750
because the driving force for filtration, the injec- 500
tion pressure, is higher, small differences in cir- 250
cumstances can lead to significant differences in
0
injection pressure.
0 1,000 2,000
P_test (kPa)
Table 1. Parameters with constant values in the calculations.
Figure 7. Calculated maximum pressures compared with
Parameter Value Dimension measurements, calculation fitted for Test 1-8.
shear modulus 125 MPa
injection speed 10 l/min
height of fracture 0.5 m
Friction angle 40 deg. REFERENCES

Table 2. Parameters used to calculate injection pressures. [1]. Bezuijen A., Tol A.F. van, (2011). Compensation grout-
ing, Mechanisms determining the shape of the grout
No ne ni Permeab. Conf. Press. Press. body. To be published proc. IS TC28 Roma.
gr. cake stress Calc. meas. [2]. Bezuijen, A.,Tol, A.F. van and Sanders, M.P.M (2010),
(-) (-) (m/s) (kPa) (kPa) (kPa) Compensation grouting research, the influence of the
1-5 0.53 0.74 9.6*10-8 24 500 845 physical model. Proceedings of the International Con-
1-6 0.55 0.77 4.7*10-8 50 1000 1000 ference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics 2010
1-7 0.55 0.77 4.7*10-8 100 1400 2002 (ICPMG 2010).1309-1314
1-8 0.59 0.8 2.7*10-8 116 1500 1500 (fit) [3]. Bezuijen A., (2010). Compensation and corrective grout-
ing in sand, Experiments, field experiences and mecha-
nisms. Phd-Thesis. Delft University of technology.
[4]. Gafar, K., Soga, K., Bezuijen A., Sanders M.P.M. and
5 CONCLUSIONS Tol A.F. van, (2008). “Fracturing of sand in compensa-
tion grouting.” Proc. 6st Int. Symposium on Geotch. As-
Although the principle of hydraulic fracturing is pects of Underground Construction in Soft Ground,
Shanghai. 281-286
comparable in rock, clay and sand, the dominant [5]. Jafari, M.R., Au, S.K.A., Soga, K., Bolton, M.D. and
mechanism is different. The fracture in rock and Komiya, K. (2001). “Fundamental laboratory investiga-
clay will have a small d/s ratio and the soil de- tion of compensation grouting in clays,” Geotechnical
formation can be approximated with an elastic Special Publications No. 113, American Society of Civil
Engineers, pp. 445-459
model. Fracturing sand with grout as normally [6]. Kleinlugtenbelt, R. (2005). Compensation grouting,
used in compensation grouting in sand may lead laboratory tests in sand. MSc thesis. Delft University of
to relatively high injection pressures. This is be- Technology.
cause the filter cake formation develops faster [7]. Rietdijk, J., Schenkeveld, F.M., Schaminée, P.E.L.,
Bezuijen, A., (2010). The drizzle Method for Sand Sam-
during fracturing and requires wider fractures in ple Preparation. Proceedings of the International Con-
sand than occur in rock or clay material. ference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG)
Compensation grouting in sand in the field re- 267-272.
sults in large variations in the injection pressure, [8]. Sanders, M.P.M (2007). Hydraulic fracture grouting,
laboratory tests in sand. MSc thesis. Delft University of
likely because of variations in the thickness of Technology.
the external filter cake. This will lead to varia- [9]. Smith M.B. and Shlyaporbersky J.W. (2000) Basics of
tions in the fracture shape and thus in variations hydraulic fracturing, Chapter 5 from Reservoir Stimula-
of the area over which heave is created from one tion, Economides M.J. and Nolte K.G. (ed.) John Wiley.
ISBN 0471491926
injection location.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 519
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-519

Use of a damage parameter to model the

mechanical behavior of marls
Utilisation d’un paramètre de dommage pour modeler le
comportement mécanique des marnes
L. Caldeira
National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal
E. Maranha das Neves, R. Cardoso 1
Instituto Superior Técnico, TULisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

ABSTRACT

Hard soils/ soft rocks (HSSR) are natural materials where the bonds between particles have important contribution
to their strength and stiffness. Progressive rupture of these bonds affects irreversibly the hydro-mechanical beha-
vior of these materials. Most of the existing models follow the idea that bond degradation depends on accumulated
plastic strains. Such is the case of the model used to describe the mechanical behavior observed in oedometer and
isotropic compression tests performed on marls.

RÉSUMÉ

Les roches tendres/sols durs sont des matériaux naturels ou ses particules minérales ont des liaisons permanentes
qui contribuent de façon importante pour sa résistance et rigidité. La rupture progressive de cette structure affecte
irréversiblement le comportement hydromécanique de ces matériaux. La majorité des modèles actuels suit l'idée
d’une dégradation de liaisons, associé aux déformations plastiques accumulées. Tel est le cas dans le modèle utili-
sé pour décrire le comportement mécanique observé dans les essais de compressibilité exécutés sur des marnes.

Keywords: marls, constitutive model, debonding, structure loss, evolving rocks

1 INTRODUCTION bonding material. As the mechanical properties

Hard soils/ soft rocks (HSSR) are often treated as
bonded materials in which bonds provide
strength and stiffness to soil structure. Progres-
sive rupture of these bonds, caused by stress and
suction changes, affects irreversibly the hydro-
mechanical behavior of these materials.
Several different constitutive models for
HSSR can be found in the literature. Soft rocks,
in particular, are often treated as composite mate-
rials made of a clay matrix interlocked with a
of this type of materials degrade with bond brea-
kage, the way how the main part of the existing
models use to describe the behavior of soft rocks
follows the idea of bond degradation.
The definition of damage laws depending on
accumulated plastic strain was introduced by
Gens & Nova [1]. The authors defined an elasto-
plastic constitutive framework for saturated
HSSR. This approach is equivalent to say that
the stress yield space of the bonded material is
larger than the corresponding space of the com-

1
Corresponding Author.
520 L. Caldeira et al. / Use of a Damage Parameter to Model the Mechanical Behavior of Marls
pletely destructured material. Size difference re-
duces for decreasing bonding. Several other au-
thors [2,3,4] reproduced the transition between
elastic and elasto-plastic behavior by adopting
kinematic hardening models with bounding sur-
face plasticity (bubble models).
Bond loss can also be introduced in constitu-
tive models by considering explicitly the rupture
of connections. This micromechanical approach
was used by Alonso & Alcoverro [5] adopting a
model for double structured materials, in which
the microstructure represents the bonded clay
minerals of the HSSR, where bonds act restrain-
ing their swelling deformations, and the macro-
structure is the rock matrix. Progressive bond
breakage caused by loading history (both stress
and suction changes) allows larger deformations
and therefore it results in increasing irreversible
deformations of the matrix. Another approach
can treat HSSR as composite materials made of a
clay matrix interlocked with a bonding material
(cement) [6,7]. The clay matrix is described with
a constitutive model for unbonded clayey soils
such as Cam Clay Model. The behavior of the
bonds or cements is described by an elastic dam-
age law typical of quasi-brittle materials. The
elastic stiffnesses are therefore reduced with
damage, which is considered in the definition of
the elastic mechanical properties of the bonds as
if it was reducing the bonded area which is re-
sisting to loading.
This paper presents the results of oedometer
tests and isotropic compression tests performed
in samples dried in laboratory environment. The
results of the tests are reproduced using a consti-
tutive model for structured materials incorporat-
ing a damage parameter to reproduce structure
loss caused by loading. The model adopted in the
work presented is accordingly to the proposal by
Alonso & Alcoverro [5] and will be described
with some detail in the paper. It is shown that the
model is able to reproduce the main features of
the behavior observed in the tests.
2 MARL CHARACTERIZATION
Abadia marls studied (upper Jurassic formation
of Abadia, Arruda dos Vinhos, Portugal) have a
relatively high plasticity (wL=49% and PI=25%)
consistent with the nature of the minerals present
(mainly chlorite, kaolinite, bentonite, illite and
gypsum, quartz, feldspar, calcium carbonate and
mica) [8]. Some other relevant properties are a
porosity of 37% for in situ water content of 17%
(saturation degree of 77%) and unit weight of
27.4kN/m3. The saturated permeability is
k=810-14m/s.
A marked volume dependence on water con-
tent was registered [8]. Also, when wetted the
material exhibits volume increment and micro-
cracking (porosity increment). The water reten-
tion curve was measured for three drying-wetting
cycles (Fig. 1), in which degradation due to wet-
ting with the increment of the saturated water
content was observed. This physical degradation
was confirmed in Environmental Scan Electron
Microscope photographs.
1000.00 Rock - drying
Rock - wetting
100.00 Rock after 3 cycles - drying
Rock after 3 cycles - wetting
Total suction (MPa)
Remoulded - drying
10.00
Remoulded - wetting
1.00
remoulded
0.10
0.01
Rock
?
Rock (3 cycles)
?
0.00
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56
water content (%)
Figure 1. Evolution of the water retention curve [8].
Figure 1 shows the evolution of the curves
with increasing cycles, as well as the curve
measured for the material prepared with water
content w=1.5wL (destructured material). The
convergence of the curves to this boundary case
in terms of bonding (complete breakage of bond
connections) illustrates well the structure loss
suffered by the marls when subjected to suction
cycles. The curves were fit using Van Genuchten
[9] expression (Sr definition in Eq. 1) (drying:
P=0.3MPa, Y=0.2; wetting: P=0.9MPa, Y=0.2).
Swelling tests were performed on specimens
 L. Caldeira et al. / Use of a Damage Parameter to Model the Mechanical Behavior of Marls
with different initial suctions and under different
vertical stress [8]. The results of these tests al-
lowed the quantification of constant  necessary
to calculate effective stresses (Eq. 1) [10]. In
Equation 1, p’ is the isotropic effective stress, p
is isotropic total stress, s is suction and Sr is the
saturation degree (Eq. 1) calculated with the wa-
ter retention curve for the bonded material (first
cycle). It was found =4.56 [8].
Y
2 1 /
 0  X  1Y -
p '  p  sS r with Sr  1   
0 P -
10 .-
3 EXPERIMENTAL TESTS
Several oedometric tests were performed in sam-
ples (3cm diameter, 1.8cm high, initial void ratio
e=0.29) where different loading cycles (including
stress and suction) were applied. In a first set,
three specimens were initially dried (relative
humidity RH=45%, s=124MPa, w=3.4%) and
then vertical stress was applied in dry (specimen
S1) and in fullt saturated conditions (S2), or after
partial wetting to s=0.5MPa (S3) [8]. A marked
swelling deformation was observed when the
marl was fully saturated under small vertical
stress, which allowed to measure the elastic
compressibility index for suction changes
4s=0.007 [11]. The horizontal stresses were as-
sumed to be half of the vertical stresses. As ob-
served for unsaturated materials, stiffness in-
creases with suction, as well as the size of the
elastic space measured by the yielding stress.
BBM constants [11] were determined with the
results of these three tests (Y(0)=0.027, r=0.65,
b=0.05MPa-1, p0*=858kPa, pc=280kPa).
In a second set of tests, the specimens were
initially dried to s=124MPa and then subjected to
different loading paths [8]. Only one test where
stress cycles were applied under this constant
suction is studied in this paper (S4). The speci-
men was loaded until 7MPa but three unload-
reloading cycles were applied for increasing
stresses of 2.2MPa, 4.4MPa and 7.4MPa. The
521
values of 4 (0.003, 0.004 and 0.005 for the first,
second and third cycles) and Y (Y=0.015) were
measured. Then the specimen was reloaded to
the vertical stress of 7.4MPa and then fully satu-
rated and unloaded (4=0.017). This last part of
the test was performed to show the high sensi-
tivity of the marls to suction changes. Figure 2
shows the large contrast between the elastic
compressibility indexes obtained before and after
full saturation.
(1) 1.31
1.30
specific volume, v
1.29
1.28
1.27
1.26
Full saturation
1.25
followed by collapse
1.24
0 1 10 100 1000 10000
net mean stress, p (kPa)
Figure 2. Oedometric test of specimen S4 [8].
The compressibility of the destructured ma-
terial was also investigated because it corres-
ponds to the situation when the bonding effect
restraining the deformations of the clay minerals
in the rock matrix is lost. It was found Y=0.250
and 4=0.030.
Isotropic compression tests were also per-
formed (see the companion paper [12]). The spe-
cimens (approx. 5cm diameter, 10cm high, initial
void ratio e=0.29) were dried in laboratory envi-
ronment before testing, which corresponds to
s=100MPa. Maximum isotropic stress applied
was 12MPa and loading cycles were applied at
4MPa, 8MPa and 12MPa (Fig. 3).
The test allowed to obtain 4 (increasing aver-
age values: 0.002, 0.003 and 0.004) and Y
(Y=0.017). As observed when loading cycles
were applied in oedometric conditions, elastic
stiffness reduces with increasing cycles. The val-
ues found in this test are very similar to those
measured in the oedometric test.
522 L. Caldeira et al. / Use of a Damage Parameter to Model the Mechanical Behavior of Marls
1.295
specific volume v
1.290
1.285
1.280
1.275
1.270
1.265
0.1
net mean stress p (MPa)
Figure 3. Results of the isotropic compression test.
4 MODEL DESCRIPTION
The model adopted is defined for unsaturated
materials with double structure previously de-
scribed. The microstructural volume changes
correspond to the swelling deformations of the
bonded clayey materials, which increase with
bond breakage. Progressive bond breakage al-
lows larger microstructural deformations and re-
sults in irreversible deformations with amplitude
increasing with bond breakage. Global effect of
debonding is introduced in the definition of the
interaction between the two structural levels.
The model considers e as total void ratio de-
fined by the usual manner for materials with
double structure (e= eM + em where eM and em are
the macrostructural and microstructural void ra-
tios, respectively). BBM is adopted as constitu-
tive model for the macrostructure and a non li-
near elastic law is adopted for the microstructure,
besides stiffness dependence on current bonding.
Structure loss is simulated through changes in
a bonding parameter named b (Eq. 3) [1]
(b0=0.80, h1=0.02)
b  b0 e $ $ d% s
 h1 d% v p
h2
which depends on the plastic volumetric strain
d% vp and plastic shear strain d% sp experienced by
the material during loading. b0 is the initial bond-
ing and parameters h1 and h2 provide the rate of
debonding as damage accumulates. Shear strains
are assumed null although this is only rigorous
for isotropic compression. b=0 when the bonds
are completely broken and no longer restrain the
swelling deformations of the clay minerals.
Damage quantified through b affects the two
structural levels: in the microstructure, to ac-
count with the progressive loss of restraints of
the clay minerals; in the macrostructure, to simu-
late softening with increasing degradation. Con-
cerning the macrostructure, this parameter is in-
1 10 100
troduced in the definition of the saturated
yielding stress pob* (Eq. 3) until the minimum
value po* is reached, which corresponds to the
saturated yielding stress of the fully debonded
material (the reference material).
p ob *  p o * (1  b) (3)
For bonded saturated materials it can be as-
sumed the existence of a limiting tensile strength
named ptb. Its evolution with debonding (strength
reduction) is defined with an expression similar
to Equation 3. It is not presented in this paper
because it is not important for the cases studied.
When the material is fully saturated the elastic
space for the macrostructure is limited by the
values of pob* and ptb. The extension to unsatu-
rated cases is identical to the one adopted in
BBM [11] but now the definition of the yield
surface in s:p space depends on parameter b.
F(s, p, % vp )= p - p ob * = p - p o * (1+b)= 0 (4)
The hardening law (Eq. 5) is obtained through
the consistency equation, where e is the total
void ratio, Y(0) and 4 are the saturated elastop-
lastic and elastic compressibility indexes respec-
tively, for defined for the macrostructure. The
values for these constants were obtained from the
tests performed in undisturbed rock previously
p
(3) described.
 L. Caldeira et al. / Use of a Damage Parameter to Model the Mechanical Behavior of Marls 523

1 dp ob * The first term in Equation 9 gives the strains

d% vp   associated with isotropic unloading. The second
(1  b)(1  e) p *
 b0 h1 ob term gives the contribution of the induced dam-
Y ( 0)  4
(5) age (debonding).
p c Y (0)r  p * As the stress paths simulated do not include
log o c 
p o * Y (0)  4  p  ds suction changes, the use of the interaction func-
 tions defined in double structure constitutive
(1  b)(1  e)
 b0 h1 models [5] was not necessary although the influ-
Y (0)  4 ence of the microstructural deformations are con-
sidered in global changes in void ratio.
The definition of the LC yielding curve for
current bond b is given by Equation 6 (BBM).
5 MODELING THE EXPERIMENTAL
Y ( 0 ) 4
 p * Y ( s ) 4 TESTS
pob  p c  obc  (6) (7.14)
 p  Only two constants are different for fitting both
tests with the model presented. As a matter of
For the microstructure, bonding affects the fact, the model does not account explicitly with
elastic compressibility of the material given by the deviatoric component applied during the oe-
the elastic compressibility index 4m (b) (Eq. 7). dometric test. Consequently, different saturated
A linear variation of 4m (b) with b is proposed, yielding stresses were adopted (p0b*=858kPa for
where 4mfd is the microstructural compressibility the oedometric tests and p0b*=1440kPa for the
for the destructured material and bi is a constant. isotropic compression tests), which affects the
evolution of bonding and hardening. For the
same reason, a larger value for the initial bond-
 b 
4 m (b)  4 mfd 1   (7) ing parameter bi was necessary to fit the isotropic
 bi  compression tests (bi=0.60 for the oedometer
tests and bi=0.72 for the isotropic compression
The microstructural void ratio em is given by tests). A small difference in initial void ratio
Equation 8 where emo is its initial value and p´ is (0.008) was needed to best fit the results.
the effective stress at this structural level given Figure 4 presents the results obtained on the
by Equation 1. oedometric test S5, obviously without including
final full saturation.
p' (8)
e m  e m 0  4 m (b)  ln
p ' max 1.290
1.285
Equation 8 assumes that p’max acting in the 1.280
microstructure is always below a maximum val- 1.275
ue above which no deformations can occur for 1.270
v

high confining stress irrespective of the current 1.265

bonding. The deformations of the microstructure 1.260
d%m are given by Equation 9. 1.255 s=124MPa, 3 cycles dry
1.250 Model fitting
dem
d% m   1.245
1 e (9) 0 1 10 100 1000 10000

4 (b) dp' 4 mfd p' b

p (kPa)
 m  ln h1 d% vp
1  e p ' 1  e p 'max bi Figure 4. Results of the oedometric test.
524 L. Caldeira et al. / Use of a Damage Parameter to Model the Mechanical Behavior of Marls

Figure 5 presents the results found for the iso- REFERENCES

tropic compression test. A good agreement is
found in all cases. [1] A. Gens & R. Nova, Conceptual bases for a constitutive
model for bonded soils and weak rocks. Symp. on Geo-
technical Eng. Hard Soils-Soft Rocks, pp. 485 494,
1.295
1993
[2] Rouania & Muir Wood, A kinematic hardening model
1.290 for structured clays, The geotechnics of hard soils – soft
rocks, Eds. Evangelista and Picarelli, Balkema, pp. 817-
1.285 824, 1998
[3] M.J. Kavvadas & A. Amorosi, A plasticity approach for
1.280 mechanical behaviour of structured soils. The geotech-
v

nics of hard soils – soft rocks, Ed. Evangelista and Pica-

1.275
s=124MPa
1.270
Model fitting
1.265
0 1 10 100 1000 10000
p (kPa)
Figure 5. Results of the isotropic compression test.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The model used to describe the mechanical be-
havior of a soft rock is a double structure elas-
toplastic constitutive one. A damage parameter
was introduced to reproduce structure loss
caused by loading.
High compressions were attained through
stress paths that included multiple unload-
reloading phases. The results showed decreasing
elastic stiffness for increasing compression
stresses as a result of debonding phenomena. Be-
ing able to describe this behavior, the model can
be considered highly promising.
Its ability to reproduce explicitly deviatoric
stresses and suction changes will allow its future
application to mimic more complex situations
simulating real cases.
relli, Balkema, pp. 603-613, 1998
[4] Baudet & Stallebrass, A constitutive model for struc-
tured clays. Géotechnique, 54(4), pp. 269-278, 2004
[5] E.E. Alonso & J. Alcoverro, Swelling and degradation
of argillaceous rocks. Proc. of the 3rd International
100000 Conference on Unsaturated Soils, eds. Jucá, de Campos
and Marinho, Swets and Zeitlinger, pp. 37-70, 2002
[6] J. Vaunat & A. Gens, Aspects of modeling geotechnical
problems in hard soils and soft argillaceous rocks. Proc.
9th Int. Symposium on Numerical Models in Geome-
chanics (NUMOG IX), 1, PP. 87-93, 2004
[7] N. Pinyol, J. Vaunat & E.E. Alonso, A constitutive
model for soft clayey rocks that includes weathering ef-
fects. Géotechnique vol. 57(2), pp. 137–151, 2007
[8] R. Cardoso, Hydro-mechanical behavior of compacted
marls, PhD Thesis, Instituto Superior Técnico, TULis-
bon, 2009
[9] M.T. Van Genuchten. A closed-form equation for pre-
dicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.
Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 44, pp. 892-898, 1980
[10] E.E. Alonso, J-M Pereira, J.-M., J. Vaunat, J. and S.
Olivella, A microstructurally-based effective stress for
unsaturated soils. Géotechnique, 60(12), 2010
[11] E.E. Alonso, A. Gens & A. Josa, A constitutive model
for partially saturated soils. Géotechnique, 40(3), pp.
405-430, 1990
[12] J. Muralha, R. Cardoso, E. Maranha das Neves & L.
Caldeira, Hydro-mechanical characterization of structu-
rally instable Jurassic marls considering suction history.
Proc. ECSMGE 2011, Greece, 2011

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge Researcher José Mu-

ralha from LNEC for his participation in the iso-
tropic compression tests presented.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 525
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-525

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A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-531

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 537
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-537

An extended Drucker-Prager hardening model for

cross-anisotropy of soft rocks
Un modèle de comportement à écrouissage de type Drucker-
Prager pour roches tendres à anisotropie transverse
B. François 1
Building, Architecture & Town Planning Department, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
F. Collin, A. Dizier
Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique - ArGEnCo Department, Université de Liège, Belgium
R. Charlier
ArGEnCo Department, Université de Liège, Belgium

ABSTRACT
The mechanical behaviour of natural geomaterials is often anisotropic. Sedimentary rocks usually show a limited form of aniso-
tropy, called cross-anisotropy. This paper presents an original constitutive model based on a hardening Drucker-Prager elasto-
plastic framework that has been adapted to consider cross-anisotropic elasticity as well as an anisotropic plastic criterion. The
cohesion is a function of the angle between the direction of the major compressive stress and the normal to the bedding plane.
This original model consists in a relatively simple upgrading of a well-known elasto-plastic model, well-adapted for sedimentary
hard soils or soft rocks. The ability of the model to reproduce the directional dependency of the elasto-plastic response of clay
rocks, as observed in triaxial tests, is proved by numerical simulations of experimental tests.

RÉSUMÉ
Le comportement mécanique de géomatériaux naturels est souvent anisotrope. Les roches sédimentaires ont la plus part du
temps une forme d’anisotropie limitée, appelé anisotropie transverse. Ce papier présente un modèle de comportement original
basé sur un modèle élasto-plastique de type Drucker-Prager à écrouissage qui a été adapté pour considérer l’élasticité anisotrope
transverse ainsi qu’un critère de plasticité anisotrope. La cohésion dépend de l’angle entre la direction de la contrainte majeure
de compression et la normale au plan de stratification. Ainsi, ce modèle original constitue une adaptation relativement simple
d’un modèle élasto-plastique bien connu, bien adapté pour les matériaux sédimentaires tels que les sols indurés ou les roches
tendres. La capacité du modèle à reproduire la dépendance directionnelle de la réponse élasto-plastique des roches argileuses,
comme observé dans les essais triaxiaux, est évaluée grâce à des simulations numériques.

Keywords: Cross-anisotropy, mechanical behaviour, hardening, elasto-plasticity, sedimentary rocks

1 INTRODUCTION bedding plane. This type of anisotropy is called

Anisotropy is an important factor determining
the behaviour of clay soft rocks. Clay rocks, as
most of the sedimentary rocks, exhibit anisotropy
mainly related to their bedding plane orientation
due to their depositional nature. The properties of
such materials are usually independent of rota-
tion about an axis of symmetry normal to the
1
Corresponding Author.
transverse isotropy or cross-anisotropy.
This work presents the development and the
validation of a mechanical constitutive model
that extends the symmetric Drucker-Prager yield
criterion [1] to cross-anisotropic materials [2]
and that is coupled with the classical cross-
anisotropic elasticity [3]. The new criterion as-
sumes that the strength of materials may vary ac-
538 B. François et al. / An Extended Drucker-Prager Hardening Model for Cross-Anisotropy

cording to the orientation of the principal com-

pressive stress with respect to the bedding plane
orientation. Such a criterion remains in agree-
ment with cross-anisotropy in the sense that it is
unaffected by the rotation around the normal of
bedding plane (axe e3 in Figure 1). In addition,
the developed model allows a progressive har-
dening or softening process through the evolu-
tion of the mobilized cohesion and friction angle
with plastic strain. The ability of the model to re-
produce the directional dependency of the elasto-
plastic response of clay rocks is proved by the
means of comparison between numerical predic-
tions and experimental results of triaxial tests.

2 MECHANICAL CONSTITUTIVE MODEL Figure 1. Transformation of the global axis (E1, E2, E3) into
anisotropic axes (e1, e2, e3). e1 and e2 are orthogonal axis in
Because of elastic anisotropy, the elasto-plastic the bedding plane while e3 is the normal to bedding plane.
The elastic component of the strain rate %ij is
*e
stress-strain relations are more convenient to be
expressed in the anisotropic axis, as indicated by
T T
linked to stress rate through the Hooke law :
the star in exponent ( ij and % ij ). In the more
general situation, the reference axes do not coin-
%ij  Dijkl  kl
*e e T
(3)
cide with the axes of anisotropy and the expres-
T
sion of ij and % kl can be obtained from ij
*

e
The Dijkl matrix considers cross-anisotropic
and % kl expressed in the system of reference:
elasticity which requires 5 independent parame-
ters [3]. The elastic compliance matrix is:
T T
ij  Rki Rlj kl ; % ij  Rki Rlj % kl (1)
2 1  ////  Z // /
with R being the rotation matrix: 0 E E// EZ -
0  // 1  Z // -
0 //// 0 -
2 cos  cos  sin  cos  sin  / 0 E// E// EZ -
0  // Z  // Z 1 -
R  0 sin  cos W cos  cos W sin W cos  - (2) 0 -
0  sin W sin  cos   sin W sin  sin 
- e
Dijkl  0 E// E// EZ
1   //// - (4)
01sin W sin   sin  sin  cos W cos  cos W - 0 -
 cos  sin  cos W  sin W cos  . 0 E// -
0 1 -
0 0 -
 is the rotation angle around the axes E 3 2G// Z
0 1 -
(rotation in the ( E 1 , E 2 ) plane), the angles  0 -
1 2G// Z .
and W defines the rotation around the axes e 2
where the subscripts // and Z indicates, re-
and e1 , respectively (Figure 1). The positive di-
spectively, the direction parallel to bedding (di-
rection of rotation is counter-clockwise. rections 1 and 2) and perpendicular to bedding
 E1 , E2 , E3  and  e1 , e2 , e3  are the reference (direction 3). The symmetry of the stiffness ma-
axes and the anisotropic axes, respectively. trix imposes that
 B. François et al. / An Extended Drucker-Prager Hardening Model for Cross-Anisotropy 539

 Z //  // Z (5) where X is the dilatancy angle.


EZ E// The plastic multiplier Y is obtained from the
consistency condition:
The limit between the elastic and the plastic
domain is represented by the Drucker-Prager
df 
"f  "f d  "f dc  3 Y  0
 ij  
T
(8)
yield surface f [1]: T p 
" ij  " d % eq "c d % eq  3
p

2 sin   I  3c   0
f  II ˆ   tan   (6) The used model is a hardening Drucker-
3  3  sin     Prager model that allows hardening/softening
processes during plastic flow. This is introduced
where c and  are the cohesion and the fric- via an hyperbolic variation of the friction angle
tion angle. I and II ˆ are the first stress tensor and the cohesion between initial ( 0 and c0 ) and
invariant and the second deviatoric stress tensor critical state (  f and c f ) values as a function of
invariant, respectively.
the Von Mises equivalent plastic strain % eq [4]:
p
The material cohesion depends on the angle
between major principal stress and the normal to
the bedding plane (  ). Three cohesion values   0  % eq
p
c  c0  % eq
p

(9)
1 f
are defined, for major principal stress parallel
(   0, ), perpendicular (   90, ) and with
1 1
an angle of 45° (   45, ) with respect to the
1
normal to bedding plane. Between those values,
cohesion varies linearly with  (Figure 2).
1
Figure 2. Schematic view of the cohesion evolution as a func-
tion of the angle between the normal to bedding plane and the
direction of major principal stress.
A general non-associated plasticity framework
is considered with the plastic potential g :
2 sin X
g  II ˆ  I  0
3  3  sin X 
  0  ; c  c0 
f
B p  % eq Bc  % eq
p p
where B p and Bc are materials parameters.
3 CONSTITUTIVE BEHAVIOUR
In the following, two series of triaxial tests are
analysed and numerically simulated: (i) on Tour-
nemire shale [5] and (ii) on Opalinus clay [6].
Both series of tests clearly underline that the me-
chanical response of the clay is highly affected
by the direction of loading with respect to the
bedding plane. Figure 3 shows the evolution of
the peak strength of Tournemire shale as a func-
tion of the confining pressure and the loading
orientation as observed experimentally [5] and
compared them with the predictions of the mod-
el. Figures 4 and 5 compare the result of numeri-
cal simulations with the experimental results at 1
MPa of confining pressure for Tournemire shale
and 15 MPa for Opalinus clay, respectively. For
both materials, the elastic rigidity of the sample
is affected by the direction of loading. The sam-
ples loaded parallel to the bedding (   90, )
1
(7) exhibit the highest rigidity but they are more brit-
tle. For the Tournemire shale, the shear strengths
540 B. François et al. / An Extended Drucker-Prager Hardening Model for Cross-Anisotropy

of samples loaded in the direction of bedding 50

(   90, ) and perpendicular to bedding  1 = 90°

1 40  1 = 0°

Deviatoric stress [MPa]

(   0, ) are approximately equal. However,
1 30
for Opalinus clay, the maximum shear strength is
observed for   90, . For both materials, the 20
 1 = 30°
1

minimum strength is obtained for loading direc- 10  1 = 60°

tions around 45° with respect to the bedding

0
plane orientation. The model reproduces well the 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016
anisotropic response of the materials, at least be- Axial strain [-]

fore the peak. In the post-peak behaviour, insta-

bility phenomena make the processes much more Figure 4. Numerical modelling of triaxial compression tests
complex. with a confining pressure of 1 MPa on Tournemire shale.
Thin lines: Experiment; Bold lines: Modelling.

4 CONCLUSIONS 50
 1 = 90°
Deviatoric stress [Mpa] 40
In many applications the anisotropic character of  1 = 0°

the natural hard soil or soft rock must be careful- 30

ly considered. Consequently, in addition to cross- 20

anisotropic elasticity the Drucker-Prager plastic  1 = 45°
criterion has been upgraded considering that the 10

cohesion depends on the angle between the di- 0

rection of the major compressive stress and the 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
normal to the bedding plane. Numerical simula- Axial strain [-]

tions of triaxial tests of sedimentary rocks have

shown that the model is able to reproduce the Figure 5. Numerical modelling of triaxial compression tests
strong elastic and plastic anisotropy of sedimen- with a confining pressure of 15 MPa on Opalinus clay. Lines
tary soft rocks. with points: Experiment; Bold lines: Modelling.

100
3 = 20 MPa
REFERENCES
80
Peak strength [MPa]

[1] D.C. Drucker, W. Prager. Solid mechanics and plastic

3 = 5 MPa
60 analysis for limit design. Quarterly of Applied Mathe-
matics 10 (1952), 157-165.
40 [2] B. François, F. Collin, A. Dizier, R. Charlier. Develop-
3 = 1 MPa ment of an extended Drucker-Prager hardening model
for cross-anisotropy of soft rocks, 2nd International
20
Conference COMGEO (2011).
[3] J. Graham J., G.T. Houlsby. Anisotropic elasticity of a
0 natural clay. Géotechnique 33 (1982), 165-180.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Orientation of the normal to the bedding plane,  1 [°]
[4] J.D. Barnichon, Finite element modelling in structural
and petroleum geology. PhD Thesis, ULg (1998).
[5] H. Niandou, J.F. Shao, J.P Henry, D. Fourmaintraux.
Figure 3. Evolution of the peak strength of Tournemire shale Laboratory investigations of the mechanical behaviour
as a function of the confining pressure and the orientation of of Tournemire shale, Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 34
the bedding plane. Experimental results from [5] (points) (1997), 3-16.
compared with model predictions (lines). [6] L. Laloui, B. François, Benchmark on constitutive
modelling of the mechanical behaviour of Opalinus
clay – Focus on the material anisotropy. Internal report.
EPFL (2008).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 541
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-541

Long term accumulation of deformation in granular

soils under multi-axial cyclic loading
Accumulation de déformation à long terme dans les sols
granulaires sous chargement cyclique multi-axiale
S. François 1, P. Franken, and G. Degrande
K.U.Leuven, Department of Civil Engineering, Kasteelpark Arenberg 40, B-3001 Leuven
W. Haegeman
Department of Industrial Sciences, KHBO, Zeedijk 101, B-8400 Oostende, Belgium
Laboratory of Geotechnics, Ghent University, Technolgiepark 905, B-9052 Gent-Zwijnaarde, Belgium

ABSTRACT
Repeated small amplitude dynamic loading of the soil in the vicinity of buildings, as arising from traffic or construction activi-
ties, may cause differential foundation settlements and structural damage. In this paper, an accumulation model for settlements
due to vibrations at small strain levels in granular non-cohesive soils is proposed. It is assumed that the dynamic part of the
stresses is small with respect to the static part. As plastic deformation in the soil is only observed after a considerable amount of
dynamic loading cycles, only the accumulation of the average plastic deformation is considered. The accumulation model is ca-
librated by means of cyclic triaxial tests. However, the stress conditions in the cyclic triaxial tests are an approximation of the
complex loading paths in the soil under traffic induced vibrations, that are intrinsically multi-axial and transient signals. There-
fore, a rainflow counting algorithm is used to relate traffic induced vibrations to the triaxial test conditions. The model is applied
to compute the differential settlement of a two-story building founded on loose sandy soil under repeated passages of a truck on
a nearby speed table. Results demonstrate that vibrations may give rise to significant long term settlement of structures.

RÉSUMÉ
Un chargement dynamique répété du sol à proximité de bâtiments, dû au trafic ou à des activités de construction, peut produire
des tassements différentiels et des endommagements structuraux. Dans cet article, un modèle est proposé pour estimer l'accumu-
lation de déformations dans les sols granulaires non-cohésifs sous chargement dynamique répété de basse amplitude. Il est sup-
posé que la partie dynamique des contraintes est négligeable par rapport à la partie statique. Comme la déformation plastique
dans le sol n'est observée qu’après un nombre important de cycles de chargement dynamique, seule la valeur moyenne de la dé-
formation plastique est considérée. Le modèle d'accumulation est calibré à l'aide d'essais triaxiaux cycliques. Toutefois, les con-
ditions expérimentales, liées à l’utilisation d’essais triaxiaux cycliques, diffèrent des conditions de chargement complexes ren-
contrées dans le sol sous l’effet de vibrations, induites par le trafic, qui sont intrinsèquement des signaux multiaxiaux et
transitoires. Par conséquent, un algorithme rainflow est utilisé pour relier les vibrations induites par le trafic aux conditions de
l'essai triaxial. Le modèle est appliqué pour calculer le tassement différentiel d'un bâtiment sous l’effet du passage répété d'un
camion. Les résultats montrent que les vibrations peuvent donner lieu à d'importants tassements à long terme des structures.

Keywords: Strain accumulation model, low level vibration, granular soil, long-term behavior

1 INTRODUCTION terest [1, 2, 3, 4]. Low amplitude ground vibra-

tions are generated by road and railway traffic,
Repeated dynamic loading of soils under low subways, construction works or heavy industry.
amplitude vibrations is a subject of growing in- These vibrations propagate through the soil and

1
Corresponding Author.
542 S. François et al. / Long Term Accumulation of Deformation in Granular Soils
impinge on the foundations of nearby structures.
For small amplitude dynamic loading with result-
ing strain amplitudes below , no (measura-
ble) residual deformation is observed for a single
load cycle and the constitutive behavior of the
soil can be described by linear visco-elastic
models. After a large numbers of events, howev-
er, permanent deformation is observed in many
cases.
To describe the long term accumulation of de-
formation, a number of constitutive models have
been developed that only describes the accumu-
lation of the average permanent deformation per
load cycle. In this paper, the accumulation model
developed by François et al. [2] and Karg et al.
[5] is employed.
The results of cyclic triaxial tests are used to
calibrate phenomenological models for the calcu-
lation of foundation settlements. However, the
stress conditions in the cyclic triaxial tests are
only an approximation of the complex loading
paths in the soil under traffic induced vibrations,
that are intrinsically multi-axial and transient
signals.
Niemunis et al. [6] have proposed a metho-
dology to relate complex loading signals to the
cyclic loading amplitude in a cyclic triaxial test
by means of a tensorial amplitude. However, the
tensorial amplitude is not particularly suited for
transient signals, since only the peak value of the
time history of the signal is accounted for, neg-
lecting the fact that a transient signal is a compo-
sition of cycles with small and large amplitudes.
Therefore, an alternative methodology is pro-
posed, based on a rain flow counting algorithm,
decomposing the transient loading signal into a
number of equivalent sinusoidal signals.
The proposed accumulation model is imple-
mented in a finite element framework. The
model is applied to compute the differential set-
tlement of a two-story building founded on loose
sandy soil under repeated passages of a truck on
a nearby traffic plateau.
2 RAINFLOW COUNTING ALGORITHM
The stress conditions in the cyclic triaxial tests
are an approximation of the complex loading
paths in the soil under traffic induced vibrations,
that are intrinsically multi-axial and transient
signals. In order to demonstrate this, the free
field vibrations during the passage of the truck
over a speed table is computed with the numeri-
cal prediction model proposed by Lombaert [7].
A two-axle truck with a wheel base of
passes at a vehicle speed on the
speed table. Figure 1 shows the vertical dis-
placement at the point in
the free field. The four peaks correspond to the
front and rear axles driving on and off the speed
table. The stress and strain history during the
passage of the truck is follows a similar complex
loading path.
Figure 1. Displacement history at the point
in the free field.
In order to adopt the one-dimensional accu-
mulation model to the multiaxial loading as ob-
served in practice, the loading history should be
represented as a one-dimensional measure of
stress or strain. In this paper, the signed Von
Mises strain is used, which is defined as the Von
Mises strain that takes the sign of the maximum
absolute principal strain. Figure 2 shows the
signed Von Mises strain history at the point
(Figure 4) in the free field.
Next, a rainflow counting algorithm is applied
that decomposes the signed Von Mises strain his-
tory into a number of simple cyclic loads [8].
Figure 3 shows the histogram of strain amplitude
for a single passage of a truck as obtained with
the rainflow counting algorithm. Miner’s rule [6]
is applied that states that the sequence of the load
cycles has no influence on the total accumulation
of deformation.
 S. François et al. / Long Term Accumulation of Deformation in Granular Soils
Figure 2. Signed Von Mises strain at the point
in the free field.
Figure 3. Histogram of strain amplitude for a single pas-
sage of a truck as obtained with the rainflow counting
algorithm.
Current research involves the validation of the
proposed rainflow counting algorithm. In order
to apply multi-axial loading paths in the cyclic
triaxial test, the classical setup is currently being
modified where both the hydrostatic confining
pressure and the vertical stress on the soil sample
are independently and cyclically varied.
3 NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
In this section, the accumulation model is used to
assess the settlement of a masonry building due
to repeated vehicle passages. Figure 4 shows the
structure, located at a distance from a
road.
543
Figure 4. The masonry building excited by the traffic in-
duced wavefield.
The peak particle velocity decays as where
is the horizontal coordinate perpendicular to
the road, as a result of geometric attenuation of
Rayleigh waves. The strain amplitude also de-
cays with this factor.
The building has dimensions
(Figure 4). The structure is modelled with 4-node
shell elements with an element size .
The masonry building is founded on a layer of
loose sandy soil, for which the accumulation
model is adopted.
After the application of the gravity load, a to-
tal number of vehicle passages is con-
sidered, and the quasi-static response of the soil
and the structure is computed with the finite ele-
ment package ANSYS. Figure 5 shows the de-
formation of the line AB in the ( , )-plane
(Figure 4) after the application of the gravity
load, and after the passage of 10000, 500000 and
1000000 vehicles. The initial vertical displace-
ment is much smaller than the vertical displace-
ment after the load events have taken place. Fur-
thermore, most of the soil deformation takes
place during the first 10000 load events, which is
in correspondance with the logarithmic shape of
accumulation curves of cyclic triaxial tests.
544 S. François et al. / Long Term Accumulation of Deformation in Granular Soils
Figure 5. Vertical displacement along the line AB before
accumulation (dashed line), and after 10 000 vehicle passages
(light grey line), 500 000 vehicle passages (dark grey line)
and 1 000 000 vehicle passages (black line).
As a result of the differential foundation set-
tlement, the stress distribution in the structure is
modified. Figure 6a shows the first principal
stress in wall I after the application of the gravity
load, and figure Figure 6b shows the first prin-
cipal stress after the passage of 1000000 ve-
hicles. The differential foundation settlement
causes a global bending of the wall. At the bot-
tom of the wall, the principal stress increases to
reach a maximum value of about and
may result in cosmetic damage.
Figure 6. First principal stress in wall I (a) after the appli-
cation of the gravity load and (b) after the passage of
1000000 vehicles.
4 CONCLUSION
In this paper, an accumulation model for defor-
mation in granular soils under multi-axial cyclic
loading has been presented. The accumulation
model is calibrated by means of cyclic triaxial
tests. However, the stress conditions in the cyclic
triaxial tests are an approximation of the com-
plex loading paths in the soil under traffic in-
duced vibrations, that are intrinsically multi-axial
and transient signals. Therefore, a rainflow
counting algorithm is used to relate traffic in-
duced vibrations to the triaxial test conditions.
The model has been applied to compute the dif-
ferential settlement of a two-story building
founded on loose sandy soil under repeated pas-
sages of a truck on a nearby speed table. Results
demonstrate that vibrations may give rise to sig-
nificant long term settlement of structures.
REFERENCES
[1] M. Abdelkrim, G. Bonnet, and P. de Buhan. A compu-
tational procedure for predicting the long term residual
settlement of a platform induced by repeated traffic
loading. Computers and Geotechnics, 30:463–476,
2003.
[2] S. François, C. Karg, W. Haegeman, and G. Degrande.
A numerical model for foundation settlements due to
deformation accumulation in granular soils under re-
peated small amplitude dynamic loading. International
Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geo-
mechanics, 34(3):273–296, 2010.
[3] C. Karg. Modelling of strain accumulation due to low
level vibrations in granular soils. PhD thesis, Laborato-
ry of Geotechnics, Ghent University, 2007.
[4] T. Wichtmann. Explicit accumulation model for non-
cohesive soils under cyclic loading. PhD thesis, Ruhr
Universität Bochum, Germany, 2005.
[5] C. Karg, S. François, W. Haegeman, and G. Degrande.
Elasto-plastic long-term behavior of granular soils:
modeling and experimental validation. Soil Dynamics
and Earthquake Engineering, 30:635–646, 2010.
[6] A. Niemunis, T. Wichtmann, and T. Triantafyllidis. A
high-cycle accumulation model for sand. Computers
and Geotechnics, 32:245–263, 2005.
[7] G. Lombaert and G. Degrande. Experimental validation
of a numerical prediction model for free field traffic in-
duced vibrations by in situ experiments. Soil Dynamics
and Earthquake Engineering, 21(6):485–497, 2001.
[8] American Society for Testing and Materials. Standard
Practices for cycle counting in fatigue analysis, 1997.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 545
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-545

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 551
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-551

Elasto-viscoplastic modeling of soft rock time

dependent behavior
Modelisation elasto-viscoplastique du comportement dependent
du temps de rocher mou
F.E. Karaoulanis 1 & Th. Chatzigogos
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

ABSTRACT
In this article, the modeling of soft rock time dependent behavior is studied within the framework of the Finite Element Method,
in a thermodynamically consistent manner. The well known Hoek-Brown failure criterion, which is a nonsmooth yet convex mul-
tisurface plasticity model, is adopted to define the yielding of the rock mass. The nonsmoothness of the elastic domain introduces
severe numerical complexities, that are bypassed by integrating the constitutive equations in the principal stress space. Post-yield
behavior is assumed to be characterized by perfect plasticity and the rate-dependent behavior is accomodated by a suitable genera-
lization of the Duvaut-Lions viscoplastic model. Aspects referring to overstress functions, dilatancy and brittleness are also ad-
dressed. Two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate and validate the proposed model.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans cet article, on étudie dans le contexte de la méthode aux éléments finis et de manière consistent du point de vue de la ther-
modynamique, le comportement dépendent du temps de rocher mou. Le critère de rupture de Hoek-Brown, critère convexe mais
non régulier, est adopté en tant que critère de résistance pour le rocher. Les difficultés numériques dues à la présence de points
non réguliers sur le contour du domaine élastique sont surmontées en intégrant les équations du modèle dans l’espace des con-
traintes principales. Le comportement anélastique est caractérisé par un modèle de plasticité parfaite et la dépendance par rapport
au temps est régie par une généralisation du modèle viscoplastique de Duvaut-Lions. Quelques questions concernant les fonctions
d’overstress, la dilatation et la fragilité sont adressées. Deux exemples numériques servent pour la validation du modèle proposé.

Keywords: Soft rock, viscoplasticity, perfect plasticity, Hoek-Brown, Duvuat-Lions, principal stress space.

1 INTRODUCTION have been proposed, most of which fall into three

It is well known that soft rock is a rate sensitive
geomaterial that often exhibits time-dependent
behavior, such as creep and relaxation [1]. Mod-
eling such behavior is of great importance for the
design of structures built in soft rock and could
be a rather challenging task.
In order to describe the time-dependent beha-
vior of soft rock, many mathematical models
main categories: viscoelastic models, elasto-
viscoplastic models and empirical models. Vis-
coelastic models are usually defined as rheologi-
cal models consisting of simple mechanical
models (see e.g. Burgers model [2]), elastovis-
coplastic models generally follow the Perzyna
approach and empirical models are commonly
derived from the observed stress-strain-time rela-
tionships in creep tests [3].

1
Corresponding Author.
552 F.E. Karaoulanis and Th. Chatzigogos / Elasto-Viscoplastic Modeling
In this article, the modeling of soft rock time
dependent behavior is studied within the frame-
work of the Finite Element Method, in a thermo-
dynamically consistent manner. A nonsmooth
convex multisurface yield criterion, namely the
Hoek-Brown failure criterion, is adopted to de-
fine the elastic domain. Post-yield behavior is as-
sumed to be characterized by perfect plasticity
while the rate-dependent behavior is accommo-
dated by a suitable generalization of the Duvaut-
Lions viscoplastic formulation.
2 STATE OF ART
Several authors have employed elastic visco-
plastic models to predict the stress-strain-time
behavior of rock either excluding [4] or includ-
ing some form of hardening [5, 6, 7]. The yield
criteria and the corresponding plastic potentials
used involve either single [6] or multiple surfac-
es [4, 5, 7]. However, all the above mentioned
approaches follow the Perzyna formulation,
while it can be proven not always to reduce to
the rate-independent solution [8].
The original Hoek-Brown yield criterion was
introduced in 1980 [9], focusing on the design of
underground structures. Based on similar yield
criteria for concrete, the significant contribution
that E. Hoek and E.T. Brown made was to link
the equation to geological observations, initially
to Bieniawski’s Rock Mass Rating and later to
the Geological Strength Index GSI [10]. The
original criterion is considered strongly biased
towards hard rock, therefore a generalized ver-
sion was subsequently introduced [11], which is
a superset of the original one but can also de-
scribe the behavior of poor or extremely poor
rock masses.
From a computational standpoint, limited ef-
fort was made towards the implementation of the
Hoek-Brown yield criterion (see e.g. [12] for a
smoothed approximation or [13] for an algorithm
based on the geometrical properties of the crite-
rion). The main research was focused on using
the Mohr-Coulomb criterion with parameters
based on curve fitting processes between the
Mohr-Coulomb and the Hoek-Brown surfaces
[14]. However, singularities rising due to non-
smoothness of both yield criteria introduce se-
vere complexities that lead to different numerical
approaches, proposed algorithms and computer
implementations [15].
The extension of classical plasticity models to
accommodate non-smooth yield surfaces goes
back to the fundamental work of Koiter [16].
Later formulations of plasticity employing con-
vex analysis as in Moreau [17] encompass these
classical treatments as a particular case. Recent
formulations are usually based on the work of
Simo [8] where the standard Kuhn-Tucker com-
plementarity conditions are used to provide the
characterization of plastic loading/unloading.
In this work, the above treatment is reformu-
lated and implemented using the spectral decom-
position of the stress tensor. It is then applied to
the elastic-perfectly plastic Hoek-Brown yield
criterion and finally is extended to accommodate
rate-dependent behavior, following the Duvaut-
Lions approach [18]. All the complexities intro-
duced by the non-smooth yield surface eliminate
and a general, simple and extremely robust algo-
rithm is obtained, capable of modeling soft rock
time dependent behavior.
3 NUMERICAL IMPLEMENTATION
3.1 Governing equations
Let İ\^ denote the total strain tensor at a fixed
point of a solid ȋ\Ǻ, Ǻ\^ndim, where
ndim\{1,2,3}. In the infinitesimal case, the
strains İ are simply identified as the symmetric
part of the gradient of the displacement vector
and are assumed additively decomposed, as
İ  İe  İe (1)
where İe and İp are referred to, as the elastic and
plastic strain parts respectively. Assuming a
hyperelastic material, İe is related to the stress
tensor through a stored energy function,
"W
ı  Cİ e (2)
"İ e
 F.E. Karaoulanis and Th. Chatzigogos / Elasto-Viscoplastic Modeling 553

while the plastic part is given from the flow rule,
which according to Koiter [16] reads for the mul-
tisurface plasticity:
"g (ı )
İ p  Y
"ı
Functions gĮ(ı):^Qı_^, Į , define a plastic
potential, which dictates the direction of the plas-
tic flow. The parameters Ȝ“ are nonnegative sca-
lars, called the consistency parameters, which
are assumed to obey the following Karush–
3.2 Numerical integration
If isotropy in the elastic response is assumed,
then it can be easily shown that the strain spec-
tral directions coincide with the stress spectral
(3) directions and therefore a solution algorithm can
be formulated in the principal stress space. Em-
ploying a backward Euler integration procedure
and a Newton-Raphson integration scheme the
following residual vector, Jacobian matrix and
vector of unknowns yield:
2 e mact
/
(k )

0% A  % A   Y " ı A g -
e ,trial a a
Kuhn–Tucker complementarity conditions and
the consistency requirement: r (k ) 0 a 1 - (8)
0f a -
1 . n1
Ya ` 0, f a ) 0, Ya f a  0, ” a f a  0 (4) (k )
2 1 mact a /
0c   Y " ı Aı A g "ı A g -
a a
J (k ) 0 (9)
Finally the functions with fĮ(ı):^Qı_^, Į , a 1 -
are usually known as yield functions, assumed to 01 "ıA f  0 -.
n 1
intersect non-smoothly in what follows and de- (k ) (k )
fine the so called elastic domain, i.e. the follow- 2#ı A / 2ı trial /
x (k )
0 a- x (0)
 0 A,n1 - k d k 1 (10)
ing convex set, 1#Y . 010 -.

b  {ı \ ^ n : f (ı ) ) 0, aa \ [1,2, m]}
m being the number of the active constraints. Of
special importance is the case where fĮ U gĮ,
which goes by the name associative flow rule.
Now recall that according to the Spectral
Theorem, the spectral decomposition of the
stress tensor is given as:
ı n1  ı c ( n1) m ( A) , m ( A)  n ( A) : n ( A)
where ıǹ and nA are the principal Cauchy
stressses and directions respectively, A={1,2,3}
and Einstein’s summation convention is as-
sumed, except for indices in parentheses. There-
fore, gradients of f and g, may be defined as:
(5) The working set of the active yield surfaces is
assumed fixed during the iteration procedure.
Admissibility of the solution is checked w.r.t. the
Karush–Kuhn–Tucker complementarity con-
dtions and the set of active yield surfaces is up-
dated accordingly.
3.3 Viscoplasticity
It can be easily proven that the Perzyna viscop-
(6) lastic formulation is not suitable for multisurface
plasticity, since it does not always reduce to the
rate-independent case [8]. Therefore a viscoplas-
ticity formulation, closely related to a model
originally developed by Duvaut-Lions [18] is uti-
lized, which in first order accuracy gives for the
stresses:

"f "g A n 1  ( t / * ) ı n 1
ı trial
" f  m A , " g  m (7) ı n 1  (11)
"ı A "ı A 1  t / *

where Ș is a fluidity parameter, •t the corres-

ponding timestep and ı n1 the time-independent
554 F.E. Karaoulanis and Th. Chatzigogos / Elasto-Viscoplastic Modeling

(inviscid) solution. Furthermore, the above for-

mulation can be further extended to include more
elaborate models, employing any type of C1 mo-
notonic functions, typically exponentials and
power laws [8].

3.4 The Hoek-Brown yield criterion

The generalized Hoek-Brown yield criterion is
usually given in the following form [9],

a
 
f  1  3  ci  mb 3  s  (12)
 ci  Figure 1. The Hoek-Brown yield surfaces in the Haigh-
Wastergaard stress space.
where ıci is the uniaxial compressive strength of
the impact rock and mb, s and Į empirically de-
termined parameters [11]. Considering the sign
convention used in rock mechanics, the follow-
ing six equations can be used, to describe the
yield criterion in the principal stress space (see
Fig. 1). However, assuming that ı1 ı2 ı3, only
the following three equations can be used [19],
namely f1, f2 and f3, defining the sextant shown in
Fig. 2.

a
 
f1  1  3  ci  s  mb 1 

 ci 
a
 
f 2  2  3  ci  s  mb 1 
 (13)
 ci 
Figure 2. The Hoek-Brown yield surfaces in the ʌ-plane.
a
 
f 3  1  2  ci  s  mb 1 

 ci 
4 EXAMPLES
Dilatancy can be included in the model, as-
The proposed model has been incorporated into
suming g–f and supplementing an additional set
the general purpose finite element program ne-
of the empirically defined parameters, namely
mesis [20], developed by the first author. In order
mbg, sg and Įg. Finally brittleness is introduced
to study the hard soil/soft rock time dependent
using a reduced set of material parameters, after
behavior, a material with properties given in Ta-
the initial yield [4].
ble 1 is chosen and subjected to two numerical
experiments. The first one refers to a typical tri-
axial test, while the second one examines the
case of a cylindrical hole in an infinite elastop-
lastic medium.
 F.E. Karaoulanis and Th. Chatzigogos / Elasto-Viscoplastic Modeling 555

Table 1. Material properties used for the numerical examples.

Parameter Value
Young modulus E 6913.7 MPa
Poisson ratio Ȟ 0.2
ıci 85.0 MPa
mb 1.40
s 0.0022
Į 0.5
•t/Ș 10.

4.1 Triaxial test

The finite element model of a typical triaxial test
is shown in Fig. 3 and the results for 8 equally
spaced values of ı3 in the range [0, 0.25·ıci]
along with the analytical solution are plotted in
Fig. 4. In Fig. 5 the top vertical displacement is
plotted w.r.t. time for a loading of (ı1,
ı3)=(22.45, 0.5) which leads to yielding of the
material and to a post yield behavior consistent
with that of a Maxwell viscoelastic material.
Figure 5. Top vertical displacement vs. time plot.
4.2 Tunnel excavation
A classical axisymmetric problem closely related
to a tunnel excavation is examined next, consi-
dering the case of a cylindrical hole (ri=1.0) in an
infinite elastoplastic medium (Fig. 6). The me-
dium is subjected to a constant in-situ hydrostatic
pressure equal to 3.0 MPa and an equivalent in-
ternal pressure, which is gradually released in a
stepwise manner, until it reaches zero.

Figure 3. Numerical simulation of a triaxial test.

Figure 6. Axisymetric model of a tunel excavation.

In Fig. 7 the radial and tangential stresses are

plotted, which are in good agreement with the
analytical solution, while in Fig. 8 the develop-
ment of the plastic deformation is shown with re-
spect to time. As it can be seen, the elastic part of
the deformation is recovered instantaneously,
while the plastic part exhibits rate dependence.
However, depending also on the viscosity para-
meter the inviscid case is finally fully recovered.

Figure 4. ı1 – ı3 plot for the triaxial test..

556 F.E. Karaoulanis and Th. Chatzigogos / Elasto-Viscoplastic Modeling
Figure 7. Radial and tangential stress distribution.
Figure 8. Normalized radial displacement vs. time.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Time-dependent behavior such as creep and re-
laxation is often exhibited by soft rock. In this
work the viscoplastic modeling of this class of
materials is addressed, adopting the Hoek-Brown
failure criterion to define the elastic domain.
Post-yield behavior is assumed to be characte-
rized by perfect plasticity while the rate-
dependent behavior is modeled by a suitable ge-
neralization of the Duvaut-Lions viscoplastic
model. The proposed model is then demonstrated
and validated through two numerical examples.
REFERENCES
[1] N.D. Cristescu and U. Hunsche, Time Effect in Rock
Mechanics, Wiley, New York, 1998.
[2] R.E. Goodman, Introduction to rock mechanics (2nd
ed.), New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1989.
[3] I. Farmer, Engineering Behaviour of Rocks (2nd ed.),
Chapman & Hall, London, 1983.
[4] M.B. Reed, A viscoplastic model for soft rock, Eng.
Comput. 70(1998), 65-70.
[5] N. Cristescu, Elastic/Viscoplastic Constitutive Equa-
tions for Rock, Int. J of Rock Mech and Min Sc & Geom
Abs, 24(1987), 271-282.
[6] C.S. Desai and D. Zhang, Viscoplastic model for geo-
logic materials with generalized flow rule, Int J Numer
Anal Met Geomech, 11(1987), 603-620.
[7] M. Datcheva, R. Charlier, and F. Collin, Constitutive
equations and numerical modelling of time effects in
soft porous rocks, Numerical Analysis and Its Applica-
tions, 1988(2001), 1-21.
[8] J.C. Simo and T.J.R. Hughes, Computational Inelastici-
ty, Springer-Verlag, 1998.
[9] E. Hoek and E.T. Brown, Underground Excavations in
Rock. London Inst. of Mining and Metallurgy, 1980.
[10] E. Hoek and P. Marinos, A brief history of the devel-
opment of the Hoek-Brown failure criterion. Soils and
Rocks 2(2007).
[11] E. Hoek, Strength of rock and rock masses, ISRM News
Journal 2(1994), 4–16.
[12] R.G. Wan, Implicit Integration algorithm for Hoek-
Brown Elastic-Plastic Model, Computers and Geotech-
nics 14(1992), 149–177.
[13] J. Clausen, L. Damkilde, An Exact Iimplementation of
the Hoek–Brown Criterion for Elasto-Plastic Finite
Element Calculations, Intl J Rock Mech Min, 45(2008)
831–847.
[14] E. Hoek, Estimating Mohr-Coulomb Friction and Cohe-
sion Values from the Hoek-Brown Failure Criterion,
Intnl. J. Rock Mech. & Mining Sci. & Geomechanics
Abstracts 12(1990), 227 – 229.
[15] F.E. Karaoulanis, Multisurface elastoplastic yield crite-
ria. Numerical implementation in principal stress space
and application in Geotechnical Engineering problems,
PhD Thesis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2010.
[16] W.T. Koiter, General Theorems for Elastic-plastic Sol-
ids. Progress in Solid Mechanics 6(1960) 167–221, eds.
I.N. Sneddon and R. Hill, North-Holland Publishing
Company, Amsterdam.
[17] J.J. Moreau, Application of Convex Analysis to the
Treatment of Elastoplastic Systems, in Applications of
Methods of Functional Analysis to Problems of Me-
chanics, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1960.
[18] G. Duvaut and J.L. Lions, Inequalities in Mechanics
and Physics, Springer-Verlag, 1976.
[19] F.E. Karaoulanis, An Efficient Algorithm for Non-
smooth Multisurface Plasticity, COMPLAS X, CIMNE,
Barcelona, 2009.
[20] F.E. Karaoulanis, nemesis, an experimental finite ele-
ment code, http://www.nemesis-project.org, retrieved
on February 2011.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 557
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-557

Analysis of the behavior of massive plate

foundations on viscoelastic base
Analyse du comportement des massifs plaque
fondations sur la base viscoélastique
Y. Kirichek
Prydniprovs'k State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture

ABSTRACT
New constructions of foundations for rotating and reciprocal machines are offered. These constructions are called the combined
massive plate foundations. They consist of deepened massive rigid blocks or a rigid frame with attached thin horizontal plates at
various levels. The finite element dynamic analysis is conducted using the SAP4 package. Experimental investigation of the
foundations is provided to verify the obtained solution. New calculation methods for combined massive plate foundations are
developed.

RÉSUMÉ
Des nouvelles configurations des fondations pour les machines à piston à mouvement rectiligne et avec des organes en mouve-
ment rotatifs sont proposées. Des fondations combinées à blocs et plaques se composent de blocs pas grands noyés ou de cadres
indéformables, auxquelles des plaques horizontales effilées sont attaches à quelques niveaux. L’analyse dynamique par éléments
finis est effectuée en utilisant le programme SAP4. Des recherches expérimentales sur les nouvelles fondations sont présentées
également. Des méthodes de calcul des fondations combinées à blocs et plaques ont été développées.

Keywords: Combined massive plate foundations, viscoelastic bases, vibrations of foundations, finite element dynamic analysis

1 INTRODUCTION assumptions. It is assumed that only concentrated

Massive rotating and reciprocal machines require
foundations that can withstand large dynamic
loadings and damp out the resulting vibrations.
Design of this type of foundations is not explicit-
ly regulated by norms and legislation. Calcula-
tion of complex dynamic constructions on an
elastic half-space is a complex problem. In order
to validate the obtained solution, numerical me-
thods are employed. Analytical solutions are de-
rived for simple models. Conventional methods
are used for dynamic calculation of massive
foundations. Such models are based on certain
masses on elastic or viscoelastic media are con-
sidered. Accurate determination of dynamic soil
characteristics is a major problem for a practical
application of such methods. These foundations
must have big mass to damp out significant dy-
namic loadings. Therefore, their eigenfrequency
has to be small. Massive foundations for ma-
chines with low frequency loadings have a small
ratio between the forced frequency and eigenfre-
quency of the system. In this case, the emitted
vibrations are significantly high and the efficien-
cy of the massive foundations is low. It is
known, that plate foundations are more effective
558 Y. Kirichek / Analysis of the Behavior of Massive Plate Foundations on Viscoelastic Base
under dynamic loadings. Plate foundations re-
quire more complex calculations as any system
with distributed parameters. A problem of devel-
opment and investigation of dynamic calcula-
tions for plate foundation on an elastic half-space
is still an important issue. However, the applica-
tion of plate foundation for machines with dy-
namic loading is quite limited due to plate flex-
ibility. Recently it was shown that massive plate
foundations (MPF) are much more efficient
compared to conventional block-type founda-
tions. A simple sketch of an MPF is presented in
Fig. 1. Frequency response of the MPF has lower
vibration level due to optimal choice of construc-
tional foundation characteristics.
The MPF is deepened into a soil and consists
of either light solid blocks or rigid frame with
horizontal thin plates attached at different levels.
The dynamic characteristics of these foundations
vary based on the size and position of the plates.
2 METHODS
In this paper, an analytical method of dynamic
analysis of massive plate foundations for rotating
and reciprocal machines under dynamic loadings
is applied. The considered spatial construction
consists of a rigid frame with attached flexible
plates on a viscoelastic base. Therefore, the dy-
namic contact problem for spatial viscoelastic
system with distributed parameters has to be
solved. In order to derive the solution, the fol-
lowing assumptions are used. Plates can be con-
sidered as plates or beams. Sharp distinction be-
tween blocks and thin plates is used and
asymptotic method is applied. First, a simple
V(t)
H1(t)
Figure 1. Sketch of a massive plate foundations for machines
problem is studied, and then perturbation method
is used to take into account the influence of resi-
dual factors. The mathematical model of MPF
vertical oscillations is a concentrated mass with
either plates or beams on a viscoelastic base.
Integral transformations for horizontal oscilla-
tions of the frame and plates are considered as a
problem of beams or plates on a viscoelastic base
using asymptotic and transformation methods.
The advantage of such mathematical models is
that they allow calculation of the MPF free and
forced oscillations as well as its eigenfrequen-
cies. Analytical solutions for the MPF dynamic
behavior were derived for the following cases:
Vertical and horizontal forced oscillations
of an MPF on a viscoelastic base;
Free vertical oscillations of an MPF on a
viscoelastic base;
Vertical and horizontal forced oscillations
of group block foundations coupled by a
plate on a viscoelastic base;
Vertical and horizontal forced oscillations
of block foundations coupled by an in-
finite plate on a viscoelastic base;
Forced vertical oscillations of an MPF on a
viscoelastic inertial base.
2.1 Finite element analysis of the massive
plate foundations
2D finite element analysis of the MPF for ma-
chines with periodic loading is conducted using
the SAP-IV package. A foundation in the plane
stress state is modeled for various sizes of plates
and blocks.
V(t) V(t)
H2
H1(t)
 Y. Kirichek / Analysis of the Behavior of Massive Plate Foundations on Viscoelastic Base
Figure 2. 2D strain analysis of the combined massive plate
foundation with two plates under a vertical dynamic load
Figure 3. 2D strain analysis of the combined massive and
plate foundation with one plate under a vertical dynamic load
Foundation oscillations under vertical and ho-
rizontal periodic loadings are considered. The
dynamic characteristics of the MPF have been
studied. The finite element analysis allows de-
termining the dynamic characteristics of founda-
tions for a wide range of foundation and plate
sizes and different number of plates. In this
study, the number of plates is limited to 5. Fig-
ures 2-5 show the vertical dynamic displacement
and corresponding stresses (normal stresses for
the vertical oscillations and tangent stresses for
the horizontal ones).
559
The finite element analysis revealed the fol-
lowing:
Mass and size of foundation blocks has to
be minimal for low frequency machines
For machines with vertical dynamic load-
ings, MPF with two thin plates should
be taken. One plate has to be positioned
at the top of the foundation and the oth-
er one at the bottom level. The distance
between the plates is equal to one or
two plate width. It is shown that a big
number of plates and smaller distance
between them does not provide neces-
sary damping of vibrations
Deepened thin plates effect the level of
MPF vertical oscillations
One plate at the bottom level of a founda-
tion is sufficient for foundations with
vertical loadings
Horizontal vibrations at the top of MPF are
much bigger than at the bottom. In this
case, MPF with a plate at the top is the
optimal choice.
MPF with plates located at the top and bot-
tom level are recommended for ma-
chines with vertical and horizontal load-
ings.
Figure 4(a). 2D strain analysis of the combined massive plate
foundation with five plates under vertical dynamic loading
560 Y. Kirichek / Analysis of the Behavior of Massive Plate Foundations on Viscoelastic Base

ulator (4) varied the rotation frequency of the di-

rect current motor (2) from 6 to 56 Hz. Vibration
sensors (7, 11, 12) recorded the displacements of
block and plates. Dynamic characteristics of soil
base of thin plates were analyzed in situ.
Dependence of the forced oscillation ampli-
tudes and eigenfrequencies of the foundation
were studied using deterministic and stochastic
theory. The obtained results were compared with
analytical and numerical solutions. The influence
of thin plates on the dynamic characteristics of
foundations and the dynamic characteristics of
the soil base were determined. Figs. 7 and 8
present the MPF dynamic characteristics and an
ordinary block-type foundation of the same size.

Figure 4(b). 2D strain analysis of the combined massive plate

foundation with two plates under horizontal dynamic loading

Figure 5. 2D strain analysis of the combined massive plate

foundation with one plates under horizontal dynamic load
Figure 6. Sketch of a combined massive plate foundation
2.2 Experimental investigation of the
combined massive and plate foundations
The analytical and numerical results are com-
pared with large-scale models. Experimental in-
vestigation of the MPF interaction with a soil
base was performed on large-scale models in the
open ground (Figure 6). The experimental foun-
dations consisted of horizontal deepened plates
coupled either with blocks or rods. Some expe-
riments were done in order to investigate the ef-
fect of thin plates on block vibrations. Figure 7. Amplitude-frequency response of a block-type
Vertical and horizontal periodic loadings foundation (1) and MPF (2) under horizontal loading
were forced by a vibrator (1). Direct current reg-
 Y. Kirichek / Analysis of the Behavior of Massive Plate Foundations on Viscoelastic Base 561

The regression equations show the influence

of number of plates (n), area of the plates (s), dis-
tance between plates (h) on vertical and horizon-
tal displacements amplitudes (A) and eigenfre-
quency (f). These parameters correspond to the
maximum, medium and minimum periodic force
as

Pmin : Pmed : Pmax  1:1.49 : 2 (1)

Figure 8. Amplitude-frequency response of a block-type The MPF amplitude-frequency response for

foundation (1) and MPF (2) under vertical loading various loadings is shown in Figures 9 and 10.
i
350
The massive plate foundation amplitude in a
300 3
zone of medium frequencies (from 18 Hz up to
250
30 Hz) is two times lower then the block-type
200 2
foundation amplitude.
150 1
The influence of the MPF characteristics on
100
the foundation vibrations are estimated using the
50
regression analysis. Parameters used for the re-
0 šm
gression analysis are provided in Table 1. 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46
Table 1. Source data of the regression analysis
Figures 9. Amplitude-frequency response of the combined
Parameters of the Max. Min. massive and plate foundations under vertical periodic forces:
foundations 1 – ‹min ; 2 – ‹med; 3 – ‹max..
Number of plates N=3 N=2
Area of the plates S=2 S=1 The MPF experimental amplitude-frequency
(m2) response under different loadings implies a linear
Distance between H=1 H = 0.5 dependence between the displacement and forc-
plates (m)
ing. Figure 11 and 12 depict the MPF dynamic
dependence on the distance between the plates.
The regression equations read i
A20v ( Pmin )  17.4  2.6 s  2.1hs 140
120
A20v ( Pmed )  21.4  2.4 s  2.6hs 100
3
80
A ( Pmin )  26.6  3.6h
h
20 60 2
1
A ( Pmed )  39  8h
h 40
20 20
v
Arez ( Pmin )  110  26.4h  18.6 s 0
šm
6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48
A ( Pmin )  241.5  50.8h  62.25hs  55sn  33hsn
h
rez Figures 10. Amplitude-frequency response of the combined
h
Arez ( Pmed )  285  45.5h  40hs  47.5hsn massive plate foundations under horizontal periodic loadings:
1 – ‹min; 2 – ‹med; 3 – ‹max.
f1v ( Pmin )  41.9  4.6hs  3.1hn  2.9 sn  2.6hsn
f1v ( Pmed )  41.1  4.4hs  2.9hn  1.6 sn  1.9hsn The influence of the dimension and location
of the plates, elastic and damping characteristics
f1h ( Pmin )  36.1  2.6n  3.6hs  2.6hn  1.6 sn of soil on the dynamic response of foundations
f1h ( Pmed )  32  1.8h  3.75n  3.75hs  1.5hn  3.25sn were experimentally and theoretically investi-
gated. Moreover, the effect of the inertia of thin
plates was studied.
562 Y. Kirichek / Analysis of the Behavior of Massive Plate Foundations on Viscoelastic Base
i
300
250
1 of the combined massive plate foundation and
200
150
100
50
0 šm
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44
Figures 11. Amplitude-frequency response of the combined
massive plate foundations under horizontal periodic loadings:
1- distance between plates – 0.5 m; 2 – 1m.
i
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0 šm
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48
Figures 12. Amplitude-frequency response of the combined
massive plate foundations under vertical periodic loadings: 1-
distance between plates– 0.5 m; 2 – 1m.
The vibration experiments of a soil base were
conducted using a die. The soil characteristics
were determined using the compression dynamic
tests.
The effective massive plate foundations allow
adjusting the dynamic characteristics in a wide
range in correspondence with the current dynam-
ic loadings. This permits to minimize the vibra-
tion of machines under dynamic loadings.
Hence, theoretical investigation of the com-
bined massive plate foundations is conducted us-
ing analytical and numerical methods. To verify
the obtained results, the field and laboratory ex-
periments were carried out. This analysis allows
to determine the actual dynamic characteristics
2 the soil base, as well as to validate the used ap-
proach.
3 CONCLUSIONS
The proposed combined massive plate founda-
tions are highly efficient under low frequency
periodic loadings. The vibration level of massive
plate foundations is much lower than the one of
the block-type foundations. The MPF may be
suggested as the optimal foundation type for dy-
namic machines, such as turbo-pumps, compres-
sors, fans, centrifuges, compressors, etc.
1
2
REFERENCES
[1] D.D. Barkan, Dynamics of Bases and Foundations,
MCGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1962.
[2] O.A. Savinov, Foundations under Machineries
SPCLCiv.Eng.@Arc, Moscow, 1955.
[3] Y. Kirichek, Combined Massive and Plate Foundations
for Dynamic Loaded Machines, Soil Mechanics and
Foundations 5 (2000), 292-299.
[4] I. Andrianov, J. Awrrejcewich, Y. Kirichek, G. Koblik,
Asymptotyc Study of Half-plane with Embedded
Punch, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
45 (2007), 5-14.
[5] Y. Kirichek, V. Bolshakov, About oscillations of dee-
pened combined massive and plate bodies on visco-
elastic basement, Proceedings for 4-th Euromech Solid
Mechanics Conference in Metz (2000), 632-640.
[6] Y. Kirichek, Construction of Combined Massive and
Plate Foundations under Dynamic Loaded Machineries,
Civil Engineering, Material Science and Machinery
construction 5 (1998), 16-21.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 563
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-563

Elasto-viscoplastic constitutive modeling of soft

sedimentary rocks
Elasto-viscoplastic modelage constitutif de pierres
sédimentaires douces
F. Oka 1 and S. Kimoto
Department of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering Kyoto University
Q.H. Nguyen,
Former PhD Student of Kyoto University

ABSTRACT
Behavior of bonded geomaterials such as soft rocks and sensitive clay is characterized by the yielding and structural degrada-
tion. Leroueil and Vaughan(1990) pointed out the congruent effects in two materials, soft rocks and sensitive structured clay
based on the experimental laboratory test results. Kimoto and Oka(2005) developed an elasto-viscoplastic model for soft clay
considering rate dependency and degradation due to straining. Then the model can describe the strain softening and rate depen-
dency due to the structural change and degradation and it has been successfully applied to the analysis of soft clayey ground
such as consolidation and excavation. In this paper considering the congruent behavior of soft rocks and structured clay, we have
applied the elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model for clay to the triaxial compression behaviors of sedimentary soft rock called
Ohya stone in Japan with different confining pressures, which exhibits both distinctive strain-softening under the low confining
pressures (Adachi and Oka,1995). Simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. For example, Fig. 1
shows the simulated and experimental results for Ohya stone under the confining pressure of 5 kPa. We have found the model
can applicable to both soft clay and soft rocks. The model is numerically stable, and is thus highly suitable for computational
analysis and design tools.

RÉSUMÉ
Comportement de geomaterials en liaison tel que pierres douces et l'argile sensible est caractérisée en le cédant et déchéance
structurelle. Leroueil et Vaughan (1990) ont signalé les effets conformes dans deux matières, les pierres douces et argile structu-
rée sensible ont basé sur les résultats de l'épreuve du laboratoire expérimentaux. Kimoto et Oka (2005) ont développé un modèle
de l'elasto-viscoplastic pour argile douce étant donné dépendance du taux et déchéance dû à tendre. Alors le modèle peut décrire
l'adoucissement de la tension et dépendance du taux dû au changement structurel et déchéance. Il a été appliqué avec succès à
l'analyse d'argileuse terre douce tel que consolidation et excavation. Dans ce papier étant donné le comportement conforme de
pierres douces et argile structurée, nous avons appliqué l'elasto-viscoplastic modèle constitutif pour argile aux comportements de
la compression du triaxial de pierre douce sédimentaire appelés qu'Ohya lapident au Japon avec pressions confinant différentes
qui exposent les deux tension-adoucissement distinctif sous les basses pressions confinant (Adachi et Oka,1995). Les résultats de
la simulation sont dans bon accord avec les résultats expérimentaux. Par exemple, Figue. 1 spectacles les résultats simulés et ex-
périmentaux pour Ohya lapident sous la pression confinant de 5 kPa. Nous avons trouvé la boîte modèle applicable à argile
douce et pierres douces. Le modèle est numériquement stable et est donc très convenable pour analyse computationelle et outils
du dessin.

Keywords: Soft rock, Constitutive model, elasto-viscoplasticity, bonding, degradation, strain softening

1
Corresponding Author.
564 F. Oka et al. / Elasto-Viscoplastic Constitutive Modeling of Soft Sedimentary Rocks

1 INTRODUCTION The elastic deviatoric strain rate is defined as:

In the present paper, an elasto-visoplastic consti- 1

eij  S ij
e (4)
tutive model for soft rocks is presented. The elas- 2G
to-viscoplastic constitutive model proposed by
Kimoto and Oka (2005) which can effectively
describe the effect of structural degradation on where Sij is the deviatoric stress, and G is the
behavior of clay during consolidation. This mod- elastic shear modulus, which is given by
el is extended and utilized to simulate drained
triaxial behavior of soft rock, namely Ohya por- m
G  G0 (5)
ous tuff.
m0

2 ELASTO-VISCOPLASTIC where m is the mean effective stress, G0 is the

CONSTITUTIVE MODEL value of G when m  m 0 .
On the other hand, the elastic volumetric
strain rate can be obtained as:
2.1 General setting
4  m
Terzaghi’s effective stress is used throughout this % ev  (6)
paper 1  e0 m

ij  ij  uw# ij (1) where 4 is the swelling index and e0 is the ini-

tial void ratio.
Substituting Equations (4) and (6) into Equa-
where ij is the total stress tensor, ij is the ef-
tion (3), we get
fective stress tensor, uw is the pore water pres-
sure and # ij is Kronecker’s delta. It is assumed
1 1 4  m (7)
that the strain tensor consists of the elastic com- % ije  S ij  # ij
ponent and the viscoplastic component, then 2G 3 1  e0 m

% ij  % ije  % ijvp (2)

where % denotes the elastic strain rate tensor
e
ij
and % ijvp denotes the viscoplastic strain rate ten-
sor. Throughout this paper, the superimposed dot
indicates time differentiation.
2.3 Overconsolidation boundary surface
The model assumes that there exists a boundary
surface that separate the OC region ( f b e 0 )
and the NC region ( f b ` 0 ), namely overconso-
lidation boundary surface, which is defined by
the following function as:

2.2 Elastic strain rate fb  * T(0)  M mT ln( m 8 mb )  0 (8)

The elastic strain can be decomposed into a de-
viatoric component, % ij , and a volumetric com-
e

ponent, % v
e in which * T(0) is the relative stress ratio defined
as:
1 (3)
% ije  eije  % ve# ij
3 * T(0)  (*ijT  *ijT(0) )(*ijT  *ijT(0) ) (9)
 F. Oka et al. / Elasto-Viscoplastic Constitutive Modeling of Soft Sedimentary Rocks 565

where *ij is the stress ratio tensor ( Sij 8 m ) and

T
where mai and maf are the initial and final
subscript (0) denotes the initial state before de-
formation occurs; M mT is the value of values of ma respectively. According to Equa-
* T ( *ijT*ijT ) at the maximum compression and tion (12), as viscoplastic strain increases, ma
mb is a hardening parameter.
Due to chemical bonding and secondary con- decreases, thus ‘softening’ occurs. In this equa-
solidation, a soft rock can be considered a quasi- tion,  is a structural parameter signifying the
overconsolidated soil, i.e. the consolidation yield rate of structural changes and z is the accumula-
stress exceeds the largest stress it has ever expe- tion of the second invariant of the viscoplastic
rienced. The quasi-overconsolidation ratio is de- strain rate as:
fined as the ratio of consolidation yield stress
mbi to the mean effective stress at the end of  ,
t
z  $ zdt z  % ijvp% ijvp (12)
0
consolidation, namely, OCRT  mbi 8 m 0 .
When consolidation is just completed and be-
fore any deformation occurs, i.e. z =0, ma =
mai . Also, before deformation occurs, assum-
ing that the value of mb coincides with the
consolidation yield stress mbi , then

mbi  mai (13)

2.5 Yield function

The Cam-clay type of yield function model is
used to describe the mechanical behavior of clay
at its static equilibrium state. The static yield
function is expressed as:
Figure 1. OC boundary surface under triaxial conditions (af-
ter Kimoto 2002).
f y  * T(0)  M T ln( m 8 my( s ) )  0 (14)

2.4 Hardening and softening rule where my( s ) denotes the mean effective stress in
the static equilibrium state, in which no viscop-
The hardening - softening rule for the OC boun-
lastic deformation occurs.
dary is defined as:
The volumetric strain hardening - softening
follows the following rule

1  e0 vp  maf  ( mai  maf )exp(  z ) ( s )
mb  ma exp  %v  (10)
my( s ) 

myi exp 
1  e0 vp 
%v 
 Y 4 
  mai  Y 4




(15)
in which Y and 4 are the isotropic consolida- It can be seen that if my decreases, the static
tion compression and swelling indices. yield function shrinks due to structural collapse.
The parameter ma is defined as: The parameter M T in Equation (16) is assumed
ma  maf  ( mai  maf )exp(  z ) (11) to be constant in the NC region. In the OC re-
gion, it varies as follows:
566 F. Oka et al. / Elasto-Viscoplastic Constitutive Modeling of Soft Sedimentary Rocks

f M mT if f b `0 As it is shown, both the static yield and the

g (16)
viscoplastic potential functions transform
M  h
T
*ij*ij
T T
smoothly between NC and OC regions so that
g if fb e 0 calculations can be conducted continuously.
i ln( m 8 mc )
2.7 Viscoplastic flow rule
where mc denotes the mean effective stress at
Perzyna type of elasto-viscoplastic theory (Per-
the intersection of the OC boundary surface with zyna 1963) is applied, according to which vis-
the m axis, thus: coplastic strain rate is determined by

"f p (19)
*ijT(0)*ijT(0) (17) % ijvp  Cijkl
j ( f y )
mc  mb exp " kl
M mT
where
In case of isotropic consolidation, *ijT(0)  0 .
Hence, mc = mb . fj ( f y ) if f y k 0 (20)
j( f y )  h
i 0 if f y ) 0l

2.6 Visoplastic potential function
The viscoplastic potential function is given as
follow:
f p  * T(0)  M T ln( m 8 mp )  0
Figures (2) shows the shape of the OC boun-
dary surface f b  0 , the static yield function
f y  0 , and the viscoplastic potential function
f p  0 for *ijT(0)  0 in NC region and OC re-
gions.
j( f y )  C m exp 0 m
in which j is a material function for rate sensi-
tivity, f y  0 denotes the static yield function
and f p  0 denotes the viscoplastic potential
function. The value of f p is assumed to be posi-
tive for any stress state in this model. In other
(18)
words, the stress state always locates outside the
static yield function, thus the viscoplastic defor-
mation always occurs. Based on experimental re-
sults of constant strain rate triaxial tests (Adachi
and Oka 1982, Kimoto and Oka 2005), the ma-
terial function j can be defined as:
2  T /
* (0)  M ln( m( s ) )  -
T
10  my  .-
m
 C0 m exp[m (* T(0)  M T ln( mai ) )]
myi( s ) ma exp( A3% vvp )
(21)
where

1  e0 (22)
A3 
Y 4

Assuming mai  mbi , then

2  m  / (23)

j ( f y )  C0 m exp 0 m * T(0)  M T ln( ) -
Figure 2. OC boundary surface, static yield and potential
1  mb  .
functions (after Kimoto 2002).
 F. Oka et al. / Elasto-Viscoplastic Constitutive Modeling of Soft Sedimentary Rocks 567

Substituting Equation (22) into Equation (19) we

have
2  T  / "f p
% ijvp  C0 m exp 0 m * (0)  M ln( m )  -
T

1  mb  . " ij
(24)

The viscoplastic deviatoric strain rate and the

viscoplastic volumetric strain rate are then

m  m *ij  *ij (0) (25)

T T
f  T
eij  C0 exp hm
vp
*
 (0)  
M
T
ln  n T
i  mb  o * (0)
Figure 6. Results at confining pressure mo = 1 (kgf/cm2)

m  m   T  *ij (*ij  *ij (0) ) 

T T T
fT 
% vp  T ln
v  C0 exp h m * (0)  M n  M 
i  mb  o  * T(0) 

(26)

Table 1 Material parameters for Ohya soft rock

Parameters CD-1 CD-5 CD-10 CD-20
Initial void ratio e0 0.72 0.72 0.72 0.72

Confining stress 22(0) 1.0 5.0 10.0 20.0

(kgf/cm2)
Initial shear modulus
7567 4651 5900 7992
G0 (kgf/cm2)
Stress ratio at max. com- mo
1.97 1.61 1.42 1.26 Figure 7. Results at confining pressure = 5 (kgf/cm2).
pression M mT
Compression index Y 0.031 0.035 0.009 0.023
Swelling index 4 0.008 0.009 0.006 0.018
Compression yield stress
150 150 150 150
mai (kgf/cm2)
Structural parameter
2 10 10 10 10
maf (kgf/cm )

Structural parameter  1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0

Viscoplastic parameter
29 29 29 29
m'
Viscoplastic parameter
3.7x10-6 3.3x10-6 2.5x10-6 1.3x10-6
C01 (1/s)
Viscoplastic parameter
7.5x10-6 3.9x10-6 0.7x10-6 1.3x10-6
C02 (1/s)
Figure 8. Result at confining pressure mo = 10 (kgf/cm2).
568 F. Oka et al. / Elasto-Viscoplastic Constitutive Modeling of Soft Sedimentary Rocks

2.8 Numerical results and discussions
Oka and Adachi (1985) proposed an elasto-
plastic constitutive model for soft rocks and car-
ried out a series of test on Ohya porous tuff (To-
chigi, Japan) in order to validate the model. Four
triaxial drained test series were carried out at the
same strain rate of 0.025%/min. under four dif-
ferent confining pressures.
est results as well as Adachi and Oka’s simula-
tion results are shown in Figures 6, 7, 8, 9.
The experimental results clearly showed that
both strain softening and dilatancy are evident in
the cases of CD-1 and CD-5. As confining pres-
sure increases, dilatant behavior gradually be-
come insignificant. Strain softening still exists
under high confining pressures, however the sof-
tening scales are significantly reduced.
In the following, numerical simulation using
the model by Kimoto (2005) will be presented.
The experimental results by Oka and Adachi
(1995) will also be used for the validation of the
model. Table 1 shows the parameters used for
the simulation. Besides the parameters already
determined by Oka and Adachi (1995), the newly
introduced parameters: Viscoplastic parameters
m and C0 can be obtained from undrained tri-
axial tests with different strain rates; structural
parameters maf and  are selected by curve
fitting methods, as mentioned previously.
In the present paper, we have found that the elas-
to-viscoplastic model is applicable for the soft
sedimentary rocks , which can describe degrada-
tion of the material, i.e., strain softening. In the
future study we will reconsider the material pa-
rameters and the behavior with different strain
rates.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Leroueil and P. Vaughan, The general and
congruent effects of structure in natural soils and
weak rocks, Geotechnique, 40, 3, 1990, 467-488.
[2] F. Oka and T. Adachi, An elasto-plastic constitu-
tive equation of geologic materials with memory,
Proc. 5th Int. Conference on Numerical Methods
in Geomechanics, Nagoya, Kawamoto, T. and
Ichikawa, Y. eds., Balkema, 1, 1985, 293-300.
[3] T. Adachi and F. Oka, An elasto-plastic constitu-
tive model for soft rock with strain softening, Int.
J. N. Anal. Meth. in Geomechanics, 19, 1995,
233-247.
[4] S. Kimoto and F. Oka, An elasto-viscoplastic
model for clay considering destructuralization
and consolidation analysis of unstable behavior,
Soils and Foundations, 45, 2, 2005, 29-42.

Figure 9. Results at confining pressure mo = 20 (kgf/cm2).

Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 569
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-569

A multilaminate soil model for highly

overconsolidated clays
Un modèle de sol multi-plan pour les argiles fortement
surconsolidées
B. Schädlich 1 & H. F. Schweiger
Institute for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Austria

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a novel approach to model the shear strength of highly overconsolidated, stiff clays in numerical analysis.
The multilaminate framework of the model is explained, and details of the yield surfaces, plastic potential functions and harde-
ning rules are given. Comparison of undrained stress paths predicted by the model and laboratory test results shows that the mo-
del is well suited to predict peak strength and dilatant behavior typical for overconsolidated soils.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article présente une approche originale pour modéliser numériquement la résistance au cisaillement des argiles raides forte-
ment surconsolidés. Le modèle multi-plan est expliqué et les surfaces seuils de plasticité, les potentiels plastiques et les lois
d’écrouissage sont détaillés. La comparaison des chemins de contrainte non-drainés prédits par le modèle d’une part et résultants
d’un essai de laboratoire d’autre part, montre que le modèle est bien adapté à la prédiction du pic de résistance et du comporte-
ment dilatant typique des sols surconsolidés.

Keywords: Hvorslev surface, overconsolidated clay, multilaminate soil models

1 INTRODUCTION mental testing, taking all these aspects into ac-

The behavior of highly overconsolidated, stiff
clays differs substantially from normally consol-
idated soils: Overconsolidated clays are characte-
rized by lower void ratio, higher shear strength
and usually anisotropic material parameters. In
natural, undisturbed samples shear strength can
be further increased by inter-particle bonding and
cementation, resulting in gradual transition to
soft rock materials. After reaching peak strength,
strain localization occurs and shear strength re-
duces with increasing plastic deformation (strain
softening). Although noted very early in experi-
count in constitutive modeling proved to be ra-
ther difficult. Furthermore, performing strain sof-
tening analysis with conventional Finite Element
programs causes additional problems due to se-
vere mesh dependency, if no appropriate regula-
rization technique is employed. As a result, the
number of constitutive soil models accounting
for all these characteristics is limited, and appli-
cation to practical boundary value problems is
still rare.
In this study an extension of existing multila-
minate soil models [5] is presented, which ac-
counts for peak strength and its dependency on

1
Corresponding Author.
570 B. Schädlich and H.F. Schweiger / A Multilaminate Soil Model for Highly Overconsolidated Clays
volume change by utilizing the concept of a
Hvorslev-type strength surface. Model predic-
tions are compared with experimental data on
Vallericca clay.
2 SHEAR STRENGTH OF HIGHLY
OVERCONSOLIDATED CLAYS
With respect to the pioneering work of Hvorslev
the envelope of shear strength on the highly
overconsolidated side of the critical state line is
commonly termed Hvorslev surface. On a line of
constant volume in the V-p-q space (which is
equivalent to an undrained stress path) the
Hvorslev surface can be plotted as a straight line
with a cohesion intercept at p’ = 0 and inclina-
tion mHV.
At the intersection with the critical state line
the Hvorslev surface is connected to the Roscoe
– Rendulic surface. The cohesion intercept is no
material constant but depends on the current void
ratio e. As the soil volume differs along the un-
loading/reloading line, also qHV changes with va-
rying level of overconsolidation. By normalizing
the shear strength qmax to the equivalent pressure
pe on the isotropic compression line (ICL), de-
pendency on soil volume can be extracted and a
unique contour of shear strength is obtained
(Figure 1).
q max p'
 m HV
 q HV (1)
p' e p' e
The projection of the shear strength envelope
above an unloading reloading line in the p-q-
space plots as a curved line, touching the critical
state line at the origin of axis and at the intersec-
tion with the Roscoe-Rendulic surface.
It is worth noting that also for rock materials
the concept of a Hvorslev envelope has been
found suitable to some extent to describe the
strength and deformation behavior [4].
dİ gl  ı gl , old (2)
q/p'e critical
state line MCS
& Roscoe-
ace
ev surf Rendulic
rs l
Hvo mHV surface
&
qHV
&
Highly overconsolidated Lightly overcons. p'/p'e
Figure 1: Normalized shear strength contours
3 BASIC MULTILAMINATE MODEL
Multilaminate constitutive models are based on
the concept that the material behavior can be
formulated on a distinct number of local planes
with varying orientation. Each plane represents a
sector of a virtual sphere of unit radius around
the stress point and is assigned a weight factor
according to the proportion of its sector with re-
gard to the volume of the unit sphere. The global
response of the material to a prescribed load is
obtained by summation of the contributions of all
planes.
Within the multilaminate concept the local
stresses are assumed to be a projection of the
global stress state (static constraint). Conceptual-
ly similar models based on the kinematic con-
straint (local strain increments are a projection of
the global strain increment) are the so-called mi-
croplane models.
The multilaminate constitutive model pre-
sented in this study is an extension of existing
elastoplastic models of this type [5]. In the fol-
lowing the stress point algorithm for initially iso-
tropic material is briefly explained.
The macroscopic trial stress gl,trial is calcu-
lated from the global elastic compliance matrix
Cgl and the global strain increment d%gl, which is
assumed to be elastic in the first iteration. Cgl is
derived as the weighted sum of the local com-
pliances Cloc. In the case of isotropic linear elas-
tic material, Cloc is equal for all planes.
ı gl ,trial  C gl
 B. Schädlich and H.F. Schweiger / A Multilaminate Soil Model for Highly Overconsolidated Clays 571


C gl  3  Ti C i,loc TiT wi  (3) dİ ipl,loc  Yi
"g i
(8)
i "ı i ,loc
f trial
 Cnn 0 0  Yi  (9)
  "f i 1 "g i "f i "g i
C loc   0 Ctt 0  (4) C i,loc 
 0 "ı i,loc "ı i,loc "İ pl "ı i,loc
 0 Ctt  i ,loc

1 2 1 3
Cnn 
E
; Ctt 
E
(5)
pl
dİ gl  3  Ti dİ ipl,loc wi (10)
i
The factor of 3 in front of the summation can be
derived from the principle of virtual work by The new global trial stress is then calculated with
comparing the sum of local work contributions the difference of the total strain increment and
and the macroscopic work. The weight factors wi the plastic strain increment.
depend on the chosen integration rule. In this
study an integration rule based on 2 × 33 planes
[1] is used, which proved to balance well be-
 pl
ı gl ,trial  C gl dİ gl  dİ gl  ı gl ,old  (11)
tween accuracy and computational cost. This iterative procedure is repeated until the
The transformation matrix Ti contains the de- plastic strain increment of the current iteration is
rivatives of the local stress components with re- less than 1% of the total plastic strains calculated
spect to the global stress state. Using a fixed set in that step.
of local coordinates represented by the unit vec-
tor niT = (ni,1, ni,2, ni,3) normal to the plane i and
two unit tangential vectors within the plane, siT =
4 HVORSLEV SURFACE MODEL
(si,1, si,2, si,3) and tiT = (ti,1, ti,2, ti,3), these derivates
take on constant scalar values.
4.1 Yield functions and hardening rules
"ı i,loc
Ti 
"ı gl The yield surfaces are defined on plane level in
local tangential (shear) stresses  and normal
 ni2,1 ni,1 s i,1 ni,1 t i,1 
  (6) stresses n. Plastic strains and mobilization of the
 n2 ni,2 s i,2 ni,2 t i,2 
 i,2
 yield surfaces are allowed to differ from plane to
2
 n i ,3 n i ,3 s i ,3 n i ,3 t i ,3  plane, resulting in strain induced anisotropy dur-
 
 2ni,1 ni,2 ni,1 s i,2  ni,2 s i,1 ni,1 t i,2  ni,2 t i,1  ing plastic loading.
 2 n i , 2 n i ,3 n i ,3 s i , 2  n i , 2 s i ,3 n i ,3 t i , 2  n i , 2 t i ,3  In the model three yield surfaces are defined.
 
 n i ,1 n i , 3 n i , 3 s i ,1  n i ,1 s i , 3 n i , 3 t i ,1  n i ,1 t i , 3  The elliptical, strain hardening cap yield surface
By projecting the global trial stress vector gl,trial controls compression behavior in the normally
with the transformation matrix T i on plane i, the and lightly overconsolidated range.
local trial stress vectors i,loc are obtained for all 
planes.
 n ,i  e 'CS
  lin
re
ı i,loc    s,i   Ti  ı gl ,trial T ilu
(7) MCP· nc fa
'm
 
  t , i 
fHV
Plastic strains are calculated locally based on
elastic fcap
strain hardening elastoplasticity. Back- fcone
region
transformation and summation of all local plastic
strains delivers the global plastic strain incre- n,CS nc - n
ment. Figure 2: Local yield surfaces
572 B. Schädlich and H.F. Schweiger / A Multilaminate Soil Model for Highly Overconsolidated Clays

n2 2 f cone    n tan  m (16)

f cap   1 (12)
2
nc M CP nc 2 The hardening rule (eq. 17) controlling mobiliza-
tion of the cone yield surface contains the har-
The position of the cap yield surface is defined dening parameter Amat, which defines the local
by the intersection with the n –axis and the cap shear strain at which the maximum friction angle
shape parameter MCP, which controls the inter- max is mobilized. The maximum friction angle
section with the -axis. The value of MCP is de- max depends on the position of the Hvorslev
termined beforehand in an iterative procedure yield surface at the current stress (Figure 5).
such that in normally consolidated, oedometric
conditions h = K0 v is ensured. The initial size tan  m,i 1  tan  m,i 
of the cap yield surface is defined by the initial
stresses and the degree of overconsolidation 
pl

tan  max  tan  m,i  (17)
OCR. For OCR = 1, the cap yield surface is posi-
pl A tan  max  tan  0 
tioned at the initial stress state. If plastic normal 
 mat
strains occur locally, increase or reduction of the 3 
tan  max  tan  m,i 
cap yield surface is controlled by the correspond-
ing hardening rule (eq. 13). The hardening para- The strain hardening cone yield surface is active
meter K contains the volumetric stiffness in pri- in deviatoric loading until the stress path reaches
mary loading Eoed and the elastic the Hvorslev strength surface. The principle de-
unloading/reloading Young’s modulus Eur, both finition of the Hvorslev surface (eq. 1) is adapted
at reference pressure pref. Dependency of stiff- to the multilaminate definition of local stresses
ness on stress level is taken into account by an by substituting q with  and p with n. The
exponential law using the power index m (shown equivalent normal stress n,ve at the isotropic
for Eoed in eq. 15). compression line is calculated from the current
normal stress n and the pre-consolidation stress
1
2 / 1 m nc.
1 m (m  1)
nc,i 1   0 nc,i K % npl - (13)
0 m 1
p ref - f HV    n tan  e  c HV (18)
1 .

 tan  e 
K
3
(14) c HV  B   1 n,ve (19)
2 1  tan  CS 
3 1  2  /-
p ref 0 
0 E ref ref
E ur - ref
1 oed . 1 m E
n,ve   2 nc  oed ...
01 ref
E ur (20)
m
 p' 
ref
E oed ref
 E oed  
 p ref 
 
(15) 
...31  2  1n m  1nc m 6 1 /(1 m )

For updating the local pre-consolidation stress

The cone yield surface is defined by a straight
line and governs plastic deformation in deviator-
ic loading below the Hvorslev surface. In the
normally and slightly overconsolidated range the
cone yield surface finally equals the Mohr-
nc all normal plastic strain contribution of the
current plane are taken into account. Positive
plastic normal strains, caused by dilatancy at the
cone or the Hvorslev yield surface, reduce nc,
whereas negative plastic normal strains enlarge
Coulomb failure line for m = CS. nc.
 B. Schädlich and H.F. Schweiger / A Multilaminate Soil Model for Highly Overconsolidated Clays 573

8 n,ve 
critical 'CS 'max
state line
'CS
fHV ac
e 'm
fcap surf Xm ine
'e B lev tate l
v ors al s
cHV H ritic
C
B/tan'CS & n8 n,ve Xmax
Figure 3: Normalized local shear strength contours

current normal stress - n

In undrained conditions volumetric plastic strains
are compensated on global level by elastic volu- Figure 5: Mobilized and maximum angle of dilatancy
metric strains of equal magnitude, such that the
volume remains constant (%vol = 0) and therefore The maximum angle of dilatancy Xmax is calcu-
p’ changes. In that case  n,ve remains constant, lated from the difference between the critical
state line and the Hvorslev surface at to the cur-
although nc gradually decreases throughout the
rent local stress state (Figure 5, eq. 22). With that
test. In drained conditions strain softening is
approach a smooth transition from dilatant beha-
triggered by the increase in volume und the sub-
vior in the heavily overconsolidated to non-
sequent reduction of  n,ve, which results in de-
dilatant behavior in the normally consolidated
creasing cHV and hence in lower shear strength.
range is achieved. With increasing stress level
and accumulating plastic strains Xmax reduces,
4.2 Plastic potential functions
eventually resulting in m = CS and Xmax = Xm =
Plasticity resulting from the cap yield surface is 0 at critical state.
fully associated, which means that the plastic po-
tential function is the same as the cap yield func- X max   max  CS (22)
tion. Cone and Hvorslev yield surface are non-
associated. The cone plastic potential function
equals the cone yield function with the friction
angle m being replaced by the mobilized angle
5 COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTAL
of dilatancy Xm (eq. 21). Mobilization of dilatan- DATA
cy is modeled by a cubical function in dependen-
cy on the mobilized friction angle m (Schweiger Burland et al. [2] conducted an extensive re-
et al. 2009, Figure 4). search program on the strength properties of four
overconsolidated clays, on both intact (natural)
g cone  g HV    n tan X m (21) and reconstituted samples. The comparison fur-
ther on focuses on triaxial test results on recons-
Xm tituted samples of normally and overconsolidated
Vallericca clay.
Xmax The overconsolidated samples were com-
pressed to an isotropic pre-consolidation pressure
'1 of 2000kPa and then swelled isotropically to ini-
tial stresses of p’0 = 100, 200 and 400kPa. The
'CS max m
intrinsic stiffness parameters Y and 4 (Table 1)
are converted to Eoed,ref = pref (1+e)/Y = 1090kPa
Xmin and Eur,ref = 3pref (1-2) (1+e)/4 = 10140kPa cor-
responding to the void ratio at the pre-
Figure 4: Mobilization of dilatancy consolidation pressure of 2000kPa.
574 B. Schädlich and H.F. Schweiger / A Multilaminate Soil Model for Highly Overconsolidated Clays

Table 1. Intrinsic material parameters of Vallericca clay (after 1.0

[2] and [3]) experim. OC
experim. NC critical
CS e Y 4 e1kPa 0.8 state line
calculated
26.7° 22.6° 0.145 0.028 1.68
0.6 Hvorslev sur.

q/ e [kPa]
Experimental and calculated undrained stress
0.4
paths for the normally and overconsolidated
samples are compared in Figure 6. The model
0.2
predicts the dilatant/compressive behavior of the
overconsolidated and normally consolidated
0.0
samples with good accuracy. If normalized by 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
the equivalent pressure pe, both experimental and
p/pe [kPa]
calculated overconsolidated stress paths do not
reach the critical state line (Figure 7). In the ex- Figure 7: Normalized undrained stress paths
periment such behavior can be attributed to the
formation of shear bands, triggering local in-
crease in volume and subsequent loss of shear 6 CONCLUSION
strength. Similarly, in the calculations planes at
the most critical orientation preferably develop A novel approach to model deformation behavior
plastic normal strains, resulting in reduced and strength characteristics of highly overconso-
strength on these planes. lidated, stiff clays has been presented. The model
is based on the multilaminate framework and au-
tomatically takes into account anisotropy in-
800
duced by plastic strains. Peak shear strength in
(a) the highly overconsolidated range is defined by a
600 Hvorslev surface whose size depends on the de-
q [kPa]

gree of overconsolidation and the development

400 of volumetric plastic strains. Dilatancy in the
experiment highly overconsolidated range is controlled by
200 calculated the distance between Hvorslev surface and criti-
CSL cal state line, which is in good agreement with
0 experimental data.
0 -200 -400 -600 -800
[kPa]
REFERENCES
800 experiment
calculated (b) [1] Bažant, Z.P. & Oh, B.H. 1986. Efficient Numerical In-
CSL tegration on the Surface of a Sphere, Z. Angew. Math.
600 Mech. 66 (1) 37-49
q [kPa]

[2] Burland, J.B., Rampello, S., Georgiannou, V.N. &

400 Calabresi, G. 1996. A laboratory study of the strength
of four stiff clays. Geotechnique 46 (3), 491-514.
[3] Callisto, L. & Rampello, S., 2004. An interpretation of
200 structural degradation for three natural clays. Can. Geo-
tech. J. 41 (6), 392-407.
[4] Price, A.M. & Farmer, I.W., 1981. The Hvorslev Sur-
0 face in Rock Deformation. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci.
0 -200 -400 -600 -800 -1000 -1200 & Geomech. Abstr. 18, 229-234.
p [kPa] [5] Schweiger, H.F., Wiltafsky, C., Scharinger, F. & Gala-
vi, V. 2009. A multilaminate framework for modelling
Figure 6: Undrained triaxial stress paths of overconsolidated induced and inherent anisotropy of soils. Geotechnique
(a) and normally consolidated (b) Vallericca clay 59 (2), 87-101.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 575
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-575

Research on hydraulic heaves at excavations with

surcharge filters
Recherche sur la stabilité contre des soulèvements d’eau les de
l’excavation avec un filtre de surcharge
P. Schober1 & C. Boley
Bundeswehr University Munich, Neubiberg, Germany
B. Odenwald
Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Karlsruhe, Germany

ABSTRACT
When designing deep excavation pits next to waterways that are still being operated, verifying hydraulic heave safety is crucial
to determine the necessary length of the pit walls. To reduce their embedment depth, a surcharge filter can be installed.
However, studies based on numerical groundwater computations show that verification standards for hydraulic heave safety are
not applicable for excavation pits with an installed surcharge filter. Standard approaches neglect significant vertical flow below
the wall toe. A method which considers these flow forces was developed based on the numerical flow computations to determine
reliably the necessary thickness of the surcharge filter. To examine this theoretical approach and the failure mechanism, several
laboratory tests were performed which were evaluated with various methods.

RÉSUMÉ
Pour des excavations à proximité immédiate des canaux de navigation en service, la vérification de la stabilité contre des renards
est déterminante pour la longueur nécessaire de la cloison de l’excavation. En installant un filtre de surcharge au fond de
l’excavation, on peut réduire la profondeur nécessaire de la cloison. Pourtant, analyses conduites sur la base des calculs
numériques des courants de l’eau souterraine montrent que les vérifications conventionnelles ne sont pas applicables pour des
excavations avec un filtre au fond de l’excavation, parce qu’elles ne prennent pas les courants verticaux au-dessous du pied de la
cloison en compte, qui, en ce cas, sont très signifiants. C’est pour cette raison qu’une méthode fiable a été développée sur la base
des calculs numériques des courants de l’eau souterraine pour déterminer l’épaisseur nécessaire du filtre de surcharge qui prend
les forces des courants en compte. Pour vérifier cette approche et analyser le mécanisme de la défaillance, de nombreux d’essais
de laboratoire ont été exécutés et exploités moyennant de différentes méthodes.

Keywords: safety, groundwater, hydraulic heave, laboratory test, filter

1 INTRODUCTION reduce the embedment depth of the walls, a

Installing deep excavation pits next to waterways
which are still being operated has become a more
and more frequent practice for construction
measures to allow continued ship traffic.
Verification of hydraulic heave safety is required
to determine the length of the pit walls. To
surcharge filter can be installed at the pit bottom.
Due to current construction measures on German
waterways, the German Federal Waterways
Engineering and Research Institute performed
numerical groundwater flow computations.
However, these brought up general questions on
hydraulic heave safety in cases of a reduced

1
Corresponding Author.
576 P. Schober et al. / Research on Hydraulic Heaves at Excavations with Surcharge Filters
embedment depth of the pit walls due to a
surcharge filter installed inside the excavation
pit. Odenwald and Herten [2] already
documented the results of the performed analyses
in detail. Based on these, the Bundeswehr
University Munich conducted comprehensive
laboratory tests and evaluated these using various
methods.
2 VERIFICATION OF HYDRAULIC
HEAVE SAFETY
Lowering the groundwater level inside an
excavation pit down to its bottom leads to
groundwater flow to the excavation pit with an
upward flow direction from the wall toe to the
bottom of the excavation pit. If the thus caused
flow force S suspends the buoyant weight of the
soil G’ as well as other possible stabilizing forces
R, hydraulic heave results. This can lead quickly
to the flooding of the excavation pit due to
regressive erosion around the toe wall as well as
to the collapse of the excavation pit.
Based on the German geotechnical codes,
hydraulic heave safety is verified according to
approaches by Terzaghi-Peck [3] or Baumgart-
Davidenkoff [1] they use a simplified unstable
block to determine the relevant forces. Both
methods only compare the flow force S and the
buoyant weight of the soil G’. Possible friction
forces are neglected. Terzaghi-Peck’s approach
determines the forces with the help of a prismatic
soil block whose height corresponds to the
embedment depth t of the wall below the pit
bottom and whose width corresponds to half of
the embedment depth (b = t/2). Baumgart-
Davidenkoff’s approach uses a block whose
width is negligible and whose height is also the
distance between the pit bottom and the wall toe.
Since, in cases of undercurrent flow, the
groundwater potential at the wall toe is always
higher than the mean potential at the lower edge
of the unstable block according to Terzaghi-
Peck’s approach, Baumgart-Davidenkoff’s
approach is always more conservative.
When using a surcharge filter, the height of
the unstable block is the distance between the
wall toe and the upper edge of the surcharge
filter. The relevant width, however, according to
[3] corresponds only to a half of the embedment
depth of the wall below the pit bottom. In this
case, the weight of the surcharge filter needs to
be considered as an additional stabilizing force.
The installed surcharge filter needs to be filter
stable against the soil below the pit bottom and
may only cause a slight decrease of the
groundwater potential.
3 NUMERICAL GROUNDWATER FLOW
COMPUTATIONS
3.1 General
The numerical groundwater flow computations
were performed based on a steady state, vertical-
plane groundwater model under simplified
assumptions. This refers in particular to the
assumptions of a groundwater potential at both
sides of the pit wall at the height of the terrain or
pit surface (below the surcharge filter) and of a
homogeneous and isotropic ground. Thus, in
cases of flow in direction of the pit, the
groundwater potential can be described by only
considering the quotient of the pit wall’s
embedment depth below the pit bottom and the
groundwater potential difference 'h.
According to Terzaghi-Peck’s or Baumgart-
Davidenkoff’s approaches, the flow force results
from the residual potential difference 'hr
between the lower edge of the unstable block at
the wall toe and the pit bottom. Considering the
applied simplified assumptions, the ratio of the
residual potential difference and the total
potential difference 'hr/'h can be specified as a
function of t/'h (Figure 1). As the length of the
applied unstable block only corresponds to the
distance from the pit bottom to the lower edge of
the wall, the residual potential difference drops
down to zero with decreasing embedment depth
t. If an unstable block starting at the wall toe is
used for the computations, vertical flow in the
ground below the wall toe is not considered.
Applying the functional relation of 'hr/'h and
t/'h also allows determining the necessary
thickness of the surcharge filter dF depending on
 P. Schober et al. / Research on Hydraulic Heaves at Excavations with Surcharge Filters
t/'h. For the equilibrium state without any safety
factors, a dimensionless variable including the
quotients dF/'h and JF/JW (JF: unit weight of the
surcharge filter material; JW: unit weight of
water) is specified for a ratio JS’/JW = 1.0 (JS’
buoyant unit weight of the soil) depending on
t/'h (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Residual potential difference 'hr
Figure 2. Required thickness of the surcharge filter dF
As expected, according to the two approaches
by Terzaghi-Peck and Baumgart-Davidenkoff,
the necessary filter thickness initially rises with
constant potential difference and decreasing
embedment depth. After reaching a maximum,
however, the necessary filter thickness drops
with constant potential difference and
577
continuously decreasing embedment depth down
to zero. Apparently, verifying hydraulic heave
safety for a construction which involves a
surcharge filter by using an unstable block that
only reaches to the wall toe is inadequate to
determine the necessary wall embedment in the
ground.
3.2 Approach with an extended unstable block
The analyzed undercurrent flow below the walls
of an excavation pit included flow in an upward
direction below the wall toe. The performed
numerical computations showed that in case of a
surcharge filter installed on top of the pit bottom
and pit walls with reduced embedment depth,
significant vertical gradients may develop below
the pit bottom, which partially lie significantly
above the limiting gradient igr = JS’/JW.
To determine an unstable block which
considers vertical flow in the ground in a
sufficient manner, an area below the wall toe
needs to be defined where the vertical
component of the specific hydraulic gradient iz is
higher than the limiting gradient igr. Below this
area, the specific soil weight is always higher
than the specific flow force, so, for the
verification of hydraulic heave safety, the
equilibrium in this area is not exceeded.
Hydraulic heave safety needs to be verified
based on an unstable block that also covers the
distance between the wall toe and the critical
depth (iz = igr). In the following, the new
verification approach (based on Baumgart-
Davidenkoff’s approach) which involves the
adapted unstable block is illustrated.
Using the extended unstable block, a corrected
residual potential difference can be determined.
This time, we did not consider the distance
between the wall toe and the pit bottom but the
distance between the critical depth (iz = igr)
below the wall toe and the pit bottom. The
functional relation between the necessary
thickness of the surcharge filter relating to the
total potential difference dF/'h and the quotient
of embedment depth and potential difference
t/'h can be determined in the same way as for
the conventional unstable block. This is
illustrated in Figure 3 for the equilibrium state
578 P. Schober et al. / Research on Hydraulic Heaves at Excavations with Surcharge Filters
and a quotient of the buoyant unit weight of the
soil and the unit weight of water JS’/JW = 1.0. As
opposed to the approach using an unstable block
that starts at the wall toe, computations based on
the new approach, using an extended unstable
block, concluded that even if the embedment
depth is reduced down to zero a surcharge filter
is still needed. However, a maximum is also
reached here, which means that at constant
potential difference, a further reduction of the
embedment depth requires a less thickness of the
surcharge filter. To verify this apparently
contradictory statement, laboratory tests were
performed that are described in the following.
Figure 3. Required thickness of the surcharge layer dF
(conventional and extended unstable block)
The detailed computation basis for the
verification of hydraulic heave safety using the
method described above, also regarding relevant
safety factors, as well as the determination of the
necessary dimensions of the surcharge filter,
with or without considering friction forces in the
filter material, were described in [2].
4 VISUALIZATION OF FAILURE BY
LABORATORY TESTS
To verify the theoretical approach, the Institute
for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical
Engineering of the Bundeswehr University
Munich carried out numerous laboratory tests in
a specific box to simulate hydraulic heaves.
During the experimental series, the embedment
depth t of the wall and the thickness of the
surcharge filter dF were varied.
4.1 Experimental observations of failure mode
We observed the failure mode of the hydraulic
heave during the test series using several
measurement techniques. The used measurement
techniques and instruments were: 3 water
pressure sensors around the base of the partition
panel, 3 displacement sensors in the middle of
the test box, fluid flow meter behind the outlet of
the test box and the Particle Image Velocimetry
(PIV) method.
Two different temporal failure processes of
hydraulic heave, depending on the thickness of
the surcharge filter dF, were observed. During the
tests with a thickness of the surcharge filter dF =
2 cm, relevant elevations were already detected
some potential steps before the hydraulic heave
occurred. As for the tests with the surcharge
filter sizes dF = 4 cm or dF = 6 cm, the hydraulic
heave occurred 1 to 3 minutes after the first
elevation could be observed. Therefore, it can be
assumed that the thickness of the surcharge filter
dF has a significant influence on the fracture
behavior.
4.1.1 Illustration of failure figure by Particle
Image Velocimetry (PIV) method
During these laboratory experiments, we
observed fracture mechanics with the PIV
method. Small displacements of the sand could
be identified and their direction and amplitude
could be determined. Figure 4 shows absolute
displacements around the base of the partition
panel for different potential differences with an
embedment depth t of 4 cm and a thickness of
the surcharge filter dF of also 4 cm.
Figure 4 underlines that the displacements
begin under the base of the partition panel at a
potential difference 'h of 42 cm. Later on, the
displacements spread to the downstream side of
the partition panel ('h = 46 - 50 cm). If the uplift
on the upstream site of the panel has a certain
value, the displacements spread to the backside
of the wall and the hydraulic heave is initiated
('h = 50 cm - 54 cm). The last two images in
Figure 4 show the displacements at the same
 P. Schober et al. / Research on Hydraulic Heaves at Excavations with Surcharge Filters 579

potential difference. The penultimate image the test box. The displacements were detected by
displays the displacements at the beginning of displacement transducers. Transducer 1, which is
the potential step, the last image show it briefly located at a distance from the partition panel of 5
before the hydraulic heave occurs. The same cm, also shows the first significant elevations at
failure behavior was observed in almost all tests. the potential difference of 'h = 48 cm - 50 cm.
Furthermore, the yield line of the unstable This corresponds to the observations in Figure 5.
block can be visualized by the PIV method for
all potential differences. Hence, the geometry of
the unstable block for several potential
differences 'h can be determined. For further
investigation, the results of the analysis can be
used as a basis to develop the theoretical
approach and adapt the unstable block.

Figure 5. Vertical displacements z [mm] at the sand surface

Figure 6. Vertical displacements z [mm] at the filter surface

Transducer 2, at a distance of 10 cm from the

Figure 4 Absolute displacements partition panel, displays smaller elevations than
transducer 1. However, the significant elevations
4.1.2 Vertical displacements in front of the begin at a potential difference of 'h = 52 cm.
partition wall Transducer 3, at a distance of 15 cm from the
partition panel, displays no significant
Figure 5 shows vertical displacements on the elevations.
surface of the sand in front of the partition panel
measured by the PIV method. The diagram
shows that the first significant vertical elevations
happen at the potential difference of 'h = 50 cm.
This corresponds to the results illustrated in
Figure 4 which show that the significant
displacements at the downstream of the partition Figure 7. Bulking of sand in front of the partition panel
panel start at the same potential difference.
Furthermore, the diagram visualizes the shape Additionally, the phenomenon of bulking
and the length of the unstable block. could be observed during the test series
Figure 6 shows vertical displacements on the (Figure 7).
surface of the surcharge filter in the middle of
580 P. Schober et al. / Research on Hydraulic Heaves at Excavations with Surcharge Filters
4.1.3 Water pressure conditions
The recorded pressure curves were used to
control the duration of a potential step.
Comparing the curves of the water pressure
sensors with the illustration of the absolute
displacements detected with the PIV method
(Figure 4), it can be seen that the first relevant
displacements in front and at the base of the
partition panel occur at the potential difference
of 'h = 42 cm where the irregular run of the
curves begins (sensor 1 and 2 in Figure 8).
Hence, relocations and/or displacements in the
test sand can be detected by observing water
pressure curves. At the beginning of the test, the
hydraulic differences are relatively small. Hence,
no relocations or displacements occur and the
pressure curves run regularly ('h = 12 cm – 42
cm in Figure 8). If the curves show jerky leaps or
run irregularly, it can be assumed that relocations
and/or displacements occur around the pressure
sensor ('h = 42 cm – 54 cm in Figure 8).
Figure 8. Water pressure u [mbar]
4.2 Results of experiments
Figure 9 shows the results of the experimental
series and the theoretical approach as a function
of dF/'h and t/'h. Similar to the results of the
theoretical approach, the test results show that
the required thickness of the surcharge filter dF
drops down from a defined ratio between the
embedment depth of the wall and the potential
difference t/'h.
The results of the test series are clearly below
the results of the theoretical approach. Hence, the
theoretical approach can be assessed as being
very conservative. In the theoretical approach,
only the weight of the unstable block is
considered. The assumption and the idealized
unstable block in the theoretical approach cause
the differences between the theoretical approach
and the experimental tests.
Figure 9. Results of experimental series
5 CONCLUSION
The result of the numerical computation with
an extended unstable block and the results of the
experimental series show qualitative similar
results. If the ratio between the embedment depth
of the wall and the potential difference t/'h falls
below a defined value, the required thickness of
the surcharge filter dF drops. The relatively high
quantitative difference between the results of the
numerical computation and the experimental
tests causes from assumptions in the theoretical
approach. The development and the adaptation of
the theoretical approach will be object to further
investigation. With the applied measurement
techniques, the failure figure could be visualized
and the failure mode was observed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The project was sponsor by the Federal
Waterways Engineering and Research Institute
Karlsruhe, Germany.
REFERENCES
[1] Davidenkoff, R., 1970. Unterläufigkeit von
Stauwerken, Wernerverlag, Düsseldorf
[2] Odenwald, B., Herten, M., 2008. Hydraulischer
Grundbruch: neue Erkenntnisse, Bautechnik 85, Heft 9,
S. 585 -595
[3] Terzaghi, K, Peck, R. B., 1948. Soil Mechanics in
Engineering Practice, John Wiley and Sons, New York
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 581
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-581

Triaxial test simulation on Erksak sand using

hardening soil model
Simulation des essais triaxiaux sur le sable Erksak avec le
modèle Hardening Soil
™š
{Ÿ 1
 š
{¡Ÿ
Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, CROATIA

ABSTRACT
Hardening Soil model (HS) available in numerical computer program Plaxis is widely used in geotechnical practice for modeling
both cohesive and non cohesive soils. The basic characteristics of the model are stress dependent stiffness according to a power
law, plastic straining due to primary deviatoric loading, plastic straining due to primary compression, elastic unloading/reloading
and failure according to the Mohr-Coulomb model. In this paper parameters of HS model are evaluated for Erksak sand. The tri-
axial tests database used consists of 15 drained and 31 undrained tests and it covers wide range of sand density and isotropic
consolidation pressure. Results of simulations show that relative density has to be accounted for to be able to simulate the sand
behavior for different states. Some relationships to relative density are proposed for reference secant stiffness, effective angle of
internal friction and angle of dilatancy. Great advantages of HS model, but also some limitations are presented in this paper, both
for drained and undrained conditions.

RÉSUMÉ
Le modèle Hardening Soil (HS), disponible dans le code de calcul Plaxis, est largement utilisé pour modeler le comportement
des sols cohérents et incohérents. Les caractéristiques essentielles du modèle sont la rigidité qui dépend des contraintes selon une
loi de puissance, les déformations plastiques dues au chargement déviatoir primaire, les déformations plastiques dues à la com-
pression primaire, le chargement/déchargement élastique et la loi de rupture selon Mohr-Coulomb. Dans cet article les para-
mètres du modèle HS ont été évalués pour le sable Erksak. On a utilisé les résultats des essais triaxiaux, 15 essais drainés et 31
essais non drainés, avec une grande variété de la pression de consolidation isotrope, sur les échantillons du sable ayant une
grande variété de la densité. Les résultats des simulations ont montré que pour le propre comportement calculé du sable aux états
différents, on doit prendre compte de l’indice de densité. On propose des relations entre l’indice de densité d’une part et la rigidi-
té sécante de référence, l’angle de frottement effectif et l’angle de dilatance d’autre. Les grands avantages et aussi quelques limi-
tations du modèle HS sont présentés pour les conditions drainées et non drainées.

Keywords: sand modeling, hardening soil model, triaxial test, critical state, dilatancy, Plaxis software

1 INTRODUCTION magnitude of deformation. One of the main be-

Modeling of complex sand behavior is great
challenge for advance numerical soil models.
The extremely nonlinear behavior depends not
only on the intrinsic properties of the sand but al-
so on the density of sand, state of stress and the
1
Corresponding author
haviors that differs sand from other materials is
its characteristic to change the volume due to
pure shearing, which is called dilatancy [1]. The
dilatancy of sand is known to be positive for in-
itially dense sand, causing extension of the sam-
ple, and negative for loose sand causing contrac-
582 I. Sokolić and Ž. Skazlić / Triaxial Test Simulation on Erksak Sand Using Hardening Soil Model

tion. It can be observed from drained triaxial where Rf is failure ratio (ultimate deviatoric
tests on the dense and loose sand, starting from stress qf divided by asymptotic stress qa), while
the same isotropic consolidation pressure, that E50 (the confining stress dependent stiffness
for high rate of shear deformation both samples modulus for primary loading) and qf (the ulti-
dilate toward the same final density reaching the mate deviatoric stress) are given by:
critical state [2]. In the critical state the sand is
shearing under the constant rate of stresses re- m
 c cos   '3 sin  
taining the same volume. For different isotropic E50  E50ref   (2)
 c cos   p sin  
ref
pressures different critical state voids are
reached, that can be well approximated by the
critical state line [3-5]. For dense sand it is cha-
racteristic to reach the peak strength at relatively 2 sin 
small shear deformation and to reduce the q f  (c cot   ' 3 ) (3)
strength for further shearing, while the loose
1  sin 
sand reaches the critical state strength gradually.
The effect of peak strength caused by dilatancy is where E50ref is a reference stiffness modulus cor-
less pronounced at higher isotropic pressure [6]. responding to the confining pressure pref, power
For both dense and loose sand the stress-strain m is amount of stress dependency and c and 
relationship can be relatively good approximated are strength parameters (see Figure 1).
by hyperbola [7]. The shear hardening flow rule in HS model is
All the characteristic of real sand behavior linear and depends on mobilized dilatancy angle
mentioned above can be well observed on triaxi- Xm which takes value:
al tests on Erksak sand [5]. The database of tests - for  = 0 and sinm < 3/4 sin, Xm =0
consist of 15 drained and 31 undrained triaxial - for sinm ` 3/4 sin and X ) 0, Xm = X
tests in wide range of sand density and consoli- - for sinm ` 3/4 sin and X > 0
dation pressure which gives the great opportunity
to validate the capabilities of Hardening soil  sin  m  sin  cv 
model (HS) to model the real sand behavior. sinX m  max ,0  (4)
 1  sin  m sin  cv 

2 HARDENING SOIL MODEL where cv is critical state friction angle, X is soil
parameter and m is mobilized friction angle
HS model available in numerical computer pro- adopted from stress-dependent theory [10]:
gram Plaxis was originally developed for model-
ing real sand behavior [8]. The basic characteris- '1  ' 3
tics of the model are stress dependent stiffness sin  m  (5)
according to a power law, plastic straining due to '1  ' 3 2c cot 
primary deviatoric loading, plastic straining due
to primary compression, elastic unloading and
reloading, dilatancy and failure according to the
Mohr-Coulomb criteria [9]. The basic idea for
the formulation of the HS model is the hyperbol-
ic relationship between the vertical strain %1 and
the deviatoric stress q in drained triaxial loading:

1 q
 %1  (1)
2 E50 (2  R f ) 1  qR f / q f
Figure 1. Hyperbolic stress-strain relation for HS model [9].
 I. Sokolić and Ž. Skazlić / Triaxial Test Simulation on Erksak Sand Using Hardening Soil Model
3 TRIAXIAL TESTS ON ERKSAK SAND
The database of triaxial test on Erksak sand con-
sists of 15 drained and 31 undrained triaxial tests
in the wide range of effective isotropic consoli-
dation pressure (60kPa < p’0 < 8100kPa) and ini-
tial void ratio (0.588 < ei < 0.820). The change of
void ratio of samples and the effective isotropic
stress due to shearing in drained and undrained
conditions are shown on Figure 2. It can be seen
that all the samples are changing the initial void
ratio ei towards the critical state line (CSL) ap-
proximated by log-log relationship [11]. In
drained conditions initially dense samples below
the CSL line (‘dry’ region [3]) are dilating, while
the loose samples above the CSL line (‘wet’ re-
gion) are compacting. In undrained conditions
the volume of the initial sample remains constant
while the isotropic pressure is increasing for
samples in ‘dry’ region or reducing for samples
in ‘wet’ region.
For all the tests in database the stress-strain
relation is available together with basic mechani-
cal and physical characteristics of Erksak sand.
Figure 2. Critical state line for Erksak sand.
583
The limiting void ratios are emin = 0.521 and emax
= 0.747, average grain size D50 = 0.33mm, con-
tent of fines 0.7 % and critical state friction angle
cv = 31.5 degrees.
4 TRIAXIAL TEST SIMULATION
The results of triaxial tests on Erksak sand were
used to calibrate the parameters of HS soil model
and to evaluate the capabilities of HS model to
simulate the behavior of Erksak sand for differ-
ent initial densities, in wide range of initial con-
solidation pressure and for different type of drai-
nage conditions.
As hyperbolic stress-strain relationship of HS
model is defined for drained shearing, the results
of drained triaxial test were used to derive the
parameters of the model. For each drained triaxi-
al test the stress-strain results were used to define
the ultimate friction angle , ultimate shear stress
qf, 50% of ultimate strength qf(50) and corres-
ponding axial deformation %1(50). The confining
stress dependent stiffness modulus for primary
loading E50 was calculated using the equation:
q f (50 )
E50  (6)
% 1(50)
For all drained tests the stiffness modulus E50
and ultimate friction angle vary in the range
15.290kPa < E50 < 254.056kPa and 26.9o <  <
39.3o. To define the parameters of Erksak sand
for whole range of the results it was necessary to
account for confining pressure influence and for
sand density.
The reference stiffness was first calculated for
three samples with the same initial void ratio ei
= 0.68 at different initial isotropic pressure p’0 =
140; 60; 300 by using the equation (2). Changing
the power parameter m in the range of 0.5 <m <
1.0 it was found that best fit was achieved for m
= 1.0. Assuming that the power parameter does
not depend on the soil density the same value
was used to define the reference pressure for dif-
ferent isotropic pressure.
584 I. Sokolić and Ž. Skazlić / Triaxial Test Simulation on Erksak Sand Using Hardening Soil Model

For each drained test the initial relative com-

pactness was calculated using the equation:

emax  ei
ID  (7)
emax  emin

It can be seen from Figure 3a that the refer-

ence stiffness E50ref depends on initial relative
compactness of sample and can be approximated
by linear equation:

E50ref  51.4 I D  19.9 (8)

Looking at the ultimate friction angle  it can

be also found that it depends on the initial rela-
tive compactness while the linear correlation is
much better (Figure 3b):

  12.9 I D  31.0 (9)

The remaining strength parameter for Erksak

sand, the dilatancy X, can be calculated by equa-
tion (4) using the ultimate friction angle  and
the critical state friction angle cv. The correla-
tion with relative initial compactness is also li-
near (Figure 3c):

X  12.9 I D  0.5 (10)

Using the correlations (8), (9) and (10) all tri-

axial tests were simulated by computer program
Plaxis using the SoilTest procedure. The proce-
dure enables the quick simulation of strain con-
trol triaxial test using HS model. The results of
simulations for one dense sample and loose sam-
ple are shown on Figure 4. Different combination
of strength parameters  and X, were used to
present their influence on the results. It can be
seen from Figure 4a. that it is necessary to use
ultimate friction angle  as input parameter to
achieve the ultimate strength qf for given sample.
To achieve the dilatation of the dense sample,
positive value of dilatancy parameter X must be
used, and negative for compactness of loose
sample. For both dense and loose sample it can Figure 3. Effect of relative density compactness on a) stiff-
be seen that the hyperbolic relationship can well ness; b) strength and c) dilatancy of Erksak sand.
 I. Sokolić and Ž. Skazlić / Triaxial Test Simulation on Erksak Sand Using Hardening Soil Model 585

Figure 4. Drained triaxial test for a) dense; b) loose sample.

Figure 5. Undrained triaxial tests a) dense; b) loose sample.

586 I. Sokolić and Ž. Skazlić / Triaxial Test Simulation on Erksak Sand Using Hardening Soil Model
approximate stress-strain curve. Compared to the
real sand behavior the HS model of soil is not
able to simulate the strength reduction for dense
samples after reaching the ultimate strength.
The same strategy was used to simulate the
undrained triaxial tests on Erksak sand. The re-
sults of simulation for one dense and one loose
sample are shown on Figure 5. It can be seen that
the results of simulation show large deviation
from measurements both in effective stress pass
and in stress-strain relationship. The deviation is
much pronounced for loose samples for which
the effect of dilatation is less pronounced then in
measurements, leading to much bigger maximum
undrained strength. The reason can be found in
the way the mobilized dilatancy Xm is defined,
because it is active just for sinm ` 3/4 sin.
Another problem caused by mobilized dilatancy
is that its value remains constant after reaching
the ultimate mobilized friction angle leading to
infinite undrained strength of dense samples and
zero final undrained strength for loose samples.
Comparing the results up to mobilized friction
angle m = 0.5cv it can be seen that the simula-
tion fits well to the measurements for the initial
stiffness greater than ID = 0.25 (Figure 5. and 6.)
5 CONCLUSIONS
The HS soil model is advanced numerical model
that can be used to simulate both drained and un-
drained behaviour of sand using the same para-
meters for the same initial density of sand. For
different initial densities the strength and stiff-
ness parameters must be corrected. Such correla-
tions are proposed in this paper for Erksak sand
by equations (8), (9) and (10).
Special care must be taken when modeling
dense sand in drained conditions in the case of
high rate of shear deformation (because of
strength reduction), and when modeling both
dense and loose sand in undrained conditions in
the case of stress rate m > 0.5  (for example in
phi-c reduction procedure). Modeling of sands
initially above CSL line and for ID < 0.25 leads
to overestimation of undrained shear strength for
more than 50%.
Figure 6. Drained triaxial test simulation on Erksak sand.
REFERENCES
[1] O. Reynolds. On the dilatancy of media composed of
rigid particles in contact, with experimental
illustrations. Philosophical Magazine (1885), 20, 469-
481.
[2] A. Casagrande, Charactersistics of cohesionless soils
affecting the stability of slopes and earth fills. Journal
of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, 23
(1936), 13-32.
[3] A. N. Schofield & C. P. Wroth, Critical State Soil
Mechanics. London: McGraw Hill, 1968
[4] D. M. Wood, Soil Behaviour and Critical State Soil
Mechanics, Cambridge university press, Chippenham,
United Kingdom, 1990.
[5] M. Jefferies & K. Been, Soil liquefaction, A critical
state approach, Taylor & Francis, New York, USA,
1990.
[6] Bolton, M. D. (1986). The strength and dilatancy of
sands. Géotechnique, 36 (1), 65-78.
[7] J. M. Duncan & C. Y. Chang, Nonlinear analysis of
stress-strain in soils. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and
Foundations Division (1970), 96 (SM5), 1629-1653.
[8] T. Schanz, P.A. Vermeer & P.G. Bonnier, The harden-
ing soil model: Formulation and verification, Beyond
2000 in Computational Geotechnics – 10 Years of
PLAXIS (1999), Balkema, Rotterdam
[9] R.J.B. Brinkgrawe & P.A. Vermeer, Plaxis Manual
Version 8, A.A. Balkema, Rotterbam, Brookfeld, 1998.
[10] P. W. Rowe, The stress-dilatancy relation for static
equilibrium of an assembly of particles in contact. Proc.
Roy. Soc., A269 (1962), 500-527.
[11] D. Sheng, Y. Yao & J. P. Carter, A volume-stress
model for sands under isotropic and critical states.
Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 45 (2008), 1639-1645.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 587
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-587

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 593
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-593

Specifics of behavior of subsoils consisting of hard

proterozoic deposits
Spécifités du travail de sous-sol de dépôts protérozoïques durs
V.M. Ulitsky 1
State Transport University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
V.A. Vasenin, A.G. Shashkin, C.G. Shashkin
Georeconstruction Engineering Co, Saint Petersburg, Russia

ABSTRACT
Due to increasing height of buildings and development of the underground space hard proterozoic deposits now are used quite
often as subsoils of structures in Saint Petersburg. For high-rise buildings embedding pile ends into hard soils often is the only
possible option of foundation design, since the depth of rocks in central Saint Petersburg is more than 200 m. One of the main
tasks of pile foundation design subjected to big loads is estimation of settlements of such foundation. Meanwhile, deformation
properties of hard soils are not studied well yet.
Research of these deposits was conducted by the authors on several sites in Saint Petersburg. It consisted of laboratory testing in
triaxial cells, and in-situ tests. Results of investigations on one test site in the centre of Saint Petersburg are presented in the
paper. Some results of soil-structure interaction modeling of a high-rise building are also presented.

RÉSUMÉ
En raison de développement d’hauteur des edifices á Saint-Peterbourg et construction souterrain, dépôts protérozoïques durs
devient le sou-sol plus souvent. Pieus des bâtiments élevés doivent atteindre ces depots pour autant que roches au centre de
Saint-Peterbourg se trouve au fond de 200 m. En cas des charges grandes sur le sous-sol le problème principal est le calcul des
tassements de foundation sur pieux qui repose sur les argiles durs. Cependant les propriétés de déformation sont étudieés
insuffisamment.
Les auteurs de cet article investigueaient les dépôts protérozoïques durs en quelques sites á Saint-Peterbourg. Ils font le
complexe d'epreuves, y compris les epreuves triaxial de laboratoire et les epreuves sur les puits de reconnaissaissance. Dans cet
article quelque calculs de système “sous-sol - edifice” sont présentéés.

Keywords: Wendian clays, triaxial tests, soi-structure interaction analyses, high-rise building

1 GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF THE to 53,0 m stratification consists of bluish-grey

SITE
The ground conditions of the site considered in
the present paper are characterized by presence
of quaternary deposits of variable origin and bed-
rock of Wendian strata of the Kotlin horizon.
The quaternary strata within the boundaries of
test areas for testing piles and barrettes extend
down to 43 - 45 m. Following those from 45,0 m
laminated clays with thin inclusions of dislocated
sandstone (max.1 mm in thickness). Bluish-grey
laminated clays continue to follow from 53,0 m
down to 127.5 m. Within the boundaries of test
areas under consideration, SPT tests on subsoil
were conducted — predominantly on quaternary
deposits (up to the upper boundary of dislocated
Wendian strata, i.e. going down to 40-43 m).

1
Corresponding Author.
594 V.M. Ulitsky et al. / Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits

2 RESULTS OF LABORATORY TESTS OF depth of vertical relative strain value at failure,

HARD CLAYS
The design for the high-rise building envisages
toe levels of deep supports (barrettes) to be lo-
cated in stiff Wendian clays. Significant attention
during laboratory testing was given to strength
and strain (deformation) properties of the Wen-
dian clays. The tests were conducted by a profes-
sional testing facility according to three testing
schemes to comply with requirements expressed
in Russian and British Standards. The analysed
the test results statistically. Fig. 1 shows strength
dependency of hard Wendian clays on depth.
Within the interval from 40 to 150 m, shear
strength of samples tends to increase. There was,
however, no significant difference between the
executed testing schemes. Apparently, the differ-
ence in strength for hard clays consists only in
degree of micro-cracks closing (the cracks
formed in the process of coring and reconstitut-
ing samples) during loading at hydrostatic pres-
sure stage, as well as in strain rate at the stage of
action along compression paths.
Fig. 2 shows the corresponding change with
which reaches about 15% in the area of glacial
dislocations at the level of 45 m and reduces with
depth to 2-3%.
Fig. 3 shows a dependency of change in water
content of Wendian clays samples tested accord-
ing to various schemes. water content of the
tested samples decreases with depth. At depths of
around 50 m average water content amounts to
approximately 15%, whereas at depths of ap-
proximately 150 m average water content
reaches roughly 11,5%. Based on triaxial tests
results, dependency of strength on natural water
content of samples becomes distinctly visible
(Fig. 4) for all hard clay strata. The division into
various testing schemes (i.e. consolidated-
drained, consolidated-undrained, and unconsoli-
dated-undrained schemes) fails to distinguish any
other regularity. This may be explained by prac-
tical absence of free water in hard clay voids. All
pore water in such clays is bound, and it is be-
cause of that that the process of the so called
“consolidation” in such soil is practically absent
and is reduced in all test types to micro-cracks
closing.

2 3

Figure 1. Change of shear strength (kPa) of Wendian clays with depth. According to various test schemes (dots represent soil
samples): 1 – Unconsolidated-undrained (UU), 2 – Consolidated-undrained (CU), 3 – Consolidated-drained (CD) tests.
 V.M. Ulitsky et al. / Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits 595

2
1

Figure 2. Change of vertical relative strain of Wendian clay samples (kPa) at failure with depth. According to various test
schemes (dots represent soil samples): 1 – Unconsolidated-undrained (UU), 2 – Consolidated-undrained (CU),
3 – Consolidated-drained (CD) tests.

Figure 3. Change of degree of saturation of Wendian clay samples with depth. Variously shaped points correspond to various
soil elements and boreholes.
596 V.M. Ulitsky et al. / Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits

2
1

Figure 4. Dependency of strength on saturation in triaxial tests according to various test procedures:
1 – Unconsolidated-undrained (UU). y = 7E+07x-4.3017, R2 = 0.7152; 2 – Consolidated-undrained (CU),
y = 1E+08x-4.431, R2 = 0.7225; 3 – Consolidated-drained (CD) tests, y = 5E+07x-4.2041, R2 = 0.6611.

Fig. 5 shows comparison of dependencies of
reached axial strain of samples on water content
based on triaxial tests at various schemes of hard
clay behaviour. There was no significant differ-
ence in strength or deformability of hard clay
samples in various testing schemes. Thereat,
however, a considerable scatter of both strength,
and deformability is observed, which is related,
first and foremost, to the scatter of natural physi-
cal soil properties.
Absence of significant differences during hard
clay tests according to different schemes presuma-
bly means that the volumetric strain component is
immaterial. Thus, the behaviour of hard clay sam-
ples can be described based on various conditions
(of both drained and undrained testing modes).

3
1

Figure 5. Dependency of max. vertical strain on degree of sample saturation in Wendian clays according to various testing
procedures: 1 – Unconsolidated-undrained (UU), 2 – Consolidated-undrained (CU), 3 – Consolidated-drained (CD) tests.
 V.M. Ulitsky et al. / Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits
3 SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTION
MODELLING OF A HIGH-RISE
BUILDING
The designed high-rise building (having about 80
floors) is of core and frame type. Its overall sta-
bility is ensured by joint action of the central
monolithic reinforced concrete core and steel
columns along the building perimeter, the col-
umns being joined into a single system by means
of steel beam cells, along which intermediate
floor discs are placed; additionally there are spe-
cial outrigger beams in three levels of mainte-
nance floors. In such a layout the main element
responsible for assuming the vertical and hori-
zontal components of the loads is the core.
Square area of the central reinforced concrete
core decreases with height together with the
square area of individual floors, which likewise
decreases as the building becomes higher.
As the purpose of our analyses was the con-
sideration of interaction of the designed super-
structure and the subsoil, the necessity arose to
adequately represent the building superstructure,
wherewith to ensure the required calculation ac-
curacy (Ulitsky et al, 2005, Shashkin, 2006).
Modelling the action of subsoil and barrettes im-
plied obtaining accurate loads distribution onto
barrettes, as well as an account of their interac-
tion with the surrounding soil, which made it
necessary to model the barrettes with spatial fi-
nite elements. Pressure is transferred onto bar-
rettes through the foundation mat, and consider-
ing the thickness of the slab as being 3,6 m, for a
reliable assessment of loads distribution onto
barrettes, again, it was necessary to model the
pilecap slab with spatial finite elements. The ma-
jor portion of loads onto subsoil from the de-
signed high-rise building is generated by concen-
trated loads from its core. In the underground
part of the designed building the thickness of the
external core wall is 2 m. Moreover, in places
where the core width changes, the width of the
core walls reaches 3,5 m.
In this case while constructing a 3-D scheme
for the building to perform soil-structure interac-
tion analysis it was decided to build up the finite
element profile according to the following se-
quence: modelling behaviour of subsoil, bar-
597
rettes, pilecap slab and external core walls with
spatial finite elements; modelling the internal
core walls and intermediate floors with plate fi-
nite elements; modelling the columns and beam
cells with spatial rod elements.
General outlook for the superstructure calcula-
tion profile is presented in Fig. 6 (`).
Soil-structure interaction analysis of the de-
signed high-rise building and its subsoil was per-
formed according to several scenarios of subsoil
behaviour:
1. Calculating structures of the building on elas-
tic subsoil, as per requirements contained in
currently applicable codes and in agreement
with assumptions adopted on limiting depth of
compressible stratum in the subsoil of the de-
signed building.
2. Calculations with account of subsoil behav-
iour based on non-linear models, which permit
automatic limitation of the depth of com-
pressible stratum.
A considerably important issue in assessing
settlements of the high-rise building under con-
sideration will be the proportion of subsoil de-
formation brought about by volumetric and shear
strains of hard clays. With this consideration in
mind, two conflicting hypotheses in respect of
volumetric compressibility of hard clays were
used in our analyses:
1. there is no volumetric compressibility at all;
2. volumetric compressibility corresponds to the
obtained compression curves within the inter-
val of stresses from natural pressures to acting
stresses in subsoil.
The first hypothesis corresponds to an as-
sumption of there being no considerable voids
filled with air or free pore water in natural soil.
The assumption of overconsolidated state of hard
clays can lead to a similar conclusion as well. At
overconsolidation ratio OCR=2 or more, addi-
tional loading with the building’s own weight
will not exceed preconsolidation pressure, and,
correspondingly, volumetric compressibility will
be at its minimum and will be defined by the
unloading-reloading modulus.
In respect of strength parameters (as well as of
shear deformability) three various hypotheses
were put forward:
598 V.M. Ulitsky et al. / Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits

1. strength depends, largely, on physical proper- Table 1. Settlement and relative settlement differentials for
ties (natural degree of saturation) of samples various foundation options.
and only weakly depends on total pressure; Subsoil behaviour Option with barrette toe level at
thereat strength is defined directly based on scheme 105 m from ground surface/ Set-
triaxial tests (same as in undrained condi- tlement
tions); max., cm Min., relative dif-
2. strength depends on total confining pressure cm ferential
(i.e. increases with depth), in calculations an Elastic calculation 12,5 9 0,001
through layer-by-layer
account is made of angle of internal friction, summation method
effective stresses in soil skeleton (considering (compressible stratum
also the water column in total absence of a equals ½ of subsoil
confining layer); width)
1 Unconsolidated- 6,5 5 0.0006
3. strength depends on total confining pressure undrained (˜u-
(i.e. increases with depth), in calculations an lowered)
account is made of angle of internal friction, 2 Consolidated-drained 11 9,6 0.00055
stresses in soil skeleton equal total stresses with account of effec-
tive stress
(not accounting for water). 3 Consolidated-drained 6,5 5 0.0006
effective stress equals
total
The first assumption, as far as its physical
sense is concerned, corresponds to the hypothesis As can be seen from Table 1, various models
of there being no considerable volumetric com- of non-linear foundation-subsoil produce provi-
pressibility of soil. Indeed, there being a depend- sionally close values of settlement from 7 to 11
ency of clay strength on pressure is connected cm. Contours of vertical movements in subsoil
not so much with friction as such, as with soil and superstructure of the designed building, with
compaction under load. An increase in density account of non-linear character of its subsoil be-
leads to a corresponding increase in quantity and haviour according to consolidated-drained
quality of contacts between clay particles and, scheme, are contained in Fig.6 (b) and Fig.7. Dif-
correspondingly, to an increase in strength. If ferences in settlement values calculated based on
there is no considerable volumetric compressibil- possible schemes of subsoil behaviour are condi-
ity, growth of strength at increasing loads is also tioned largely by accounting for or disregarding
hardly probable. In this case strength properties the volumetric component of strain. Here it is
will be defined by natural density of soil, formed necessary to point out that the settlement input
at this or that depth by acting natural stresses. contributed by the volumetric portion of strain in
Prior to calculating superstructure of a build- hard clays will take a rather long time to develop.
ing on non-linear foundation-subsoil we selected As this component of deformations will be en-
parameters of soil models, with which intention tirely defined by consolidation process in hard
we modelled triaxial tests of soil samples. clays, then, bearing in mind low values of per-
Results of calculations performed according to meability coefficient (approximately 10-6 m/day)
various schemes of subsoil behaviour are con- and long permeability paths, this settlement
tained the following table: component will take a long time to develop,
which makes it of secondary importance for con-
sideration over the building lifetime.
 V.M. Ulitsky et al. / Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits 599

(`) Figure 6. (`) Calculation profile of
the building superstructure;
b) Settlement contours (m) of the
designed high-rise building with
account of non-linear character of
its subsoil behaviour according to
consolidated-drained scheme with
account of dividing pressure into
effective and hydrostatic – accord-
ing to Scheme 2 – Option with bar-
rette toe level at 105 m from the
ground surface. (Contours spaced
at 0.01 m.)
(b)
The most important for design is distribution
of loads unto barrettes and stresses in the super-
structure. Based on performed calculations, val-
ues of loads in future building structures were
chosen as the least favourable for the considered
schemes of subsoil behaviour.
One of the important moments in foundation
design for high-rise buildings is the criterion of
permissible values of absolute subsoil settlement.
In this case the ultimate value criterion for foun-
dation settlement was limited to the value of
10 cm. To observe this criterion of ultimate set-
tlement, the barrette toe level in subsoil of the
high-rise building must be approximately 100-
105 m. If the criterion of ultimate settlement de-
velopment of the high-rise building is lowered,
the length of barrettes can be considerably re-
duced.
Another not less significant issue defining re-
liability of foundation-subsoil design is the guar-
antee of adequate bearing capacity of the bar-
rettes. This issue for the site in question was
studied separately and the results of this study
are published in a separate paper.
Thus, analyses of various models of subsoil-
foundation behaviour provided the possibility to
evaluate the possible range of absolute settle-
ments of the high-rise building, as well as the
range of relative settlement differential of its in-
dividual structures. This in turn allowed defini-
tion of loads distribution range onto barrettes and
the corresponding loads in the structures of the
high-rise building.

-0.01

-0.01
-0.11

-0.01 -0.09 -0.05

-0.08
-0.05
-0.06
-0.07
-0.06 -0.1 -0.1
-0.04
-0.03 -0.04
-0.03
-0.02
600 V.M. Ulitsky et al. / Specifics of Behavior of Subsoils Consisting of Hard Proterozoic Deposits

-0.01

-0.03 -0.02

-0.02 -0.06
-0.04

-0.1
-0.02
-0.02 -0.1
-0.1
-0.01
-0.04 -0.11 -0.04
-0.1

-0.1 -0.1
-0.039 -0.07 -0.02
-0.01
-0.02
-0.01

-0.01

Figure 7. Contours of barrette settlement (m) when calculating building on non-linear subsoil according to consolidated-drained
scheme with account of dividing pressure into effective and hydrostatic according to Scheme 2 – Option with barrette toe level at
105 m from the ground surface. (contours spaced at 0.01 m).

4 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS adopted on limiting depth of compressible stra-

Test results of hard Wendian clays and soil-
structure interaction analysis of a high-rise build-
ing are presented in the paper.
The soils have been tested with different vari-
ous testing schemes – consolidated-drained, con-
solidated-undrained, and unconsolidated-
undrained. Graphs of dependency of strength on
samples natural water content. Absence of sig-
nificant differences during hard clay tests accord-
ing to different schemes presumably means that
the volumetric strain component could be very
small. Thus, the behaviour of hard clay samples
can be described based on various conditions (of
both drained and undrained testing modes).
Soil-structure interaction analysis of the de-
signed high-rise building and its subsoil was per-
formed according to several scenarios of subsoil
behaviour: with elastic subsoil, with assumptions
tum in the subsoil of the designed building: and
with account of subsoil behaviour based on non-
linear models, which permit automatic limitation
of the depth of compressible stratum. The com-
putations have made it possible to estimate the
settlements of the building with the various
foundation options.
REFERENCES
[1] Ulitsky V.M. 2005. The basics of soil-structure interac-
tion. Proceedings of the International Conference
“Soil-structure Interaction: Calculation methods and
Engineering Practice”. St. Petersburg, Vol.1, pp. 3–10.
[2] Shashkin, C. 2006. Basic regularities of soil-structure
interaction. Proceedings of the XIII Danube European
Conference on Geotechnical Engineering. Ljubljana.
Vol. 1, pp 179–190.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 601
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-601

Neural modelling of the fly ash compaction curve

Modélisation neuronale de courbe de compactage
des cendres volantes
K. Zabielska-Adamska 1 & M.J. Sulewska
Bialystok University of Technology, Poland

ABSTRACT
The paper aim was to analyze the influence of fly ash grain-size distribution (representing by the effective sizes, uniformity and
curvature coefficients) and specific density on its compaction curve shape. The tested fly ash was compacted by the Standard
and Modified Proctor methods at various water content ranging over wopt ±5%. The attempt of applying the artificial neural
networks type MLP for fly ash compaction curve points was made. ANNs several inputs (grain-size distribution as D10–D90 and
uniformity and curvature coefficients, compaction method, fly ash specific density) were used. The output vector was presented
by co-ordinates of generated compaction curve points. Using ANN modelling method, models which enable establishing the
approximate compaction curve shape were obtained.

RÉSUMÉ
Le but de cet article est d’analyser l'influence des cendres volantes granulométrie (représentant par la taille effective et les
coefficients d’uniformité et de la courbure) et la densité des particules solides sur la forme de la courbe de compactage. Les
testés cendres volantes ont été compactés par la méthode Proctor Standard et méthode Proctor Modifié à teneur en eau différents
allant plus que wopt ±5%. Un essai d’utilisation des réseaux de neurones artificiels MLP pour les cendres volantes points de la
courbe de compactage a été effectué. Plusieurs entrées d’ANNs (granulométrie comme D10–D90 et coefficients d'uniformité et de
la courbure, méthode de compactage, la densité des cendres volantes de particules solides) ont été utilisés. Le vecteur de sortie a
été présenté par la coordination de la courbe de compactage de points générés. En utilisant la méthode de modélisation ANN,
modèles qui permet d'établir la forme approximative de compactage courbe ont été obtenues.

Keywords: Compaction curve, fly ash, fly ash compactibility, geotechnical parameters, artificial neural networks, neural
modelling

1 INTRODUCTION
Ud
Soil compactibility is defined as an ability to Is (1)
U d max
obtain maximum possible dry density of solid
particles, ρd, and is dependent on compaction
energy, the way that is used, as well as the type where ρd is the dry density of solid particles
of soil and its moisture content. Soil compaction determined for soil compacted in an
is measured by the degree of compaction Is: embankment, ρdmax the maximum dry density of

1
Corresponding Author.
602 K. Zabielska-Adamska and M.J. Sulewska / Neural Modelling of the Fly Ash Compaction Curve
solid particles determined in the laboratory for
the same material as ρd.
Laboratory compaction test requires us to
carry out compaction in standardized ways at
various moisture contents and as a result of that
plotting the relationship between dry density of
solid particles (or unit weight) and moisture
content. The moisture content at which
compacted soil reaches the maximum dry density
of solid particles is called optimum water
content, wopt. Compaction curves ρd(w), which
are obtained at various values of compaction
energy, run asymptotically to the line of
maximum compaction, called the zero air voids
line, calculated assuming that soil pores are
completely filled with water, as well as the line
of saturation degree Sr =1, which determines the
degree of saturation when the soil sample is
completely saturated.
The use of fly ash as a material for earth
structures involves its proper compaction.
Compaction is the most common method of the
mechanical improvement of soil condition. It
increases soil density, improves its strength and
penetration resistance, as well as decreases
compressibility and permeability. In engineering
practice materials built-in road subgrade and
embankment have their own specifications,
which are dependent on type of earth structure
and soil plasticity characteristics. Construction of
mineral sealing layers usually requires cohesive
soil compaction to obtain 90 or 95% of
maximum compaction, relating to the Standard
and Modified Proctor methods. Concern should
be taken not to use degree of compaction, Is, as
the only parameter to assess compaction of
material in a sealing layer or road structure. The
permeability and mechanical properties of
compacted cohesive soils are dependent on
moisture content during compaction, as are
properties of fly ash. Consequently, different
values of geotechnical parameters are obtained
for water content, w, on either side of the
optimum water content, wopt, on the compaction
curve, for the same dry densities, ρd. This applies
to both cohesive soil and fly ash [1]. It explains,
not only a great importance of compaction
parameters, but also compaction curve shape, so
establishing fly ash compaction curves as
density–water moisture relationships is very
important. Additionally, fly ash compaction tests
have to be conducted on separately prepared
virgin sample – each point of fly ash compaction
curve (w, Ud) should be compacted once only in a
Proctor’s mould. Fly ash samples compacted
many times can not be considered as
representative – values for maximum dry density
of solid particles increase with number of
repeated compaction at decreasing optimum
water contents, in comparison with samples
compacted only once under the same conditions.
Spherical ash grains, crushed during compaction,
can be stuffed with smaller grains, which
improve their packing [2]. This phenomenon
motivates a necessity of determination of fly ash
compaction curve on virgin samples, so the
procedure is time-consuming and laborious.
The paper aim is to analyze the influence of
fly ash grain-size distribution (representing by
the effective sizes and curvature coefficients) and
specific density on its compactibility parameter
values, and to determine the relationship between
physical parameters of tested fly ash and its
compaction curve shapes. The attempt of using
the artificial neural networks type MLP for fly
ash compaction curve points was made. Results
enable us to predict the shape of the tested fly
ash compaction curve. Consequently, on the
basis of size-grain distribution and specific
density of fly ash we can model the compaction
curve shape.
2 TESTED FLY ASH PARAMETERS
Tests were performed on a fly ash and bottom
ash mixture from a dry storage yard, which are
referred to as fly ash because there is only a
vestige of bottom ash in the mix. Fly ash is a by-
product of hard coal combustion at the Bialystok
Thermal-Electric Power Station. The scheme of
carried out laboratory tests, which results are
taken into analysis, is shown in Figure 1.
The grain-size distribution of the tested Class
F fly ash (according to ASTM C618) in most
cases corresponds to sandy silt, except same
cases of silty sand. On the whole, according to
the criterion that mineral soils are estimated by
 K. Zabielska-Adamska and M.J. Sulewska / Neural Modelling of the Fly Ash Compaction Curve 603

their uniformity, CU, and curvature , CC, 1.30

coefficients the tested fly ash qualifies as a

material that responds poorly to compaction. 1.25
Table 1 presents ranges of fly ash specific
density and graining values.
1.20

Fly ash

1.15

U d, g/cm3
Standard Proctor Modified Proctor Grain-size Specific
compaction compaction analysis density 1.10

Grain-size 1.05
Compaction curve distribution curve ρs

1.00

wopt–5% ρd(wopt –5%) d10

wopt–2.5% ρd(wopt –2.5%) d20 0.95
wopt ρd max d30
CU
d40
wopt+2.5% ρd(wopt +2.5%) d50
wopt+5% ρd(wopt +5%) d60 0.90
d70 CC
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
d80
d90 w, %

Figure 1. Scheme of tests carried out on fly ash samples. Figure 2. The compaction curves from laboratory tests.

Table 1. Tested fly ash parameters.

Parameter Unit Range
3 ANNs IN SOIL COMPACTION
ρs Mg/m3 2.08–2.29
d10 mm 0.009–0.025 There is no many examples of neural modelling
d20 mm 0.013–0.045 of the soil compactibility parameters or
d30 mm 0.015–0.060
compaction curve shape in literature. One of the
d40 mm 0.018–0.550
d50 mm 0.022–0.500 first attempt of applying ANNs to prediction
d60 mm 0.028–0.117 values of wopt and Udmax for the synthetic cohesive
d70 mm 0.040–0.156 soils was made on the basis of graining, specific
d80 mm 0.065–0.204
d90 mm 0.105–0.500
density, as well as consistency parameters [3].
CU – 2.00–6.11 Similar research was presented in [4,5]. The
CC – 0.80–1.73 compactibility parameters or Udmin and Udmax
(vibration of dry soil) for non-cohesive soils
Compaction tests were carried out by means were found in dependence on soil graining [6,7].
of the Standard and Modified Proctor methods. The shape of compaction curve was only
During the tests, fly ash samples were compacted predicted for cohesive soils depending on soil
once only in a Proctor’s mould – each point of graining, specific density, consistency
compaction curve (w, Ud) was determined for parameters and compaction energy [8].
separately prepared virgin sample. Samples were
moisturized so as to produce an increase in
moisture content of each subsequent specimen of 4 ANN MODELLING TECHNIQUE
about 2% and were then stored for 24 h in closed
tins. Fragmentary curves were taken into Analysed data set of a total of 71 compaction
consideration for water contents ranging over curves (P=71 cases) was described by means of
wopt ±5% that are shown in Figure 2. 22 variables (Fig. 1):
604 K. Zabielska-Adamska and M.J. Sulewska / Neural Modelling of the Fly Ash Compaction Curve

x compaction method (standard or modified); Cattell’s criterion [10]. It was necessary to

x co-ordinates of points on compaction establish the points on the left of the straight line
curves (wi, Udi) where wi is: wopt5%, on the graph presenting percentage of variance
wopt2.5%, wopt, wopt2.5%, wopt+5%, and that was explained by following PCs (or
Udi is: ρd(wopt5%), ρd(wopt2.5%), ρdmax, eigenvalues). Such a point is determined by
ρd(wopt+2.5%), ρd(wopt5%); initial six PCs, which explained 97.05% of the
x specific density, ρs; total variance, at a loss of 2.95% of the
information. In accordance with this criterion it
x grain-size distribution described by
is sufficient to use only six PCs.
effective sizes: D10, D20, D30, D40, D50, D60,
D70, D80, D90 and uniformity and curvature Table 2. Analysis of principal components.
coefficients, CU, CC. PCs % Total Variance Cumulative %
PC1 41.46 41.46
In order to perform the data set compression PC2 25.28 66.74
to reduce the size of the network with a large PC3 10.57 77.31
PC4 8.40 85.71
number of parameters Principal Component PC5 7.10 92.81
Analysis (PCA) was used [9]. PCA reduces the PC6 4.24 97.05
dimensionality of the data set, while retaining a PC7 1.83 98.88
variance by mapping the co-ordinate system PC8 0.71 99.59
PC9 0.29 99.88
described by actual variables to a new lower PC10 0.08 99.96
dimensional co-ordinate system specified by PC11 0.02 99.98
principal components. PCA lies in the fact of PC12 0.01 99.99
redistribution of variance over new-created PC13 0.01 100.00
variables that can explain, when all the principal
components are considered, 100% of the total Table 3 shows the loadings of each original
variance. Each new-created variable (the variable on the corresponding principal
principal component, PC) is a linear combination component. These loadings describe correlations
of the actual variables. Contribution of the between the particular original variables and the
particular variables to element of PC is PCs. It can state that PC1 is characterised by
determined by loadings of each original variable high loading on: ρs, D60-D90 and CU. PC2 is
on the appropriate PC. In the paper the PCs are a characterised by high loading on variables: D10-
result of original set of 13 data: compaction D30 and CC; PC3 – by D40; PC4 – by D50; PC5 –
method, ρs, D10D90, CU, CC. The PCs are by variable: compaction method. PC6 is not
orthogonal (that is uncorrelated) linear characterised by any dominant loadings.
combinations of the original variables. The data set was randomly split into the
STATISTICA software was used for calculating learning (L), the validating (V) and the testing (T)
the principal components by means of the factor subsets. The pattern number in particular subsets
analysis function. was in the ratio of 50:25:25% of the total number
Table 2 presents the percentage of variance of patterns, respectively. Co-ordinates of points
that is explained by each of principal on compaction curves were modelled using
components. The first principal component, PC1, multilayer feed forward neural networks (type
accounts for 41.46% of the total variance; the MLP) with 6 or 5 inputs, one hidden layer and
second (PC2) and third (PC3) principal one output. In neurons of the hidden layer the
components account for 25.28% and 10.57% of tangensoidal (tanh) activation function was
the total variance respectively; the fourth (PC4) applied, and in the output neurons – the linear
and fifth (PC5) principal components account for activation function. The Levenberg-Marquardt
8.40% and 7.40% of the total variance method was used for neuron networks training.
respectively; the sixth (PC6) accounts for 4.24%. ANN simulation was performed using
A number of principal components taken into STATISTICA Neural Networks software. ANNs
further analysis was establish on the basis of with the best prediction accuracy were quantified
 K. Zabielska-Adamska and M.J. Sulewska / Neural Modelling of the Fly Ash Compaction Curve 605

by the means of the various error measure determination coefficient, R2, independently for
analysis. In the paper both the root mean squared L, V, and T subsets were shown. ANNs with the
1 P best prediction accuracy along with values of
¦ di  yi  , where di are the
2
error, RMSE error measures are shown in Table 4.
Pi 1
actual values and yi the predicted ones, and the

Table 3. Loadings for PC1–PC6

Variable PC1 PC2 PC3 PC4 PC5 PC6
Method 0.091 –0.035 0.363 –0.505 0.765 0.134
ρs –0.739 0.286 –0.111 0.268 0.060 0.521
D10 0.158 –0.849 –0.382 –0.127 –0.038 0.257
D 20 0.446 –0.796 –0.220 –0.183 –0.065 –0.025
D 30 –0.375 –0.919 0.042 0.047 0.013 –0.017
D 40 0.347 –0.276 0.744 0.398 –0.112 0.241
D 50 0.150 –0.098 –0.447 0.660 0.550 –0.163
D 60 –0.897 –0.357 0.073 0.021 –0.000 –0.062
D 70 –0.987 –0.117 –0.030 0.049 0.027 0.074
D 80 –0.967 –0.181 –0.085 0.008 0.058 –0.018
D 90 –0.893 –0.319 0.032 –0.208 –0.063 –0.099
CU –0.858 0.246 0.309 0.066 0.026 –0.267
Cc 0.281 –0.762 0.412 0.261 0.069 –0.140

Table 4. ANNs of the best prediction accuracy and their error measures.
Output Inputs ANN Epochs RMSE R2
L V T L V T
wopt PC1–PC6 6-3-1 787 0.057 0.122 0.123 0.925 0.671 0.743
wopt5% PC1–PC6 6-2-1 324 0.130 0.094 0.122 0.615 0.697 0.579
wopt2.5% PC1–PC6 6-4-1 264 0.055 0.091 0.117 0.933 0.823 0.709
wopt+2.5% PC1–PC6 6-4-1 184 0.112 0.136 0.125 0.697 0.575 0.564
wopt+5% PC1–PC6 6-3-1 289 0.117 0.109 0.167 0.632 0.557 0.584
ρdmax PC1–PC2, PC4–PC6 5-3-1 117 0.053 0.100 0.096 0.949 0.839 0.867
ρdmax (wopt-5%) PC1–PC5 5-3-1 101 0.051 0.083 0.080 0.929 0.903 0.741
ρdmax (wopt-2.5%) PC1–PC2, PC4–PC6 5-3-1 517 0.077 0.088 0.100 0.880 0.878 0.906
ρdmax (wopt+2.5% PC1–PC6 6-3-1 138 0.064 0.094 0.079 0.927 0.837 0.874
ρdmax (wopt+5%) PC1–PC6 6-3-1 993 0.075 0.087 0.083 0.867 0.916 0.914

Figures 3a and b present the exemplary curve shapes characterised by co-ordinates of

comparison of the actual values and the predicted
ones with ANNs in the set of all data, along with
yi  d i
relative error areas, RE
yi
respectively for wopt and Udmax.
Exemplary compaction curves predicted by
ANNs compared with actual fly ash compaction
curves are presented on Figure 4.
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The aim of the study was to determine the neural
models for prediction of fly ash compaction
five points on the basis of grain-size distribution
and specific density. Each point (wi, Udi) was
described by two independent ANNs. ANNs
˜ 100% , inputs were new-created variables – principal
components, and outputs were co-ordinates of
the compaction curve points.
The neural networks of various topology: 6-3-
1, 6-2-1 and 6-4-1 for wi values prediction, and
5-3-1 and 6-3-1 for Udi values proved to be the
best. The obtained neural networks have a high
prediction quality. The determination coefficient,
R2, between the actual values of point co-
ordinate and the predicted ones is in the range
606 K. Zabielska-Adamska and M.J. Sulewska / Neural Modelling of the Fly Ash Compaction Curve

Figure 3. Exemplary values obtained from laboratory tests and calculated by ANNs in all data set: (a) wopt values along with 10%
relative errors areas, (b) Udmax values along with 5% relative errors areas.

1.24

actual curves
1.22
predicted curves
REFERENCES

1.20 [1] K. Zabielska-Adamska, Fly Ash as a Material for

Constructing Sealing Layers, Publishing House of
1.18 Bialystok University of Technology, Bialystok, 2006. (in
Polish)
[2] K. Zabielska-Adamska, Laboratory compaction of fly
1.16
Ud, g/cm 3

ash and fly ash with cement addition, Journal of

Hazardous Material 151 (2008) 48489.
1.14
[3] Y.M. Najjar, I.A. Basheer, W.A. Naouss. On the
identification of compaction parameters by neuronets,
1.12 Computers & Geotechnics 18 (1996) 167187.
[4] S.K. Sinha, M.C. Wang, Artificial neural network
1.10 prediction models for soil compaction and permeability,
Geotechnical and Geological Engineering 26 (2008)
1.08 4764.
[5] O. Günaydın, Estimation of soil compaction parameters
1.06
by using statistical analyses and artificial neural
26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 networks, Environmental Geology 57 (2009) 203215.
[6] M.J. Sulewska, Artificial Neural Networks in the
w, %
Evaluation on Non-cohesive Soil Compaction
Figure 4. Exemplary actual and predicted by ANNs Parameters, Institute of Fundamental Technological
compaction curves. Research Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw–
Bialystok, 2009. (in Polish)
[7] M.J. Sulewska, Prediction models for minimum and
0.557–0.823 in the validating subset and 0.564– maximum dry density of non-cohesive soils, Polish
0.743 in the testing subset, and 0.837–0.916 in Journal of Environmental Studies 19 (2010) 797-804.
the validating subset and 0.867–0.914 in the [8] I.A. Basheer, Empirical modeling of the compaction
curve of cohesive soils, Canadian Geotechnical Journal
testing subset, respectively for wi and Udi values. 38 (2001) 29–45.
Water content at compaction decreases [9] M. Jambu, Exploratory and Multivariate Data Analysis,
accuracy of the predicted compaction curve Academic Press, New York, 1991.
shapes, especially for wi greater than optimum [10] R.B. Cattell, The scree test for the number of factor,
Multivariate Behavioral Research 1 (1966) 245-276.
water content.
2.3. Unsaturated Hard Soils – Weak Rocks
Sols indurés non saturés – Roches tendres
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 609
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-609

Measuring the soil-water characteristic curve of

structured and recomposed soils
Mesure de la courbe caractéristique sol-eau des sols structurés et
recomposés
M. Bardanis1
National Technical University, Athens, Edafos Consulting Engineers S.A.
S. Grifiza
Edafos Consulting Engineers S.A.

ABSTRACT
The paper presents the results of an experimental programme carried out in order to measure the soil-water characteristic curve
(SWCC) of two structured soils. Two methods of suction control were used ; the axis translation technique up to 1500 kPa and
the salt solutions method for total suction values between 4 and 150 MPa. The experimental investigation included
measurements of the SWCCs of the two soils when these were reconstituted and reconsolidated (termed as recomposed) in order
to compare these curves with their counterparts measured on the undisturbed samples. The most important conclusions are the
difficulties associated with measuring the SWCC of undisturbed samples of structured soils and the comparisons of these curves
to those measured on reconstituted and reconsolidated samples of the same materials.

RÉSUMÉ
L’article présente les résultats d'un programme expérimental réalisé afin de mesurer la courbe caractéristique sol-eau (CCSE) de
deux sols structurés. Deux méthodes de contrôle de succion ont été utilisés, la technique du déplacement d’axe jusqu'à 1500 kPa
et la méthode des solutions salines pour les valeurs de succion totale entre 4 et 150 MPa. L'investigation expérimentale a
compris des mesures de la CCSE des deux sols lorsque ces ont été reconstitués et reconsolidés (appelé recomposé) afin de
comparer ces courbes avec leurs homologues mesurées sur des échantillons intacts. Les conclusions les plus importantes sont les
difficultés associées à la mesure de la CCSE des échantillons non remaniés de sols structurés et les comparaisons de ces courbes
à celles mesurées sur des échantillons reconstitués et reconsolidés du même matériau.

Keywords: unsaturated soil, soil structure, soil-water characteristic curve, axis translation, salt solutions, recomposed soil.

1 INTRODUCTION negative pressure sitting on the liquid phase until

The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) con-
stitutes a fundamental property for the study of
unsaturated soils. It represents the relation be-
tween the distribution of solid, liquid and air
phase in the volume of soil (as expressed by de-
gree of saturation, Sr, gravimetric or volumetric
water content, w or ¬, and void ratio, e), as well
as the total volume of the soil itself, and the
desaturation occurs, or suction after desaturation
has occurred.
The measurement of the SWCC is nowadays
well established whether it is performed on re-
constituted, reconstituted and reconsolidated, un-
disturbed or compacted samples of soil. Only
very little data however can be found, where the
SWCC of samples of the same soil in all the
aforementioned states has been studied. In this

1
Corresponding Author.
610 M. Bardanis and S. Grifiza / Measuring the SWCC of Structured and Recomposed Soils
paper the SWCC of two marls measured in their
undisturbed and reconstituted and then reconso-
lidated state is presented. The aim of the experi-
mental programme performed and presented was
to study the influence of the structure of natural
soils on the soil-water characteristic curve. Fol-
lowing other researchers, ‘structure’ in this paper
is regarded as the combination of ‘fabric’, i.e. the
arrangement of the component particles, and
‘bonding’, i.e. those interparticle forces that are
not of a purely frictional nature [1].
2 THE SOILS TESTED
Two soils were tested, the low plasticity Corinth
Marl and the Chalkoutsi Marl. Both of them
were chosen on the basis that fully saturated
samples could be found in-situ. This meant that
samples had to be taken from locations in close
proximity to water bodies. It was anticipated that
although it would be easier to find naturally oc-
curing structured soils away from water bodies,
the prevailing climatic conditions in Greece
would probably cause them to be initially unsatu-
rated. As a result, comparisons between the
SWCC of the naturally occurring structured soil
and its reconstituted and reconsolidated counter-
part would not be straightforward if the struc-
tured soil had an initial degree of saturation
smaller than 100% on top of its structure. In the
present study this requirement narrowed the
available materials close to the city of Athens to
the Corinth Marl and the Chalkoutsi Marl.
The Corinth Marls are a very well-studied
formation [2] through which the Corinth Canal
was excavated in 1893. The canal lies approxi-
mately 60km to the west of Athens. The exis-
tence of the 80m high canal slopes offers the op-
portunity to obtain high quality samples at
various elevations, including positions close to
sea level, as has happened during various ex-
perimental investigation programmes under-
taken. These have allowed the extensive study of
the material including its soil-water characteristic
curve [3]. During the latest programme samples
were taken from a distance less than 1m from the
actual seaside and at an altitude less than 0.5m.
These could be classified in two broad catego-
ries, the low plasticity and the higher plasticity
ones [2, 3]. In this paper the results on the low
plasticity marl are used, as this material was
available in larger quantities and therefore more
thoroughly tested.
The Chalkoutsi Marl constitutes a formation
found close to the city of Chalkoutsi 35km to the
north of Athens. High steep slopes are formed in
the material by erosion of their toe by the sea
with occasional landslides and lanslips occurring
along the 5km coast that the formation forms the
highest slopes. As in the case of Corinth Marl,
samples were taken from a distance less than 1m
from the actual seaside and at an altitude less
than 0.5m.
Initial suctions on the samples of the two soils
were 9kPa and 25kPa respectively, measured by
means of a SoilMoisture Quickdraw tensiometer.
In the case of the Chalkoutsi Marl, a chilled-
mirror hygrometer was also available and used to
measure the total suction in the samples. This
was found in the order of 3 MPa (measurements
on 3 different samples including the one that the
matrix suction was measured using the Quick-
draw tensiometer) indicating a very high osmotic
component of suction practically of the same or-
der. This is probably due to the proximity of the
sample location to the seaside and the dip direc-
tion of the slope it was obtained from. The dip
direction of the slope is north to north-east in an
area with prevailing north winds and therefore
wave and spray from the same direction. Thus it
is expected that the salt content in the pore water
of the material is not just the one determined by
capillary forces acting on the sea water in a very
close distance from the sea but also the remnants
of drying sea water and spray from waves falling
on the sample location. Prior to measuring the to-
tal suction in the laboratory it was verified that
the matrix suction had not changed using a labo-
ratory tensiometer on the samples.
Index properties of the two soils tested are
summarized in Table 1. The low plasticity Cor-
inth Marl is characterized as ML according to
USCS. The Chalkoutsi Marl on the other side is
characterized as CH. The grain size distribution
curves for the two soils are shown in Fig. 1 (tests
from two samples were available for the Corinth
Marl). Both soils are fine-grained with the Cor-
 M. Bardanis and S. Grifiza / Measuring the SWCC of Structured and Recomposed Soils 611

inth marl having a smaller sand fraction although Chalkoutsi Marl samples were performed on
a significantly less plastic material. The clay pneumatic oedometers with 50mm diameter
fraction of the Chalkoutsi Marl is almost three fixed-ring cells and a maximum vertical stress of
times as much as that of the Corinth Marl. Both 7.6 MPa. In both cases the inner surface of the
soils have a calcite content in the range of 60 to cutting rings was slightly lubricated to avoid fric-
70%. Both grain size distribution curves appear tion and ensure one-dimensional conditions of
unimodal in their geometric shape leading to an loading on the sample.
expectation of a unimodal SWCC [4]. In Fig. 2 the one-dimensional compression
curves measured on the undisturbed and reconsti-
Table 1. Index properties of the soils tested. tuted sample of Corinth Marl and Chalkoutsi
Soil wL Ip Gs Clay Silt Sand
Marl are shown respectively. In the case of Cor-
(%) (%) (%) (%) inth Marl two tests were performed on undis-
Corinth
turbed samples, while in the case of Chalkoutsi
30.5 5.5 2.67 6.5 84.7 8.8 Marl one. Corinth Marl exhibits significant yield
Marl
Chalkoutsi
51 30 2.69 20.5 64.2 15.0
between 1.6 and 3.2 MPa, while Chalkoutsi Marl
Marl does so between 450 and 900 kPa. The one-
dimensional compression curves of both soils in
Clay Silt Sand Gravel their undisturbed state lie initially below the in-
100 trinsic compression curve, as vertical stress in-
80 creases they cross it and then exhibit yield and
Passing (%)

Chalkoutsi Marl
60
Corinth Marl-1 0.90 Nat-1
40 Corinth Marl-2 Nat-2
0.80
20 Rec
0.70
e

0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 0.60
Nominal diameter (mm)
0.50
Figure 1. One-dimensional compression curves of undis- 10 100 1000 10000
turbed and reconstituted: a) Corinth Marl, and b) Chalkoutsi (a) Vertical stress (kPa)
Marl.

1.10

3 EVIDENCE OF SOIL STRUCTURE IN 1.00

Nat
THE SOILS TESTED
0.90 Rec

Prior to measuring the SWCC of the soils, one- 0.80

dimensional compression curves were deter-
e

0.70
mined both on undisturbed samples of the soils
and on reconstituted ones. Reconstituted samples 0.60
were prepared by mixing samples of undisturbed 0.50
soil with the necessary amount of water to bring
the initial water content of the slurry to 1.5 times 0.40
the liquid limit. The tests on Corinth Marl sam- 10 100 1000 10000
ples were performed on conventional front- (b) Vertical stress (kPa)
loading oedometers with 50mm diameter fixed-
Figure 2. One-dimensional compression curves of undis-
ring cells, a lever arm of 11:1 ratio and a maxi- turbed and reconstituted: a) Corinth Marl, and b) Chalkoutsi
mum vertical stress of 6.4 MPa. The tests on Marl.
612 M. Bardanis and S. Grifiza / Measuring the SWCC of Structured and Recomposed Soils

start moving towards the intrinsic compression Table 2. Characteristics of salt solutions used for total suction
control.
curve. In both cases, although the maximum ver-
tical stress was quite significant, the one- Salt RH Total Total Molarity sa-
dimensional compression curves of the undis- from suction suction turation of
litera- from lit- meas- the solution
turbed samples never reached the intrinsic com- ture erature ured is achieved at
pression curves. The intrinsic compression curve (%) (MPa) (MPa) (M)
of the Corinth Marl is convex while that of K2SO4 97.0 4.18 4.10 1
Chalkoutsi Marl is concave as expected from the BaCl2 90.3 14.0 14.1 2
differences in their plasticity [5, 6]. KCl 84.2 23.6 23.6 5
NaCl 75.1 39.3 39.0 6
It is clear from Fig. 2 that both soils tested are Mg(NO3)2 52.8 87.7 85.5 9
strongly structured. This has been attributed to MgCl2 32.7 153.5 151.7 15
their high calcite content that acts as a bonding
agent [2, 3]. Given this result, their SWCCs were suction. Once equilibrium had taken place, the
determined in order to study the effect of struc- sample was taken out of the pressure extractor or
ture on this fundamental property of unsaturated the chamber with the saturated salt solution and
soils. For this to be more formally established the one part of it was used for moisture content mea-
SWCCs were determined also on samples recon- surement, with the other immersed in molten pa-
stituted and reconsolidated to a low void ratio, raffin wax for total volume and therefore void ra-
preferably the same as that of the undisturbed tio measurement. In the case of total suction
samples. Reconstituted and reconsolidated sam- control with salt solutions a small piece of each
ples are going to be referred to as ‘recomposed’ sample was also placed in the chilled-mirror hy-
samples in this paper. grometer in order to measure the actual value of
total suction imposed in the chamber the sample
was kept in. At the beginning of the experimental
4 EXPERIMENTAL METHOD & RESULTS programme only the axis-translation technique
was available and these curves are plotted in Fig.
For the measurement of the soil-water character- 3 for multiple samples. When the salt solutions
istic curve, two methods were employed; the axis method became available, only a limited amount
translation technique in a SoilMoisture pressure of Corinth Marl was still available and was used
extractor with 1500 kPa air-entry value porous for monitoring the change in moisture content on
ceramic disks and the salt solutions method for a single sample that all suction values were ap-
total suction control. Saturated solutions of the plied. That is why there are values for high suc-
salts presented in Table 2 were used. The satura- tions only for the single recomposed sample.
tion molarities were measured experimentally. The SWCC of Chalkoutsi Marl is shown in
Molarities of the solutions prepared for actual Fig. 4 in terms of moisture content vs suction,
use for total suction control were increased by degree of saturation vs suction and void ratio vs
1M to ensure the ability of the solutions to re- suction. Both for undisturbed and recomposed
main saturated after applying the required suc- samples a different sample was used for each
tion value to the samples. Saturation molarities value of suction.
are presented in Table 2. The total suction corre- In the case of Corinth Marl the undisturbed
sponding to the equilibrium relative humidity of samples exhibited the ability to retain higher de-
the salt solutions prepared was measured in a grees of saturation and water content at the same
calibrated Decagon Devices chilled-mirror hy- suction relative to their recomposed counterpart.
grometer and is also presented in Table 2. The scatter of measured values is larger for the
The SWCC of Corinth Marl is shown in Fig. 3 undisturbed Corinth Marl, almost at the point of
in terms of moisture content vs suction, degree of rendering the results meaningless. Still the higher
saturation vs suction and void ratio vs suction. water retention of the undisturbed Corinth Marl
Both for undisturbed and recomposed samples a indicates that it probably desaturates at a higher
different sample was used for each value of suction than the recomposed one and retains a
 M. Bardanis and S. Grifiza / Measuring the SWCC of Structured and Recomposed Soils 613

higher degree of saturation for the same suction SWCCs for the two types of the material practi-
after desaturation of both materials. These differ- cally coincide although the undisturbed soil had
ences were clear in the case of Corinth Marl a higher initial void ratio than the recomposed
where both undisturbed and recomposed samples
have the same void ratio at the beginning of dry- 25 Rec/Rec-Multiple
ing. Rec/Rec-Single
In the case of Chalkoutsi Marl the SWCCs of 20 Nat
the undisturbed and recomposed samples practi-

.
cally coincide in terms of moisture content vs 15
suction and degree of saturation vs suction

w (%)
(though the curves for the recomposed material 10
lie slightly to the right in Fig. 4a & 4b). Yet the
undisturbed soil maintains a clearly higher void 5
ratio than the recomposed soil as at the beginning
0
of drying it had a higher void ratio than the re-
10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
composed samples. Given this difference in ini- (a) Suction (kPa)
tial void ratio the recomposed samples would
have been expected to exhibit a higher air-entry 100
pressure and retain higher degrees of saturation
and higher water contents for the same suction 80
after desaturation. Still this does not happen and
the SWCCs practically coincide in Fig. 4a & 4b,
.

60
indicating that the SWCC measured on the un-
Sr (%)

disturbed samples has a shift to the right posi-

tioning it on the SWCC of its recomposed coun- 40
terpart with a smaller initial void ratio. This is Rec/Rec
the same as the SWCC measured on undisturbed 20 Nat
samples of Corinth Marl shifting to the right of
the SWCC of its recomposed counterpart with 0
the same initial void ratio, and also has to be at- 10 100 1000 10000
tributed to the structure of the undisturbed (b) Suction (kPa)
Chalkoutsi Marl. Therefore the structure of the
undisturbed samples manifested itself in the 0.8
same manner for both soils tested, i.e. increasing 0.7
the ability of water retention in the pores of the
0.6
structured soil relative to the one expected for
their initial void ratio prior to drying. 0.5
.

0.4
e

0.3
5 CONCLUSIONS
0.2
The SWCCs measured on both undisturbed and Rec/Rec
0.1
recomposed samples of two marls have been pre- Nat
sented. In the case of Corinth Marl the undis- 0.0
turbed samples exhibited the ability to retain 10 100 1000 10000
higher degrees of saturation and water content at (c) Suction (kPa)
the same suction relative to their recomposed
Figure 3. Soil-water characteristic curves of Corinth Marl in
counterpart with the same initial void ratio prior terms of a) moisture content-suction, b) degree of saturation-
to drying. In the case of Chalkoutsi Marl the suction, and c) void ratio-suction.
614 M. Bardanis and S. Grifiza / Measuring the SWCC of Structured and Recomposed Soils

25 in all the properties measured is higher in the

case of undisturbed samples. The SWCCs have
Nat
20 been modeled in order to exhibit differences in
Rec/Rec curve-fitting parameters between SWCCs of un-
15 disturbed and recomposed soils [7].
w (%)

10
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
5
Mr Konstantakis of “Periandros S.A.” provided
0
assistance for obtaining samples of Corinth marl.
10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
Tests on Corinth Marl samples were performed
(a) Suction (kPa)
in the Foundations Laboratory of the Civil Engi-
100 neering Faculty of NTU, Athens. Tests on Chal-
Nat
koutsi Marl were performed in the EDAFOS
80 S.A. laboratory. The help received from Mr G.
Rec/Rec
Pirgiotis of the Foundations Laboratory and Mr
60 M. Tsoukaladakis of the EDAFOS S.A. labora-
Sr (%)

tory is greatly appreciated. Research carried out

40 by Mr Bardanis has been funded by the National
Scholarship Foundation (IKY) of Greece.
20

0 REFERENCES
10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
(b) Suction (kPa) [1] R.J. Chandler, Clay Sediments in Depositional Basins:
the Geotechnical Cycle, Q. J. of Eng. Geol. and Hydro-
0.8 geology 33 (2000), 5-39.
0.7 [2] M.J. Kavvadas, A.G. Anagnostopoulos, V.N. Geor-
giannou, M.E. Bardanis, M. E., Characterisation and
0.6 engineering properties of the Corinth Marl, Tan et al
0.5 (eds.), Proc. Int. Workshop ‘Characterisation and En-
gineering Properties of Natural Soils’, Singapore,
0.4
e

2002, A. A. Balkema Publishers, Vol. 2, 1435-1459.

0.3 [3] M.E. Bardanis, M.J. Kavvadas, Laboratory Investiga-
Nat tion of the Virgin Drying of the Corinth Marls, in T.,
0.2
Schanz (Ed.), Unsaturated Soils: Experimental Studies,
0.1 Rec/Rec Proc. of the Int. Conf. “From Experimental Evidence
0.0 towards Numerical Modelling of Unsaturated Soils”,
Weimar, 17-18 September 2003, Springer, Berlin, Vol.
10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
I, 421-432.
(c) Suction (kPa) [4] M.D. Fredlund, D.G. Fredlund, G.W. Wilson, An equa-
tion to represent grain-size distribution, Can. Geot. J.
Figure 4. Soil-water characteristic curves of Chalkoutsi Marl 37 (2000), 817-827.
in terms of a) moisture content-suction, b) degree of satura- [5] M.E. Bardanis, Experimental Investigation of the Com-
tion-suction, and c) void ratio-suction. pressibility of Reconstituted Soils, proc. 6th Hel. Conf.
SMGE, Volos, 2010, Vol. 1, 159-166 (in greek).
[6] M.E. Bardanis, The Theoretical Intrinsic Compression
one prior to drying. This is a clear indication of a Line and its Use in the Assessment of the Structure of
shift to higher degrees of saturation and water Natural Soils, proc. 6th Hel. Conf. SMGE, Volos, 2010,
content and therefore an ability to retain more Vol. 1, 167-174 (in greek).
water in the pores when structure is present in a [7] P.C. Sitarenios, M.E. Bardanis, M.J. Kavvadas, Model-
ling the soil-water characteristic curve of structured and
soil, rather than obeying simply to what is dic- recomposed hard soils - weak rocks, XV ECSMGE,
tated by the initial void ratio. Also the variability Athens, 2011.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 615
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-615

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 621
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-621

Etude experimentale du comportement des sols

gonflants sur le site de Ouarzazate. Maroc
Experimental Studies in the behavior of swelling soil in
Ouarzazate. Morocco
H. Ejjaaouani1, V. Shakhirev
Laboratoire Public d’Essais et d’Etudes, Casablanca, Maroc
J.P. Magnan
Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, France

RESUME
Les sols argileux semi-secs que l’on trouve dans les régions à climat aride absorbent très activement l’eau et la laissent diffi-
cilement partir par évaporation.
Nous avons étudié le mécanisme de gonflement du sol et le comportement de fondations, reposant sur le sol gonflant dans
son état naturel (non saturé) et au cours de l’humidification.
Nous avons reçu la solution du problème mixte de la résistance plastique et élastique d’un massif du sol, possédant différents
pouvoirs de diffusion des contraintes lesquelles provoquent différentes déformations du sol au-dessous de la base de fondation et
nous avons établi des formules analytiques pour le calcul de l’amplitude et de la vitesse du gonflement du sol.

ABSTRACT
Semi dry, clay-based soils found in arid regions absorb water very easily yet do not readily release moisture during the eva-
poration process. We have carefully studied and analyzed the complex relationship between ground swelling and the behavior of
foundations under such a condition, in both the natural and humidified conditions. We have the solution of the problem mixed to
the plastic and elastic resistance of soils, possessing different properties of dispersing applied external pressure, which cause
various deformations of soil under the base of the foundation.
We were able to establish analytical formulas for the calculation of both the amplitude and speed of soil swelling.

1. INTRODUCTION place, qui est comparée ici aux résultats des essais
de laboratoire.
Le laboratoire Public d’Essais et d’Etudes
(LPEE) a organisé une étude en vraie grandeur du
gonflement des argiles sous des fondations superfi- 2. LE SITE EXPERIMENTAL D’OUARZAZATE
cielles. Cette étude, réalisée à Ouarzazate, a com-
mence par une étude en laboratoire du comporte- Les terrains sont constitués d’argile et limons
ment des sols. Les observations faites lors de alluvionnaires du quaternaire.
l’humidification de la zone d’essai ont permis
d’établir la courbe de gonflement de l’argile en

1
Corresponding Author.
622 H. Ejjaaouani et al. / Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants

A l’emplacement du site expérimental, situé leur stabilisée du tassement. La limite retenue

dans la zone industrielle de la ville d’Ouarzazate, pour définir la stabilisation du tassement était de
la stratification des sols est la suivante : 50 μm/heure, ce qui correspond à 90% de con-
solidation.
0m-0,5m : limons graveleux de couleur grise. Les essais de chargement de plaque possèdent
0,5m-1,8m : argile compacte légèrement sa- une série d’avantages par rapport aux essais de
bleuse, de couleur ocre. laboratoire, car ils sont réalisés sur les sols réels,
1,8m-2,9m : argile compacte légèrement sableuse, dans leur état naturel et ils représentent le com-
de couleur jaunâtre à rougeâtre. portement d’un plus grand volume de sol, tant en
2,9m-3,5m : argile sableuse et sable argileux plan qu’en profondeur. Ce processus de charge-
avec des débris de gypse, de couleur ment des sols en place est plus long et plus cher,
jaunâtre. parce qu’il nécessite des appareils plus coûteux
3,5m-4,5m : argile compacte de couleur verte, se et plus de dépenses de personnel, mais il est plus
délitant en écailles. fiable.
La figure (1) montre l’évolution des tasse-
Les propriétés liées aux particules ont pour ments de la fondation FS-1 au cours du temps
valeurs : sous chaque palier de chargement.
- Limite de retrait WS = 16
- Limite de plasticité WP = 27
- Limite de liquidité WL = 57
- Indice de plasticité IP = 30
- Valeur de bleu WBS = 5,12g/100g
- Masse volumique des particules S =
2,66t/m3
- Teneur en eau naturelle W = 12,5%
- Indice de liquidité IL = -0,482
- Masse volumique du sol sec d = 1,61t/m3
- Masse volumique du sol humide =
1,81t/m3
- Indice des vides e0 = 0,662
- Pression de gonflement Vg = 380KPa
- Déformation de gonflement libre Hg =
11,4%

3. ÉTUDE DE LA DEFORMABILITE DES

SOLS DANS LEUR ETAT NATUREL

Pour étudier de la déformabilité des sols gon- Figure (1) Tassements de la fondation FS-1 au cours du
flants dans leur état naturel des essais de temps
chargement ont été exécutés sur la fondation FS-
1, de section 1m x 1m, placée à la surface du sol,
au fond de la zone excavée, h = 0,5m.
Le chargement a été effectué au moyen d’un
vérin hydraulique par paliers.
Sous chacune des charges appliquées, on a
mesuré le tassement de la fondation en fonction
du temps, jusqu’à ce que l’on obtienne une va-
 H. Ejjaaouani et al. / Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants
Figure (2) Évolution du tassement en fonction de la charge
appliquée (FS-1)
On observe que l’amplitude du tassement sta-
bilisé de la fondation sous chaque incrément de
charge est approximativement la même, alors
que le temps nécessaire pour l’amortissement de
ces déformations augmente constamment.
Lors du premier chargement (charge initiale Q1
= 76 kN), la charge a été appliquée plus lentement
que les charges suivantes, pour
pouvoir éventuellement observer l’effet des li-
aisons de cristallisation sur la résistance du sol.
Effectivement, aucun tassement n’a pas mesuré
pendant les cinq premières minutes, jusqu’à ce
que la charge appliquée atteigne une valeur de 57
kN. Ensuite, la fondation a commencé à subir un
tassement d’amplitude s1 = 3 mm, qui
s’est stabilisé en 15 minutes.
L’absence de tassement de la fondation au dé-
but du chargement sous Q1 est à l’évidence due à
la résistance des liaisons rigides de cristallisation
qui sont très importantes dans un sol naturel peu
humide. La présence de faibles quantités d’eau
liée aux contacts des particules peut aussi con-
tribuer à la résistance du sol par l’effet des forces
capillaires (de succion). Lorsque la charge aug-
mente, la zone du sol comprimée par la fondation
augmente et s’étend dans les parties du sol qui ne
sont pas encore désaturées : la teneur en eau
augmente avec la profondeur et les liaisons capil-
623
laires, électro-moléculaires et colloïdales devien-
nent dominantes dans la résistance du sol, ce qui se
traduit par l’augmentation de la durée de stabilisation
des déformations du sol pour les valeurs plus élevées
de la charge. Pour sa part, la destruction des liaisons
fragiles et rigides de cristallisation est irréversible.
La figure (2) présente de l’amplitude du tassement
avec la charge appliquée. On observe que cette rela-
tion est linéaire.
On peut évaluer l’effet des liaisons rigides initia-
les du sol à 57KN (ou 57KPa, puisque la charge est
répartie sur une surface d’un mètre carré). La partie
élastique (réversible) de la déformation vaut 9,5mm,
c'est-à-dire 22,7% de la déformation totale observée
(41,75mm).
On peut observer que la partie initiale de la
courbe de déchargement est linéaire et qu’elle
devient non linéaire quand la charge devient in-
férieure à 228 kN. Cela indique que le dé-
chargement par étapes de la fondation limite
l’amplitude de la déformation associée au dé-
chargement du sol. Le dernier déchargement
représente à lui seul 40% de l’amplitude de la défor-
mation de déchargement.
4. HUMIDIFICATION DU SOL A PARTIR DE LA
SURFACE SUR LE SITE EXPERIMENTAL
Pour l’humidification du sol à partir de la sur-
face, on a placé au fond de l’excavation des tubes
en plastique de 20mm de diamètre perforés des
deux côtés par des orifices de 1mm de diamètre es-
pacés de 125mm dans le sens de la longueur. Deux
tuyaux ont été mis, en place, l’un sur le bord
intérieur de l’excavation et l’autre sur le bord ex-
térieur, afin d’obtenir humidification homogène du
massif de sol dans toute l’aire d’essai. Pour éviter les
dégradations des tubes en plastique, on les a re-
couverts ensemble, du fond de l’excavation d’une
couche de graviers 0/25mm d’épaisseur 70 à
100mm.
Au cours du processus d’humidification du sol, on
a mesuré la profondeur d’humidification du sol au
moyen de micro-sondes de 10mm de diamètre, qui
s’enfonçaient facilement dans le sol humidifié et
rencontraient une résistance beaucoup plus forte
lorsqu’elles atteignaient le niveau du sol sec.
624 H. Ejjaaouani et al. / Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants
La figure (3) présente les données expérimentales
sur l’évolution au cours du temps de la profondeur
du front de gonflement et du front
d’humidification à proximité de la semelle FS-1.
avance sur la propagation du front de gonflement, et
que la différence augmentait avec la profondeur.
Du fait de l’influence du poids propre du sol
et de la nécessité de dépasser la contrainte natu-
rel V=Jz, sous la surface libre de l’excavation et
la contrainte V=V0+Jz sous les semelles (appli-
quant une surcharge de V0), le front de gonfle-
ment doit nécessairement être en retard sur le
front d’humidification.
L’évolution de la profondeur de gonflement
figure (3) peut être représentée par la formule
(1).
nt
§t ·
Figure (3) Évolution du front d’humidification et du
front de gonflement au cours du temps (à proximité de la
fondation FS-1)
Figure (4) Évolution du paramètre nt en fonction du rapport t/t conditions particulières du site expérimental de Oua-
L’observation du processus d’humidification du
sol depuis la surface a montré que la propagation en
profondeur du front d’humidification était un peu en
Ht  Hf ¨¨ ¸¸ (1)
© tf ¹
dans laquelle H(t) est la profondeur de la zone
active au temps t, Hf est la profondeur maximale (fi-
nale) de la zone active, nt est un paramètre
d’amortissement de l’évolution de H(t) qui dépend de la
durée de l’humidification et est déterminé d’après la
courbe de la figure (4).
La valeur maximale Hf de la profondeur de la
zone active peut être définie, de façon générale,
d’après :
- la profondeur atteinte par l’humidification ;
- l’épaisseur de la couche de sol gon-
flant ;
- la profondeur dans le sol où la pression
de gonflement devient égale à la contrainte
totale verticale due au poids propre du sol :

g =
vo ;
- les valeurs connues de la vitesse moy-
enne de déplacement du front de gonfle-
ment v et de la durée d’humification t : Hf =
vt (Sorochan, 1989).
La relation entre le front de gonflement et le front
d’humidification présentée ci-dessus correspond aux
rzazate où la couche de sol gonflant a une épaisseur
limitée et repose sur une couche d’argileuse sableuse
sans propriétés de gonflement.
On peut relier le comportement déterminé en
laboratoire (Ejjaaouani et al. 2003).
 H. Ejjaaouani et al. / Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants 625

n
§ V ·
H g V a  H go ¨1  a ¸ (2)
¨ Vg ¸
© i ¹
avec le comportement du massif du site ex-
périmental en calculant le gonflement de la sur-
face du sol par intégration de l’équation (2) sur
l’épaisseur de la zone active Ha, (3).
Cette intégration se fait en tenant compte de
l’évolution avec la profondeur de la contrainte où :
totale verticale
z et d’une autre fonction (1- a et b : sont les longueurs des côtés de la se-
z/Ha) qui décrit l’observation que le gonflement melle de fondation ;
n’a pas la même intensité sur l’épaisseur de la
a : est la pression transmise au sol par la
couche active. fondation :
L’intégration de la fonction de gonflement a été zi : est la profondeur de la base de la couche i,
effectuée numériquement, en découpant le sol en
: est le poids volumique du sol,
couches. L’expression (3) est pour cette raison
: est l’angle de diffusion de la charge dans
écrite pour la i-ème couche du sol : le sol. Ejjaaouani H, Shakhirev V (2007).
(3)
n
où § V ·
m
zi § z · (3) L’influence du temps peut être représentée par
'h gi H go ³ ¨1  zi ¸ ¨¨ 1  ¸ dz
H a ¸¹
z i 1 ¨ ¸ la même fonction :
© V gi ¹ © mt
§ t ·
'h g t  'h go ¨¨ ¸¸ (6)
H go : est la valeur de la déformation relative de © tf ¹
gonflement libre à l’œdomètre, Ou
V zi : est la contrainte verticale totale au milieu
de la couche, créée par le poids volumique du sol
et par la diffusion de la charge appliquée en sur-
face par la fondation (Ejjaaouani H, Shakhirev
V., 2007).
ab
V Zi (4)
a  2 z i tan E b  2 z i tan E 
Cette équation (7) possède un caractère uni-
versel et est valable tant pour le gonflement en
n : est un paramètre de la loi de variation de la
place que pour le gonflement en laboratoire. Pour
déformation avec la pression
z ;
décrire le cas d’une éprouvette œdométrique, il
m : est un paramètre de la fonction décrivant
convient d’éliminer l’effet de la dispersion de
l’influence du temps ;
charges (tan
= 0) et de négliger l’influence du
zi-1 et zi : sont les profondeurs des limites de la i-
poids volumique du sol. L’expression (7) peut
ème couche ;
être écrite avec une seule couche d’épaisseur h

gi: est la pression de gonflement du sol dans la i-
égale à la hauteur de l’éprouvette œdométrique,
ème couche ;
soit :
z : est la variable d’intégration (profondeur cou-
m n
rante dans la couche), § t · ª Va º
t

Ha : est la profondeur de la zone active. 'h g t  H go ¨¨ ¸¸ «1  » h (8)

© tf ¹ ¬« V gi »¼
Après transformation, on obtient l’équation dis-
crétisée de calcul du gonflement final :
626 H. Ejjaaouani et al. / Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants

La détermination de la durée maximale du gon- 5. COMPORTEMENT DES FONDATIONS

flement du sol est relativement facile à déterminer SUR SOL GONFLANT SATURE
en laboratoire, mais il est très compliqué de la dé-
terminer sur le terrain. Dans la théorie de la con- Après l’essai de chargement statique par pal-
solidation des sols, il est connu que le temps néces- iers exécuté sur la fondation FS-1 lorsque le sol
saire pour obtenir un degré de consolidation donné était encore dans son état naturel initial, un nouvel
est proportionnel au carré de l’épaisseur de la essai de chargement a été réalisé après la fin de
couche. Cette relation permet d’extrapoler le tasse- l’humidification du sol, figure (5).
ment mesuré en laboratoire au tassement de couch- La charge a été appliquée de façon analogue au
es de sols. Pour tenir compte de divers facteurs ab- premier chargement. Pendant toute la durée de l’essai,
sents de la théorie de base, on peut écrire la relation le niveau de l’eau dans l’excavation a été maintenu
du temps et de l’épaisseur des couches sous la constant et l’essai a duré en tout pendant 210 heures.
forme plus générale (Berezantsev et., 1961) : Lors du premier essai de chargement de la
O fondation FS-1, la teneur en eau du sol était de
t1 § h1 ·
¨¨ ¸¸ (9) 12,54%, tandis qu’elle valait 32% pour le sol sa-
t2 © h2 ¹ turé et le soulèvement de la fondation pendant
l’humidification du sol a eu une amplitude de 90
Nous proposons d’utiliser une relation de la
mm.
même forme pour décrire l’évolution de la durée
du gonflement en fonction de l’épaisseur de la
zone active Ha ou de l’épaisseur de l’éprouvette
en laboratoire hlab :
O
t nat § Ha ·
f
lab
¨¨ ¸¸ (10)
tf © h lab ¹
Berezantsev et al. (1961) ont noté que le coef-
ficient O de l’équation (10) est généralement
compris entre 0 et 2. Nous avons trouvé qu’il
vaut 0,935 dans les essais que nous avons réal-
isés.
À titre d’exemple, les données des essais en
laboratoire (Ejjaaouani et al. 2003) de gonfle-
ment de l’argile de Ouarzazate la durée du gon-
flement de l’argile était de 520 minutes.
Si l’on considère que l’épaisseur de la zone
active sous la semelle FS-1 vaut 170 cm, la for-
mule (10) nous indique que la durée du gonfle-
ment sera de :
0 , 935
§ Ha · § 170 · =34740,7min
t nat
f =t
lab
f ¨¨ ¸¸ = 520¨ ¸
© hlab ¹ © 1,9 ¹
= 24,1 jours (11)

La durée du gonflement sur le site expérimen- Figure (5) Poste de mesure et équipement de la fondation
tal à Ouarzazate est de 24 jours. FS-1
 H. Ejjaaouani et al. / Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants 627

La figure 6 présente les courbes de charge- On voit que l’augmentation de la teneur en

ment et de déchargement de fondation superfi- eau du sol fait diminuer le module de déforma-
cielle FS-1, après leur soulèvement initial. tion dans toutes les étapes de chargement, tab-
On peut noter que les deux courbes de tasse- leau 1.
ment de la fondation FS-1 ont une forme prati- Tableau 1 Variations du module de déforma-
quement linéaire et qu’elles diffèrent essen- tion E (module d’Young en kPa) en fonction de
tiellement par la pente. Ainsi, si l’on multiplie l’intervalle de chargement (kPa).
l’échelle horizontale de la courbe de tassement
après humidification par 7,6, on obtient une
coïncidence presque parfaite avec la courbe ob-

a
tenue sur le sol naturel. Le sol après humidifica- (kPa)
50 100 140 175 210
tion est donc 7,6 fois moins résistant que le sol w
initial. Pour leur part, les déformations de dé- (%)
chargement sont 2,5 fois plus grandes. 12,5 16100 15150 14490 13825 13350
32 1900 1780 1660 1560 1470

a
245 280 315 350 500
(kPa)
w
(%)
12,5 12850 12375 11930 11600 10500
32 1400 1330 1272 1220 1080

Les variations du module de déformation du

sol ont été calculées d’après la courbe de la fig-
ure (2). Le calcul a été effectué en utilisant la
formule établie par Schleicher pour la déforma-
tion d’un massif élastique sous une semelle ri-
gide (Berezantsev et al., 1960, Cassan, 1978).
V i  V i1
Z 1  Q  b
2
E (12)
s i  s i1
où :

: est un coefficient qui dépend de la forme de la

plaque rigide, égal à 0,88 pour une semelle
carrée ;

: est le coefficient de dilatation latérale du sol
(coefficient de Poisson), pris égal à 0,4 ;
b : est la largeur de la fondation, b = 1m ;

i –
i-1 : est l’intervalle entre les paliers de
chargement ;
si – si-1 : est la différence des tassements de la
Figure (6) Déplacements verticaux de fondation superfi- fondation pour cet intervalle de charges.
cielle pendant l’humidification du sol et pendant les essais
de chargement par paliers

6. CONCLUSION

Les études réalisées sur le site expérimental de

Ouarzazate ont permis de valider des dispositions
628 H. Ejjaaouani et al. / Etude experimentale du comportement des sols gonflants

expérimentales innovantes et de tirer les conclu- 5.Les propriétés de déformabilité et de résis-

sions présentées dans ce qui suit :
1.Le système utilisé pour la saturation contrôlée
du massif de sol s’est avéré très efficace et
a rempli tous ses objectifs, comme toutes
les dispositions prises pour les mesures et
les essais de chargement dans des condi-
tions climatiques difficiles.
2.Nous avons présenté les données expérimenta-
les sur l’évolution au cours du temps de la
profondeur du front de gonflement et du
front d’humidification.
L’observation du processus
d’humidification du sol depuis la surface, a
montrée que la propagation en profondeur
du front d’humidification était un peu en
avance sur la propagation du front de gon-
flement, et que la différence augmentée
avec la profondeur. Lorsque la charge aug-
mente, la zone de sol comprimée par la
fondation augmente aussi et s’étend dans
les parties du sol qui ne sont pas encore dé-
saturées. La teneur en eau augmente avec la
profondeur et les liaisons capillaires, élec-
tro-moléculaires et colloïdales deviennent
dominantes dans la résistance du sol, ce qui
se traduit par l’augmentation de la durée de
stabilisation des déformations du sol pour
les valeurs plus élevée de charge. Pour sa
part, la destruction des liaisons fragiles et
rigides de cristallisation est irréversible.
De ce fait, on remarque que, l’augmentation
de la teneur en eau du sol fait diminuer le
module de déformation dans toute les éta-
pes de chargement.
tance du sol dans son état naturel et après sa-
turation ont été établies. Elles diminuent sensi-
blement pendant la saturation du sol.
RÉFÉRENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES
[1]. Berezantsev, V.G., Kcenofontov, A.I., Platonov, E.V., Si-
dorov, N.N., Yaroshenko V.A. (1961). Mécanique des
sols et fondations (en russe : Mekhanika gruntov, osno-
vaniya i fundamenty). Moscou, Éditions du Ministère des
Voies de Communications, Transzheldorizdat, 340 pages.
[2]. Cassan M. (1978). Les essais in situ en mécanique
des sols. Tome 1. Éditions Eyrolles, Paris, pp. 269-
304.
[3]. Ejjaaouani. H, J.P. Magnan, Shakhirev V, Mowgli S.
(2003). Comportement des sols gonflants à Ouarzazate.
L’implication de la géotechnique dans le développement
des infrastructures en Afrique.
[4]. 13ème Congrès Régional Africain de la géotechnique, Mar-
rakech, Maroc, 8-11 Décembre, Ed. Sahli, ahi, Khalid.
ISBN 9954-8407-0-2.p.p. 363-369.
[5]. Ejjaaounai H. Shakhirev V. (2007), Calculation of the
foundation during wetting. XIV Congrès Européen de
mécanique des sols et de la Géotechnique, 24-27 Sep-
tembre 2007 Madrid, Espagne.
[6]. Sorochan, E.A. (1989). Construction d’ouvrages sur les
sols gonflants (en russe : stroitelstvo sooruzenij na nabuk-
hayushchikh gruntakh). Moscou, Strojizdat, 310 pages.

3.Les mesures effectuées pendant

l’humidification du sol ont permis de carac-
tériser le gonflement libre du sol et son
gonflement empêché par la présence des
fondations non chargées et d’établir des
formules analytiques pour le calcul de
l’amplitude et de la vitesse du gonflement
du sol.
4.Des données ont été assemblées sur le gon-
flement du sol par couches sous l’effet de
son propre poids.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 629
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-629

A contribution to improve the understanding of

softening in stiff overconsolidated clays and marls
Une contribution à améliorer la compréhension
d’adoucissement dans les argiles surconsolidées rigides et
marnes
M. Ma¢ek 1, B. Pulko, A. Petkovšek
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Jamova 2, 1000 Ljubljana,
Slovenia

ABSTRACT
The paper describes a case history from of 500 m long and up to 40 m deep cut in stiff clays from Miocene era from Slovenia,
where softening of bedrock influenced the stability of retaining wall during construction and additional supporting measures
were necessary to ensure safety. Bedrock properties, determined during the geotechnical investigation for the main design are
compared with the properties, determined soon after the first unpredicted deformation occurred as well as with the properties,
determined after construction. The results show that during construction a significant reduction in strength appeared. An attempt
is made to describe the softening process using the soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) and the deformation behaviour of the
wall is described with numerical modelling.

RÉSUMÉ
L’article présente un historique d’une fouille d'une longueur de 500 mètres jusqu'à 40 m de profondeur, réalisée dans les argiles
rigides du Miocène de la Slovénie, où l’adoucissement du socle rocheux a eu un impact sur la stabilité du mur de soutènement en
cours de construction et des mesures de soutien supplémentaires ont été nécessaires pour assurer la sécurité. Les propriétés du
socle rocheux, déterminées lors de l'étude géotechnique pour la conception principale, sont comparées aux propriétés, détermi-
nées peu de temps après que la première déformation imprévue est survenue, aussi bien qu’avec les propriétés déterminées après
la construction. Les résultats montrent une diminution significative de la résistance pendant la construction. Une tentative est
faite pour décrire le processus d’adoucissement utilisant le SWCC et le comportement en déformation de la paroi est décrit par le
modelage numérique.

Keywords: overconsolidated stiff clay, soil suction, swelling, landslide

1 INTRODUCTION no laboratory test method available to properly

Stiff clays, marls and other types of clay bearing
soft sedimentary rocks have been representing
the most challenging geo-material for geotech-
nical engineers for decades. In their behavior
they are between rocks and soils and tend to
transgress from rock–like into a soil–like materi-
al within a relatively short time period. There is
describe the magnitude and the time frame of
softening. Many authors have reported premature
failures of cut slopes and embankments, con-
structed in stiff clays and shales [1], [2], [3]. At
present time there is an increasing number of
studies on the evolution of the mechanical beha-
vior of materials, such as shales and stiff clays
[4], [5], [6]. This paper presents a lesson, learned

1
Corresponding Author.
630 M. Maček et al. / A Contribution to Improve the Understanding of Softening
during the construction of a 520 m long and 40 m
deep motorway cut in NE Slovenia, where the
extent of supporting measures, needed to main-
tain the stability of the slope during construction
increased by more than 100% in comparison
with the designed measures.
2 GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS
The deep cut is located inside the hilly area
formed by layered sediments of Miocene age.
Marls prevail over soft siltstone and sandstone.
Layers are horizontal or slightly inclined toward
NE. The ground water is present inside the top-
weathered zone while the bedrock sediments ap-
pear as “dry”. According to the national landslide
susceptibility model, the whole region is identi-
fied as moderately to highly susceptible to
landslides. The most typical mode of sliding is
sliding of 3 - 5 m thick layer of soil or softened
marl along the sliding plane in the bedrock.
Geological investigation for the main design
for the deep motorway cut was performed in
1996 [7] when there were no experiences with
deep cuts in comparable geological environ-
ments. Six bore-holes with total length of 192 m
confirmed geological conditions similar to those
from the surroundings. At the upper part of the
hills, the bedrock appeared under a thin layer of
soil, while at the base of the slope, the soil cover
was up to 7 m thick. The RQD values of wea-
thered bedrock in marls and siltstone were 48 -
64% and inside the intact bedrock in the range of
64 - 98%.
In situ packer test gave the coefficient of per-
meability in the range of 10-6 m/s to 10-7m/s,
while the laboratory test gave values in ranges of
10-10 m/s to 10-11 m/s, which indicate a signifi-
cant anisotropy in permeability. Two types of
water influx into the cut were forecast, from the
soil cover and from the random sources in be-
drock. However, the total influx was estimated as
considerably small.
In the laboratory, unconfined compression
tests (UCS), performed on 102 samples of marls
identified values of 0.2 - 13.8 MPa. These values
were used in the calculation of strength accord-
ing to the modified Hoek & Brown (H&B) crite-
ria (Table 1).
Table 1. Shear strength parameters obtained by H&B criteria
[7]
Depth (m) c (kPa)  (°)
3.9-5.8 13-20 17
5.8-35 15-126 26
3 RETAINING STRUCTURE
The retaining structure was designed as a unique
system of prefabricated concrete structures, fitted
up along the slope in the longitudinal distance of
4 to 5 m and anchored (Figure 1). A step by step
excavation in segments, from the top down-
wards to the bottom was proposed [8]. The exca-
vation of each new step was allowed to start not
earlier than when the previous segment was fin-
ished and anchored. The slope was cut with two
5 m wide berms. Each concrete structure, fit at
the slope between two berms, was anchored by
two approximately 20 m long pre-stressed an-
chors. To protect denudated marls against ero-
sion and softening, special concrete beams were
constructed to support the vegetation soil (Figure
2).
Figure 1. View to retaining wall OZ-05 during construction.
The described types of structures have already
been used in deep cuts in Slovenia with a great
extent, however, never in comparable bedrock
formation. Therefore, an extensive monitoring
system with inclinometers, control anchors, and
 M. Maček et al. / A Contribution to Improve the Understanding of Softening
geodetic observation was proposed by the main
design.
Figure 2. Detail view on prefabricated concrete structures,
pre-stressed anchor and concrete beams.
4 CONSTRUCTION AND MONITORING
As early as the first segment for the wall was ex-
cavated and the first test anchors were installed
in 2006, it became clear, that the volume stability
of the bedrock was strongly underestimated dur-
ing the geological investigation (Figure 3). Wet-
ting and softening of the “dry” bedrock appeared
in two stages: firstly saturation was observed in-
side the sandy layers and after that, wetting pro-
gressed continuously, from the top to the bottom.
The wetting was accompanied by fissures, which
were opened along the contact between the sandy
and the clayey layers inside the bedrock, and
with slaking. In the second stage, stiff marls and
poorly cemented sandstones were transformed
into loose and/or plastic soil. At that time locally
limited landslides also occurred.
As the deep cut was also the main source of
fill material for embankments, the excavation
phase overtook the construction of supporting
wall and the requirements for the step by step
execution of the work remained forgotten.
Already the first monitoring results showed
excessive horizontal displacements and the anc-
horing forces started to increase.
631
Figure 3. Shallow excavation for the first test anchor. Mi-
ocene marl shortly after excavation.
In the first year of construction, the displace-
ments rate in inclinometers was 5 - 15
mm/month from the beginning of the excavation,
and continued to develop even after the end of
the construction of the observed segment (Figure
4). However, when additional anchors were pre-
stressed, the displacement rate decreased to the
rate of 4 mm/month and continued up to the end
of construction.
100
displacements (mm)
excavation additional
80 IN 7 anchoring
IN 8
60
IN 9
40
20
0
1.9.06 1.9.07 31.8.08 31.8.09
date
Figure 4. Displacement of inclinometers heads. IN-7 is just
behind retaining structure, IN-8 is in the middle part of the
retaining structure and IN-9 is app. 25 m behind the crown.
Anchor forces were increasing although the ex-
cavation was temporary stopped and the addi-
tional anchors were installed (Figure 5). In the
anchors, which were installed at the final phases
of construction, when the whole structure had al-
ready been reinforced with the additional con-
crete slab in the longitudinal direction, the forces
remained inside the designed values.
632 M. Maček et al. / A Contribution to Improve the Understanding of Softening

u1

H (m AMSL)
700 330
anchor force (kN)

1997 2007 2009

m1
650 l1 320
600 l2 310
u2
550 m2 300
500 290
450 280
additional
400 270
excavation anchoring
350 5 10 15 20 25
w (%)
1.9.06 1.9.07 31.8.08 31.8.09
date Figure 6. Water content in overconsolidated stiff clay before
(1997) and after construction (2007-2009).
Figure 5. The increase of anchor forces through time. (u-
upper, m-middle and l-lower concrete structure; 1 - design

H (m AMSL)
and 2 - additional anchors). 330 1997 2007 2009
320
The construction was completed after 3 years in 310
May 2009. According to the main design, 417
300
anchors in the total length of 8336 m should have
been installed. At the end, 717 anchors in the to- 290
tal length of 18 545 m and the additional rein- 280
forced concrete slab of several hundred meters 270
were necessary to keep the structure in stable po- 0 5000 10000 qu (kPa)
sition. During the construction, several incli-
nometers failed and additional borings were nec- Figure 7. UCS in marls before (1997) and after construction
essary to maintain the monitoring system. (2007-2009).

Swelling deformations and swelling pressures

5 BACK ANALYSIS
5.1 Material properties and behaviour
During construction, in 2007 and 2009, addi-
tional boreholes were made at the location of
failed inclinometers. Samples were taken to con-
trol the properties of the bedrock and to find out,
were observed in oedometers on a series of con-
trolled samples. Figure 8 shows the most indica-
tive results. Although the swelling deformations,
shown in Figure 8 are smaller than 2%, the pres-
sure, needed to maintain constant volume during
wetting was higher than the range of oedometer
apparatus (1500 kPa).
e

weather the geological conditions differ from the 0.38

prediction and if the process of softening was al- 0.37 inundated sample
ready finished at the specific location. 0.36
The softening should be observed as increase sw elling
0.35
of water content and as decrease of UCS. Figure def.
6 gives the comparison of the water content 0.34
measurements which show that the average water 0.33
content of the bedrock significantly increased dry sample
0.32
deeply behind the cut. 1 10 100 1000  10000
(kPa)
The results, given in Figure 7, show also the
significant reduction in UCS. The decrease of Figure 8. Oedometer test performed on sample VG-1. High
average UCS for all marl samples was 28%. swelling pressure could be observed.
 M. Maček et al. / A Contribution to Improve the Understanding of Softening
5.2 Strength – SWCC relationship
Liquid limit (wL) of tested samples varied be-
tween 40% and 65%. The soil water characteris-
tic curve (SWCC) was obtained for material with
liquid limit 40% and 53%, which represents the
upper and lower boundary material (Figure 9).
The water contents of inundated samples in the
oedometer apparatus represent the expected
highest water content.
The suction of intact samples was compared
to SWCCs. It could be observed that only few
samples have higher water content than those
measured on inundated samples and the majority
of suctions lies near the proposed SWCCs.
Measured suction in 2009 for samples above the
bottom of excavation is between 200 and 1000
kPa and for samples below the bottom of excava-
tion it is between 300 and 2300 kPa. From ob-
servations given by Petkovšek [9] small effects
of relaxation are still expected.
w (%)
25 IN-9 13m
VG-1
20 IN-15 clay
IN-17 clay
15 IN-19 clay
inundated soil
10
0
10 100 1000 10000 100000
suction (kPa)
Figure 9. SWCC for two materials and suction on intact sam-
ples. The inundated oedometer samples represent possible
water contents at zero suction.
It is important to stress, that the first deep cut
into the stiff Oligocene marly clay was made in
Slovenia in 1950 to construct the Moste under-
ground power station. Soon after the end of con-
struction in 1952, fissures appeared in the con-
crete walls and deformation continued through
the years. Šuklje [3] explained the deformation
as the consequence of swelling and slow creep of
the stiff overconsolidated clay, while Petkovšek
[9], [10] found out, that the swelling disappears
when the water content equilibrates at suction of
633
app. 1500 kPa. On the basis of more than 150
tests Petkovšek found the simple relationship be-
tween the strength and the water content or suc-
tion for specific Oligocene clay:
cu  KX tan  (1)
where ¤ is soil suction and K is correlation pa-
rameter (K=1 for Oligocene clay).
Therefore, the idea of the additional tests of
samples from Miocene bedrock was also to
check, weather the simple equation (1) can be
widely used in a different stiff clay formation.
The suction and UCS were drawn with respect
to water content (Figure 10). Although high scat-
ter is observed, a clear trend is obvious. Both
UCS and suction decrease with increasing water
contents. However, due to differences in material
and scatter of results equation (1) could not be
used successfully in layered bedrock or should
be improved by other coefficients.
UCS
qu, suction (kPa)
10000
suction
1000
100
5.0 10.0 15.0 w 20.0
(%)
Figure 10. Relationship between water content, UCS and suc-
tion for Miocene marls.
5.3 Numerical modelling
A 2D finite element numerical model (Plaxis
v8.2) was made to observe possible increases in
anchor forces due to progression of excavation or
due to soil swelling.
The hardening soil model was used to model
soil behaviour (=21 kN/m3, E50= 160 MPa, Eur=
600 MPa, m= 0.5, pref= 100 kPa, ¥ur= 0.2, c=35
kPa, =39°), which was similar to that from de-
sign stage. The material relaxation was modelled
634 M. Maček et al. / A Contribution to Improve the Understanding of Softening
through the expected volume deformations as
observed in oedometer tests and SWCCs. The re-
sults of numerical modelling are presented in
Figure 11. The calculated anchor forces have the
same trend, although the anchor forces differ, es-
pecially for anchors near the bottom of excava-
tion. In situ observed forces increased from 450
to 600 kN, which is smaller than the calculated
force of 1000 kN when swelling was considered
in calculations and higher than the expected 460
kN in the design stage. The difference between
observed and calculated anchor forces could be
the result of increased thickness of sandy inter-
layers, which are not prone to swelling and were
not considered in calculations.
The results of numerical modelling show that
not only the reduction of shear strength [11] but
also the swelling due to suction equilibration in-
creases the anchor forces.
u1 m1
u2 m2
u1 calc m1 calc
u2 calc m2 calc
750
anchor force (kN)
700
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
1.9.06 1.9.07 31.8.08
Figure 11. Measured and calculated anchor forces (u-upper,
m-middle and l-lower concrete structure; 1 – design anchor, 2
– additional anchor, calc – calculated anchor force).
6 CONCLUSIONS
The results of in situ tests and the laboratory tests
on the intact samples in the investigation stage
were found to be too optimistic and during con-
struction the retaining wall exhibited larger de-
formation than predicted. From the additional la-
boratory tests decrease of shear strength was
observed due to material softening and deteriora-
tion. It was found out that the majority of the ma-
terial deterioration is the consequence of suction
equilibration.
The suction equilibration should be consi-
dered in the design stage when stiff clays and
marls form bedrock. The predicted shear strength
after suction equilibration should be used in cal-
culations, as well as the possible influences of
swelling deformations on retaining structures.
During monitoring of the retaining structure
the possible maximum displacement and the ex-
pected development of the displacement through
time due to the swelling should be acknowl-
edged.
REFERENCES
[1] V.C. Mc Guffey, 1982. Design of Cut Slopes in Over-
consolidated Clays. Transportation Research Record
l1 873 (1982), 8 – 11.
[2] M.W. Oakland & C.W. Lovell, Standarized Tests for
l2
Compacted Shale Highway Embankments. Transporta-
l1 calc tion Research Record 873 (1982), 15 – 22.
l2 calc [3] L. Šuklje, Zemeljski pritiski na podzemno strojnico
Moste. Gradbeni vestnik, 29 (1980), 202 – 212.
[4] S. Leroueil. & P. Vaughan, The general and congruent
effects of the structure in natural soils and weak rocks.
Géotechnique 40/3 (1990), 467-488.
[5] F. Cafaro & F. Cotecchia, Structural degradation and
changes in the mechanical behaviour of a stiff clay due
to weathering. Géotechnique 51/5 (2001), 441-453.
[6] K. K. Sorensen, B. A. Baudet & B. Simpson, Inflence
of structure on the time- dependent behaviour of a stiff
sedimentary clay. Géotechnique (2007) 57/1, 113-124.
[7] D. Ocepek, L. Humar, J. Jerman, M. Bren¢i¢, Ge-
ološko-geotehnino poroilo o pogojih izvedbe vkopa
31.8.09 od km 14+060 do km 14+620, faza: PGD-PZI, 1997
date [8] L. Korpar, Retaining wall OZ-05 (RC columns) Plans of
building structures. Maribor: GRADIS Biro za projekti-
ranje d.o.o. Project No. 3682, 2004
[9] A. Petkovšek, Influence of matrix suction on deforma-
tion caracteristics, Ph.D. thesis, University of Ljubl-
jana, Slovenia, 2006.
[10] A. Petkovšek, M. Ma¢ek & B. Majes. A laboratory
characterization of soils and clay-bearing rocks using
the Enslin-Neff water-adsorption test. Acta geotech.
Slov. 6-2 (2009), 4-13.
[11] K. Štern, Influence of the rate of construction and of
rock mass strength reduction on the stability of deep
cuts in marl, Proc. of the 17th Inter. Conf. on Soil
Mech. and Geotechnical Eng. 2009 Alexandria, Egypt
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 635
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-635

Structure and collapsibility of loess soils

in middle Asia
Structure et dégradation des sols de lœss en Asie Moyenne
C. Meier 1, C. Boley & Y. Zou
Institute for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, University of the Bundeswehr Munich,
Germany

ABSTRACT
The loess in north Afghanistan behaves very hard in dry season. In rainy season, loess becomes saturated and in consequence
relatively soft. Under external loads, even under the gravity load the loess subsoil wetted throughout presents very large collapse
settlements, which damage the buildings upon the subsoil. To investigate the physical and mechanical properties of the loess in
north Afghanistan and furthermore to avoid the damages to buildings due to the collapse settlements, undisturbed loess samples
in different depths in north Afghanistan were obtained for laboratory investigations. The aim of the study is to develop a new de-
sign method which enables the estimation of prospective settlement of a collapse prone loess soil.

RÉSUMÉ
Le lœss au nord d’Afghanistan est très résistant pendant la saison sèche. Par contre, pendant la saison des pluies, le lœss est satu-
ré et par conséquent relativement mou. Etant mouillé sous des charges d’exploitation et même sous son poids propre, le lœss
génère des dommages importantes et des effondrements des constructions à cause de sa grande déformabilité. Afin d’étudier les
propriétés physiques et mécaniques du lœss, des échantillons de lœss non perturbés étaient prélevés à différentes profondeurs.
Ensuite, les échantillons de lœss étaient étudiés au laboratoire. L'objectif de l'étude est d’établir une nouvelle méthode pour éva-
luer les tassements pour la construction des nouvelles colonies.

Keywords: loess soil, collapse behaviour, collapsibility, water content, settlement, microstructure

1 INDTRODUCTION The physical properties, such as grain size dis-

These collapse incidents in north Afghanistan, as
well as similar problems during the building of
the high speed railway in West China, show the
necessity of extensive research. The purpose of
this study is to investigate the mechanical prop-
erties of loess soils in Mazar-e-Sharif Afghanis-
tan. For this, our current programme is divided
into different parts.
1
Corresponding Author.
tribution, density of soil grain, dry density, void
ratio, degree of saturation of the undisturbed
loess samples were determined at first. The mi-
crostructure of the undisturbed loess samples was
studied by means of scanning electron microsco-
py. The mineral compositions of the loess grains
and the type of soluble salts in the loess were in-
vestigated by X-ray diffractometrical analysis
and chemical analysis.
To get a first impression of the settlement be-
havior of collapse prone loess under cyclic loads,
636 C. Meier et al. / Structure and Collapsibility of Loess Soils in Middle Asia

extensive triaxial pressure tests in a dynamic cell between 26% and 28%, the plastic limit wP be-
were carried out. tween 13% and 19%, thus the plasticity index IP
ranges between 8% and 14%. With the measured
natural water content w, liquid limit wL and plas-
2 LABORATORY TESTING tic limit wP the consistency index IC was calcu-
lated. According to Germany Standard DIN
To improve the understanding of the complex 18122 the loess soils are in a “hard state”. The
mechanical properties of this kind of soil, initial grain size fractions of the loess soils were deter-
laboratory tests (index tests) were carried out. mined according to Germany Standard DIN
These tests are necessary to get an impression of 18123. The grain size distribution curves of the
the specific gravity of soil grain, the density of loess soils are very similar. The fraction of silt
soil, natural water content, grain size, liquid and grains is for all of the loess soils ranges between
plastic limit. To get the optimum water content 56% and 70%. The sand grain fraction is above
with the associated density, standard proctor test 16%. The rest is the clay fraction. The grain size
were made. The knowledge about the optimum fractions are the typical compositions of loess
water content bear relevance to the collapse be- soils in middle Asia (Boley & Zou 2007).
haviour under static, as well as under dynamic
loads. Table 1. Optimum water content wopt and maximum dry den-
sity dmax
2.1 Index tests _________________________________________________
MP1* MP2** MP3*
The specific gravity s of soil particles of the _________________________________________________
loess soils from the three trial pits were deter- specific gravity of soil particles
mined according to Germany Standard DIN s [g/cm³] 2,73 2,72 2,71
18124. The test results are listed in Table 1 (MP
water content
= point of measuring and taking samples). The w [%] 5,00 8,13 4,41
average value of the particle density is s = 2.72
g/cm³, which is the typical value of clay contain- wet density
ing silts. The natural water contents w of the  [g/cm³] 1,59 1,56 1,47
samples were measured in laboratory. The values dry density
of natural water contents are listed in Table 1 as d [g/cm³] 1,51 1,45 1,41
well. The values of the natural water content w
decreased with increasing depth. The average void ratio
e [-] 0,80 0,88 0,94
value of the natural water content is w = 4.77%,
which is a typical value of loess soils in dry area. degree of saturation
The wet densities  of the undisturbed soil sam- Sr [%] 17,93 22,95 11,50
ples with natural water content were measured in
liquid limit
laboratory. The dry densities d of the soil sam- wL [%] 27,30 26,20 27,00
ples are calculated by wet density  and natural
water content w. Their values are also listed in plastic limit
wP [%] 13,50 14,50 18,20
Table 1. The dry density with the average value
of d = 1.46 g/cm3 is relatively low. The calcu- plasticity index
lated values of void ratio e of the most samples IP [%] 13,80 11,70 8,80
are higher than 0.8, which is relatively high for
consistency index
silts. The calculated degree of saturation Sr IC [-] 1,63 1,43 2,55
ranges between 10% and 30%. The liquid limit
wL and plastic limit wP of the loess soils were de- grain fractions:
termined in the laboratory according to Germany sand [%] 16,50 70,00 13,50
silt [%] 25,00 56,00 19,00
Standard DIN 18122. The liquid limit wL ranges
 C. Meier et al. / Structure and Collapsibility of Loess Soils in Middle Asia
clay [%] 17,00 69,00
_________________________________________________
*average values of 3-sample-testing
**average values of 2-sample-testing
2.2 Compaction tests
In order to determine the compaction properties
of loess soils, standard proctor tests were per-
formed in the laboratory according to Germany
Standard DIN 18127. The optimum water con-
tents wopt and the maximum dry density dmax of
loess soils are listed in Table 2. The range for
water content for the degree of compaction DPr >
95%, obtained from the compaction curves is
relatively large.
Table 2. Optimum water content wopt and maximum dry den-
sity dmax
_________________________________________________
MP1 MP2 MP3
_________________________________________________
wopt [%] 13,7 14,0 16,2
dmax [g/cm³] 1,90 1,86 1,79
Ranges of water
content for
DPr > 95% 10 – 18 10 – 18 12 – 20
_________________________________________________
3 SETTLEMENT BEHAVIOUR
3.1 ASTM D 5333-96
In order to study the sensitivity of the loess soils
in Mazar-e-Sharif to water, collapse tests were
performed in laboratory according to American
Standard ASTM D 5333-96. For the tests, undis-
turbed loess samples with natural water content
were compressed at first in an oedometer under
different vertical pressures p. Then the samples
were irrigated, and at the same time the vertical
deformations of the samples were measured. Af-
ter watering the saturated samples were further
compressed. The relative deformations of the
samples before, during and after the watering in
relation to the vertical pressures p were noted.
Figure 1 shows the relative deformations %c (col-
lapse deformation) during the watering in rela-
637
14,00 tion to the vertical pressure p for three different
samples (MP1, MP2 and MP3). The collapse de-
formations %c increase with increasing vertical
pressure p. The collapse deformations %c of the
three samples for p = 200 kN/m² is larger than
7%. Thus, the loess soils belong to “high collaps-
ible loess soils” according to the Chinese Stan-
dard. The in-situ overburden pressure of the
samples is p = 16.0 kN/m² approximately. The
collapse deformation %c of the sample MP3 for p
= 16.0 kN/m² is smaller than 1.5%, thus the sam-
ple is “not collapsible loess under overburden
pressure” according to the Chinese Standard. Be-
cause the collapse deformation %c of the samples
MP1 and MP2 for p = 16 kN/m² is larger than
1.5%, the two samples belong to “collapsible
loess under overburden pressure”.
3.2 Dynamic triaxial tests
In addition to the modified uniaxial oedometer
tests, extensive triaxial pressure tests in a dynam-
ic cell were carried out in order to analyze the
settlement behavior under cyclic load.
Figure 2. Influence of frequency on deformation
Main interest of these tests is the closer inspec-
tion of settlement behavior, especially in the fre-
quency range of earthquakes.
Figure 2 show’s the influence of the load fre-
quency on the deformation behavior of collapse
prone loess. As can be seen, the frequency has no
definite effect on the deformation. All tests were
carried out without watering because otherwise
the soil would collapse under its own weight.
638 C. Meier et al. / Structure and Collapsibility of Loess Soils in Middle Asia

Currently further tests in a dynamic cell are

carried in order to study the influence of the
stress state, i.e. the relation between lateral and
vertical pressure.
The results of theses test are expected soon.

4 MICROSTRUCTURE

The microstructure of the loess soils was ana-

lised under the microscope. Changes in structure
indicate the collapse settlement.
Figure 3 show’s the honeycomb structure of
the loess soil before the collapse in the modified
oedometer-test.
Figure 4. Loess sample after collapse; 100x magnification
As can be seen in Figure 4, the structure of the
loess has changed. Pores become smaller and the
grains got into narrower bedding.
At the beginning of the study, it was assumed
that the main reason for the collapse-effect might
be the dissolving of salt and lime (Figure 5)
bounds due to the added water.
To confirm or confute the assumption, that
solving salt and lime is responsible for the col-
lapse deformation, further research in terms of
chemical analysis was necessary.

Figure 3. Loess sample before collapse; 100x magnification

The structure can be characterized by aggregates

with large intergranular pores. Bonding forces,
which are responsible for the strength of the
structure, are rather mechanically than chemical-
ly founded.
After irrigation the sample under a defined
load, the microstructure of the soil changed into
a clearly denser system (Figure 4).
Figure 5. Loess with high salt and lime contents, 2000x mag-
nification

5 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS

In order to study the binding effects between silt

grains the lime contents VCa of the loess soils
were determined by laboratory tests according to
Germany Standard DIN 18129. The lime con-
 C. Meier et al. / Structure and Collapsibility of Loess Soils in Middle Asia 639

tents VCa in the loess soils are listed in Table 3. Eluate were mixed for 24 hours and the negative
Their values are above 23%, which is very high. and the positive ions were determined. Table 4
shows the results of the ion eclusion.
Table 3. Lime Content Vca
_________________________________________________ Table 4. Results of the ion exclusion
MP1* MP2** MP3* _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________ Kations mg/Kg Anions mg/Kg
lime content _________________________________________________
Vca [%] 23,90 24,70 34,60 Ca 1391 Cl 407
_________________________________________________ Mg 195 F 13
*average values of 3-sample-testing Na 644 NO2 27
**average values of 2-sample-testing Al 6 SO42- 3778
Fe 3 PO43- 1
The results shown in Table 3 are based on an K 51
_________________________________________________
analyses, which measured the gassing. This gass-
ing should be the result of a chemical reaction
between hydrochloric acid and lime. As it is As can be seen from the results, calcium (Ca)
known, lime is not the only soil component is the dominating kation. With the applied me-
which reacts with hydrochloric acid. So it was thod it was not possible to measure carbonate.
necessary to confirm the reliability of the results Consequently sulfate (SO42-) is the dominating
(Table 3) on the basis of a second independent anion but its content don’t exceed the carbonate
method. content. The result shows, that salt content is not
For this the content of carbon dioxide was de- insignificant.
termined. Afterwards carbonate content was cal- If the contained salt is easily water soluble, it
culated with the help of molar masses. would make a contribution to the collapse set-
tlement, as it is common accepted. But to find
out the amount of the fraction of easily water so-
MCO2 = MC + 2x MO (1) luble salt, minerals and other compounds, more
research was necessary.
= 12,0107 g/mol + 2x 15,9994 g/mol 8106
1600 Q
= 44,0095 g/mol

MCO3 = MC + 3x MO (2) 1200

Intensity (cps)

= 12,0107 g/mol + 3x 15,9994 g/mol C

= 60,0089 g/mol 800

MCO3 / MCO2 = 1,36354 400 D

Q
C
Q
Q
Q F C CC Q
Q
K Q
From this follows: S I K Ch F
C
Q
D
Q
Q D
Q C F QC
Ch Ch S F FF
F
0
CO3 = 1,36354 x CO2 (3) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70

With a determined CO2 content of about 22,2%,
the content of carbonate CO3 comes to 30,27%,
which confirms the results from the gassing test.
To figure out, if it is really lime (CaCO3),
comprehensive ion exclusion was necessary.
°2W(CuK)
Figure 6. X-ray diffractometrical analysis of loess (sample:
08-106)
X-ray diffractometrical analysis was selected
to get a detailed mineral disintegration of the
loess soil. Afterwards the soil was dissolved in
640 C. Meier et al. / Structure and Collapsibility of Loess Soils in Middle Asia
water (eluate) and X-ray diffractometrical analy-
sis was made again. So it was possible to com-
pare the results from the solid matter analysis
with the eluate analysis to find out, if the salt
fraction is easily soluble.
As can be seen in Figure 6, quartz crystal (Q)
and calcite (C) are the dominating fractions. The
sum of carbonate (predominantly calcite and do-
lomite) is about 37%. Other fractions are quartz
crystal (16%), feldspar (16%). The sum of clay
minerals, predominantly illite, muscovite and
kaolinite, is about 15%.
The result of solubility testing devoted, that
just 2.1 weight per cent of this kind of loess soil
counts of easily water soluble minerals.
6 CONCLUSION
From the test results the following mechanical
properties of the loess soils have been deduced:
 The natural water content of the loess soils
with the average value w = 4.77% is rela-
tively low. The dry density with the aver-
age value d = 1.46 g/cm³ is relatively low.
The void ratio with the average value
e = 0.87 is relatively large. The salt and
lime contents with the average value Vca =
24.3 is very high.
 Most of the grains in the loess soils are silt
grains with sizes between 0.002 and
0.06mm. Due to a relatively high clay con-
tent and according Germany Standard DIN
18122 the loess soils can be characterized
as “low plastic clay”. In the state with natu-
ral water content the consistency index Ic is
higher than 1. Thus, the loess soils with
natural water content are in the semisolid
state.
 The strength of the loess soils in their natu-
ral state is very high. After watering but
without consolidation (collapse) the
strength is very low.
 After watering and under certain pressure
the deformations (collapse) of the loess
soils were very large. According to the
Chinese Standard GBJ 123-88 the loess
soils belong to “high collapsible loess
soils” and they can be considered as “col-
lapsible loess under overburden pressure”.
 The first results of the triaxial pressure tests
in a dynamic cell show, that in a range be-
tween 2 and 8 hertz (Hz), the frequency has
no influence on the deformation behavior.
The unexpected result, that solely 2.1 weight per
cent are easily water soluble, lead to the assump-
tion that the collapse effect is based upon the dis-
solving of salt and lime bonding forces.
For further research, especially settlement be-
havior under dynamic load, also mechanical and
not chemical bonding forces have to be consi-
dered.
REFERENCES
[1] C. Boley; C. Meier; Y. Zou, Collapse and deformation
behaviour of alluvial loess soil with special respect to
the conditions in the Marmal-mountains, Afghanistan,
Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Geo-
technics of Soft Soils University of Strathclyde, Glas-
gow, Scotland, 2007
[2] C. Meier; C. Boley; Y. Zou, Practical Relevance of
Collapse Behaviour and Microstucture of Loess Soils in
Afghanistan, Proceedings of the 17th International Con-
ference on Soil Mechanics & Geotechnical Engineer-
ing, Alexandria, Egypt, 2009
[3] V. Mikulitsch; G. Gudehus, Uniaxial tension, biaxial
loading and wetting tests on loess, Proceedings of the
First International Conferende on Unsaturated Soil Par-
is, France, 1995
[4] L. Tungsheng, Loess in China, Berlin, Germany, 1988
[5] A. Scheidig, Der Löss und seine geotechnischen Eigen-
schaften, Dresden, Germany, 1934
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 641
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-641

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 647
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-647

Hydro-mechanical characterization of Jurassic

marls to study load degradation
Caractérisation hydro-mécanique de marnes du Jurassique
pour étudier la dégradation résultante du chargement
J. Muralha 1, L. Caldeira
National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC), Lisbon, Portugal
R. Cardoso, E. Maranha das Neves
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), TU Lisbon, Portugal

ABSTRACT
Mechanical properties of soft rocks such as marls are strongly affected by suction, directly connected with wetting and drying
cycles resulting from climate actions. An extensive experimental programme was carried out in order to characterize the physical
and mechanical properties of Abadia marls, used in the A10 motorway near Arruda dos Vinhos (Portugal). The experimental
programme consisted of laboratory unconfined compression and Brazilian splitting tests, oedometric tests and triaxial tests, all of
them performed under controlled suction.
RÉSUMÉ
Les propriétés mécaniques des roches tendres, comme les marnes, sont fortement affectées par la succion, directement associée
avec les cycles de mouillage/séchage résultants des actions climatiques. Un programme d’essais en laboratoire est mené pour ca-
ractériser les propriétés physiques et mécaniques des marnes de Abadia, utilisées dans l’autoroute A10 près de Arruda dos Vin-
hos (Portugal). Le programme expérimental a été constitué par des essais de compression uniaxiale, essais brésiliens de traction,
essais oedométriques et essais triaxiaux, exécutés dans des conditions de succion contrôlée.

Keywords: Soft rocks, marl, suction, mechanical properties, unconfined compression and triaxial tests

1 INTRODUCTION time required for the samples to reach equilib-

Marls, mainly those that exhibit significant
weatherability, are frequently involved in engi-
neering design situations difficult to tackle in
sound basis. Mechanical properties of this par-
ticular kind of soft rocks are strongly affected by
suction and degradation, directly connected with
wetting and drying cycles resulting from com-
mon climate actions. Their characterization and
modelling is very difficult. To start with, just col-
lecting and preparing samples for laboratory tests
is a complex and delicate task. The need to accu-
rately control suction of the samples and the long
rium under an imposed pre-defined suction value
render any test programme very time consuming.
Moreover, preparing the samples for tests is ex-
tremely laborious, since water is not allowed in
drilling and cutting operations. As a conse-
quence, reliable models describing soft rock me-
chanical behaviour taking into account the ef-
fects of material degradation are still scarce.
An extensive experimental programme was
developed in order to characterize the physical,
mechanical and hydraulic properties of Abadia
marls, dated from the Upper Jurassic. The experi-
mental programme consisted of controlled suction

1
Corresponding Author.
648 J. Muralha et al. / Hydro-Mechanical Characterization of Jurassic Marls

laboratory tests, such as unconfined compression,

Brazilian splitting, oedometric and triaxial tests.
Results from this experimental programme were
used to model the Abadia marls behaviour,
which is presented in another paper [1].

2 ABADIA MARLS

In general, marls are classified as hard soils/soft

rocks and exhibit evolutive behaviour, since their
mechanical and hydraulic properties change
markedly due to alternate wetting-drying cycles
and to other weathering processes. Crack open-
ing and/or loss of bonding are associated with
these processes, having negative impact on the
strength and compressibility of the material.
Some geotechnical challenges had to be tack-
led during construction of motorway A10,
around 40 km North of Lisbon (Portugal). Near
Arruda dos Vinhos, the motorway crossed Juras-
sic marly formations known as Abadia Marls.
To perform laboratory tests of marl samples a
2 m deep excavation was carried out allowing to
collect five large blocks with dimensions ranging
between 80 cm and 2 meters. The marls were
practically saturated (in situ water content vary-
ing between 9% and 16%). Special care was
taken in sample conditioning during transporta-
tion to the laboratory. Once there, the large
blocks were completely wrapped with plastic
film, paraffin and metallic film.
Sample preparation was a difficult task. First
attempts to drill samples directly from the large
blocks using standard diamond coring equip-
ments proved to be unsuccessful. Instead, prisms
were cut from the large blocks using diamond
saw disks. Some prisms were used to obtain cy-
lindrical samples, while others were directly used
as samples for unconfined compression tests.
Samples for unconfined compression tests were
drilled out of the prisms using a drilling equip-
ment connected to a dust removal system in or-
der to eliminate the very fine dust produced by
drilling that could clog around the bit and break
the sample (Figure 1). Cylindrical 54 mm in di-
ameter samples for triaxial tests were obtained
from prisms cut from the large blocks using a
lathe to shape the prisms into cylinders.
Figure 1. Drilling equipment, sample and prism after drilling.
The samples were placed in humidity controlled
environments (desiccators or chamber) immedi-
ately after being cut from the large blocks. Suc-
tion was applied using vapour equilibrium tech-
nique. In some cases, standard saturated salt
solutions were adopted (reference values at 25ºC
- LiCl: RH=11%, s=303 MPa; NaCl: RH=75%,
s=39 MPa; KCl: RH=84%, s=24 MPa). In other
cases, specimens were placed in a chamber with
controlled relative humidity and temperature.
3 PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
Concerning the mineralogical composition of the
marls, carbonates (calcite mainly) (16-23%),
clays (54-64%), and a very small percentage
(0-2%) of organic matter are present. The rela-
tion between the percentages of clay and carbon-
ates justifies the designation of the material as
marl. Existing expansive minerals are chlorite
(1-5%) and gypsum (traces found in some sam-
ples). The presence of these minerals may explain
the degradation (mainly cracking and disaggre-
gation) and the moderate expansive behaviour
observed when these geomaterials are fully satu-
rated. The disaggregated marl can be classified as
low plasticity clay (CL), which is in accordance
with the nature of the clay minerals found. Several
 J. Muralha et al. / Hydro-Mechanical Characterization of Jurassic Marls
other characterization tests were also performed
[3], and other properties are presented in [1].
Water adsorption tests performed by Jeremias
[2] at 95% relative humidity and 25ºC (96 hours
of exposure) indicated good capacity for water
absorption. This capacity increases with the de-
gree of weathering.
A marked volume dependence on water con-
tent was registered (Figure 2), associated with
micro-cracking. The water retention curve was
measured for three drying-wetting cycles, in
which degradation was registered by the incre-
ment of the saturated water content [3].
Finally, swelling tests were performed on marl
specimens with different initial water contents
and under different stresses. As expected, the
dryer the material and the lower the stress, the
larger the swelling deformation.
0,70
Sr=20% Sr=40%
0,60
Void ratio
0,50
0,40
0,30
2 4 6 8 10 12
Water content (%)
Figure 2. Void ratio dependence on water content [3].
4 UNCONFINED COMPRESSION TESTS
Unconfined compression tests with unsaturated
marl samples following ASTM Standard D 7012-
07 were performed. Samples kept with the in situ
water content (around 9.2% corresponding to a
suction of 14 MPa) were tested, along with other
samples kept in the three above mentioned
standard salt solutions.Standard loading and
measuring equipment was used; the axial stress
was measured using a load cell and the axial
strains by external displacement transducers
placed along the middle part of the samples. Due
to the duration of the test (strain rate about
0.005%/min) the samples (around 50 mm in
diameter and 125 mm in height) were loosely
wrapped with a thin plastic film to maintain the
water content.
649
During the tests, loading-unloading cycles
were applied until failure occurred. Independ-
ently from suction, samples showed ductile be-
haviour since relatively high values for axial
strain (larger than 0.5%) were reached (Figure
3). Plastic and hysteretic behaviour was also dis-
played, being more significant for lower suctions.
16
s=230MPa
12
Axial stress (MPa)
s=75MPa
8
s=44MPa
4
0
0 2 4 6 8
-3
Axial strain (10 )
Sr=60% Sr=80%
Figure 3. Examples of unconfined compression tests.
Cracking is responsible for stiffness reduction
Sr=100%
and so may be looked at as damage. Stiffness de-
creases progressively with increasing strains.
Dryer samples exhibit higher stiffness, but also a
higher relative reduction with the loading cycles.
14 16 18 20
However, stiffness values for the dryer samples
are always higher than those measured in the
other samples.
The large variability of the results found in all
the unconfined compression tests can be seen in
Figure 4. The relation between the water content
measured in each sample after the test and uniax-
ial compressive strength c is shown in the fig-
ure. Water contents of pieces of the broken sam-
ples were measured revealing that samples from
the same desiccators had slightly different water
contents, which can be accounted for part of the
variability of the results.
Uniaxial compressive strength results were
averaged after considering the samples for which
visual inspection before the test had shown nei-
ther relevant cracking nor heterogeneity identi-
fied by colour differences. The relation between
c and suction s is presented in the equation (1).
™ c  0.0276 s  6.14 (MPa) (1)
650 J. Muralha et al. / Hydro-Mechanical Characterization of Jurassic Marls
(MPa)
14
Compressive strength
12
10
8
6
4 in test 2 [1], but in this case the sample was kept
2 in dry conditions.
Tensile strength
0
-2
-4
0 2 4 6
Water content (%)
Figure 4. Results of the unconfined compression and Brazili-
an splitting tests.
5 BRAZILIAN SPLITTING TESTS
Splitting tensile strength tests (Brazilian splitting
tests) were performed following ASTM D 3967-
08. Tested samples were around 5 cm in diame-
ter and 2.5 cm thick.
As for the stiffness and strength determined in
unconfined compression, tensile strength t de-
creases with water content (or increases with
suction). Its relation with water content measured
for each sample after the tests is also presented in
Figure 4. In spite of the dispersion, increasing
strength for the dryer samples can be observed.
Orientation of low strength strata relative to
the diametral loading force, natural heterogeneity
of the marl matrix in some samples revealed by
colour differences, and the existence of micro-
cracks explain the variability of the results. Con-
sidering only the results of representative sam-
ples chosen by visual inspection after the tests al-
lowed establishing the relation between tensile
strength and suction presented in equation (2).
™ t  0.0066 s  1.01 (MPa)
6 OEDOMETRIC TESTS
Oedometric tests were performed in totally satu-
rated and dry conditions marl samples where
stress cycles were applied [3]. The specimens
(3 cm in diameter and 1.8 cm thick) had an initial
void ratio e of 0.29. They were initially dried in
laboratory environment (RH=45%, s=124 MPa,
w=3.4%). In test 1, the sample was fully satu-
rated under a relatively low vertical stress
(253 kPa), after which three unloading-reloading
cycles up to 2.2, 4.4 and 7.6 MPa were applied
(Figure 5). A similar test procedure was adopted
0,33
Full saturation
nd
2 unloading
0,32
8 10
0,31
Unloading
Void ratio
points
0,30
st
1 unloading
0,29
3rd unloading
0,28
0,27
100 1000 10000
Vertical stress (kPa)
Figure 5. Oedometric test. Specimen saturated at 253 kPa.
Both tests show that under constant suction
the elastic compressibility index Cs increases
with the cycles (from 0.019 to 0.025 in test 1,
and from 0.007 to 0.010 in test 2). Larger Cs val-
ues were measured in fully saturated conditions,
showing that wetting seems to be more relevant
for structure degradation than loading stresses.
Tests revealed similar values for the elastoplastic
compressibility index Cc: 0.042 for the dry sam-
ple and 0.046 for the wet sample.
7 TRIAXIAL TESTS
Laboratory triaxial tests are commonly per-
formed to assess intact rock strength under axi-
(2) symmetric conditions. Due to the high pressures
usually required, rock triaxial cells tended to be
heavy and difficult to handle, so Hoek and
Franklin [4] developed a simpler cell (commonly
referred to as Hoek triaxial cell) that only applies
the lateral pressure, and is used with a conven-
tional compression testing machine to apply axial
force to the specimen. The main advantage is
 J. Muralha et al. / Hydro-Mechanical Characterization of Jurassic Marls
that it does not require complex and time con-
suming preparation for assembling and de-
assembling the cell between tests.
As pointed out in the introduction, the main
aim of this experimental programme is to allow
modelling of stress-strain behaviour of the Abadia
marls, based on the accurate measurement of the
volumetric and shear strains. So, the triaxial tests
were performed using a triaxial cell that enables
the measurement of the axial and diametral de-
formations of the specimens. Diametral dis-
placements are given by two perpendicular
transducers sets connected directly to the speci-
men through the rubber sleeve located inside the
cell (Figure 6). Axial displacements, the axial
force and the lateral pressure are measured by
common transducers controlled by a data acqui-
sition system, enabling fully mechanical charac-
terization during the tests. Lateral pressures up to
70 MPa are applied inside a titanium cell.
Figure 6. Internal rubber sleeve with diametral displacements
transducers.
Triaxial tests using samples under constant suc-
tion were performed. Tests consisted of two
stages: an isotropic phase with loading-unloading
cycles, followed by a deviatoric phase with the
increase of the axial stress until failure occurred.
Five tests reaching confining pressures of 4 MPa
(samples 3 and 4), 8 MPa (samples 6 and 8), and
12 MPa (sample 12) are reported. All samples
were chamber conditioned at 75% RH and 22ºC,
corresponding to s=39MPa and approximately
w=5%.
651
Figure 7 displays the relations between net
mean stress and volumetric strain during the iso-
tropic stages of all tests. As expected, these
graphs show for all samples an approximately
linear behaviour during the loading and unload-
ing-reloading cycles. The strains related to these
latter cycles are almost always recovered, show-
ing an elastic behaviour with a small hysteresis.
12
10
Net mean stress (MPa)
8
6
Sample 3
4
Sample 4
Sample 6
2 Sample 8
Sample 12
0
0 5 10 15 20
-3
Volumetric strain (10 )
Figure 7. Results of triaxial tests. Isotropic stage (s=39MPa).
Considering only the first loading of each test,
bulk modulus K decreases from 910 to 740 MPa
with increasing isotropic stress. For the unload-
ing-reloading paths, Kur also decreases with in-
creasing isotropic stress, ranging from 2250 to
1650 MPa.
Figure 8 presents the stress paths of the devia-
toric stage of the triaxial tests, in terms of net
mean stress p and deviatoric stress q, given by
equation (3) as functions of the principal stresses.
p = (™1 + 2™ 3 ) / 3
q  1  3 (3)
In the same graph, the average failure values
of the unconfined compression tests and Brazil-
ian splitting tests for the same suction conditions
(s=39 MPa, w=4-5%) are also shown, revealing a
curved envelope.
Figure 9 presents the deformational behaviour
of the samples during the deviatoric stage of the
triaxial tests in terms of the evolution of the de-
viatoric stress and volumetric strain %v with shear
strain %s. These strains are given by (4).
% v  %1  2% 3
652 J. Muralha et al. / Hydro-Mechanical Characterization of Jurassic Marls

2 stiffness decrease as the deviatoric stress in-

%s  %1  % 3  (4) creases, as usual. The unloading-reloading of
3 sample 12 reveals that elastic recovery is only
around 25% of the shear strain and points out
40
that the stiffness decrease is a result of plastic
36
behaviour under deviatoric stress. In some tests
32 (samples 3, 8 and 12), close to failure, samples
Deviatoric stress (MPa)

28 were deforming without volume change, attaining

24 the critical state.
20

16
8 CONCLUDING REMARKS
12
unconfined Some interesting results from several types of
8 tests performed to characterize Abadia marls
4 brazilian were presented. The results of the tests under dif-
0 ferent load paths (uniaxial compression, brazilian
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 splitting, isotropic compression, oedometric, and
Net mean stress (MPa) shear in triaxial compression) revealed that the
Figure 8. Results of triaxial tests. Stress paths in the devia- Abadia marls are soft rocks with a remarkable
toric stage (s=39MPa). ductile behavior.
40
Oedometric tests, where suction paths were
also imposed, shown that it is not possible to de-
35
scribe adequately the mechanical behavior of the
Deviatoric stress (MPa)

30 marls without taking into account their load and

25 suction history.
20
Data of this experimental work will be used to
Sample 3
calibrate suitable models, namely those where
15
Sample 4 damage parameters are used. This is the case of
10 Sample 6
oedometric tests where encouraging results were
Sample 8
5
Sample 12
obtained [3]. This type of approach was also
0
used for isotropic compression under constant
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 suction [1].
Shear strain (10-3)
Results displaying the influence of suction in
Shear strain (10-3) isotropic and shear under triaxial compression
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 are to be presented in a near future
Sample 3
2
Sample 4 REFERENCES
Sample 6
Volumetric strain (10 )

4
-3

6
Sample 8 [1] L. Caldeira, E. Maranha das Neves and R. Cardoso, Use
Sample 12 of a damage parameter to model the mechanical beha-
8 vior of marls. XV European Conference on Soil Me-
chanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Greece, 2011
10
[2] F.T. Jeremias, Geological controls on the engineering
12 properties of mudrocks of the north Lisbon area. PhD
thesis, University of Sheffield, U.K. 2000.
14
[3] R. Cardoso, Hydro-Mechanical behaviour of com-
16 pacted marls, PhD thesis, Instituto Superior Técnico,
Lisbon 2009.
.Figure 9. Results of triaxial tests. Deformational behaviour [4] E. Hoek and J.A. Franklin, A simple triaxial cell for
in the deviatoric stage (s=39MPa). field and laboratory testing of rock. Trans. Inst. Mining
and Metallurgy 77 (1968), A22–A26.
Both graphs show that the deformational behav-
iour of all samples is remarkably similar, with a
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 653
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-653

Retaining structures in expansive clays

Les structures de soutien dans les argile expansifs
A.T. Papagiannakis 1 , S. Bin-Shafique
CE Dept. University of Texas-San Antonio TX, USA
R.L. Lytton
CE Dept. Texas A&M Univ. College Station TX, USA

ABSTRACT
Under increasing moisture conditions, retaining structures in expansive clays experience swelling stresses. The magnitude of
theses stresses varies with the amount of moisture increase and the extent of soil confinement imposed by the retaining struc-
tures. This paper describes a systematic study of this problem for three types of retaining structures, namely drilled-shaft, tie
back and soil nailed walls. Its approach involves laboratory testing to characterize the swelling properties of the high plasticity
clays encountered in South Texas and finite element simulation of the structural interaction between the soil and the retaining
structures due to the moisture changes observed at an instrumented wall site. The magnitude of swelling pressures was found to
decrease with depth following the diminishing increase in moisture with depth. The amount of soil confinement effected by the
wall significantly increased clay swelling pressures.

RÉSUMÉ
Sous des conditions d’humidité accrues des argiles expansifs, les stuctures de soutien développent des stress au gonflement.
L’ampleur de ces stress varie avec l’accroissement de l’humidité et l’importance de la compression du sol imposée par les struc-
tures de soutien. Cet article décrit l’étude systématique de ce problème pour trois types de structures particulières soit les murs à
puits forés, les murs avec attaches arrières et les murs à ancrages. L’approche utilisée implique des tests en laboratoire pour ca-
ractériser les propriétés de gonflement des argiles à haute plasticité rencontrées dans le sud du Texas et pour déterminer par si-
mulation par éléments définis l’interaction entre les sols et les structures dus aux changements d’humidité observés dans un mur
sur site équipé d’instruments. On a déterminé que la magnitude des pressions de gonflement diminue avec la profondeur suivant
l’amenuisement de l’augmentation de l’humidité avec la profondeur. La mesure de la restriction des sols appliquée par le mur
augmente de façon significative les pressions de gonflement des sols.

Keywords: Unsaturated, earth pressure, drilled shaft, tie-back, soil-nailed, walls, soil-water characteristic curve, finite element.

1 INTRODUCTION retaining wall types are tie-back, drilled shaft,

High sensitivity expansive clays are prevalent in
Texas. They exhibit significant volume changes
in response to changes in moisture content [1, 2,
3]. In roadway cuts, the most commonly used
and soil-nailed [4]. The current design procedure
used by the Texas Department of Transportation
(TxDOT) for designing such walls is based on
the lateral pressure calculations from the classi-
cal Rankine and Coulomb methods using the

1
Corresponding Author.
654 A.T. Papagiannakis et al. / Retaining Structures in Expansive Clays
drained shear strength parameters. The current
TxDOT design procedure does not account for
the lateral pressure due to the expansion of the
high plasticity clays, which may be significant
[4].
Although considerable research has been car-
ried out on the swelling potential of expansive
clays, there is limited literature on accounting for
these pressures in designing retaining walls.
Solving this problem needs to address the inter-
action between the retaining wall and soil. This
paper summarizes a study addressing this prob-
lem. It involves:
ƒ Moisture measurements obtained during
and post construction using psychrometers
at a tie-back wall site constructed in San
Antonio, TX.
ƒ Laboratory characterization of the swell-
ing properties of the clay samples ex-
tracted from this site.
ƒ Finite element modeling (FEM) of the
wall-clay system for three types of retain-
ing walls, namely tie-back, drilled-shaft
and soil-nailed wall.
2 METHODOLOGY
The FEM software package GeoStudio was used
to simulate the three wall types considered. This
package includes both stress and flow analysis
models. The stress model accepts the soil-water
characteristic curve (SWCC) as input and com-
putes the stress changes resulting from the mois-
ture content changes. The latter can be input or
estimated from the flow analysis. The geometry
of the three wall types to be analyzed was mod-
eled after the San Antonio site (20-ft tall wall
with another 20 feet embedded into the soil).
The overall size of the geometry analyzed was 90
feet high by 140 feet wide.
2.1 Soil Characterization
Undisturbed soil samples were collected from
every foot of soil from two boreholes drilled at
the. One of the boreholes (Borehole-1) was lo-
cated 8 ft away from the tied-back wall and the
other was 35 ft away from the Borehole-1. Soil
samples were subjected to laboratory testing to
obtain the properties necessary for the FEM
modeling. These included the SWCC, hydraulic
conductivity, initial and final void ratios, com-
pression index, swelling index, elastic modulus,
shear strength parameters, etc. Data for develop-
ing the SWCC was obtained through filter paper
and pressure plate techniques (Figure 1).
2.2 Monitoring the Moisture Content Change
Thermocouple psychrometers were installed at
different depths (5ft, 10 ft, 15 ft, and 20 ft) at the
field site to monitor the change in moisture con-
tent of the high plasticity clay due to seasonal
variation. The psychrometers were monitored
using a data logger at 2-week intervals over a pe-
riod of 18 months.
2.3 FEM Simulation Approach
After the spatial discretization of the models, two
preliminary FEM analyses were carried out to es-
tablish the stress distribution due to the overbur-
den weight of the soil and the initial pore water
pressure distribution throughout the domain.
The resulting stress and pore water pressure dis-
tributions were imported as initial conditions into
the FEM stress analysis. Then the change in
moisture content/suction profile measured at the
field site was used as the final condition to the
FEM stress analysis model to estimate the hori-
zontal pressure and deflection distribution of the
retaining structure.
2.4 Simulation of Drilled Shaft Wall
The drilled shaft wall was allowed to move hori-
zontally, being retained only by the resistance of
the soil along its embedded length. Non-contact
elements were inserted between the wall and the
soil being retained to prevent tensional stresses
between them. The mesh for the model was au-
tomatically generated and refined manually at lo-
cations of high stress concentration. The outer
vertical boundaries were constrained horizontally
while the outer horizontal boundaries pinned in
both directions.
 A.T. Papagiannakis et al. / Retaining Structures in Expansive Clays 655

6 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

5
3.1 Soil Characterization
4
The boring logs from the field site show that the
Suction (pF)

3 same high plasticity soil layer is extended down

Pressure Plate Test to the 20 ft drilling depth without evident fractur-
2
Filter Paper Test ing. The grain size distribution was uniform and
1 the percent fines (P200) was 96%. The average
0.88 Gsat Gsat in-situ unit weight was 122 lb/ft3 and the specific
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
gravity of the soil was 2.13. The liquid limit of
Volumetric Water Content (%) the soil is 58% and the plasticity index was 38%.
According to USCS, the soil was classified as
Figure 1. SWCC of the clay samples high plasticity clay (CH). Soil samples obtained
from two boreholes were subjected to extensive
2.5 Simulation of Tied-back Wall laboratory testing. The properties of the soil re-
The tied-back wall model included two tie-back lated to volume change are shown in Table 1.
rods configured exactly as at the field site. The
length of top rod was 70 ft and the length of the
Table 1. Properties of the soil collected from field site
bottom one was 60 ft. The length of the tie rods
was divided into two parts, a bonded and an un- Material Property Values
bonded part, (i.e., 55/15 and 45/15 ft, resp.). Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity, m/sec 2.32 E-8
The tie rods had a diameter of 2 inch. A preten- Residual Water Content 0.01
Air Entry Value, kPa 35
sion force of 100,000 lbs was applied to the un- Steepness of SWCC 1.1
bound part of the tie back rods. The same boun- Shape of SWCC 0.86
dary conditions and soil properties that were Saturated Suction, kPa 49
used for the drilled shaft wall were also used for Volumetric Water Content 37.7
the tied-back wall. Poisson’s Ratio (/) 0.35
Volume Compression Index 0.058
Total Suction (kPa) 671
2.6 Simulation of Soil-Nailed Wall Young’s Modulus, E (Mpa) 1234
Initial Void Ratio 0.87
The geometry and the boundary conditions used Compression Index, Cc 0.195
for this model were the same as those used for Recompression Index, Cr 0.110
the other two wall types. The nails modeled
were 25 ft long and had a diameter of 1.2 inches. 3.2 Monitoring the Moisture Content Change
The nails were modeled as continuously bonded
The seasonal variation in moisture content at dif-
beam elements except near the face of the wall,
ferent depths is shown in Figure 2. It can be seen
where one foot of each nail was modeled as a bar
that as the depth increases, the soil moisture con-
element. The head force was applied as a tensile
tent change decreases. Despite these changes, the
force in the bar element creating a tension in the
soil remained unsaturated (i.e., saturated mois-
nail and the bearing plate.
ture content was 28.5%). The moisture contents
To simulate the construction of these walls, six
at different depths, which were measured at the
construction stages were considered in the analy-
beginning of the monitoring period (i.e., during
sis. At the first stage (E1), the soil was excavated
the construction of the wall), were the lowest
to a depth of 2 ft and the first nail was placed at a
over the entire monitoring period due to a
depth of 1 ft. At the second stage (E2), the soil
drought experienced the year prior to construc-
was excavated another 3.6 ft (from 2 ft to 5.6 ft)
tion.
and the second nail was placed at a depth of 4.6
ft and so on.
656 A.T. Papagiannakis et al. / Retaining Structures in Expansive Clays

0 0

5 5ft
No Swell

Saturation Water Content

10ft 20
Swell at field
10 15ft

Depth (ft)
Depth (ft)

20ft 40
15
20'

20 60 20' 90'

25
80
30 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

10 15 20 25 30 Horizontal Stress (psf)

Moisture Content (%)
(a)
Figure 2. Seasonal variation in moisture content with depth
along with the initial moisture content profile and wetting 0

envelope.
No Swell
10
Swell at field
As demonstrated later, the state of soil dryness at
construction is crucial in estimating the magni- Depth (ft) 20
tude of the in-service stress increase due to soil 20'

expansion. The difference between the initial wa- 30 20' 90'

ter content profile and the maximum water con-

tent profile observed during the monitoring pe-
40
riod was used in the FEM modeling. -0.7 -0.6 -0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0
Displacement (ft)
3.3 Modeling of the Drilled Shaft Wall (b)
The horizontal pressure and the deflection on the Figure 3. (a) Horizontal stress and (b) horizontal displace-
drilled shaft wall obtained from the numerical ment of the drilled shaft wall for swelling of soil due to the
simulation are shown in Figure 3. The additional maximum change in suction measured at the field site.
horizontal stress from the swelling of the expan-
sive soil due to maximum increase in moisture deflection predicted even for a wall embedment
content as measured in the field is significant up depth to fixity, remained above the tolerable lev-
to a depth of approximately 25 ft. Below that el (0.38 ft).
depth, the moisture content changes were not
significant enough to produce measurable 3.4 Modeling of the Tied-Back Wall
changes in swelling pressures. The maximum The horizontal stress and the horizontal deflec-
combined horizontal stress occurred at a depth of tion of the tied-back retaining wall estimated un-
20 ft and amounted to 2,000 psf. The horizontal der moisture changes observed in the field are
stress increase due to swelling was maximum shown in Figure 4. At the ground surface, the
near the ground surface and amounted to 1,200 increase in pressure due to swelling was 1,650
psf. The horizontal displacement of the drilled psf, while the maximum horizontal stress (3,000
shaft wall was linear because of its rigidity. The psf) occurred at a depth of 20 ft, as for the drilled
maximum defection predicted was at the top of shaft wall.
the wall and amounted to 0.62 ft. This is consid- The estimated maximum defections were 0.37
erably higher than the maximum tolerable deflec- ft at the top of the wall, while the deflection was
tion of drilled shaft walls, which is 1% of the almost negligible at the bottom of the wall. The
height of the wall, (0.2 ft in this case). A para- displacement of the tied-back wall could be
metric study was conducted with respect to the
wall embedment depth. However, the maximum
 A.T. Papagiannakis et al. / Retaining Structures in Expansive Clays 657

Horizontal stress (psf)

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
0
No Swell
20
Swell at field No swell
Depth (ft)

15
Swell at field

Depth (ft)
40

30
60

45
80
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
60
Horizontal Stress (psf)
\
(a) (a)

0
Displacement (ft)
-0.6 -0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0
No Swell 0
10 Swell at field
No swell
5
Depth (ft)

Depth (ft)
Swell at field
20

10

30
15

40
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 20
Displacement (ft)

(b) (b)
Figure 4. (a) Horizontal stress and (b) horizontal displace- Figure 5. (a) Horizontal stress and (b) horizontal displace-
ment of the tied-back wall for swelling of soil due to the ment of the soil-nailed wall for swelling of soil due to the
maximum change in suction measured at the field site. maximum change in suction measured at the field site.

decreased by increasing the pre-stress of the tie

bars or/and by increasing their unbound length. 4 PARAMETRIC STUDY
However, further reducing the horizontal wall
movement will increase the magnitude of the A parametric study was conducted with respect
swelling pressures. to the possible range in soil suction profiles,
from as constructed to in-service. These are hig-
3.5 Modeling of the Soil-Nailed Wall hlighted in Figure 6. The worst possible sce-
nario is A (i.e., suction profiles “a” at construc-
The horizontal stress and the deformation of the tion and “g” in service), while the best scenario
wall face under the maximum moisture changes is D (i.e., suction profiles “d” at construction and
observed in the field are shown in Figure 5. A “g” in service). The change in soil suction pro-
constant head force of 5,000 lbs) was applied to file is also shown in red in Figure 6 (i.e., suction
all nails. The horizontal stresses increased sig- profile from “e” to “f”). An example of the re-
nificantly due to swelling and the maximum in- sults of this parametric study are shown in th
crease (1800 psf) occured at a depth of 15 ft. form of horizontal stress estimates on the drilled-
The horizontal deflection was the highest at the shaft wall (Figure 7). It can be seen that maxi-
top of the wall. It increased from 0.1 ft to 0.5 ft mum horizontal stress from the worst scenario A
in response to the swelling of soil due to the is as high as 6500 psf and occurs at a depth of 12
maximum change in suction measured at the ft from the ground surface. As expected, the
field site. horizontal stresses decrease for cases that reflect
658 A.T. Papagiannakis et al. / Retaining Structures in Expansive Clays
lower changes in suction (i.e., the horizontal
stresses decrease from scenarios A to D). The
horizontal stresses near the ground surface (3000
psf) behind the wall for the Case-A are lower
compared to the stress in the middle of the wall
(6,500 psf). This can be explained by the large
displacements at the top of the drilled shaft wall
as discussed next.
Figure 6. Moisture profile change scenarios
Figure 7. Horizontal stresses on drilled-shaft wall
5 CONCLUSIONS
A combined laboratory experimentation, field
monitoring, and computer modeling approach
has been put forward to evaluate the horizontal
pressure and deflection of cut-type retaining
walls constructed in high plasticity expansive
soils. The measured soil properties and the
change in moisture content/suction profile for a
typical field site were used in finite element
models.
The seasonal variation of moisture contents is
maximum near the ground surface and dimin-
ishes with depth. The active zone at the field site
was found to be 25-30 ft. The horizontal pres-
sure and deflection increases as the water content
increases for all types of retaining structures.
The horizontal deflection decreases with depth,
while the change in horizontal stress increases up
to a depth of 15-20 ft and decreases. Below the
depth of active zone, the horizontal stress is gov-
erned by the overburden weight of the soil.
The horizontal pressure increases if the hori-
zontal movement of the wall is restrained. A
drilled shaft wall that does not have any mecha-
nism to restrain the horizontal movement may
not be used in the field site because of its high
horizontal movement For other two types of
walls, the horizontal deflection could be mini-
mized by using bigger size (length and diameter)
tie rods or soil nails.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research work was funded by the Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT) under
project 0-6375 entitled Design of Cut-type
Retaining Walls in High Plasticity Soils.
REFERENCES
[1] P. F. Hudak, Geologic controls on foundation damage
in north central Texas. Geojournal 45(1998), 159-164.
[2] R. L. Lytton, Prediction of Movement in Expansive
Clay.” Geotechnical Special Publication, No.
40(1994), ASCE, NY, 2, 1827-1845.
[3] S. Bin-Shafique, I. Azfar, and K. Rahman, The Effect
of Freezing-Thawing Cycles on Performance of Fly
Ash Stabilized Expansive Soil Subbases,” Proceed-
ings of Geo Frontiers 2011, Advances in Geotechnical
Engineering, Mar. 13-16, 2011, Dallas.
[4] TxDOT, Geotechnical Manual, Texas Department of
Transportation, Austin, Texas.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 659
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-659

Study of swelling and strength characteristics of

expansive soil treated with stone dust and flyash
Etude du gonflement et de caractéristiques de résistance du sol
expansif traités avec de la poussière de pierre et des cendres vo-
lantes
T. L. Ramadas1
JNTU College of Engineering, Kakinada-533 003. & JBIET, Moinabd, A.P. India.
N. Darga Kumar
JNTUH College of Engineering, Hyderabad-85.
G. Yesuratnam
JNT University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.

ABSTRACT
In this paper, the test results such as index properties, Proctors compaction, swelling and unconfined compression strength ob-
tained on expansive clays mixed at different proportions of fly ash and stone dust are presented and discussed. From the results,
it is observed that at optimum percentages, i.e., 30% stone dust and 25% fly ash, it is found that the swelling of expansive clay is
almost controlled and also noticed that there is a marked improvement in the strength of soil. The combination of stone dust and
fly ash is more effective than the addition of stone dust alone to the expansive soil in controlling the swelling nature. The combi-
nation of 20% stone dust and 25% fly ash addition at the optimum moisture content to the expansive soil is found to be a suitable
measure to reduce the swelling and increase the strength of the two expansive soils tested.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans cet article, les résultats des tests tels que propriétés de l'index, le compactage surveillants, de l'enflure et la force de
compression libre obtenus sur des argiles gonflantes mélangés à des proportions différentes de cendres volantes et de poussière
de pierre sont présentées et discutées. D'après les résultats, on constate que les pourcentages optimale, c'est à dire, la poussière de
pierre de 30% et 25% de cendres volantes, il est constaté que le gonflement de l'argile gonflante est presque contrôlée et aussi
remarqué qu'il ya une nette amélioration de la résistance du sol. La combinaison de poussière de pierre et des cendres volantes
est plus efficace que l'ajout de poussière de pierre seul au sol expansif dans le contrôle de la nature de gonflement. La combinai-
son de poussière de pierre de 20% et 25% de cendres plus de cendres à la teneur en humidité optimale du sol expansif se trouve
être une mesure appropriée pour réduire l'enflure et augmenter la résistance des deux sols gonflants testé.

Key words: Stabilization, expansive soil, swelling, strength, flyash, stone dust

INTRODUCTION these projects. The expansive soils are more

Industrial development in India has necessi-
tated construction of infrastructure facility such
as highways, airports seaports and residential
buildings. There is a need to select good soil
conditions for Proper safety consideration of all
problematic for construction and are predomi-
nantly available in majority places in Andhra
Pradesh. These soils undergo swelling and shrin-
kage as the moisture content changes in it. Due
to high swelling and shrinkage, these soils pose
lot of problems to the structures found on them.

1
Corresponding Author.
660 T.L. Ramadas et al. / Study of Swelling and Strength Characteristics of Expansive Soil Treated
Stabilization of expansive soils using admixtures
controls the adverse effects on the foundations
and structures. Experimental studies have been
carried out in the laboratory by adding admix-
tures such as flyash and stone dust to the expan-
sive soils at different proportions. The expansive
soils tested are collected from Bhimavaram in
A.P., India.
To achieve the desired grading, sometimes the
soils with coarse particles are added or the soils
with finer particles are removed. The blended
soil possesses both internal friction and cohesion.
When properly placed and compacted, the
blended material becomes stable and also load
carrying capacity is increased. Chemical modifi-
cation by adding lime and lime-pozzolana mixes
has been practiced very effectively. Flyash is a
waste by product from thermal power plants,
which uses coal as fuel. It is estimated that about
120 million tones of flyash is being produced
from different thermal power plants in India con-
suming several thousand hectares of precious
land for it’s disposal causing severe health and
environmental hazards. In order to utilize flyash
in bulk quantities, ways and means are being ex-
plored all over the world to use it for the con-
struction of embankments and roads. In spite of
continuous efforts made and incentives offered
by the government, hardly 5-10% of the product
ash is being used for construction purposes like
brick making, cement manufacture, soil stabiliza-
tion and as fill material (Boominathan and Hari,
1999).
In Andhra Pradesh, large numbers of crusher
units are available, which produces huge quantity
of stone dust. Stone dust not only pollutes water,
air or land but also their disposal is a great prob-
lem. In the recent past some of the researchers
have brought out interesting notes on utilization
of stone dust and flyash for soil stabilization. Er-
dal Cokca (2001) studied the effect of Flyash on
expansive soil. From the experimental findings
confirmed that the plasticity index, activity and
swelling potential of the samples decreased with
increasing percent stabilizer and curing time and
the optimum content of flyash in decreasing the
swell potential was found to be 20%. Also con-
cluded that both high –calcium and low calcium
class C fly ashes can be recommended as effec-
tive stabilizing agents for improvement expan-
sive soils.
Phanikumar and Sharma (2004) presented the
effect of fly ash on free swell index, swell poten-
tial, swelling pressure, plasticity, compaction,
strength and hydraulic conductivity of expansive
soil. It is concluded that increase in flyash con-
tent reduces plasticity characteristics and the FSI
was reduced by about 50% by the addition of
20% fly ash. The undrained shear strength of the
expansive soil blended with flyash increases with
the increase in the ash content. Soosan et al.,
(2005) studied the effect of quarry dust on three
types of soils (Red earth, kaolinite and Cochin
marine clay) to improve the geotechnical proper-
ties of soils for highway construction. He found
that, addition of quarry dust improved the CBR
value of soil and the optimum proportion being
40% of quarry dust to 60% of soil.
Praveen Kumar et.al (2006) conducted Cali-
fornia Bearing Ratio (CBR) and static and cyclic
triaxial tests on the four most frequently encoun-
tered local materials—fly ash, coarse sand, stone
dust, and river bed material (RBM)—for their
use in the subbase layer of a flexible pavement.
The CBR of stone dust was the maximum value
of all, but its behavior under dynamic load in tri-
axial tests was inferior to that of the other materi-
als. Fly ash has low CBR, but better stress-strain
behavior than stone dust.
However, these techniques are successful only
to a partial extent and hence the attempts to de-
vise better techniques are still going on. In the
present work, an attempt is made using flyash
and stone dust for the two expansive soils col-
lected from Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh. The
swelling and strength characteristics of two ex-
pansive soils are presented and discussed. Also,
the variations in liquid limit, plastic limit, and
compaction characteristics obtained for heavy
compaction such as OMC and MDD are pre-
sented and discussed. The CBR results under
soaked condition are also presented.
 T.L. Ramadas et al. / Study of Swelling and Strength Characteristics of Expansive Soil Treated
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Material used
Expansive soil is collected from the Bhimava-
ram, coastal area in Andhra Pradesh. Flyash is
collected from Vijayawada Thermal Power Sta-
tion (VTPS) and stone dust is collected from the
crusher units in Guntur.
The basic properties of materials used in the
presented are presented below.
Soil:
Liquid limit, WL = 64; Pastic limit, WP = 26;
I.S. classification = CH (Clay of high compressi-
bility); Optimum moisture content, OMC=23%;
Maximum dry density, MDD=15.5 kN/m3; Dif-
ferential free swell index, DFSI = 100%, Uncon-
fined compressive strength, UCS =130 kPa; and
soaked CBR = 2.0 %
Stone Dust:
Maximum dry density, MDD = 19 kN/m3;
Optimum moisture content, OMC = 6.8%; and
Soaked
CBR= 10 %.
Flyash:
Maximum dry density, MDD=14 kN/m3; Op-
timum moisture content, OMC=18%; Liquid lim-
it, WL=30%; and soaked CBR=6%.
Admixture Proportions and Tests Conducted
The proportions of stone dust and flyash used
along with the soil in the study are 10%, 20%,
30%, 40% and 50% and 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%,
30% respectively. The following tests were con-
ducted on the soil samples mixed at different
proportions of flyash and stone dust. The liquid
limit and plastic limit tests were conducted as per
IS: 2720 (Part 5) - 1985. Heavy compaction test
was carried out according to IS: 2720(Part 8)-
1983. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS)
tests were conducted at OMC and MDD as per
IS: 2720(Part 10) - 1991. Free swell index (FSI)
tests were conducted as per I.S: 2720 (Part -XL)-
1977. The California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests
were conducted as per IS: 2720 (Part 16) – 1987.
661
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Atterberg’s limits, IS heavy compaction, Un-
confined compressive strength, soaked CBR and
Differential free swell tests were conducted with
different percentages of stone dust/flyash as ad-
mixtures in expansive soil for finding optimum
percentage of additives.
Liquid Limit and Plastic Limit
From the figures 1 & 2, it is observed that as
the percentage of stone dust /flyash increases,
there is a marked reduction in liquid limit and
plastic limit of clay tested. From this, it can be
deduced that the flow characteristics and plastic
characteristics of the soil sample are gradually
decreasing with increase in the percentage of
stone dust/flyash. This reduced plasticity of clay
is very much required to avoid the failure pat-
terns in the road construction over the expansive
sub grade soils. The liquid limit at 50% addition
of flyash and stone dust show the liquid limit
values 47% and 34% respectively. For the same
soil tested with flyash and stone dust, it is ob-
served that the plasticity characteristics of soil
are low in case of soil treated with the stone dust
compared to flyash.
80
Stone Dust
70
Flyash
60
L iq u id L im it (% )
50
40
30
20
0 10 20 30 40 50
% Admixture
Fig.1 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on Liquid Limit
662 T.L. Ramadas et al. / Study of Swelling and Strength Characteristics of Expansive Soil Treated

28

Stone Dust

26 Flyash Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS)

The variations of UCS for all samples are pre-
Plastic Limit (%)

24 sented in figure 5. It can be seen that the the

variation of UCS of the clay samples have in-
creased with the percentage of stone dust/flyash.
22 The UCS values at 50% addition of the stone
dust and flyash to the clay are 153 kPa and 144
20
kPa respectively. As compared to the untreated
0 10 20 30 40 50 soil, the percentage increase in UCS at 50% ad-
% Admixture dition of 10% stone dust and flayash to the soil
separately are 18% and respectively. Though the
Fig.2 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on Plastic Limit increase in strength is marginal with the addition
of stone dust and flyash, there is a good control
over the plasticity characteristics of clay.
OMC and MDD 160

The variation of compaction characteristics Stone Dust

Fly ash
such as OMC and MDD for the expansive clay 150
treated with stone dust and flyash are presented
UCS (kPa)

in figures 3 & 4. From the figures, it can be seen 140

that there is a decrease in OMC and increase in
MDD value with increase in percentage of stone
dust/flyash. It is also observed that the clay sam- 130

ple when replaced with 30% stone dust yielded

maximum dry density of 18.9 KN/m3 at OMC of 120
17.60% and addition of 25% flyash yielded max- 0 10 20 30 40 50

imum dry density of 17.5 KN/m3 at OMC of % Admixture

21.35%. The percentage increase in the MDD at

optimum levels of stone dust and flaysh addi- Fig.5 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on UCS
tions to the clay are 15% and 7% respectively.
Free Swell Index (FSI)
Fig.3 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on OMC Figures 6 and 7 present the variation in of FSI
19.5 with the addition of admixture. From figure 6, it
19.0 Stone Dust is observed that the FSI values of the expansive
18.5 Flyash soil have decreased with the increase in percent-
age of stone dust/flyash content. As the admix-
18.0
M D D (kN /m 3 )

ture content increases, the clay place is replaced

17.5 and hence reduced swelling and shrinkage of the
17.0 admixture treated clay. From the test results, it is
16.5 observed that at 50% addition of stone dust to the
clay has resulted 100% decrease in FSI, and si-
16.0
milarly at 50% addition of flyash, there is a 55%
15.5
reduction in FSI. Figure 7, presents the variation
15.0 in FSI corresponding to combination of equal
0 10 20 30 40 50 proportion of stone dust and flaysh.
% Admixture
 T.L. Ramadas et al. / Study of Swelling and Strength Characteristics of Expansive Soil Treated 663

110 CBR corresponding to 23% flyash and 30%

Stone Dust stone dust addition to the soil are 100% and
100
Flyash 235% respectively.
90 7.2

80 6.2
Stone Dust
Flyash
FSI (%)

70
5.2

C.B.R (%)
60
4.2
50
3.2
40
2.2
30
0 10 20 30 40 50 1.2
% Admixture 0 10 20 30 40 50
% Admixture

Fig.6 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on DFS

Fig.8 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on CBR
110

Stone Dust+Fly ash

Swelling pressure
100

90 220
FSI (%)

Flyash
200 St one dust
80
Swell pressure (kPa)

180

70 160

140
60
0 5 10 15 20 25 120
% Admixture
100
0 10 20 30 40 50
Fig. 7 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash combination on
FSI. Admixt ure (%)

From this plot, it is noticed that at 50% addi- Fig.9 Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on SP
tion of admixture (i.e., 25% stone dust + 25%
flyash) to the clay, the reduction in FSI is 35%. Swell Potential
Hence, it is notable to adopt the combination of
flyash and stone dust in addition to the in-situ 20
clay for construction purpose. 18 Fly ash
Stone dust
16

California Bearing Ratio (CBR) 14

Swell Potential (%)

12

Soaked CBR test results of flyash/stone dust 10

treated soil are presented in figure.8. From this 8

6
plot, it is observed that as the percentage admix-
4
ture such as flyash/stone dust increases, the CBR
2
also increasing in a reasonable trend. The opti- 0
mum value of CBR is found at 23% of flyash and 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55

30% of stone dust. The percentage increase in Admixture (%)

664 T.L. Ramadas et al. / Study of Swelling and Strength Characteristics of Expansive Soil Treated

Fig.10. Influence of Stone Dust and Flyash on Swell potential x The swelling characteristics are decreased
20 with increasing of flyash/stone dust
18 Fyash+Stone dust x The optimum percentages of flyash and
stone dust observed are 25% and 30% re-
Sw ell potentila (%)

16
spectively for improving the properties of
14 expansive soils.
12
x It is observed from the study that the per-
formance of stone dust is much more effec-
10
tive when compared to flyash.
8 x There is a maximum improvement in
6
strength properties for the combination of
0 5 10 15 20 25 flyash and stone dust when compared to
flyash/stone dust individually.
Admixture (%)

220
REFERENCES
200 Flyash+Stone dust
[1]. Bhoominadhan. A., and Hari S., (1999),“Behavior of
Swell pressure (kPa)

180 flyash under static and cyclic loading”. Proceedings of

160
140
120
100
0 5 10
Admixture (%)
Fig.11, 12 Influences of Stone Dust and Flyash Combination
on swelling potential/swell pressure.
From the fig. 9, 10, 11 & 12 it is observed that as
the percentage of stone dust /flyash increases,
there is a marked reduction in Swell potential
and swell pressure of clay tested. From this, it
can be deduced that the swelling characteristics
of the soil sample are gradually decreasing with
increase in the percentage of stone dust/flyash.
CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions can be drawn from
the experimental work carried out in this investi-
gation.
x When flyash and stone dust is added to the
expansive soils the Atterberg’s limits, OMC,
FSI are decreased and MDD, UCS, CBR
values are increased.
IGC-99, Calcutta, 324-326.
[2]. Erdal Cokca (2001) “Use Of Class C Fly Ashes for the
Stabilization – of an Expansive Soil” Journal of Geo-
technical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Vol. 127,
July, pp. 568-573
[3]. IS: 2720 (Part 5) - 1985. IS code of practice for determi-
nation of liquid limit and plastic limit.
15 20 25 [4]. IS: 2720 (Part 8) - 1983. IS code of practice for determi-
nation of water content – dry density relation using
heavy compaction.
[5] IS: 2720 (Part 10), 1991. IS code of practice for determi-
nation of unconfined compressive strength. [6]. IS:
2720 (Part XL), 1977. IS code of practice for determina-
tion of free swell index.
[7]. IS: 2720 (Part 16) – 1987. IS code of practice for labora-
tory determination of CBR.
[8]Phanikumar B.R., and Radhey S.Sharma (2004) “Effect of
Flyash on Engg properties of Expansive Soil” Journal of
Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Vol.
130, no 7,July, pp. 764-767.
[9]. Praveen Kumar, Satish Chandra, and Vishal, R. (2006).
Comparative Study of Different Sub base Materials. J.
Mat. in Civ. Engrg. Volume 18, Issue 4, pp. 576-580
[10]. Soosan, T. G., Sridharan, A., Babu T. Jose, and Abra-
ham, B. M. (2005). “Utilization of Quarry Dust to Im-
prove the Geotechnical Properties of Soils in Highway
Construction”, Geotechnical Testing Journal, Vol. 28,
No. 4, Paper ID GTJ11768, 391-400.
[11]. Abduljauwad, S. N., (1995), “Improvement of Plasticity
and Swelling Potential of Calcareous Expansive Clays”,
Geotechnical Engineering Journal, Southeast Asian Geo-
technical Society, SEAGS, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 3-16.
[12]. Al-Rawas, A.A., Taha, R., Nelson,J.D., Al-Shab, T.B.,
and Al-siyabi, H., (2002), “A Comparative Evaluation of
Various Additives Used in Stabilization of
Expansive Soils”, Geotechnical Testing Journal, Vol. 25, No.
2, pp. 199-209.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 665
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-665

Modelling the soil-water characteristic curve of

structured and recomposed hard soils - weak rocks
Modélisation de la courbe caractéristique sol-eau des sols durs -
roches tendres structurés et recomposés
P.Sitarenios1
National Technical University, Athens
M.Bardanis
National Technical University, Athens, Edafos Consulting Engineers S.A
M.Kavvadas
National Technical University, Athens
ABSTRACT
The soil-water characteristic curve plays the major role in describing both the hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of unsaturated
soils. In the present study the Fredlund and Xing and van Genuchten equations have been used to model the soil-water character-
istic curves of typical Greek soils including three hard soils - weak rocks. It is attempted to correlate the optimum curve fitting
parameters with physical characteristics of the soils and compare parameters of soil-water characteristic curves of undisturbed
and recomposed soils.

RÉSUMÉ
La courbe caractéristique sol-eau joue un rôle principal dans la description du comportement hydraulique et mécanique des sols
non saturés. Dans la présente étude, les équations Fredlund et Xing et van Genuchten ont été utilisées pour modéliser les courbes
caractéristiques sol-eau des sols typiques grecs dont trois sols dures - roches faibles. Il est tenté de corréler les paramètres opti-
males de la courbe d'ajustement avec des caractéristiques physiques des sols et de comparer les paramètres des courbes caracté-
ristiques sol-eau des sols intacts et recomposés.

Keywords: unsaturated soil, soil-water characteristic curve models, regression analysis, structured soil, recomposed soil.

1 INTRODUCTION ing a series of discrete data points limited over a

It is well established nowadays that the soil-
water characteristic curve (SWCC) is the funda-
mental relation in unsaturated soil mechanics,
widely used for predicting flow, stress and de-
formation phenomena. The SWCC may be ex-
pressed as any relation between or degree of
saturation, gravimetric or volumentric water con-
tent, e.t.c. and soil suction.
Unfortunately, undertaking extended labora-
tory tests for direct measurements of SWCC is a
cost and time consuming process usually provid-
small portion of the whole suction range or sev-
eral portions with large gaps in between depend-
ing on the number and type of methods used.
For that reason a number of SWCC models
have been proposed to represent the SWCC with
a continuous curve capable of being applied into
constitutive models and FEM applications.
In the present study a regression analysis,
suitable for nonlinear equations, has been per-
formed to obtain the optimum curve–fitting pa-
rameters for the SWCCs of six soils including
three typical hard soils – weak rocks. For two of

1
Corresponding Author.
666 P. Sitarenios et al. / Modelling the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve

the latter the SWCC of both the undisturbed and SWCC measured on their recomposed counter-
the recomposed samples were modeled, to allow parts.
for comparisons and conclusions on how struc-
ture may affect modelling parameters. Table 1. SWCC equations used to fit the experimental data.

SWCC Equation Parameter

model Description
2 SWCC MODELS Fredlund and 1 W= w/w0 normal-
Xing (1994) W= m ized gravimetric
(F&X) ⎡ ⎛ ⎛ s ⎞ n ⎞⎤ water content ,
Over the last 60 years a number of mathematical ⎢ln⎜ e + ⎜ ⎟ ⎟⎥
models for describing the SWCC have been pro- ⎢⎣ ⎜⎝ ⎝ a ⎠ ⎟⎠⎥⎦ w g.w.c corre-
sponding to each
posed. Early models such as Burdine (1953) [1], suction level,
van Genuch- 1 w0 g.w.c corre-
Gardner (1956) [2], Brutsaert (1966) [3] and W=
Mualem (1976) [4] incorporate equations with
ten (1980)
(van G.) [1 + (as) ] n m sponding to full
saturation,
two curve-fitting parameters. Although some of s suction,
them are capable of describing the SWCC well, a,n,m curve-
fitting parameters
the lack of a third parameter means that still
some assumptions have to be made in order to
mathematically describe in a consistent manner a
reverse sigmoidal curve like the SWCC. For that 3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
reason, recent models like the van Genuchten
(1980) [5] and the Fredlund and Xing (1994) [6] The soils tested cover a wide range of typical
incorporate a three parameter equation capable of soils from fine-grained plastic soils like Kifissia
simulating the SWCC better through the whole Clay and Chania Silty Clay to coarse-grained
range of suction from 0 to 106 kPa. This was ac- less plastic soils like Ioannina Lake Silt. In addi-
tually exhibited by Leong and Rahardjo (1997) tion three typical Greek hard soils – weak rocks,
[7] who evaluated the use of several published Kifissia Marl, Corinth Marl and Chalkoutsi Marl
SWCC equations through a series of regression were tested. Index properties of the aforemen-
analyses to fit SWCC curves to experimental tioned soils are summarized in Table 2.
data from 12 soils. They concluded that both van
Genuchten and Fredlund and Xing equations Table 2. Index properties of the soils tested.
provide better fits than the two parameter models
do. Characteris-
Ioannina Lake

tics
Corinth Marl

Kifissia Marl

Marl (CHM)
Kifissia Clay

Using this experience the van Genuchten and

Chania Silty
Clay (CSC)

Chalkoutsi
Silt (ILS)

the Fredlund and Xing models are used in the

present study to fit the SWCC experimental data.
(KM)
(CM)

(KC)

The equations used for the fitting process are

presented in Table 1. The analysis was per- Grain Size
formed in terms of the normalized gravimetric Distribution
water content (W) vs suction (s). No correction Sand (%) 8.8 32.1 7.0 64.8 3.0 15.0
Silt (%) 84.7 49.8 68.1 26.9 64.0 64.2
function regarding the residual water content was Clay (%) 6.5 18.1 24.9 8.4 33.0 20.5
used in Fredlund and Xing equation. Atterberg
The water content vs suction data were ob- Limits
wL (%) 30.5 24.0 31.5 24.0 40.5 50.8
tained via drying paths on initially saturated re- wp (%) 25.0 15.0 16.0 23.0 20.0 20.7
composed soil samples. The term recomposed is PI (%) 5.5 9.0 15.5 1.0 20.5 30.1
used to describe samples that have been reconsti- Gs 2.67 2.68 2.66 2.55 2.67 2.69
USCS Clas. ML CL CL SM CL CH
tuted into slurry and then reconsolidated to the
in-situ stress or void ratio. Moreover the SWCC
of undisturbed Corinth Marl and Chalkoutsi Marl The axis translation technique for controlling
were measured in order to compare it with the matric suction up to 1500kPa and salt solutions
 P. Sitarenios et al. / Modelling the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve
method for controlling total suction between 4 to
150MPa were used. The data acquired are plotted
in Fig. 1. More information on the examined
soils and the SWCC measurements can be found
in Bardanis and Grifiza (2011) [8] and Bardanis
and Kavvadas (2008) [9].
100
80
60
W (%)
40
20
0 parameters was quantified through the coeffi-
1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04
Soil Suction (kPa)
Figure 1. SWCC experimental data in terms of Normalized
gravimetric water content vs suction.
4 SIMULATION
Regression analysis was carried out in order to
estimate the a,m,n parameters that best describe
the SWCCs of the tested soils. The Fredlund and
Xing and the van Genuchten models have been
incorporated in the analysis, while the root-
mean-square technique was used to assess curve-
fitting. The method used aims in finding the op-
timum set of parameters that minimizes the sum
of the squared deviations of the measured data
from the calculated data, as described by the fol-
lowing objective function:
f o = ∑ (Wi m − Wi c ) 2
where Wim is the measured normalized water
content for each suction level and Wic the calcu-
lated one.
The nonlinearity of the SWCC equations is re-
flected in the objective function as local minima
or maxima. In such cases traditional search tech-
niques (i.e. steepest descent method) usually fails
to identify the optimum solutions, especially if
the defined starting parameters are too far from
Corinth Marl_Rec
Chania Silty Clay
Kifissia Marl
Ioannina Lake Silt
Kifissia Clay
Corinth Marl_Nat
Chalkoutsi Marl_Nat
Chalkoutsi Marl_Rec
1.E+05 1.E+06
(1)
667
the global minimum. Estimating a proper set of
starting parameters is even harder in the case of
SWCC models because it is often possible to get
a few parameters combinations that produce al-
most the same curve.
Thus, in the present study a stochastic search
technique has been implemented using the Mat-
lab programming code. A genetic algorithm was
used to identify promising areas in the search
space where the global minimum of the objective
function may lie. The proposed optimization
scheme involves 100 individuals in the first pa-
rental generation randomly selected in between
the deterministic boundaries of an initially se-
lected appropriate search space.
The reliability of each calculated set of best-fit
cient of determination (R2):
fo
R2 = 1 − (2)
( ) ( )
∑Wi ∑Wi m
2 2
m
− n
where fo and Wim as previously defined and n the
number of data points used. The closer the R2 is
to unity the better the calculated SWCC fits the
experimental data.
The fitted SWCCs are plotted in Fig. 2. The
curve-fitting parameters calculated via the
aforementioned procedure, as well as the associ-
ated coefficient of determination, are listed in
Tables 3 and 4 for all the soils and SWCC equa-
tions examined.
It can be observed that both models succeed
well in the optimization procedure. Comparing
the fitted curves in terms of the coefficient of de-
termination (R2) the Fredlund and Xing equation
performed marginally better than the van Ge-
nuchten, ‘scoring’ a higher R2 value in five out of
eight modeled SWCCs.
In the simulations regarding the recomposed
samples of Corinth Marl, Chania Silty Clay, Ki-
fissia Clay and Kifissia Marl both models pro-
vide almost the same curve, probably due to the
negligible scatter in the associated data points. It
can also be observed that all the fitted curves, af-
ter the theoretical residual water content, have
the trend to pass close to the point corresponding
to zero water content for 106 kPa soil suction, as
668 P. Sitarenios et al. / Modelling the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve

100 100

80 80

60 60
W (%)

W (%)
Corinth Marl_Nat
40 40
F&X (Best fit)
van G. (Best fit)
Chania Silty Clay
20 Corinth Marl_Rec 20
F&X (Best fit)
F&X (Best Fit)
van G. (Best fit)
van G. (Best fit)
0 0
1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06
a Soil Suction (kPa) b Soil Suction (kPa)

100 100

80 80

60 60
W (%)

40 W (%)
40

Kifissia Marl Ioannina Lake Silt

20 20
F&X (Best fit) F&X (Best fit)

van G. (Best fit) van G. (Best fit)

0 0
1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06
c Soil Suction (kPa) d Soil Suction (kPa)

100 100

80 80

60 60
W (%)
W (%)

Chalkoutsi Marl_Nat
40 40
F&X (Best fit)
van G. (Best fit)
Kifissia Clay 20 Chalkoutsi Marl_Rec
20
F&X (Best fit) F&X (Best Fit)
van G. (Best fit) van G. (Best fit)
0 0
1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06
e 1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03
Soil Suction (kPa)
1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 f Soil Suction (kPa)

Figure 2. Experimental data and fitted curves for the: a) undisturbed and recomposed Corinth Marl, b) recomposed Chania Silty
Clay, c) recomposed Kifissia Marl, d) recomposed Ioannina Lake Silt, e) recomposed Kifissia Clay and f) undisturbed and re-
composed Chalkoutsi Marl.

expected thermodynamically. An exception to their recomposed counterparts cannot support

the above is the Fredlund and Xing fitted curve
to the SWCC of Ioannina Lake Silt where the
experimental data points are limited to suction
values up to 1500kPa. This can be attributed to
the fact that no correction factor for the residual
water content was used in the analysis.
The comparison of the curve-fitting parame-
ters from the SWCCs of undisturbed soils and
solid conclusions as yet. As mentioned by Bar-
danis & Grifiza, 2011 [8], structure manifested
its effect in a similar manner for both soils, i.e.
leading to a higher capacity of water retention of
the structured soil when they both had the same
initial void ratio as in the case of Corinth Marl,
and to practically the same capacity of water re-
tention when the recomposed soil had a much
 P. Sitarenios et al. / Modelling the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve 669

smaller void ratio than the structured one as in 5 CORRELATIONS

the case of Chalkoutsi Marl. Therefore if a com-
parison is to be made between curve-fitting pa-
rameters when structure plays its role, that seems
to be more valid for the case of Corinth Marl
where both the undisturbed and the recomposed
samples had the same initial void ratio. In this in-
stance therefore a and n were found higher and
m lower for the undisturbed Corinth Marl when
using the Fredlund & Xing equation. The com-
parison was similar for the van Genuchten equa-
tion (given that a for this equation is reciprocally
analogous in nature to a in Fredlund and Xing).
This conclusion is to be considered only indica-
tive until further experimental data of the same
nature become available.
An attempt was made to correlate the optimal pa-
rameters a,m,n obtained from the optimization
procedure. As a correlation parameter, the wPI
(weighted plastic index), proposed by Zapata
et.al (2000) [10] was selected given its wide-
spread use for the particular type of correlation.
It is defined as:
wPI = Passing #200 x PI (3)
where Passing#200 is the material passing the
#200 U.S.Standard Sieve expressed as a decimal
and PI the plasticity index as a percentage. The
results are plotted in Fig. 3.

40000
Table 3. Calculated optimum parameters and associated R2 F&X (1994) REC
values for Fredlund & Xing equation. F&X (1994) NAT
30000
van G. (1980) REC
Soil a n m R2
a , 1/a

20000 van G. (1980) NAT

CM_REC 1033.8 0.929 1.867 0.999461
CM_NAT 1367.7 1.662 1.361 0.988680 10000

CSC 35963 0.513 6.394 0.999553

0
KM 3044.6 0.709 2.227 0.999786 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
a wPI
ILS 24.5 2.071 0.633 0.997197
10
KC 5380.3 0.650 2.623 0.999819 F&X (1994) REC
8 F&X (1994) NAT
CHM_REC 638.5 1.4982 0.818 0.995421
van G. (1980) REC
6
CHM_NAT 333.3 0.904 1.150 0.982896
n .

van G. (1980) NAT

4

2
Table 4. Calculated optimum parameters and associated R2
values for van Genuchten equation. 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
b wPI
Soil a n m R2
CM_REC 0.014 1.005 0.567 0.999346
7
CM_NAT 7.70*10-4 1.397 0.476 0.988080 F&X (1994) REC
6
F&X (1994) NAT
CSC 2.89*10-5 0.527 2.477 0.999754 5
van G. (1980) REC
KM 3.65*10-4 3.385 0.824 0.999750 4
van G. (1980) NAT
m

3
ILS 0.0763 3.386 0.095 0.993716
2
KC 1.80*10-4 0.664 1.043 0.999793 1
CHM_REC 0.0035 9.2076 0.0327 0.998437 0
c 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
CHM_NAT 0.0078 1.4815 0.1952 0.986041 wPI

Figure 3. SWCC experimental data in terms of Normalized

gravimetric water content vs suction.
670 P. Sitarenios et al. / Modelling the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve
In Fig. 3a the inverse of van Genuchten pa-
rameter a has been plotted in order to compare
with Fredlund and Xing a parameter. It can be
observed that both models provide almost the
same a,1/a and n values, while some differences
are observed in the m values. This explains the
different shape that some of the fitted curves,
corresponding to the same soil, exhibit after the
second inflection point.
The significant scatter of the points in Fig. 3
indicates that probably there is no relation be-
tween the calculated optimum parameters and the
particular correlation parameter despite its wide-
spread use. A second attempt to correlate the
data was made by excluding from the analysis
the SWCCs associated with Chania Silty Clay
and recomposed Chalkoutsi Marl, due to their
‘inconsistent’ results. Although some trends were
observed after eliminating the aforementioned
data, still no statistically reliable correlations
could be observed.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Eight soil-water characteristic curves were mod-
eled using the Fredlund and Xing and van
Genuchten equations. Both models where found
capable of providing fair fits to the experimental
data. No correlations between the parameters of
the fitted equations and the soil properties were
found. It seems that the existence or non-
existence of correlations with index properties
needs to be further investigated with all the index
properties. It is hoped that this elaboration on
correlating parameters and the addition of more
SWCCs measured on soils from Greece will lead
to at least rationally indicative correlations for
the prediction of a, m & n curve-fitting parame-
ters.
Comparison between the curve-fitting pa-
rameters of structured and recomposed soils may
by no means be considered conclusive. There
seems to be indication however that in the ab-
sence of the effect of a different initial void ratio
prior to drying, a (1/a for the van Genuchten
equation) and n are higher while m is lower for
structured soils.
REFERENCES
[1] N.T. Burdine, Relative permeability calculations from
pore size distribution data, Trans. AIME 198 (1953),
71–77.
[2] W.R .Gardner, Some steady state solutions of the un-
saturated flow equation with application to evaporation
from a water teble, Soil Sci. 85(4) (1956)., 228–232.
[3] W. Brutsaert, Probability laws for pore size distribu-
tions, Soil Sci. 101., 85–92.
[4] Y. Mualem, A new model for predicting hydraulic con-
ductivity of unsaturated porous media, Water Resour.
Res., 12(3), 513–522.
[5] M.Th.van. Genuchten, A closed form equation predict-
ing the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils, Soil
Science Society of America Journal (44),(1980),892–
898.
[6] D.G. Fredlund, A. Xing, Equations for the soil-water
characteristic curve, Can. Geot. J.,(31),(1994),521–
532.
[7] E.C. Leong, H. Rahardjo, Review of soil-water charac-
teristic curve equations, ASCE J. Geotech. Geoenvi-
ronmental Engng 123(12),(1997),1106–1117.
[8] M.E. Bardanis, S. Grifiza, Measuring the soil-water
characteristic curve of structured and recomposed
soils, XV ECSMGE, Athens,(2011).
[9] M.E. Bardanis, M.J. Kavvadas, Soil-water characteris-
tic curves and void ratio changes relative to suction for
soils from Greece, proc. Unsaturated Soils: Advances in
Geo-Engineering, Toll et al. (eds), Proc. 1st Eur. Conf.
on Unsaturated Soils, Durham, UK, (2008), 263-269.
[10] C.E. Zapata, N.W. Houston, L.S. Houston, D. K.
Walsh, Soil-Water Characteristic Curve Variability, in
Shackelford, C. D., Houston, S. L., Chang, N. Y., “Ad-
vances in Unsaturated Geotechnics”, GSP 99, ASCE
(2000), Reston, Virginia, 84-124.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 671
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-671

Impact de cycles hydriques sur le comportement

hydromécanique d’un sol argileux gonflant traité à
la chaux
Influence of wetting and drying cycles on the hydromechanical
behaviour of a lime treated expansive clayey soil
G. Stoltz, O. Cuisinier 1, F. Masrouri
Nancy-Université, Laboratoire Environnement, Géomécanique & Ouvrages, 54501 Nancy, France

ABSTRACT
Lime addition is a very wide spread technique to improve the engineering behaviour of soils. It is known to reduce the swelling
potential of expansive soils. This property would be of interest since lime might be used to prevent swelling of expansive soils in
earthworks. However, the durability of this lime effect is questionable. It is essential to evaluate the durability of treatment ef-
fects when the initially expansive stabilised-soil is subjected to a succession of wetting and drying cycles, which is the main pur-
pose of this study
Two lime contents were used to stabilise the selected expansive soil: 2 and 5 %. After a curing period of 28 days, the treated soil
has been subjected to wetting and drying cycles. To impose these cycles, the controlled oedometer by osmotic method, technique
of unsaturated soils mechanics, have been used. The swelling / shrinkage potential and the oedometric compressibility have been
determined as a function of the number of hydric cycles.
These results showed that the efficiency of lime stabilisation on the swelling potential is altered by successive hydric cycles. It
appeared that the lower the lime-content, the higher the alteration of lime stabilisation effects. The amplitude of the wetting and
drying cycles is also a key factor.

RÉSUMÉ
Le traitement à la chaux est une pratique courante d’amélioration des sols. Le traitement induit la création de composés cimen-
taires qui vont modifier le comportement mécanique du sol et réduire son potentiel de gonflement. Cette dernière propriété pour-
rait être exploitée pour permettre le réemploi des matériaux très argileux en les rendant insensibles vis-à-vis des fluctuations de
teneur en eau. Il est cependant indispensable d’évaluer la pérennité des effets du traitement lorsque le sol gonflant traité est sou-
mis à une succession de cycles hydriques, ce qui est l’objet principal de cette étude.
Deux dosages en chaux ont été retenus pour traiter le sol argileux gonflant sélectionné : 2 et 5 %. Après une période de cure de
28 jours, le sol traité a été soumis à des cycles hydriques. Pour imposer ces cycles, des œdomètres à succion contrôlée par mé-
thode osmotique, technique de la mécanique des sols non saturés, ont été employés. Le potentiel de gonflement / retrait ainsi que
la compressibilité œdométrique ont été déterminés à la fin des cycles hydriques.
Les résultats obtenus montrent que l’efficacité du traitement sur le potentiel de gonflement est altérée par des cycles hydriques
successifs. Cette altération est d’autant plus forte que le dosage avant le premier cycle est faible. Elle est aussi directement fonc-
tion de l’amplitude des cycles hydriques.

Keywords: Expansive soils, cementation effect, lime stabilisation, durability, chemo-hydro-mechanical couplings.

1
Corresponding Author.
672 G. Stoltz et al. / Impact de cycles hydriques sur le comportement hydromécanique
1 INTRODUCTION
Le traitement à la chaux est fréquemment utilisé
pour l’amélioration du comportement et de la
maniabilité des sols fins. Lorsque de la chaux
vive est ajoutée à un sol, celle-ci s’hydrate. Ce
phénomène provoque un dégagement de chaleur
et une augmentation de la quantité d’ions cal-
cium (Ca2+) et hydroxydes (OH-) en solution
dans le sol. Ces ions vont réagir avec les consti-
tuants du matériau, modifiant ainsi ses caractéris-
tiques de maniabilité, de compactage, et son
comportement mécanique à court et long termes
(Little, 1995). Parmi ces modifications, le traite-
ment à la chaux permet généralement de réduire,
voire de supprimer, le gonflement des sols argi-
leux (par ex. Rao et Thyagaraj, 2003). Ainsi, le
traitement à la chaux pourrait être intéressant
pour prévenir le gonflement des sols argileux
dans le cadre de l’emploi de ces matériaux en
terrassement. Ceci passe par l’évaluation préa-
lable de la stabilité dans le temps de cet effet du
traitement à la chaux. Actuellement, très peu de
travaux portent sur l’impact, notamment des sol-
licitations hydriques cycliques (climatiques) sur
la pérennité des effets du traitement à la chaux.
Quelques études de cas sont disponibles dans
la littérature pour évaluer les performances de
remblais traités à la chaux quelques années après
la réalisation de l’infrastructure (e.g. Gutschik,
1978). D’après ces études, il apparaît que
l’alternance de périodes sèches et humides pour-
rait être néfaste. Il est cependant difficile de con-
clure à partir de ces seules études puisque les in-
formations sur les dosages, les types de sol, les
conditions de compactage ne sont pas présentées
en détail. Il existe aussi quelques études de labo-
ratoire comme celle de Guney et al. (2007) qui
ont imposé des cycles de séchage/humidification
à une argile gonflante compactée traitée à la
chaux. Ces auteurs ont montré que, bien que le
potentiel de gonflement de l’argile soit réduit
immédiatement après le traitement à la chaux, ce

#§¨

¨ª!imentométrie donne 70%
potentiel de gonflement tend à augmenter de ma-
¨¨
¬
portement semble relié à la période de cure entre
le traitement et le premier cycle hydrique. En
conclusion, ces études laissent supposer un effet
négatif des cycles hydriques sur le gonflement /
retrait des sols argileux traités à la chaux. Ce-
pendant, les cycles hydriques de ces études ont
été réalisés entre la saturation (imposition de
succion nulle) et de très faibles humidités rela-
tives, succion de plusieurs centaines de MPa, ce
qui est plutôt sévère par rapport aux variations de
succions auxquelles peuvent être soumis le cœur
des ouvrages en terre (quelques MPa).
Dans ce contexte, une étude a été réalisée pour
évaluer la performance à long terme, d’une argile
compactée traitée à la chaux soumise à des
cycles hydriques. Des œdomètres à succion con-
trôlée par la méthode osmotique ont été utilisés
pour réaliser ces cycles hydriques dans une
gamme de succions comprise entre 0 et 8 MPa.
En fin de cycles, la compressibilité des matériaux
a été évaluée et comparée à celle des matériaux
traités et non sollicités. Deux dosages en chaux
(2 et 5%) ont été appliqués à l’argile étudiée et
deux temps de cure ont été considérés : 28 et 128
jours.
2 DEMARCHE EXPERIMENTALE
Cette section présente successivement le sol gon-
flant retenu pour l’étude, la méthode utilisée pour
imposer les cycles hydriques, la procédure de
préparation des éprouvettes et le programme ex-
périmental.
2.1 Caractéristiques de l’argile étudiée
L’argile gonflante considérée est un matériau na-
turel avec une limite de liquidité de 71% et une
limite de plasticité de l’ordre de 29%, soit un in-
dice de plasticité de 42 %. L’analyse granulomé-
trique par tamisage donne 90% de passant à 80
¦€
!
`
¦€š La fraction argileuse (< 2
nière significative lorsque des cycles hydriques ¦€) est composée à 50% d’un interstratifié gon-
successifs sont imposés. L’étude présentée par flant (illite-smectite), à 40% d’une illite de type
Khattab et al. (2007), à partir d’essais réalisés sur muscovite et à 10% d’une chlorite.
une argile traitée à la chaux, aboutit aux mêmes
conclusions. Ces auteurs montrent que ce com-
 G. Stoltz et al. / Impact de cycles hydriques sur le comportement hydromécanique 673

2.2 Préparation des éprouvettes succions comprises entre 0 et 8 MPa. La durée

d’une phase d’imposition de la succion est de 7
Afin de préparer les éprouvettes, l’argile a été
jours. La hauteur initiale des éprouvettes est de
portée à une teneur en eau proche de la teneur en
H0 = 1 ± 0,10 cm et leur diamètre de 7 cm.
eau optimale de compactage (Tableau 1). Après
Dans cette étude, les phases de dessicca-
une période de 24 heures destinée à homogénéi-
tion/humidification ont été réalisées sous une
ser la teneur en eau du sol, celui-ci a été malaxé
contrainte verticale de 7 kPa de manière à assurer
avec la chaux. Après une heure, le mélange a été
un bon contact entre la base de l’éprouvette et la
compacté statiquement à la masse volumique dé-
membrane semi-perméable. Tout au long de
sirée avec les caractéristiques de l’optimum
l’essai, la variation de la hauteur de l’éprouvette
Proctor normal du sol (Tableau 1), directement
•¯ est enregistrée.
dans le corps d’une cellule œdométrique. Lors-
qu’une période de cure était nécessaire, 2.4 Description du programme expérimental
l’éprouvette et la cellule œdométrique ont été
Deux séries d’essais ont été réalisées. La pre-
emballées sous cellophane, de manière à éviter
mière a cherché à caractériser l’influence du trai-
les pertes d’eau, et conservées à 20 ± 1,5°C.
tement à la chaux après 28 et 128 jours de cure.
Tableau 1. Caractéristiques de compactage de l’argile non Les résultats ont servi de référence pour évaluer
traitée et traitée à 2 et 5% de chaux.
l’impact des cycles hydriques sur le comporte-
Dosage en chaux 0% 2% 5% ment de l’argile traitée.
wOPN [%] 26,5 32,0 37,0
­dOPN Mg.m-3 1,45 1,34 1,20
Des éprouvettes d’argile traitée à la chaux, ont
été soumises à plusieurs cycles hydriques après
La succion initiale, après compactage des 28 jours de cure, délai nécessaire pour atteindre
éprouvettes, a été déterminée par la méthode du une prise pouzzolanique significative. Une
papier filtre selon la norme ASTM D 5298-94. éprouvette d’argile compactée non traitée a aussi
Elle est de l’ordre de 500 kPa pour les trois mo- été soumise à des cycles hydriques afin de servir
dalités de dosage en chaux (0%, 2% et 5%). de référence. Ces résultats ont permis d’évaluer
l’effet de différents cycles hydriques sur le com-
2.3 Œdomètre à succion contrôlée par la portement volumique de l’argile traitée.
méthode osmotique A la suite de l’imposition des cycles hydriques
successifs, soit en moyenne 128 jours, les éprou-
Le principe de la méthode est de mettre en con-
vettes ont été chargées mécaniquement sous une
tact une éprouvette de sol et une solution de ma-
succion nulle. La comparaison de ces résultats
cromolécules en insérant entre les deux une
avec ceux obtenus après une cure à teneur en eau
membrane semi-perméable. Celle-ci empêche le
constante de 128 jours (sans cycles) a permis de
passage des macromolécules de la solution vers
mettre en évidence l’influence des cycles hy-
l’éprouvette mais elle permet les échanges d’eau.
driques sur les propriétés mécaniques de l’argile
Les mouvements d’eau, et donc la succion, sont
traitée.
contrôlés par le phénomène d’osmose : plus la
concentration en macromolécules est élevée, plus
la succion imposée est forte. La macromolécule
3 EFFET DE LA CHAUX SUR LE
utilisée classiquement est le polyéthylène glycol
COMPORTEMENT MECANIQUE
(PEG) avec différents poids moléculaires. La
base de l’œdomètre permet de faire circuler la
solution osmotique au contact de l’éprouvette. La La Fig. 1 présente les courbes œdométriques de
relation entre la concentration en macromolé- l’argile non traitée et celles de l’argile traitée à 2
et 5% de chaux après 28 et 128 jours de cure. Les
cules et la succion a été caractérisée par diffé-
différences d’indices des vides initiaux
rents auteurs (par ex. Cuisinier et Masrouri,
2004). En l’état actuel et avec le dispositif em- s’expliquent par le choix de compacter les
ployé, cette méthode a permis d’imposer des éprouvettes à leurs optimums respectifs, fonction
du dosage (Tableau 1).
674 G. Stoltz et al. / Impact de cycles hydriques sur le comportement hydromécanique

1,4
0%CaO

1,2 2%CaO-28j

2%CaO-128j

1 5%CaO-28j
e

5%CaO-128j

0,8

0,6
1 10 100 1000 10000
ı
>N3D@

Fig. 1. Courbes œdométriques de l’argile non traitée et traitée à 2 et 5% de chaux (28 jours de cure).
En conclusion, si le dosage de 2 % de chaux
L’argile non traitée présente un potentiel de
suffit à prévenir le gonflement de l’argile après
}€

•¯¶¯0 de 15,5% à la diffé-
rence de celui de l’argile traitée qui est quasi nul
•¯¶¯0 $ 0%). Ce résultat indique que l’ajout de
chaux à l’argile gonflante étudiée, en respectant
un temps de cure de 28 jours, permet de suppri-
mer son caractère gonflant lors de
l’humidification. Il est intéressant de noter qu’un
dosage de 2 % de chaux suffit à atteindre
l’objectif de supprimer le potentiel de gonfle-
ment de l’argile.
La contrainte de préconsolidation de l’argile
non traitée est évaluée à 40 kPa et alors que la
contrainte de préconsolidation apparente de
l’argile traitée avec 2 et 5% de chaux, ayant eu
28 jours de cure, est de l’ordre de 700 kPa. Cette
contrainte de préconsolidation est qualifiée
d’apparente pour le matériau traité car elle prend
en compte, non seulement « l’histoire » méca-
nique du matériau, mais aussi l’effet des cimen-
tations induites par le traitement à la chaux.
L’ajout de chaux permet ainsi d’étendre le do-
maine élastique du matériau.
Les résultats obtenus permettent d’apprécier
l’effet d’un temps de cure prolongé de 128 jours
sur les propriétés mécaniques. Dans le cas de
l’argile traitée à 2% de chaux, la contrainte de
préconsolidation apparente reste stable entre 28
et 128 jours de cure. Par contre, pour l’argile
traitée à 5% de chaux, la contrainte de préconso-
lidation apparente passe de 700 à plus de
1000 kPa après 128 jours de cure.
28 jours de cure, il n’est pas suffisant pour in-
duire une augmentation des propriétés méca-
niques selon un temps de cure prolongé, 128
jours.
4 EFFET DES CYCLES HYDRIQUES
L’impact des n cycles hydriques successifs sur le
comportement volumique de l’argile et sur la
compressibilité seront successivement abordés.
4.1 Sur le retrait / gonflement
Sept cycles hydriques ont été appliqués sur les
éprouvettes traitées à la chaux. Cependant, le
septième cycle n’a pas pu être appliqué sur
l’argile traitée à 5% de chaux pour des raisons de
vieillissement prématuré de la membrane osmo-
tique.
Dans un premier temps, l’analyse des résultats
est portée sur le suivi de la hauteur de
l’éprouvette au cours des cycles par rapport à sa
hauteur initiale H0 (Fig. 2.). Le premier cycle a
débuté par une phase de dessiccation avec
l’imposition d’une succion de 8 MPa (cycle
n=½). Les résultats obtenus au cours de cette
première dessiccation ont permis d’évaluer
l’effet du traitement sur le retrait des matériaux
étudiés. Que ce soit pour l’argile non traitée ou
pour l’argile traitée à la chaux (2 ou 5%),
l’amplitude du retrait est du même ordre de
grandeur, avec •¯¶¯0)n=½ compris entre -4,5%
 G. Stoltz et al. / Impact de cycles hydriques sur le comportement hydromécanique
et -5%. L’ajout de chaux à l’argile, avec 28 jours
de cure, ne permet donc pas de supprimer le re-
trait induit par l’imposition de la succion 8 MPa.
La fin du premier cycle (n=1) correspond à
une humidification avec l’imposition d’une suc-
cion nulle. Le premier cycle se traduit par
l’apparition d’un retrait irréversible de l’ordre de
ǻ++n [%]
1% pour le dosage de 2% de chaux, et de l’ordre
de 3,5% pour le dosage de 5% de chaux. A la
différence de l’argile non traitée,
l’humidification n’entraine qu’un gonflement li-
mité de l’argile traitée.
5 -10
0%CaO-4C
2%CaO-28j-n=7
5%CaO-28j-n=6
ǻ++0 [%]
0 hydriques (0-8MPa) pour l’argile non traitée et traitée à 2 et
-5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
nombre de cycles n
Fig. 2. Evolution de la déformation au cours des cycles hy-
driques (0-8MPa) pour l’argile non traitée et traitée à 2 et 5%
de chaux (sollicitée après 28jours de cure).
Afin de mieux évaluer l’évolution des proprié-
tés de retrait et de gonflement au cours des
cycles hydriques, la variation de la hauteur de
l’éprouvette •¯
a été rapportée à sa hauteur Hn Un essai œdométrique a été réalisé sur l’argile
au début du cycle n (Fig. 3). Il apparaît que si le
retrait et le gonflement au cours d’un cycle sont
diminués par le traitement pour les deux dosages
l’amplitude de retrait / gonflement les plus
faibles sont obtenues pour l’argile traitée avec le
dosage en chaux le plus fort, soit 5% de chaux.
De plus, le retrait et le gonflement, pour un
même matériau, évoluent au fur et à mesure des
cycles. Dans le cas de l’argile non traitée, il est
observé une tendance à l’augmentation de la ca-
pacité de retrait au cours des cycles. Après trois
cycles hydriques, une stabilisation du retrait /
gonflement est obtenu. Pour l’argile traitée avec
2% de chaux, les propriétés de retrait / gonfle-
ment diminuent légèrement au cours des quatre
premiers cycles. A partir du cinquième cycle,
une stabilisation est atteinte. Pour l’argile traitée
à 5% de chaux, il est observé une nette diminu-
675
tion des propriétés de retrait / gonflement au fur
et à mesure des cycles, diminution qui ne stabi-
lise pas après 7 cycles.
10
gonflement
0
0%CaO-4C
2%CaO-28j-n=7
retrait 5%CaO-28j-n=6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
nombre de cycles n
Fig. 3. Evolution du retrait / gonflement au cours des cycles
5% de chaux (sollicitée après 28jours de cure).
De ces résultats, il ressort que, même si le trai-
tement à la chaux permet d’obtenir une insensibi-
lité de l’argile vis-à-vis du gonflement (lors
d’une première imbibition), il ne permet pas de
rendre l’argile complètement insensible aux va-
riations de teneur en eau, l’imposition des cycles
hydriques montrant une nette sensibilité au retrait
(lors d’une première dessiccation) et au re-
gonflement (ré-imbibition après dessiccation).
4.2 Sur la compressibilité
traitée à la chaux (2 et 5%) après les 28 jours de
cure et la phase d’imposition des cycles hy-
driques. Les courbes de compressibilité corres-
pondantes (Fig. 4a et 4b) sont comparées à celles
de l’argile traitée non soumise à des cycles hy-
driques et laissée en cure durant 128 jours.
La contrainte de préconsolidation apparente
déterminée dans le cas de l’argile traitée à 2% de
chaux sollicitée par les cycles hydriques peut être
comparée à celle déterminée sur l’éprouvette
soumise à une cure de 128 jours. Les cycles hy-
driques ont entraîné une chute de la contrainte de
préconsolidation apparente de 700 kPa à 250 kPa
(Fig. 4a). Cette valeur est aussi inférieure à celle
déterminée après 28 jours de cure. De même,
dans le cas de l’argile traitée à 5 % de chaux, les
cycles hydriques ont conduit à une chute de la
contrainte de préconsolidation apparente, soit
676 G. Stoltz et al. / Impact de cycles hydriques sur le comportement hydromécanique

environ 600 kPa (Fig. 4b). Cette valeur est à deur que celui du même sol non traité. Par ail-
comparer à celle déterminée après 128 jours de leurs, les cycles hydriques successifs appliqués à
cure qui était supérieure à 1000 kPa. l’argile traitée montrent que son comportement
Ainsi, les cycles hydriques ont donc entraîné reste dépendant des variations hydriques même si
une dégradation significative des propriétés mé- une diminution des propriétés de retrait et de
caniques de l’argile traitée à 2 et à 5 % de chaux, gonflement est observée au cours des cycles, no-
leur impact semblant être plus limité pour tamment pour le dosage en chaux le plus fort.
l’argile traitée à 5% de chaux. 2 – Le rôle du dosage en chaux a également été
5 mis en évidence. Si une augmentation des per-
(a) formances mécaniques est recherchée à long
0 terme, le dosage de 2% de chaux est insuffisant à
la différence de celui de 5% de chaux. Le dosage
-5 de 2% de chaux permet néanmoins d’augmenter

0 [%]

les performances mécaniques à court terme. Il est

-10 également observé une meilleure tenue des per-
formances mécaniques pour le plus fort dosage
-15
en chaux quand l’argile est soumise à une accu-
2%CaO-28j mulation de cycles hydriques à la différence du
-20
2%CaO-128j dosage de 2% de chaux qui conduit à une nette
2%CaO-28j-n=7 dégradation des performances mécaniques.
-25
Ces résultats montrant la complexité des cou-
1 10  100 1000 10000
plages chemo-mécaniques sont une base essen-
5
(b) tielle pour l’évaluation de la durabilité des ar-
giles gonflantes traitées à la chaux.
0
REMERCIEMENTS
-5

0 [%]

Ces résultats ont été obtenus dans le cadre du

-10 programme TerDOUEST financé par l’Agence
Nationale pour la Recherche.
-15
REFERENCES
-20 5%CaO-28j
5%CaO-128j
[1] ASTM D6276 - 99a, Standard Test Method for Using
5%CaO-28j-n=6
pH to Estimate the Soil-Lime Proportion Requirement
-25 for Soil Stabilization, vol. 4.09 (2006).
1 10 100 1000 10000 [2] ASTM D 5298-94, Standard Test Method for Meas-
 urement of Soil Potential (Suction) Using Filter Paper,
Fig. 4a, b. Courbes de compressibilité de l’argile traitée à 2% vol. 4.09 (1995), pp. 154–159.
et 5% de chaux après 28 et 128 jours de cure pour les échan- [3] Cuisinier, O., Masrouri, F., Testing the hydromechani-
tillons non sollicités et après 28 jours de cure pour les échan- cal behaviour of a compacted swelling soil, Geotechni-
tillons sollicités (n cycles hydriques 0 - 8 MPa). cal Testing J. 27 (2004), 598–606.
[4] Guney, Y., Sari, D., Cetin, M., Tuncan, M., Impact of
5 CONCLUSION cyclic wetting-drying on swelling behaviour of lime-
stabilized soil, Building & Env. 42 (2007), 681-688.
Cette étude permet d’évaluer l’impact de cycles [5] Gutschick, K.A., Lime stabilization under hydraulic
conditions, 4th lime congress (1978), 1-20.
hydriques sur le comportement hydromécanique [6] Khattab, S.A.A., Al-Mukhtar M., Fleureau J.-M., Long-
d’un sol argileux gonflant traité à la chaux. term stability characteristics of a lime-treated plastic
1 – Les résultats montrent que le traitement à la soil, J. of Mat. in Civil Eng. 19 (2007), 358-366.
chaux est bien efficace pour éliminer la capacité [7] Little, D.N., Stabilization of pavement subgrades and
base courses with lime, Arlington: National lime asso-
de gonflement de ce sol. En revanche, pour les ciation. (1995)
deux dosages testés, le retrait du sol argileux [8] Rao, S.M., Thyagaraj, T., Lime slurry stabilisation of
après traitement reste du même ordre de gran- an expansive soil, Geotech. Eng. 153 (2003), 139-146.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 677
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-677

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 683
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-683

Model piles behaviour in a compacted fine-grained

unsaturated soil
Comportement de pieux à échelle réduite dans un sol fin non-
saturé compacté
S. K. Vanapalli 1
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Z. Nil Taylan
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT
A series of single model pile tests were performed in a laboratory environment to study the influence of matric suction on the
pile shaft resistance in a compacted fine-grained soil. The model piles were loaded in the soil compacted with constant water
content condition to assure uniform suction value over the entire depth. The model piles were loaded to failure under both satu-
rated and unsaturated conditions under different drainage conditions. The test results show that there is a significant contribution
from suction towards the shaft resistance of model piles. The conventional D method by Skempton (1959) and ȕ method by Bur-
land (1973) that are used for interpreting the piles in saturated conditions were modified to interpret the total shaft resistance of
piles under unsaturated conditions.

RÉSUMÉ

Des essais sur des pieux individuels à échelle réduite ont été menés en laboratoire afin d'étudier l'influence de la succion sur la
résistance du fût d'un pieux enfoncé dans un sol fin compacté. Les pieux ont été soumis à une charge tout en maintenant cons-
tante la teneur en eau afin d'assurer une succion uniforme sur toute la profondeur. Les pieux ont été chargés jusqu'à la rupture
dans des sols saturés aussi bien que non-saturés en utilisant différentes conditions de drainage. Les résultats des essais démon-
trent que la succion peu contribuer de manière significative à la résistance de fût de pieux à échelle réduite. La méthode conven-
tionnelle D de Skempton (1959) et la méthode ȕ de Burland (1973) qui sont utilisées pour interpréter la résistance de pieux dans
des conditions saturées ont été modifiées pour interpréter la résistance de fût totale de pieux dans des conditions non-saturées.

Keywords: Unsaturated soils, compacted soils, matric suction, model piles, shaft resistance, modified  method, modified ȕ me-
thod

1 INTRODUCTION tion. Such a scenario is more common in semi-

In geotechnical engineering practice, foundation
designs are based on conventional soil mechanics
principles assuming the soil is in a state of satu-
rated condition. Foundations are typically con-
structed above the natural ground water table
where the soil is in a state of unsaturated condi-
arid and arid regions, but it also occurs in other
regions of the world. In some cases, foundations
are also constructed in compacted soils which are
typical examples of unsaturated soils. It is appro-
priate to design foundation structures constructed
in unsaturated or compacted soils such as shal-
low or deep foundations taking account the in-

1
Corresponding Author
684 S.K. Vanapalli and Z.N. Taylan / Model Piles Behaviour
fluence of matric suction. In other words, the
mechanics of unsaturated soils should be used in
the rational design of foundations. There are
some studies reported in the literature with re-
spect to the design of shallow foundations using
unsaturated soil mechanics [1] & [2]. However,
there are limited studies reported in the literature
that discuss the design of pile foundations taking
account of the influence of matric suction in fine-
grained soils [3].
In this study, a series of single model pile tests
were performed in a laboratory environment to
study the influence of matric suction on the pile
shaft resistance in a compacted fine-grained soil.
The model piles were loaded in the soil com-
pacted with constant water content condition to
assure uniform matric suction over the entire
depth. The model piles were loaded to failure
under both saturated and unsaturated conditions
using different drainage conditions (i.e., un-
drained and drained loading conditions). The test
results show that matric suction contributes sig-
nificantly towards the shaft resistance of model
piles. The conventional D method [4] and ȕ me-
thod [5] used for interpreting the piles placed in
saturated soils were modified in this study to in-
terpret the total shaft resistance of model piles
loaded in unsaturated soils.
2 TESTING PROGRAM
The soil used in the testing program is a glacial
till from Indian Head in Saskatchewan province,
Canada. The objective of the present study as
discussed earlier is to understand the influence of
matric suction on the total shaft resistance of
piles in a compacted fine-grained soil. The load
carrying capacity of single model piles was
measured under both saturated and unsaturated
conditions in a laboratory environment under
drained and undrained loading conditions. A test
tank was specially designed that facilitates to
compact the glacial till and load the model piles.
The Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC),
which is the relationship between the water con-
tent (volumetric or gravimetric) or degree of sa-
turation and matric suction was measured using
the pressure plate apparatus. The effective shear
strength parameters and interface strength pa-
rameters (i.e., soil and pile material) were deter-
mined from the direct shear tests. The effective
shear strength parameters (c’ and I’), the SWCC,
and the interface shear strength properties are re-
quired for interpreting and predicting the varia-
tion of total shaft resistance of the model pile
with respect to matric suction under drained
loading conditions [6].
A modified null-pressure plate apparatus [7]
was used for determining the matric suction of
the compacted soil specimens using the axis-
translation technique. The undrained strength, cu
of compacted soil specimens under saturated and
unsaturated conditions were determined using
conventional unconfined compression equip-
ment. The undrained strength, cu and matric suc-
tion value of the compacted soil are required for
interpreting the shaft resistance of the model
piles in undrained loading conditions. The varia-
tion of undrained strength, cu with respect to suc-
tion can be predicted using the cu of under satu-
rated condition and the SWCC [8].
The sections that follow provide the testing
procedures details along with a brief description
of the equipments used in the laboratory testing
program for determining the shaft resistance of
model piles in fine-grained soils.
2.1 Properties of the soil used in the test
program
The properties of the soil used in the test pro-
gram (i.e. Indian Head till) were determined fol-
lowing the ASTM Standards. The properties are
summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Properties of the soil used in the test program
Soil Properties Value
Optimum water content (%) 18.6
Maximum dry unit weight, (kN/m3) 16.7
Saturated unit weight, (kN/m3) 18.5
Specific gravity, Gs 2.70
Sand (%) 28.0
Silt (%) 42.0
Clay (%) 30.0
Liquid limit, wL 36.2
Plastic limit, wL 15.0
Plasticity index, Ip 21.2
 S.K. Vanapalli and Z.N. Taylan / Model Piles Behaviour
2.2 Soil Preparation and Compaction
Indian Head till collected from the field was air-
dried for several days and subjected to gentle
pulverization using a wooden mallet. The pulver-
ized soil that was passed through a sieve with an
opening size of 2 mm (i.e. #10 sieve) was col-
lected and used for the entire testing program.
The soil was prepared in a single batch to ensure
uniform conditions. The prepared dry soil was
mixed with distilled water at predetermined ini-
tial water contents in the laboratory at room tem-
perature. The soil-water sample mixture was
placed in tightly covered double plastic bags and
stored in a humidity controlled box in the labora-
tory for at least 3 days to ensure uniform mois-
ture conditions.
The compaction curve was obtained by pre-
paring statically compacted individual specimens
at different water contents using 350 kPa of
stress in specially designed compaction equip-
ment. The equipment consists of a brass mold in
which a specimen of 50 mm in diameter and 20
mm height can be prepared. The inner lining of
the mold has teflon layer to reduce friction while
compacting the soil sample. The samples were
compacted into steel specimen rings in a single
layer. The ring was fixed securely to the mold on
a brass base plate with screws such that there is
no movement during compaction of the sample.
2.3 Suction Measurement
2.3.1 Axis translation technique
The axis translation technique is a direct meas-
urement method of matric suction of an unsatu-
rated soil sample using the null pressure plate
apparatus. This technique facilitates measure-
ment of matric suction values greater than 101.3
kPa avoiding cavitation problems [9]. More re-
cently, the conventional null pressure plate was
modified [7] (see Fig. 1). In this equipment,
when an unsaturated soil specimen is placed on
the saturated high air-entry disk (HAED) which
is in the acrylic base plate of the brass chamber,
the water in the glass tube with a right angle
685
bend (see ུ in Fig. 1) which is connected to the
base of the HAED with pore-water pressure
equal to atmospheric pressure tends to go into
tension. This translates movement of water in the
tube from its original position, which is ap-
proximately at a level equal to the mid height of
the soil specimen placed on the HAED. The ten-
dency of the water to go into tension is resisted
by increasing air pressure in the pressure cham-
ber. Eventually, an equilibrium condition is
reached and water in the specimen does not go
into tension (i.e., attains a “null” condition). The
applied air pressure in the chamber to achieve
“null” condition is the matric suction value as
water pressure is equal to zero.
Figure 1. Modified null pressure plate apparatus for meas-
urement of suction using the axis translation technique (཰
brass chamber ཱ acrylic base, ི pressure gauge ཱི peri-
staltic pumpུglass tubeཱུdimmer switch) (after Power
and Vanapalli, 2010)
The model pile capacity was determined on
soil sample compacted at an initial water content
equal to 13%, which corresponds to dry of opti-
mum conditions. The matric suction, (ua - uw)
measured on specimen compacted at this water
content using the modified null pressure plate
was equal to 203 kPa.
2.3.2 Pressure plate apparatus
The pressure plate apparatus was used for meas-
uring the SWCC following the drying path (Fig.
2). Soil specimens prepared with an initial water
content of 13% in metal specimen rings of 50
mm in diameter and 20 mm in height following
the procedures detailed earlier were placed in the
pressure plate. This equipment facilitates the
686 S.K. Vanapalli and Z.N. Taylan / Model Piles Behaviour

measurement of SWCCs of different soil samples cedure was followed for the different matric suc-
at the same time. tion values chosen in the present study. At each
equilibrium stage, the degree of saturation of the
compacted specimen was calculated from the vo-
lume-mass relationships for the different matric
suction values to plot the SWCC relationship
(Fig. 3).

3 MODEL PILE TESTS

Figure 2. Pressure plate apparatus used for the measurement
of the SWCC (཰steel pressure chamber, ཱ high air-entry The influence of matric suction on the total shaft
disk, ི test specimen) capacity of piles was determined from model
tests under both saturated and unsaturated condi-
The SWCCs of compacted specimens to be tions of compacted Indian Head till. These tests
measured were placed into the pressure plate ap- were conducted in a specially designed test tank
paratus on the HAED for saturation. The speci- of 300 mm both in diameter and height. The
mens were allowed to saturate under a small conventional triaxial equipment loading frame
head of water for a period of 7 days. After the sa- was used for the soil compaction in the tank and
turation process was completed, water in the also for loading the model piles. The model pile
chamber was removed, and the specimen was diameter was 20 mm and the length equal to 450
subjected to desaturation by applying air pressure mm.
keeping the water pressure below the HAED to a The soil was compacted with an initial water
value equal to zero (i.e., atmospheric pressure). content equal to 13% using a compaction stress
The specimens were desaturated successively us- of 350 kPa in the test tank in five equal layers. A
ing matric suction values of 10, 20, 50, 100, 150, base plate with drainage holes to facilitate
200, 250, 300 and 400 kPa respectively. The movement of water was used as compaction
specimens were allowed to reach equilibrium plate. This compaction plate is 300 mm in di-
conditions under each applied matric suction ameter and 10 mm in thickness. After compac-
value before subjecting the specimens to the next tion of each layer, the soil surface was scarified
level of matric suction. Typically, 3 to 5 days are before proceeding with the compaction of the
required for achieving equilibrium conditions next layer in order to maintain continuity in the
under each applied matric suction value. different compacted soil layers.
100
A thin wall casing tube was jacked down into
the test tank with the compacted soil to create a
Degree of Saturation (%)

90
hole without overstressing the nearby soil down
80
to a depth of 220 mm. The diameter of the cas-
70
ing tube was 18.8 mm with a wall thickness
60
equal to 0.9 mm. The loading was continued un-
50 til 220 mm length of the casing tube was embed-
40
Indian Head till winitial=13%
ded into the compacted soil. The casing along
30 with the soil embedded column was removed out
1 10 100 1000
from the compacted soil carefully by working the
Matric Suction (kPa)
equipment in opposite direction. The outer di-
Figure 3. SWCC for the Indian Head till with an initial com- ameter of the casing is slightly less than the
paction water content equal to 13%. model pile diameter, which is 20 mm. This tech-
nique ensures a good contact between the soil
The mass of the specimens were determined and the surface of model pile shaft for determin-
after achieving equilibrium conditions. This pro- ing the total shaft resistance.
 S.K. Vanapalli and Z.N. Taylan / Model Piles Behaviour
The sampling tubes and model piles were spe-
cially designed such that they can be securely
fastened on to the horizontal beam of the loading
frame (see Fig. 4).
Figure 4. Equipment set up for loading the model pile ཰ test
tank, ཱ model pile, ི load cell, ཱི LVDT, ུ adjustable
height loading frame.
The casing tube was inserted into the com-
pacted soil after saturating it to determine the
model piles capacity. The compacted soil in the
tank was subjected to saturation by gradually al-
lowing downward flow of water from top of the
soil through the compacted plate which had drai-
nage holes. Possible volume changes associated
with saturation were restricted using a column
connected to the top of the compaction plate and
fastened to the loading frame. The saturation was
checked with the help of a piezometer that was
attached to the side of the tank. This was assured
by checking the water level in the piezometer
and the tank were close to surface. In addition,
tensiometers reading value of zero also ensured
that the soil reached saturated conditions (i.e. (ua
687
4 TEST RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The total shaft capacity of piles in unsaturated
under undrained loading conditions can be esti-
mated by modifying the conventional D method
[4] using Eq.1 [6]. The form of this equation will
be same as in [4] if matric suction, (ua - uw) is set
to zero.
Eq. (1) can also be used to predict the varia-
tion of total shaft resistance of pile, Qf(us) with re-
spect to matric suction. The required information
using this equation are the undrained shear
strength under saturated condition, cu(sat) and the
SWCC.
ª (ua  uw ) X º
Q f (us ) D cu ( sat ) «1  S / P»S d L
¬ ( Pa /100) ¼
(1)
where, cu(sat), cu(unsat) = undrained shear strength
under saturated and unsaturated conditions, re-
spectively, Pa = atmospheric pressure (i.e. 101.3
kPa), (ua - uw) = matric suction, S = degree of sa-
turation and Q, P = fitting parameters which are
equal to 2 and 9, respectively [8].
The D value for saturated and unsaturated
conditions was chosen as 0.9 and 0.75, respec-
tively using the adhesion factor versus undrained
shear strength relationship [11]. More details of
the use of this relationship for unsaturated soils
are discussed in [6].
Vanapalli and Taylan (2011) [6] also pro-
posed the modifications to the E method that can
be used for estimating the shaft resistance of
model piles under drained loading conditions.
- uw) = 0 kPa). Qf (us) ¦^H cc  E V c   ª¬ u
a z a `
After the borehole drilling was completed for
both saturated/unsaturated samples in the tank,
steel model piles was jacked down to a prede-
termined depth of 200 mm following the same
procedures used for penetrating the casing tube.
A void of 20 mm in length was intentionally left
below the pile toe to be able to directly measure
the total shaft resistance without any tip resis-
tance. The model piles were tested under drained
and undrained loading conditions using a strain
rate equal to 0.0120 mm/min [10] and 1 mm/min
respectively.
 uw  (S N )(tan G c)º¼ S d L
(2)
where, ca' = adhesion component of cohesion,
H= reduction parameter is chosen as 0.4, ' = in-
ternal friction angle between pile and soil, ȕ =
Ko tan ’ and where Ko= (1-sin ') which is the
mean lateral earth coefficient at rest.
The adhesion component of cohesive strength,
ca’, and the internal friction angle, ', between
the soil and the pile material was measured by
conducting interface direct shear tests for both
saturated and unsaturated soil specimens under
688 S.K. Vanapalli and Z.N. Taylan / Model Piles Behaviour
drained loading conditions (see Table 2). The
shearing rate used for conducting these tests was
the same as the rate of loading the model piles
(i.e., 0.0120 mm/min). Since the internal friction
angle, ' did not vary much with respect to suc-
tion, the ȕ coefficient value of 0.3 was used for
both saturated and unsaturated conditions.
The relationship between the fitting parame-
ter, N and plasticity index, Ip was used for pre-
dicting the shear strength unsaturated soils by
[12].
The key results of the model pile load tests
along with other experimental results are
summarized in Table 2. More details related to
the modified D and E methods are available in
[6].
Table 2. Model pile load test results
Meas. Estim.
Test* D E ß cu ' c'a
condition Qf (us) Qf
- - kPa kPa ° kPa kN
S-UD 0.9 - 0 11.5 - - 0.10
S-D - 0.3 0 - 27 20 0.16
US-UD 0.75 - 203 68 - - 0.68
US-D - 0.3 203 - 30 102 0.80
*
S: Saturated, US: Unsaturated, UD: Undrained, D: Drained;
ß = matric suction
5 SUMMARY
Model pile tests were conducted on a statically
compacted Indian Head till in the laboratory to
determine the shaft resistance in saturated and
unsaturated conditions. Conventional D [4] and E
[5] methods were modified to interpret the con-
tribution of matric suction on the total shaft resis-
tance of model piles in undrained and drained
loading conditions, respectively [6]. The load
versus deflection data demonstrated that the peak
shaft resistance is mobilized prior to 20 mm pe-
netration of the pile which is consistent with ear-
lier studies in the literature [13].
The total shaft resistance of piles in unsatu-
rated conditions is significantly higher in com-
parison to saturated conditions for both drained
and undrained loading conditions (see Table 2).
More studies are necessary to check the validity
of the proposed methods on different fine-
grained soils both in the laboratory and in the
field with respect to the proposed D and ȕ meth-
ods.
REFERENCES
[1] Costa, Y.D., Cintra J.C. & Zornberg, J.G. 2003. Influ-
ence of matric suction on the results of plate load tests
performed on a lateritic soil deposit, Geotechnical Test-
ing Journal, Vol. 26, No. 2:219-227.
[2] Vanapalli, S.K. & Oh, W.T. 2010. Interpretation of the
bearing capacity of an unsaturated soils extending the
effective and total stress approaches. Fifth International
Conference Unsaturated Soils, UNSAT 2010,
Barcelona, Spain, Vol. 2:1223-1229.
[3] Georgiadis, K., Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic, L. 2003.
The influence of partial soil saturation pile behaviour.
Géotechnique, Vol. 53, No. 1: 11-25.
[4] Skempton, A.W. 1959. Cast-in-situ bored piles in
London clay. Géotechnique, Vol. 9, No. 4:153-173.
[5] Burland, J.B. 1973. Shaft friction of piles in clay- a
simple fundamental approach, Ground Engineering,
kN Vol. 6, No.3: 30-42.
[6] Vanapalli, S.K. & Taylan, Z.N. 2011. Modeling the
0.13
load carrying capacity of single piles in unsaturated
0.11 soils using the modified Dand the ȕ methods. 13th Int.
0.60 Conf. of the Int. Assoc. for Computer Methods and Ad-
0.73 vances in Geomechanics 2011, Australia (accepted for
publication).
[7] Power, K. and Vanapalli, S.K. 2010. Modified null
pressure apparatus for measurement of matric suction.
ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal, American Society
of Testing Materials, 33(4): 335-341.
[8] Oh, W.T. & Vanapalli, S.K. 2009. A simple method to
estimate the bearing capacity of unsaturated fine-
grained soils, 62nd Canadian Geotechnical Conference,
September 2009:234-241
[9] Hilf, J. W. 1956. An investigation of pore water pres-
sure in compacted cohesive soils. Ph.D. dissertation.
Tech. Memo. 654, U.S.B.R. Denver. 654.
[10] Vanapalli. S.K., Fredlund, D.G., Pufahl, D.E. &
Clifton, A.W. 1996. Model for the prediction of shear
strength with respect to soil suction. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, Vol.33, No. 3: 379-392.
[11] Sowers, G.B. & Sowers, G.G. 1970. Introductory soil
mechanics and foundations. The Macmillan Company,
New York.
[12] Vanapalli, S.K. & Fredlund, D.G. 2000. Comparison of
empirical procedures to predict the shear strength of un-
saturated soils using the soil-water characteristic curve.
Proc. of Unsaturated Soil session of Geo-Denver
2000, 5 - 8 August, ASCE Special Publication, 99: 195-
209.
[13] API Recommended Practice for Planning, Designing
and Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms-Working
Stress Design. 2A-WSD-2000.
3.1. Shallow Foundations
Fondations superficielles
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 691
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-691

Foundation of a heavy loaded stockyard

on problematic subsoil:
experience and two years of measurements
Stabilisation d’une aire de stockage sur un sol problématique:
retour d’expérience et deux années d’instrumentalisation
D. Alexiew1
HUESKER Synthetic GmbH, Gescher, Germany
C. Moormann
University of Stuttgart, Institute for Geotechnics, Stuttgart, Germany
A. Glockner
Uhde GmbH, Dortmund, Germany

ABSTRACT
At the seashore of Brazil ThyssenKrupp CSA built in 2006 - 2009 a steel plant including a 380.000 m2 stockyard for raw materi-
als comprising stockpile beds and runways for stacker/reclaimers similar to the heavy excavators in open mining. The lowland
area consists of saturated soft soils of low bearing capacity. Both the stability and serviceability of stockpile beds and runways
had to be ensured. The optimized solution employs full area basal high-strength geosynthetic reinforcements combined in the
coal/coke zone with geotextile encased columns below the runways and with strip drains below the beds. During construction
measurement programs were performed on test embankments. Measurement programs are installed also for the operation stage.
They serve to decide about the allowable height of stockpiles because of the insufficient subsoil consolidation below the beds on
strip drains at the start of operation. This is a specific case of application of the observational method in Eurocode 7. After a
short overview the paper focuses on the measurement programs and experience gained. So far they confirm the suitability of the
solutions and methods applied.
RÉSUMÉ
Au bord de mer du Brésil, Thyssen Krupp CSA construit en 2006 - 2009 une aciérie incluant une surface de stockage pour les
matières premières de 380.000 m² et des pistes pour les « bacs récupérateurs »; semblables aux excavatrices lourdes des exploita-
tions ouvertes. Le site entier recompose sur des sols compressibles saturés à très faible portance. Tant la stabilité globale que le
l’utilisation régulières de la réserve de stockage et des pistes ont dû être assurés. La solution optimale trouvée était un renforce-
ment horizontal par des geosynthétiques à très haute résistances, combinés sous les pistes par des colonnes encapsulées par un
géotextile associé à un tapis drainant. Des programmes de mesure ont été installés aux différentes phases. Ils servent pour se dé-
cider de la hauteur permise de réserves des stocks à cause de la consolidation de sous-sol insuffisante au début d'opération. C'est
un cas spécifique d'application de la méthode d'observation dans l'Eurocode 7. Après une vue d'ensemble courte, l’article se con-
centre sur les programmes de mesure et l'expérience acquise.

Keywords: Soft soils, soil reinforcement, geosynthetics, soil improvement, observational method, field measurements

1
Corresponding author
692 D. Alexiew et al. / Foundation of a Heavy Loaded Stockyard on Problematic Subsoil

1 INTRODUCTION

TK CSA (ThyssenKrupp CSA Siderúrgica do

Atlântico) built a steel plant in the lowlands of
the Brazilian seashore near Sepetiba inclusive of
a 380.000 m² stock yard for raw materials (coal/
coke, ore and additives). The terrain consists of
very soft soils; the ground water level is just be-
low the surface. The thickness of soft soil varies
between ca. 10 and 20 meters. Apart from the
stockpiles, the stockyard (SY) includes runways
(RW) for the 750 tons stacker/reclaimers (S/R)
similar to the heavy equipment used in open cast Figure 2. Typical geotechnical conditions; the most critical so
called “upper clay” is marked by a frame
mining (Figure 1). More detailed information on
the whole project can be found in [1]. For brevity
this publication focuses only on the stock pile then again soft clays down to ca. 20 m, sands and
beds and RWs for the coal/coke area of 800 x rock bed at 30 to 50 m below surface.
350 m. The most critical “upper clay” of high plastic-
ity and low consistency is normally consolidated
with the following main parameters: oedometric
modulus ES ca. 0.2 - 0.5 MN/m², consolidation
coefficient cv = 2 - 4. 10-8 m/s, undrained shear
strength of only cu = 5-15 kN/m². The ground
water level is practically at the surface.

3 STOCK YARD

Significant difficulties for the foundation of the

stock yard coal/coke area resulted e.g. from the
changing shape, geometry and positions of the
13 m high stock piles, a fast loading-unloading
process under operation (0 to >100 kN/ m2) and
Figure 1. TKCSA steel plant: the stockyard with stock pile
beds and runways with stacker/reclaimers

2 GEOTECHNICAL CONDITIONS

The project site is located at the bay of Sepetiba

approx. 50 km west of Rio de Janeiro. The site
investigation programme comprises a large num-
ber of SPT- and CPTu-soundings as well as in-
situ vane tests, furthermore a laboratory test pro-
gramme with oedometer- and triaxial tests.
The typical geotechnical conditions are shown Figure 3. Stockyard; coal/coke; stockpile beds and runways
in Fig. 2: very soft saturated clays down to ca. 10 with 750 ton stacker/reclaimers running between them
m (“upper clay”), a layer of better sandy layers,
 D. Alexiew et al. / Foundation of a Heavy Loaded Stockyard on Problematic Subsoil
N
W E
Figure 4. Layout of TKCSA coal/coke stockyard (detail)
the limited allowed displacements of the RWs
for the sensitive 750 ton S/Rs (Figures 3 & 4).
Apart from the insufficient stability, the calcu-
lated settlements amounted up to 2 m without
soil improvement measures. Optimized technical
solutions therefore had to be found to solve both
problems.
3.1 Foundation of the coal/coke stockpile beds
Local and global stability had to be adequate,
settlements and settlement differences had to be
reduced and especially the horizontal displace-
ments (spreading) from the stockpiles outwards
to the RWs (say in N-S-direction) to be mini-
mized to acceptable values. The „spreading“ is of
critical importance because it endangers the
proper operation of the S/Rs being of key impor-
tance. In all cases the ultimate (ULS) and ser-
viceability limit state (SLS) analyses resulted in
the necessity of horizontal geosynthetic rein-
forcements in two directions (N-S & W-E): a
woven geotextile in N-S-direction (Fig. 4) fol-
lowed by a 15 cm thick compacted sand layer
and a geogrid in the W-E-direction. A very high
tensile stiffness (modulus) of all geosynthetic re-
inforcements was required, therefore geosynthet-
ics from polyvinylalcohol (PVA) [2] were se-
lected (a key issue for the entire project): woven
geotextiles "RobutecR" and geogrids "Fortrac M"
with ultimate short-term strength (UTS) ranging
from 500 kN/m to 1600 kN/m (Fig. 5). Despite
the horizontal reinforcement, an additional deep
stabilization of the soft subsoil was required. In
the end it was decided to use vertical strip drains
below the stock pile beds [3]. As the consolida-
tion times considered are longer than the sched-
693
uled start of operation, an expert assessment by
analysis and instrumentation of the start-up of
operations was foreseen (see Chapter 5).
Figure 5. Typical reinforcement: transverse (N-S) woven Ro-
butec“ , intermediate sand layer, longitudinal (W-E) geogrid
Fortrac“ M
3.2 Foundations of the runways (RWs) for the
stackers/reclaimers (S/Rs)
The RWs are heavily loaded wide ballasted rail-
way tracks. The weight of an S/R is approxi-
mately 750 tons, and they rotate (Figures 3 & 4)
causing significant load eccentricities as well.
All types of deformations have to be strictly lim-
ited. A significantly lower deformability than
under the stockpile beds after a shorter construc-
tion time and an earlier operation had to be guar-
anteed. The optimum solution found was to sup-
port the RWs by compacted sand-filled
geotextile-encased columns (GEC) [4] as ductile
bearing elements. The columns pass through the
very soft upper clay (Fig. 2) and found in the bet-
ter sandy intermediate layer. The high-modulus
seamless tubular geotextiles RingtracR 100/250
and 100/275 are used as encasement [3 & 4].
Figure 6 shows a partial cross section of the ac-
tual solution for both the stockpile beds and run-
ways. Additionally, horizontal reinforcement on
top of the GECs is installed, similar to the rein-
forcement under the stockpile beds (Fig. 5). Al-
though for the RWs an adjustable ballast bed
scheme was chosen, they remained very sensitive
694 D. Alexiew et al. / Foundation of a Heavy Loaded Stockyard on Problematic Subsoil

(GECs below RW) the horizontal displacements

and the depth they reach are only ca. 50% of the
right site without GECs in the subsoil.

Figure 6. Cross section (1-1 in Fig. 8) with soil improvement

and measurement devices in the coal/coke stockpile area

to all types of deformations. Ultimate (ULS) and

serviceability limit state (SLS) calculations were
performed for different shapes and positions of
the coal/coke stockpiles and the S/Rs on the RWs
during stockyard operation. Besides analytical
analyses also numerical simulations (FEM) with
a coupled constitutive model that simulates con-
solidation and creep were performed and the re-
sults compared [5]. The increase of the shear
strength of the clay depending on stress level and
consolidation status was considered in order to
optimize the soil improvement.

4 TEST EMBANKMENTS
After completion of two stockpile beds (strip
drains & horizontal reinforcement) and of one
RW (GECs & horizontal reinforcement) between
them (Fig. 6) instrumented test embankments
were built using slag to simulating the future
coal/coke piles for verification of the foundation
concept, adjustment of assumptions and optimi-
zation of solutions for the rest of stockyard. In
Figure 7 only the southern one is shown for brev-
ity. The systems behavior generally confirmed
the concept. Most important comments: the pore
water overpressure dissipated relatively slowly
despite the strip drains (Fig. 7b), but was signifi-
cant only in the first 5 to 6 m below surface; set-
tlements (Fig. 7d) were in the range of low-
er/upper boundary predictions; the “spreading”
(Fig. 7c) was smaller than expected, may be due
to the very flat 1:3 slopes of slag fill; to the left
Figure 7. Southern high test embankment (see also contour
“Test section coke-yard” in Fig. 8); piezometric curves in “b”
correspond to the piezometers P in “c” from top to bottom
5 OBSERVATIONAL METHOD
5.1 Concept
The stringent application of the observational
method in terms of DIN 1054:2005 is a key ele-
ment of the design and safety concept for the
foundation of the stockyard. In a first phase in-
strumented test fields were installed and used to
calibrate and validate assumptions and calcula-
tion models (see Chapter 4). Moreover, the op-
erational phase is accompanied and controlled by
a comprehensive geodetic and geotechnical
monitoring program during the early years.
 D. Alexiew et al. / Foundation of a Heavy Loaded Stockyard on Problematic Subsoil
50 m
1 50% to 'u | 35 kN/m² after ca. 6 months.
1 0.1 m at the toe of the stock piles after six
Figure 8. Plan view (detail) of the coal/coke stockpile area
with monitored sections every 50 m
Due to the selected ´ductile´ overall system and
the time and cost savings generated by the high-
sophisticated design [3], the storage process has
to be controlled based on monitoring data in or-
der to guarantee the stability of stockpiles and
runways and their serviceability. As the stocks
are dumped and reclaimed rapidly on varying ar-
eas, a comprehensive monitoring program was
required providing all necessary data in real time.
Therefore the concept asked for a high degree of
automation, but also for robust sensors to the ex-
treme climate and environmental conditions.
In total 154 pore water pressure cells, 44 set-
tlement profiler, 120 hydraulic settlement cells,
58 inclinometers (46 of them equipped with
chains of 11 in-place inclinometer-probes) and
26 extensometer were installed (Figures 6 & 8).
A decentralized data acquisition system with
solar-powered, battery-backed data loggers was
installed. The data loggers were connected via a
radio-based transmission to a server installed on
the site. Via an Internet-based platform, the
measurement data were graphically provided to
users in real time.
5.2 Monitoring results
Figure 9 as an example displays some monitor-
ing results in a typical section after partial start
of operation in 02/2009. Some findings are:
(1) The first loading of ca. 80 kN/m² causes pore
water overpressures (PWO) of 'u | 70 kN/m² in
the upper clay, i.e. of 90% of the applied load
695
despite of the vertical drains. PWO decreases by
(2) Due to a second loading the maximum PWO
amounted to 'u | 60 kN/m² say ca. 75% of the
applied load (not shown).
(3) The settlement profilers show a maximum
settlement of 0.7 m to 0.8 m in the middle and
months.
(4) The horizontal displacements at the edge of
stockpiles next to RW are ca. 1 cm at surface
level and max 3 to 5 cm in depth six months after
first loading. They are limited to the upper part
of the clay. These values are not critical for the
operation of the S/Rs at all.
(5) The behavior under operation is very similar
to that of the test embankments (Chapter 4).
6 FINAL REMARKS
For the stock yard on soft saturated soils a duc-
tile foundation and soil improvement concept
was developed combining technical and eco-
nomical factors. Specific issues are e.g. the ex-
treme tight time schedule for design, construc-
tion and start of operation [3], strongly varying
loads for stockpile beds and runways etc. result-
ing in the necessity of test embankments and
monitoring programs. Additionally, the applica-
tion of the observational method during the first
operation period of the stock yard is a key ele-
ment of the concept. The observation focuses on
excess pore water pressure in the upper clay as
principal indicator to controlling stacking proc-
ess. Beside this horizontal displacements and set-
tlements of beds and runways were measured
and evaluated and are still being monitored.
So far settlements, horizontal displacements and
pore water pressures are in the range between the
lower and upper limits of the calculations per-
formed. The runways of the first S/Rs have met
until now all requirements in terms of low de-
formability.
The foundation and soil improvement system
meets all requirements in terms of ULS and SLS.
696 D. Alexiew et al. / Foundation of a Heavy Loaded Stockyard on Problematic Subsoil

Figure 9. Measurement results in a typical section of the coal/coke stockpile area

REFERENCES [3] D. Alexiew, Ch. Moormann, H. Jud, Foundation of a

[1] A. Glockner., A. Igelbüscher, Ch. Moormann, H. Jud,
K.-J. Linder, M. Kunzmann, Bau eines neuen Stahl-
werks auf weichen Sedimentböden nahe Rio de Janeiro
- Geotechnische Herausforderungen in ungewöhnlichen
Dimensionen. Proc. Deutsche Baugrundtagung,
Dortmund, 2008, 199-206.
[2] D. Alexiew, J. Sobolewski, H. Pohlmann, Projects and
optimized engineering with geogrids from „non-usual“
polymers. Proc. 2nd European Geosynthetics Confer-
ence, Bologna, 2000, 239-244.
coal/coke stockyard on soft soil with geotextile encased
columns and horizontal reinforcement. Proc. 17th
ICSMGE, Alexandria, 2009, 2236-2239.
[4] D. Alexiew, D. Brokemper, S. Lothspeich, Geotextile
encased columns (GEC): Load capacity, geotextile se-
lection and pre-design graphs, Proc. Geo-Frontiers
Conference, Austin, 2005, 318 - 324.
D. Alexiew, Ch. Moormann, Optimized geosynthetic
solutions for a large stock yard on soft soils. Proc. 2nd
Int. Conf. ´Geosynthetics Middle East´, Dubai/UAE,
Nov. 2009
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 697
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-697

Strip footing behavior on geotextile reinforced and

soil nailing -stabilized sand slope
Comportement d’une semelle filante sur une pente de sable
renforcée avec géotextile et stabilisée par clouage
E. A.O.Belqasem Altalhe
Omar Al mukhtar university, Libya

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of laboratory model tests on the behaviour of a strip footing supported on a row of soil nail and
single geotextile layer-stabilized sandy slope. A comparison between the bearing capacity improvements in the two cases was
made to study the most efficient of them. The parameters varied in the study include depth of the reinforcing layer, the edge
distance of the footing, location of soil nail row, and location of the footing relative to the slope crest. Initially the bearing
capacity of non-stabilized cases were determined and then compared with those of stabilized slopes. The results were then
analysed to study the effect of each parameter. The results indicate that stabilizing earth slope using a row of soil nail or single
geotextile layer has a significant effect in improving the bearing capacity of the strip footing. This improvement in bearing
capacity increases when soil nail spacing decreases. However, the overall improvement when using single geotextile layer to
stabilize earth slope is much better than that when using a row of soil nail.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article présente les résultats des essais sur modèle en laboratoire pour le comportement d'une semelle filante en charge sur
une rangée de clous de sol et unique couche de géotextile-pente de sable stabilisé. Une comparaison entre les améliorations de
capacité portante dans les deux cas a été faite à l'étude la plus efficace d'entre eux. Les divers paramètres dans l'étude
comprennent la profondeur de la couche de renfort, la distance au bord de la semelle, l'emplacement de la rangée de clous de sol
et l'emplacement de la semelle par rapport à la crête de la pente. Initialement, la capacité portante de cas de non-stabilisée ont été
déterminés et comparés à ceux de pistes stabilisées. Les résultats ont ensuite été analysées pour étudier l'effet de chaque
paramètre. Les résultats indiquent que la stabilisation des talus de terre à l'aide d'une rangée de clous de sol ou simple couche de
géotextile a un effet significatif dans l'amélioration de la capacité portante de la semelle filante. Cette amélioration augmente la
capacité portante du sol lorsque l'espacement des clous diminue. Toutefois, l'amélioration globale de l'utilisation de la seule
couche de géotextile afin de stabiliser la pente de terre est ben meilleure que celle lors de l'utilisation d'une rangée de clous de
sol.

Keywords: strip footing, geotextile, soil nailing, and bearing capacity ratio.

1. INTRODUCTION different ways such as: modifying the slope

The subject of stabilizing earth slopes has
become one of the most interesting areas for
scientific research and attracted a great deal of
attention. Slope stability can be increased in
surface geometry, using soil reinforcement, or
installing continuous or discrete retaining
structures such as walls or piles. There have
been numerous studies on the use of slope
reinforcement to improve load bearing capacity
698 E.A.O. Belqasem Altalhe / Strip Footing Behavior on Geotextile Reinforced
of footing on the slope (e.g. Selvadurai et al.,
1989; Sawicki et al. , 1991; Dash et al., 2003;
Boushehrian and Hataf, 2003; El Sawwaf.,
2005; Alamshahi et al., 2009; Lee and
Manjunath., 2000; Abdrabbo et al., 2008, and
Yoo C.,2001). These investigations have
demonstrated that not only the slope stability
can be increased but also both the ultimate
bearing capacity and the settlement
characteristics of the foundation can be
significantly improved by the inclusion of
reinforcement layers of geogrids, strips or
geotextile in the earth slope.
Moghaddas Tafreshi and Khalaj,
(2008) performed an experimental study to
investigate the beneficial effect of geogrid on
the deformation of small diameter pipes and on
the settlement of the soil surface when subjected
to repeated loads that simulated vehicle loading.
They reported that the precentage of vertical
diameter change and settlement of soil surface
can be reduced significantly by using geogrid
reinforcement.
El Sawwaf (2007) investigated the
behaviour of strip footings on geogrid reinforced
sand over a soft clay slope. Test results indicated
that the inclusion of geogrid layers in the
replaced sand not only significantly improves
the footing performance but also leads to a great
reduction in the thickness of the reinforced sand
layer that is required to achieve the allowable
settlement.
The main purpose of this investigation
was to compare between the bearing capacity
improvement in the two cases and to evaluate
the effect of bearing capacity with different
footing location. In this study, 45 laboratory
model tests were carried out to investigate the
bearing capacity of a rigid strip footing placed
on top of an air-dried sand slope with and
without layers of geotextile and soil nails.
2. LABORATORY MODEL TESTS
2.1 Model box
The main elements of the laboratory apparatus
were a tank, a horizontal steel beam over the
tank, and a sand raining box. The test box
having internal dimensions of 2.00 x 0.60m in
plan and 0.60m in depth is made from steel with
the front wall made of 20mm thick glass and is
supported directly on two steel columns. These
columns were firmly fixed in two horizontal
steel beams, which were firmly clamped in the
laboratory ground using four pins. The glass side
allows the sample to be seen during preparation
and sand particle deformations to be observed
during testing. The tank box was built
sufficiently rigid to maintain plane strain
conditions by minimizing the out of plane
displacement (Omar 2006).
2.2 Model footing
A model strip footing made of steel with a hole
at its top center to accommodate a ball bearing
was used. The footing was 580mm in length,
50mm in width and 20mm in thickness. The
footing was positioned on the sand bed with the
length of the footing running the full width of
the tank. The length of the footing was made
almost equal to the width of the tank in order to
maintain plane strain conditions. The two ends
of the footing plate were polished smooth to
minimize the end friction effects. A rough base
condition was achieved by fixing a thin layer of
sand onto the base of the model footing with
epoxy glue. The load was transferred to the
footing through a bearing ball. Such an
arrangement produced a hinge, which allowed
the footing to rotate freely as it approached
failure and eliminated any potential moment
transfer from the loading fixture.
2.3 Materials tested
2.3.1 Geotextile
The geotextile used in this study is shown in Fig.
1. A non-woven-geotextile reinforcing material
was used with a thickness of 3.5mm under
2kN/m² and its grab elongation >100%. Typical
physical and technical properties of the
geotextiles were obtained from the
manufacturer’s data sheet of Makarm Tex,
Egypt, Cairo and are given in Table 1.
 E.A.O. Belqasem Altalhe / Strip Footing Behavior on Geotextile Reinforced 699

Fig. 1. Non woven geotextile used in this study

Table 1. Engineering properties of geotextile

Fig. 2. Grain size distribution of sand
Parameter Value / type
Structure Non-woven
Table 2. Characteristics of the sand
Thickness(mm) 3.5
Parameter Value
Weight (g/m²) 350
Uniformity coefficient (Cu) 4.55
Grab tensile strength (M.D) (N) 930
Grab tensile strength (C.D) (N) 1500 Effective diameter (mm) 0.14
Permeability (cm/s) 0.25 Maximum dry unit weight (kN/m3) 18.74
Transmissivity (L/M/H) 200 Minimum dry unit weight (kN/m3 ) 16.7
Specific gravity (Gs) 2.64
2.3.2 Sand Residual effective angle of internal 38˚
friction (I’)
The sand used was a medium coarse sand of
minimum dry unit weight of 16.7 kN/m³ and
2.3.3 The test setup and programs
maximum dry unit weight of 18.74 kN/m³,
uniformity coefficient 4.55, and effective Model sand slopes were constructed 600 mm in
diameter 0.14 mm. The specific gravity of sand height and 2000 mm in length with gradient of
particles is 2.64. The optimum moisture content the slope face (2H : 1V) constant, by pouring
was determined using standard Proctor test and and compacting of 50 mm of air-dried sand
was found to be 10%. The sieve analysis of the layers to cover the entire area of the test tank.
sand is shown in Fig. 2. Different relative Then many model tests in different test
densities of the sand were used by forming programs were carried out. The varied
designed weight of sand into a certain volume of conditions include the edge distance of footing
the soil bin by compaction. The properties of (X), relative density of the soil (Dr%), and depth
this soil are given in Table 2 to top most layer of geotextile (d). The symbols
used in this study are illustrated in Fig. 3.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The term bearing capacity ratio (BCR) is used

and described as BCR = qr/qo, where qr and qo
are the ultimate bearing capacities of the footing
on reinforced and unreinforced sand slopes,
respectively with the same relative density.
700 E.A.O. Belqasem Altalhe / Strip Footing Behavior on Geotextile Reinforced
X into a deeper zone. This load – transfer
B mechanism seems to reach the optimum when
d embedment, the contribution to the load –
L
sand
Fig. 3. Geometric parameters of reinforced sand slope
3.1 Effect of embedment ratio on the (BCR)
A series of tests were performed for various
reinforcement embedment depth to footing
width ratios (d/B) of 0.3, 0.5, 1, and 2 by
keeping the edge distance of the footing (X/B)
of 0, 1, 2 and gradient of the slope face (2H: 1V)
constant. The tests were carried out with one
type of reinforcement, the nonwoven geotextile.
From the results of Figs . (4a-4b), it is obvious
that the inclusion of geosynthetic reinforcement
would improve the performance of the footing
by increasing the bearing capacity and reducing
the settlement of the system. There is an
optimum embedment depth to footing width
ratio d/B. The optimum depth d/B depends upon
the edge distance X/B, in a way that d/B
increases as X/B increased. The optimum depth
d/B is 0.5 in case of X/B=1 and 1.0 in case of
X/B=2, The efficiency of the reinforcement on
the bearing capacity and peak settlement seems
to reduce significantly. And the performance of
reinforced slope becomes rather minimal, as
reflected by both BCR and SRF approaching
unity. These results are highly consistent with
the model test obtained by Selvadurai and
Gnanendran (1989). The behaviour described in
the previous paragraph can be explained by the
"deep footing effect" as suggested by Huang et
al. (1994).Apart of the reinforced zone where
relatively large reinforcement force has
developed behaves like apart of the rigid footing
and transfers a major part of the footing load
the reinforcement embedment depth to footing
width ratio d/B is about 0.5 in case of X/B=1
and 1.0 in case of X/B=2. At larger depths of
transfer mechanism caused by the presence of
the reinforcement reduces significantly. For
embedment depth to footing width ratios d/BS1
.This explanation seems to be consistent with the
experimental results of Selvadurai and
Gnanendran (1989) and Huang et al.
3.2 Effect of the edge distance of the footing
on the (BCRI
The second series of tests was performed for
three different edge distances of footing on both
reinforced and unreinforced slope (2H: 1V),
corresponding to X/B= 0.0, 1.0, and 2.0 The
reinforcement embedment depth to footing
width ratio was kept constant at the optimum
value of d/B=0.5 in case of X/B=1 and 1.0 in
case of X/B=2, as determined from the earlier
series of tests. The results clearly indicate that,
for both reinforced and unreinforced slopes, the
ultimate bearing capacity increases with
increasing edge distance. At an edge distance of
2B, the ultimate bearing capacity of a footing on
sloping ground approaches that of a footing on a
level surface in both reinforced and unreinforced
cases. The effect of slope is minimized when the
footing is placed at an edge distance beyond two
times the width of the footing. Furthermore, Fig.
5 shows that at any given edge distance the
ultimate bearing capacity of a footing on a
reinforced slope is considerably higher than that
of a footing on unreinforced slope, thus
reflecting the beneficial effect of reinforcement
in improving the bearing capacity of the footing
on a slope. The achieved results of bearing
capacity of strip footing on unreinforced sandy
slope indicated that, the bearing capacity
increased as (X/B) increases.
 E.A.O. Belqasem Altalhe / Strip Footing Behavior on Geotextile Reinforced 701

nail row is placed nearer to the slope crest the

2.5 response of the footing is getting much better in
terms of bearing capacity than any where else.
2
The same trend is confirmed by the different
1.5 series carried out using different edge distance
of the footing. Any other position far from that
BCR

1 location may increase the overall stability of the

0.5 slope but can't prevent or decrease the lateral
deformations of soil particles under the footing
0 and near to the slope.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
d/B
Table. 4. Testing program for soil nails
X/B=0 X/B=1 Group 0 /B X/B
X/B=2 G-1 1 0.0
Fig. 4a. Variation of BCR with d/B for Dr=70% 1.5 0.0
2.0 0.0
G-2 1 1.0
0 0.5 1
d/B
1.5 2 2.5
1.5 1.0
0 2.0 1.0
-0.02
G-3 1 2.0
1.5 2.0
-0.04
2.0 2.0
-0.06
-0.08 3.4 Effect of edge distance of the footing
(S/B)

-0.1 Three series of tests were performed on sand

-0.12 slope stabilized with nails row placed at slope
-0.14 crest (0/B=1.0, 1.5, and 2.0) to find out the
effect of edge distance of the footing, Behaviour
X/B=0 X/B=1
for the three cases when the footing is
X/B=2
constructed at (X= 0, 1, and, 2). In Fig. 8. The
Fig. 4b. Variation of BCR with S/B for Dr=70% variations of BCR with normalized strip footing
of slope crest distance for different nails row
3.3 Effect of the location of nails row location location are plotted. The highter is the
improvement in bearing capacity for the footing
The P/a.B –S/B relationships of strip footing on placed at (X/B=0).
soil nailing were gathered and plotted as shown
in fig. 6. From this figure, it is obvious that there
is a great effect for the embedding row nailing
into sandy soil. To study the effect of location of
nails row on the behaviour of strip footing on
sand three different embedment ratios of 1.00,
1.50, and 2.00 were tested for three different
groups of edge distance of footing ratio (X/B)
equals 0.0, 1.0, and 2.0. for each group the
distance between the edge of the strip footing to
the edge of the crest as shown in table.4. Fig.7.
Shows the variations of BCR with normalized
nail row location 0/B. It can be seen that as the
702 E.A.O. Belqasem Altalhe / Strip Footing Behavior on Geotextile Reinforced
Fig. 5. (P/B.a) versus(X/B), Dr=60%
Fig .6. (P/.B) versus(S/B), (X/B) =2
4. CONCLUSIONS
From the executed laboratory tests, it has been
shown that the use of geotextiles is effective in
the improvement of bearing capacity of sand.
Some other conclusions can be detailed as
below:
1. The bearing capacity ratio (BCR) varied
from (1.06 – 3) depending on the depth ratio
(d/B).
2. The most effective depth ratio was found to
be (0.5) irrespective of the relative density
of sand or the edge distance ratio. It was
enhanced that the reinforcement on bearing
capacity is pronounced in soils with lower
relative density.
3. The nailing row increases the (BCR) from
1.05 to 2.40 according to the location of
nails row ratios (0/B) and edge distance of
the footing ratio (X/B).
4. The overall improvement when using single
geotextile layer to stabilize earth slope is
much better than that when using a row of
soil nails.
Fig . 7. Variations of BCR with normalized nails row
location (/B=10)
Fig. 8. Variations of BCR with normalized strip footing of
slope crest distance for different nails row location
REFERENCES
[1] S. Alamshahi and N. Hataf, Bearing capacity of strip
footings on sand slopes reinforced with geogrid and
grid-anchor, Geotextile and Geomembranes 27 (2009),
217-226.
[2] F . M. Abdrabbo, K. E. Gaaver, and E. A. omar,
Behavior of Strip Footings on Reinforced and
 E.A.O. Belqasem Altalhe / Strip Footing Behavior on Geotextile Reinforced 703

Unreinforced Sand Slope, GeoCongress, ASCE (2008), [10] C. Yoo, Laboratory investigation of bearing capacity
25-32. behaviour of strip footing on geogrid – reinforced sand
[3] A. Sawicki and D. Lesniewska , Stability of Fabric slope, Geotextiles and Geomembranes, 19 (2001), 279-
Reinforced Cohesive Soil Slopes, Geotextiles and 298.
Geomembranes, 10 (199), 125-146. [11] E. A. Omar., Behavior of strip footing on reinforced
[4] J.H. Boushehrian, and N. Hataf, Experimental and earth slope, M. Sc. Thesis, Alexandria University,
numerical investigation of the bearing capacity of Egypt, 2006.
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Geotextiles and Geomembranes, 21 (2003) (4), 241– mechanisms of reinforced sand slopes loaded with a
256. footing, Soils and Foundations 24 (1994) (2), 27-40.
[5] S. Dash, S. Sireesh, and T. Sitharam, Model studies on
circular footing supported on geocell reinforced sand [13] S.N. Moghaddas Tafreshi, O. Khalaj, Laboratory tests
underlain by soft clay, Geotextiles and Geomembranes, of small-diameter HDPEpipes buried in reinforced
21(2003)(4), 197–219. sand under repeated load, Geotextiles and
[6] M. El Sawwaf, Strip footing behavior on pile and sheet Geomembranes 26 (2008) (2), 145–163.
pilestabilized sand slope, Journal of geotechnology and
geoenvironmental engineering, 131 (6) (2005), 705-
715.
[7] M. El Sawwaf, Behavior of strip footing on geogrid-
reinforced sand over a soft clay slope ,Geotextile and
geomembranes , 25 (1) (2007), 50-60.
[8] K.M. Lee, and V.R. Manjunath, Experimental and
numerical studies of geosynthetic – reinforced sand
slopes loaded with a footing, Canadian Geotechnical
Journal, 37(2000), 828-842.
[9] A.P.S. Selvadurai, and C.T. Gnanendran, An
experimental study of a footing located on a sloped
fill:influence of a soil reinforcement layer, Canadian
Geotechnical Journal , 26 (1989), 467-473.
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 705
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-705

An investigation of a rock socketed pile with an

integral bearing plate founded over weak rock
Étude d'une pile avec une plaque encastrée dans une roche
molle
S. Arshi1 & K.J.L. Stone
University of Brighton, Brighton, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT
Current offshore technology is being transferred successfully to the renewable energy sector but there is clearly scope to develop
foundation systems which are more efficient, economic and satisfactory for the particular case of a wind turbine. One such ap-
proach is that foundation systems are developed which combine several foundation elements to create a ‘hybrid’ system. In this
way it may be possible to develop a foundation system which is more efficient for the combination of vertical and lateral loads
associated with wind turbines. In many of the proposed offshore European wind farms sites, it is often the case that the surficial
seabed deposits are underlain by a weak rock. This paper presents the results of a series of small scale single gravity tests to in-
vestigate the performance of a monopile and combined monopiled and bearing plate foundation where the pile is socketed into a
weak rock. In the model studies the weak rock layer is modelled by a weak sand and gypsum mix. The results of the study pro-
vide an insight into the effect of the various foundation elements (i.e. pile, plate and rock socket) and their contribution to the
overall performance of the foundation system.

RÉSUMÉ
La technologie actuelle utilisée en offshore est reutilisée avec succès dans le secteur de l’énergie renouvelable, cependant il est
possible de développer des systèmes de fondations plus efficaces, économiques et statisfaisants dans le cas des éoliennes. Une
approche du problème consiste à développer un système de fondation qui combine plusieurs éléments de fondation pour créer un
système hybride. De cette façon, il peut être possible de développer un système de fondation qui soit plus efficace pour des eo-
liennes qui subissent une charge laterale et verticale. La plupart des parcs éoliens Européens proposés se trouvent dans le cas ou
les dépôts des fonds marins reposent sur une roche molle. Cet article présent les résultats d'une série de tests à petite échelle et de
même gravité. Ce document a pour but d’étudier la performance d'une pile et le cas d’une pile combinée avec une plaque, où la
pile est encastrée dans une roche tendre. Dans cette étude, la roche molle est réalisée par le mélange de gypse et de sable faible.
Les résultats donnent un aperçu de l’effet des différents éléments de fondation et leur contribution à la performance globale du
système de fondation.

Keywords: Offshore turbine, weak rock, monopile, rock socket, laterally loads.

1 INTRODUCTION the oil and energy sector. In the hydrocarbon ex-

traction sector, exploration and development is
The design of offshore foundation systems is moving in to ever deeper water resulting in ever
constantly evolving. The target for this change is more challenging geotechnical conditions. Simi-
meeting the needs of on-going developments in larly, the development of sites for offshore wind-

1
Corresponding author
706 S. Arshi and K.J.L. Stone / An Investigation of a Rock Socketed Pile with an Integral Bearing Plate

farms is also extending into deeper water as the The effect of the pile cap or bearing plate is to
supply of shallow near shore sites is exhausted. provide a degree of rotational restraint at the pile
Similarly the capacity of wind turbine generators head, leading to an improvement in the lateral re-
is also increasing requiring significant develop- sistance of the pile. It has also been shown that
ment in foundation approaches to generate eco- the use of a relatively thick pile cap leads to an
nomic and practical solutions to the installation increase in the lateral resistance through the de-
of these deep water wind farms. velopment of passive soil wedges [7], in a simi-
The loadings associated with wind turbines lar way to the behaviour of skirted foundations
consist of relatively low vertical loadings but [8].
high lateral loads resulting in very large over- The lateral response of piles is well reported
turning moments. The preferred foundation sys- in the literature, and various methods of analysis
tem to date has been the monopile which has have been proposed by numerous researchers,
been successfully employed for the majority of [9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15]. The bearing ca-
the offshore wind farms installed to date. The pacity problem has also been investigated under
popularity of this type of foundation is due to its different loading conditions relevant to offshore
employability in a variety of different soil condi- foundations, see for example refs [16],[17].
tions.
In many of the proposed offshore wind farm
locations, it is often the case that the surficial
seabed deposits are underlain by rock, generally
weak rocks such as mudstones and chalk. Con-
sequently it becomes necessary to install the mo-
nopiles, generally by driving, to significant depth
into the rock to achieve adequate lateral stiffness
and moment resistance to carry the applied loads.
This paper presents the results of a series of
small scale single gravity tests to investigate the
performance of a rock socketed pile installed in a
weak rock and fitted with an integral bearing
plate, schematically shown in Figure 1. The ob-
jective is to investigate the effect of the bearing
plate on the lateral response of the monopile. It
is hoped that the results of the study will provide
some insights into the effect of the various foun-
dation elements (i.e. pile, plate and rock socket)
and their contribution to the overall performance Figure 1. Schematic arrangement of monopile-footing with
of the foundation system. rock socketed pile.
In the monopile plate foundation a circular
plate is rigidly attached to the monopile at the Pervious investigations carried out at one
mudline. The 2-D analogy of this system is that gravity in ‘sand box’ tests [18], [19], [20] has
of a retaining wall with a stabilising base [1]. shown that the lateral stiffness and ultimate ca-
Where the plate diameter is relatively small then pacity of the monopole is enhanced by the addi-
the system is similar to a single capped pile, for tion of the bearing plate. Centrifuge model tests
which methods have been developed for analys- have also indicated that for cohesionless soils the
ing the influence of the pile and pile cap under ultimate lateral capacity of a monopole is en-
axial loading [2], and the effect of the pile cap on hanced by the presence of a bearing plate [20].
the lateral performance of single piles has also However, centrifuge tests performed on clay
been investigated by others [3], [4], [5], [6]. samples did not indicate much improvement in
the lateral performance of the monopole due to
 S. Arshi and K.J.L. Stone / An Investigation of a Rock Socketed Pile with an Integral Bearing Plate
the presence of the bearing plate [21]. It should
be noted that these centrifuge tests are not di-
rectly comparable since the relative geometries
of the pile and bearing plates were significantly
different in both studies.
-a-
-b-
Figure 2. a) Photograph of model container showing socketed
piles cast into rock prior to pluviation of overlying sand layer
and b) schematic diagram of testing rig.
In the study reported here the influence of the
bearing plate on the monopile response is inves-
tigated for the case of a rock socketed monopile
with an overlying layer of cohesionless soil. This
ground model is felt to be of particular relevance
for offshore wind farm development since the
potential economical benefits of reducing the pile
penetration into the underlying rock layer are
significant.
707
2 EXPERIMENTAL PREOCEDURE
2.1 Materials and model preparation
All the model tests were conducted in a ‘sand
box’ of internal dimensions 363 mm x 244 mm x
203 mm deep. The stratigrahpical profile con-
sisted of a layer of cohesionless material overly-
ing a layer of weak rock. The cohesionless mate-
rial consisted of a fine grained (d50=0.25mm)
rounded to sub-rounded uniformly graded quartz
sand. The maximum and minimum void ratios
were 1.1 and 0.68 respectively, corresponding to
dry unit weights of 12.9 and 17.0 kN/m3. A crit-
ical state angle of friction of 32 degrees was de-
termined from direct shear tests.
The weak rock layer was modelled using a
sand and gypsum mix. The mix proportions of
70% sand and 30% gypsum by dry weight was
used. The wet mixture was poured into the mod-
el container and the piles installed to their em-
bedment depth in the still wet mix. Once the
gypsum mix had set the sand layer was placed by
dry pluviation to the desired height. The bearing
plate was then threaded along the pile and was
clamped to the pile once it was firmly resting on
the sand surface.
The model pile was fabricated from a 10 mm
diameter solid aluminium rod, the bearing plate
consisted of a 40 mm diameter 5 mm thick alu-
minium plate. The pile was threaded through the
bearing plate which in turn was clamped to the
pile. Thus the location of the bearing plate on
the pile shaft could be adjusted.
2.2 Test setup and procedure
The completed model was placed in a loading
frame and lateral loading to the pile was applied
via a wire and pulley arrangement connected to a
vertical actuator, refer to Figure 2b. Vertical
loads were applied by dead weights (10N) placed
on the bearing plate. For the pile only tests the
bearing plate supporting the dead weights was
raised clear of the soil surface. Two LVDT
transducers were located to record the lateral
displacement of the pile at two locations, one at
the line of action of the lateral load, 52mm above
708 S. Arshi and K.J.L. Stone / An Investigation of a Rock Socketed Pile with an Integral Bearing Plate

the soil surface, and the other at a higher loca- response of the foundation suggesting a yielding
tion. of the soft rock.
The model test program comprised of a total
of three pairs of tests. Each test pair consisted of
a single monopile and a monopiled-footing foun-
dation, and were performed in the same prepared
soil model. In order to assess the influence of
the rock socket, three socket depths were tested
corresponding to 0%, 5%, and 20% of the total
embedment length of the pile. Table 1 shows a
summary of the model tests performed.

Table 1. Summary of model tests

Foundation type Embedment depth (mm)

Monopile (P 0%) 0.0 mm (Sand only)

Monopile (P 5%) 7.5 mm (5% of pile length)
Monopile (P20%) 30 mm (20% of pile length)
Monopile-footing (H 0%) 0.0 mm (Sand only)
Monopile-footing (H 5%) 7.5 mm (5% of pile length)
Monopile-footing (H 20%) 30 mm (20% of pile length)

Figure 3. Moment capacity versus rotation at pile head for

monopiles and monopile-footings with 0%, 5% and 20% em-
3 TEST RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
bedment on soft rock

The results obtained from the tests are best pre-

sented through plots of the applied pile head
moment against the pile head rotation. Figure 3
summarises the response of both the monopiles
and the monopiled-footings for the different rock
socket depths of 0%, 5% and 20% respectively.
From this figure it is apparent that the ulti-
mate moment capacity of the monopile is en-
hanced by the presence of the bearing plate. For
the unsocketed monopile (0%) and the 5% sock-
eted pile ultimate capacity is approximately dou-
bled when the bearing plate is present; for the
20% socketed pile the ultimate capacity is only
marginally increased. It is however apparent that
for all cases the lateral stiffness of the monopile
is enhanced by the presence of the bearing plate.
This is particularly evident for the deep rock
socketed pile (20%) where a significant im-
provement in the initial lateral stiffness is ob-
served. It is also apparent that the form of the
monopiled-footing response for the deep rock
socket suggests that a passive failure of the soft
rock occurs. This is inferred by the plastic type
4 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
From the limited study reported here it is appar-
ent that the depth of the rock socket has an im-
portant influence on the behaviour of the founda-
tion systems.
Figure 6 shows a schematic representation of
the soil stresses developed by the rotating mono-
piled-footing foundation. It is apparent that the
response of the system is the result of a complex
ground-structure interaction problem. For the
basic one gravity tests conducted in this study the
piles were extremely stiff and excavation after
the tests indicated that rotation had occurred
about the pile toe. Clearly the point of rotation
of the piles would be influenced by the relative
pile/soil stiffness and further study is required to
investigate the performance of more flexible
piles.
 S. Arshi and K.J.L. Stone / An Investigation of a Rock Socketed Pile with an Integral Bearing Plate
Figure 4. Schematic representation of soil stresses on a rock
socketed monopile-footing foundation with rotation about the
pile toe.
The study presented here is very much a fea-
sibility study investigating the potential of en-
hancing the lateral performance of monopiles
through the use of a bearing plate. The study
has considered the case of a rock socketed mo-
nopile to supplement other studies carried out in
uniform soils, both cohesionless and cohesive.
The results are consistent with the previous stud-
ies undertaken in cohesionless soils, with similar
pile and plate geometries, and confirm that the
bearing plate appears to provide a method of en-
hancing the lateral capacity of monopile founda-
tions. It is also apparent that the use of a bearing
plate with a well socketed pile can considerably
improve the initial lateral stiffness of the mono-
pile.
Whilst the study reported here is limited, the
results are encouraging, and it is hoped that fu-
ture studies, including geotechnical centrifuge
modelling, will provide a clearer picture of the
complex response of rock socketed monopiled-
footings.
709
REFERENCES
[1] W. Powrie, and M.P. Daly, Centrifuge modeling of
embedded retaining wall with stabilizing bases, Geo-
technique, 57(6) (2007), 485-497.
[2] H.G. Poulos, and M.F. Randolph, Pile group analysis:
a study of two methods, ASCE Journal of Geotechni-
cal Engineering, 109(3) (1983), 355-372.
[3] J.B. Kim, L.P. Singh, and R.J. Brungraber, Pile cap
soil interaction from full scale lateral load tests, ASCE
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 105(5) (1979),
643-653.
[4] R.L. Mokwa, and J.M. Duncan, Experimental evalua-
tion of lateral-load resistance of pile caps, ASCE Jour-
nal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineer-
ing, 127(2) (2001), 185 - 192.
[5] R.L. Mokwa, and J.M. Duncan, Rotational restraint of
pile caps during lateral loading, ASCE Journal of Geo-
technical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 129(9)
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[6] D.K. Maharaj, Load-Deflection Response of Laterally
Loaded Single Pile by Nonlinear Finite Element Anal-
ysis, EJEG (2003).
[7] R.L. Mokwa, Investigation of the Resistance of Pile
Caps to Lateral Loading, Ph.D Thesis, Virginia Poly-
technic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia, 1999.
[8] M.F. Bransby, and M.F. Randolph, Combined loading
of skirted foundations. Géotechnique, 48(5) (1998),
637–655.
[9] H. Matlock, and L.C. Reese, Generalized solutions for
laterally loaded piles. ASCE Journal of Soil Mechanics
and Foundations Division, 86(SM5) (1960), 63-91.
[10] B.B. Broms, Lateral resistance of piles in cohesionless
soils, ASCE Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foun-
dation Division, 90(SM3) 1964, 123-156.
[11] H.G. Poulos, Behaviour of laterally loaded piles: Part
I-single piles, ASCE Journal of the Soil Mechanics
and Foundations Division, 97(SM5) (1971), 711-731.
[12] L.C. Reese, W.R. Cox, and F.D. Koop, Analysis of
laterally loaded piles in sand, Offshore Technology
Conference, Vol. II(Paper No. 2080) (1974), 473-484.
[13] M.F. Randolph, The response of flexible piles to lat-
eral loading, Géotechnique, 31(2) 91981), 247-259.
[14] J.M. Duncan, L.T. Evans, and P.S. Ooi, Lateral load
analysis of single piles and drilled shafts, ASCE Jour-
nal of Geotechnical Engineering, 120(6) (1994), 1018-
1033.
[15] L. Zhang, F. Silva, and R. Grismala, Ultimate Lateral
Resistance to Piles in Cohesionless Soils, Journal of
Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering,
Vol. 131(1) (2005), 78–83.
[16] G.T. Houlsby, and A.M. Puzrin, The bearing capacity
of a strip footing on clay under combined loading,
Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. A, 455 (1999), 893–916.
[17] S. Gourvenec, and M. Randolph, Effect of strength
non-homogeneity on the shape of failure envelopes for
combined loading of strip and circular foundations on
clay, Géotechnique, 53(6) (2003), 575–586
[18] K.J.L. Stone, T.A. Newson, and J. Sandon, An inves-
tigation of the performance of a ‘hybrid’ monopole-
footing foundation for offshore structures. Proc. 6th
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Int. Offshore Site Investigation Conf., 11-13th Ssept

2007, London, UK, 2007.
[19] K.J.L. Stone, T.A. Newson, and M. El Marassi, An in-
vestigation of a monopiled-footing foundation. Int.
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rich), Balkema, Rotterdam, 2010.
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 711
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-711

Comportement d’un matelas de répartition au-

dessus d’inclusions rigides et supportant, ou non,
une structure en béton : méthode analytique de cal-
cul
Behaviour of a spreading layer above rigid inclusions and
supporting, or not, a concrete structure : analytical method of
calcul
P. Berthelot1
Bureau Veritas, Paris, France
F. Durand
Fugro Géotechnique, Nanterre, France
M. Glandy
Soletanche-Bachy Pieux, Rungis, France

ABSTRACT
We are presenting an analytical method to calculate the resistance to punching of the spreading layers made of a subgrade, pos-
sibly strengthened by a compacted backfill and situated between the foundation and the rigid inclusion. This vertical element op-
erates to support a backfill or concrete structure.
The calculation method is based on a plan of failure in logarithmic spiral which is developed in the thickness of the spreading
layer and in taking care of the side effects.
A justification of the method with a “Finite Elements” calculation is presented.
For the exemple of concrete structure (like paving) we propose an analytical method for the calculation of induced bending mo-
ment in the structure under surface load.

RÉSUMÉ
On présente une méthode analytique de calcul de la résistance au poinçonnement d’un matelas de répartition constitué par une
couche de forme éventuellement renforcée par un remblai compacté et situé entre l’ouvrage à fonder et les inclusions rigides. Cet
élément vertical est mis en œuvre pour supporter soit un remblai soit une structure en béton.
La méthode de calcul est basée sur un schéma de rupture en spirale logarithmique se développant dans l’épaisseur du matelas de
répartition et en tenant compte des effets de bord.
Un calage de la méthode avec des calculs aux Eléments Finis est également présenté.
Pour le cas d’une structure en béton de type dallage, on propose également une méthode analytique de dimensionnement du
moment induit dans la structure sous un chargement réparti.

Mots-clés : Interaction Ouvrage - Organe de transfert - Tête d’inclusion - Interaction - Sol renforcé - Matelas intercalaire
Keywords : Interaction Work – Transfer Organ – Inclusion Head - Interaction – Reinforced Soil – Insert Layer

1
Corresponding Author.
712 P. Berthelot et al. / Comportement d’un matelas de répartition au-dessus d’inclusions rigides et supportant
1 INTRODUCTION
De plus en plus, il est nécessaire de réaliser des
ouvrages avec des surfaces chargées importantes :
semelles, dallage industriel, surface logistique, …
Dans un premier temps, les concepteurs sont ame-
nés à étudier les tassements de ces ouvrages sans
traitement particulier. Dans le cas où l’estimation
de ces tassements ne permet pas de retenir ce type
de solution, les concepteurs peuvent se diriger vers
des solutions de sols renforcés par inclusions rigi-
des.
La coupe schématique est la suivante sous une sé-
rie de charges qi
Figure 1. Coupe type
Pour le dimensionnement des inclusions rigides, il
importe d’intégrer la totalité du dimensionnement,
en particulier en tenant compte à la fois :
x des inclusions ;
x du matelas de répartition ;
x et de la structure en béton (ferraillage).
Dans cet exposé, nous nous intéresserons plus par-
ticulièrement au matelas de répartition sous se-
melle [1] et [3], ainsi qu’à la prise en compte des
moments induits par les inclusions sous dallage [2]
Figure 2. Schématisation du problème
Le schéma d’équilibre limite au sein du matelas de
répartition peut être assimilé à celui de Prandtl.
La mise en équation de ce modèle est développée
dans le chapitre 2, et son calage avec une modéli-
sation utilisant le logiciel Plaxis est développé
dans le chapitre 3.
Le dallage sur sol renforcé par inclusions est un
ouvrage complexe ; son dimensionnement en par-
tie courante requiert d’intégrer le caractère spécifi-
que de distribution non uniforme des réactions en
sous face de dallage, et donc de savoir évaluer les
moments d’appuis supplémentaires au droit de
l’inclusion, ainsi que les moments de travées addi-
tionnels entre inclusions.
Une méthode analytique du calcul de ces moments
est développée dans le chapitre 4, et son calage à
l’aide du logiciel Plaxis est développé dans le cha-
pitre 5.
2 MATELAS : MODELE ANALYTIQUE
On peut calculer la contrainte maximale mobilisa-
ble qp dans le matelas au niveau de la tête de
l’inclusion à partir des paramètres de rupture du
matériau du matelas (angle de frottement
et [4]. ) metcohésion c selon la surface de rupture dé-
On pourrait alors considérer que l’inclusion se veloppée dans le matelas suivant le schéma de la
comporte comme une fondation superficielle de spirale logarithmique.
diamètre B, exerçant une pression vers le haut.
 P. Berthelot et al. / Comportement d’un matelas de répartition au-dessus d’inclusions rigides et supportant 713

2.1 Description de la spirale logarithmique
Soit le cas d’un chargement correspondant à une
contrainte moyenne q. On considère en première
approche que la tête de l’inclusion est susceptible
de reprendre une contrainte q1 et que la contrainte
résiduelle entre les inclusions est égale à q2.
Le schéma de gauche de la figure 3 représente une
répartition de contrainte en sous face de la struc-
ture en béton et le schéma de droite représente la
répartition simplifiée des contraintes q1 et q2 en
sous face du matelas.
x une zone I de poussée avec H= S/4 + )/2
x une zone II délimitée par une spirale loga-
rithmique d’équation r = ro eStan(I) avec Tqui
varie entre 0 et 90°
x une zone III de butée selon Rankine avec
P= S/4 - )/2
La figure 5 représente plusieurs surfaces de rupture
avec un angle ) variant entre 0° et 45°.

Figure 5. Différentes spirales logarithmiques

2.2 Formule analytique

Figure 3. Distribution des contraintes
En négligeant le terme NJ, les équilibres des con-
Il convient de vérifier l’équilibre des contraintes
traintes à la rupture conduisent à écrire :
entre q1 et q2.
x q1  qp (1)
En effet, la contrainte q2 permet de confiner la
couche de forme et d’assurer la transmission de la x  !" ##"# (2)
contrainte q1 en tête d’inclusion. où sq et sc sont des coefficients de forme qui peu-
La rupture du matelas peut s’opérer selon une sur- vent être pris égaux à 1 pour sq et 1.2 pour sc
face équivalente à celle développée par une se- avec également :
melle « inversée» [1], [2], [3] et [4].
S I
x N q tan 2 (  ).e S tan( I) (3)
4 2
x Nc (N q  1)/ tan (I)  (4)

Pour que la rupture se développe dans le domaine

situé immédiatement au-dessus de l’inclusion, il
est nécessaire que la zone plastifiée se développe
dans le matelas et que celui-ci ait au moins une
épaisseur minimale emin telle que :
S I
cos (I )
emin/B .e ( 4  2 ). tan(I ) (5)
Figure 4. Spirale logarithmique ª I
2.cos(  )
4 2
La forme de la surface de rupture est représentée La valeur de emin est obtenue pour l’angle T =I.
sur la figure 4 avec 3 zones :
714 P. Berthelot et al. / Comportement d’un matelas de répartition au-dessus d’inclusions rigides et supportant

l’intersection des droites représentées selon le gra-

phique de la figure 8 : le foyer F correspond au
point A/(A-Ac) § 1.

Figure 6. emin/B en fonction de I

Pour permettre à la spirale logarithmique de se dé-
velopper complètement dans le matelas, il est né-
cessaire de mettre en œuvre un débord minimal
d’une longueur Lmin dont l’expression correspond à Figure 8. Equilibres entre q1 et q2
la longueur de la zone III de la surface de rupture
(figure 4),
Il existe le plus souvent des problèmes de débords
de matelas et du système de fondations. Plusieurs
S I
L min / B tan(  )e S / 2 tan(I)     
 cas peuvent se présenter :
4 2 x fondation sans débord (d1 = 0), fondation
avec un débord (d1 > 0).
x matelas sans débord (L = 0), matelas avec
un débord (L > 0).

Figure 7. Lmin/B en fonction de I

Pour un maillage régulier ayant une surface élé-

mentaire A = d.d (figure 1) et pour une inclusion
de surface Ac, l’équilibre global des charges peut
s’écrire de la façon suivante :
q1 Ac q2 ( A  Ac)
 1
q A q A valeur admissible de calcul du sol sans ren-
Les conditions de portance du matelas et de
l’équation d’équilibre (7) conduisent à rechercher
Figure 9. Bords de fondation
La contrainte q2 doit satisfaire à plusieurs critères :
x critère de limitation de portance :
o quand d1 > 0, q2 doit être inférieure à une
(7)
forcement,
o quand d1 = 0, q2 est limitée à la contrainte
apportée par le poids des terres (q2  6Jh).
 P. Berthelot et al. / Comportement d’un matelas de répartition au-dessus d’inclusions rigides et supportant
x critère de limitation des tassements sous la se-
melle imposé par l’ouvrage.
Pour le matelas, nous avons considéré les 3 zones
et nous avons repris les équations de Prandtl de la
façon suivante, avec L = d1+d2 :
x si L S Lmin, on peut utiliser directement Nq dé-
duit de l’équation (3) avec ) = )m ;
x si 0,5 Lmin  L < Lmin, la zone de butée de
Rankine (figure 4) de la zone III s’opère dans
le terrain naturel caractérisé par )t, la zone de
poussée (I) et le « saut de Prandtl (figure 10) »
(II) s’opèrent dans le matelas caractérisé par
)m :
ª I ª I
"$ tan(  t ).tan(  m ).e ªtan(Im)  (8)
4 2 4 2
x si L = 0, la zone de poussée I s’opère dans le
matelas et les zones II et III s’opèrent dans le
terrain naturel :
ª It ª I
Nq2= tan(  ).tan(  m ).e ªtan(It)
4 2 4 2
x et pour 0 < L < 0,5 Lmin, on peut établir une in-
terpolation linéaire entre Nq1 et Nq2
Figure 10. Saut de Prandtl
Au niveau de la figure 11, on peut rappeler les
équilibres de part et d’autre de la spirale logarith-
mique avec VA dans la zone I de poussée et VB
dans la zone III en butée selon Rankine. Le « saut
de Prandtl » conduit à l’équation suivante :
VA = VB eS tan()i)
715
Dans la zone I en poussée, nous avons par ail-
leurs :
ª I
VB= q2. tan(  i ) VB contrainte majeure) (11)
4 2
ª I
q1 = VA . tan(  i ) VA contrainte mineure) (12)
4 2
(avec i = m pour le matelas et i = t pour le terrain
en place).
Figure 11. Equilibre des contraintes
3 CALCULS DU MATELAS AUX ELEMENTS
FINIS
(9)  Pour vérifier ces approches analytiques, nous
avons réalisé plusieurs calculs mettant en œuvre la
méthode aux éléments finis 2D axisymétriques en
faisant varier )m, la cohésion c ainsi que la
longueur L et en imposant q2. Nous avons comparé
ensuite les valeurs obtenues par les calculs Plaxis
q1(P) avec celles obtenues par les formulations
analytiques q1(A). On peut constater que cette
approche est correcte et légèrement conservative
puisque le rapport q1(P)/ q1(A) est légèrement
supérieur à 1.
(10)
Figure 12. Comparaison des résultats de calculs Plaxis avec
ceux obtenus avec la méthode analytique pour )t = 20°
716 P. Berthelot et al. / Comportement d’un matelas de répartition au-dessus d’inclusions rigides et supportant
4 MOMENT DANS LE DALLAGE : MODELE
ANALYTIQUE
Sous chargement réparti q, une partie de la charge
« Q » est transmise en tête d’inclusion (Q < q A).
Cette concentration de charge induit des moments
dans le dallage qui dépendent de l’épaisseur du
matelas « e », de l’angle de diffusion D des con-
traintes dans ce matelas, du diamètre %de la tête
d’inclusion et du maillage d.
Pour calculer le moment induit par cette charge
concentrée Q, on peut modéliser le comportement
du dallage comme celui d’une plaque circulaire de
diamètre %1, encastrée sur les bords, avec une
charge répartie égale à Q, s’appuyant sur une sur-
face circulaire centrée de diamètre %2, avec les
équations suivantes développées par Timoshenko
[5] (Mr = moment radial) :
4.1 Dans l’axe de l’inclusion
M r (1 /) Q[(1 B2 2 /B12  41n(B1/B2)]/(16S) (13)
4.2 En périphérie de maillage
M r Q[(1 B2 2 / B12 ] /(8S) (14)
%1 = d (4/S)0,5 (15)
%2 =%+ 2 tg(D) e (16)
Q coefficient de Poisson du dallage.
5 CALCULS DU DALLAGE AUX ELEMENTS
FINIS
Les résultats des calculs menés à l’aide du logiciel
Plaxis mettent en exergue la diffusion des
contraintes. Pour un angle de frottement ) m de
40°, les moments calculés par ce logiciel sont les
mêmes que ceux du modèle analytique avec une
diffusion D = 30°.
Nous proposons donc de retenir dans les calculs
analytiques cette valeur d’angle de diffusion de
30°.
Les moments de calculs étant proportionnels à Q,
ils sont donc très sensibles au calcul de Q lequel
est fonction des raideurs du sol et de l’inclusion.
Cette dernière raideur dépend beaucoup des carac-
téristiques du matelas. Meilleures sont ces caracté-
ristiques, plus grande est la diminution du
tassement mais plus fort est le moment induit dans
le dallage. Il faut donc travailler en fourchette sur
ces caractéristiques.
Ces moments se cumulent avec ceux induits par
des chargements dissymétriques ou des charge-
ments ponctuels.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Sous un ouvrage sur inclusions rigides, nous avons
voulu montrer le rôle important joué par le matelas
de répartition en fonction de ses propres caractéris-
tiques mais surtout en fonction de toutes ses di-
mensions.
Nous avons mis en évidence la part importante
prise par la présence ou l’absence de débord du
matelas granulaire surtout dans le cas de semelles
(ouvrages rigides de dimensions finies).
L’obtention de caractéristiques en rupture élevées
(figures 5 et 12) impose une bonne mise en œuvre
de ce matériau granulaire, très délicate sous ce
type d’ouvrages.
Enfin, nous avons proposé une méthode analytique
abordable facilement afin d’estimer dans un dal-
lage la part de moment induit par la présence
d’éléments rigides verticaux.
7 REFERENCES
[1] Berthelot P, Glandy M, Frossard A : Paramètres de cal-
culs et critères de réception de la couche de répartition se
situant au-dessus de l'élément rigide vertical d’une inclu-
sion rigide. (ISSMGE Mexico 2006.) Rigid inclusions in
difficult soft soil conditions).
[2] Berthelot P, Durand F, Glandy M, Frossard A : Dallage et
modules de déformation des couches de sol ; applications
aux renforcements des sols par inclusions, et analyse du
comportement du matelas de répartition. (XIV ECSMGE
2007. Madrid, Spain).
[3] Frossard A, Glandy M : Justification d’une fondation su-
perficielle sur un sol renforcé d’inclusions – Annales
ITBTP – février 2002.
[4] Gilbert Ch. : Programme de calcul GATEM 2000 – RFG
n°72 – 1995.
[5] Timoshenko S : Résistance des matériaux (Ed. Beranger
1947)
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 717
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-717

Foundation of the arch bridge in the landslide area

of Tsakona, Greece
Fondation du pont en arc dans la zone de glissement de terrain
de Tsakona, en Grèce
I. F. Fikiris 1, L. Sotiropoulos
Edafos Engineering Consultants S.A., Athens, Greece
G. T. Dounias
Edafos Engineering Consultants S.A., Athens, Greece & Imperial College, London

ABSTRACT
The Tsakona bridge is a two-span (90m and 300m) steel arch structure, which will be part of the National highway connecting
Tripolis and Kalamata, in southern Greece. It is planned to pass over and therefore avoid a large landslide, which in 2003 dis-
rupted completely the traffic in the highway. The paper briefly describes the geological and hydro-geological conditions of the
area, as well as the triggering instability mechanism of the landslide. Design criteria for the adoption of such a unique bridging
solution are reviewed and the approach followed for the foundation design of the bridge, covering both the selection of appropri-
ate locations and suitable types, is presented. Design and construction processes are described with particular reference on the
foundation of the middle pier, which consists of a system of four caissons connected with a large and very thick raft. The de-
tailed geological-mapping that was carried out during construction is also presented which verified fundamental design assump-
tions regarding ground conditions and geotechnical parameters.

RÉSUMÉ
Le pont de Tsakona est un pont en arc en acier qui comprend deux travées (90m et 300m) et fera partie de l’Autoroute Nationale
reliant Tripoli et Kalamata, au sud de la Grèce. Le pont est prévu de passer au-dessus et ainsi évitez un glissement important de
la région, qui a perturbé complètement le trafic sur l'autoroute en 2003. L’article décrit brièvement les conditions géologiques et
hydrogéologiques de la région, ainsi que le mécanisme qui a déclenché l'instabilité du glissement de terrain. Les critères de con-
ception, pour l'adoption d'une telle solution unique de traverser, sont passés en revue et l'approche suivie pour la conception de la
fondation du pont est présentée, couvrant à la fois la sélection des emplacements et des types appropriés. Les processus de con-
ception et construction sont décrits avec particulière référence a la fondation de la pile intermédiaire, qui se compose d'un sys-
tème de quatre caissons liés à un radeau grand et très épais. La cartographie géologique détaillée qui a été réalisée lors de la
construction est également présentée. Cette cartographie a vérifié les hypothèses fondamentales de conception en ce qui con-
cerne les conditions du sol et les paramètres géotechniques.

Keywords: Bridge foundation, landslide, caisson, numerical modeling, geological mapping, design verification.

1 INTRODUCTION landslide involved the mobilization of about

The Tsakona landslide took place at the begin-
ning of 2003, disrupting completely a 250m long
section of the Tripolis - Kalamata national high-
way, in the southern Peloponnese (Fig. 1). The
6.000.000m3 of both flysch colluvium and man-
made deposits. The maximum horizontal dis-
placement was on the order of 100m.
Early signs of instability in the area were ob-
served just few months pass the completion of

1
Corresponding Author
718 I.F. Fikiris et al. / Foundation of the arch bridge in the landslide area of Tsakona, Greece
Displaced location of pavement,
approximately 100m downslope.
Figure 1. View of disrupted highway section due to landslide.
the pavement structure in 2000. Geotechnical in-
vestigations in 2001 revealed that the highway
crosses a zone of an ancient landslide, whereas
supplementary ground investigations and geo-
logical mapping carried out after reactivation de-
fined precisely the landslide limits and its depth.
The paper briefly describes the geological and
hydro-geological conditions of the area, as well
as the triggering mechanisms. A detailed review
of the landslide can be found in [1] and [2]. Spe-
cific focus is made on the design and construc-
tion of the foundations of a 300m span bridge,
which was selected as the most economical and
technically feasible solution in order to avoid the
zone of the landslide.
2 GEOLOGY – LANDSLIDE MECHANISM
Geologically the wider area belongs to the
Pindos geotectonical zone. At the landslide area
the chert series of lower cretaceous age domi-
nates. It consists mainly of radiolarites in alterna-
tions with siltstones, sandstones and red marls.
The dominating direction of the geological strata
is N – NNE. The thickness of the series is esti-
mated to be about 40-50m. The crown of the
landslide coincided with an outcrop of an upper
cretaceous limestone, while the toe appeared at a
river gorge, some 1200m downslope. The contact
between the overlaying upslope limestone with
the chert series is tectonic (upthrust) and played a
significant role in the activation of the landslide
phenomenon.
The entire area is covered by talus scree and
man-made deposits of various thicknesses. The
geological structure is complex and is dominated
by numerous tectonic structures such as folds,
imprications and thrust with their main axis di-
rection to NW-SE and NE-SW.
A combination of factors including site mor-
phology, geology, human intervention and
groundwater played an important role in the
landslide reactivation.
The unstable area corresponds to a small basin
in which successive accumulations of debris and
material from past failures took place progres-
sively with time. The accumulation of such mate-
rial was a result of the presence of very weak
flysch and chert formations.
The groundwater regime, during the very wet
winter of 2003 highly influenced the triggering
of the instability. A significant geological feature
of the area is the presence of the highly perme-
able limestone, which is a continuous water sup-
ply source to the problematic zone since it rests
on an aquifuge chert series formation.
Finally, construction activities including
large-scale earthworks for the construction of the
new highway alignment were an adversely influ-
ential factor to the already marginal stability of
the slope.
The landslide of 2003 was very extensive with
a length of 1200m, average width of 300m and
maximum depth, as recorded by inclinometers on
the order of 23m. A geological longitudinal sec-
tion along the axis of the landslide is presented in
Fig. 2.
Figure 2. Geological section along landslide axis.
 I.F. Fikiris et al. / Foundation of the arch bridge in the landslide area of Tsakona, Greece
3 DESIGN CRITERIA – SOLUTION
Various stabilization measures were examined, at
the early design stages including solutions with
earthworks (i.e. excavations and toe weighting),
deep drainage, local stabilisation with pile walls
or barrettes, generic landslide stabilisation with
pile grids etc. Due to the volume and extend of
the unstable mass the implementation of an ac-
ceptable safety factor was deemed impractical
[3]. Moreover, the associated uncertainties dur-
ing the lifetime of the project by adopting a sta-
bilization solution could not be minimized. A di-
version solution by means of a tunnel could have
been a technical solution but the cost was much
higher in comparison to a large bridge, which al-
so has the advantage that it preserves the existing
alignment.
Hence, the solution of a bridge was adopted,
which avoids the landslide by passing over it and
ensuring that a safe free space is maintained be-
tween bridge deck and the excavated ground sur-
face against possible future reactivations (Fig. 3).
A particular feature of the bridge is its large
span, 300m long, which will be the second long-
est ever built in Greece. Due to the size of the
span a steel arch was designed, the shape of
which introduces also a permanent load compo-
nent perpendicular to the direction of the land-
slide movement, creating favourable stability
conditions.
A main concern for the feasibility of the
bridging solution was the accountability for safe
Figure 3. Plan view and longitudinal geological section of the
arch bridge
719
Figure 4. Typical cross-section of open-air excavations with
permanent support measures around central pier M1.
and stable locations for the construction of the
foundations. The detailed geotechnical and geo-
logical investigations carried out indicated that
the landslide limits along the alignment of the
highway could be appropriate locations for
abutments construction. The foundation of the
central pier M1, however, required large-scale
earthworks for the local removal of all land-
slipped soil masses, in order to reach an appro-
priate elevation where stable bedrock exists.
Such restriction required extended slope terrac-
ing for the provision of safe long-term conditions
around the foundation (Fig. 4). For the deeper
vertical excavated parts anchored pile retaining
walls were used.
4 ARRANGEMENT OF FOUNDATIONS
4.1 Northern abutment (A0)
A typical geometrical arrangement was designed
for abutment A0, which was founded on a group
(3x6) of piles Ø120, 15m deep each (Fig. 5). All
piles were connected with a 2.0m-thick pile cap
(9x21.5m in plan view) and were drilled within
mainly the siltstone phase of flysch, classified as
Figure 5. Typical cross-section of abutment A0.
720 I.F. Fikiris et al. / Foundation of the arch bridge in the landslide area of Tsakona, Greece

F to E according to the categorization of [4].

Representative geotechnical parameters of
Hoek – Brown failure criterion are GSI=20-25,
c=2 - 3.5MPa and mi=8 following proportional
corrections, according to the encountered litholo-
gical appearances [5]. The equivalent Mohr –
Coulomb strength parameters are ’=25-27,
c’=40-45kPa. The deformation modulus for the
rockmass is on the order of E=300-350MPa.

4.2 Central pier (M1)

The foundation of central pier (M1) is the largest
ever constructed inland in Greece. It consists of a
group of four caissons (shafts) having 6.0m di-
ameter and a depth of 15m each (Fig. 6, 7). They
are connected with a 5.0m thick rectangular
23.0x31.0m reinforced concrete raft. The silt-
stone phase of flysch dominates in the bedrock at
the foundation area with similar geotechnical
properties as of abutment A0.
The depth of in-situ and stable bedrock at the
down-slope edge of the raft determined the final Figure 7. Typical cross-sections of caisson – Temporary sup-
excavation level. It was reached following the port measures.
construction of perimetric pile walls. Extensive
porary support measures included shotcrete, steel
application of pre-stressed anchors and long
sets (HEB180) and drainage holes (Fig 7). Prior
drainage holes was required within an adverse
to their excavation two reinforced cast-in-place
geotechnical environment, where increased water
concrete base slabs (9.0x23.0m, d=0.6m) were
inflows were encountered. The rectangular in
constructed connecting a pair of shafts each, for
shape raft foundation level was also used as a
the enhancement of the stability of pile walls due
construction platform for the excavation of the
to their proximity with shaft locations. Following
caissons. Four deep shafts were constructed us-
each excavation completion, all shafts were filled
ing a staged diagonal excavation process. Tem-
with reinforced concrete and connected monoli-
thically with a base raft creating a rigid founda-
tion for the safe transfer of the very high loads of
the superstructure to the ground. Foundation
construction required approx. 5500m3 of con-
crete.

4.3 Southern abutment (A1)

A shallow stepped foundation was designed for
abutment A1 due to the favourable geological
conditions that were locally encountered (Fig. 8).
The foundation itself, which was comparable in
size to a 500m2 building, was 28.4m in length
and 17.0m wide. Along the longitudinal axis of
the bridge the footing is founded on two levels
Figure 6. Plan view arrangement of central pier foundation.
 I.F. Fikiris et al. / Foundation of the arch bridge in the landslide area of Tsakona, Greece
Figure 8. Typical cross-section of abutment A1.
having a vertical distance of 4.0m. The height of
the foundation, which consists of thick walls and
slabs / plates creating a very rigid reinforced
concrete box, was approximately 15m.
At the area of the abutment the sandstone se-
ries of flysch dominates (i.e. medium to thick
bedded sandstones with thin siltstone intercala-
tions), classified as B to C [4]. The representative
geotechnical parameters of Hoek – Brown failure
criterion are GSI=35-40, c=30MPa and mi=12
taking into account the corrections due to the
proportion of each lithological appearance [5].
The equivalent Mohr – Coulomb strength para-
meters for the rockmass are ’=45 and
c’=140kPa, whereas reduced strength parameters
are assumed (’=30, c’=30kPa) along main dis-
continuity sets. The deformation modulus of the
rockmass is estimated on the order of E=2.3GPa.
5 FOUNDATION DESIGN
Fundamental geotechnical principles and widely
accepted methodologies were used for the calcu-
lation of the foundation adequacy of both abut-
ments. Hence, for the pile group foundation of
abutment A0 as well as for the shallow stepped
foundation of abutment A1, DIN1054 specifica-
tions as well as other recognized methodologies
were applied for bearing capacity and settlement
estimation [6], [7], [8], [9], [10].
A particular challenge during design was the
selection of the final geometry and the verifica-
tion of foundation adequacy for the central pier,
since very large loads are expected to be applied.
The maximum loading components under static
conditions were calculated on the order of
721
280MN vertically and 80MN horizontally, whe-
reas the maximum moment was on the order of
565MNm. Under seismic actions, the maximum
loading components were approximately 315MN
and 120MN in the vertical and horizontal direc-
tion respectively, whereas the maximum design
moment exceeded 1.2GNm.
Both analytical and numerical techniques
were applied for the design of the foundation.
Analytical solutions involved the comparison of
the applied loads on the most heavily loaded
caisson with caisson’s adequacy under vertical,
horizontal loads and moment. Axial load capaci-
ty incorporating both side and base resistance
was calculated as proposed in [11], [12], [13].
The side shear resistance between the caissons
and the rockmass was estimated considering ac-
ceptable approaches of literature as reported in
[14]. The lateral load capacity assuming conser-
vatively isolated caissons was calculated as in
[15] and [16].
Due to the complex geometry involved, ad-
vanced numerical modelling was used for the ve-
rification of the capacity of the caissons – raft
system and for the estimation of deformations.
The 3D foundation package PLAXIS was used
for all finite element analyses (Fig 9). Precise
modeling was carried out including surface mor-
phology, ground stratigraphy, foundation ar-
rangement and all load cases, using representa-
tive geotechnical parameters for each ground
layer and for all structural elements. The maxi-
mum displacements, under service conditions,
were calculated less that 2.0cm and 0.6cm in the
vertical and horizontal direction respectively.
Figure 9. 3D finite elements model of the middle foundation.
722 I.F. Fikiris et al. / Foundation of the arch bridge in the landslide area of Tsakona, Greece
6 CONSTRUCTION
Complex engineering projects demand conti-
nuous evaluation of the encountering ground
conditions as construction progresses.
At the foundation locations of Tsakona bridge,
all geotechnical and geological data collected
during construction verified basic design as-
sumptions regarding the ground, at an area of an
extremely adverse geotechnical environment.
Detailed and continuous geological mapping
was an essential part of the construction process
for all the excavated surfaces. A typical mapping
presenting encountered geological flysch types at
the perimeter of the excavated surface of the
15m-deep shaft “No.1” is presented in Fig. 10.
All the support measures and the retaining
structures that were constructed proved adequate.
However, due to the relatively open structure of
the main discontinuity sets of the rockmass be-
hind abutment A1, a grouting improvement
scheme was considered necessary.
An instrumentation network has been installed
and the whole area is under continuous monitor-
ing. The landslide, eight years after its major
reactivation, still undergoes creep movements
along the failure surface, with a rate of 2mm per
month. Such peculiarity introduces one more en-
gineering challenge that has to be dealt with, dur-
ing the construction phase, for the erection of the
steel arch bridge over the landslide.
Figure 10. Engineering geological mapping of the excavated
surface around the perimeter of shaft No.1 – Unfolded view.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The design and construction of the project is
being supervised by authorities of the Ministry of
Infrastructure, Transport and Networks (DMEO,
D1, EYDE/DDP). The bridge is currently under
construction, by the Greek – Austrian J/V,
Alpine BAU GmbH – Terna S.A. The structural
design of the bridge was carried out by DOMI
S.A. Their co-operation is greatly acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1] L. Sotiropoulos, E. Lymperis, A. Sigalas, A. Ntouroupi,
K. Provia, G. Dounias, Landslide at Tsakona area in
Arkadia prefecture. Geological conditions and activa-
tion mechanism, Bulletin of the Greek Geol. Society
vol. XXXVI, Proc 10th Int. Congress (2004), 1862-1871.
[2] G. Dounias, G. Belokas, P. Marinos, M. Kavvadas, The
large landslide of Tsakona at the Tripoli – Kalamata na-
tional road, Proc. 5th Hellenic Conf. on Geot. &
Geoenv. Eng., (2006), 27-34.
[3] G. Dounias, G. Belokas, Investigation of the Tsakona
large landslide with limit equilibrium analyses, Proc.
6th Hell. Conf. Geot. & Geoenv. Eng. (2010), 139-146.
[4] P. G. Marinos, E. Hoek, GSI: A geologically friend tool
for rock mass strength estimation, Proc. of
GeoEng2000, Melbourne, (2000), 1422-1446.
[5] E. Hoek, P. Marinos, Estimating the geotechnical prop-
erties of heterogeneous rock masses such as flysch, Bul-
leting of Engineering Geology 60, (2000), 85-92.
[6] D. C. Wyllie, Foundations on rock, E & FN Spon, 1999.
[7] R. K. Rowe, H. H. Armitage, Theoretical solutions for
the axial deformation of drilled shafts in rock, Cana-
dian Geotechnical Journal 24, (1987), 114-142.
[8] H. G. Poulos, Pile bahaviour-theory and application,
Geotechnique Vol. 39, No. 3, (1989), 365-415
[9] K.G. Stagg, O.C. Zienkiewicz, Rock mechanics in En-
gineering Practice, John Wiley & Sons, N. York, 1968.
[10] M. J. Tomlinson, M.J, R. Boorman, Foundation design
& Construction. 7th Ed, Pearson Education ltd, 2001.
[11] B. Ladanyi, Discussion of Friction and end bearing tests
on bedrock for high capacity Socket design, Can. Geo-
tech. Journal, vol. 13, (1977).
[12] P. Rosenberg, N.L. Journeaux, Friction and end bearing
tests on bedrock for high capacity Socket design, Can.
Geotech. Journal, Vol. 13, (1976).
[13] Rowe R. K. & Armitage, H. H. (1987). “Theoretical so-
lutions for the axial deformation of drilled shafts in
rock”. Can. Geotech. Journal, 24, pg. 114-142.
[14] L. Zhang, Drilled shafts in rock, Balkema Publ. 2004.
[15] M.F. Randolph, The response of flexible piles to lateral
loading, Geotechnique 31 (1981).
[16] J.P. Carter, F.H. Kulhawy, Analysis and design of
drilled shaft foundation socketed into rock, Report EL-
5918, Electric Power Research Inst. California (1988).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 723
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-723

Seismic bearing capacity of strip footings on clay

slopes
La force portante sismique des semelles filantes sur un talus
argileux
K. Georgiadis1, E. Chrysouli
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

ABSTRACT
An analytical upper bound plasticity solution is presented for the calculation of the seismic bearing capacity of footings placed at
the crest or near the crest of clay slopes. The effect of seismic loading is taken into account through vertical and horizontal pseu-
do-static body forces acting on the soil and on the footing. Results are presented for horizontal ground surface and for footings
on or near slopes in terms of normalized vertical failure loads and normalized horizontal – vertical interaction diagrams. Based
on these results, simple modifications to existing bearing capacity equations are proposed which take account of the effect of soil
inertia. Finally, the influence of problem geometry and soil parameters on seismic bearing capacity is discussed.

RÉSUMÉ
Une solution analytique de plasticité à limite supérieure est présenté pour le calcul de la force portante sismique des fondations
sur ou à proximité de talus. L'effet du chargement séismique est pris en considération par les forces corporelles pseudo-statiques,
verticales et horizontales, agissant sur le sol et sur la fondation. Des résultats sont présentés pour la surface horizontale de la terre
et pour les fondations sur ou à proximité de talus, du point de vue de charge d'échec normalisées verticales et de diagrammes
interactives normalisées horizontales –verticales. Basé sur ces résultats, des modifications faciles d’équations existantes de la
force portante sont proposées, qui tiennent compte de l’effet de l’inertie du sol. À la fin, l'influence du problème géométrie et des
paramètres du sol sur la force portante séismique est discutée.

Keywords: Bearing capacity, seismic analysis, footings, slopes, plasticity, limit analysis.

1 INTRODUCTION mass and presented design charts for the drained

The effect of seismic loading on the bearing ca-
pacity of foundations on horizontal ground has
been investigated by several authors. Sarma and
Iossifelis [1] and Richards et al. [2] presented
pseudo-static limit equilibrium analyses of foun-
dations on horizontal ground, in which the effect
of the inertia of the soil mass was taken account
of by applying a constant horizontal acceleration
to the vertical footing load and the failing soil
bearing capacity factors. A hybrid limit equilib-
rium and stress field solution for the same prob-
lem taking account of both horizontal and verti-
cal constant accelerations was proposed by
Budhu and Al-Karni [3]. The upper and lower
bound plasticity methods assuming constant
ground accelerations have also been employed
by several researchers for both drained ([4], [5],
[6], [7]) and undrained soil behaviour ([8], [9],
[10]).

1
Corresponding Author.
724 K. Georgiadis and E. Chrysouli / Seismic Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings on Clay Slopes
The limit equilibrium, upper bound plasticity
and stress characteristics methods have more re-
cently been applied for the calculation of the
seismic bearing capacity of footings in slopes or
close to the crest of a slope ([11]-[16]). However,
to the knowledge of the authors, no study to date
has explicitly dealt with undrained loading con-
ditions.
This paper presents a pseudo-static upper
bound determination of the undrained seismic
bearing capacity of footings near clay slopes.
The study provides an extension to the complete
solutions for vertical and inclined static loading
presented by Georgiadis [17], [18], [19].
work done by external forces and internal
stresses and optimizing the resulting expression
with respect to the geometric parameters to cal-
culate the least upper bound solution. Beyond a
critical distance of the footing from the crest of
the slope (which varies depending on the soil and
geometrical properties up to 3.14B for a vertical
cut in weightless soil), the optimum failure
mechanism extends only below horizontal
ground and the solution is identical to Prandtl’s
solution.
The solution is extended in this study to take
account of horizontal footing loads and of the ef-
fect of soil inertia body forces during seismic ex-
citation on the calculated bearing capacity. The
latter is achieved through the conventional
pseudo-static approach, by applying horizontal
and vertical accelerations to the failing soil mass
as shown in Figure 1. This has no effect in the
geometrical formulation of the mechanism, the
derivation of relative velocities and the resulting
expression for the work done by internal stresses,
which can be found in [19], although it is noted
that the optimized values corresponding to the
least upper bound solution obviously depend on
the value of the seismic acceleration coefficients.
It does however affect the work done by external
forces. Taking account of the horizontal (kh) and
vertical (kv) seismic acceleration coefficients, the
work done by the soil weight (eWf) is given by
the following equation:
kh 2  1  kv 
2
'W f
ª § k · º
«WA sin ¨ D  tan 1 h ¸ v A,0 »
« © 1  kv ¹ »
« » (1)
§ k ·
˜ « WC sin ¨ D  T  tan 1 h ¸ vC ,0 »
Figure 1. Problem definition and kinematic mechanism.
« 1  kv ¹ »
« © »
« n § § k · ·»
« ¦ ¨¨ GWi sin ¨ D  Ti  GT 2  tan 1 h ¸ i ,0 ¸ »
v ¸
2 UPPER BOUND MECHANISM «¬ i 1 © © 1  kv ¹ ¹ ¼»

The kinematic mechanism proposed by Geor-
giadis [19] for static vertical loading of footings
close to slopes is adopted. As shown in Figure 1,
it consists of two rigid blocks and a slip fan
(shaded area). The mechanism is defined by four
geometric parameters; the angles  and  of the
rigid block A and the angle “ and radius R of the
circular outer velocity discontinuity of the slip
fan. The solution is obtained by equating the
where WA, WC and 1Wi are the weights of rigid
blocks A, C and infinitesimal block i of the slip
area, respectively, vA,0, vC,0 and vi,0 are the veloci-
ties of the respective rigid blocks, and the angles
“, “i and 1“ are defined in Figure 1.
In order to obtain H-V failure load interaction
diagrams for different combinations of the hori-
zontal and vertical seismic acceleration coeffi-
cients, the ultimate horizontal footing load (H)
 K. Georgiadis and E. Chrysouli / Seismic Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings on Clay Slopes 725

was generally allowed to vary independently of UB & Green

the ultimate vertical load (V) in this study. How- kh= 0
ever, results are also presented in which H = 0.8
kha2/s u = 0.16
Vkh/(1-kv). For the general loading case, defining kha2/s u = 0.32
the footing load inclination as   (=tan-1H/V), the

H/(Bsu)
kha2/s u = 0.64
ultimate vertical load is: 0.4 kha2/s u = 0.8
cos Z sin D
V 
sin Z  D 
'W p  'W f  vf (2) UB
Pecker (1997)
0
where eWp is the work done by internal stresses
0 2 4
and vf is the vertical acceleration of the footing. V/(Bsu)
Equation (2) provides the ultimate vertical load Figure 2. Normalized failure envelopes H/Bsu vs. V/Bsu for
as a function of the soil properties (undrained horizontal ground.
shear strength su and soil unit weight ) the prob- 1.2
lem geometry (footing width B, distance •ç be-
tween the footing and the crest of the slope, slope
angle œ and load angle  ) and the optimization 0.8
parameters , , “ and R. The combination of the kh = 0
H/Ho

optimization parameters that minimizes the solu- kha2/s u = 0.16

tion defines the critical kinematic mechanism
and results in the least upper bound solution for a
given set of soil properties and geometrical char-
acteristics.
3 RESULTS AND COMPARISONS
Upper bound ultimate footing load calculations
using the mechanism presented in the previous
section were performed for various combinations
of soil properties and geometrical characteristics.
Results are first presented for footings on hori-
zontal ground, followed by results for the case of
footings at the crest of a slope and at a distance
from the crest of a slope.
3.1 Footing on Horizontal Ground
The normalized failure loads H/Bsu and V/Bsu
for horizontal ground depend only on the non-
dimensional parameter khç/su and the load incli-
nation [21]. This was verified by performing
analyses with different combinations of the rele-
vant parameters. Results are presented in Figure
2 for different values of khç/su= 0, 0.16, 0.32
and 0.64. It is noted that the failure load enve-
lope obtained for kh=0, is identical to the exact
solution for inclined loading presented by Green
[20].
kha2/s u = 0.32
0.4 kha2/s u = 0.64
kha2/s u = 0.8
0
0 0.4 V/Vo 0.8 1.2
Figure 3. Normalized failure envelopes H/Ho vs. V/Vo for
horizontal ground.
As seen in Figure 2, taking account of soil in-
ertia body forces has little effect on the bearing
capacity for low values of the ratio khç/su, but
becomes more significant as the ratio increases; a
18% decrease of bearing capacity is observed for
khç/su = 0.8. The upper bound load envelopes
are compared in the same figure to those pro-
posed by Pecker [21] and included in Eurocode 8
(part 5). Generally good agreement is observed,
although the envelopes proposed by Pecker [21]
appear to slightly overpredict the failure loads at
low load inclinations compared to the upper
bound solution, while the opposite is observed at
high load inclinations.
It can also be observed in Figure 2 that al-
though accounting for soil inertia leads to a re-
duction of the ultimate footing loads, it does not
appear to have an effect on the shape of the fail-
ure envelope. This becomes more evident in Fig-
ure 3, where the failure envelopes for different
ratios khç/su are plotted in the H/Ho-V/Vo plane,
726 K. Georgiadis and E. Chrysouli / Seismic Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings on Clay Slopes

where Ho = Bsu and Vo is the ultimate load for capacity is almost entirely due to the increase of
vertical loading. It follows from this figure that the load inclination with the increase of kv.
the seismic bearing capacity can be calculated Analyses in which the vertical acceleration was
using Green’s equation for inclined static loading applied only to the soil yielded insignificant dif-
or the more approximate conventional undrained ferences from the kv=0 analyses.
bearing capacity equation with a load inclination 6
factor, provided that the reduction of Vo with the µ=0, k v = 0
increase of khç/su is accounted for. The follow- 5
µ =0 µ=0, k v = kh
ing equation (3) provides an excellent fit of the

V/(Bsu)
4 µ = 15
upper bound results: µ = 30
3 µ = 45
§ JB·
Vo B ˜ su ¨ S  2  1.1 ˜ kh ¸ (3)
© su ¹
2

1
3.2 Footing at the top of a slope
0 0.1 0.2 k 0.3 0.4
h
As discussed in the previous section, the normal- Figure 4. Influence of slope angle on the variation of V/Bsu
ized failure loads for the case of horizontal with kh for ç/su=0.4 and • = 0.
ground surface depend only on the ratio khç/su. 6
Hor. Ground
In the case of footings at the top of a slope, the 3=1
static bearing capacity depends on the ratio ç/su 5 3=0.5
([17]-[19]). Consequently, in the seismic case kh 3=0.25
V/(Bsu)

and ç/su need to be considered independently. 4 3=0

Results are first presented for the special con-
servative case:   = tan-1kh/(1-kv), that corre- 3
sponds to a footing with vertical only working
load and on which the same seismic coefficients
with the failing soil are applied. Figures 4 to 6 2
show the variation of the normalized ultimate 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
kh
vertical load V/Bsu with the horizontal coefficient
of acceleration kh, for kv = 0 and different slope Figure 5. Influence of normalized slope/footing distance on
V/Bsu - kh for œ = 30° and ç/su= 0.4.
angles œ, ç/su ratios and normalized footing to
slope distances •. As seen in these figures the aB/s u = 0
normalized vertical load decreases significantly 4 aB/s u = 0.2
with the increase of kh. As expected the slope an- aB/s u = 0.4
gle œ also has a significant effect on bearing ca- aB/s u = 0.6
aB/s u = 0.8
V/(Bsu)

pacity (Fig. 4), as does the normalized distance

of the footing from the slope (Fig. 5), while the 3 aB/s u = 1
ratio ç/su has a more moderate effect (Fig. 6).
As seen in the same figures the reduction of Kumar and Rao (2003)
bearing capacity with kh is almost linear and is
2
mainly dependent on the slope angle.
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Figure 4 also presents the variation of V/Bsu kh
with kh for the extreme case of kv=kh. The appli- Figure 6. Influence of ç/su on V/Bsu - kh for µ= 30° and 3= 0.
cation of a constant vertical acceleration causes a Part of the reduction in bearing capacity
dramatic reduction of the calculated bearing ca- caused by the increase of kh (for kv=0), shown in
pacity. For high values of kh, sliding failure be- figures 4 to 6, is attributed to the increase of load
comes dominant and the curves for different inclination and can be calculated using static ap-
slope angles converge. This reduction in bearing proaches such as those presented in [18]. Results
 K. Georgiadis and E. Chrysouli / Seismic Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings on Clay Slopes 727

for weightless soil (ç/su=0), for which applica- loads [18]. Application of horizontal acceleration
tion of kh obviously has no influence, are shown on the soil mass results in further decrease of the
in Figure 6 and are compared to results for the failure loads. The difference between static and
same case obtained by Kumar and Rao [12] us- seismic failure envelopes is greater for the case
ing the stress characteristics method. The reduc- of 3=1, indicating that the critical distance, be-
tion in bearing capacity due to soil inertia for yond which the slope has no effect on bearing
ç/su>0 is equal to the distance of each respec- capacity, is greater under seismic loading condi-
tive curve from the ç/su=0 curve. tions.
1.2 µ = 0, k h = 0 1.2
µ = 30, kh = 0 µ = 0 and k h = 0
µ = 30, k h= 0.4
0.8 µ = 45, kh= 0 0.8
µ = 45, k h = 0.4
H/(Bsu)

H/Ho
µ = 0, 30, 45
0.4 0.4 kh = 0.2, 0.4
a2/su = 0.4, 0.8

0 0
0 2 V/(Bsu) 4 6 0 0.5 V/V 1
o
Figure 7. Normalized failure envelopes for 3 = 0, Figure 9. Normalized failure envelopes for 3 = 0.
ç/su=0.8.
It can be observed in Figures 7 and 8 that the
1.2 shape of all failure surfaces for 3=0 is the same
as for horizontal ground surface, while for 3=1
they are steeper and are bounded by the respec-
0.8 µ = 0, kh= 0
tive horizontal ground envelopes. As seen in
µ = 0, k h= 0.4
H/(Bsu)

Figure 9 the normalised static and seismic failure

µ = 30, kh= 0
surfaces in H/Ho-V/Vo are practically identical for
0.4 µ = 30, kh= 0.4 the case of a footing at the crest of a slope. This
µ = 45, kh= 0 indicates that similarly to the horizontal ground
µ = 45, k h= 0.4 case discussed in the previous section, the failure
0
loads can be calculated using a single expression
0 2 V/(Bsu) 4 6 if the bearing capacity for vertical only loading
Figure 8. Normalized failure envelopes for 3 = 1, ç/su=0.8. can be determined. Such an expression was pro-
In order to investigate further the effect of soil posed by Georgiadis [18] based on upper bound
inertia body forces on bearing capacity and to and stress characteristic analyses:
provide solutions for general H-V loading, the in- 2

fluence of the horizontal ground acceleration on cos 1 §¨ H ·  1 § H

¸ ¨
· E
¸
1 © Bsu ¹ © Bsu ¹
the failure envelopes will be discussed in the fol- V Vo  (4)
2 S  2  2E
lowing. All results presented are for kv = 0 be-
cause its influence on the failure envelopes was The following modification of the equation
found to be insignificant. Failure load envelopes proposed by Georgiadis [17] gives an excellent
were determined for •=0 and 1, œ = 30° and 45°, approximation of the numerical results for the ul-
B/su =0.4 and 0.8, and kh = 0, 0.2 and 0.4. In or- timate load of footings under vertical loading
der to preserve the clarity of the figures only re- situated at the crest of a slope:
sults for selected combinations of these parame-
§ ·
ters are presented in Figures 7 and 8. As seen in ¨ 2˜E J B ¸¸
these figures, the presence of the slope causes a Vo ¨
B ˜ su S  2   1.1 ˜ kh (5)
¨ J ˜B su ¸
¨ 1 ¸
significant decrease of the static footing failure © 5.14 ˜ su ¹
728 K. Georgiadis and E. Chrysouli / Seismic Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings on Clay Slopes
For footings at a distance from the slope no
unique normalised failure surface can be defined.
4 SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
An upper bound solution was presented for the
calculation of the seismic bearing capacity of
footings near clay slopes. The effect of seismic
loading is taken account of in this solution
through the application of pseudo-static horizon-
tal and vertical inertia body forces in the soil
mass. Failure load envelopes were first presented
for horizontal ground surface and it was shown
that the shape of these envelopes is practically
identical to that obtained from Green’s equation.
A simple equation was proposed for the ultimate
load for the case of vertical loading, which can
be combined with Green’s equation to determine
the seismic ultimate loads.
Results for footings on or near slopes were
presented in terms of normalised ultimate verti-
cal loads versus horizontal ground acceleration
and failure load interaction diagrams. The influ-
ence of problem geometry and all of the relevant
soil parameters was investigated. It was shown
that part of the decrease of bearing capacity is
due to the increase of load inclination and can be
calculated using static methods. The influence of
kh on bearing capacity was found to depend pri-
marily on the ratio B/su and a calculation
method was proposed for the lower bound case,
with respect to failure loads, of footings at the
crest of a slope. It is noted that the proposed
analysis must be combined with conventional
overall slope stability analyses, which may be-
come critical in some cases, in order to provide a
reliable means of computation of the seismic
bearing capacity of footings on clay slopes.
REFERENCES
[1] S. K. Sarma, I. S. Iossifelis, Seismic bearing capacity
factors of shallow strip footings, Geotechnique, 40
(1990), 265-273.
[2] R. Richards, D. G. Elms, M. Budhu, Seismic bearing
capacity and settlement of foundations, J. Geotech. Eng
ASCE, 119 (1993), 662-674.
[3] M. Budhu, A. Al-Karni, Seismic bearing capacity of
soils, Geotechnique, 43 (1993), 181-187.
[4] L. Dormieux, A. Pecker, Seismic bearing capacity of
foundations on cohesionless soil, J. Geotech. Eng
ASCE, 121(1995), 300–303.
[5] H. Soubra, Seismic bearing capacity of shallow strip
footings in seismic conditions, Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs
Geotech. Engng, 125 (1997), 230-241.
[6] R. Paolucci, A. Pecker, Seismic bearing capacity of
shallow strip foundations on dry soils, Soils Found.,
37(1997), 95–105.
[7] H. Soubra, Upper bound solutions for bearing capacity
of foundations, J. Geotech. Geoenvion. Eng. ASCE, 125
(1999), 59-69.
[8] A. Pecker, J. Salencon, Seismic bearing capacity of
shallow strip foundations on clay soils,
Proc.”International Workshop on Seismology and
Earthquake Engineering”, Mexico, 1991, 287-304.
[9] J. Salencon, A. Pecker, A., Ultimate bearing capacity of
shallow foundations under inclined and eccentric loads,
I: Purely cohesive soil. Eur. J. Mech. 14 (1995), 349-
375.
[10] J. Salencon, A. Pecker, A., Ultimate bearing capacity of
shallow foundations under inclined and eccentric loads.
II: Purely cohesive soil without tensile strength, Eur. J.
Mech., 14 (1995), 377-396.
[11] T. Sawada, S. Nomachi, W. Chen, Seismic bearing ca-
pacity of a mounted foundation near a downhill slope
by pseudo-static analysis. Soils Found, 34 (1994), 11–
17.
[12] J. Kumar, V. B. K. M. Rao, Seismic bearing capacity of
foundations on slopes, Geotechnique, 53 (2003), 347–
361.
[13] F. Askari, O. Farzaneh, Upper-bound solution for seis-
mic bearing capacity of shallow foundations near
slopes, Geotechnique, 53 (2003), 697–702.
[14] J. Kumar, P. Ghosh, Seismic bearing capacity for em-
bedded footings on sloping ground, Geotechnique, 56
(2006), 133–140.
[15] J D. Choudhury, K. S. Subba Rao, Seismic bearing ca-
pacity of shallow strip footings embedded in slope, Int.
J. Geomech. ASCE, 6 (2006), 176-184.
[16] F. Castelli, E. Motta, Bearing capacity of strip footings
near slopes, Geotech. Geol. Eng., 28 (2010), 187-198.
[17] K. Georgiadis, Undrained bearing capacity of strip foot-
ings on slopes, J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. ASCE,
136 (2010), 677-685.
[18] K. Georgiadis, The influence of load inclination on the
undrained bearing capacity of strip footings on slopes,
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[19] K. Georgiadis, An upper bound solution for the
undrained bearing capacity of strip footings at the top
of a slope, Geotechnique, 60 (2010), 801-806.
[20] A. P. Green, The plastic yielding of metal junctions due
to combined shear and pressure, J. Mech. Physics Sol-
ids, 2 (1954), 197-211.
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 729
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-729

Experience of the unique building foundation

design in conditions of combined karst and
landslide risk
Problèmes du pratique et de la théorie du projet des fondements
sur le terrain avec le danger combiné de karst et de glissement
de terre
A.L. Gotman 1, N.Z. Gotman
Konstituzii str., 3, 450064, Ufa, Russia, BashNIIstroy

ABSTRACT
The paper presents the experience of the unique building foundation design in soil conditions characterizing with karst and
landslide risk.
The characteristic of this case is the continual (200 m length) structure resting on the incompressible bedrock with its edges, the
middle part of it is over the ravine filled with the filled soil of 3 – 30 m thickness.
A concept of the structure foundation design has been developed and the basis of the accepted foundation design and measures
providing the structure resistance and its reliable operation in karst and landslide conditions are given in the paper.
The reliability and validity of the design are confirmed by monitoring results.

RÉSUMÉ
L’article présente l’expérience du projet de fondement d’un bâtiment unique dans les conditions de sol caractérisées par le dan-
ger de karst et de glissement de terre.
L’autre particularité de ce cas est aussi le fait que le bâtiment étendu (la longueur est de 200 mètres) s’appuie au bord sur les ter-
rains rocheux incoercibles et la partie de milieu du bâtiment est située sous le ravin rempli de terres rapportées d’une épaisseur
de 3 à 30 mètres.
La conception est élaborée du projet des fondements accompagnée de l’explication des solutions de projets des fondements et
des mesures assurant la stabilité du bâtiment et sa bonne exploitation dans les conditions du développement éventuel des proces-
sus de karst ou de glissement de terre.
La sécurité et la justesse des solutions de projets prises sont confirmées par les résultats du monitoring.

Keywords: karst, karst hole, landslide protective measures, foundation design

1 INTRODUCTION the thick complex of the sedimentary rock in-

The city Ufa is situated on the east of the Euro-
pean part of Russia between the two rivers – Be-
laya and Ufa. Geologically, the city is in the
eastern margin of the Russian continental plateau
where its crystalline foundation overlapped with
clines towards the Ural Mountains.
The sedimentary rock in the upper part is the
Ufimsky stage and by its composition the rock is
rather various, it includes limestone, dolomite,
gypsum, marl and sandstone.

1
Corresponding Author.
730 A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman / Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design

The most upper part of the stage consists of gyp- rey floor was 172,7 m and considering the foun-
sum and often exposes to the day surface. Here dation engineering, the mark of the trench bot-
and there the gypsum thickness reaches 50 – 60 tom was 171.5 m.
m. The left gentle slope of the rivers Belaya and Thus, according to the relief, the building ap-
Ufa goes down to the river-beds by terraces. The peared to be “settled” in the level of the top edge
right bank is a high and steep and is strongly se- of the foundation with the middle part over the
parated with erosive and karst-suffosion ravine ravine partially filled with the filled soil of the
and holes. variable thickness. With its edge parts in the west
Landslides are very typical for the steep slopes of and east, the building is “settled” over the strong
the river Belaya valley. Especially typically the bedrock in kind of limestone and cemented sand-
landslide relief is presented in the south part of stone (fig.1c).
the city at the right bank of the river. The ravine has a thalweg slope towards the Be-
Such territories are characterized both with a laya river, with depth under the building ranging
high karst and landslide risk as well as with a from 12 to 30 m (fig.1b).
strong heterogeneity of soil conditions even
within one building area. That’s why, the con-
struction of the buildings and structures of high
category of responsibility is as a rule avoided.
However, the Republican Government has taken
a decision to construct a building of Congress-
Hall just at such a site with a high karst and
landslide risk, as this part of the city is a histori-
cal, cultural and administrative centre of the city
Ufa.

2 SOIL CONDITIONS AND THE

CONSTRUCTIVE DECISION OF THE
BUILDING

The construction site is situated on the high right

bank of the river Belaya.
The Congress-Hall building is a continual (200
m length) structure (fig.1a) of the deflected
forms above a “zero” designed in kind of a com-
bined framework. A part of the building has two
underground stories with the parking with the
column spacing 9 m in both directions. The pre-
mises of the Congress-Hall with the irregular
column spacing corresponding to the plan of the
load bearing wall construction are in the other
part of the building turning towards the Belaya
river.
The width of the building ranges from 70 to 100
m as it is of a deflected position in plan view.
The outline of the building on the site plan is
shown in fig.1a.
According to the design of the building vertical
siting, the mark of the bottom underground sto- Figure1. Engineering-geological conditions of the site;
¼
¨
¾

¿
¨
¿§
Â

è
-1; c) cross-
sectional view 2-2
 A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman / Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design
As a whole, the site is characterized with the
multiple geological beddings including filled
soil, clay soil (marl), limestone, cemented stone
underlying with the sulphate deposits. The site is
characterized with the increased karst and
landslide risk.185 karst holes have been revealed
on the site under investigation and due to the un-
derground water diversion into the river Belaya
along the gypsum roof, the karst process is con-
sidered to be active. Besides, the totality of such
factors as the steep ravine slopes and the active
karst process are of landslide risk both in kind of
covering landslides along the ravine slopes and
the “inner” landslides due to the karst subsi-
dence.
The thick layer of the filled soil in the upper ra-
vine part (the thickness of the filled soil reaches
30 m) is also of a real landslide risk. The unfa-
vourable conditions (undercutting, surcharge,
underground water) provoke a shear of the above
thick layer along the bedrock roof towards the
Belaya river. Besides, several openings of discis-
sion in kind of the ravine slopes cracks have
been found out within the site. One crack passes
from west to east, several meters from the build-
ing at its south side (the crack is not under the
building). The other 10 - 20 cm width crack
crosses the site in the meridian direction directly
under the building.
That’s why a task has been set to develop a de-
sign scheme of the foundation with account of all
dangerous physical-geological processes from
the point of view of their influence upon the
structure and the surrounding territory and to de-
sign the foundation that could exclude or minim-
ize this influence to provide the structure reliabil-
ity for the whole period of its operation.
3 THE GEOTECHNICAL CONCEPTION OF
THE STRUCTURE DESIGN
According to the task set, the geotechnical con-
cept of the structure base and foundation design
has been developed with the following main
principles:
731
 as the building is located at sites with the
strongly different strain composition of the
soil, the foundation construction should
provide a structure with minimum settle-
ments (settlements less than 2 cm);
 different types of the foundation are ad-
missible within the building area to minim-
ize the settlements;
 the constructive karst protection should be
provided in kind of crosswise in situ rein-
forced concrete belts or continuous raft
with regard to a possible 7 m diameter karst
hole;
 the foundations for the exterior walls are
designed with regard to the lateral soil pres-
sure;
 within the ravine in the filled soil the pile
foundation should meet the condition of a
pile bearing on the strong bedrock. Since
the depth of the strong bedrock occurrence
is 5-30 m, the piles can be both driven and
bored;
 to exclude the filled soil deformation in a
zone of the maximum ravine depth at the
south side of the building both in lateral
(sliding along the bedrock roof) and vertic-
al direction (due to the filled soil consolida-
tion as a result of karst deformation), the
filled soil mass should be stabilized with
the method of high pressure cement grout-
ing including plugging of the openings of
discission;
 the complex design of water diversion and
meteoric and underground water lowering
is to be developed by means of constructing
the closed drainage system around- and
outside the building with the stream capture
and water diversion towards the Belaya riv-
er;
 the geometric and technological parameters
of the territory lay-out in kind of the artifi-
cial embankments formation (corners of the
embankments inclination, technologies of
embankments deposition) should be eva-
luated based on of the geotechnical analysis
with regard to soil mass stability providing.
732 A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman / Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design
4 DESIGN EVALUATION OF
STRUCTURAL CONCEPT
4.1 Evaluation of the accepted design
solutions
According to the developed geotechnical
concept of design, the structure foundation
was designed to be karst protective, i.e. con-
sidering the expected karst hole under the
structure equal to 7 m. The column founda-
tion of the 2-storey underground part of the
building is in-situ concrete strip foundation
and that of the main superstructure is a raft
foundation.
As the central part of the building is si-
tuated over the ravine filled with the filled
soil, and the left and right flanks of the build-
ing are underlying with the bedrock, a pile
foundation is designed under the central part
and a foundation without the piles – under the
flanks. According to the geotechnical concept
of the building design based on the principle
of the building settlements minimization, the
piles have been designed with pile tips in
practically incompressible bedrock (neogenic
clay). As the depth of the ravine bedrock
bedding ranges from 3 to 32 m, both 30 x 30
driven piles of 3 – 18 m length and Ø 1200-
1300 mm bored piles of up to 32 m length are
used. The layout of the different types of the
building foundation location is shown in
fig.2.
Figure 2. Foundation types
The landslide protection included the fol-
lowing measures:
 stabilization of filled soil under the build-
ing by method of high pressure cement
grouting with the leave-in-place metal in-
jectors deepened into the bedrock;
 providing stability of the design filled soil
slopes along the building.
4.2 Analysis of the karst protective
foundations
While karst protective foundation analysis, the
main design requirements were the foundation
resistance providing (ultimate limit state control)
and exclusion of the dangerous non-uniform base
deformation (serviceability limit state control).
The design parameters were the bearing capacity
of the foundation base, the bearing capacity of
the raft sections and the accepted non-uniform
base deformation.
The foundation analysis has been carried out
with regard to stiffness of the part of the building
above the foundation. The complexity of the giv-
en analyses is not due to the analysis procedure,
but to a high degree of uncertainty when initial
data evaluation. As the geometric dimensions of
the karst holes in karsting rocks are not strictly
defined, the modeling of a karst hole under the
foundation base is done according to the holes
dimensions defined by the static-probabilistic
methods. It is usual that in places of karst holes
formation, the soil “goes out” of the base of the
strip- and raft foundations on the bed and out of
the pile tips of the pile-raft foundation. The col-
umn load above the karst hole is redistributed to
the adjacent sites where the foundation – soil
contact is provided. When modeling the karst
hole under the foundation base, the model of the
variable subgrade reaction modulus is used.
The design characteristics of the base modeled
according to the model of the variable subgrade
reaction modulus is the subgrade reaction mod-
ulus (for the foundations on the bed) and pile
stiffness ratio (for pile foundations). With karst
hole formation, the variation of pile stiffness ra-
tio above the hole is the most probable in accor-
dance with the schemes in fig.3.
 A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman / Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design 733

karst hole karst hole n

Ɋ e (   i ɢ8Ki )  G , (3)
/ i 1
Ç1 Ço
Ç1 Ç1 where P – the pile limit load above the karst cav-
ity defined as P =pa2; p – pressure transmitted to
Figure 3. Variation of subgrade reaction coefficient with
karst hole formation a raft base; a - pile spacing; U- pile perimeter; h1
a) in the strip foundation base; b) in the pile-raft foundation – length of the i- th section; n – sections number
base along the pile length; G – soil weight  *  Ȗ
La2), L – 
}¾

– weighted average value
For pile stiffness ratio analysis while karst hole of soil density; IJi - soil specific resistance at the i-
under the building formation, methods based on th section of the pile lateral surface defined by
the solutions for the elastic isotropic continuum, Coulomb considering stress Tr and friction force f
beams and rafts on the elastic foundation have ^
Åfi , fi =Ȗi zi ȕȕ– lateral pressure ratio.
been developed. [Gotman, 2008].

Strip pile foundations (type II in fig.2)

Pile stiffness ratio around the karst hole (fig.3a)

K11 is defined in dependence on the pile stiffness
ratio outside the karst hole K1 designed by formu-
las
1 K
K1  1 (1)
%
3 Na K1 D
%  1 2
3 , (2)
2 Ph %Ea Figure 4. Design scheme of a pile above the karst cavity
where N - the column load above the karst hole;
E, v - modulus of deformation and Poisson ratio  i  ɫi  tgi ( P Ɍ ri 
i zi  ) , (4)
of the concrete; h – strip thickness, a – pile spac-
ing, b - strip width, D - design parameter of
where P – pile load defined according to pile
the karst hole, P – pile bearing capacity.
field analysis in conditions of normal use without
The site length where the pile stiffness ratio de-
karst holes; ci iji Ȗi - specific cohesion, inner
creases to the value K11 is taken 2 m, based on
friction angle and soil density of the layer under
numerical investigation
consideration; Tri – radial stress due to unit loads
By results of equation (2), with N = 2500 kH, a =
transmission to adjacent piles at the distance zi
1.5 m, D = 7 m, h = 700 mm, P = 600kH, K1 =
from the soil surface.
30000 kH/m Â

Ä
is taken 2.3.
Pile radial stress due to loads transmitted
through the adjacent piles is defined by the solu-
Pile-raft foundation (types IV and V in fig. 2)
tion of the axisymmetrical problem on the radial
stresses Tr distribution when each pile in a pile
When stiffness ratio of a pile in a pile-raft foun-
field loading with the load P
dation analysis, the case was considered when
the pile strengthened soil mass accepted stresses 1 d
Ɍr  (5)
of karst cavity under the pile tips and the karst r dr
cavity did not reach the foundation raft base ÆÂ
¨¨¨¨


¨
!ned by the for-
(fig.4). In this case a pile is not sliding in the soil mula of strain compatibility
if a condition (3) is met, and a pile stiffness ratio  = C1+C2 ln r+C3r2+C4 r2 ln r , (6)
above the karst cavity decreases to a value K0
r – distance from the point of force application to
(fig. 3b).
the design contour.
734 A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman / Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design

Equation ratios (6) are defined proceeding from Pressure (p) in the base under the pile tips above
the condition of forces equilibrium at the boun- the karst cavity is defined according to depen-
dary around the piles (7). Pile load radial boun- dence (9) and is taken 45 MPa.
n
dary stresses are balanced with the radial stresses
( i uhi )  G
due to adjacent piles load. (9)
m ɪ i 1
a2
$ T d   bi $  i ( )d  0 .
L i 1 L
(7)
To evaluate the relation between pressure (p)
Pile P load radial stresses at the contour at the transmitted to the raft base at the pile tips level
distance r = a/2 from the pile centre (Tı ) are de- and pile stiffness ratio K0, a problem is solved for
fined by solution of R. Mindlin for the concen- the pile foundation raft with the diameter D = 2
trated force inside the elastic semi-space. rk karst cavity under the pile tips.
P( L  z ) 2 4 z (1  2 ) 2(1   )(1  2 ) 6 z 3 (1  4 ) 3 z 6 /
The foundation raft is considered as the infinite
T (r  a / 2)  0    7-
L (1   ) 1 R3 R( R  2 z ) R5 R . radius plate on the composite base with the rk ra-
dius karst cavity and pile stiffness ratio K0 above
R  r 2  4z 2 . (8)
the karst cavity.
As a result of equation (7) solution, ratios C of To define pressure in the raft base in Bessel
equation (6) are defined as functions of pile functions, the solutions of B.G. Korenev [Kore-
length, pile spacing, pile cross-section dimension nev, 1962]
and distance Zi from the soil surface. By insert-
ing ratios C in equations (5) and (6), radial N 9
J 0 (
r ) d

pr  $ ; (10)
stresses Tr are defined. Results of radial stresses 2 0 D 4 4
Tr analysis with the design pile load P = 600 kH 1
 cD

k0
are shown in diagrams of fig.5.
as well as Hankel conversion to evaluate func-
a) 0.000
0
0.020 0.040 ɌUɆ3ɚ
0.060
tion c are used.
1 9
2
c  2 $ rK ( r ) J 0 (
r ) dr . (11)
0
pile length, m

3
The base core corresponding to settlements sur-
4

ɚ P
face when karst cavity under the pile tips forma-
5 ɚ P
ɚ P tion is taken as:
6
B
7 Ʉr)= exp( #r ) . (12)
8
2r
Ratios B and į are defined from the boundary
0.000 0.020 0.040 ɌUɆ3ɚ
0.060 0.000 0.020 0.040 ɌUɆ3ɚ
0.060

Ê 0
Ë 0 conditions when rk radius karst cavity formation.
1

2
By results of analysis of improper integrals of
2
Bessel functions with the pressure in the raft base
3

4
4 (pr = p), column load N = 5000 kH, karst cavity
pile length, m
pile length, m

5 6
radius (rk) 3,5 m, raft thickness (h) 0,8 m, pile
6
ɚ P
ɚ P
ɚ P
ɚ P stiffness ratios (k0) above the karst cavity are de-
ɚ P ɚ P
7
8
fined to be equal to 5000 kN/m.
8
10
Pile stiffness ratio of the pile-raft foundation (Ks)
9
outside the karst cavity is defined by a single pile
10 12
static test (K1) but takin}
Â
}
¨
È1
into account. The above correcting ratios are eva-
Fig.5. Pressure of pile radial stress (r) in soil due to adjacent luated by the comparative analysis of the theoret-
pile loads
¼
– pile length 8 m; b – pile length 10 m; c – pile ically obtained dependences “load-settlement”
length 12 m. for a single pile and a pile in a pile field (Got-
man, 2001).
 A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman / Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design 735

Ʉs=31Ʉ1 (13) slope was done with clay soil of different com-
position and the site for stadium was positioned
By the analysis results, the pile stiffness ratio at the mark 155,00 (see fig.6).The thickness of
outside the karat cavity is taken to be equal to the filled soil within the stadium site was up to
40000 t/m. 35 m. The numerical analysis has been carried
out and as a result three versions of providing the
slope stability were considered:
5 MEASURES OF LANDSLIDE
PROTECTION

Landslide risk is provoked with the thick layer of

the filled soil, the part of filled strata is 10 year
age and more, this layer is partially self-
compacted and the part of the base under the
building is formed according to relief in the
process of construction without any compaction
(see fig. 1b). The bedrock of the ravine bottom is
a confining bed and is inclined towards the Be-
laya river, so the ground water is leaked by the
given confining bed and can provoke the
landslide processes.
To stabilize a thick filled soil layer in the ravine
including a layer of the new 8 – 10 m thick em-
bankment, it was decided to stabilize soil directly
under the building by means of pressure cement
grouting with the metal injectors deepened into
the bedrock and left in place. Stabilization was
carried out in the deepest part of the ravine
where the bored piles were applied. Injectors
were penetrated to the depth up to 34 m with the
deepening into the bedrock to 2 ÷ 3 m. Mesh of
injectors in plan view was 2 x 2,5 m. Besides, the Figure 6. Scheme of the geotechnical measures
opening of discission plugging was carried out. ¼


€{

¾
¿

¨
¿§
™-I.
Scheme of soil stabilization by the method of
pressure cement grouting is shown in fig. 6.
Such complex solution of constructive founda-
tion schemes and geotechnical measures allowed
the main idea realization: provide a minimum
settlement building in conditions of high soil
base heterogeneity in plan view and by depth
considering karst and landslide risk.
While planning the slope near the building when
the relief marks (ravine thalweg) have a steep in-
clination towards the Belaya river, the necessity
appeared to form the artificial soil masses secure
for the building and the territory around it. The
above artificial soil masses have the essential
mark drop that demands some measures to pro-
vide their stability. According to design, the
 geotextile grids that are placed lay by lay into
the filled soil mass;
 landslide protection pile structures engineer-
ing;
 construction of slopes with the given profile,
design inclination angle and special technol-
ogy of embankments construction to provide
their stability.
By results of analysis, the third version was cho-
sen as the most efficient and the geometrical pa-
rameters of the filled soil masses were defined
(slope inclination angle, its continuity), the tech-
nology of the filled soil placing was developed.
Besides, the complex design of drainage system
was carried out to provide diversion of ground-
736 A.L. Gotman and N.Z. Gotman / Experience of the Unique Building Foundation Design
and surface water out of the building as well as
water level decrease and water diversion from
the filled soil mass in kind of multitiered drai-
nage structures. Water was diverted through the
drainage system to the Belaya river.
6 MONITORING
In the process of work and after putting the
building into operation monitoring was carried
out – observation of the bearing structures of the
building and its deformations.
The lateral displacements of the building were
not detected.
Results of the building settlement measurement
are presented in fig. 7. The maximum settlements
in 4 years of operation are shown to be 29 mm of
the part of the building erected on bored piles. It
is somewhat more than it was forecasted and is
explained obviously with the bored piles settle-
ment due to compaction of the loose soil in the
borehole bottom. According to the Russian
Codes, the safe maximum settlement for such
buildings is 180 mm. The maximum relative set-
tlement difference is i = 0,0004, it is 7,5 times
¨¨
Â
Â
Æ!
¿§
!¨

7 CONCLUSIONS
1. The complex geotechnical problem of design
of continual skeleton building at site with high
karst and landslide risk is solved. Within the
building five types of foundations are taken pro-
ceeding from the condition of maximum possible
building settlement minimization. All founda-
tions are karst protective and provide normal
building operation in case of 7m diameter karst
hole under the building. To stabilize a large filled
soil mass and prevent its sliding along the in-
clined ravine thalweg, filled soil has been stabi-
lized with pressure cement grouting.
2. Analytical investigations have been carried
out and suggestions developed on analysis of soil
base and pile resistance parameters while raft-
and pile-raft foundations on karst dangerous base
design.
REFERENCES
[1] N.Z. Gotman. Analysis of the anti-karst building founda-
tions. Bases, Foundation and Soil Mechanics,Moscow.-
2008, No.1, pp. 20-24
[2] B.G. Korenev., E.I. Chernigovskaya. Analysis of rafts on

\\\@š the elastic foundation. – M.: Gosstroyizdat, 1962.

[3] N.Z. Gotman, A.L. Gotman, D.M. Shapiro. Design of
piled –raft foundation as a three-component system “pile-
soil-raft”. Proc. XV-th ICSMFE, Istanbul, v. 1, pp. 691-696,
Ì` Ì 2001, Rotterda: Balkema.

Ì 2
Ì 3
Ì`Î Ì`Í
Ì` 3 Ì
7
2
Ì`2 ÌÏ Ì@ ÌÏ Ì

21 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 1
1-1
Ì` Ì Ì Ì Ì
0,8 1,3
3,5 3,0 1,3
Ì` 2-2
Ì Ì` ÌÍ

0,71 1,42 2,83

3-3 6,3
Ì`Î ÌÌ Ì ÌÍ

4,9 2,8
17,9
20,6 29,1
Figure 7. Diagrams of measured building settlements, mm
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 737
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-737

Laboratory tests and field measurements

investigating the stress strain behaviour of
foundations on hard soil and weak rock
Recherche sur le comportement contrainte-déformation de
fondations sur le sol dur et rock doux utilisant des essais de
laboratoire et des mesures sur le terrain
E.-D. Hornig 1, H. Klapperich
Bergakademie Technical University Freiberg, Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Germany

ABSTRACT
Measured settlements of buildings on hard soil / weak rock appeared to be much smaller than calculated settlements, which were
based on modules of stiffness from standard oedometer tests. Therefore both special triaxial K0-tests and oedometer tests were
carried out for an accurate determination of stiffness modules. Modules obtained in the triaxial K0-tests were at least two to three
times the values obtained in the oedometer tests. To verify observations from the laboratory tests, the loads and the settlements
of two single footings on hard soil / weak rock have been measured during construction of a building during one year. Also a
large scale footing load test with measurements of deformations was conducted on hard soil / weak rock. The measured settle-
ments of the two single footings and the tested foundation were compared with the settlements based on conventional calcula-
tions with modules from oedometer tests and triaxial K0-tests. Up to a foundation pressure of v=500 kN/m² the calculated set-
tlement with ES-modules from triaxial K0-tests was found to correspond well to the measured deformation. For foundation
pressure beyond 500 kN/m², the foundation response was highly non-linear and it could not be described any more with the lin-
ear-elastic model. Therefore the footing load test was also simulated non-linearly by FEM analyses.

RÉSUMÉ
Tassements de bâtiments sur un sol dur ou un roc doux actuellement mesurés sont beaucoup plus petits que les tassements calcu-
lés selon des modules basés sur des essais de rigidité oedométrique. Par conséquent, deux types d’essais furent exécutés dans une
mode comparative afin de préciser les modules de rigidité. Il s’agit d’essais triaxiaux et des essais standardisés oedométriques.
Les modules résultant des essais triaxiaux étaient deux fois à trois fois plus larges que ceux venant des essais oedométriques.
Afin de vérifier les données des essais de laboratoire, les chargements et les tassements de deux fondations individuelles sur sol
dur et roc doux au cours de la construction d'un bâtiment ont été mesurés pendant une année. En utilisant des calculations con-
ventionelles de tassements, les mesures actuellement enrégistrées des fondations ont été comparés avec les modules des essais
oedométriques et des modules des essais K0-triaxiaux. Jusqu’à un niveau de compression du sol de v = 500 kN/m², les mesu-
rements de déformation se comportent bien avec les tassements calculés avec les modules « Es » et les modules des K0-triaxiaux.
Pour des tensions de fondation plus larges 500 kN/m², le comportement des tassements devient de plus en plus non-linéaire et il
n’est pas possible de donner une description précise des tassements avec un modèle de matériaux linéaire. Par conséquent, une
simulation avec une analyse non-linaire FEM d’un essai de chargement de la fondation fut effectuée.

Keywords: Footing load test, hard soil, K0-Triaxial, modules of stiffness, oedometer, settlements, weak rock.

1
Corresponding Author.
738 E.-D. Hornig and H. Klapperich / Laboratory Tests and Field Measurements Investigating
1 INTRODUCTION
Observations and measurements at actual con-
structions prove that calculated settlements of
foundations in the Keuper mudstone, based on
oedometer tests, are usually much too large. By
the way, the German standard DIN 4019 there-
fore provides the possibility of reducing the cal-
culated settlements by a factor down to ½.
One of the main problems of using standard
oedometer tests for getting a module of deforma-
tion is the disturbance of the soil samples when
they are put into the oedometer ring, as these
soils are often laminated and brittle (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Natural structure of Keuper Marl.
A significant improvement can be gained by
conducting lab tests in a special triaxial appara-
tus, namely a one-dimensional compression un-
der oedometer conditions but with a free lateral
surface (without ring), which means that stress is
controlled in such a way that lateral strain re-
mains zero (K0 condition).
A large scale footing test was performed and
the loads and the settlements of two single foot-
ings on weathered Keuper mudstone have been
measured during construction of a building in
order to verify settlement predictions based on
parameters obtained by K0-triaxial tests.
Several series of such “K0-tests” have been
performed for different soil samples. The first re-
sults by Illner [3] and Schmidt/Illner [6] proved
that the modules of deformation Es from K0 tri-
axial tests are three times higher than those
gained by conventional oedometer tests.
To get moduli for settlement calculations, two
parallel tests were conducted on the same soil
sample in order to compare the stress strain be-
havior: one in the oedometer test and one in the
triaxial K0-test. It appeared that modules ob-
tained in the triaxial K0-tests were at least two to
three times the values obtained in the oedometer
tests.
Settlement analyses for the footings have been
made using conventional methods as well as nu-
merically by using the Finite Element Method
(FEM). Taking into account the load-
displacement behavior beyond the regular work-
ing load of the footings, the FEM analyses have
been performed using different types of constitu-
tive models.
2 LABORATORY TESTS
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to put a rep-
resentative soil sample out of the weathered
Keuper mudstone without disturbance of the
structure into the oedometer ring (Figure 2 left).
The reason is that for these structured soils the
dimensions of the oedometer ring are too small.
Figure 2. Disturbed sample in oedometer ring (left) and un-
disturbed sample for K0-Triax (right)
Alternatively triaxial K0-tests on samples with
a diameter of 100 mm (size of the drilling core)
and a height of 120 - 200 mm can be performed
with relative ease (Figure 2 right).
Table 1. Index values of the tested weathered Keuper mud-
stone:
moisture content w [%] 13 - 14
liquid limit wL [%] 33,6 – 38,3
plastic limit wP [%] 13 – 17,8
plasticity index IP [-] 14,2 – 16,6
consistency index IC [-] 1,2 – 1,4
consistency semi-solid – solid
dry density d [g/cm³] 1,85 – 1,95
 E.-D. Hornig and H. Klapperich / Laboratory Tests and Field Measurements Investigating 739

2.1 Sample Preparation and Testing Procedure 2.2 Test Results

Out of the same drill core sample, one part was
The measured deformations from the oedometer
fitted into the oedometer ring (h/d =
were compared with the results gained from K0
2,0 cm/7,1cm). After preparation an oedometer
triaxial compression tests. Figure 5 and 6 show
test was performed. The other, bigger, part of the
results of two typical samples of the weathered
drill core sample (h/d = 12-20cm/10cm) was fit-
Keuper mudstone.
ted without much preparation into the Triaxial
apparatus for a compression test under K0 condi- 10 100 1000 10000
1 [kN/m2]
tions. 0,00
sample 1 / Keuper
The oedometer tests were performed on a 0,01 placement data
K0-Triax

conventional basis by increasing the load step by 0,02

Oedometer
W n = 13.0 %
step. The load was doubled after 24 hours. The 0,03 d = 1,91g/cm³ Oedometer
triaxial compression test was performed in a K0-Triax
0,04 W n = 13,0 %
fully computer controlled testing unit described d = 1,96 g/cm³
%0,05
[-]
by Menzies [5]. In both tests a first loading and
several unloading- reloading steps were carried Figure 5. Test results Keuper mudstone sample 1
out.
The horizontal deformations of the sample 10 100 1000 1 [kN/m²] 10000
0
were measured by radial sensors with Hall Effect sample 2 / Keuper
K0-Triax
Semiconductors (Clayton [1]) (Fig. 4). 0,02 placement data
Oedometer
W n = 14,5 %
0,04 Oedometer
d = 1,84 g/cm³
K0-Triax
0,06
W n = 13,8 %
% [-]
d = 1,96 g/cm³
0,08

Figure 6. Test results Keuper mudstone sample 2

Table 2. Comparison Stiffness modulus ES of Keuper 1 be-

tween Oedometer and K0-Triaxial:
stress range first loading
Figure 3. oedometer testing unit (left) and K0-triax testing
Oedometer K0-Triax ratio
unit (right)
0 ES (EB) ES (EB) H*
[ kN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [-]
The K0 controlled compression tests were per-
50-100 13 25 1,92
formed on unsaturated, drained samples (corre- 100-200 17 40 2,35
sponding to oedometer tests). They were pro 200-400 29 67 2,31
grammed in such a way that during a certain time 400-800 42 80 1,90
period the cell pressure increases continuously to 800-1600 58 120 2,07
a given maximum or minimum. mean 2,11
reloading
Oedometer K0-Triax ratio
0 ES (WB) ES (WB) H*
[ kN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [-]
50-100 36
100-200 29 100 3,45
200-400 38 100 2,63
400-800 105 138 1,31
800-1600
mean 2,46
H* = ratio of stiffness module gained from K0-Triax
Figure 4. Sample for K0-Triax with Radial sensors and from Oedometer resp. H* = ES(K)/ ES(O)
ES=stiffness module, EB=initial loading, WB=reloading, K=K0-Triax,
O=oedometer
740 E.-D. Hornig and H. Klapperich / Laboratory Tests and Field Measurements Investigating

For the initial loading of sample a mean ratio H*

of 2.11 between stiffness moduli of K0-triax and
of oedometer was calculated. Over whole stress
range the ratio did not vary much. At reloading a
mean ratio H* of 2.46 was gained, at which the
ratio decreased from 3.45 to 1.31 during the area
of stress increase.
Figure 7. Photo (left) and schematic view (right) of the large
For sample Keuper 2, which was got from a scale footing load test (Hornig et al. [2])
different site, the corresponding mean value of
H* for initial loading was 3.3. Thereby H* did For the test a cylindrical, reinforced concrete
not vary much, too. At reloading, however, a footing with a diameter of 1,8 m and a height of
mean ratio H* was 1.7, the variation was small, 0,8 m was used. The loading was done by three 3
the amount of H* was nearly the half the value of MN hydraulic presses. Ten grouted injection
initial loading. anchors with a length of 10.5 m and a max. bear-
ing capacity of 900 kN each were used in such a
Table 3. Comparison Stiffness moduli ES of Keuper 2 be- way that an influence on measurements could be
tween oedometer and K0-triaxial:
excluded. During the whole test the settlements
stress range first loading were measured at three points on top of the
Oedometer K0-Triax ratio foundation, using a measuring scaffold, with
0 ES (EB) ES (EB) H* bearings far away from the calculated influence
[ kN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [-] area of the footing.
100-200 9 33 3,7
200-400 15 44 2,9 10 100 1000 1 [kN/m²] 10000
400-800 20 80 4,0 0
800-1200 33 90 2,7 50
mean 3,3 100
reloading 150
Oedometer K0-Triax ratio 200 Large scale footing load test
0 ES (WB) ES (WB) H* s [mm]
250

[ kN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [ MN/m2 ] [-]

Figure 8. Load test, loading cycles and measured settlements
50-100
100-200 41 73 1,8
200-400 55 84 1,5 Four (re)loading – unloading steps were per-
400-800 67 129 1,9 formed up to the failure of the strip. Figure 8
mean 1,7 shows the measured settlements under loading
cycles.

3 LARGE SCALE FOOTING LOAD TEST

The large scale footing load test (Fig. 7) with
measurements of deformations taken at the test
foundation itself and at several depths, using ex-
tensometers, was carried out on the weathered
Keuper mudstone.
Also parallel to the test on site, samples taken
beneath and close to the test foundation have
been analysed to obtain soil parameters. Using
stiffness moduli from triaxial K0-tests and oedo-
meter tests the settlements of the foundation have
been calculated.
4 IN SITU MEASUREMNTS
To verify observations from the laboratory tests,
the loads and the settlements of two single foot-
ings on weathered Keuper mudstone have been
measured during construction of a building in the
city of Stuttgart during one year. Figure 9 show-
sthe placed indirect load measuring device in one
of the two columns. Parallel to the measurements
on site, samples taken close to the foundations
have been analysed to obtain soil parameters, es-
pecially stiffness moduli from triaxial K0-tests
and oedometer tests. Using these characteristic
 E.-D. Hornig and H. Klapperich / Laboratory Tests and Field Measurements Investigating 741

values the settlements of the foundations have Figure 11 shows the measured and the calculated
been calculated. settlements of one single footing under construc-
tion of the building up to foundation pressure of
0 = 300 kN/m².

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

0 0 [kN/m²]

s [mm]
10

15 calculation / K0-Triax module

measurement building foundation 2
20
calculation / Oedometer module
25

Figure 11. Measured and analytical calculated settlements

Figure 9. Placed rebar strain meter in column before placing
of concrete (Martin [4], Hornig et al. [2]) A comparison of the measured settlements in
Fig. 11 with the calculated based on triaxial K0-
test-modules shows a very good agreement. The
calculated settlements, which were based on
5 CALCULATIONS
modules out of oedometer tests, are much too
large.
5.1 Conventional Settlement Analyses
The measured settlements of the footing load test 5.2 Finite Element Method (FEM) Analyses
and the two single footings were compared with
As described in 5.1, beyond a working load of 0
the settlements based on conventional calcula-
= 500 kN/m² nonlinear effects increase.
tions with modules from oedometer tests and tri-
Therefore the footing load test was simulated by
axial K0-tests.
FEM analyses using the Finite Element Code
The measured and the calculated settlements
PLAXIS (Vermeer and Brinkgreve [8]) which
of the footing load test under loading up to foun-
applies two non-linear models: the Mohr-
dation pressure of 0 = 800 kN/m² are shown in
Coulomb model and the Hardening-Soil model.
Figure 10.
The needed model parameters in table 4 were
0 200 400 600 0 [kN/m2 ] 800
mainly optained through the lab-tests,
0 additionally some were chosen within FEM
simulations. The module Eoed from triaxial K0-
s [ mm ]

20
tests was used.
40 measurement footing load test
calculation / K0-Triax
calculation / Oedometer
Table 4. Parameters for the calculations with the FE-Code
60 PLAXIS
Figure 10. Measured and analytical calculated settlements Hardening- Mohr-
Soil Coulomb
For stresses up to 0 = 500 kN/m² a comparison ’ [°] 30 30
of the measured settlements in Fig. 10 with the c’ [kN/m²] 33 33
calculated based on triaxial K0-test-modules E50 [MN/m²] 38 -
shows a very good agreement. Since the founda- EOed [MN/m²] 30 -
tion response was highly non-linear for founda- Eur [MN/m²] 80 -
tion pressure beyond 500 kN/m², this response Eref [MN/m²] - 46
could no longer be described with the linear- ur [-] 0,2 -
elastic model. The calculated settlements with a  [-] - 0,315
working pressure up to 0 = 500 kN/m², which pref [kN/m²] 150 -
were based on oedometer test modules, are much m [-] 0,5 -
too large.
742 E.-D. Hornig and H. Klapperich / Laboratory Tests and Field Measurements Investigating
To describe the geometrical situation of the cy-
lindrical foundation, the finite element mesh
shown in Figure 12 with 15 node elements under
axial symmetrical conditions was used. After
preliminary examination for the influence of the
anchors and the necessary vertical and horizontal
expansion, calculations were made with a fine
mesh in the central zone and a coarse mesh in the
outer zone.
Figure 12. Cross section of the axial symmetrical loaded
mesh
The excavation and the test construction were
simulated by stage constructions. The (re)loading
– unloading steps were described by multipliers.
5.3 Results and Comparison
Figure 13 shows the measured and the calculated
deformations under loading, unloading and re-
loading up to the ultimate bearing pressure of 0
= 1550 kN/m². As described, for the calculations
the Mohr-Coulomb model and the Hardening-
Soil model were used.
0 500 1000 0 [kN/m²]
0 [4]
measurements
FE-calculation: Hardening Soil
50 FE-calculation: Mohr Coulomb
s [mm]
100
150
200
Figure 13. Measured and numerical calculated settlements
The Hardening-Soil model can describe the de-
formations under loading, unloading and reload-
ing better than the Mohr-Coulomb model. Simu-
lations using the Mohr-Coulomb model only
represent the initial loading well.
6 CONCLUSIONS
For base pressures of up to working load, the set-
tlements for the measured single footings and for
the tested large scale footing can be described
very well with the linear-elastic model within
conventional settlement analyses. An accurate
determination of the deformation parameter is
very important for the investigated soils. The K0-
test in the triaxial apparatus is therefore very use-
ful. Alternatively the use of reloading-modules
from Oedometer tests can also give practical re-
sults.
Deformations beyond base pressures of 0 =
500 kN/m² should be simulated numerically by
using non-linear models. In this case, the stiff-
ness modules out of triaxial K0-tests should be
used as well. Calculations with the Finite Ele-
ment Code PLAXIS (Vermeer and Brinkgreve
[8]), which are based on the Mohr-Coulomb and
the Hardening-Soil models, achieve good results.
REFERENCES
[1] Clayton, C. (1989). The Use of Hall Effect Semicon-
ductors in Geotechnical Instrumentation. Geotechnical
Testing Journal. Vol. 12, No. 1, 69-76.
[2] Hornig, E.-D., Buchmaier, R. F., Schmidt, H.-H.
(2002). Eindimensionale Kompression überkonsolidier-
ter bindiger Böden am Beispiel des Gipskeupers. For-
schungsbericht, Fachhochschule Stuttgart – Hochschu-
le für Technik.
[3] Illner, C. (1997). Verformungsverhalten von Gipskeu-
perböden. Forschungsbericht Fachhochschule Stuttgart
– Hochschule für Technik, Labor für Geotechnik, un-
1500
published
Maritn, S. (2001). Messung und Berechnung von Set-
zungen an Einzelfundamenten im Gipskeuper. Diplom-
arbeit, Institut für Geotechnik, Universität Stuttgart,
unpublished
[5] Menzies, B. K. (1988). A Computer Controlled Hy-
draulic Triaxial Testing System. American Society for
Testing and Materials. STP 977, Philadelphia, 82-94.
[6] Schmidt, H.-H., Illner, C. (1998). Bestimmung von
Verformungsmoduln an Gipskeuperproben. Tagungs-
band der 25. Baugrundtagung, Stuttgart. DGGT, Ge-
rman Geotechnical Society
[7] Schnürch, R. (1998). Experimentelle Ermittlung geo-
technischer Kenngrößen für die Setzungsberechnung
bei überkonsolidierten Böden am Beispiel des Gipskeu-
pers. Diplomarbeit, Fachhochschule Stuttgart – Hoch-
schule für Technik, unpublished
[8] Vermeer, P. A., Brinkgreve R.B.J. (1998). PLAXIS
Material Model Manual Version 7. A.A. Balkema, Rot-
terdam.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 743
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-743

Capacité portante des fondations superficielles

avec et sans l’hypothèse de superposition
Bearing capacity of shallow foundations with and without the
superposition assumption
A. Mabrouki 1, D. Benmeddour & M. Mellas
Université de Biskra, Département de Génie Civil et Hydraulique, Biskra, Algérie
R. Frank
Université Paris-Est, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, Navier - CERMES, France

ABSTRACT
Many studies have been carried out on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations; these studies have an identical approach as
all of them follow the superposition of the three terms introduced by Terzaghi. This study examines Terzaghi’s assumption by
elasto-plastic calculations using the finite-difference codes FLAC2D and FLAC3D. Two types of footings are considered, square
and strip, and the soil-footing interface is assumed smooth or rough. The effect of a non-associated flow rule is also investigated.

RÉSUMÉ
De nombreuses études ont été consacrées à la détermination de la capacité portante des fondations superficielles ; ces études ont
une allure identique puisqu’elles suivent la superposition des trois termes introduite par Terzaghi. Cette étude examine
l’hypothèse de superposition de Terzaghi, par des calculs élasto-plastiques en utilisant les codes FLAC2D et FLAC3D en diffé-
rences finies explicites. Deux types de semelles sont considérés, carrée et filante, et l’interface sol-fondation est supposée lisse
ou rugueuse. L’effet d’une loi d’écoulement non-associée est également considéré dans cette étude.

Mots-clés: capacité portante, fondation superficielle, semelles filantes et carrées, superposition, comportement élasto-plastique,
non-associativité.

1 INTRODUCTION d’essais in situ au pressiomètre Ménard et au pé-

La méthode de dimensionnement des fondations
superficielles est basée sur le principe de la force
portante ou de la capacité portante. En pratique,
la capacité portante des fondations superficielles
est déterminée par deux méthodes ; la première
est basée sur les résultats d’essais de laboratoire,
c’est-à-dire à partir de la cohésion et de l’angle
de frottement (méthodes classiques, dites mé-
thodes « c et ij ») ; la deuxième méthode déter-
mine la capacité portante à partir des résultats
nétromètre statique, notamment.
Dans la catégorie des méthodes en « c et ij »,
il existe une variété de méthodes développées par
de nombreux auteurs pour calculer la capacité
portante des fondations superficielles, en faisant
des hypothèses différentes sur la rugosité de la
semelle et la forme de la zone en équilibre limite.
Dans la littérature on trouve la méthode
d’équilibre limite [1–3], la méthode des caracté-
ristiques ou lignes de glissement [4–5] ; la mé-
thode d’analyse limite avec ses deux approches,
cinématique et statique [6–7], l’analyse limite

1
Corresponding Author.
744 A. Mabrouki et al. / Capacité portante des fondations superficielles
par éléments finis [8] et les calculs élasto-
plastiques en utilisant la méthode des éléments
finis ou la méthode des différences finies [9–11].
Toutes ces méthodes sont présentées selon la su-
perposition de trois termes introduite par Terzag-
hi [1] ; le premier terme représente la charge li-
mite pour un massif pesant et purement frottant,
le deuxième terme représente la charge limite
pour un massif frottant et cohérent, mais non pe-
sant, le troisième terme représente la charge li-
mite pour un massif purement frottant, non pe-
sant, et soumis à une surcharge uniforme à coté
de la fondation ; l’expression de Terzaghi [1]
s’écrit sous la forme :
B prise en considération pour la semelle filante et
qu  N
 cN c  qN q (1)
2 un quart dans le cas de la semelle carrée. Pour
Avec : qu = contrainte de rupture (capacité por-
tante) ; B = largeur de la semelle ; Ȗ = poids vo-
lumique du sol ; q = surcharge verticale latérale à
la semelle ; c = cohésion du sol sous la base de la
semelle ; NȖ, Nc et Nq = facteurs de portance.
Pour le calcul de la capacité portante d’une
fondation superficielle dans le cas général,
Meyerhof [2] a proposé la formule suivante :
B'
qu  s
d
i
N
 csc d c ic N c  qs q d q iq N q (2)
2 trois facteurs de portance d’une semelle filante et
où B’ désigne la largeur de la fondation réduite
pour tenir compte de l’excentricité e de la charge
 2qu ( filante ) /
B
appliquée B’=B-2e, s désigne les facteurs de
'  2qu (carrée) /
B
forme de la fondation, d désigne les facteurs
d’encastrement de la fondation, et i désigne les
facteur d’inclinaison de la charge. Dans la pré-
sente étude, les semelles sont posées en surface,
(sans encastrement) et la charge est verticale et
centrée, donc B=B’, dȖ = dc = dq = iȖ = ic = iq = 1.
Ainsi, le principe de superposition était et
reste encore largement utilisé dans la pratique.
Cette étude s’intéresse au calcul numérique des
facteurs de portance, d’une semelle filante et car-
rée ainsi que de la capacité portante avec et sans
l’hypothèse de superposition. Les semelles sont
supposées rigides, rugueuses ou lisses, et sou-
mises à une charge verticale centrée.
2 SIMULATION NUMERIQUE
Pour déterminer la capacité portante d’une se-
melle filante et carrée, les codes FLAC2D [12] et
FLAC3D [13] en différences finies explicites ont
été choisis. Ces codes intègrent de nombreuses
lois de comportement, adaptables à un grand
nombre de matériaux, géologiques ou non.
Dans cette étude on considère deux types de
calcul ; premièrement, un calcul en déformation
plane pour déterminer la capacité portante d’une
semelle filante de largeur B ; deuxièmement, un
calcul tridimensionnel de la capacité portante
d’une semelle carrée de côté B. Du fait des symé-
tries du problème, seule la moitié du modèle est
calculer les facteurs de portance NȖ et NȖ’ = sȖNȖ
on suppose un massif de sol pesant, purement
frottant et sans surcharge (Ȗ = 15 kN/m3, c = 0, q
= 0). Les facteur Nc et Nc’ = scNc sont calculés en
supposant un massif frottant et cohérent, mais
non pesant et sans surcharge (q = 0, Ȗ = 0, c = 10
kPa). Enfin, les facteurs Nq et Nq’ = sqNq sont
calculés en supposant un massif purement frot-
tant, non pesant et chargé latéralement par rap-
port à la fondation (Ȗ = 0, c = 0 et q = 10 kPa).
A partir de l’équation (1) de Terzaghi [1], les
carrée, sont donnés par les relations suivantes :
N
N
N c  qu ( filante ) / c
(3)
N c '  qu (carrée) / c
N q  qu ( filante ) / q
N q '  qu (carrée) / q
Dans cette étude le comportement du sol est
régi par une loi élastique-parfaitement plastique
et le critère de Mohr-Coulomb a été adopté ; ce
modèle est caractérisé par un module volumique
K = 2,5×104 kPa, un module de cisaillement G
=1,15×104 kPa (E = 30 MPa, ȣ = 0,3). L’angle de
frottement ij varie entre 20° à 40° par pas de 5°,
l’angle de dilatance ȥ ij ou 0.
La condition d’une semelle rigide (indéfor-
mable) est assurée en fixant le déplacement ver-
 A. Mabrouki et al. / Capacité portante des fondations superficielles 745

tical pour les nœuds de la semelle ; l’interface fluence sur la capacité portante ; cependant si les
rugueuse est assurée en bloquant les déplace- valeurs choisies sont importantes, la capacité
ments relatifs horizontaux ; le déplacement est portante est atteinte pour un déplacement plus
fixé uniquement dans la direction verticale pour petit. On note aussi que le poids volumique Ȗ a
tenir compte du cas d’une semelle lisse. Pour une influence négligeable sur les facteurs de por-
calculer les facteurs de portance, une technique tance ; dans cette étude Ȗ = 15 kN/m3.
de chargement par déplacement a été adoptée en
considérant une vitesse de déplacement très
faible, appliquée sur les nœuds des éléments qui 3 RESULTATS ET DISCUSSIONS
représentent la semelle ; le déplacement progres-
sif de la semelle est accompagné par
l’augmentation des contraintes dans le sol ; la 3.1 Facteurs de portante
contrainte au-dessous de la semelle se stabilise
pour une valeur qui indique un palier ; ce palier
correspond à la capacité portante qu. Comme 3.1.1 Semelle filante
dans tous les codes de modélisation basés sur la La Figure 1 présente une comparaison entre les
méthode des éléments finis ou les différences fi- valeurs de NȖ de la présente étude et celles dé-
nies, le modèle est discrétisé par un maillage. terminées par quelques expressions analytiques
Frydman et Burd [9] ont montré que le facteur de données dans la littérature. L’analyse des résul-
portance NȖ dépend de la géométrie du maillage tats montre une grande dispersion, surtout pour
utilisé et de la vitesse de déplacement verticale ; les valeurs importantes de l’angle de frottement
le raffinement du maillage avec une forme interne ij. La présente étude montre l’effet de la
d’éléments proche du carré, ainsi que le choix non-associativité sur le facteur de portance NȖ ;
d’une vitesse de déplacement très faible, donnent cet effet devient important avec l’augmentation
les meilleurs résultats, surtout pour le cas d’une de ij ; le facteur de portance NȖ est réduit de 44%
semelle rugueuse. pour le cas d’une semelle rugueuse avec ij = 40°
De nombreux tests ont été exécutés pour exa- et ȥ = 0, par rapport au cas associé (ȥ = ij). Ega-
miner l’influence de la taille du modèle, le lement, la nature de l’interface sol-fondation a
nombre d’éléments et la vitesse de déplacement une influence considérable sur le facteur de por-
sur la capacité portante ; les dimensions du mail- tance NȖ ; ce dernier est réduit d’environ 50%
lage ont été considérées avec une semelle filante pour le cas d’une semelle parfaitement lisse avec
et carrée de demi largeur B/2 = 1 m. Les condi- ȥ ij = 40°.
tions aux limites sont prises en compte en blo-
quant les déplacements horizontaux et verticaux
pour la limite inférieure ; pour les limites laté-
rales, le déplacement est bloqué dans la direction
horizontale. Un raffinement local du maillage a
été effectué dans les zones de forts gradients de
contraintes, c’est-à-dire au voisinage de la fonda-
tion et sous sa base ; les dimensions du modèle
ont été définies de façon à éviter toute source de
perturbation dans la formation des mécanismes
de rupture dans le sol.
Afin d’illustrer l’influence du module
d’élasticité sur la capacité portante, trois valeurs
ont été considérées (E = 30, 40 et 60 MPa) tant
Figure 1. Comparaison des facteurs NȖ obtenus par les ex-
pour la semelle filante que pour la semelle car- pressions données dans la littérature - Semelle filante.
rée. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les va-
leurs des paramètres élastiques ont une petite in-
746 A. Mabrouki et al. / Capacité portante des fondations superficielles

Les valeurs de NȖ obtenues par l’expression de

Michalowski [7] pour une semelle rugueuse et
ȥ = ij sont les valeurs supérieures ; par ailleurs,
lorsque ȥ = 0, les considérations théoriques
adoptés par Michalowski [7], sous-estiment la
capacité portante. Aussi, la Figure 1 montre que
l’expression de Loukidis et Salgado [10] pour
une semelle rugueuse avec ȥ = ij, donne à peu
près les mêmes valeurs que celles calculées par
Hjiaj et al. [8] ; l’expression de Hansen [4]
s’accorde très bien avec ces deux expressions,
sauf pour ij = 40°.
Pour un sol non-associé (ȥ = 0) et ij ) 35° les Figure 2. Comparaison des facteurs Nc obtenus par les ex-
résultats de la présente étude sont en excellent pressions données dans la littérature - Semelle filante.
accord avec ceux donnés par l’expression de
Loukidis et Salgado [10] ; pour ij = 40°, il appa-
raît que cette expression donne des valeurs
faibles; cette différence peut être due au pro-
blème des fluctuations observées ; cette question
a été précédemment discutée dans la littérature
(Yin et al. [11]). Il est difficile d’estimer les va-
leurs de facteur de portance dans la série des
fluctuations ; dans cette étude la valeur moyenne
a été retenue.
Les Figures 2 et 3 comparent respectivement
les facteurs de portance Nc et Nq obtenus par la
présente étude avec ceux donnés dans la littéra-
ture, il faut cependant rappeler que Meyerhof [2], Figure 3. Comparaison des facteurs Nq obtenus par les ex-
Hansen [4], VesiŸ [3], et l’Eurocode 7 [14] adop- pressions données dans la littérature - Semelle filante.
tent la même solution que celle donnée par
Prandtl [15] et Reissner [16]. 3.1.2 Semelle carrée
Dans le cas d’un sol associé (ȥ = ij), la pré-
Pour examiner les expressions du coefficient de
sente étude donnent des résultats très proches de
forme sȖ utilisées dans la pratique, la Figure 4
ceux obtenus par la solution de Prandtl-Reissner
montre les facteurs NȖ’ de la présente étude com-
et montrent une influence négligeable de
parés à ceux calculés à partir de quelques expres-
l’interface sol-fondation. Il est clair que
sions du coefficient de forme sȖ données dans la
l’expression de Terzaghi [1] surestime les fac-
littérature.
teurs de portance Nc et Nq ; les résultats de la pré-
L’analyse des résultats présentés sur la Figure
sente étude dans le cas d’une semelle lisse avec
4 permet de remarquer une dispersion considé-
ȥ = ij, et ceux de Loukidis et Salgado [10] sont
rable entre les résultats des différents auteurs.
en très bonne concordance avec la solution don-
L’Eurocode 7 [14] donne des valeurs supérieures
née par Prandtl-Reissner. On note que les résul-
d’environ 25% aux présents résultats, dans le cas
tats de Nc donnés par Loukidis et Salgado [10]
d’une semelle lisse et ȥ = ij = 40°; au contraire
sont obtenus en appliquant le théorème des états
pour une semelle rugueuse, les valeurs obtenues
correspondants de Caquot [17] :
par la présente étude sont plus de deux fois supé-
rieures à celles de l’Eurocode 7 ; cette large dif-
fg N q  f ( ) férence peut être justifiée par le fait que
h (4)
gi N c  ( N q  1) cot  l’Eurocode 7 [14] est basé sur des approxima-
 A. Mabrouki et al. / Capacité portante des fondations superficielles 747

tions empiriques en déformation plane et

l’utilisation du coefficient de forme égale à 0,7
pour la semelle carrée; cependant, dans le cas
d’une semelle rugueuse avec un sol non-associé
(ȥ = 0) il y a un bon accord entre les résultats de
l’Eurocode 7 [14] et ceux de la présente étude.
Pour une semelle rugueuse et ȥ = ij, on peut re-
marquer l’excellent accord avec les résultats de
Meyerhof [2].

Figure 5. Comparaison des facteurs Nc’ obtenu par les ex-

pressions données dans la littérature - Semelle carrée.

Figure 4. Comparaison des facteurs NȖ obtenus par les ex-

pressions données dans la littérature - Semelle carrée.

Les Figures 5 et 6 montrent, respectivement,

les facteurs Nc’ et Nq’ de la présente étude com-
parés à ceux calculés à partir des expressions du
coefficient de forme sc et sq données par plu-
sieurs auteurs. Les résultats de Nc’ de Loukidis et
Salgado [10] sont obtenus par l’application du
théorème des états correspondants de Caquot
[17]. Dans le cas d’une semelle rugueuse et ȥ =
ij, l’expression de sq donnée par Loukidis et Sal-
gado [10] pour une semelle circulaire, permet
d’obtenir des facteurs de portance Nq’ et Nc’ en
bon accord avec les résultats numériques de la
présente étude.
Les expressions de sc et sq proposées par Ter-
zaghi [1], Meyerhof [2], Hansen [4], VesiŸ
[3], et présente étude, en considérant la somme des ca-
l’Eurocode 7 [14] sous-estiment les facteurs de
portance Nc’ et Nq’ ; la différence devient signifi-
cative avec l’augmentation de l’angle de frotte-
ment interne du sol et peut être expliquée par le
fait que les résultats des différents auteurs sont
basés sur des approximations en déformation
plane et l’emploi de coefficients de forme infé-
rieurs à ceux obtenus par la présente étude.
Figure 6. Comparaison des facteurs Nq’ obtenus par les ex-
pressions dans la littérature - Semelle carrée.
3.2 Influence de l’hypothèse de superposition
Terzaghi [1] a proposé de superposer les méca-
nismes de rupture des trois termes de la portance,
mais ceci ne fournit pas une solution exacte du
problème. Les Tableaux 1 et 2 récapitulent, res-
pectivement, les résultats de la capacité portante
pour une semelle filante et carrée, obtenus par la
pacités portantes des trois termes cNc, qNq et
0,5Ȗ%1Ȗ, ainsi que la capacité portante globale
obtenue lorsque l’on considère l’effet global des
trois paramètres c, q et Ȗ.
On peut observer que l’hypothèse de superpo-
sition de Terzaghi [1], sous-estime la capacité
portante d’environ 10% à 20% pour les semelles
filantes et carrées. En conséquence le principe de
superposition va dans le sens de sécurité.
748 A. Mabrouki et al. / Capacité portante des fondations superficielles

Tableau 1. Comparaison des résultats de la superposition et le calcul global dans le cas d’une semelle filante
Données qu (kPa) Calcul avec superposition qu (kPa) Calcul global
c  q Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle
(kPa) (°) (kPa) rugueuse rugueuse lisse lisse rugueuse rugueuse lisse lisse
( = ) ( = /2) ( = ) ( = /2) ( = ) ( = /2) ( = ) ( = /2)
10 20 10 262,67 257,6 238,28 237,36 299,0 296,9 260,02 259,20
10 30 10 734,25 703,45 610,87 600,96 854,6 832,8 687,10 679,70
10 40 10 2800,6 2559,5 2090,85 2000,10 3310,0 3063,0 2427,0 2377,0

Tableau 2. Comparaison des résultats de la superposition et le calcul global dans le cas d’une semelle carrée
Données qu (kPa) Calcul avec superposition qu (kPa) Calcul global
c  q Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle Semelle
(kPa) (°) (kPa) rugueuse rugueuse lisse lisse rugueuse rugueuse lisse lisse
( = ) ( = /2) ( = ) ( = /2) ( = ) ( = /2) ( = ) ( = /2)
10 20 10 374,19 356,75 297,89 284,50 407,83 401,48 323,65 320,24
10 30 10 1322,50 1211,15 892,62 820,85 1471,28 1371,0 985,09 935,66
10 40 10 6822,01 5871,08 3896,45 3496,45 7705,80 6725,9 4385,8 4020,49

[3] ШŸ, A.S. Analysis of ultimate loads of shallow foun-

4 CONCLUSIONS
Cette étude a permis de déterminer par des cal-
culs étasto-plastiques, les facteurs de portance
d’une semelle filante et carrée, en considérant les
trois termes de portance et l’effet de la non-
associativité du sol, ainsi que la nature de
l’interface.
Les facteurs de portance d’une semelle filante
et carrée sont influencés considérablement par la
non-associativité du sol pour les grandes valeurs
de . Aussi, l’interface sol-fondation a un effet
important sur les facteurs de portance N, N’, Nc’
et Nq’ ; par ailleurs, il a été constaté une influence
négligeable de l’interface sur les facteurs Nc et
Nq. Les calculs élasto-plastiques de la présente
étude donnent des résultats très proches de ceux
obtenus par la solution de Prandtl-Reissner.
Les résultats de la capacité portante obtenus
par le principe de superposition, sont toujours in-
férieurs à ceux déterminés par un calcul global,
donc l’approximation faite est du côté de la sécu-
rité.
REFERENCES
[1] Terzaghi K. Theoretical soil mechanics. Wiley New
York, 1943.
[2] Meyerhof GG. Some recent research on the bearing ca-
pacity of foundations. Can Geotech J 1 (1963), 16–26.
dations. J Soil Mech Found Div ASCE 99 (1973),45–73
[4] Hansen. J.B. A revised and extended formula for bear-
ing capacity. Danish Geotech Inst Bull 28 (1970), 5–11.
[5] Salençon, J & Matar, M, Capacité portante des fonda-
tions superficielles circulaires. J de Mécanique théo-
rique et appliqué 1 (1982), 237–267.
[6] Chen, W.F. Limit analysis and soil plasticity. Elsevier
Amsterdam, 1975.
[7] Michalowski, R.L. An estimate of the influence of soil
weight on bearing capacity using limit analysis. Soils
Found 37 (1997), 57–64.
[8] Hjiaj, M., Lyamin, A.V. & Sloan, S.W. Numerical limit
analysis solutions for the bearing capacity factor N. Int
J Solids Struct 42 (2005), 1681–1704.
[9] Frydman, S. & Burd, H.J. Numerical studies of bearing
capacity factor N. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 123
(1997), 20–29.
[10] Loukidis, D. & Salgado, R. Bearing capacity of strip
and circular footings in sand using finite elements.
Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009), 871–879.
[11] Yin, J.H. Wang, Y.J. & Selvadurai A.P.S. Influence of
nonassociativity on the bearing capacity of a strip foot-
ing. J Geoth Geoenv Eng ASCE 127 (2001), 985–989.
[12] FLAC2D. Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua, version
5.0. (2005) ITASCA Consulting Group, Inc., Minneap-
olis.
[13] FLAC3D. Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in three
dimensions, version 3.10. (2006). ITASCA Consulting
Group, Inc., Minneapolis.
[14] Eurocode 7. Calcul géotechnique Partie 1 règles
générales (Norme NF EN 1997-1, AFNOR Paris, 2005.
[15] Prandtl, L. Über die Härte plastischer Körper. Nachr.
Ges. Wiss. Goettingen, Math.-Phys. Kl. (1920), 74–85.
[16] Reissner, H. Zum Erddruckproblem. Proc., 1st Int.
Congress for Applied Mechanics, C. B. Biezeno and J.
M. Burgers, eds., Delft, The Netherlands, (1924), 295–
311.
[17] Caquot, A. Équilibre des massifs á frottement interne.
Stabilité des terres pulvérulentes et cohérentes. Gau-
thier-Villars Paris, 1934.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 749
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-749

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 755
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-755

Case study: The design & performance of a raft

foundation on Mercia Mudstone
Etude de cas: l’étude et la performance d’un radier sur un sol de
type ‘Mercia Mudstone’
M. Miller1
Donaldson Associates, formerly of Ramboll UK
M. Vaziri & R. Miller
Ramboll UK

ABSTRACT
The St David’s 2 development is a new retail and residential complex in the heart of Cardiff, South Wales. The substructure in-
cludes a basement with a footprint area of approximately 100m x 290m. Following ground investigation it was ascertained that
the basement would found on Mercia Mudstone of Grades II and IV. It was proposed that the structure would found on a raft
foundation which would bring significant cost and programme savings compared to a piled foundation. A steel pile retaining
wall solution was adopted using a ‘Super Crush System’ to penetrate the mudstone and overlying gravels. Owing to difficulties
achieving the undisturbed embedded depth required for the applied loads, an envelope within which the raft design had to com-
ply was adopted. Finite Element Analysis was undertaken to predict settlement and bending within the raft. A combination of
Winkler Spring and half-space analysis was used in an iterative process to allow for the production of ‘intelligent springs’.
Monitoring of the raft settlement was undertaken to provide a comparison to predicted settlements.

RÉSUMÉ
Le projet St David’s 2 est un nouveau complexe résidentiel et commerçant situé au coeur de Cardiff, dans le Sud du Pays de
Galles. L’infrastructure comprend un sous-sol de dimensions approximatives 100m x 290m. Après les études de sol, il a été éta-
bli que le sous-sol serait fondé sur Mercia Mudstone de catégories II et IV. Il a donc été proposé que la structure soit fondée sur
un radier, ce qui permettrait d’apporter une économie importante si l’on compare avec le coût de fondations de type pieux. La
solution d’un mur de soutènement en pieux d’acier utilisant la méthode ‘Super Crush System’ a été adoptée pour pénétrer dans le
‘mudstone’ et les pierres le recouvrant. Compte tenu des difficultés à atteindre la profondeur requise pour le niveau d’assise, une
enveloppe au sein de laquelle le plan du radier devait se conformer fut adoptée. Une analyse par la Méthode des Eléments Finis a
été entreprise afin d’estimer les tassements et les torsions dans le radier. Une combinaison des méthodes d’analyse de Winkler
Spring et du ‘demi-espace’ ont été utilisées dans un processus itératif pour permettre la production d « Actions intelligentes ».
Un monitoring des tassements du radier fut entrepris pour permettre de faire la comparaison avec les tassements estimés.

Keywords: Cardiff, raft design, Mercia Mudstone, steel pile, hydraulic press-in

1 INTRODUCTION foundation. It discusses the methodology adopted

Ramboll UK were involved with the St David’s 2
Cardiff project from tender design in 2005 until
completion in 2010. This paper presents a case
study of the design of the development’s raft
for the raft design, the design of the retaining
walls and the effects of their installation on the
design process. Lessons learned are then
presented.

1
Corresponding Author.
756 M. Miller et al. / Case Study: Design & Performance of Raft Foundation on Mercia Mudstone

The St David’s 2 development is a new retail and part on Grade IV Mercia Mudstone (Figure
and residential complex in Cardiff, South Wales. 1).
A double level basement underlies the majority
of the building with a footprint area of circa
100m x 290m. The St David’s Partnership, a
joint venture between Capital Shopping Centres
and Land Securities, was the client with Bovis
Lend Lease the Design & Build Main Contractor.

2 GROUND CONDITIONS

A comprehensive ground investigation was

carried out at the start of detailed design. It was
observed that the ground conditions beneath the
site consist of Made Ground overlying firm to
stiff Fluvioglacial clays, medium dense to very
dense Fluvioglacial gravels (FGG), Grade IV
Mercia Mudstone (fully weathered: matrix only)
and Grade II Mercia Mudstone (partially
weathered: angular blocks of unweathered marl
with virtually no matrix). The Grade IV Mercia
Mudstone was described as soft to stiff red
brown, slightly sandy, slightly gravelly to
gravelly. The Grade II Mercia Mudstone was
described as very weak to moderately weak,
becoming stronger with depth, thinly laminated,
locally weathered. Table 1 presents the
characteristic soil parameters derived from the
ground investigation data.
Figure 1. Raft areas and schematic section showing raft
Table 1. Soil Parameters for Mercia Mudstone Derived from founding on Mercia Mudstone (not to scale)
Ground Investigation Data
Table 2 presents stiffness values for the Grade
γ φ’ cu IV Mercia Mudstone calculated from the various
Strata
[kN/m3] [°] [kN/m2] in-situ testing procedures.

Grade IV Mercia
20 25 60 Table 2: Comparison of Grade IV Mercia Mudstone Stiffness
Mudstone
Derived from Various In-Situ Testing Methods and Available
Grade II Mercia
22 40 0 Sources
Mudstone
Drained Stiffness
Method
The Mercia Mudstone was characterised as (MPa)
Unit D according to Howard et al. [1], being SPT 7.8
structureless red-brown, dolomitic mudstone. Pressuremeter (DPM) 32
The contours of the rock head and varying Plate Loading (250mm diameter) 4.8
depths of the basement meant that part of the raft Engineering Description1 4 – 15
would be founded on Grade II Mercia Mudstone 1. Based on borehole logs and sample descriptions,
material is soft to stiff i.e. cu=20 to 75kN/m2. The lowest
value was selected.
 M. Miller et al. / Case Study: Design & Performance of Raft Foundation on Mercia Mudstone
2. The low values from pressuremeter tests were deemed
to be due to disaggregation of the mudstone during boring.
Table 3 presents stiffness values for the Grade
II Mercia Mudstone calculated from various
testing procedures.
Table 3: Comparison of Grade II Mercia Mudstone Stiffness
Derived from Various Testing Methods and Available
Sources
Rock Stiffness
Method
(MPa)
SPT 150
Pressuremeter (HPD) 150
Plate Loading (250mm diameter) 25
UCS Test Results1 130
Engineering Description2 215
1. Including correlated point load test results assuming
the mass stiffness is 10% of the laboratory test results. The
lowest value was selected.
2. Based on borehole logs and sample descriptions.
Assuming weak to moderately weak rock ranges from σc =1 –
5MPa, the stiffness was derived using Em = 215 σc [2].
It was acknowledged that the stiffness values
predicted by the in-situ testing for the Grade IV
Mercia Mudstone were low; however, they were
not significantly lower than those recommended
by industry guidance [3]. It was therefore
considered that the Ground Investigation data
had to be heeded and a drained stiffness of
7.8MPa, based on the SPT testing, was adopted
for design. In the north of the site, SPT values
were consistently low suggesting a drained
stiffness of 4.5MPa. A stiffness value of 150MPa
was adopted for the Grade II Mercia Mudstone.
During the Ground Investigation, groundwater
was observed at approximately 5.4mOD; 3.6m
above founding level in the south of the site.
The long term models therefore modelled an
upwards water pressure acting on the raft.
The Grade IV mudstone was observed to be
slightly sandy and slightly gravelly and the
Grade II mudstone was observed to contain a
high quantity of discontinuities. It was therefore
considered that there would be sufficient
pathways to allow pore water pressures to
dissipate almost instantly. In addition, laboratory
testing indicated that the plasticity index of the
mudstone was approximately 15%, thus with a
757
low potential for volume change. As a result,
long term heave effects of the soil were not
included within the analysis.
The Westbury Formation within the Mercia
Mudstone Group has the potential for heave as a
result of the high percentage of disseminated
pyrite it contains. This formation occurs within
Cardiff; however, its presence was not noted
during the ground investigation.
3 DESIGN STRATEGY
Research of historical information was
undertaken to gather case studies of large-scale
structures on Mercia Mudstone, particularly in
the Cardiff area. It was found that the majority
of larger developments within Cardiff city centre
have used piled foundations from existing
ground level. This has limited the opportunities
to study the behaviour of the Mercia Mudstone in
Cardiff, especially its in-situ characteristics
under stress relief and its performance under
widespread loading.
Given the geology of the site and the case
study data reviewed, Ramboll initially proposed
to found the basement structure on a raft with
settlement reducing mini piles. The settlement
criteria for the structure was governed by
differential settlement requirements, therefore it
was considered that settlement reducing piles
could be used to produce uniform settlements.
The aim was that subsequent detailed design
would show that piles were not required.
A raft foundation was considered preferable to
piles due to the cost savings and significant
programme savings it would bring. The raft also
allowed flexibility in phasing of demolition,
excavation and construction across the site.
4 SUBSTRUCTURE
The final substructure scheme consisted of steel
tubular (0.914m dia) and sheet pile retaining
walls (PU32) tied into a raft foundation within
the basement area. A maximum depth of 9m was
excavated for the basement. Areas of the scheme
comprising retail without a basement (the
758 M. Miller et al. / Case Study: Design & Performance of Raft Foundation on Mercia Mudstone
‘Apron’ structure, Figure 2) were founded on
piles linked by ground beams, due to large
depths of Made Ground.
The raft foundation varies in thickness (from
0.5m to 2.0m) across the structure depending on
the magnitude of applied load. Typically, areas
of raft which are relatively lightly loaded are
0.5m thick; areas beneath cores are 1.5m thick
and 2.0m thick ribs were utilised for rows of
heavy columns (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Foundation Scheme
5 RETAINING WALL DESIGN & LOAD
TEST
A ‘press-in’ steel pile retaining wall solution was
chosen due to the space and programme savings
it afforded. The retaining walls were designed to
provide lateral soil support and also to carry
vertical loads transferred via a capping beam.
The tubular steel piles were designed to support
an axial load of 1100kN/m and the sheet piles to
support an axial load of 500kN/m. Due to the
requirement for the piles to penetrate the
mudstone and because of the density of the
overlying superficial gravels a ‘Super Crush
System’ (hydraulic press-in method with an
internal auger) was used to install both the sheet
and the tubular steel piles.
The auger was advanced marginally ahead of
the pile with the following pile pressed into the
freshly augered material. The design verification
for the axial capacity of the piles relied chiefly
on the end bearing capacity obtained from a final
press-in of 1.2m into un-augered mudstone.
This was the first time the ‘Super Crush
System’ had been used in Mercia Mudstone and
five test sheet piles were initially installed to
verify design assumptions and confirm the
required installation forces. One of these piles
was extracted to determine the static skin friction
above the proposed excavation level, the other
four were Static Load Tested to determine static
skin friction below the excavation level and
define required pile toe resistance applied during
pile installation. The test sheet piles generally
performed satisfactorily under the loads applied
during testing, however, the settlement under
load for one did not fit the anticipated curve
profile and showed a significant amount of
plastic deformation.
6 RETAINING WALL INSTALLATION
The sheet piles were installed first and the
installation records indicated that the final
recorded push-in forces were generally not large
enough to verify the required design load. As the
sheet pile records and installation procedure were
analysed further it became apparent that there
were also difficulties in achieving the design toe
level, necessary for the sheet piles to function as
a retaining wall, whilst maintaining the
undisturbed embedment required for axial
loading capacity.
The majority of the piles did not achieve the
design un-augered embedment depth of 1.2m
refusing prematurely within the mudstone. This
created the risk that upon application of building
loads the sheet piles may cut through hard layers
of mudstone into underlying less stiff layers of
mudstone, indeed this was observed several
times during installation where piles pushed
through un-augured ground in excess of 1.2m
with relatively little pressure applied.
Furthermore there were many instances where
the sheet pile toe had a significant quantity of
augered material beneath it.
Taking on board the installation results, site
observations and the pile load test results it was
considered that there was insufficient
information to determine a design axial load
capacity of the retaining wall. In addition there
 M. Miller et al. / Case Study: Design & Performance of Raft Foundation on Mercia Mudstone
were no comparable case studies with which to
correlate these results to provide further
assurance of the axial capacity if the piles. It
was therefore decided that the raft design should
cover all eventualities within an envelope of the
‘best’ and ‘worst’ cases in terms of the support
provided by the piles.
7 METHOD FOR RAFT ANALYSIS
Analysis was undertaken to predict settlement
and bending within the raft. A combination of
Winkler Spring and half-space analysis was used
in an iterative process through the structural
program ROBOT and the geotechnical program
VDISP. The use of these two programs allows
for the production of ‘intelligent’ springs as
described by Cracknell [4]. An iterative process
between the two programs is required in order to
ensure strain compatibility.
For analysis of the raft, the basement area was
split into four separate sections of approximately
50m x 100m (Figure 1); this was due to the
overall size of the scheme and the varying
founding levels of the raft. It was initially
considered that splitting the raft might under
predict settlements as the model would not allow
for the full ‘dishing’ effect of the structure. Each
analysis modelled the sections overlapping by
around 10m in order to prevent an
underestimation of the settlements.
The core walls were modelled in order to
provide additional stiffness to the raft structure.
The ‘best-case’ and ‘worst-case’ envelope for
the retaining walls’ behaviour, within which the
raft design had to comply, was achieved by
modelling the raft edges in two different ways.
One case assumed that the piles had a stiffening
effect on the edge of the raft. The walls were
modelled in this example by assigning edge
nodes a constant stiffness that was kept separate
from the iterative process. The second case
assumed that the walls provided no additional
stiffness to the edge of the raft. This case
modelled edge nodes in the same way as the rest
of the raft with the stiffness varying throughout
the iterative process.
759
8 SETTLEMENT PREDICTIONS
For both raft design cases (best & worst),
generally an average settlement of 35mm was
predicted with circa 65mm settlement beneath
cores. However, in the north of the site where the
raft was founding on up to 5.5m of the Grade IV
Mercia Mudstone, maximum long term
settlements of 185mm were predicted beneath a
core. In addition to the poor ground conditions,
this area was also heavily loaded. The 185mm of
settlement was unacceptable. Ground
improvement was seen as a cost-effective
alternative to settlement reducing mini-piles. A
vibro stone column solution was adopted,
stiffening the soft ground by a factor of two.
Within the ‘best-case’ envelope (i.e. stiff raft
edges), differential settlement between adjacent
columns on the raft was a key consideration. The
largest differential observed was between edge
columns and columns on the next row. The raft
adjacent to the walls settled by circa 5mm, in line
with the assumptions for the retaining walls,
whilst the middle of the raft settled by up to
65mm. The maximum differential settlements
were close to but within the limit of 1:500 set
within the Employer’s Requirements.
Within the ‘worst-case’ envelope (i.e.
unstiffened edges), the differential settlement
between columns on the piled apron and those on
the raft was the key consideration. Analysis
showed that these differential settlements
exceeded the 1:500 limit. Although it was
considered that the assumption that the retaining
walls would provide no stiffness to the edge of
the raft was too conservative, the available
information could not discount this scenario.
Therefore, it was proposed to provide for the use
of hydraulic jacks beneath columns on the raft
(where differential settlement limits might be
exceeded) so that they could be raised if they
settled too much. It was proposed that the raft
settlement was monitored during construction
before a final decision was made on including
the jacks within the scheme. Analyses were
carried out for different stages in the construction
process to predict the raft settlement against
which the monitoring results could be compared.
 760 M. Miller et al. / Case Study: Design & Performance of Raft Foundation on Mercia Mudstone

Predicted design settlements were verified by research of the depth of influence of loaded areas
hand calculations and by comparison with case it is considered that due to the scale of the
study data. The Finite Element programme loading, the depth of influence assumed may
PLAXIS was used in order to confirm the have been an overestimate. The work of Charles
predicted settlements were of the correct order. [5] shows that the effect of increase in shear
strength with increase in effective stress on the
depth of influence can be significant for
9 MONITORING extensive surface loading. It is thought that
further research into the depth of influence of
It was expected that monitoring raft settlement loading for large scale rafts may provide useful
would provide a clear indication of whether tools for the future design of raft schemes.
jacking of the columns was required.
Unfortunately, many of the monitoring points on
the raft itself were destroyed during construction 11 CONCLUSION
so that there are incomplete records covering the
construction of the structure. There was Adopting a raft foundation solution for the
significantly more monitoring data from the basement structure rather than piles afforded
points on the capping beam. Figure 3 shows large programme savings and allowed greater
typical settlement responses over time for points flexibility in the phasing of construction.
adjacent to a core and more lightly loaded points. The raft analysis predicted settlements with an
average of approximately 35mm and a maximum
CB CB - Nr Core Raft - Nr Core Raft

0.01
of 65mm beneath cores. The monitoring results
Core Constructed

0.005
indicate that the raft is settling but not to the
0
amount predicted. However, a complete set of
-0.005
monitoring data covering the raft area and full
Settlement (m)

-0.01
construction programme was not obtained
-0.015
Core Constructed
therefore a firm conclusion cannot be drawn.
-0.02 The results of the monitoring also suggest that
-0.025 the retaining walls have settled and are hence not
-0.03
17/06/2007 06/08/2007 25/09/2007 14/11/2007 03/01/2008 22/02/2008 12/04/2008 01/06/2008 21/07/2008 09/09/2008 29/10/2008
as stiff as originally assumed at pre-tender.
Date

Figure 3. Plot showing settlement (m) against time for points

on the raft and capping beam
REFERENCES

[1] A.S. Howard, G. Warrington, K. Ambrose & J. G.

It is considered that the capping beam data Rees, A Formational Framework for the Mercia
indicates that the retaining walls do have some Mudstone Group (Triassic) of England and Wales,
stiffness but not to the extent assumed pre- BGS, Nottingham, 2008.
tender. The general trend of all of the data shows [2] J. A. Gannon, G. G. T. Masterton, W. A. Wallace & D.
Muir Wood, CIRIA Report 181: Piling in Weak Rock,
that the raft settled; but not to the extent CIRIA, London, 1999.
predicted. The jacking system was therefore not [3] R. J. Chandler & A. Forster, CIRIA Report 570: Engi-
required. neering in Mercia Mudstone, CIRIA, London, 2001.
[4] P. A. Cracknell, Design of Two Raft Foundations for
Buildings in London, from Design Applications for Raft
Foundations, Thomas Telford, London, 2000.
10 DISCUSSION [5] A. J. Charles, The Depth of Influence of Loaded Areas,
Geotechnique 46 (1996), 51–62.
During design the elastic halfspace depth was
assumed to equal the width of the raft and follow
a Boussinesq profile. Following subsequent
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 761
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-761

Long-term settlement observations of a bridge

foundation on clay of very high plasticity
Observations en matière d'affaissement à long terme de
fondations de pont sur un argile de très haute plasticité
N. Okkels1, L. Bødker and B. Knudsen
GEO – Danish Geotechnical Institute, Sødalsparken 12, DK 8220 Brabrand

ABSTRACT
Four bridge piers, all of which are resting on preconsolidated clay of very high plasticity, have, since erection, had a measured
settlement of between 0.25m and 0.65m. This paper presents the settlement observations carried out over a period of more than
75 years. The settlements progress in a nearly linear manner when plotted against log time. Together with the observed fast
progress of the settlement, considering the extremely small permeability of the clay, this strongly suggests that primary
consolidation cannot be the primary cause of the observed settlements. Therefore, other causes must be found to explain the
observed behaviour. Some form of creep seems obvious. Perspective calculations strongly suggest that the observed behaviour is
primarily caused by plastic deformation, developed as a result of applied loads approaching the bearing capacity of the clay (too
little safety against bearing capacity failure). The piers with the smallest bearing capacity reserve have the greatest settlements,
and the slope of the seabed plays a crucial role.
RÉSUMÉ
Quatre piles de pont, reposant toutes sur de l’argile préconsolidé de très haute plasticité, présentent, depuis leur érection, un af-
faissement mesuré allant de 0,25 m à 0,65 m. Cet article présente les observations en matière d’affaissement effectuées sur une
période de plus de 75 ans. L’affaissement progresse de façon pratiquement linéaire lorsqu’il est calculé par rapport à l’instant de
relevé. Lié au caractère rapide de la progression d’affaissement observée, compte tenu de la perméabilité extrêmement faible de
l’argile, une telle linéarité semble pratiquement exclure la possibilité que les affaissements constatés soient essentiellement dus à
la consolidation primaire. Par conséquent, il convient de chercher d’autres causes au comportement observé. On constate à
l’évidence une certaine forme de fluage. Les calculs de perspective suggèrent avec insistence que le comportement observé est
essentiellement le fruit d'une déformation plastique, liée au fait que les charges appliquées se rapprochent de la capacité portante
de l’argile (marge trop faible par rapport à un défaut de capacité portante). Ce sont les piles soumises à la pression la plus forte
qui se sont le plus affaissées, et l’inclinaison du fond marin joue un rôle déterminant en la matière.

Keywords : Bridge pier, clay of very high plasticity, slickenside, preconsolidated, Paleogene, settlement observations, consolida-
tion, creep, oedometer modulus, permeability, undrained shear strength, vane shear strength, effective shear constants, plastic de-
formation, yielding, bearing capacity failure, safety ratio, stability, undrained condition, drained condition, PLAXIS calculations.

1
Corresponding Author.
762 N. Okkels et al. / Long-Term Settlement Observations of a Bridge Foundation on Clay

1 BRIDGE FOUNDATION

The old Little Belt Bridge which connects the

island of Fyn with the peninsula of Jylland was
opened on 14 May 1935.

The bridge crosses Little Belt (Lillebælt) on 4

piers, which are numbered 1-4 in the direction
from Fyn to Jylland, cf. Fig. 1. Water depth at
pier 1-3 is approx. 30 m, while at pier 4 it is only
approx. 23 m.

Figure 2. Cross-section of pier 3 [1]. The caisson in the

bottom of the pier is surrounded by a wall of pipes

Next, the water was pumped out of the pier,

and an approx. 3.5 m high work chamber was
dug under the caisson by hand. This work, which
despite high external water pressure, was carried
out at atmospheric pressure, led to huge settle-
ments due to soil failure below the pipe wall.
Figure 1. The old Little Belt Bridge is 1.178 metres long and L. Bjerrum estimated from back calculations
20.5 metres wide. The passage height is 33 metres. Fyn is of this soil failure that the undrained shear
seen in the distance. Photo: H.C. Steensen.
strength of the clay was of the magnitude of 100
kPa. The work chamber was then cast in con-
The lower part of the piers consists of a
crete, after which the settlement measurement of
caisson that was cast on shore and launched. Out
the pier began. Finally, the part above the sea
in the water, the caisson was turned by ballast,
was cast, and the steel bridge was laid on top of
and the elevated undersea portion of the piers
the piers [2].
were cast. Then the pier was put into place on the
bottom of the belt by ballast and helped into the
Table 1. Summary of geometry of pier, geometry of seabed,
substrata by drilling the ground up through the and forces acting on the soil beneath the piers [1], [3], [4].
concrete pipes surrounding the caisson, cf. Fig. The forces address the bottom of the work chamber.
2. Finally, the pipes was cast with concrete.
Pier 1 Pier 2 Pier 3 Pier 4
Foundation area 938 m2 938 m2 938 m2 632 m2
Soil pressure due to 355 374 388 464
dead load* (kPa)
Stress increase due 326 347 362 437
to dead load* (kPa)
Pier bottom level -34,2 -31,6 -31,6 -24,7
Seabed level, N -30,3 -30,6 -30,0 -19,6
Seabed slope**, N 3,5q -7,5q 4,5q 9,4q
Pipe wall level, N -40,1 -39,9 -39,9 -27,7
Seabed level, S -30,3 -26,1 -31,1 -22,7
Seabed slope**, S 3,5q 0q -7,6q -4,0q
Pipe wall level, S -40,1 -39,1 -39,9 -30,3
**: positive when the seabed rises away from pier.
*: The upward pressure (forces of buoyancy) is deducted.
 N. Okkels et al. / Long-Term Settlement Observations of a Bridge Foundation on Clay
2 MEASUREMENTS OF SETTLEMENTS
After the work chambers below the piers were
sealed up in 1932/33, levels to the top of the
piers have constantly been taken in order to
measure the settlement. The outcomes in the
form of a 78-year unbroken series of measure-
ments are shown in Fig. 3.
During this period, it was repeatedly proven
necessary to ballast some of the piers’ chambers
in order to control movement. Such incidents are
marked in Fig. 3, showing that it is these varia-
tions in the load that cause most of the minor
deviations from the almost perfect straight lines
in the figure.
In contrast to the other piers, Pier 1 has an ap-
proximately 30-year settlement-free period. But
in 1990 (year 57), it suddenly began to settle
again at a high rate, while Pier 2 also increased
its settlement rate. These events paradoxically
coincided with emptying of Pier 1, which until
then was the only pier to have been completely
full of water.



!
!
"

  
 launched in 2010 in connection with the design


#

763
permeable base of the pier reduces the effective
unit weight of the clay.
Another reason must therefore be found for
the surprising development in the settlement of
Piers 1 and 2. This could be an unfavourable
change in the seabed geometry, as a consequence
of the strong current in the Little Belt, although
the emptying may just have been a triggering
factor.
The settlement data in Fig. 3 provides a
unique opportunity to test and match our
calculation models and our knowledge of the
Little Belt Clay’s unique properties. It is,
therefore, not the first time that geotechnical
engineers have directed attention towards the old
bridge and its large settlements.
Arne Jeppesen [1] did this in 1948, and in
1963 new investigations were performed in con-
nection with the investigations for a new bridge
crossing Little Belt. They included 3 deep bor-
ings performed 50 - 100 m from pier 1 and 4 and
many oedometer and triaxial tests. On this basis,
new strength and deformation parameters were
derived and new calculation models was deve-

loped [5]. Most recently, new investigations were
of a fixed link across the Fehmern Belt between
Denmark and Germany. The results from these
investigations are, however, only incorporated in
this work to a limited extent.
Investigations on the piers’ concrete also





#   started in 2010. These have so far shown that the
#  measurement points are not likely to be substan-
# 
 tially affected by the expansion from alkaline
# 
silica reactions [6].
"  
$&
" 
$ 
  3 PROPERTIES OF LITTLE BELT CLAY
#  " &


The bridge piers are based on Little Belt Clay
Figure 3. Settlements (mm) of pier 1-4 from 1932 to 2010.
which is a clay of very high plasticity that was
deposited in an Eocene ocean that covered large
However, there is no plausible physical expla- parts of Denmark and the North Sea. In the Dan-
nation as to why emptying should result in set- ish Little Belt, the clay was deposited on an un-
tlements. On the contrary, emptying reduces the dersea bedrock ridge, so that deposit lies rela-
load on the subsoil, while the upward current tively high. Later the Ice Age glaciers have
forces from the water flow that the emptying ini- removed overlying younger pre-Quaternary de-
tiates from the Little Belt and in towards the posits, and erosion from the strait has subse-
quently removed the even younger Ice Age de-
764 N. Okkels et al. / Long-Term Settlement Observations of a Bridge Foundation on Clay

posits, so the Little Belt Clay is now exposed on rived relation between Eoed and the unload stress
the seabed. The glacial processes seem not to ^’unl is shown.
have disturbed the clay location significantly.
There is thus no sign that the glacial ice has '
K #;K
folded the clay or pushed it up in floe deposits
K&;K
surrounded by younger deposits. Deep drilling in 
KL#;K
the area supports the picture of deposits left in

& #
the right place, which means that there is uninter-
rupted Paleogene clays of very high plasticity to
around level -130.
The Little Belt clay is strongly pre-loaded by
the weight of the eroded younger layers and by
& #./+,- 0!
the weight of the many glaciers from the Quater-
nary period.
As a consequence of the heavy pre-loading,
the clay is today subject to horizontal pressure
that significantly exceeds the vertical pressure. In
the surveys in 1963 L. Bjerrum [7] thus meas-
ured an at-rest coefficient K0 = 1.9 approxi-
mately 7 m below the level of the seabed.
In addition, the clay is slickensided because it
is crisscrossed by old sliding surfaces. The slips
might be caused by ice dynamics or release of
ice pressure.
Table 2. Indeks properties of Little Belt Clay [5].
Natural water content 38 - 48 %
Plasticity indeks 57 - 210 %
Unit weigth 17,4 - 18,7 kN/m3
The carbonate content is mostly small, but
highly calcareous layers without any apparent
regularity have been found (min. 1% and max.
52%).
3.1 Deformation properties
In connection with the investigations in the
sixties, oedometer IL-tests with 33 tube samples
taken from the borings were performed [8].
The tests were typically run in stages up to a
preconsolidation stress of 3,000 kPa and hereaf-
ter unloaded to the in situ stress – i.e. to between
25 and 400 kPa. Finally, the tests were reloaded
in steps back to the preconsolidation stress.
The oedometer modulus Eoed is determined as
the secant modulus on the reloaded curve for
stress increases of between 20 and 600 kPa. The
results are summarised in Fig. 4, where the de-
*


*

    
+,- #
Figure 4. Oedometer modulus measured by IL-tests [8].
The results showed that the smaller increase in
stress the higher oedometer modulus, and that
there is no significant difference in the stiffness
of the clay in the three borings.
The clay’s permeability coefficient is meas-
ured in the range 5810-13 < k < 5810-11 m/sec [8].
The results of 18 IL tests, where samples were
horizontally consolidated, documents that the
permeability in the horizontal direction is around
the same as in the vertical direction. It is still an
open question, however, whether slickenside
contributes to a significant increase in the clay’s
regional permeability.
3.2 Strength parameters
The undrained shear strengths were measured
with triaxial tests (UU- and CUU=0) and in situ
vane tests [8]. The results are compared in Fig. 5,
and it is seen that they are moderately correlated.
As a rather cautious mean value, cu = cv/3 is
derived, where the vane strength cv represents the
strength of the clay matrix and the reduction is
due to slickenside and strain rates.
 N. Okkels et al. / Long-Term Settlement Observations of a Bridge Foundation on Clay 765


4 SETTLEMENTS AND CALCULATIONS
KMO&
K
M The settlement progress is on the whole rectilin-
ear in a log t view, as shown in Fig 3. The set-
 K
M
tlements and their present rates are surprisingly
 6

large – although rather varying despite relatively


uniform loads, geometry and subgrade:

Table 3. Summary of settlements 1932-2010.

 Pier 1 Pier 2 Pier 3 Pier 4
      
Total settlement
M 6 2010 (mm) 264 449 636 541
Settlement rate
Figure 5. Comparison of vane shear strength cv and undrained 2010 (mm/year) 3,03 1,83 1,86 0,95
shear strength cu derived from triaxial tests [8]. Settlement rate
in log t (mm/lct) 64*/465** 156 231 201
Trend lines for the vane shear strengths from *: before year 25 (1958)
the borings represent the strengths before placing *: after year 57 (1990)
the piers:
The settlements and settlement rates in Fig. 3
x Lower bound: cv (kPa) = 9.868d(m) + 146 and Table 3 are attempted modelled using
x Upper bound: cv (kPa) = 9.868d(m) + 226 PLAXIS calculations where, as described in sec-
tion 5, a traditional Mohr-Coulomb model is ap-
where d(m) is the depth below the sea bed. The plied using the soil parameters from section 3
lower bound strength is measured near pier 4 and forces and geometry from Table 1.
while the upper bound strength is measured near As expected, the calculations show that it is
pier 1. not possible to satisfactorily model the timeline
Also the effective shear constants c’ and ’ and size of the settlements. It has thus not been
were measured in triaxial tests (mainly CUU=0 possible to clearly identify a consolidation proc-
and CD) in 1964 [8]. The results are summarised ess in the settlement measurements. The time-
in Fig. 6, where also the derived effective shear lines seem completely dominated by a creep
strength constants are presented. The derived process. The question now is what this strong
values are smaller than expected from our gen- creep is due to, and why it varies so much from
eral experience. pier to pier.

+, 1 +,2#

5 CREEP AND BEARING CAPACITY



L. Bjerrum [7] assessed that the strength of

QK6 the clay can be divided into a reliable mechanical

MQK 
+
element and a less reliable electro-chemical ele-
ment, where the latter is dependent on the water
 that binds to the mineral surface. He believed
    '
that for as long as the mobilised strength does
+, 0+,2# not exceed the mechanical element, the risk of
Figure 6. Selected triaxial test results and the derived
creep phenomena is minimal. The clay is in the
effective shear strength constants [8]. elastic area where the elasticity theory and tradi-
tional calculation methods can be used to predict
the related deformations.
766 N. Okkels et al. / Long-Term Settlement Observations of a Bridge Foundation on Clay
If, on the other hand, the mobilised strength
exceeds the mechanical element, part of the dis-
placement shear strength will be transferred via
the bound water, and there will therefore – with
plastic clay – be a risk of creep of a dimension
that will increase the more the mobilised strength
exceeds the reliable mechanical element. The
clay passes out into a “semi-plastic” area, where
the deformations cannot be determined by the
customary methods. On minor overstepping of
the mechanical element of the strength there is
only yielding at individual points and the sup-
plementary deformations in relation to the elastic
deformations are only minor. As the mobilised
strength approaches the failure value, the extent
of the yielding and plastic deformations in-
creases. In the failure state there is yielding in the
entire failure surface, resulting in very large de-
formations.
As a consequence, the resistance to failure is a
vital parameter in calculating the dimensions of
the current piers’ settlement. According to D.J.
D’Apolonia et al. [9] plastic deformations begin
to occur when the failure resistance is less than
approximately 2 for the plastic clays.
In order to investigate whether this applies,
we have conducted a number of PLAXIS calcu-
lations of the piers’ bearing capacity, with incor-
poration of the presence of pipe walls, slope of
the seabed and drainage. The calculations have
focused on pier 3. An axial symmetric geometric
model was used, applying a traditional Mohr-
Coulomb material model with deformation and
strength parameters as stated in the preceding
sections. The permeability of the concrete is es-
timated to be equivalent to that of the clay.
The calculations show that the degree of utili-
sation of the bearing capacity for pier 3 is rela-
tively high in both the undrained and drained
condition, with a safety ratio of less than 1.5. As
a consequence of the high utilisation of the soil
strength, in all of the calculations made there are
large zones with plastic points, resulting in plas-
tic deformations, and the settlement rate deviates
considerably from the classical consolidation
theory (s-shape in log t depiction).
The undrained condition is also investigated
with effective strength parameters, which gives
reason for a safety ratio of less than 1 (failure)
indicating that the parameters are too small. To
achieve the same safety ratio as with the un-
drained strength parameters (lower bound) the
effective parameters must be increased to ’=
15.6q and c’=55 kN/m2, which corresponds to the
design values for the new Little Belt Bridge.
The analyses performed also show that the
slope of the seabed is of great significance to the
safety ratio. A few degrees’ variation in the slope
leads to significant changes in the safety ratio,
which can explain the very large differences in
the piers’ settlement. Pier 1, which stands in a
hollow, thus has the lowest settlement, while pier
3, which stands with the steepest seabed, has the
greatest settlement.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The settlements’ straight-line course in a log
t– depiction, their rapid appearance and their size
indicate that they are primarily caused by some
type of creep, and that they are only due to con-
solidation on a secondary basis.
Calculation of the Little Belt clay’s bearing
capacity using PLAXIS shows that the piers with
the smallest bearing capacity reserve have devel-
oped the largest settlements, and the slope of the
seabed plays a crucial role.
Calculations of the bearing capacity per-
formed in both the undrained and drained condi-
tion with effective strength parameters show that
the bearing capacity is smallest in the undrained
condition.
In summary, the results indicate that the
bridge piers have been relatively close to failure
in the undrained condition, so that there has been
rapid, strong settlement development as a conse-
quence of plastic deformations. As the excess
pore pressure has drained away and the soil has
moved towards the drained condition, there has
gradually been more resistance to bearing capa-
city failure, resulting in diminishing plastic de-
formations [10].
Pier 1 and 2’s settlement rates increased dras-
tically in 1990 probably because the seabed ge-
ometry was changed by sea currents. But it
could, at worst, be due to a reduction of the ef-
 N. Okkels et al. / Long-Term Settlement Observations of a Bridge Foundation on Clay 767

fective strength parameters against residual val-

ues.

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Knud V. Christensen, Rail Net

Denmark, John Frederiksen, Rambøll Danmark
A/S, and Femern Bælt A/S for releasing settle-
ment measurements and as-built documentation.

REFERENCES

[1] A. Jeppesen. The foundation problems of the piers of

the Little Belt Bridge. Proc. 2. Int. Conf. Soil Mech.,
Vol. IV, p. 5, Rotterdam 1948.
[2] http://www.bauforum24.tv/bilfinger-berger-bruecke-
kleiner-belt-33/.
[3] Drawing of the old Little Belt Bridge (as built), 1934.
DSB (Danish State Railways).
[4] Longitudinal section & site plan 1:2000 (with seabed
contours), 1963, Chr. Ostenfeld & W. Jønson.
[5] J.B. Hansen and T. Mise, An empirical evaluation of
consolidation tests with Little Belt Clay. Bulletin no.
17, Danish Geotechnical Institute, 1964.
[6] K. V. Christensen and J. Bjerrum, The big old bridges.
Dansk Vejtidsskrift, nr. 1, 2000 (in Danish).
[7] L. Bjerrum, New Little Belt Bridge, provisional geo-
technical assessment of foundation conditions for tower
piers and anchor blocks. Oslo, 1963 (in Norwegian).
[8] GEO, New Little Belt Bridge at Lyngs Point, Report 3
and 5 from GEO-project 60157, 1964 (in Danish).
[9] D.J. D’Apolonia, H.G. Poulos and C.C. Ladd, Initial
settlement of structures on clay. Journal of Soil Me-
chanics and Foundations Division, 1971, pp. 1359-
1377.
[10] R. Foott and C.C. Ladd, Undrained Settlement of Plas-
tic and Organic Clays, Journal of the Geotechnical En-
gineering Division, ASCE, 107, No. GT8, 1984, pp.
1079-1094.
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 769
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-769

Bearing capacity of shallow foundations under

highly eccentric and inclined loads
La capacité portante des fondations superficielles sous des
charges très excentriques et inclinées
V. Papadopoulos1, A. Arapakou
National Technical University, Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main factors affecting the characteristic resistance of shallow foundations sub-
jected to inclined and highly eccentric loadings through numerical limit analyses. The parametric analyses are performed accord-
ing to the finite element method by using computer programs PLAXIS 2-D and 3-D for strip and square foundations. The results
from these analyses are compared with those deduced by the conventional methods for calculating the bearing capacity of the
soil. Cases of cohesive soils under undrained conditions as well as of cohesionless soils are examined. For the simplest cases,
such as central loading with or without inclination of the resultant and vertical eccentric loading, certain modifying factors are
confirmed. A good approximation between the results from finite element analyses and those from the conventional methods is
also concluded. On the contrary, the simultaneous effect of high eccentricity and inclination of the resultant shows that the finite
element method results in considerably higher values of the characteristic resistance, mainly for square foundations resting on
cohesionless soils.
RÉSUMÉ
Le but de cette étude est d’examiner l’ analyse limite numérique des paramètres affectant la résistance caractéristique des
fondations superficielles sous des charges inclinées et très excentriques. Les analyses paramétriques ont réalisées en utilisant la
méthode des éléments finis et des programmes d’ application Plaxis 2D et 3D pour fondations avec semelles fillantes ou
quadrangulaires. Les résultats des analyses ont été comparés avec ceux des méthodes conventionnelles de calcul de la capacité
portante du sol. Les cas de sols cohérents sous des conditions non-drainés et les cas de sols non-cohérents ont été examinés. Pour
les cas simples tels que la charge centrale et inclinée ou non inclinée et la charge excentrique et verticale certain facteurs
modifiants, généralement reconnus, ont confirmés et une bonne approximation des résultats de la FEM avec celles des méthodes
conventionnelles a trouvée. Au contraire, pour les excentricités fortes et simultanément l’ inclinaison de la résultante, la méthode
des éléments finis conduit à des valeurs significativement plus élevées de la résistance caractéristique, en particulier pour les
fondations quadrangulaires sur des sols non cohésifs.

Keywords: eccentricity, inclination, bearing capacity, shallow foundations.

1 INTRODUCTION well-known trinomial equations, according to

The case of a shallow foundation subjected to
eccentric and inclined loading is practically a
three dimensional problem. For this general case,
modifying factors are used in order to adapt the
which the ultimate bearing capacity of the soil is
estimated for the simple case of a strip footing
subjected to central and vertical loading. Several
suggestions are formulated for these factors, such
as according to Meyerhof [1], Brinch Hansen [2],

1
Corresponding Author.
770 V. Papadopoulos and A. Arapakou / Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
Vesic [3], whose differences are systematically
commented (e.g. Poulos, [4]). In addition, there
are comparisons with experimental results (e.g.
Muhs and Weiss, [5]; Aiban and Znidarcic, [6]),
or with advanced methods of analysis. During
the last years a widespread application of the
numerical limit analysis with methods of finite
differences or finite elements has begun.
In practice, there are often cases of combined
loading on to the foundation, where the moment
M and the horizontal component H have
relatively high values compared with the vertical
one V. This results in high eccentricity values
compared with the width of the foundation b and
simultaneously in high values of the slope angle
of the resultant (1=arctanH/V). A typical case of
such loadings is the foundation of bridge piers
under seismic actions. The maximum value of
the normalized eccentricity is generally e/b=1/3.
Specifically the Eurocode [7] does not consider
the above value as the threshold, but sets specific
restrictions on the examination of whether this
can be overcome. The investigation of the safety
margins with high eccentricity values is
attempted in the present paper, through finite
element analyses as well as relevant comparisons
are made with conventional methods of
calculation, because of practical interest, in line
with the spirit of EC–7.1.
2 METHODOLOGY OF THE ANALYSES
The parametric analyses are conducted for the
following cases: a) Soil simulation: i) purely
cohesive soil under undrained conditions, ii)
cohesionless soil, b) Geometric data: strip or
square footing, founded on the surface (d=0) or
with normalized foundation depth (d/b). The
results of these analyses are compared with those
deduced by conventional methods of calculation
especially according to DIN 4017 [8] and to
Annex D of Eurocode EC–7.1 [7]. Based on the
above approximate methodologies, the vertical
component of the ultimate load (characteristic
resistance Vk) for a foundation with horizontal
bottom surface (which is the most common case)
can be estimated by the formulas (1a) and (1b)
from the methods [8] and [7], correspondingly:
Q=Vk=A(cNcovcKc+a1dNdovdKd+a2bNbovbKb) (1a)
R=Vk=A(cNcscic+qNqsqiq+0,5aBNasaia) (1b)
In the formulas (1a) and (1b), the effective
width in the direction of the horizontal
component is b=B and the effective surface is
A. Beyond the difference between the
symbolisms, substantial differences between the
above formulas do not exist, except for the
reducing slope factor in the term of the
foundation depth (Kd and iq, respectively).
However, the results from the formulas (1a) and
(1b) are almost identical, since the divergences
do not exceed 4% for usual values of the
normalized foundation depth d/b.
The numerical analyses are carried out by the
finite element method codes Plaxis 2D and
Plaxis 3D for the strip and the square footing,
respectively. For all cases, footings are
considered as rigid. The characteristic loads
(resistances) Vk deduced by the above numerical
analyses are compared with the corresponding
ones Vk,o according to the approximate closed
formed solutions (1a) or mainly (1b), which are
the reference values. The characteristic resistance
Vk is generally calculated by selecting an initial
value of the load V as input parameter which is
lower than Vk, and then through the process of
incremental multipliers, that is, gradual increase
in the initial load V. Especially for the centrally
loaded strip footing the process of prescribed
displacements is applied, that is, gradual increase
in the vertical displacements.
3 COMPARISON OF THE RESULTS
CONCERNING COHESIVE SOIL UNDER
UNDRAINED CONDITIONS
This case applies particularly in foundations rest-
ing on low permeability soils under seismic con-
ditions. Since there is no particular practical im-
portance for the foundation depth d, only
superficial footings were examined (d=0).
a) Strip foundations: First of all, for strip
foundations, the equivalent bearing capacity fac-
tor was estimated throughout load–settlement di-
agrams according to the finite element results. In
 V. Papadopoulos and A. Arapakou / Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
any case, the value of this factor, calculated
Nc=5,2, coincides with the theoretical one
N=2+ª under undrained conditions.
The influence of the eccentricity of the load
was independently examined under vertical ac-
tions on the foundation surface for various rela-
tive eccentricities, e/b. This influence was taken
into account through the equivalent foundation
width, b=b-2e, as well as through the equivalent
surface, A. The results from the finite element
analyses showed good approximation with the
above assumption. The loading system V, M, il-
lustrated in Fig. 1, corresponds to eccentricity of
the vertical load e=M/V. When Vk,o is the ulti-
mate action under central loading, then there is a
parabolic correlation between the M/(Vk,ob) and
Vk/Vk,o ratios, depicted in the dimensionless dia-
gram. The envelope, as shown in the correspond-
ing figure, has a practical meaning only until the
“allowable” relative eccentricity reaches its max-
imum value max(e/b)=1/3.
Figure 1. V-M failure loci for strip foundation on cohesive
soil (undrained conditions)
The corresponding prediction results under
simultaneous eccentric and inclined loading
(tan1=H/V), presented in Fig. 2, are determined
by the following equations:
Vk,o=A(cuNcoKc)
where Kc=0,5+0,5[1-(H/Acu)]0,5
771
Figure 2. Strip foundation on cohesive soil under eccentric
and inclined load: Characteristic resistance ratio
The relative eccentricity (e/b) and the
inclination (tan1) values are compared and illus-
trated through the Vk/Vk,o ratio, where Vk is the
ultimate vertical resultant deduced by the finite
element analyses. Especially for the central load-
ing (e/b=0) under variable inclination values
tan1, it should be observed that Vk/Vk,o=1. There-
fore, the finite element results coincide with the
predictions resulted from the equations (2a) and
(2b). For vertical loading (tan1=0) and under va-
riable relative eccentricity values (e/b), there is
also convergence between the finite element re-
sults and the analytical predictions (Vk/Vk,o=1).
On the contrary, finite element method shows
that the simultaneous effect of eccentricity and
inclination results in Vk values higher than Vk,o.
High values of relative eccentricity and inclina-
tion lead to maximum values of the Vk/Vk,o ratio.
It seems that for high eccentricities and simulta-
neously under strong inclination tan1 the ap-
proximate methods underestimate the ultimate
load – characteristic resistance of the foundation.
b) Square foundations: Firstly, the shape fac-
tor of the cohesion term was estimated (equa-
tions (1a) or (1b)) for the central vertical loading.
It is then showed that this factor is equal to that
(2a) provided by the respective methodologies
(2b) (vc=sc=1,2).
772 V. Papadopoulos and A. Arapakou / Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
The analyses focused on examining cases of
high eccentricity conditions. For the normalized
eccentricity e/b=1/3, practically regarded as the
maximum one, the ultimate loads – characteristic
loads Vk were estimated and compared with the
loads Vk,o generated by the equations (1a) and
(1b) for square footings, according to Fig. 3. It is
generally observed that Vk/Vk,o>1, and this ratio
increases with the increase in the slope of the re-
sultant tan1. Even for tan1=0 (vertical loading) it
is concluded that Vk>Vk,o, while for high slopes
the numerical limit analysis gives up to 70%
higher values. Thus, it can be pointed out that the
conventional methods seem to underestimate the
ultimate load when eccentricity and inclination
of the load resultant occur simultaneously.
Figure 3. Square foundation on cohesive soil under high ec-
centricity conditions and inclined load: Characteristic
resistance ratio
4 EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS
CONCERNING COHESIONLESS SOIL
Strip and square foundations are examined,
resting at a depth d below the soil surface
through the normalized value d/b. The special
case where the foundation rests on the soil
surface (d=0), although examined by many
researchers (e.g. Apostolou et al, [9]), is
uncommon in practice. The finite element
analyses were conducted mainly for relatively
high values of internal friction angle, though for
comparison reasons they cover a range
fluctuating from =289 to 459.
Figure 4. Comparison of inclination factors (in terms of the
width), for strip foundation on cohesionless soil
The slope factor in terms of the foundation
width, Kb or ia (according to equations (1a) and
(1b)), was initially estimated in the context of the
independent, as possible, examination of certain
influence factors. A strip footing centrally loaded
with inclined resultant and with d=0 was consid-
ered. Figure 4 shows the results of the finite ele-
ment analyses, the widely accepted analytical re-
lation for the reducing slope factor and
experimental data by Aiban and Znidarcic [6].
The analyses and Fig. 4 resulted in the following:
i) The slope factor Kb=ia (according to equations
(1a) and (1b)) based on the parametric analyses
with finite element methods for a range of values
from =289 to 45o, emerged as independent of
the  angle, as provided by the widely accepted
approximate analytical relation:
Kb=ia=(1-tan1)3 (3)
ii) Numerical analyses gave almost equal values
with those of the analytical relation (3). Experi-
mental centrifuge results by Aiban and Znidarcic
[6] gave slightly higher values of this slope fac-
tor.
 V. Papadopoulos and A. Arapakou / Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
Figure 5. Strip foundation on cohesionless soil under eccen-
tric – inclined load: Characteristic resistance ratio
The results of the numerical analyses are spe-
cially commented as follows:
a) Strip foundations: Figure 5 is indicative of the
simultaneous effect of eccentricity and inclina-
tion of the resultant for strip footing resting on
the soil surface (d=0) and for the specific case
where =309. The values of the characteristic re-
sistance based on conventional solutions, Vk,o,
were calculated according to equations (1a) or
(1b) which lead to identical results. For the case
of a highly inclined load (tan1=0,40) with a si-
multaneous normalized eccentricity lower than
0,20, F.E.M. turns out lower bearing capacity
values than the analytical solutions do. This
could be explained by the fact that bearing ca-
pacity factors in terms of width resulting from
F.E.M. are generally lower than the correspond-
ing Nbo=0,5Na and at the same time the inclina-
tion factor for this high value tan1=0,40 is
slightly lower than the corresponding factors
Kb=ia. The Vk/Vk,o ratio significantly increases as
the normalized eccentricity e/b increases. There-
fore, for the particular high value e=b/3, further
investigation versus other parameters and data
had an important meaning.
Figure 6 concludes to the following:
i) It is generally observed that the ratio Vk/Vk,o
increases as inclination tan1 increases. For the
lower values of the internal friction angle ’ the
773
rate of this increase as well as the Vk/Vk,o values
are higher.
ii) The increase in the relative foundation depth
d/b results in the increase in Vk/Vk,o ratio. This is
also clear from the comparison between the re-
sults of Figure 5 (for d=0) and those of Figure 6
(for d/b=1/3 and 2/3) for the same angle of inter-
nal friction, =309.
Figure 6. Strip foundation on cohesionless soil under highly
eccentric and inclined load: Characteristic resistance ratio
b) Square foundations: Corresponding results of
Figure 6 are illustrated on Figure 7 for square
footings under the high eccentricity e=b/3. The
trends ascertained for the strip foundations are
now confirmed, that is, the estimated ultimate
load values Vk according to F.E.M. are higher
than those Vk,o according to the conventional me-
thods. It is noted that the Vk/Vk,o ratios for square
footings are significantly higher than the corre-
sponding ones for strip foundations. The
influence of the relative foundation depth d/b
seems to be also very important on the
overestimation ratio Vk/Vk,o. During the
calculation of the “conventional” ultimate load
values Vk,o the influence of the foundation depth
is introduced in the corresponding term of the
equations (1a) and (1b) only through the loading
q=a1d. From this perspective the introduction of
further modifying factors due to foundation
depth seems to be even qualitatively confirmed,
as Meyerhof [1] done.
774 V. Papadopoulos and A. Arapakou / Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
Figure 7. Square foundation on cohesionless soil under high-
ly eccentric and inclined load: Characteristic resistance ratio
5 CONCLUSIONS
Simple cases were initially investigated in order
to confirm the relative and widely accepted mod-
ifying factors.
The case of the strip foundation resting on
cohesive soil under undrained conditions showed
that there is a good approximation between the
results deduced by numerical limit analyses and
the corresponding ones by conventional methods
for eccentric but vertical loading and also for
central and inclined loading. This convergence
has been already reported for relative finite ele-
ment analyses in the past. On the contrary, for
excessive eccentric and inclined loading, finite
element analyses gave significantly higher ulti-
mate loads Vk. The case of the square foundation
proved the widely accepted value of the shape
factor vc=sc=1,20. However, considerably higher
values of the load Vk deduced for cases with si-
multaneous effect of eccentricity and inclination
of the resultant.
For the strip foundation resting on cohe-
sionless soil, it is demonstrated that the widely
accepted value of the inclination factor Kb=ia de-
pends only on the slope tan1, and is independent
of the friction angle . However, for foundations
with depth d subjected to high eccentricity and
inclination the ultimate load values Vk are esti-
mated much higher than those according to con-
ventional methods, Vk,o. For square footings rest-
ing on cohesionless soil the ratio Vk/Vk,o is
estimated with significantly higher values than
the respective ones for strip foundations, when
subjected to high eccentricities and inclined load-
ings.
The above conclusions show that the simulta-
neous effect of high eccentricity and inclination
of the loads does not seem to be attributed by the
product of the relevant reducing factors.
In conclusion, for high eccentricity condi-
tions, in the order of e/b=1/3, under inclined
loading, it seems that conventional methods of
calculation underestimate considerably the ulti-
mate loads. This could have an important mean-
ing when examining the acceptance of the nor-
malized eccentricities which slightly exceeds the
above “ultimate” value.
REFERENCES
[1] G. G. Meyerhof, Some recent research on the bearing
capacity of foundations, Canadian Geotech. J., 1, No 1
(1963), 16-26.
[2] J. Brinch Hansen, A revised and extended formula for
bearing capacity, Danish Geotech. Inst. Bull 28 (1970),
5-11.
[3] A. S. Vésic, Bearing capacity of shallow foundations,
Foundation Engineering handbook, H. F. Winterkom
and H. Y. Fang, eds, Van Nostrand Reinfold, New York
(1975), 121-145.
[4] H. Poulos, Foundations and retaining structures - Re-
search and practice. General Report, Proc. 15th Int.
Conf. S.M.G.E., (2001), 4, 2533-2548.
[5] H. Muhs and K. Weiss, Inclined load tests on shallow
strip footings, Proc. 8th Int. Conf. S.M.F.E., (1973), 1,
173-179.
[6] S. A. Aiban and D. Znidarcic, Centrifugal modeling of
bearing capacity of shallow foundations on sands, J.
Geotech. Engng. ASCE, 121, No 10 (1995), 704-712.
[7] EN 1997 – 1 Eurocode 7 Geotechnical Design Part 1:
General Rules. TC 250 Comité Européen de Normalisa-
tion (2004), Brussel Belgium.
[8] DIN V 4017-100: Baugrund-Berechnung des Grund-
bruchwiderstands von Flachgründungen (1996, 2006).
[9] M. Apostolou, N. Gerolymos, D. Rizos, G. Gazetas,
Bearing capacity of rectangular foundation under in-
clined eccentric loading (in Greek), 5th Hellenic Conf.
on Geot. and Geoenv. Eng. (2006), 3, 151-158.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 775
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-775

Kinematic interaction between retaining walls and

retained footings under dynamic loading
Interaction cinématique entre les murs de soutènement et les
fondations conservées sous chargement dynamique
G. Papazafeiropoulos and Y. Tsompanakis1
Technical University of Crete, Greece
P.N. Psarropoulos
Hellenic Air-Force Academy, Greece

ABSTRACT
In this study the kinematic soil–foundation interaction problem for a massless surface strip footing retained by a wall is exam-
ined. Transfer functions for horizontal, vertical and rocking response of the foundation are evaluated via two different ap-
proaches that utilize the finite element method. Satisfactory agreement is shown to exist between them. Moreover, the vertical
and rocking accelerations of the foundation are compared to its horizontal acceleration. It is shown that the presence of the re-
taining wall alters substantially the foundation response and introduces significant vertical and rocking motion.

RÉSUMÉ
Cette étude examiné le problème de la cinématique interaction entre le sol et la fondation en cas d'une fondation superficielle
sans masse retenue par un mur. Les fonctions de transfert pour la réponse horizontale, verticale et basculement de la fondation
sont évaluées à deux approches différentes qui utilisent la méthode des éléments finis. Un accord satisfaisant à exister entre eux.
En outre, les accélérations verticales et les accélérations du basculement de la fondation sont comparées à son accélération hori-
zontale. Il est montré que la présence du mur de soutènement modifie considérablement la réponse de la fondation et instaure
importants mouvements verticaux et à bascule.

Keywords: Kinematic interaction, dynamic response, retaining walls, footings, soil-foundation interface.

1 INTRODUCTION sumed massless, is certainly different from the

One of the most usual assumptions made regard-
ing the seismic motion at the soil surface is that it
is spatially invariant; this means that various
points are excited synchronously and experience
the same free-field motion (FFM). This situation
refers to the motion at the soil-foundation inter-
face when no structure is present. Foundation in-
put motion (FIM), which is the motion experi-
enced by the foundation of a structure when both
the foundation and the superstructure are as-
free-field motion. FFM is mainly comprised of
horizontal motion components, while FIM is
likely to include horizontal, vertical, rocking and
torsional motions that depend on the mechanical
and geometrical characteristics of the foundation
and the soil. The difference in the response of the
structure computed for FIM and the correspond-
ing one derived from FFM is the so-called kine-
matic interaction (KI) effect. Note that seismic
norms worldwide ignore that effect, assuming
that FIM and FFM are identical.

1
Corresponding Author.
776 G. Papazafeiropoulos et al. / KI Between Retaining Walls and Retained Footings
As far as wave propagation in the soil is con-
cerned, kinematic interaction is associated with
two main dynamic phenomena [1]:
 The ground motion incoherence, which re-
sults from waves emanating from different
points of an extended source that may arrive
at the foundation at different instants and
with different angles of incidence. Their
amplitude and phase may be affected by lo-
cal geologic heterogeneities and by reflec-
tions and diffractions around the foundation.
 The wave passage effect, which results from
waves impinging the foundation at a finite
angle, leads to differential motion of two
adjacent points, even when the wave front is
plane and propagates in a perfectly homo-
geneous medium. These two motions are
identical, except from a time delay between
them [2], which is the sole source of the
spatial variation of the soil motion.
Results about the former effect can be found in
[3-6], while the latter has been studied in [7,8].
Regarding foundation response, kinematic inter-
action may be caused by base-slab averaging,
embedment effects and wave scattering [9].
Relatively little is known about the latter, since
in most cases it coexists with the more important
base-slab averaging and/or embedment effects.
Base-slab averaging effects result from wave
fields which have an angle of incidence relative
to the vertical, or which are incoherent in time
and space. Free-field motions associated with in-
clined and/or incoherent wave fields are “aver-
 Usage of spatial average of the free field
motion (or a selected function, e.g. Fourier
spectrum) of the points lying into the foun-
dation-soil interface.
 Approximation of the spatial variation of
the ground motion in the frequency domain
with a suitable analytic function that is used
to calculate spatial weighted averages of the
free field motions at the points of interest, in
which the weights are usally linear func-
tions of position.
 The previous approach with the contact
problem between the foundation and the soil
treated as a mixed boundary-value problem.
In the present study the effect of interaction
between a rigid surface strip foundation and its
underlying soil retained by a wall relatively close
to the foundation is addressed. Emphasis is given
on the kinematic effect, as the inertial effect has
been examined by the authors in [10]. Dynamic
response of the foundation is given in terms of
transfer functions. The finite element results are
compared with approximate results for the foun-
dation motion obtained by the spatial average of
the free field acceleration of the points along the
soil-foundation interface (Average Ground Mo-
tion approach, AGM), namely by the relations:
N
Ah , w #
¦a
i 1
i
h /N (1)
N
Av , w #
¦a
i 1
i
v /N (2)
§ N 1 a i ·
aged” within the footprint area of the base-slab
due to the kinematic constraint of essentially ri-
gid-body motion of the slab. Translational base-
slab motions are reduced relative to the free-
field, while rocking of the base-slab can also oc-
cur in the presence of inclined SV or P waves.
These effects tend to become more significant as
frequency increases. The effects of the spatial
variation of the free-field ground motion on the
dynamic response of extended foundations can
be assessed by the following approaches [4]:
 Empirical methods, in which the motion of
light foundations is compared with the free
field ground motion.
Ar , w #
¨ ¦ v ¸ /  N  1 (3)
© i 1 Li  L ¹
where ahi, avi are the complex-valued horizontal
and vertical accelerations, Li is the distance of a
point from the wall top and Ah,w, Av,w and Ar,w
denote the amplitudes of the horizontal, vertical
and rotational acceleration of the foundation.
Cases of kinematic wall-soil-foundation inter-
action are illustrated in Figure 1. Exception is
case (a) where no KI is present, and conse-
quently the superstructure is not kinematically
stressed. In that case vertically propagating co-
herent SH waves will be present in the soil layer
and there will be no differential motion among
structure’s footings. This is not the case in situa-
 G. Papazafeiropoulos et al. / KI Between Retaining Walls and Retained Footings
tions (b), (c) and (d), even if the structures and
their foundations are considered massless; the
existence of a substantial vertical boundary con-
dition near a foundation (represented by a wall in
(c), an adjacent structure with basement wall in
(b), or multiple level foundation in (d) introduces
a dependence of the foundation response on its
relative distance from the wall. Thus, founda-
tions at larger distances will respond differently
from those cited closer to the boundary, which
leads to kinematic loading of the superstructure.
Figure 1. Surface foundations; kinematic wall-soil-foundation
interaction appears in cases (b), (c) and (d).
2 SYSTEM CONSIDERED
The wall-soil-foundation system considered in
this study is shown in Figure 2. Note that the
term “wall” does not necessarily mean retaining
wall, but it signifies any possible vertical bound-
ary condition imposed to the soil layer. A semi-
infinite homogeneous and isotropic soil layer of
constant thickness H=8m is considered, retained
by a massless wall which can be either rigid or
flexible. Along the soil-rock interface horizontal
and vertical fixity is assumed; the soil layer is
free at its upper surface and it extends theoreti-
cally to infinity at the left hand side. Vertical ki-
nematic constraints were used at that side (which
lies at a horizontal distance equal to 40H from
the wall) in order to simulate the one-
dimensional soil layer response. The soil layer is
characterized by its density © = 1800 kg/m3,
modulus of elasticity E = 175.62MPa, Poisson’s
ratio /, and critical damping ratio ?. A harmonic
steady-state excitation is imposed on the system
777
at the bedrock. A rigid massless strip footing lies
on the surface of the soil layer, with which it is in
tied contact, an assumption generally valid for
cohesive soils. Since foundation is massless, in-
ertial wall-soil-foundation interaction is avoided.
The wall has modulus of elasticity Ew, Pois-
son’s ratio /w=0.2, thickness tw=0.2m and height
H=8m and its compliance can result from struc-
tural flexibility (index dw) and/or rotational com-
pliance at its base (via a rotational spring of con-
stant R¬ and expressed by the index d¬), as it is
totally constrained against horizontal displace-
ment at its base. Two extreme cases were con-
sidered for the wall-soil interface (WSI): (a) fully
bonded WSI (i.e. no relative slip) and (b) smooth
WSI (i.e., no shear stress).
Figure 2. The examined wall-soil-foundation system.
In the present study two-dimensional numeri-
cal simulations of the retaining system depicted
in Figure 2 were conducted utilizing the finite-
element code ABAQUS ([11]). The retained soil
layer was discretized with 8-noded bi-quadratic
plane strain quadrilaterals, while the foundation
and the retaining wall were modeled using 3-
node quadratic plane strain shear flexible beam
elements. The foundation halfwidth is B=1.6m
and the distance between its center and the top of
the wall is L=2.4m. Material damping ratio ? of
the whole system is of the constant hysteretic
type and equal to 5% of the critical. The parame-
ters that have been examined are the following:
 The relative structural flexibility of the wall
(with respect to the soil), dw=12GH3(1-
/w2)/(Ewtw3), which takes the values 0 (rigid
wall) and 40 (flexible wall).
 The relative rotational compliance of the
wall (with respect to the soil) given by
d¬=GH2/R¬, which takes the value 0
(clamped wall) and 5 (rotationally compli-
ant wall).
 The type of WSI (bonded or smooth).
778 G. Papazafeiropoulos et al. / KI Between Retaining Walls and Retained Footings

 The dimensionless frequency f /f0, where f0
is the fundamental eigenfrequency of the
soil layer and f is the frequency of the im-
posed harmonic excitation.
BONDED WSI
1.4
the acceleration amplitude of the FFM. For the
rotational transfer functions the rotational accel-
eration amplitude multiplied by the foundation
halfwidth B is divided by the free field accelera-
tion. The index “w” denotes “wall” and “ff” de-
notes “free field”.

1.2 3.1 Bonded WSI

1
In the case of bonded WSI the various transfer
A h ,w 0.8 functions versus the dimensionless frequency are
A h ,ff 0.6 shown in Figures 3-5. The minima for both rigid
0.4
and flexible wall occur at the same frequencies,
AGM approach-dw=d¬=0
KI-dw=d¬=0
which are odd multiples of the soil eigenfre-
0.2 AGM approach-dw=40,d¬=5
KI-dw=40,d¬=5
quency f0. This happens because for those fre-
0 quencies the dynamic amplification of the free
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
field ground motion is maximized. The reverse
f / f0
happens for even multiples of the soil eigenfre-
Figure 3. Transfer function for horizontal acceleration for quency, as the transfer function becomes maxi-
bonded WSI. mum and the soil amplification minimum.
The same trends are observed for the other
BONDED WSI two transfer functions. It seems that the vertical
0.9
and rocking transfer functions are higher for ri-
0.8
gid walls than for flexible walls. This is ex-
0.7
plained by the fact that due to the horizontal con-
0.6
straint imposed by the wall, part of the horizontal
A v,w 0.5
vibrational motion of the foundation is converted
A h,ff 0.4
into vertical or rocking motion. This phenome-
0.3
non is more apparent for the rigid retaining wall.
0.2 AGM approach-dw=d¬=0
KI-dw=d¬=0
0.1 AGM approach-dw=40,d¬=5 BONDED WSI
KI-dw=40,d¬=5 0.9
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0.8
AGM approach-dw=d ¬=0
KI-dw=d¬=0
f / f0 0.7
AGM approach-dw=40,d ¬=5
0.6 KI-dw=40,d ¬=5
Figure 4. Transfer function for vertical acceleration for A r,w B 0.5
bonded WSI.
A h,ff 0.4

0.3

0.2
3 DYNAMIC FOUNDATION RESPONSE
0.1

0
The layout of the model examined in this study 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
implies that kinematic interaction will be a result f / f0
of only base-slab averaging. The dynamic re-
Figure 5. Transfer function for rotational acceleration for
sponse of the foundation is calculated in terms of bonded WSI.
transfer functions, which relate the free field soil
acceleration and the acceleration of the founda-
tion (horizontal, vertical, and rocking). For hori-
zontal and vertical accelerations, the correspond-
ing transfer functions are taken equal to the ratio
of the acceleration amplitude of the foundation to
 G. Papazafeiropoulos et al. / KI Between Retaining Walls and Retained Footings 779

3.2 Smooth WSI tion in the degree of freedom considered and,

thus, increased dynamic kinematic interaction.
The transfer functions for smooth WSI are plot-
SMOOTH WSI
ted in Figures 6, 7 and 8. While the horizontal 1
AGM approach-dw=d¬=0
transfer function in the case of bonded WSI de- 0.9 KI-dw=d¬=0
0.8 AGM approach-dw=40,d¬=5
creases for both flexible and rigid wall, in the 0.7
KI-dw=40,d¬=5

case of smooth WSI it seems that the transfer 0.6

A r,w B
function increases in the quasi-static frequency 0.5
A h,ff
range for the flexible wall and decreases for the 0.4
0.3
rigid wall. In general, the same trends with Fig- 0.2
ures 3, 4 and 5 are observed. The major differ- 0.1
ence in the case of smooth WSI is the fact that 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
the vertical and rotational transfer functions for f / f0
flexible walls are generally larger than the corre-
sponding ones for rigid walls. Figure 8. Transfer function for rotational acceleration for
smooth WSI.
SMOOTH WSI
1.8
AGM approach-dw=d¬=0
1.6 KI-dw=d¬=0
AGM approach-dw=40,d¬=5
1.4
KI-dw=40,d¬=5
1.2

A h ,w 1

A h ,ff 0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
f / f0

Figure 6. Transfer function for horizontal acceleration for

smooth WSI.
Figure 9. Relative vertical acceleration of the foundation.
SMOOTH WSI
3

2.5 AGM approach-dw=d¬=0

KI-dw=d¬=0
2 AGM approach-dw=40,d¬=5
KI-dw=40,d¬=5
A v,w
1.5
A h,ff
1

0.5

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
f / f0

Figure 7. Transfer function for vertical acceleration for

smooth WSI. Figure 10. Relative rocking acceleration of the foundation.

The general agreement between the AGM ap-

proach and the corresponding finite element so-
lution is quite satisfactory. It has to be noted that
large difference between the two approaches may
imply increased dynamic distress of the founda-
780 G. Papazafeiropoulos et al. / KI Between Retaining Walls and Retained Footings
4 RELATIVE VERTICAL AND ROCKING
FOUNDATION RESPONSE
In Figures 9 and 10 the relative vertical and rock-
ing acceleration, respectively, are shown with re-
spect to the horizontal acceleration of the foun-
dation. It is observed that in the case of rigid wall
the vertical and rocking acceleration become
maximum at a frequency equal to f = 3f0. The
higher of the two maxima for each graph corre-
sponds to bonded WSI. This may be explained
by considering the kinematic constraints imposed
by a rigid and bonded WSI. The retained soil,
unable to translate or slide, is compelled to move
vertically, hence, the increased maxima of Fig-
ures 9 and 10 occur. When the wall is flexible,
then the forces exerted by the wall are signifi-
cantly lower (and the tendency to vertical re-
sponse of the soil decreased). If in addition the
vertical movement of the soil at the WSI is con-
strained (bonded WSI) the minimum vertical and
rocking response will result as it is depicted in
both Figures 9 and 10.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this study the kinematic dynamic interaction
between a rigid surface strip footing lying near a
retaining wall and the underlying soil was evalu-
ated in terms of transfer functions via the finite
element method and an approximate method.
The agreement between the two approaches is
satisfactory. In the quasi-static frequency range
horizontal transfer function maximizes in the
case of flexible and smooth wall, it is lower than
unity for flexible and bonded wall, and mini-
mizes for rigid wall. In the latter case it is not af-
fected by the type of interface, as it is similar for
bonded and smooth WSI. Vertical and rocking
response is maximum for flexible wall and
smooth interface and minimum for flexible wall
and bonded interface. Furthermore, in the case of
bonded WSI it is evident that the base-slab aver-
aging effect is increasing for higher frequencies.
Finally, the vertical and rocking response of the
foundation with respect to its horizontal response
is important for flexible wall with smooth WSI in
the quasi-static frequency range.
The main conclusion of the current study is that
the presence of a retaining wall adjacent to a sur-
face strip footing can alter substantially the im-
posed motion. This phenomenon is not taken into
account in seismic norms such as EC8, as in this
case the aforementioned guidelines would pre-
dict neither vertical or rocking response, nor dy-
namic distress of the foundation itself caused by
the base-slab averaging effect in certain fre-
quency ranges. This study has proven that kine-
matic interaction between a surface foundation
and an underlying homogeneous linear elastic
horizontal soil layer fixed on rigid bedrock can
occur even if the foundation is not embedded.
Possible reasons causing this phenomenon could
be the presence of adjacent retaining walls and/or
other underground structures (e.g., metro tunnels,
etc).
REFERENCES
[1] A.S. Veletsos, and A.M. Prasad, Seismic interaction of
structures and soils: stochastic approach, ASCE Journal
of Structural Engineering 115(4) (1989), 935-956.
[2] E. Kausel, and A.L. Pais, Stochastic deconvolution of
earthquake motions, ASCE Journal of Engineering Me-
chanics 113(2) (1987), 266-277.
[3] J.E. Luco, and A. Mita, Response of circular foundation
to spatially random ground motion, ASCE Journal of
Engineering Mechanics 113(1) (1987), 1-15.
[4] J. E. Luco, H. L. Wong, Response of a rigid foundation
to a spatially random ground motion, Earthquake Engi-
neering and Structural Dynamics 14 (1986), 891-908.
[5] Y. Matsushima, Stochastic response of structure due to
spatial variant earthquake excitations, Proceedings of
the 6th World Conference of Earthquake Engineering,
New Delhi, India, (1977), pp. 1077-1082.
[6] A. Pais, and E. Kausel, Stochastic response of founda-
tions, Rep. No. R85-6, Department of Civil Engineer-
ing, MIT, (1985).
[7] J.E. Luco, and A. Mita, Response of a circular founda-
tion on a uniform half-space to elastic waves, Earth-
quake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 15 (1987).
[8] R.H. Scanlan, Seismic wave effects on soil-structure in-
teraction, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dy-
namics 4 (1976), 379-388.
[9] J.P. Stewart, R.B. Seed, and G.L. Fenves, Empirical
Evaluation of Inertial Soil-Structure Interaction Effects,
Report No. PEER-98/07, PEER, CA (1998).
[10] G. Papazafeiropoulos, P.N. Psarropoulos, and Y.
Tsompanakis, Effects of retaining walls on the dynamic
response of retained structures, Proceedings of the 8th
International Conference on Structural Dynamics
(EURODYN), Leuven, Belgium, 4-6 July (2011).
[11] ABAQUS, Analysis User’s Manual Version 6.8, Simu-
lia, Dassault Systèmes, RI, USA (2008).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 781
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-781


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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 787
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-787

Fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” Dockyard in Lisbon

over Alluvial and Hard Soils
Remblai de la Dock du “Terreiro do Trigo“ à Lisbonne sur des
Alluvions et de Sols Durs
A. Pinto 1 & R. Tomásio
JetSJ Geotecnia Lda., Portugal
J. Ravasco
Somague Engenharia S.A., Portugal
G. Marques
Seth - Sociedade de Empreitadas e Trabalhos Hidráulicos S.A.
ABSTRACT
The “Terreiro do Trigo” dockyard, at the “Jardim do Tabaco”, was filled in order to allow the construction of the new “Santa
Apolónia” Cruise Ship Terminal in Lisbon, at the Tagus River right bank. A load transfer platform (LTP), founded over jet
grouting columns, allowed the construction of a 4,2m height embankment placed over a soft muddy alluvium layer (Cu lesser
than 15 to 20 kPa) with about 20m of average thickness. The existent dockyard peripheral and old walls were refurbished and
underpinned using micropiles, capped by reinforced concrete beams, in order to accommodate the new embankment earth pres-
sures. The main design and execution criteria, including the quality control and quality assurance of the jet grouting columns are
presented, as well as the main results of the adopted monitoring and survey plan. Finally, the technical and economic advantages
of the adopted techniques, comparing with some more conventional ones, are presented.

RÉSUMÉ
La dock du “Terreiro do Trigo” au “Jardim do Tabaco” a été mis en décharge de remblai pour permettre la construction du nou-
veau Terminal de Bateaux Croisières de “Santa Apolónia”, dans la marge droit du Tage, à Lisbonne. Une plateforme de transfert
de charges supportée par des colonnes de jet grouting a été construite pour permettre l’exécution du remblai avec 4,2m de hau-
teur, placé sur des alluvions avec une faible résistance (Cu inférieur à 20 kPa) et 20m d’épaisseur moyenne. Les murs périphé-
riques du Quai ont été renforcés avec des micropieux, enrobés par des poutres en béton arme, pour résister aux impulses du nou-
veau remblai. Les principaux critères de dimensionnement et d’exécution, bien que le contrôle de qualité et d’exécution des
colonnes de jet grouting sont présentés, bien que les résultats de l’instrumentation et de l’observation de l’ouvrage. À la fin de
l’article, les avantages techniques, économiques et environnants des technologies adoptées sont surélevés et confrontées avec
celles de technologies plus conventionnelles.

Keywords: Jet grouting, micropiles, load transfer platform, underpinning

1 INTRODUCTION the application field is being widespread, includ-

The jet grouting technology is being used in Por-
tugal since the last twenty years as ground im-
provement solution. At the beginning it was used
mainly for tunneling and underground works. In
the last years, due to the technology versatility,
ing ground treatment for foundations of every
kind of structures [2], including load transfer
platforms (LTP)[3], horizontal sealing slabs [1],
slope stabilization, earth retaining structures [1]
and underpinning of existent structures. The
technology is being proving as appropriate in

1
Corresponding Author.
788 A. Pinto et al. / Fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” Dockyard in Lisbon over Alluvial and Hard Soils

various ground conditions, including hard soils depth, including at the bottom a layer of muddy
and weak rocks, a big advantage in countries sands, resting over the Miocene sandstones and
with very heterogeneous geological conditions. dense sands, was built with the purpose to allow
The future development of the jet grouting the construction of the new “Santa Apolónia”
technology will depend on a better design and Cruise Ship Terminal. Also important was the
quality assurance and control of the adopted so- compatibility with the reinforced concrete slab,
lutions. To achieve those objectives it will be built over bored piles at the river bed, allowing
important to prepare codes of practice, including the operation of big ships (figure 2).
factors such as the quality control and assurance,
the life time instrumentation of the adopted solu-
tions and the execution of full scale load tests.
Taking into account the described scenario in
this paper it is presented a case history of the
load transfer platform foundation adopted at the
fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” dockyard, includ-
ing the closing and refurbishment of the “Jardim
do Tabaco” centenary masonry quay walls, at the
Tagus River right bank in Lisbon, where the jet
grouting technology was applied with success on
very complex neighborhood and geological con-
ditions, including Miocene weak rocks, sand-
stones, and hard soils, dense sands (figure 1).
Figure 2. Site location and perspective of the new Terminal.

Other main issues were the need for the pre-

servation of the adjacent old buildings and infra-
structures stability, including one r1000mm wa-
ter pipe and the Lisbon Metro line, as well as the
quay walls integrity. In order to better resist to
the new landfill earth pressures and to confine
the soft soils under the fill, the quay walls were
previously refurbished and the dockyard gate
previously closed (figures 1 and 3).

Figure 1. Over view of the dockyard and quay walls.

2 FIIL OF THE “TERREIRO DO TRIGO”

DOCYARD

2.1 Main conditions

The landfill of the dockyard was performed on
an area of about 290x56m2 with 4,2m height,
Figure 3. Main conditions of the site at the beginning of the
over soft alluvium soils (muddy alluvium with works.
Cu lesser than 20KPa) with 20m of average
 A. Pinto et al. / Fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” Dockyard in Lisbon over Alluvial and Hard Soils 789

2.2 LTP foundation grillage of reinforced concrete beams and slabs.

The dockyard gate, with about 40m length, was
Taking into account the existent conditions,
also previously closed using a sheet pile wall, as
mainly the complex working area, as well as the
well as bored piles, both capped by a reinforced
works schedule, the landfill was built over a load
concrete slab. Those works, together with a jet
transfer platform (LTP), located over jet grouting
grouting wall, r1,2m columns spaced 1,0m,
r1,5m columns on a 5,7 x 5,7m2 mesh and rest-
built at the quay wall internal face, allowed the
ing at the Miocene sandstones and dense sands,
previous horizontal confinement of the alluvium
installed during low tide (figure 4). The jet grout-
materials located inside the dockyard area. This
ing spoil was integrated on the landfill.
confinement effect allowed also the decrease of
the tides water level amplitude inside the dock-
yard, leading to the increase of the earth and jet
grouting works performance (figure 6).

Figure 4. Adopted solution for LTP foundation

The LTP was formed by two layers of biaxial

polypropylene geogrids (20 and 30kN/m of ulti-
Figure 6. Quay walls closing structure.
mate tension resistance) under two layers of
0,5m thickness of granular material. The LTP
2.3 Quay walls underpinning
was also installed during low tide (figure 5).
As already stated, the quay walls were previous
refurbished and underpinned using self drilling
micropiles (figures 7 and 8).

Figure 5. Geogrids installation on low tide.

As already stated, the masonry quay walls

were previously refurbished and underpinned us- Figure 7. Quay walls refurbishment and underpinning solu-
ing inclined tubular steel micropiles, capped by a tion.
790 A. Pinto et al. / Fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” Dockyard in Lisbon over Alluvial and Hard Soils
Figure 8. Quay walls refurbishment and underpinning works.
In order to optimize the micropiles overall
bond length, mini jet grouting single phase sys-
tem was used during drilling allowing the execu-
tion of a grout body diameter of about 1000mm
mobilizing a big shaft resistance at the alluvial
sandy layers.
2.4 Design
For the design of the adopted solution a 3D FEM
analysis was carried out, using Plaxis software.
The maximum estimated vertical displacement at
the top of the fill, after the conclusion of the
earth works, was about 76mm (figures 9 and 10).
Figure 9. 3D FEM model mesh.
During the construction of the LTP and the
landfill the maximum vertical displacements
were about obtained at the topographic marks
were 350mm (figure 11).
Figure 10. 3D FEM model main results.
2.5 Monitoring and survey
The solution performance was accessed through
an instrumentation plan, during the jet grouting
and earth works. The instrumentation plan com-
prised the installation of topographic marks at
the landfill base, as well as rod extensometers at
the LTP geogrids and pressure cells at the jet
grouting columns head (figures 11, 12 and 13).
Figure 11. Vertical displacements at the landfill base.
According to the analysis of the instrumenta-
tion readings it was possible to conclude that, in
spite of the jet grouting columns had been design
to resist to all the loads due to the landfill weight
and live loads (3,7MPa of unconfined resistance
compression), only about 40% of those loads was
directly transferred to jet grouting columns.
 A. Pinto et al. / Fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” Dockyard in Lisbon over Alluvial and Hard Soils
The remaining 60% of the overall loads were
resisted by the confined muddy alluvium.
Figure 12. Installation of rod extensometers at the geogrids.
The main reason for this situation was the in-
crease of the mud overall bearing capacity, due
to the 3D confinement effect, which could be ex-
plained by the following main issues:
 At the top of the mud: due to the upper
landfill;
 At the base of the mud: due to the Miocene
layer;
 Horizontally: due to the jet grouting col-
umns and to the peripheral quay and retain-
ing walls.
Figure 13. Load cells at the jet grouting colums head: main
results.
791
2.6 Quality control and quality assurance
The execution of the jet grouting columns was
complemented by a tight quality control and
quality assurance, allowing the confirmation of
the resistance, deformability and the geometry of
the columns. For this purpose, test columns were
built and full length cores from test and final
columns were collected in order to confirm the
geometry and to perform laboratorial tests, main-
ly Unconfined Compression Strength (UCS), at
different ages, including the measurement of the
Young Modulus (figure 14).
Figure 14. Jet grouting columns core samples.
During the execution of the jet grouting columns
a permanent registration of all the adopted para-
meters was also performed, allowing to confirm
the columns overall length, mainly the columns
toe at the Miocene weak rocks, sandstones, and
hard soils, dense sands (figure 15).
Figure 15. Jet grouting columns execution control.
792 A. Pinto et al. / Fill of the “Terreiro do Trigo” Dockyard in Lisbon over Alluvial and Hard Soils
2.7 Solution remarks
In spite of the very difficult conditions, the
adopted solution allowed the fulfillment of all
the main objectives, specially the following is-
sues: technical (low deformations at the landfill
platform and at the neighbor structures and infra-
structures) and control of both costs and con-
struction schedule, confirming the good perfor-
mance of the solution.
The adopted solution is being tested with full
scale vertical and horizontal load tests in order to
confirm its incorporation on the foundations so-
lution for the new Cruise Ship Terminal building.
For this purpose and to be confirmed according
to the full scale load tests results, the jet grouting
columns located under the structural columns
and walls will be reinforced with steel tubular
micropiles in order to resist to about 2500kN of
axial service load.
It should also be stated that the adopted solu-
tion for the ground improvement and landfill
foundation was design as an alternative to a stone
columns solution, leading to the consolidation of
the muddy soils, which would increase the ver-
tical deformations to about 1,5m, including poss-
ible severe damages on the very sensitive neigh-
bor buildings and infrastructures.
3 MAIN CONCLUSIONS
Taking into account the presented example and
comparing with some more traditional solutions,
is possible to point out the following advantages
of the jet grouting solutions [1, 2 and 3]:
 Possibility to be applied to almost every
kind of soils, with low vibration, low-noise
and strong but local ground perturbation;
 Small dimension and small height of the jet
grouting equipment, leading to big versatil-
ity, allowing the use of the technology on
very complex scenarios;
 The ground is improved, using an hydraulic
process, in order to be integrated on the fi-
nal engineering solution with both econom-
ic and environmental advantages.
 The confinement effect on soft soils lead to
the minimization of differential settle-
ments, occurring mainly during the con-
struction phase;
 No need of pre loading on soft soils. The
consolidation effects are very small and oc-
cur, in the majority of the situations, close
from the ground surface;
 Good execution control due to the sophisti-
cated equipment, allowing in real time the
registration of the execution parameters.
As main limitations of the jet grouting tech-
nology the following issues could be point out:
 Production of spoil, which could however
be integrated on the earth works;
 Very demanding quality control and quality
assurance, as happening with the majority
of the ground improvement techniques.
The presented case history of jet grouting ap-
plications, for foundations of an LTP as well as
for the underpinning of centenary walls, can be
considered as an example how the jet grouting
technology is being used on wide and complex
geological and geotechnical scenarios, proving
its technical and economic advantages.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors thank to the Owner of the described
case history (Administração do Porto de Lisboa)
his permission for the presentation of this present
paper.
REFERENCES
[1] Pinto A.; Pereira, A.; Cardoso D.; Sá J. Ground Im-
provement solutions at Sana Vasco da Gama Royal Ho-
tel. Proceedings of the 17th ICSMGE (2009), 2180 –
2183.
[2] Pinto A.; Tomásio R.; Cruz S.; Carvalho B. Special
Foundations for an Urban Viaduct in Lisbon. Proceed-
ings of the 14th ECSMGE (2007), 475 – 480.
[3] Pinto A.; Falcão J.; Pinto F.; Melo Ribeiro, J. (2005).
Ground Improvement Solutions using Jet Grouting
Columns. Proceedings of the 16th ICSMGE (2005).
1249 – 1252.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 793
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-793

Foundations under seismic loads

Fondations sous charges sismiques
S. Prakash1
Department of Civil Engineering,Missouri University of Science and Technology
V. K. Puri
Civil Engineering Department, Southern Illinois University

ABSTRACT
Shallow foundations may experience a reduction in bearing capacity and increase in settlement and tilt due to seismic loading as
has been observed during several earthquakes. Shallow foundations for seismic loads have generally been designed by the
equivalent static approach. Foundations are considered eccentrically loaded and the ultimate bearing capacity is estimated ac-
cordingly. Building Codes generally allow an increase of 33% in bearing capacity when earthquake loads, in addition to static
loads are used in the design of the foundation. Considerable research effort has been devoted to the determination of the dy-
namic bearing capacity in recent years. Significant developments in determination of dynamic bearing capacity are presented in
the paper.

RÉSUMÉ
Fondations superficielles peuvent expérience une réduction de capacité portante et augmentation de règlement et d'inclinaison en
raison de la charge sismique comme a été observé au cours de plusieurs tremblements de terre. Fondations superficielles pour les
charges sismiques ont généralement été conçues par l'approche statique équivalente. Fondations sont considérés comme excen-
triques chargées et la capacité portante ultime est estimée en conséquence. Les Codes du bâtiment permettent généralement une
augmentation de 33 % de la capacité portante lorsque les charges de tremblement de terre en plus de charges statiques sont utili-
sées dans la conception de la Fondation. Recherche un effort considérable a été consacré à la détermination de la capacité por-
tante dynamique au cours des dernières années. Des développements importants dans la détermination de la capacité portante
dynamique sont présentés dans le document.

Keywords: Capacity, Bearing, Dynamic, Settlement, Tilt, Determination

1 INTRODUCTION sociated ground shaking can affect the shallow

foundation in a variety of ways:
Structures subjected to earthquakes may be sup- x Cyclic degradation of soil strength may
ported on shallow foundations or on piles de- lead to bearing capacity failure during the
pending on the load transmitted and the soil con- earthquake.
ditions at the site. The foundation must be safe x Large horizontal inertial force due to earth-
both for the static as well for the dynamic loads quake may cause the foundation to fail in
imposed by the earthquakes. The earthquake as- sliding or overturning.

1
Corresponding Author.
794 S. Prakash and V.K. Puri / Foundations Under Seismic Loads
x Soil liquefaction beneath and around the
foundation may lead to large settlement and
tilting of the foundation.
(a) Bearing Capacity Failure
(b) Tilting of Buildings after Bearing Capacity Failure
Figure 1. Examples of Bearing Capacity Failures of shallow
foundations in Adapazari [5]
x Softening or failure of the ground due to
redistribution of pore water pressure after
an earthquake which may adversely affect
the stability of the foundation post-
earthquake.
Bearing capacity failures of shallow founda-
tions have been observed in Mexico City during
Michoacan earthquake of 1985 [1, 2] and in city
of Adapazari due to 1999 Kocaeli earthquake [3,
4, 5]. Typical examples of bearing capacity fail-
ure in Adapazari are shown in Fig. 1. The sur-
face soils at the site of foundation damage belong
to CL/ ML group which are generally considered
non-liquefiable. Settlements as much as 0.5-0.7m
have been observed in loose sands [6] in Hachi-
nohe during the 1968 Tokachioki earthquake of
magnitude 7.9. Settlements of 0.5 -1.0 m were
observed at Port and Roko Island in Kobe due to
the Hygoken Nanbu (M=6.9) earthquake.
Several research investigations, mostly ana-
lytical have been conducted in the area of dy-
namic bearing capacity of foundations in the re-
cent years. The more significant of these studies
are presented his paper.
2 DEVELOPMENTS IN DYNAMIC
BEARING CAPACITY
The response of a footing to dynamic loads is af-
fected by the (1) nature and magnitude of dy-
namic loads, (2) number of pulses and (3) the
strain rate response of soil. Shallow foundations
for seismic loads are usually designed by the
equivalent static approach. The foundations are
considered as eccentrically loaded with inclined
load (combination of vertical + horizontal load)
and the ultimate bearing capacity is accordingly
estimated. To account for the effect of dynamic
nature of the load, the bearing capacity factors
are determined by using dynamic angle of inter-
nal friction which is taken as 2-degrees less than
its static value [7]. Building Codes generally
permit an increase of 33 % in allowable bearing
capacity when earthquake loads in addition to
static loads are used in design of the foundation.
This recommendation may be reasonable for
dense granular soils, stiff to very stiff clays or
hard bedrocks but is not applicable for friable
rock, loose soils susceptible to liquefaction or
pore water pressure increase, sensitive clays or
clays likely to undergo plastic flow [8].
 S. Prakash and V.K. Puri / Foundations Under Seismic Loads 795

Behavior of small footing resting on dense commonly used for static bearing capacity to ob-
sands and subjected to static and impulse loads tain the dynamic bearing capacity as follows:
was experimentally investigated by Selig and
McKee [9]. It was observed that the footing
failed in general shear in static case and local
shear failure occurred in the dynamic case. Large
settlements at failure were observed for the dy-
namic case. These experimental results indicate
that for given value of settlement, the dynamic
bearing capacity is lower than the static bearing
capacity. This observation is further supported
by results of experimental studies on small foot-
ings on surface of sand [10] wherein dynamic
bearing capacity was about 30 % lower than stat-
ic bearing capacity. Therefore, the increase in Figure 3. Failure surface used by Budhu and al-karni for stat-
bearing capacity permitted by codes should be ic and dynamic case [12]
taken with a caution.
Recently several analytical studies on seismic
bearing capacity of shallow footing have been qud = c Nc Sc dc ec +q Nq Sqs dq eq + 0.5 a B Na Sa
reported. These studies used limit equilibrium
approach with varous assumptions on the failure d a ea (1)
surface. A plain failure surface shown in Fig. 2
was assummed by Richard et al [11] and equa- Where,
tions and charts were developed to estimate Nc, Nq, Na, are the static bearing capacity fac-
seismic bearing capacity and settlement using tors.
foundation width, depth, soil properties and hori- Sc, Sqs, Sa are static shape factors.
zontal and vertical acceleration components. This dc, dq, da are static depth factors
approach is used for simplicity although the as- ec , eq and ea are the seismic factors estimated
sumption of a plane failure surface may not be using following equations
realistic.
c 
e exp  4.3k l  D h  (2)

ª § 5.3k h1.2 ·º (3)

eq (1  kv ) exp « ¨¨ ¸¸»
¬ © 1  k v ¹¼
2 ª § 9 k 1 .2 · º (4)
eJ (1  k v ) exp « ¨¨ h ¸¸»
3 ¬ © 1  kv ¹¼

where,
Kh and Kv are the horizontal and vertical accel-
eration coefficients respectively.
Figure 2. Failure surface in soil for seismic bearing capacity H= depth of the failure zone from the ground
assumed by Richard et al [11] surface and
D= c/ aH
Logarithmic failure surfaces shown in Fig. 3
were assumed by Budhu and Al-karni [12] to de-
termine the seismic bearing capacity of soils.
They suggested modifications to the equations
796 S. Prakash and V.K. Puri / Foundations Under Seismic Loads

0.5B §S ·
H exp¨ tanI ¸  D f
§S I · ©2 ¹
cos¨  ¸
© 4 2¹ (5)

Df = depth of the footing and

 = angle of internal friction
c=cohesion of soil
An experimental study was also conducted by
Al-Karni and Budhu [13] on model footing to
study the response under horizontal acceleration
and compared the results with the approach sug-
gested in [12].

(a) Ncd

Figure 4. Failure Surfaces under static and Seismic Loading

[14]

(b) Nqd
 S. Prakash and V.K. Puri / Foundations Under Seismic Loads
(c) Nad
Fig. 5 Values of bearing cacity factors (a) Ncd (b) Nqd and (c)
Nad [14]
A study of the seismic bearing capacity of
shallow strip footing was conducted by Chaud-
hury and Subba Rao [14]. The failure surfaces
for the static and dynamic case are shown in
Fig.4. They used the limiting equilibrium ap-
praoach and the eqivalent static method to repe-
sent the seismic forces and obtained the seismic
bearing capacity factors. The dynamic bearing
capacity ‘qud’ is obtained as:
qud = c Ncd + q Nqd + 0.5 a B Nad (6)
Where, Ncd, Nqd and Nad are seismic bearing
capacity factors.
Values of Ncd, Nqd and Nad are shown in Fig.
5 for various combinations of kh , kv and .
As there is general lack of experimental data,
it is difficult to verify which one of the analytical
appraoaches (namely those given in [11, 12 or
14]) may be expected to provide reasonable es-
timates of seismic bearing capacity.
797
Gajan and Kutter [15] provided the concept of
contact interface model to estimate the load ca-
pacities, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation
and deformation of shallow foundations under
combined cyclic loading. The ‘contact interface
model’ provides a nonlinear relation between cy-
clic loads and displacements of the footing–soil
system during combined cyclic loading (vertical,
shear, and moment).
3 SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS IN
LIQUEFIABLE SOILS
Gazezas et al [16] studied tilting of buildings in
1999 Turkey earthquake. Detailed scrutiny of the
“Adapazari failures” showed that significant tilt-
ing and toppling were observed only in relatively
slender buildings (with aspect ratio: H / B > 2),
provided they were laterally free from other
buildings on one of their sides. Wider and/or
contiguous buildings suffered small if any rota-
tion. For the prevailing soil conditions and type
of seismic shaking; most buildings with H / B >
1.8 overturned, whereas building with H / B <
0.8 essentially only settled vertically, with no
visible tilting. Figure 6 shows a plot of H/B to tilt
angle of building. Soil profiles based on three
SPT and three CPT tests, performed in front of
each building of interest, reveal the presence of a
number of alternating sandy-silt and silty-sand
layers, from the surface down to a depth of at
least 15 m with values of point resistance qc 
(0.4 – 5.0) MPa . Seismo–cone measurements
revealed wave velocities Vs less than 60 m/s for
depths down to 15 m, indicative of extremely
soft soil layers. Ground acceleration was not re-
corded in Tigcilar. Using in 1-D wave propaga-
tion analysis, the EW component of the Sakarya
accelerogram (recorded on soft rock outcrop, in
the hilly outskirts of the city) leads to accelera-
tion values between 0.20 g -0.30 g, with several
significant cycles of motion, with dominant pe-
riod in excess of 2 seconds. Even such relatively
small levels of acceleration would have liquefied
at least the upper-most loose sandy silt layers of
a total thickness 1–2 m, and would have pro-
duced excess pore-water pressures in the lower
layers [16]
798 S. Prakash and V.K. Puri / Foundations Under Seismic Loads
Fig.6. The angle of permanent tilting as a unique function of
the slenderness ratio H/B [16]
4 CONCLUSION
x Shallow foundations subjectd to combined
static and seismic loads are commoly de-
signed using the psuedo-static approach.
Most research effort in recent years has
been directed towards bettrer defining the
failure surface under combined static and
seismic loading and efforts have been made
to understand the behavior of the founda-
tions under seismic loading
x Analytical solutions need validation on
model, full scale and/or centrifuge tests.
There has been some effort in this direction
also.
x The codal provisions permitting 33%
x increase in static bearing capacity for
the seismic case need to be re-examined in
view of the test results cited in this paper
[9,10] and the settlement and tilt that may
be experienced by the footings due to
earthquake loading.
x Only the dynamic bearing capacity aspect
has been presented in the paper. Settlement
and tilt of the foundation are very impor-
tant will be discussed separately.
REFERENCES
[1] M.J. Mendoza and G. Avunit, The Mexico earthquake
of September 19,1985-behavior of building foundations
in Mexico city, Earthquake Spectra, 4(4): 835-853,
1988
[2] L. Zeevart, Seismosoil dynamics of foundations in
Mexico City earthquake, September 1985, Journal of
Geotechnical Engineering, 117(3): 376-427, 1991
[3] G. Karaca, An investigation into large vertical dis-
placement experienced by the structures in Adapazari
during 17 August 1999 earthquake, MS thesis, Middle
East Technical University , Ankara, Turkey 2001.
[4] B.S. Bakir, H. Sucuoglu and T. Yilmaz, An overview of
local site effects and the associated building damage
during 17 August 1999 Izmit earthquake, Bulletin of
seismological Society of America, 92(1): 509-526,
2002.
[5] M.T. Yilmaz, O. Pekcan and B.S. Bakir, Undrained cy-
clic shear and deformation behavior of silt-clay mix-
tures of Adapazari, turkey, Soil Dynamics and Earth-
quake Engineering, 14(7) : 497-507, 2004 .
[6] [6] Y. Ohsaki, Effects of sand compaction on lique-
faction during Tokachioki earthquake. Soils and Foun-
dations. Vol. 10(2): 112-128, 1970.
[7] B.M. Das, Principles of Soil Dynamics, PWS Kent,
1992.
[8] R.W. Day, Foundation Engineering Handbook,
McGraw Hill, 2006.
[9] E.T. Selig and K. E. McKee, Static and dynamic behav-
ior of small footing, Journal Soil Mechanics and Foun-
dation Engineering, ASCE, 87(6), pp. 29-47, 1961.
[10] [10] A.S. Vesic, D.C. Banks and J. M. Woodward, An
experimental study of dynamic bearing capacity of
footing on sand, Proc. 6th INCSMFE, Vol. 2, pp. 209-
213, Montreal, Canada, 1965.
[11] R. Richards, D.G. Elms and M. Budhu, Seismic bear-
ing capacity and settlement of foundations, Journal of
Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASC, 119(4) , pp
662-674,1993.
[12] M. Budhu and A.A. al-Karni, Seismic bearing capacity
of soils, Geotechnique, 43(1), pp. 181-187, 1993.
[13] A.A. Al-Karni and M. Budhu, An experimental study of
seismic bearing capacity of shallow footings, Proc. 4th
International Conference on Recent advances in Geo-
technical earthquake Engineering and soil dynamics nd
symposium in honor of Professor W.D. Liam Finn, CD-
ROM, San-Diego, CA, 2001.
[14] D. Chaudhury and K.S. Subba Rao, Seismic bearing
capacity of shallow strip footings, Geotechnical and
geological engineering, 23(4), pp. 403-418, 2005.
[15] S.Gajan and B.L.Kutter, Contact interface model for
shallow foundations subjected to combined cyclic load-
ing", Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 135 (3), pp 407-419, 2009.
[16] G. Gazetas, M. Apostou and J.Anasta- Sopoular,
Seismic bearing capacity failure and overturning of
Terveler Building in Adapazari 1999, Proc. Fifth In-
ter.Conf on Case histories in Geotechnical Engineering.
New York CD ROM –SOAP11(1-51), 2004.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 799
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-799

Protection of the Cement Plant facilities

foundations on the artificial firm soil base effected
by dynamic loading (Autonomous Republic of
Crimea, Ukraine)
Protection de la partie de fondation des unités de l’usine à
ciment en République Autonome Crimée (Ukraine) sur le
basement solide artificiel, soumis aux effets dynamiques
G.R. Rozenvasser1, V.N. Tokovenko, V.E. Zhigarev, S.V. Malikov, V.E. Symonovych
DE Donetsk PromstroyNIIproekt, Donetsk, Ukraine

ABSTRACT
It contains the strategy of foundation arrangement on the artificial firm foundation soil base effected by dynamic loading due to
the Site earthquake activity. The measures implemented ensure adequate foundation-base interaction as well as geotechnical and
structural safety along with reduction of the seismic loading for the facilities (in particular, pre-heater) by no less than 1 point.

RÉSUMÉ
On a exposé une conception de l’aménagement des fondations sur les basements solides artificiels de sol, soumis aux effets
dynamiques ensuite de l’activité séismique du territoire du chantier. Les mesures introduites assurent l’interaction adéquate du
basement et des fondations, et aussi la sécurité géotechnique et constructive avec l’abaissement des activités séismiques sur les
unités, notamment, sur la construction de échangeur de chaleur, pas moins d’un point.

Key words: Cement Plant, Facilities foundations, artificial firm foundation soils, dynamic loading, earthquake isolation.

1 GENERAL abroad, correspondence of the technical charac-

At the central part of the Cement Plant Site there
are two identical lines for cement production,
where preparation, treatment, calcination and
cooling of clinker take place.
The Plant Facilities under scientific and technical
support have been selected and analyzed pursu-
ant to the two main criteria: non-coverage in the
valid Ukrainian Standards and not enough ex-
perience or direct analogues in Ukraine or
1
Corresponding Author.
teristics to the data given in >1@.
The Plant Facilities covered by these criteria
are the following (Fig.1):
x the reinforced concrete frames of the pre-
heaters;
x the reinforced concrete cement silo stor-
ages;
x the steel frame of the raw material mixing
bed.
800 G.R. Rozenvasser et al. / Protection of the Cement Plant Facilities Foundations
These facilities are referred to non-standard
ones because they are beyond the scope of the
Standards in terms of their geometrical dimen-
sions, aerodynamic parameters, effects from
earthquake loads, etc. The rest of the facilities
are referred to standard ones, the earthquake pro-
tection measures of which can be designed ac-
cording to the valid Standards.
Fig. 1. General view of the Cement Plant.
The present report contains the results of in-
vestigation of the Pre-heater building.
The soils penetrated during investigation can
be divided into seven engineering-geological
elements (EGEs) taking into account their age,
origin, texture-structural features and spatial va-
riability of the characteristics. Geological and
engineering conditions of the Site are compli-
cated by the following factors: occurrence of
EGE-2 soils, EGE-4 with the total depth ~ 5m,
which at soaking possess the subsiding properties
(I type, psl=0.132MPa-113MPa). Besides, EGE-4
is represented by the weak soils which in case of
water saturation pass into floating state.
Foundation can be based on the soils starting
from EGE-5 with the following characteristics:
II=18.15kN/m3; xII=17-19º; =II=12-19kPa; è=15-
17MPa; IL<0-0.57.
Ground water occurs at the borehole drilling
at the depth of 10.4m; at a greater depth the wa-
ter-logged soils can be found; free water was not
found.
According to >2@ the Site is referred to the area
of earthquake intensity J4=8 on the MSK-64
scale as per OSR 2004-A map.
2 GOAL SETTING
Scientific and technical support of the non-
standard Plant facilities is intended for develop-
ment and implementation of the strategy of their
protection against negative geotechnical effects -
episodic loads in the form of the earthquake ef-
fects >3@, >4@ and the effect of the subsiding base
soils >5@.
The set goal to ensure geotechnical and struc-
tural safety of the Facilities which are key mo-
ments for their design, construction and opera-
tion related to reduction of the earthquake
effects, thus, solving the possible problems at
different stages of the construction facilities life.
3 THE ISSUE STATE
When constructing buildings in seismic areas,
the active type of earthquake protection is be-
coming more widely used, which provides de-
crease of the earthquake loads on structures due
to regulation of their dynamic characteristics,
thus, to avoid resonance increase in amplitude of
vibrations. This can be reached by the relevant
selection of dynamic stiffness and correspon-
dently, the natural frequencies (periods) of struc-
ture vibrations. The effective changing of these
parameters is related to implementation to the
structures some special means of earthquake pro-
tection.
World practice of foundation seismic isolation
foresees different dampers partially absorbing
the earthquake vibration energy >6@.
The work >7@ describes the computational in-
vestigations of the best investigated earthquake
isolating systems. Estimation of the behavior ef-
ficiency of earthquake isolating dampers was
based on the following parameters: Q, kN –
transverse force; DW, kJ – total energy of non-
elastic deformations; Wmax, kJ – peak energy of
non-elastic deformations; ÿ, cm/s2 – system ac-
celeration (Table 1).
It is obvious that the most effective earth-
quake isolation system is hysteresis dampers re-
ducing the transverse forces by ~1.4 times; total
energy of non-elastic deformations - by ~7.5
 G.R. Rozenvasser et al. / Protection of the Cement Plant Facilities Foundations
times; peak energy of non-elastic deformations -
by ~10 times; system acceleration - by ~1.4
times. Hysteresis absorption of the earthquake
vibration energy occurs due to retardation of
body reaction from the matters caused it.
Effectiveness of using any foundation type
aiming at reduction of the horizontal dynamic
component (vector) of the earthquake effect is
clearly illustrated on the diagram on Fig.2 (ac-
cording to S. Naaseh & E. Elsesser’s (USA ) in-
vestigations, where the building response with
“fixed foundation” (without earthquake protec-
tion measures) and with “isolated foundation”
(with earthquake protection measures) is speci-
fied).
Table 1. Comparative effectiveness of different earthquake
isolation systems
Without seismic isolation
Spring dampers
Parameters
Q 3037 3113
DW 82.8 60.2
Wmax 12.3 14.7
ÿ 6.8 8.0
In case of “fixed foundation” (relatively, more
rigid - Option 1 and less rigid – Option 2) build-
ing stability is ensured within the range of M=0.7-
1.0s and displacement ~7.2cm. But such condi-
tions are unfavorable for a building because at
short vibration periods the horizontal force is
large (~0.6-0.45g) and the possibility to be out of
the stability zone is high. At the same time, in
case of “isolated foundation” the level of hori-
zontal forces is significantly low (~0.2g), and the
vibration periods - M=2.0-3.0s with great uniform
displacements ensure building stability.
The world practice of improving the earth-
quake resistance of the constructed units has
801
shown that the most obtainable effective ways of
partial compensation of horizontal loads are the
arrangement of a protective screens around
buildings which due to the their material proper-
ties and shapes reflect and absorb the earthquake
excitation energy. Passing seismic waves arising
from the inner sides of screens are insignificantly
quenched within the soil body, located between a
screen and building foundation, and, reaching the
foundation, effect on it in the form of lateral dy-
namic pressure, sometimes leading to destructive
consequences >8@.
Springs - viscodamper
Rubber-metal dampers
Dry friction dampers
Hysteresis dampers
2724 2884 2895 2192
Fig. 2. Building response with a fixed and an isolated foun-
15.7 31.8 68.6 10.9 dation: the area of confident intervals of building stability in
case of an earthquake; T - vibration period, sec.
5.7 8.6 8.7 1.2
In case of arranging pile foundations, elastic-
5.5 5.1 6.8 4.8 plastic strains of foundation grill dampen a turn-
ing moment acting on a building. Pile foundation
only partially ensures building protection - main-
ly against horizontal earthquake effects. A verti-
cal vector, inevitably available at earthquakes, is
only partially dampened by elastic-plastic damp-
ers (sliding joints) of horizontal loads and effects
on the building in the form of dynamic vertical
loads. At present, the special means for vertical
load compensation are practically absent.
The materials partially absorbing vibrations,
having low shear modulus and low elastic im-
pedance, are the following:
x foam, liquid clay, jelly mediums, colloidal
liquids, etc. ;
802 G.R. Rozenvasser et al. / Protection of the Cement Plant Facilities Foundations

x granulated slag, macadam, sand-gravel ag-

gregates, foam plastic wastes, coarse-
grained and medium coarse sands, treated
wood cutter shavings, etc. ;
x hollow closed elastic elements.
Horizontal loads are reduced due to partial ab-
sorption of seismic wave energy by dampening
material. However, to assume that in a specific
region will prevail the earthquakes with specific
dominant frequencies is not right >9@.

4 COMPUTATIONAL INVESTIGATION
FINDINGS

The set goal for partial compensation of the ver-

tical vector of the earthquake effect on building
foundation has been reached. It has been pro-
posed to set the contour anchors of friction ac-
cording to Fig.3,4, the top parts of these are pin-
connected to foundation and are inside of the pad
made of the material with the evident hysteresis
properties. The pad height in this case is H=0.12-
0.15L, where L – length of the buried anchor
part, and pad diameter D=1.5-2.0d, where d –
anchor diameter. This ratio has been chosen
based on the possibility of retaining anchor bear-
ing properties and ensuring the efficiency of ho-
rizontal damping in a sliding joint.
Contour anchors of friction, interacting along
the surface with the soil, undergo non-uniform
alternating “pressing-in – pull-out” deformations
causing a building tilt >10@.
Fig. 3. Arrangement scheme of contour anchors of friction.
Fig. 4. The system of foundation isolation from a vertical
vector of the earthquake load: 1 – a foundation slab; 2 – a
frame column; 3 – concrete bedding – topographic layer; 4 –
a contour anchor of friction; 5 –a pinned-flexible insertion; 6
– a sliding joint – a dry-friction damper; 7 – an earthquake
resisting movement joint-damper of viscous friction; 8 – fill-
ing with viscoelastic material.
Due to a hysteresis effect of an anchor, partial
absorption of the vibration process energy and
subsequent reduction of the vertical vector of the
earthquake effect on a construction foundation
take place. In other words, hysteresis absorption
of the seismic energy occurs due to retardation of
foundation reaction from the factors caused it.
Such effect can be realized only in case of set-
ting contour anchors of friction, because possible
one-side foundation uplifting (pulling out) en-
sures return of the anchors to their initial posi-
tions due to considerable increase of the press-in
force.
Thus, earthquake protection of a building ac-
cording to the above propositions is implemented
due to partial energy absorption of both horizon-
tal and vertical vectors of seismic effects by
foundation structural elements which improves
the seismic safety of a building in general.
Taking the pre-heater building of more than
100m high as an example, the conditions of its
 G.R. Rozenvasser et al. / Protection of the Cement Plant Facilities Foundations 803

overturning prevention in case of emergency effect occurring in the contour anchors of

combination of loads have been examined. friction;
Table 2 specifies calculation results. Special x considerable reduction of the material con-
attention can be drawn to the results specified in sumption and the cost of the seismic isola-
Item 2 where the safety factor exceeds the stabil- tion and earthquake resistance.
ity criterion by many times.
But setting of contour anchors of friction in
this case unlike the results specified in Item 3 has
some important advantages:
x retaining of the initial General Layout that
under very limited Site conditions excludes
overlapping of the adjacent facilities foun-
dations and reduces the construction
weight;
x ensuring the efficiency of a sliding joint be-
tween foundation bottom and concrete
bedding – topographic layer due to (Fig.5)
x exceeding of the horizontal vector of the
earthquake effect (±Fx) over the resistance
in a sliding joint (±Fx.=)
x ±Fx=78000kN > ±Fx.==72920kN and con-
siderable reduction of forces in a sliding

Table 2. Calculations results of foundation overturning.

Fig. 5. Kinematics of earthquake loads: 1 – concrete bedding
Plan dimensions, m
Foundation options

Stability criterion,

 topographic layer; 2 – a sliding joint; 3 – a foundation slab;

Safety factor,

4 – a frame; 5 – stiffening diaphragms.

> „saf @
lxb

„saf
No.

5 RECOMMENDATIONS TO
CONSTRUCTION
Slab foun-
40 { 34 0.9 <
1 dation Computational investigation of the activities for
Slab foun- seismic isolation of the foundations and earth-
dation with quake resistance of the building frame has been
contour an- 40 { 34 13.5 >> >1,2@
2 run using Scad 11.3 (SCAD Group, Kiev;
chor of fric-
tion http://www.scadgroup.com; Conformity certifi-
cate ROSS RU.SP.11.H00083). The options of
Slab foun- the initial data for the spatial calculations of
47 { 45 1.67 >
3 dation
“base-foundation-frame” system included con-
secutively examined structural solutions for seis-
joint (±Fx.joint) after foundation shift mic isolation of foundation, namely: arrangement
±Fx.==72920kN > ±Fx.joint=19440kN; of a screen; arrangement of a sliding joint (a
x reduction of the average strain beneath damper of dry friction); setting of contour an-
foundation underside up to the design val- chors of friction (Ø800mm with a buried part of
ue; ~17m, 42 pcs. in number); arrangement of the
x partial compensation of the vertical vector vertical stiffening diaphragms along the whole
of the earthquake effect due to hysteresis height of a building, etc. These measures were
804 G.R. Rozenvasser et al. / Protection of the Cement Plant Facilities Foundations
aimed at making a foundation “isolated” against
earthquake effects and comparison with the ini-
tial “fixed foundation”.
Based on the animations (Fig.6) integrally
displaying system behavior, when effected by
seismic loads, the following was considered ex-
pedient:
x arrangement of variable rigidity dia-
phragms along the whole height of a build-
ing allowing to reduce the strains within
the frame elements and as a consequence,
to simplify designing of frame units;
x arrangement of a sliding joint with
ffrict.f=0.15 between foundation underside
and concrete bedding - topographic layer
ensuring the reduction of a horizontal vec-
tor of the earthquake effect;
x setting of contour anchors of friction with
hysteresis properties ensuring reduction of
a vertical vector of the earthquake effect
and the structural stability with reduction of
the vibration period and building tilt;
x arrangement of ground-cement piles elimi-
nating base subsidence and improving av-
erage weighted modulus of deformation.
a) b)
Fig. 6. Building deformation in case of an earthquake: a 
without seismic isolation («fixed foundation»); b – with
seismic isolation («isolated foundation»).
6 CONCLUSIONS
The measures developed for seismic isolation of
the foundations on the artificial rigid base ensure
retaining of the initial General Layout with si-
multaneous reduction of earthquake effect on it
up to Jd7 scores.
The present development is deemed to be an
alternative one and is being studied by the de-
signers and civil engineers for further implemen-
tation.
REFERENCES
[1] DBN V.1.2-5:2007, Scientific and technical support of
the construction units, Ministry of Regional Construc-
tion of Ukraine, Kiev, 2007.
[2] DBN V.1.1-12:2006, Construction in the earthquake
areas of Ukraine, Ministry of Construction of Ukraine,
Kiev, 2006.
[3] DBN V.1.2-2:2006, Loads and stresses, Ministry of
Construction of Ukraine, Kiev, 2006.
[4] EUROCODE 8, Earthquake Resistant Design of Struc-
tures, CEN, 1993.
[5] DBN V.1.1-5-2000, Buildings and structures on the
undermined territories and subsiding soils, State com-
mittee of construction of Ukraine, Kiev, 2000.
[6] V.I. Smirnov, New effective systems of the earthquake
protection of structures and innovative technologies,
TsNIISK, Moscow, 2008.
[7] V.L. Kharlanov, Computational investigation of seismic
isolation systems, Internet-Bulletin VolgGASU, Volgo-
grad, 2008.
[8] V.Yu. Nemchinov, Earthquake resistance of buildings
and structures, NIISK, Kiev, 2008.
[9] K.S. Abdurashidov, Ya.M. Aizenberg and others,
Earthquake resistance of buildings, Nauka, Moscow,
1989.
[10] E.A. Sorochan, Yu.G. Trofimenkov, Bases, foundations
and substructures, Designer handbook, Stroiizdat,
Moscow, 1985.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 805
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-805

Execution of Micropiles in an underground metro

station against buoyancy
Exécution des micropieux dans une station de métro dans un
cas de sous-pression
R. Thurner
Keller Grundbau Ges.mbH, Keller Hellas S.A.
T. Kimpritis1
Keller Hellas S.A.
N. Koutavas
AEGEK Construction S.A., Thessaloniki Metro

ABSTRACT
The layout of the Thessaloniki Metro (Basic Line) involves the construction of a crossover station. The whole area for this is ap-
proximately 19x102m. Due to the given geometry and high water table in the adjacent ground, permanent uplift piles were re-
quired to ensure a sufficient safety against buoyancy. These uplift piles had to be installed on a level of approximately -31m
from the surface. In that depth the soil conditions are described as stiff, sandy Clay with gravel.
Before the commencement of the project, test micropiles had to be executed; they were successfully tested in respect to creeping
issues and to a well-defined loading programme. Each micropile had a length of 15.2m; a ribbed steel tube with a very high steel
grade was used. Two drilling rigs were utilised for the whole site working 24 hours a day. In total, 468 micropiles were con-
structed in approximately 2 weeks and subsequent tests on 20 of them were completed successfully. In the current paper, it is
presented a general overview of the project along with the major details about its execution and the quality control that had to be
followed.

RÉSUMÉ
La disposition du métro de Thessalonique prévoit la construction d’une station de croisement. Toute la zone est d’environ
19x102 m. Grâce à la géométrie et la nappe phréatique élevée dans le sol adjacent, des tas permanents de soulèvement ont été
nécessaires pour assurer une résistivité suffisante à la sous-pression. Ces tas de soulèvement ont dû être installé sur un niveau
d'environ -31m de la surface. Dans cette profondeur, le sol est décrit comme d’argile rigide et sableuse avec des graviers.
Avant le début du projet, des micropieux d'essai ont dû être construits. Ils ont été testés avec succès à l’égard de fluage et par
un programme de charge bien défini. Chaque micropieu avait une longueur de 15,2 m, et un tube en acier nervuré de très haute
qualité a été utilisé. Deux installations de forage Keller ont été utilisées pour l'ensemble du site en travaillant 24 heures par jour.
Au total, 468 micropieux ont été construits dans environ 2 semaines, et des essais subséquents sur 20 d'entre eux ont été
complétés avec succès.

Keywords: Micropiles, buoyancy, tunneling, underground structures, Metro, station, drilling, grouting, load test, reinforcement,
uplift

1 INTRODUCTION Thessaloniki; its name is ‘Crossover Sintrivani’

Station (see Figure 1). During the construction
The actual design of the Thessaloniki Metro (Ba- phase of the whole Metro project, this site will be
sic Line) involves the construction of a crossover used as the cross point where the excavation ma-
station in the area of ‘Sintrivani’ in the centre of terial of the TBM works will be removed. After

1
Corresponding Author.
806 R. Thurner et al. / Execution of Micropiles in an Underground Metro Station Against Buoyancy
construction of the diaphragm walls with a
thickness of 1.2m the top concrete plate was con-
structed. With a sequential excavation and rein-
forced concrete slabs (3 levels) construction, a
final excavation depth of approximately 31m be-
low the surface was reached. Between the lowest
slab and the foundation slab a temporary steel
strutting was installed.
Figure 1. ‘Crossover Sintrivani’ Station view
In the plan view the crossover station meas-
ures 19.5x 102m which gives an area of ap-
proximately 1990m². Due to the given geometry
Figure 2. ‘Crossover Sintrivani’ Station plan view [1]
and high water table in the adjacent ground,
permanent uplift piles were required for the
safety of the station against buoyancy forces.
These uplift piles had to be constructed on a
level which is equal to the bottom of the founda-
tion slab (approximately -31m).
The ground water table was an important issue
for the project; it was lowered from a higher
working level with wells constructed inside the
diaphragm walls and used to ensure a temporary
water table approximately 1m below the working
platform of the uplift pile execution.
In the following chapters a description of the
implementation of the geotechnical project for
the uplift piles will be given. The works had to
be done in a limited working platform, under
time pressure and a detailed and comprehensive
quality control programme.
2 PROJECT INFORMATION – TEST FIELD
2.1 Soil Information
In the depth where the permanent uplift mi-
cropiles were executed, the soil conditions are
described as sandy Clay with some gravel and
Es>30MPa, cu>200 kPa, =259, c’=100kPa,
a=21,5kN/m3.
2.2 Design Issues
Apart from the execution, Keller provided sup-
port in the Project Design and presented the cur
rent described innovative and cost optimized so-
lution. Initially, it was proposed to execute mi-
cropiles with a diameter of 280mm reinforced
with normal steel cages, whereas the Keller de-
sign proposal involved micropiles with diameter
180mm reinforced with a ribbed steel tube with a
high steel grade (R90x8mm Termic).
An overview of the main results of the design
calculations along with the main characteristics
of the permanent uplift micropiles are mentioned
below:
x Chosen pile system: R 90x8mm Termic
 R. Thurner et al. / Execution of Micropiles in an Underground Metro Station Against Buoyancy 807

x Diameter ds: 88.3 mm all drilling tools were brought down by crane
x Cross section: 1,950mm² into the excavation pit (Figure 3).
x Chosen grid: 1.50 x 2.08m
x Grid area: 3.12m²
x Number of piles: 468 pieces
x Load per pile Rd1:1,200kN
x Pile length: 15.2m where 1.0m was embed-
ded in the foundation slab.
x Thickness of soil layer contributing to the
resistance against uplift: 14.0m

The design of the micropiles [2] included also

protection against corrosion and the cross section
of the pile was reduced by 1.2mm.
Figure 3. Lifting down to the working platform the drilling
2.3 Trial Test micropiles rig

Before the commencement of the main works 2.3.2 Drilling Process

(468 micropiles), a very detailed trial field had to
Since the uplift micropiles piles were tension
be carried out. In addition, the trial involved a
piles, a test procedure according to EA Pfähle
quality control programme in a prior phase to the
2007 [3] had to be applied. 9 trial micropiles
execution of the 468 uplift piles. This trial test
were executed from different levels and various
had to be executed from a higher working level
drilling techniques were applied.
and should confirm assumptions which were in-
cluded and derived from previous projects as
well as from the given soil data.
The standard procedure executing the uplift
piles involved the following steps:
x Execution of the drilling from a stable
working platform
x Grouting from the lowest point of the drill-
ing
x Installation of the pile
x Head assembling

Due to the fact that the test piles were exe-

cuted from a higher level, a certain free length
had to be added. This ensured a correct simula-
tion of the working conditions of the uplift piles.
The free length was located between the working
platform of the test piles and the bottom of the
foundation plate.
2.3.1 Site Installation
The equipment for mixing and grouting was lo-
cated on site at the surface, near the entrance of
the excavation pit whereas the drilling rig and
Figure 4. Working platform and area during the test field –
Drilling ongoing
2.3.3 Grouting
A stiff hose was inserted at the end of the drill-
ing to start pumping the grout (from the bottom
to the top) till the grout reached the working
platform. The quantity, flow rate and pressure
of the grout were recorded from the surface.
Minimum unconfined compressive strength
had to be at least 25 MPa at 28 days with cylin-
drical test samples having height-diameter ratio
808 R. Thurner et al. / Execution of Micropiles in an Underground Metro Station Against Buoyancy

equal to 2, and 30 MPa for cubic test samples

(100x100x100mm). The water/cement ratio had
to be not more than 0.55.

2.3.4 Reinforcement installation

The reinforcement of the micropiles (steel tube)
was installed with the aid of the drilling rig in
3m pieces connected with coupling and spacers
(only in the bonded length) of diameter 90mm.
(see figures 5, 6)

Figure 7. Test procedure

2.3.6 Load Cycles, Evaluation and Quality

Control
The load cycle was defined according to EA
Pfähle 2007 [3]. The proof load Rg, according to
the executed method statement [4] with a©t=1.30
and ?=1, 05 was 1.638kN.

Figure 5. Preparation for the reinforcement installation

(mounted couplers and spacers)
Load

Time
Figure 8. Loading-unloading cycles graph acc. to EA Pfähle
2007 [3]

Figure 6. Reinforcement installation The values recorded during pile tests were:
x Pressure of the pump
2.3.5 Test of the trial micropiles x Displacements on the pile head
The pile tests were performed according to EA x Control measurements for the level of the
Pfähle 2007 [3]. After 10 days of the pile instal- measurement beam
lation, the pile test could be done. The typical x Weather and temperature
layout of the trial test is shown in figure 7 x Involved people on site (foreman, respon-
where it was utilized a hydraulic jack and pump, sible engineer)
a manometer and two precise analog dial gauges x Possible deviations from the schedule and
mounted on a steel profile. reasons of any deviation.
 R. Thurner et al. / Execution of Micropiles in an Underground Metro Station Against Buoyancy 809

According to EA Pfähle 2007 [3], the creeping 3 EXECUTION OF WORKING

value had to be lower than 2mm. MICROPILES
Regarding the Quality Control procedure, a
detailed reporting process was executed and in- When the trial tests and the documentation for
cluded data for the drilling and the tests. Hence, the 9 trial micropiles were accomplished with
information about the site and the trial mi- success, the results were verified by the De-
cropiles (date, geometry, materials used) as well signer. The micropile length was confirmed at
as a detailed description of the executed load 15.2m with 1.0m embedded in the foundation
tests (geometry, measurement units, load cycles, slab. Since the TBM had already reached the
measured data) was recorded. In addition, the ‘Crossover Sintrivani’ station, there was a lot of
results of the tests were presented in graphs time pressure for a fast completion of the
(load-displacement curve (Figure 9) and time micropiles construction; for this reason, Keller
dependent deformations – creeping (Figure had to speed up its micropiles works as much as
10)). Furthermore, apart from these results, an possible. Using two drilling rigs in day and night
evaluation should be made from the designer shift, 468 micropiles were installed in
including proposals-recommendations for the approximately 2 weeks (Figures 11, 12).
execution of the working piles.

67 7
3&1 5"  6# 4


 #

#
&R #





&&
# 
R& &
#

 
4 #
L
 
& L
 
L
3


 L
L R
L

# 
L
&
&# 
L


# 
#&

 
 &
& 
L&






 
 
 &
 
 #
 
 L


5"  

Figure 9. Load – displacement diagram Figure 11. Execution of main micropile works

67 7
6 "5# 4
Q Q Q
8 - 



6 K


6 K




6 K


6 K
&

 3&9

 #L&
 6 K

 

 R
 &


 6 K
L


R

"
 

&&

5 &
6 K


6 K

#





Figure 10. Displacement – time diagram (incl. creeping val-

ues)
Figure 12. Execution of main micropile works

The experience of the soil during the trial field

showed that the best drilling technique that had
to be applied was the continuous flight auger.
(Figure 13). The construction sequences of drill-
810 R. Thurner et al. / Execution of Micropiles in an Underground Metro Station Against Buoyancy
ing, grouting, reinforcement installation and head
assembling were followed as it was done during
the trial field.
Figure 13. Execution of main micropile works using continu-
ous flight augers
20 out of the 468 micropiles were successfully
tested (acceptance tests) and the elongation val-
ues along with the creeping ones were measured
below the critical values. Keller accomplished its
works with the micropiles head assemblement;
each micropile head consists of a bearing plate
mounted on the reinforcement with an anchor
and lock nut. (Figure 14)
Figure 14. Final outcome – working team
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Keller authors would like to express their
gratitude to the main Contractor of the construc-
tion of ‘Thessaloniki Metro’ project, AEGEK
Construction S.A., the Project Design Office
‘OMETE S.A.’ and Attiko Metro S.A. for the ef-
fective cooperation and for the opportunity to
publish the gained data.
REFERENCES
[1] J/V Construction of Thessaloniki Metro,
1C06CW403C109B DFD Sintrivani Station - Double
Crossover Micropiles Layout Plan - Cross Section, 2009.
[2] J/V Construction of Thessaloniki Metro, DFD - Sintrivani
Crossover Design of Micropiles, 2009.
[3] German Geotechnical Society, EA Pfähle 2007,
Recommendation for Piles, 2007
[4] Metro, J/V Construction of Thessaloniki, Trial Tests of
Foundation Micropiles of Sintrivani Crossover, 2009.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] DIN 1054 Ground – Verification of the safety of
earthworks and foundations, January 2005.
[2] EN 14199:2005 Execution of special geotechnical
works. Micropiles
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 811
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-811

Performance analysis of piled raft foundations in

comparison with conventional foundation systems
by using finite element method
Analyse de la performance des fondations radier sur pieux en
comparaison avec les systèmes de bases classiques en utilisant
la méthode des éléments finis
A. Yalcin Dayioglu1, M. Incecik
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT
In the research conducted by the authors, the performance of piled raft foundations in comparison with raft foundations and con-
ventional pile foundations under vertical and horizontal loading is analysed by means of PLAXIS 3D finite element program,
which is a rigorous computer-based analysis method. In this context, total settlements, differential settlements and bending mo-
ments on the raft are examined. In conclusion, it has been found that in hard soils, especially under combination of vertical and
lateral loads, piled raft foundations provide the most economical design within adequate margin of safety.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans la recherche menée par les auteurs, le rendement des fondations radier sur pieux en comparaison avec des fondations sur
radier et des fondations sur pieux classiques sous un chargement vertical et horizontal est analysé au moyen de l'élément de pro-
gramme PLAXIS 3D finis, qui est une méthode rigoureuse d'analyse assistée par ordinateur. Dans ce contexte, l’établissement
total, les tassements différentiels et des moments de flexion sur le radeau sont examinés. En conclusion, il a été constaté que
dans les argiles fort, surtout sous la combinaison des charges verticales et latérales, empilés radiers fournir la conception la plus
économique au sein de marge de sécurité adéquate.

Keywords: Piled raft foundations, raft foundations, lateral loading, finite element method, PLAXIS

1 INTRODUCTION common feature of these structures. The founda-

In recent years, the increasing number of humans
and the changing labor conditions led to design
of functional but heavy engineering structures
such as bridges, factories and dams. In addition,
as a result of limited territories available for con-
struction, high-rise buildings are constructed to
afford the increasing accommodation and em-
ployment demands of human being. High super-
structural loads transferred to the soil is the
tion systems to carry these loads safely should be
carefully chosen and designed; however, the so-
lution must be economical as well. To satisfy
these two criteria in a better way, a new concept
called “Piled Raft Foundations” is developed.
In the piled raft foundations, the superstruc-
tural loads are transmitted through the raft and
the pile group to the subsoil which leads to some
complex interactions and a complicated calcula-
tion process. Nevertheless, due to the contribu-

1
Corresponding Author.
812 A. Yalcin Dayioglu and M. Incecik / Performance Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations

tion of the raft in load transmission, a significant 3 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

decrease in the number of piles is observed. In
the design of piled raft foundations, it is accepted
as the general principle that the ratio of modulus
of elasticity of the soil layer at the pile tip to the
modulus of elasticity of soil layer beneath the
raft should not be greater than 10 [1]. In addition,
the design of piled raft foundations should be
carefully preceded in compressible soils due to
the fact that unexpected settlements may occur
[2].
2 DESIGN OF PILED RAFT
FOUNDATIONS
Behavior of piled raft foundations under vertical
and lateral loading is investigated with PLAXIS
3D Foundation finite element program in scope
of a thesis study. In order to compare the behav-
iors of three different foundation systems; raft
foundation, piled raft foundation and conven-
tional pile foundation under constant superstruc-
ture loads and subsoil conditions, load-settlement
behavior of these systems, lateral displacements,
bending moments on piles and raft foundation
are investigated [6]. Structure modeled in the
analyses is given in Fig. 1.

In the design of piled raft foundations, usually Core zone

piles are assumed to show nonlinear behavior
and to operate at the load where the creep starts
to occur, which results in lower safety factors[3].
In the differential settlement control approach,
which is another useful aspect of piled raft foun-
dations, piles are located strategically to mini-
mize the differential settlement rather than the
total settlement.
Outer zone
As mentioned above, due to the complex in-
teractions between the three main elements of
piled raft foundations, namely; the pile group,
the raft and the subsoil, the calculation stage of
Figure 1. Model of the building.
piled raft foundations is quite complicated. The
calculation methods of piled rafts are summa-
The building to be analyzed consists of two
rized in three groups, which are simplified calcu-
parts, the outer zone that represents the service
lation methods, approximate computer based
area, with a superstructural load of 250 kPa and
methods and the more rigorous computer based
the core zone with a superstructural load of 400
methods one of which is used in this paper. Nu-
kPa. In addition, a constant lateral line load of
merous papers have been published about these
800 kN/m is acting on the raft.
design methods of vertically loaded piled rafts,
The subsoil layer under the building is chosen
but limited research is executed regarding the
to be a medium-stiff clay layer and Mohr-
behavior of piled rafts under combination of ver-
Coulomb soil model is used. To improve
tical and high lateral loads. However, a new
representation of soil by the model, it is assumed
method is developed where the piled raft is di-
that the modulus of elasticity increases with
vided into two elements such as raft and pile
depth linearly. The pile group under the raft (the
group plus soil and solved separately, then under
pile cap) is modeled via “embedded piles”
equilibrium conditions, displacements and forces
feature on PLAXIS, where piles are represented
are equalized and the whole system is solved [4],
with line elements, that allow the piles to be
[5].
modeled arbitrarily in any direction [7]. Soil and
material parameters used are given in Table 1.
 A. Yalcin Dayioglu and M. Incecik / Performance Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations 813

Table 1. Soil and Material Parameters foundation system of the building is modeled as
Parameters Soil Piles Raft a piled raft foundation at the second step. A
Material mode Mohr- Embedded Linear Elastic cross-section and plan view of piled raft founda-
Coulomb Pile tion is given in Figure 4, three dimensional finite
γn (kN/m3) 18 24 24 element mesh of the system is shown in Figure 5.
E (kN/m2) 2.5x104 3x107 3x107
ΔE (kN/m2) 500 - -
υ 0.3 0.2 0.2
ϕ (°) 28 - -
c (kPa) 20 - -

3.1 Raft Foundation

Foundation system of the building is first mod-
eled as a raft foundation. A cross-section and
plan view of raft foundation is given in Figure 2,
whereas finite element mesh of the system is
shown in Figure 3. The raft is dimensioned as
1.5x24.0x20.0 meters.

Figure 3. Finite element mesh of the foundation system.

2-2’ crossection

2 2’ crossection

1-1’ crossection
1-1’ crossection

Figure 2. Plan view and cross-sections of the raft.

The results obtained from the finite element

analysis are shown in Fig.6-9. Total settlement of
the raft is about 150 mm, whereas differential
settlement is about 70 mm. These settlement
values are considerably higher than allowable
settlement values for high-rise structures. In
addition to settlement, lateral displacement of the
raft is about 22 mm and maximum bending
moment on the raft is about 5000 kN/m (Fig. 6-
9).
3.2 Piled Raft Foundation
Due to high order of settlements, lateral dis-
placements and bending moments on the raft,
Figure 4. Plan view and cross-sections of the piled raft foun-
dation.
The foundation system consists of a raft with
1.5x24.0x20.0 meters dimensions as mentioned
in previous section, and a pile group containing
25 piles with a diameter of 1.2 m and varying
length between 15 and 25 meters. Maximum set-
tlement is assumed to occur under the core zone
of the building since a higher order of load is act-
ing on the core zone that is located in the middle
of the building. Consequently, 9 piles with 5.0 m
814 A. Yalcin Dayioglu and M. Incecik / Performance Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations

by 4.0 m spacings and 25.0 m long are located 3.3 Pile Foundation
under the core zone. As for the outer zone, piles
In order to investigate the contribution of the raft
with 15.0 meter long and 5.0 m by 4.0 m spac-
in the piled raft foundation, the foundation sys-
ings in the middle and 8.0 m spacings on the
tem of the building is modeled as a pile group.
edges are placed.
Cross-Section 2-2'
Distance From Center (m)
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
0,0

-20,0 Piled Raft

Vertical Displacement (mm)

Raft
-40,0

-60,0

-80,0

-100,0

-120,0

-140,0

-160,0
Figure 7. Settlement of raft and piled raft foundation(CS2-2’)
Figure 5. Finite element mesh of the piled raft foundation
system.
Cross-Section 2-2'
Comparing the results of raft foundation and Lateral Displacement (mm)
15
piled raft foundation, it is obvious that both total
and differential settlements, lateral displacements Piled Raft
10

and bending moments on the raft have reduced Raft

Distance from Center(m)

5
significantly. The results are given in Figures 6-9
and summarized in Table 2. According to finite 0
-25,00 -23,00 -21,00 -19,00 -17,00 -15,00
element analysis results, 62% of the vertical load
-5
and 20% of the lateral load is taken by the pile
group whereas 38% of the vertical load and 80% -10

of the lateral load is taken by the raft. It can be

-15
concluded that the raft has major contribution on Figure 8. Lateral displacement of raft and piled raft founda-
load sharing. tion(CS2-2’)

Cross-Section1-1' Cross-Section 1-1'

Distance from center (m)
Distance from center (m)
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
0,0 1.000
Bending Moment (kNm/m)

Piled Raft
-20,0 0
Vertical Displacement (mm)

Raft

-40,0 -1.000

-60,0 -2.000

-80,0 -3.000

-100,0 -4.000
Piled Raft

-120,0 -5.000 Raft

-140,0 -6.000
Figure 9. Bending moments of raft and piled raft founda-
-160,0 tion(CS1-1’)
Figure 6. Settlement of raft and piled raft foundation(CS1-1’)
 A. Yalcin Dayioglu and M. Incecik / Performance Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations 815

Table 2. Comparison of the behavior of raft and piled raft

foundation
B C
Raft Founda- Piled Raft Founda-
tion tion
max min max min

2-2’ crossection
Vertical Displace- 149.0 89.0 81.0 60.5 A
ment, uy (mm)
Lateral Displace- 21.8 21.4 17.2 16.7
ment, ux (mm)
Bending Moment 5400 -150 2160 -170 D E
on the Raft
(kNm/m) 1-1’ crossection

To neglect the contribution of the pile cap, a

very thin layer is formed beneath the pile cap
which is removed during staged calculation pro-
cess to avoid contact of the pile cap with the sub-
soil. The same pile lengths and spacings as in the
piled raft foundation are used.
However, the system has failed in the stage
where 71 % of total load was applied. The col-
lapsed finite element mesh is shown in Figure
10.
Collapsed
Zone
Figure 11. Plan and cross-sectional view of second pile foun.
From the load-displacement curves at points
A, B and E given in Figure 12-14, it is concluded
that at the initial stages conventional first alterna-
tive pile foundation and the piled raft foundation
show almost the same behavior, whereas at some
point, first alternative pile foundation starts to
behave plastically and collapses before the entire
load is applied. Especially at Point E, where col-
lapsing occurs, the final settlements of pile foun-
dation are higher than both the piled raft and the
raft foundation. However, in the graphs it is
clearly seen that the second alternative pile foun-
dation and the piled raft foundation show quite
similar load-settlement behavior.

Figure 10. Collapsed body of piled foundation Point A

Load(kN)

Consequently a pile foundation system that 0,00

0 20.000 40.000 60.000 80.000 100.000 120.000

will be able to stand the superstructural loads

-0,02
without failure is investigated. According to the
Settlement (m)

results of performed finite element analyses, it is -0,04

determined that the most economical pile foun- -0,06

dation system consists of 9 piles with 5.0 m by -0,08

4.0 m spacings and 25.0 m long under the core
-0,10
zone; as for the outer zone, piles 20.0 meter long Raf t
-0,12
and 5.0 m by 4.0 m spacings in the middle and Piled Raf t

4.0 m spacings on the edges are placed. Plan and -0,14 Pile Found.1
Pile Found.2
cross-sectional views of the second alternative -0,16
pile foundation is illustrated on Figure 11. Figure 12. Load-settlement curves on Point A
816 A. Yalcin Dayioglu and M. Incecik / Performance Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations

Point B comparison with conventional piled foundation

Load(kN)
0 20.000 40.000 60.000 80.000 100.000 120.000
systems whether a raft foundation is not suffi-
0,00 cient to meet the settlement criteria since the
-0,02
contribution of the raft reduces the number of
Settlement (m)

piles significantly.
-0,04
The results of analyses indicate that piled raft
-0,06
foundation decreases settlements, horizontal dis-
-0,08
Raf t
placements and bending moments on the raft at
-0,10 Piled Raf t significant levels in comparison with raft founda-
-0,12
Pile Found.1 tions. Besides, in the conventional pile founda-
Pile Found.2
tion where it is assumed that all loads are taken
-0,14
by piles, failure has occurred in the same pile
Figure 13. Load-settlement curves on Point B
configuration as piled raft foundation, same su-
Point E perstructure loads and subsoil conditions before
Load(kN) 100% of load is activated. Nevertheless, the most
0 20.000 40.000 60.000 80.000 100.000 120.000 economical alternative pile foundation that may
0,00
carry the loads without failure has a total pile
-0,02 length of 545 m which is %35 longer than piled
raft foundation. This proves that in reality, pile
Settlement (m)

-0,04
cap has major contribution on the load sharing.
-0,06 As a result it is found out that especially in high-
Raf t
rise buildings, design of foundation system as
-0,08
Piled Raf t piled raft should provide safe and economical so-
-0,10
Pile Found.1
Pile Found.2
lutions.
-0,12

Figure 14. Load-settlement curves on Point E

REFERENCES

[1] Katzenbach, R., International CPRF Guideline, 2009

4 CONCLUSIONS [2] Poulos, H.G., 2001, Piled raft foundations: Design and
Applications, Geotechnique, Vol. 50, No.2 pp: 95-113.
In high-rise structures, due to high cost of [3] Randolph, M.F., 1994, Design Methods for Pile Groups
and Piled Rafts, Proceedings of 13th International
foundation systems, an optimum solution must Conference of Soil Mechanics and Foundation
be developed to meet both the economy and the Engineering, 5: 61-62.
safety criteria. In case the superstructure loads [4] Small, J.C., Zhang, H.H., 2000. Piled Raft Foundations
are so high that the bearing capacity of soil strata Subjected to General Loadings. Developments in
Theoretical Geomechanics, Ed. D.W. Smith, & J.P.
close to the surface is insufficient, or if the al- Carter, Balkema, Rotterdam, pp.431-444.
lowable settlement values are exceeded although [5] Turek, J., 2006, Beitrag zur Klarung des Trag-und Ver-
the bearing capacity criteria is satisfied, use of a formungsverhaltens horizontal belasteter Kombinierter
pile foundation is a solution. Pfahl-Plattengründungen, Mitteilungen des Institutes
und der Versuchsanstalt für Geotechnik der Tech-
However, construction cost of pile founda- nischen Universitat Darmstadt, Heft 72.
tions is quite high when compared to that of shal- [6] Yalcin, A., 2010, Investigation of the behavior of piled
low foundations. So, the assumption that the su- raft foundations under vertical and lateral loading with
perstructural load would be transmitted to the finite element method, M.Sc. Thesis, Istanbul Technical
University
subsoil only by means of piles gives rise to over- [7] Engin, H.K., Septanika, E.G., & Brinkgreve R.B.J.,
estimation of pile number, hence construction 2008. Estimation of Pile Group Behavior using Embed-
costs increase. Therefore optimum design meth- ded Piles, In Singh (ed), International Association for
ods to decrease the costs are needed. Piled raft Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics;
12th International IACMAG Conference, Goa, India,
foundations are quite appropriate solutions in pp.3231-3238
3.2. Deep Foundations
Fondations profondes
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 819
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-819

Étude expérimentale et numérique du

comportement d’un pieu isolé sous chargement
cyclique axial
Experimental and numerical analysis of the cyclic axial
response of a single pile
O. Benzaria
Université Paris-Est, LCPC Paris, et Fugro France, Nanterre, France
A. Le Kouby
Université Paris-Est, LCPC Paris, France
A. Puech 1
Fugro France, Nanterre, France

ABSTRACT
As part of the French National research project SOLCYP, numerical modelling with the software SCARP has been carried out to
simulate the behaviour of a full scale driven pile into normally consolidated clay and submitted to axial cyclic loading.
This paper presents some comparisons between numerical simulations and experimental results with a focus given on the evolu-
tion of pile head displacement and shaft friction degradation along the pile wall. The role of the cycle amplitude and of the num-
ber of cycles is also highlighted.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans le cadre du projet national français de recherche SOLCYP (SOLlicitations CYcliques sur les Pieux), une modélisation nu-
mérique à l’aide du logiciel SCARP a été effectuée afin de simuler le comportement d’un pieu isolé instrumenté soumis à des
chargements cycliques axiaux. Le pieu est battu dans une argile normalement consolidée. Cette communication présente une
comparaison entre les résultats de calcul et les résultats expérimentaux en termes d’accumulation des déplacements en tête et
d’évolution du frottement latéral le long du pieu. Elle montre aussi l’influence de l’amplitude cyclique et du nombre de cycles
sur les résultats.

Keywords: Cyclic Loading, Single Pile, SCARP.

1 INTRODUCTION des procédures de calcul pour prendre en compte

Les fondations des ouvrages soumis à des sollici-
tations cycliques telles que le vent, la houle, les
sollicitations de type transport routier et/ou fer-
roviaire sur les ponts et les machines vibrantes,
peuvent subir une dégradation de leur capacité
portante.
Le projet national SOLCYP (2008-2012) [8] a
pour objectif de développer une méthodologie et
l’effet des chargements cycliques sur la réponse
des pieux.
Une modélisation numérique à l’aide du logi-
ciel SCARP [5] a été effectuée afin d’estimer
l’accumulation des déplacements en tête du pieu
et l’évolution du frottement latéral le long du fût.
Le logiciel SCARP, développé à l’Université de
Sydney, s’appuie sur un modèle d’interface avec
radoucissement élasto-plastique et simule la dé-

1
Corresponding Author.
820 O. Benzaria et al. / Étude expérimentale et numérique du comportement d’un pieu isolé
gradation de la capacité du pieu par le modèle de
Matlock et Foo [3].
Dans cette communication, on présente une
étude comparative entre les résultats obtenus à
l’aide du programme de calcul et les résultats
d’essais de chargements cycliques sur un pieu
instrumenté, effectués dans les années 80 par
l’Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP) sur un site
d’argile molle normalement consolidée [6].
La comparaison porte plus précisément sur
l’accumulation des déplacements en tête de pieu
et sur l’évolution du frottement latéral le long du
pieu. Elle montre l’influence de l’amplitude cy-
clique et du nombre de cycles sur les résultats.
2 DESCRIPTION DU LOGICIEL SCARP
Le logiciel SCARP calcule la distribution des
déplacements et des frottements le long d'un pieu
isolé, ou un groupe de pieux, soumis à des char-
gements axiaux statiques et/ou cycliques.
Le logiciel s’appuie sur une approche 1-D en
considérant le sol comme une masse ayant un
comportement élastique et l'interface sol/pieu
ayant un comportement élasto-plastique. En
fonction du nombre de couches du sol, le pieu est
discrétisé en plusieurs tronçons. Pour chaque
tronçon, soit la valeur limite de frottement est
spécifiée, soit un modèle d’interface élasto-
plastique avec radoucissement est introduit.
Le programme permet de quantifier les trois
effets majeurs des chargements cycliques sur le
comportement d’un pieu [4]:
 la dégradation du frottement latéral, de la
résistance en pointe et du module du sol ;
 les effets de la vitesse de chargement ;
 l’accumulation des déplacements perma-
nents.
Afin de mesurer ces effets, Poulos [4] a intro-
duit le concept de facteur de dégradation D qui
est défini comme suit :
D
propriété après le chargement cyclique
propriété pour le chargement statique
Les facteurs de dégradation pour le frottement
latéral, la résistance de pointe et le module de sol
sont dénotés respectivement : D, Db et DE.
La détermination de ces facteurs de dégrada-
tion peut être effectuée par deux approches diffé-
rentes :
 l'approche adoptée par Matlock et Foo [3]
qui suppose que la dégradation cyclique en
un point sur le pieu se produit seulement
s'il y a génération de déformation plastique
en ce point;
 l'approche du " déplacement cyclique" dans
laquelle les facteurs de dégradation dépen-
dent du déplacement cyclique du pieu.
C’est la première approche qui est utilisée
dans cette étude où le facteur de dégradation
pour le frottement latéral D est exprimé par :
D  (1  Y )( D '  Dmin )  Dmin (1)
D = valeur actuelle du facteur de dégradation
pour le frottement.
D’= valeur du cycle précédent du facteur de dé-
gradation pour le frottement.
Dmin= valeur minimale du facteur de dégradation.
Y = taux de dégradation (compris entre 0,05 et
0,5).
Cette expression s'applique de la même ma-
nière pour les facteurs de dégradation de la résis-
tance de pointe Db et du module de sol DE.
Dans notre cas, on a considéré que, dans les
deux premières couches, le taux de dégradation
minimale du frottement était de 10 % tandis que
pour les deux dernières couches, le frottement ne
pouvait pas se dégrader (taux minimal de 0%).
Quant au module du sol, on n’a pas imposé de
dégradation minimale.
Les incréments de déplacement du sol à la fin
de chaque cycle sont basés sur l’expression :
S p  BN m e nX (2), [2]
avec
B : déplacement permanent correspondant à la
charge minimale du premier cycle.
 O. Benzaria et al. / Étude expérimentale et numérique du comportement d’un pieu isolé 821

X : niveau de chargement cyclique appliqué. de 5 cellules de pression totale et 5 cellules de

N : nombre de cycles. pression interstitielle.
n, m : paramètres à déterminer expérimentale-
ment. 3.2 Le programme de chargement
Le pieu a été soumis à plusieurs essais de char-
En se basant sur une série d’essais sur pieux
gement en traction statique et cyclique.
modèles, Poulos [5] propose les valeurs de n et m
suivantes : Les essais cycliques sont de deux types :
 Type C : l’amplitude des cycles est mainte-
 pour un sable siliceux (avec une densité de
nue constante durant au moins 1000 cycles.
67 %) : m=0,245 et n =7,6.
 Type T : essai de type tempête à valeur
 pour un sable carbonaté (avec une densité
de 45 %) : m=0,122 et n =5,9. moyenne constante : l’amplitude des cycles
varie au cours du temps.
 pour un sable carbonaté (avec une forte
La durée de chaque cycle est de 14 s.
densité: m=0,39 et n =5,1.

En l’absence de valeurs m et n disponibles

pour l’argile, on a opté pour une méthode de
convergence itérative pour modéliser au mieux
les essais cycliques effectués sur le pieu du site
expérimental de CRAN. Les valeurs optimales
sont m=0,04 et n=1,3.
4 COMPARAISON DES RESULTATS
Dans cette communication, on présente la modé-
lisation d’un essai statique, de trois essais cy-
clique de type C et d’un essai cyclique de type
T.

3 LES ESSAIS EXPERIMENTAUX 4.1 Essai de chargement statique en tension

La première étape consiste à discrétiser le pieu
Des essais de chargements statiques et cycliques en quatre tronçons en fonction des épaisseurs des
en tension ont été appliqués sur un pieu instru- couches et déterminer les différents paramètres
menté, mis en place par battage sur le site expé- nécessaires au logiciel SCARP afin de modéliser
rimental de CRAN [6] et [7]. de manière adéquate l’essai statique de référence
(dernier essai statique effectué avant les essais
3.1 Le site de CRAN cycliques).
Le site est constitué d’argiles molles normale-
4.1.1 Le module de déformation
ment consolidées dont les caractéristiques
sont présentées dans le tableau 1. Pour déterminer le module de déformation de
Tableau 1. Caractéristiques du site expérimental CRAN chaque couche, on s’est basé sur le profil de mo-
dule de cisaillement déterminé à l’aide du pres-
Z (m) Couches Cu (kPa)
siomètre autoforeur (PAF).
0-2 Argile molle légèrement surconsolidée
2-8 Argile molle 20 à 50 E  2(1   )GP 0 (3)
8 - 13 Argile raide très hétérogène 50
13 - 17 Argile raide homogène 50 avec
E : module de déformation de la couche.
Le pieu testé était de type métallique tubulaire Ñ : cœfficient de poisson (0,3 pour CRAN).
de diamètre extérieur D=273mm, d’épaisseur e= GP0: module de cisaillement.
6,3mm, et de fiche L= 17m. Il était équipé de 19
niveaux de trois jauges de contraintes à 120°,
822 O. Benzaria et al. / Étude expérimentale et numérique du comportement d’un pieu isolé

4.1.2 La résistance au cisaillement
La résistance au cisaillement Cu pour chaque
couche a été déterminée en considérant les résul-
tats d’essais au scissomètre de chantier et
d’essais triaxiaux sur échantillons prélevés au ca-
rottier à tube mince poussé.
Ensuite, pour chaque couche, le frottement
limite est calculé à partir de la relation empirique
proposée par l’API RP2A [1] :
 f   .Cu
avec
“
par l’existence d’une phase de fluage, non prise
en compte dans le modèle, et qui se traduit par
une accélération des déplacements de la tête du
pieu aux charges élevées.
4.2 Essai de chargement cyclique en tension
On présente ici les résultats des premières sé-
quences cycliques appliquées au pieu.
4.2.1 Les essais cycliques Type C
(4) Les premiers essais cycliques effectués sur le
pieu de CRAN sont présentés dans le tableau 2.
Ces essais ont été appliqués pendant 1000

Ò

!۬


ª
¬
r- cycles avec une fréquence de f = 0,07 Hz et une
tir des équations suivantes : charge moyenne Vm et amplitude cyclique Vc
Cu (Vmax =Vm +Vc).
s ) 0,5
  0,5s 0,5 si 'V 0
s k 0,5 Tableau 2. Caractéristiques des premiers essais cycliques ef-
  0,5s 0, 25 si fectués sur le pieu expérimental de CRAN
Essais Vm (kN) Vc (kN) Vmax / Vrt
4.1.3 Pieu de CRAN
C1-1 63 21 0,35
L’essai statique de référence pour le pieu de C1-2 63 42 0,44
CRAN est l’essai S3. Cet essai montre que le C2-2 84 21 0,53
pieu à une capacité en traction Vrt = 240 kN.
La figure 1 illustre une comparaison entre les Les figures 2 et 3 illustrent une comparaison
mesures et la modélisation de l’essai à l’aide du entre les frottements latéraux statiques et les frot-
logiciel de SCARP. tements maximaux cycliques mesurés et modéli-
sés par SCARP pour les tronçons supérieur l (0-
2m) et inférieur (13-17m).
On remarque que le frottement latéral mesuré,
sur le tronçon supérieur du pieu (figure 2) dimi-
nue avec le nombre de cycles. Les calculs
SCARP montrent les mêmes tendances mais ac-
centuent les phénomènes.
Dans le tronçon inférieur (figure 3), la valeur
mobilisée du frottement latéral reste constante
lorsque le nombre de cycles augmente (N = 10 à
1000) mais une accumulation de déplacement
apparaît traduisant une diminution du module en
fonction des cycles.
Figure 1. Comparaison d’un essai de chargement statique S3 Dans le cas de la couche superficielle, le frot-
sur le pieu de CRAN et une simulation SCARP. tement maximum (statique) a été atteint à la
première montée en charge. Une fois que cette
La courbe théorique est en assez bonne con- valeur maximale est atteinte, le frottement ne
cordance avec la courbe expérimentale malgré peut que se dégrader en fonction des cycles. En
une légère différence de comportement à la fin revanche, dans la couche inférieure, le frottement
de l’essai. Cette différence peut être expliquée mobilisé est très inférieur au frottement maxi-
 O. Benzaria et al. / Étude expérimentale et numérique du comportement d’un pieu isolé 823

mum mobilisable. La dégradation du frottement rée lors de l’essai T2-1 et celle calculée à l’aide
dans les couches supérieures entraîne un report de SCARP. La concordance entre les deux ap-
de charges vers le bas du pieu. Dans un premier proches est satisfaisante malgré un écart entre les
temps, le frottement dans le tronçon inférieur deux états initiaux. Cet écart peut être dû à
augmente avec la sévérité du chargement (figure l’histoire du chargement du pieu testé qui avait
3, N = 10) mais la mobilisation du frottement est déjà subi plusieurs séquences de chargement
toujours décrite par la courbe statique. Cette va- alors que, dans le calcul, on a considéré que le
leur se maintient dans la suite de l’essai alors que pieu n’avait subi aucun chargement avant cet es-
les déplacements locaux du pieu croissent légè- sai tempête.
rement avec le nombre de cycles traduisant une
baisse de la raideur locale (Figure 3, N=1000). 30

Frottement latéral (kPa)

25
4
3.5 20
N=10
Frottement latéral (kPa)

2
1 1
3 3 2 3
N=10 15
2.5
10 Essai-S3
2 3 1- C1-1
1 2 2- C1-2 SCARP-S3
1.5 1-C1-1 5 3- C2-2 Essais-cyc
2-C1-2 Essai-S3
1 SCARP-cyc
3-C2-2 SCARP-S3 0
0.5 Essais-cyc
SCARP-cyc 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
30
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Frottement latéral (kPa)

25
4 N=1000
3.5 20
Frottement latéral (kPa)

3 1 2
15
2.5
3 N=1000 3
1 2 3
10 1- C1-1 Essai-S3
2 SCARP-S3
1 2 2- C1-2
1.5 5 Essais-cyc
1- C1-1 Essai-S3 3- C2-2
SCARP-cyc
1 2- C1-2 SCARP-S3
Essais-cyc 0
3- C2-2
0.5 SCARP-cyc 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0 Déplacement max (mm)
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Déplacement max (mm) Figure 3 : Courbes t-z statiques et cycliques (C1-2 ; C1-1 ;
C2-2) pour le tronçon inférieur (13-17m) du pieu de CRAN.
Figure 2 : Courbes t-z statiques et cycliques (C1-2 ; C1-1;
C2-2) pour le tronçon supérieur (0-2m) du pieu de CRAN.
5 CONCLUSION
Le logiciel SCARP permet de modéliser assez
fidèlement les phénomènes observés lors des es- L’objet de cette communication est de confronter
sais cycliques de type C mais avec une légère les résultats d’essais de chargement cycliques
amplification. axiaux effectués sur un pieu réel instrumenté à
ceux d’une modélisation numérique à l’aide du
4.2.2 Les essais cycliques de type T logiciel SCARP.
La figure 4 illustre une comparaison entre L’étude montre que le chargement cyclique
l’évolution du déplacement en tête du pieu mesu- axial engendre une accumulation de déplacement
en tête de pieu, résultant d’une dégradation du
824 O. Benzaria et al. / Étude expérimentale et numérique du comportement d’un pieu isolé
frottement latéral dans les couches superficielles,
et d’une dégradation de la raideur dans les
couches profondes Ces aspects sont assez bien
modélisés par le logiciel moyennant un choix ju-
dicieux des paramètres de la loi de dégradation
(D) et de la loi d’accumulation des déplacements
(m,n).
Un des objectifs du projet SOLCYP est de
parvenir à la définition de ces paramètres pour
différents types de matériaux : argile normale-
ment consolidée, argile surconsolidée, sables fins
et moyens.
Quatre voies sont explorées :
- essais triaxiaux cycliques en compression
(CAUc) et extension (CAUe) et essais de
cisaillement simple cycliques direct
(DSS) ;
- essais cycliques in situ sur prototypes de
pénétromètre et pressiomètre cycliques ;
- essais de chargements cycliques sur pieux
modèles (chambre d’étalonnage et centri-
fugeuse) ;
- essais de chargements cycliques sur deux
types de pieux réels (acier, béton) dans
deux types de sol (argile des Flandres et
sable de Dunkerque).
Figure 4 : Comparaison entre l’évolution du déplacement en
tête du pieu mesuré lors de l’essai T2-1 et celle calculée à
l’aide de SCARP.
REMERCIEMENTS
Les résultats présentés dans cette communication
ont été acquis dans le cadre du Projet National
Français SOLCYP (SOLlicitations Cycliques sur
les Pieux) regroupant 12 entreprises et bureaux
d’études et 6 organismes universitaires et de re-
cherche. Il est piloté par l’IREX et financé par
les partenaires, l’ANR, le MEEDDM et la FNTP.
Les auteurs remercient les partenaires du projet
d’avoir autorisé la publication de ces données.
REFERENCES
[1] API RP 2A (1993), Recommended Practice for Plan-
ning, Designing and Constructing Fixed Offshore Plat-
forms, American Petroleum Institute, July 1993.
[2] Diyaljee, V. A. and Raymond, G. P. (1982). Repetitive
Load Deformation of Cohesionless Soil. Journal of The
Geotechnical Engineering Division, Proceedings of The
American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE, Vol. 108,
N°. GT10.
[3] Matlock, H. and Foo, S. H. C. (1979). Axial analysis of
piles using a hysteretic and degrading soil model. Nu-
merical Methods in Offshore Piling. ICE, London, pp.
127-133.,
[4] Poulos, H.G. (1982) "Influence of Cyclic Loading on
Axial Pile Response". 2nd Int. Conf. Num. Meths. in
Offshore Piling, Austin, pp. 419-440.
[5] Poulos, H.G. (1989). "SCARP USERS’S MANUAL".
Centre for Geotechnical Research. The University of
Sydney.
[6] Puech, A. (1982). "Basic Data for the Design of Ten-
sion Piles in Silty Soils", Proc. 3rd BOSS Conference,
Boston, Mass. Vol. 1, pp. 141-157.
[7] Puech, A., Boulon, M. and Meimon, Y. (1982), "Ten-
sion Piles: Field Data and Numerical Modelling", Proc.
2nd Int. Conf. on Numerical Methods in Offshore Pil-
ing, Austin, Texas, USA, pp. 293-312.
[8] Puech, A., Po, S., Benzaria, O., Le Kouby, A., Rocher-
Lacoste, F., (2011), "Cyclic loading of instrumented
test piles: the SOLCYP project", 15th European Con
ference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineer
ing, Athens, Greece. To be published.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 825
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-825

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 831
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-831

Interpretation of axial load tests for bored piles

penetrating soft rocks
L’interprétation des essais de capacité portant pour les pieux
penetrant dans les roches degradées
R. Ciortan 1
IPTANA 36-38 Dinicu Golescu Bvd. Bucharest, Romania
S. Manea
Technical University of Civil Engineering, 124 Lacul Tei Bvd, Bucharest, Romania
G. Tsitsas
EDRASIS Psallidas S.A., 47th km of Attiki Odos, Koropi, Greece

ABSTRACT
Axial load tests performed during the construction of the deep foundations have demonstrated the significant effect of the pile
penetration into the degraded bedrock for both end bearing and skin friction capacities.

RÉSUMÉ
Pour les constructions avec foundations profunds les testes de capacité portante ont mis en evidence l’effect de la penetration des
pieux dans la roche degradée pour la resistence en base et aussi pour la resistence latterale.

Keywords: pile, displacement, applied load, penetration into the bedrock, toe bearing capacity, skin friction bearing capacity.

1 FOUNDATION REQUIREMENTS bridges and wind farms. All aforementioned

CONSTRUCTIONS
In some construction projects, shallow foun-
dations have been used to transfer loads to the
soil that were in excess of its allowable bearing
capacity resulting in settlements greater than the
admissible values for good maintenance. For
these reasons, recent projects have utilized deep
foundations with piles which penetrating a soil
layer with favorable geotechnical properties.
Recently, reinforced concrete bored piles
having diameter greater than 0,6m have been
used as the preferred foundation system for
structures close to Romania’s Black Sea shore-
line including port structures, shopping malls,
piles were embedded in soft rocks consisting of
compacted clay with insertions of rock fragments
with differing weathering stages. Above the soft
rock there is a layer mix of cohesive and com-
pressible soil layers (clayey sand, clayey silt and
silty clays - loess based soils).
These soil deposits are highly variable due
to their unhomogeneous alternating compounds,
with rock insertions from a few to tens of centi-
meters thick, the weathering and fissuring stage
of the limestone, or the irregular schistosity with
depth.
Since these soft rocks constitute a soil with
smaller deformability than the cohesive layer

1
Corresponding Author.
832 R. Ciortan et al. / Interpretation of Axial Load Tests for Bored Piles Penetrating Soft Rocks

above it, the piles were executed by penetrating 2.1 Test for Commercial Complex Constanta
this layer.
A bored pile of 0,80m in diameter and length
Based on Romanian standards, test piles are
of 17m has been tested. Piles of 1,2m in diameter
required for verifying the pile bearing capacity as
and length of 20m (Fig.2) were used as reaction
a function of the measured displacement.
piles. All piles were constucted by the dry me-
Table 1 shows the testing requirements ac-
thod.
cording to NP-123/2010 “Standards for geotech-
nical design of pile foundations”.
Minimum no. of test piles according to the load
No. of type
piles of the
Axial load
construction / Lateral
area Ten-
Compression load
sion
1...20 1 1 1
21...100 2 2 2
101...200 3 2 2
3+one pile for
H every 100 piles over 2 2
200
Table 1. Testing requirement according to NP-123/2010

According to Romanian Standard NP 045-

2000 “In Situ Testing of foundation piles” there
are four levels of testing. Levels 1 and 2 are used
to determine the critical load and usually the out-
of-production pile is loaded to failure, while le-
vels 3 and 4 are used for verification, and the op-
erational pile is loaded up to 150% of the opreta-
tional load.
2 AXIAL PILE LOAD TESTS
Axial pile load tests were executed based
on the requirements of NP 045-2000.
Figure 1 shows the general location of the
tests.
Figure 2. Typical Test Setup
The first 9,5m of the soil in which the pile
was constructed consists of clay and silty clay.
The next 3,5m are sandy clay having small li-
mestone insertions. Next is fissured limestone
(sandy clay with limestone boulders). The pile
was embedded approximately 4m into sandy clay
with limestone boulders.
For the maximum applied load of 5,620KN
resulted a maximum displacement of 4,02mm.
After unloading, a residual displacement of
0,75mm was measured (Fig.3).

Figure 3. Pile head displacement versus applied load

The axial load distribution and skin friction

Figure 1. Test Location along the pile was measured with the aid of a se-
 R. Ciortan et al. / Interpretation of Axial Load Tests for Bored Piles Penetrating Soft Rocks
ries of strain gauges installed along the longitu-
dinal reinforcement (Fig.4 and Fig.5).
Figure 4. General view from strain gauge arrangement
and protection
For the measured displacement of 4mm the
following skin friction resistances were deduced:
122,14KN/m2 for the first 5,0m, 206,68KN/m2
for the next 5,00m and 53,01KN/m2 for the last
5,75m.
Figure 5. Calculated load values at different strain gauge
levels under maximum test load
833
The toe and top of the pile having total length
of 1,25m have not been taken into consideration
for calculation. The measured values lead to a
friction force of 4,934KN and thus the remaining
686KN are supported by the pile’s toe. Hence,
end bearing constitutes 12.2% of the applied load
value.
2.2 Tests performed for various structures in
Constanta Port
Piles up to 30m length and 1m diameter have
been constructed to support of some new struc-
tures in the Constanta Port. The piles were con-
structed with full casing and penetrated the be-
drock (weathered limestone in clay mass) in
depths between 3 and 10 meters.
Maximum top of pile settlements between
1,35mm and 12,62mm and residual displace-
ments between 0,50mm and 6,17mm have been
recorded during the load tests. As expected, pe-
netration into the weathered rock, which has
much better geotechnical properties than the co-
hesive layer above it, leads to the conclusion that
a great part of the total capacity is contributed by
the pile toe.
2.3 Load test for a wind farm
A 1,08m diameter bored pile constructed in
dry conditions has been tested in another area
near Constanta, where a 5m thick loess layer is
followed by a 3,1m layer of alternating layers of
green schist and silty clay, green schist.
This pile having a length of 8,05m pene-
trated 2,55m of the loess, 3,8m of altenate layers
of weathered schist and silty clay and was em-
bedded 1,7m in green schist. The maximum ap-
plied load was 4.400KN. For this load a maxi-
mum settlement of 1,34mm was recorded while
the residual settlement after unloading was
0,21mm (Fig 6).
834 R. Ciortan et al. / Interpretation of Axial Load Tests for Bored Piles Penetrating Soft Rocks
Figure 6. Typical displacement after axial compression
loading test
The pile penetration of more than 1,7m
within the schist increased the contribution of the
pile’s skin friction resistance.
From these measurements and calculations
we obtained that the skin friction resistance
reached about 85% of the total resistance for the
applied load.
Reaction piles were identical to the test
pile. For a load of 2.000KN they had a maximum
displacement of 0,022mm.
2.4 Test for a bridge
Bored piles of 1,5m in diameter and 37m in
length were tested for the construction of a
bridge (Fig. 6). Bentonite slurry was used for ex-
cavation support.
Figure 7. Typical displacement after axial compression
loading test
After drilling about 21m into the cohesive
clay layer the piles penetrated 11m into a clay
with fragments of limestone and the pile toe ter-
minated into a layer of compacted sand with li-
mestone fragments.
At the maximum load of 11.110KN the
measured settlement was 4,608mm while the re-
sidual displacement was 1,81mm.
3 INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
Table 2 and Figure 8 summarize results asso-
ciated with the aforementioned pile load tests.
 R. Ciortan et al. / Interpretation of Axial Load Tests for Bored Piles Penetrating Soft Rocks
Table 2. Summary of results
The analyzed cases highlight the differen-
tiated contribution of the weathered rock on
pile’s bearing capacity according to embedment
length and also rock properties.
Figure 8. Load versus settlement results
835
It was observed that in cases where penetra-
tion in the bedrock was about 3diameters (3m to
4m) and where the cohesive layer above the be-
drock had a thickness of 10 to 15m, the toe bear-
ing capacity was about 50%-70% of the total, ac-
cording also to the value of the applied load.
The big difference between the modulus of
elasticity in the perforated cohesive and soft rock
layers, where the ratio can be from 1 to 10, had
direct consequence on the decrease of the settle-
ment. Based on the small measured settlements,
the mobilized skin friction above the bedrock is
of small value.
If the embedment in the bedrock was great-
er, and the contact surface between the pile and
schist was rough, the contribution of the skin
friction of the rock would be greater.
For a top layer with a thickness 40% small-
er than the embedment into the bedrock the skin
friction can be more than 85% of the total bear-
ing capacity, mostly due to the rock penetration.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A number of constructions along the Roma-
nian shoreline are founded on piles embedded in
soft rock layers (clay with limestone boulders,
degraded limestone with clay lenses, degraded
schist).
Based on tests, it results that with pile em-
bedment in bedrock the obtained displacements
are relatively small due to the big elasticity mod-
ulus of the bedrock and the relatively high end
bearing capacity. If pile penetration into the be-
drock is between 1,5m and 3m, the piles can be
considered end bearing piles, and the skin fric-
tion resistance can be neglected according to the
thickness and proprieties of the perforated layers.
The registered displacements depend on the
value of applied load compared to pile’s toe
bearing capacity. It can be estimated that for
stiff clay with rock fragments and for a pile
length of 10 to 20 meters, the toe bearing capaci-
ty is 50% to 70% of the total resistance.
According to the bedrock geotechnical pro-
prieties, for a penetration length three times big-
ger than the diameter of the pile, the amount of
836 R. Ciortan et al. / Interpretation of Axial Load Tests for Bored Piles Penetrating Soft Rocks

resistance contributed by the skin friction along

the bedrock is starting to have more significance
and can reach 85% of the bearing capacity.
In-situ test were done for validating the
bearing capacity of the piles that penetrate soft
rocks. These tests prove their necessity and use-
fulness and also allow us to have better, near re-
ality, appraisal.

REFERENCES

[1] DeCock, Legrand, Survey report on the present day.

Design methods for axially loaded piles. European
practice ERTC3, Amsterdam, Holland, 2009.
[2] EDRASIS-ISPIF, Pile load test for wind farm, Fanta-
nele, Romania, 2009.
[3] EDRASIS-ISPIF, Pile load test for a bridge, Constanta,
Romania, 2011.
[4] HECON S.A. – TEMEL GEO CONSTRUCTION,
Constanta City Center. Axial static compression pile
load test. Constanta, Romania, 2008.
[5] INCERC Bucuresti ,In Situ Testing of foundation piles,
NP 045-2000 Romanian norms, Romania, 2000.
[6] Lord, J.A., Hayward T., Clayton, CRI, Shaft friction on
CFA piles in chalk, CIRIA, London, England, 2003.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 837
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-837

A new method for the evaluation of the ultimate

load of piles by tests not carried to failure
Une nouvelle méthode pour l'évaluation de la charge limite des
pieux avec des essais qui n’atteignent pas la rupture
G. Dalerci, R. Bovolenta 1
Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering, University of Genova

ABSTRACT
A new method for the evaluation of the ultimate limit load of piles by tests not carried to failure is proposed. By a proper use of
experimental results, it allows for a complete analysis of piles behaviour. In fact, the total, shaft and base load-settlement curves
can be evaluated. It can be applied when shaft friction is fully mobilized during the test.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article propose une méthode pour évaluer la charge limite des pieux par des essais qui n’atteignent pas la rupture. La
méthode permet, grâce à une opportune élaboration des résultats expérimentaux, une analyse complète du comportement des
pieux. Les relations entre la charge (totale, latérale ou à la base) et le déplacement peuvent aussi être évaluées. La méthode peut
être appliquée si la résistance latérale est totalement mobilisée.

Keywords: Foundations; piles; loading tests.

1 INTRODUCTION
Few methods have been proposed in order to de-
duce the shaft and base performance of a single
pile by load tests.
One of the most famous methods for single
pile settlement prediction and analysis is the one
proposed by Fleming ([1], [2]). It is based on the
use of hyperbolic functions to describe individual
shaft and base load - head settlement perform-
ance. The method provides useful indications
about soil Young’s modulus at low strains. The
method is quite simple but it introduces many pa-
rameters and it does not provide a unique solu-
tion. The calculated values of ultimate shaft and
base loads and the low strain modulus can vary
in wide ranges (see [3]). Potential errors in the
total ultimate load determination are rather mod-
erate if the maximum axial load applied during
the test is greater than 75% of the failure one. In
this case recourse to the approach proposed by
Chin ([4], [5]) is to be preferred because of its
simplicity.
Dalerci ([7]) formulated a method able to pro-
vide the ultimate shaft load and the soil Young’s
modulus. These values are deduced by represent-
ing the settlement/load values as a function of
settlements and interpolating the data by means
of a linear plot. Application of this method to-
gether with the Chin’s one provides complete in-

1
Corresponding Author.
838 G. Dalerci and R. Bovolenta / A New Method for the Evaluation of the Ultimate Load of Piles

formation about the pile performance (see [3]). a rigid plate) and along the shaft (see Table 1 for
Dalerci & Bovolenta (see [6]) proposed a new constant stresses along the shaft);
method in order to estimate the ultimate shaft [ = coefficient depending on the shaft shear
load and the soil Young’s modulus. This ap- stresses ([ = 0.5 for constant shear stresses along
proach allows a simple interpretation of full- the shaft).
scale pile tests. It can be applied when shaft fric-
tion is fully mobilized. Table 1. Ib for a rigid base and Is for constant shear stresses
A new procedure is described here for the
L/D Qsoil = 0.2 Qsoil = 0.3 Qsoil = 0.4 Qsoil = 0.5
evaluation of the ultimate load by tests not car- Ib
ried to failure. Its adoption together with the me- 5 0.4676 0.4990 0.5289 0.5476
thod proposed by Dalerci & Bovolenta [6] allows 10 0.4487 0.4791 0.5075 0.5238
a complete analysis of the single pile behavior. 25 0.4373 0.4672 0.4947 0.5095
The calculated shaft and base load values, repre- 50 0.4335 0.4632 0.4904 0.5048
Is
sented as functions of the pile head settlement, 5 0.1589 0.1721 0.1918 0.2188
are not necessarily hyperbolic. 10 0.0924 0.1019 0.1144 0.1315
25 0.0443 0.0491 0.0556 0.0643
50 0.0249 0.0277 0.0314 0.0366

2 METHOD FOR THE EVALUATION OF

THE PILE PERFORMANCE The ratio between the head settlement s and
the load Q can be expressed by the (6):
s Q
2.1 Evaluation of the ultimate shaft load and  wb  eb   s ª¬ wb  eb    ws  es  º¼
the soil stiffness modulus Q Q
(6)
Qs
A short summary of the method formulated by E  >E  J @
Dalerci & Bovolenta (see [6]) is presented. The Q
vertical settlement s of a pile in a linearly elastic E = wb + eb (7)
homogeneous and isotropic soil stratum is:
s = wb Qb + ws Qs + eb Qb + es Q (1)  = ws+ es (8)
In Figure 1 the curve s/Q-1/Q is shown for the
wb Ib
1  Q 
2
soil
(2)
cases of elastic perfectly plastic soil behaviour
D b E soil (curve on the left), and real soil behaviour (curve
on the right). The interval 0-1 represents the be-

ws Is
1  Q 
2
soil
(3)
haviour of the system below the ultimate shaft
load, 1-2 (1’-2’ in the ideal case) load transfer to
D E soil
the base, while 2-3 identifies the pile collapse.
L The line 1’-2’ crosses the axes in D/Qsu and E,
eb (4)
EA being D = (E)/(E - ). When E is known, the val-
ue of Esoil can be obtained and then the ultimate
L
es [ (5) shaft load Qsu can be estimated.
EA
Qb ; Qs = base and shaft load; 0 1/Qu D/Q su 1/Q 0 1/Qu 1/Qcr D/Q su 1/Q
D ; Db= shaft and base diameter of the pile; E E
L = lenght of the pile; 1 0 1’ 0
Esoil ; E = soil and pile Young’s modulus; 2 2’
Qsoil = soil Poisson’s ratio; E E
A = cross sectional area; 3 3
Ib ; Is = influence factors, depending on L/D, s/Q s/Q

Qsoil , and on the stresses at the base (assumed as

Figure 1. Curves s/Q-1/Q from Dalerci & Bovolenta (2009)
 G. Dalerci and R. Bovolenta / A New Method for the Evaluation of the Ultimate Load of Piles 839

In the procedure proposed by Dalerci [7], the load value can be obtained assuming  in
line 1’-2’ was defined by interpolation of the order to satisfy the (15).
measured values of s/Q and 1/Q and then Esoil The minimum value of the ultimate shaft load
and Qsu were estimated. Observing Figure 1: is deduced for  = min. This assumption, which is
§ s· Q the same as assuming that the pile is rigid, can be
¨ ¸ E  s  E  J  E0 (9) too precautionary, and the alternative assumption
© ¹ 0 1
Q Q
of ws = 0 would be more reasonable. The value
In the range 0-1, the ratio Qs/Q is lower than 1 of  is determined in order to have  = es. The
and in the ideal case (in Figure 1 on the left) it is maximum value of the ultimate shaft load is eva-
constant. Then the ultimate shaft and base loads luated for  = 1.
can be determined: The procedure briefly illustrated, allows one
Qs to determine E and consequently Esoil in a well
G (10) defined way. The evaluation of the ultimate shaft
Q
load Qsu is more discretionary because of the in-
E  G E  J  E0 (11) fluence of the compatibility criterion adopted.
Nonetheless, as Qsu varies in a narrow range, the
E  E0 E 0  E 1  G  average value can be already representative.
J E (12)
G G Qlat /Q=d elta 0.9872 0.9872
wL+eL=gamma 0.02358 [mm/t] 0.02358

QE  s
[mm] [MN]Total
[MN]Load
% %
unto n°. s Qlat Qbas e s /D Q/Qu
12 -31.30
Shaft0.642
3.114
Load
0.486 6.5 85.7

Qs (13) 13
14
-39.30
-54.00
3.258
3.258 0.942
8.2
11.2
92.9
100.0
E1

E J
Base Load
e B= 0.0784612 [mm/t] Ok
Et= 217.9159 [kg/cmq]
E*
[mm] [t] [t] [t] [mm/t] % %
Step n° s Qtot Qlat Qb ase s/Q s/D Q/Qu
Load

0 0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.0 0.0

E2
Qb Q  Qs
1 -0.90 30.58 30.19 0.39 -0.02943 0.2 7.1

(14) 2
3
4
-2.20
-3.50
-5.10
61.16
91.74
122.32
59.50
88.82
117.48
1.66
2.92
4.85
-0.03597
-0.03815
-0.04169
0.5
0.7
1.1
14.3
21.4
28.6
5
6
-6.90
-9.10
152.91
183.49
145.70
173.04
7.21
10.44
-0.04513
-0.04960
1.4
1.9 E 35.7
1
42.9
7 -11.30 214.07 200.39 13.68 -0.05279 2.3 50.0

Since œ0 can be deduced by pile loading tests,

8 -14.00 244.65 226.64 18.01 -0.05723 2.9 57.1
9 -17.10 275.23 252.01 23.22 -0.06213 3.6 64.3
10 -20.80 305.81 276.08 29.73 -0.06802 4.3 71.4 E*
11 -25.30 336.39 298.39 38.00 -0.07521 5.3 78.6
12 -31.30 366.97 317.42 49.55 -0.08529 6.5 85.7 E2
the method consists in the evaluation of  and œ 13
14
-39.30
-54.00
397.55
428.13
332.07
332.07
65.48
96.07
-0.09885
-0.12613
8.2
11.2

Head Settlement
92.9
100.0

(and then Esoil), in order to obtain a shaft load –

settlement curve almost hyperbolic. Figure 2. Influence of the variation of Eand choice of E 
It is worth specifying that:
x the shape of shaft load – head settlement
Total Load
Shaft Load
Base Load G1
curve is influenced by œ and not by . G*

x  affects the ultimate shaft load.

G2
Load

x  can vary in a narrow range, generally G1

G*
from 0.9 to 1.  must satisfy the (15) : G2

E 0  E 1  G  Head Settlement
J t es [ eb (15)
G Figure 3. Influence of the variation of G and choice of G
When  = 0 the value of  has a minimum:
E0 œ influences the shape of the shaft load - head
G min 1 (16) settlement curve, especially in the second part
E
(Figure 2). œ has to be chosen in order to have a
The procedure can be summarised in the fol- curve with an initial increase until the load is
lowing points: transferred to the base and then the shaft load is
x a value of  is chosen, for instance 0.95. constant. , whose variability is quite low, influ-
x œ is determined in order to obtain a shaft ences the first part of the shaft and base load -
load – head settlement curve whose shape head settlement curves (Figure 3). Since  repre-
is rather hyperbolic or elasto-plastic. When sents the quota of load which is along the shaft, 
E is known, the value of eb can be calcu- is fixed in order to avoid a hardening base load –
lated and then Esoil can be deduced. head settlement curve.
x The shaft load curve and the ultimate shaft The hardening behaviour is obtained for
840 G. Dalerci and R. Bovolenta / A New Method for the Evaluation of the Ultimate Load of Piles

 < min , while for  = 1 the base load increases s0 = sb + sEb + sEs (20)
starting from the settlement corresponding to at- s0 = pile head settlement (assuming ws = 0);
tainment of ultimate shaft load.  can not assume sEb= pile elastic shortening caused by Qb;
negative values. Hardening behaviour has been sEs = pile elastic shortening caused by Qs;
noticed in some of the loading tests analysed. sEb and sEs can be evaluated knowing the soil
This confirms that the base load values, repre- features and how the loads are transferred. As-
sented as a function of the pile head settlement, suming the pile as a column subjected to an axial
are not necessarily hyperbolic. load reaching the base, sEb can be estimated by
the (21). The pile elastic shortening caused by Qs
2.2 Evaluation of the ultimate load can be determined by the (22).
The analysis of the pile behaviour can be devel- L
sEb ˜ Qb eb ˜ Qb (21)
oped by the proposed method, which starts from EA
the following assumptions:
L
sav sEs Qs ˜ [ ˜ Qs ˜ [ ˜ eb Qs ˜ es (22)
Qs ˜ Qsu (17) EA
sav cr  sav
Where [ is the already mentioned coefficient
sb depending on the shaft shear stresses W It can
Qb ˜ Qbu (18)
sbcr  sb vary from 0.2 to 0.66 (Figure 5) in relation to the
pile and soil type and the boundary conditions.
Qs
Qsu

sav cr sav
Figure 5: Values of ?
Figure 4: Critical settlement

Qsu = ultimate shaft load (approach in 2.1); s0 and sav can be determined by (23) and (24):
Qbu = ultimate base load; s0 sb  Qb ˜ eb  Qs ˜ es (23)
sb = settlement at the pile base; s0  sb Q Q
sav = shaft average settlement = (s+sb)/2; sav sb  b ˜ eb  s ˜ es (24)
2 2 2
sav cr = critical settlement, which depends on
the pile type and slenderness and the soil fea- sav can be also expressed by (25) :
tures. Experimental results demonstrate that its Q Q
sav sb  b ˜ eb  s ˜ [ ˜ eb (25)
variability is from 0.0005D to 0.0025D. It can be 2 2
defined graphically (see Figure 4). Introducing for simplicity the parameters spe-
sbcr = base critical settlement. It can be cal- cified in (26), (27) and (28), the value of Qs can
culated by (19): be expressed by the (29):
( 1 Q soil 2 ) ˜ I b w A [ ˜ eb (26)
sbcr Qbu ˜ Qbu ˜ b (19)
Ei ,soil ˜ Db 3
B 2sav cr  2sb  Qb ˜ eb  Qsu ˜ eb ˜ [ (27)
Ei,soil = initial Young’s modulus of the soil
beneath pile base. It can be assumed equal to C Qsu ˜  2 sb  Qb ˜ eb  (28)
3Esoil where Esoil is the Young’s modulus ob-
tained by the previously described approach. Qs  B  B2  4 AC  2A (29)
Neglecting ws, the pile head settlement is giv-
en by equation (20):
 G. Dalerci and R. Bovolenta / A New Method for the Evaluation of the Ultimate Load of Piles 841

The procedure is easy to be implemented and Total Load Shaft Load

it consists of the following two phases: Y Y

1. evaluation of Qsu (graphically) and Esoil (by

the method shown in paragraph 2.1);
2. definition of Qbu, sav cr and ë in order to ob-

Head Settlement

Head Settlement
tain a good accordance between measured and
calculated values. The load – head settlement
curve is obtained by the following steps:
x choice of a value of sb;
x calculation of Qb by (18); Figure 8: Influence of the variation of ë
x use of (29) to determine Qs;
x use of (30) to determine the total load Q: 2.3 Performance of piles with prevalent shaft
Q=Qs+Qb (30) resistance
x assessment of the pile settlement by (31):
For the study of the piles with predominant
s0 sb  Qb ˜ eb  Qs ˜ [ ˜ eb (31) shaft resistance at low load levels (Qb  0 and
Qbuì affects the base and the total load – head  = Qs/Q  1) the proposed method can be ap-
settlement curves especially in their second parts plied with the following modifications.
because the gradients are proportional to QbuM When s0 > sav cr the procedure previously pro-
(Figure 6). sav affects the first part of the shaft posed is applicable.
and the total load – head settlement curves, espe- When s0  sav cr , the base settlement and load
cially at the threshold between the elastic and the are neglected (i.e. sb = 0 ; Qb = 0 and conse-
plastic behaviour (Figure 7). ë varies in a narrow quently Qs = Q). In order to define the shaft and
range and affects the first part of the shaft and total load - head settlement curves, a value of the
the total load – head settlement curves (Figure pile head settlement s0 is to be assumed. sav can
8). In general, these parameters have to be cho- be determined by the (32) and Qs by the (33).
sen in order to obtain a satisfactory accordance L
with the test results. sav s0  sEs s0  Qs ˜ [ ˜ s0  Qs ˜ es (32)
EA
Total Load Base Load
 savcr  s0  Qsu ˜ [ ˜ eb 
Qs 
Qbu 2 ˜ [ ˜ eb
1
 ª( savcr  s0  Qsu ˜ [ ˜ eb )2  (33)
2 ˜ [ ˜ eb ¬
Head Settlement

Head Settlement

Qbu

4 ˜ [ ˜ eb ˜ s0 ˜ Qsu @
0.5

Figure 6: Influence of the variation of Qbu

3 EXAMPLES OF THE APPLICATION OF
Total Load Shaft Load THE METHOD

sav cr sav cr In order to validate the method, the results of 44

full instrumented pile tests have been back-
analysed. In 14 of the considered cases the piles
Head Settlement
Head Settlement

interact with hard soils or weak rocks. Three ex-

amples are presented, chosen as representative of
typical piles behaviour. Relevant data for the
Figure 7: Influence of the variation of sav cr
three cases are reported in Table 2.
842 G. Dalerci and R. Bovolenta / A New Method for the Evaluation of the Ultimate Load of Piles

Table 2. Data for the pile analysis evaluation of the ultimate load is described. Pro-
EX. Qsu (t) Esoil (t/mm2) Qbu (t) sav cr (mm) ë vided that shaft friction is completely mobilized,
1 743.5 12.310*10-4 370 3.0 0.20 all the adopted parameters can be determined by
2 136.5 15.951*10-4 55 0.1 0.35 back-analysis of tests not carried to failure. The
3 194.0 16.080*10-4 650 2.0 0.70 total, shaft and base load - head settlement
curves can be easy defined properly taking into
Load [t] Load [t]
0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175
account the pile and the soil type and boundary
0 0 conditions., Implementation and application of
-5
-1 the procedure are very simple. The parameters
-10
are easy to be determined and they vary in nar-
Head Settlement [mm]
Head Settlement [mm]

-2
-15

-3
row ranges. The deduced data may be used to
-20

-25
predict the response of piles of different diameter
-4
-30
and length in the same soils. Good accordance
-5
-35 between measured and calculated values has
-40
-6
Measured Calculated
been verified in a wide range of soils and piles.
Measured Calculated
Qs Qb
Qs Qb

Figure 9: Load – head set- Figure 10: Load – head set-

tlements curves (Example 1) tlements curves (Example 2) REFERENCES
Load [t]
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
0
[1] W. G. K.Fleming, A new method for single pile settle-
-10
ment prediction and analysis. Géotechnique 42 (1992),
-20 411-425.
Head Settlement [mm]

-30 [2] W. G. K. Fleming Execution and interpretation of pile

-40
loading tests. Proc. l6th Conf. on Geotechnics in Turin
-50
-60
(I), paper No. 16.7 (1997) 1-21.
-70
[3] R. Passalacqua, G. Dalerci, M. Lupo, A pile load test
-80 interpretation method: consideration and validation,
-90 Proc. 4th Int. Conf. Deep Foundation Practice Incorpo-
Measured Calculated rating Piletalk, Singapore, 29-30 July 1999, 141-148.
Qs Qb
Fleming [4] F. K. Chin, Estimation of the ultimate load of piles
from tests not came to failure, Proc. 2nd SE Asian
Conf. Soil Engng., Singapore, (1970) 81-92.
Figure 11: Load – head set- [5] F. K. Chin, The inverse slope as a prediction of ultimate
tlements curves (Example 3) bearing capacity of piles, Proc. 3rd SE Asian Conf. SoiI
Engng., Hong Kong, (1972) 83-91.
Example 1: drilled cast in place pile (L = 8,7 [6] G. Dalerci, R. Bovolenta Un metodo per
m and D = 0,762 m) in clay shale (see [8]). l’interpretazione di prove di carico su pali non
strumentati. Incontro Annuale dei Ricercatori di
Example 2: bored cast in place pile (L = 9,0 m Geotecnica IARG, 9-11 Sept 2009 Sapienza-Università
and D = 0,600 m) in sand and cemented clay (see di Roma.
[9]). [7] G. Dalerci, Analysis and interpretation of axial load test
Example 3: Drilled cast in place pile (L = 6.55 on not instrumented pi1es. Italian contribution to 10th
ECSMFE., Florence I (1991), 81-86.
m and D = 0,84 m) in sand and cemented clay. [8] V. Vijayvergiya , W. R.Hudson, L.C. Reese, Load dis-
Pile base embedded in a clay stratum, cemented tribution for drilled shaft in clay shale. Research Re-
very much (see [10]). port, 89-5.University of Texas, Austin (1969).
Figures 9, 10 and 11 demonstrate that the pro- [9] E. Cabella, R. Passalacqua., M. Lupo Axial load test at
failure on a large diameter, instrumented, bored pile,
posed method allows for reliable estimation of Proc. 3rd Int. Geot. Seminar on Deep Foundations and
the piles behaviour. Bored and Auger Piles, Ghent (B) (1998), 201-207.
[10] L. C. Reese, M. W. O’Neill, Field Load Test of Drilled
Shaft. Proceedings, International Seminar on Deep
Foundations on Bored and Auger Piles, Van Impe (ed.),
4 FINAL REMARKS Balkema, Rotterdam (1988) 145 – 192.

In the present work a new procedure for the

Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 843
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-843

A parametric study on pile drivability for large

diameter offshore monopiles
Une étude paramétrique sur la maniabilité de pieux pour de
grand diamètre monopiles offshore
P. Doherty1, K. Gavin
Geotechnical Research Group, School of architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering, University
College Dublin, Ireland
B. Casey
Head of Civil Engineering, Mainstream Renewable Power, Dublin, Ireland

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a parametric study that investigates issues such as the pile diameter, wall thickness, pile-soil resistance
model and hammer type on offshore pile driveability. The research indicates that the model used to calculate the static resistance
to driving (SRD) has a dominant effect on the accuracy of pile driving predictions. The current industry standard API-07 method
suggests that piles of up to 8 m diameter can be driven to a target penetration of 35 m even in very dense sand typically encoun-
tered in the North Sea. In contrast, recent Cone Penetration Test (CPT) design methods indicates much harder driving and sug-
gests a new generation of much higher capacity hammers will be required to install these piles.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article présente une étude paramétrique qui étudie des questions telles que le diamètre du pieu, épaisseur de paroi, modèle de
résistance pile-sol et le type de marteau sur l'agrément de conduite pile offshore. La recherche indique que le modèle utilisé pour
calculer la résistance statique à la conduite (SRD) a un effet dominant sur la précision des prédictions de battage de pieux. La
norme actuelle de l'industrie API-07 méthode suggère que des piles de jusqu'à 8 m de diamètre peut être conduit à un taux de pé-
nétration objectif de 35 m, même dans le sable très dense généralement rencontrés dans la mer du Nord. En revanche, les
dernières méthodes de pénétration au cône d'essai de conception (CPT) indique beaucoup plus difficile de conduire et sug-gère
une nouvelle génération de marteaux plus grande capacité sera nécessaire pour installer ces piles.

Keywords: Pile driving, pile performance, installation resistance.

1 INTRODUCTION shore and in deeper water than other offshore

The offshore renewable sector is undergoing rap-
id expansion across Europe, with thousands of
turbines expected to be installed over the next ten
to fifteen years. Last year the UK Crown Estate
awarded development licenses for nine sites
around the British Isles, which when completed
will yield 32GW of renewable energy. These
“Round 3” developments are located further off-
wind developments in the region. This results in
larger environmental forces and greater construc-
tion challenges for developers.
To date, over 75% of offshore wind turbines
have been constructed on monopiles, which are
single large diameter open ended steel piles dri-
ven into the seabed to a specified penetration.
Monopiles are generally favored for their simple
design, fabrication and installation processes,

1
Corresponding Author.
844 P. Doherty et al. / A Parametric Study on Pile Drivability for Large Diameter Offshore Monopiles
which makes them more competitive than alter-
native foundation options.
The lateral loading from wind, waves and cur-
rents generate large moments on the structure,
which requires a large diameter pile to provide
adequate bending stiffness to resist excessive ro-
tations. As the water depths increase, the result-
ing moments also increase and monopiles with
diameters in excess of 5m have been used for
wind farms in water depths of up to 35 m. It is
generally considered that monopiles are not suit-
able to provide adequate support for wind tur-
bines in deeper water conditions because the
very large pile diameters required are difficult to
fabricate, handle and install. This paper ad-
dresses one of these concerns by investigating
the factors effecting monopile installation, spe-
cifically the predicted driving resistance of very
large diameter piles.
The paper explores the impact of piling ham-
mer, pile geometry, soil density and the model
used to estimate the piles static capacity on the
predicted drivability (quantified through the
number of blow-counts required to install a pile).
140
120
Slenderness Ratio, L/D
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 2
Diameter (m)
Figure 1: Comparison of Pile Geometries used by the Off-
shore Wind and Petroleum Sector
2 LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT
DRIVEABILITY DESIGN
The offshore wind industry is relatively im-
mature. As a result, the technologies and design
principals used have been adapted from the more
established oil and gas industry. The oil and gas
industry face the same concerns about pile driva-
bility and use analytical wave equation models to
predict the pile resistance to driving for a specific
hammer and pile combination at a given site.
However, these models also require a semi-
empirical estimate of the static pile resistance to
driving in order to estimate the dynamic resis-
tance. There is considerable uncertainty as to
whether these semi-empirical models can be ap-
plied to the design of monopiles as the geome-
tries are considerably different. Figure 1 presents
a comparative plot of pile geometries for nine oil
or gas platforms installed in the North Sea [1]
with monopiles supporting operational wind
farms. There is a clear contrast between the two
datasets:
(i) Pile Diameter – The oil and gas platforms
are founded on piles with diameters below 2.05
m. All the monopiles have diameters > 3 m.
(ii) Pile Slenderness – The pile slenderness ra-
tio (ratio of pile length L, to pile diameter, D)
ranges from  20 to 130 for piles used to support
oil and gas platforms. Monopiles typically have
L/D ratios between 4 and 8, and therefore have
Shell Data much higher rotational stiffness than the slender
piles used in the offshore oil and gas sector.
Monopiles
Given the extreme difference in scale, there re-
mains considerable uncertainty about extrapolat-
ing semi-empirical pile capacity models devel-
oped for the petroleum sector to the pile
geometries used by the wind sector [2].
3 DRIVEABILITY ANALYSIS
4 6
The total resistance of a pile to driving in-
cludes the initial static resistance to driving
(SRD), increases in pile capacity due to viscous
rate effects and dynamic increases in capacity
due to inertia. In this study, three separate mod-
els were used to calculate SRD. These include
the American Petroleum Institute (API) approach
[4] , the Imperial College design method, ICP-05
[5] and the University of Western Australia ap-
proach, UWA-05 [6]. Once the SRD was deter-
mined it was implemented within a 1-
 P. Doherty et al. / A Parametric Study on Pile Drivability for Large Diameter Offshore Monopiles 845

Dimensional wave equation analysis using the Very

GRLWEAP software [7].
Because the purpose of the paper was to ex-
amine the effects of design equations used to es-
timate SRD on pile drivability, a standard quake
value of 2.5 mm was used for the shaft and base
resistance, in line with the recommendations giv-
en by Stevens et al. 1982. The dynamic compo-
nents of the total resistance are normally ac-
counted for using damping factors applied
separately to the pile shaft and toe. For all ana-
lyses in this study Smith damping factors of
0.25s/m and 0.5s/m were used for the shaft and
base respectively [3].
The hammers used in the analyses ranged in
size from the Menck MHU600 to the MHU2100,
which have rated energies between 600 and
2100kJ respectively. The range in hammer sizes
was chosen to span the sizes commonly used for
monopile installation. An efficiency of 70% was
assumed for all these hydraulic hammers.
The purpose of the study was to assess wheth-
er existing plant was capable of installing the
large diameter monopiles necessary for deep wa-
ter developments. the pile diameters considered
ranged from 4 m to 8 m, and wall thicknesses be-
tween 30 and 80 mm were considered. A con-
stant pile penetration depth of 35m was assumed,
which together with an overlying water depth of
35m gave a total pile length of 70m.
Three distinct soil profiles were considered,
medium dense, dense and very dense sand. In
 ,(


each, the soil properties (summarized in Table 1)
were assumed to be constant within the soil de-
posit. These soil properties were used to esti-
  

 ese. The change in the
mate SRD using the three pile capacity models.
The SRD was profile was then input into
GRLWEAP to attain the drivability predictions.
Table 1: Soil Properties for SRD Calculations
Soil Unit CPT qc Friction
Type Weight value Angle
kN/m3 MPa Degrees
Med-
20 50 27
Dense
4 PILE RESISTANCE MODELS
4.1 Implementing the SRD model
The SRD is calculated from the combination of
shaft (Qse) and base resistance (Qb), see equation
1. The inertia of the pile plug during driving re-
sults in most large diameter piles being driven in
a fully coring manner, where the plug elevation
remains coincident with the seabed level. Not-
withstanding this internal frictional resistance
(qsi) develops between the plug and pile wall.
This is normally considered to be a fraction of
the external resistance (qse). Stevens et al. [8]
suggested that qsi/qse varies from 0.5 to 1. The
lower bound value of 0.5 has been adopted
throughout this study; however, estimating the
actual distribution of qsi is complex [10] and fur-
ther research is necessary to define this ratio. The
total SRD (Eqn 2) is given by a summation of the
qse, qsi (taken to be 0.5 qse) and the base resis-
tance (qann) which develops over the annular area
(Aann) see equation 2.
The shaft resistance is calculated by summing
the skin friction mobilized in a given depth inter-
val HeI
the pile response to driving within GRLWEAP a
new term is defined, called the incremental pseu-
do-
shaft resistance due to an additional increment of
penetration can be calculated from equations 3
and 4, [3], where Qse,L and Qse,L-1 are the shaft ca-
pacity at tip depth, L and at previous depth L-1,
e
SRD  Qse  Qb [1]
SRD  1.5.Qse  qann .Aann [2]
z L

Dense
17 10 27 Qse   D q
z 0
se z [3]
Dense 18.5 20 27
Qse,L  Qse,L 1
qse  [4]
L
846 P. Doherty et al. / A Parametric Study on Pile Drivability for Large Diameter Offshore Monopiles

4.2 API-07 dered explicitly in this analysis, the ICP-05 annu-

lar pressure needs to be reduced accordingly.
The API-07 design method adopts a traditional
Therefore for both the ICP-05 and UWA-05 qann
earth pressure approach, where the shaft friction
is assumed equal to 0.35qc according to the rec-
is a linear function of the vertical effective stress,
ommendations of [9].
linked by a density dependent parameter, µ3
 f   . v' 0 )  lim [5] 4.4 UWA-05
The UWA-05 design approach adopts a simi-
G µ    % E?R   ELF   % %
lar approach to ICP-05, also following equation
dense to very dense sand respectively. Limiting
5. The radial effective stress is given by equation
shaft friction values range from 81 to 115kPa
9, however different assumptions regarding fric-
over the same density range. The end resistance
tion fatigue and the effect of the open ended base
determined using the API method scales the ver-
condition are applied.
tical effective stress by a dimensionless bearing
capacity factor, Nq, which varies from 20 to 50
'
rc  0.03qc (Ar )0.3(max(h / D ),2)0.5 [9]
for medium dense to very dense sand respective- Where Ar is the area ratio which is equal to (1-
ly. The end bearing pressures are limited to be- (Ri/R)2) for fully coring offshore piles.
tween 4.8 and 12 MPa.

4.3 ICP-05 5 DRIVING PREDICTIONS AND

DISCUSSION
The imperial college pile design method corre-
lates f with the CPT tip resistance (qc) and ac-
Analyses were performed to assess the effect of
counts for the reduction of stress remote from the
hammer type, pile diameter, wall thickness, soil
pile tip, commonly termed friction fatigue. The
density and capacity prediction model on the dri-
effective stress for open ended piles ( rc) is giv- vability of piles with diameters between 4 and 8
en by equation 6 and the dilation component m. The industry standard API approach is used to
( rd) is given by equation 7. consider the effects of the first three parameters.
f = ( rc +  rd) tan #f [5] Blows/250mm
' 0.38
rc  0.029qc ( v' 0 / Pa )0.13
(h / R*) [6] 0 50 100 150
0
'
 rd  2G r / R [7] MHU 600
5
2 2
R *  R  Ri [8] MHU 1000
10
Where: R is the pile radius, Pa is the atmos- MHU 2100
pheric pressure, h is the distance from the pile 15
Depth [m]

tip, Ri is the internal pile radius and R* is the

20
equivalent radius of a closed ended pile. A min-
imum h/R* value of 8 should be used near the 25
tip. G is the soil shear modulus and e EEC%%
for lightly rusted steel piles. 30
The base stress calculated using the ICP-05
35 Upper bound to
method for open ended piles assumes the stress drivability envelope
acting on the pile annulus is equal to the qc value. 40
However, Jardine et al [6] comments that this is
an overestimate of the true annular stress because Figure 2: Impact of hammer selection on pile drivability
this value offsets some of the internal skin fric-
tion. As the internal skin friction is being consi-
 P. Doherty et al. / A Parametric Study on Pile Drivability for Large Diameter Offshore Monopiles
5.1 Impact of Hammer Type
The hammer types selected for this study were
designed to span the range of hammers available
for the next generation of offshore monopile in-
stallations. Upper limits of driving resistance of
between 60 to 100 blows/250 mm are often
adopted in hammer selection analyses.
The analyses presented in Figure 2, were per-
formed for a 6 m diameter pile, with a wall
thickness of 60 mm, driven into very dense sand.
Unsurprisingly the hammer energy had a huge
impact on the driving response with only the
highest rated hammer being capable of installing
the pile comfortably within the specified penetra-
tion criteria of 60 blows/250 mm. Whilst the
1000kJ hammer is also capable of installing the
pile, hard driving over the final 5 m is indicated.
5.2 Impact of Pile Diameter
The general applicability of the highest rated
hammer (MHU2100) to drive piles into very
dense sand is considered in this section. In the
analyses presented in Figure 3a pile with a wall
thickness of 60 mm and diameter varying from 4
m to 8 m was assumed. It is apparent that al-
though the installation resistance increases with
pile diameter, the SRD predicted using the API
method suggests that even 8 m diameter mono-
piles can be installed relatively easily in the very
dense sand deposit.
Blows/250mm
0 20 40
0
5 thickness to 50 mm, the hammer energy was
10
15
Depth [m]
20
25
30
35
Increasing diameter from 4 to 8m
40
Figure 3: Impact of Diameter on pile drivability
847
5.3 Impact of Pile Wall Thickness
Varying the pile wall thickness was seen to have
minimal impact on the driving performance in
situations where the pile-hammer selection was
appropriate (i.e. where the predicted SRD values
were well below the acceptance criteria).
However, in circumstances where analyses sug-
gested that very hard driving might be required
to install the pile, the driving performance could
be dramatically improved by increasing the wall
Blows/250mm
0 50 100 150 200
0
5
t=30mm
10
t=50mm
Depth [m]
15
t=80mm
20
25
30
35
40
Figure 4: Pile drivability for variable wall thicknesses
thickness. An example is shown Figure 4where
the potential to install a 4 m diameter pile using
the MHU600 hammer in very dense sand is con-
sidered. For a pile with a 30 mm thick wall, the
blow-count is seen to increase dramatically over
the final 10 m of penetration, as the hammer
60 energy is having difficulty reaching the pile toe
and advancing the pile tip. By increasing the wall
seen to travel more readily down the pile allow-
ing easier penetration. Further increases in wall
thickness were not seen to provide any further
benefit with the blow-count increasing due to the
slightly higher end bearing component. This
analysis indicates that the pile wall thickness can
be optimized for a given pile-soil-hammer com-
bination.
5.4 Impact of Soil Density
The soil relative density was seen to have a con-
sistent effect on the pile driving behavior with
848 P. Doherty et al. / A Parametric Study on Pile Drivability for Large Diameter Offshore Monopiles
the blow-counts increasing with density. Howev-
er, the relative impact of the soil density was
seen to be highly dependent on the SRD models.
The qc based models (ICP05 and UWA05) were
both seen to be more dependent on the density of
the sand with the driving resistance increasing
more rapidly as the density increased.
5.5 Impact of SRD model
The SRD model chosen was seen to have a dra-
matic impact on the predicted pile drivability.
Figure 5 illustrates the blow-counts predicted us-
ing the API, UWA05 and ICP05 SRD models for
a 6 m diameter pile with a 60 mm wall thickness
installed in very dense sand using the MHU2100
hammer. As noted for this deposit (see Figure 2)
the API-07 model predicted relatively easy driv-
ing, with blow-counts, which are less than
40blows/250mm. In sharp contrast to this the
ICP-05 method suggests driving is not possible,
with the blow-count exceeding 100
blows/250mm after only 18 m penetration. The
UWA-05 method predicted an intermediate solu-
tion, however the blow-count is still higher than
allowed and the pile cannot be driven to the re-
quired penetration. This discrepancy arises be-
cause the shear stress predicted using the API-07
reaches a maximum of only 115 kPa for in-situ
relative densities of 85%. Whilst the inclusion of
this limiting value provides a conservative esti-
mate of the static resistance of a pile, it may also
result in an under-estimation of the piles resis-
tance during installation.
Blows/250mm
0 100 200 300
0 method for prediction of axial capacity of driven piles
5 API-07
ICP-05
10
Depth [m]
UWA-05
15
20
25
30
35
40
Figure 5: Impact of SRD model on pile drivability
6 CONCLUSIONS
A parametric study was performed to investigate
the drivability of large diameter monopiles using
hammers currently used in the offshore industry.
Pile drivability analyses performed using the
API-07 model to predict the static pile resistance,
suggest that piles with diameters up to 8 m can
be driven in very dense sand using current ham-
mers. However, when more recent CPT based
design models were used to investigate drivabili-
ty, the methods suggested that piles could not be
driven to their target penetration using the avail-
able hammers. The analyses suggested that in-
creasing the pile wall thickness up to some op-
timal value can allow better hammer
performance.
REFERENCES
[1] R. Overy, The use of ICP design methods for the foun-
dations of nine platforms installed in the UK North Sea
Proc. of the 6th International Offshore Site Investigation
and Geotechnics Conference, 2007 359-366.
[2] K. Gavin, D. Igoe, P. Doherty. Piles for offshore wind
turbines- A state of the art review, Institute of Civil En-
gineering: Journal of Geotechnical Engineering (2011),
[3] J. Schneider, I Harmon. Analysing drivability of open
ended piles in very dense sands Deep Foundations In-
stitute Journal
[4] American Petroleum Institute API (2007) "Recom-
mended Practice for Planning, Designing and Con-
structing Fixed Offshore Platforms-Working Stress
Design, API RP2A, 22nd Edition, Washington, D.C.."
[5] R Jardine, F Chow, R Overy, and J Standing (2005)
"ICP design methods for driven piles in sands and
clays." London: Imperial College London, p 105.
[6] B Lehane, J Schneider, and X Xu (2005) "The UWA-05
in sand," ISFOG. University of Western Australia,
Perth: 683-689.
[7] Pile Dynamics (2010) Software Manual:GRLWEAP
[8] R F Stevens, E A Wiltsie, and T H Turton (1982) "Eva-
luating pile driveability for hard clay, very dense sand,
and rock," 14th Offshore Technology Conference. Hou-
ston, Texas, 465-469.
[9] T Alm and L Hamre (2001) "Soil model for pile driva-
bility predictions based on CPT interpretation," In Proc.
of the 15th ISSMGE. Istanbul, Turkey, 1297-1302.
[10] Experimental investigation of the factors affecting the
base resistance of open-ended piles in sand’.
B.M.Lehane & K.G.Gavin. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenviromental Engineering, ASCE Vol. 127, No. 6,
June (2001).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 849
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-849


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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 855
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-855

Optimum loading specifications for O-cell

bi-directional static load testing
Caractéristiques optimum pour essai de charge statique
bidirectionnel utilisant la cellule d’Osterberg
M. G. England1 and P. F. Cheesman
Fugro Loadtest Ltd.

ABSTRACT
The O-cell bi-directional load testing technique is, in effect, two static load tests performed simultaneously. One test is per-
formed upwards against skin friction and the other concurrent in the downwards direction against combined lower section skin
friction and end-bearing. Many hundred of tests of this type are now being carried out each year around the world, often on the
most prestigious and signature structures. Similarities between traditional top down load testing and the bi-directional testing
method are many, both being full scale static load testing techniques. However, due to the unique nature of the bi-directional
testing method, the standard testing procedures and specifications generally prescribed for traditional top down static load testing
can be improved to take into consideration the positioning of the loading jacks and the unique nature of the testing technique.
The authors have been involved in the preparation of some of the specifications for traditional top-down static loading tests and
also in the formulation of project specific testing programmes to maximise the geotechnical information which can be retrieved
from O-cell bi-directional tests. Some of the well accepted specifications such as ICE SPERW 2007, ASTM D1143D 2007 and
the European pile testing specification and guidelines may be applied directly to bi-directional loading tests. Their appropriate-
ness is reviewed in relation to O-cell bi-directional static load testing to indicate how the maximum geotechnical information
may be obtained by minor modification/improvement to the specifications and how they can be optimised with respect to hard
soils and weak rocks. Loading increments, creep measurements and load cycling are discussed and recommendations for adap-
tion of the conventional standards and specifications are made.
RÉSUMÉ
Le technique d’essai de charge bidirectionnel utilisant la cellule d’O-cell est, en effet, deux essais de charge statique effectués
simultanément. Un test est effectué vers le haut contre la résistance de frottement latéral et la concurrente dans la direction vers
le bas contre la résistance de frottement et de pointe. Plusieurs centaines d’essais de charge de ce type sont actuellement effec-
tués chaque année dans le monde, souvent sur les structures les plus prestigieuses. Ressemblances entre l’essai de charge tradi-
tionnel du haut vers le bas et la méthode d'essai bidirectionnelle sont nombreuses, les deux étant des techniques statiques d’essai
de charge. Toutefois, en raison de la nature unique de la méthode d'essai bidirectionnelle, les procédures d'essai et les spécifica-
tions généralement prescrit pour l’essai de charge statique traditionnel du haut vers le bas peut être amélioré pour prendre en
compte le positionnement des vérins de chargement et de la nature unique de la technique d’essai. Les auteurs ont été impliqués
dans la préparation de certaines des spécifications pour les essais de chargement statique traditionnel et aussi dans la formulation
des programmes de projet plus spécifiques afin d'optimiser l'information géotechnique qui peut être récupéré à partir d'essais de
charge bidirectionnelle utilisant la cellule d’Osterberg. Certaines des spécifications bien acceptées comme ICE SPERW 2007,
ASTM D1143D 2007 et les spécifications européennes d’essais de chargement dans les puits forés et les lignes directrices peu-
vent être appliquées directement à des essais de chargement bidirectionnel. Leur pertinence est examinée en relation avec la cel-
lule de charge bidirectionnelle d’essais statiques d'indiquer comment le maximum d'informations géotechniques peuvent être ob-
tenus par modification mineure ou amélioration des spécifications et la façon dont ils peuvent être optimisés en ce qui concerne
les sols durs et des roches faibles. Les incréments de chargement, les mesures de fluage et de cycles de charge sont discutés et
des recommandations pour l'adaptation des normes conventionnelles et les spécifications sont faites.

1
Corresponding Author.
856 M.G. England and P.F. Cheesman / Optimum Loading Specifications

Keywords: Bi-directional, static load testing, loading schedules, Cemset®, CEMSOLVE®, TIMESET®, O-CELL®

1 COMPARISON OF LOADING niques exist for ensuring successful direct con-

TECHNIQUES nection to the end bearing.
ICE [1], ASTM [2] and other static load test-
The principal difference in the methodology of ing specifications have considered generally the
O-cell bi-directional testing and the traditional top down loading position in the drawing up of
static load testing is the positioning of the point the testing specifications. However, with such a
of load application. The load application for tra- differing technique, certain modifications to the
ditional static load testing is at the top of the specifications should be considered when speci-
foundation element, hence the use of the com- fying the O-cell testing method.
mon terminology ‘Top Down’ testing or Top-
down load testing.
By the use of a hydraulically driven, cali-
brated, sacrificial jacking device, (the O-cell®)
installed within the shaft of a pile, barrette or
similar load bearing foundation, a bi-directional
static load test can be performed where the resis-
tance data is automatically separated into com-
ponent parts. In effect, two static load tests are
performed simultaneously, working in two direc-
tions, upwards, against skin friction and down-
wards, against skin friction and end-bearing. The
results of these compression tests are then com-
bined to give an equivalent top down foundation
behaviour under a static loading test.
The load can be applied within the foundation,
Figure 1 Comparison of loading techniques
providing sufficient reaction is available from the
soil above and below the loading devices. The
With a conventional top-down test, the maxi-
loading arrangement may be placed near the base
mum travel downwards is not immediately lim-
of the foundation element or at a calculated bal-
ited as there is scope to adjust the hydraulic jack
anced position within the shaft (Figure 1). It is
by packing to allow further downwards travel.
recommended that when the O-cells are required
This option is not available using an O-cell ar-
at or near the base, the O-cells are placed at least
rangement. In either case, it could be considered
twice the diameter above the base of the founda-
that the test is completed once the foundation
tion shaft to allow for concreting below the
element has been fully mobilised and with suffi-
O-cell assembly. This also allows for the con-
cient data to fully characterise its behaviour. For
creting process to scour and clean the base.
a traditional top-down test, this would require the
For driven piles where the tube is closed at the
full shaft element to be mobilised before any of
end, the O-cell can be placed so that the loading
the end bearing is revealed, whereas in the O-cell
is directly located at the end plate or shoe. The
bidirectional test, this would be achieved once
shoe is fixed in place during driving but is al-
one of the elements, above or below, had been
lowed to move freely downwards when the O-
fully mobilised.
cell arrangement is loaded.
Completion of a bi-directional test is deter-
For rock sockets in hard intact rock, the
mined by one of two things, maximum travel of
O-cells can also be placed at the toe of the pile to
the loading arrangement or maximum capacity of
load the end bearing directly using the friction of
the foundation element either above or below the
the rock socket shaft as reaction; several tech-
 M.G. England and P.F. Cheesman / Optimum Loading Specifications
arrangement. Conversely in a top-down test, the
test would be limited to when the capacity of the
reaction system is reached or the foundation
element is mobilised fully.
2 INSTRUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS
In a traditional top down load test, the pile head
and the load applied are the two critical issues to
record with respect to time. The O-cell bi-
directional test requires nothing different, only
there are two elements being loaded, and their
displacement vs load and time also need to be re-
corded. It is required to measure the compression
of the upper element to determine the movement
of the top of the loading arrangement at the O-
cell level, the addition of further telltales to the
toe of the pile and other instrumentation within
the test piles is common place. Since the loading
is performed within the founding strata of most
geotechnical interest, fitting strain gauges is also
a regular occurrence.
3 LOADING INCREMENTS.
There are two main types of static load test. The
preliminary test, where the test pile is expendable
and is designed to reveal the geotechnical behav-
iour of the shaft, and a proof test which is under-
taken to verify the structural ability of the shaft
to meet load settlement criteria.
Each of these test types has an associated spe-
cific loading schedule in the test specifications.
ASTM [2] includes a preferred method of the
‘quick test’ where loads are applied for a mini-
mum of 4 minutes and a maximum of 15 minutes
at each stage using the same time interval for all
loading steps. This standard has regularly been
adopted directly for bi-directional testing where
requested and is particularly suitable for tests on
working piles where confirmation of structural
performance is required and there is no require-
ment to provide geotechnical information. The
test is performed in the undrained condition and
is used to confirm the test shaft is capable of
achieving the required test load and will comply
with load-settlement criteria. This test is espe-
cially suitable where the loading assembly is
857
placed within the rock socket. Since this test is
performed in the undrained condition, no consid-
eration is given to creep or long term movements
that may be incurred when testing in softer soils.
ASTM [2] also includes a similar testing specifi-
cation for the fully crept drained condition.
ICE [1] and other codes take the fully crept
drained condition as the prime condition for their
specifications on testing.
When attempting to produce a test specifica-
tion that will allow the load displacement behav-
iour to be analysed, it is appropriate to hold each
and all load steps according to a consistent set of
rules so that the final displacements can be asso-
ciated for each load applied – this can be:
x to hold each load for a fixed duration consis-
tently;
x to hold each load step until a predetermined
settlement rate has been achieved; or
x hold the load for long enough to be able to
analyse the displacement time behaviour to
determine the settlement for each load (this
becomes independent of the manner in which
the testing specification has been scheduled).
ICE [1] suggests for a single cycle proof load
test; the load is applied in steps of 25% of the de-
sign verification load with a minimum hold time
of 30 minutes and dependant upon creep criteria
to 100% design verification load, where the load
is held for a 6 hour period. The load is then in-
creased to 100% design verification load + 25%
of the specified working load and held for 1
hour. The final loading stage to 100% + 50%
specification load is then held for 6 hours.
The test may also be performed in two cycles,
the first cycle being loaded to 100% design veri-
fication load then returning to zero before com-
pletion of the second cycle to 100% design veri-
fication load + 50% specified working load.
The merit of doing two cycles of loading
should be considered carefully [3], the unloading
and reloading load-displacement behaviour does
not add anything to the understanding nor to the
information that can be retrieved from the pile
behaviour.
The maximum loading for a preliminary test is
not specified in the code and is left to the specific
project specification to determine but the incre-
ments to 100% DVL + 50% SWL are the same
858 M.G. England and P.F. Cheesman / Optimum Loading Specifications
with loadings above this value in increments of
25% SWL until the desired maximum loading.
The increment size and holding times of these
load steps are specifically designed for applica-
tion of the load at the top of the foundation ele-
ment. The ICE specification takes into considera-
tion that the end bearing would not be mobilised
in the early stages of the testing and that the load
would take time to be applied fully at the bearing
strata. One issue associated with such time peri-
ods is, that at lower loads, pile movements rap-
idly approach stability but as the loading in-
creases, stability is more difficult to achieve
within a given timeframe [3]. When the shaft
friction is fully mobilised and the end bearing
dominates the load-displacement behaviour, the
mobilisation of the end bearing is a key compo-
nent dominating the settlement rate, then the time
taken to reach the required settlement rate be-
comes protracted and it is for this reason that it is
recommended to limit the duration at any one
load step to 3 – 6 hours as the displacement –
time data can be analysed, with high quality re-
sults, to find the projected settlement [4].
Applying the above specification to a tradi-
tional top down static test will provide equally
spaced load steps and allow a load-displacement
curve to be produced where creep has been al-
lowed for. The use of only 6 loading steps for a
proof test and approximately 8 to 12 steps for the
preliminary test can be sufficient in a traditional
top-down loading test. However, it is preferred in
an O-cell bi-directional test to have additional
loading steps in proof tests so that the addition of
the upward and downward load-displacement
characteristics, required in order to produce the
equivalent top down load behaviour anticipated,
are sufficient without the need for extrapolation
of one set of results. If the upward and down-
ward behaviour can be modelled using tech-
niques such as Cemset® [5] using hyperbolic
functions, a minimum of 8-12 successfully com-
pleted loading steps can be suitable.
It is worth noting that an O-cell bi-directional
test can be applied to a “proof” loading test and
after its completion grouting of the separation of
the two elements can readily restore the com-
pressive structural integrity. However, it should
also be noted that such a test can also reveal
more of the geotechnical capacity than traditional
top-down loading. Further, the top-down loading
is often limited to 150% of the working load for
structural reasons, but because a bi-directional
loads in two directions, the structural stresses are
only half and a proof loading bi-directional test
can reasonably be applied to 300% of the work-
ing load.
It is considered that 10 to 12 steps can pro-
duce sufficient data to assist in the analysis of the
results for the interpretation of embedded strain
gauges using tangent stiffness modulus [6]. The
increments need to be of a sufficient size to dis-
tinguish the load steps and allow discrete data
points to be plotted. It is recommended that bi-
directional proof and preliminary tests should be
planned to allow a minimum 12 steps to the ex-
pected maximum loading, with extra steps of the
same size being added in excess of this for pre-
liminary pile tests seeking the ultimate capacity.
The Cemsolve pile behaviour analysis tech-
nique developed for traditional top down tests,
can be applied to each element of a bi-directional
test and permits interpretation of friction and end
bearing from load-settlement results from each
element to model both the upper “normal fric-
tion” elements and “friction and end bearing” of
the pile elements above and below the O-cell ar-
rangement. By addition of the behaviour of each
element, these can be combined using Cemset to
predict the equivalent top-load response from bi-
directional test results [7].
An example of a Cemset analysis of a bi-
directional test is presented as Figures 2 to 4. The
model uses single or twin hyperbolic curve fit-
ting to find a unique solution. Confidence in the
accuracy of the model matching the results is in-
creased with a greater number of data points ob-
tained from increasing the number of loading
steps.
50
Elastic settlement (mm)
40
Total settlement (mm)
Load test data
Measured ES data
Settlement (mm)
30
20
10
0
0 1000 2000 3000
Load (kN)
4000 5000 6000
®
Figure 2 Upward Cemsolve analysis and plot.
 M.G. England and P.F. Cheesman / Optimum Loading Specifications 859

0 1000 2000
Load (kN)
3000 4000 5000 6000
cumstances the O-cells are positioned lower
0 down the shaft and either at or near to the base of
10
the shaft. In these cases, the end bearing is en-
gaged at much lower loads than those applied
Settlement (mm)

20
from the top. The resulting downward movement
30 would then be a function of end bearing settle-
Elastic settlement (mm)
Total settlement (mm)
ment and not shaft creep related. The higher set-
40
Load test data
Measured ES data
tlement rate of 0.24mm/hour as defined in the
50 ICE specification would be more appropriate.
The settlement or creep movement in the up-
Figure 3 Downward Cemsolve® analysis and plot
ward direction is generally expected to be domi-
Load (kN)
nated by shaft friction since there is no end bear-
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 ing component. An upward rate of 0.1mm/hour
0
would then be applicable for any movements.
10 Any creep would also be expected to stabilise
quickly and long holding times are not thought
Settlement (mm)

20

necessary. This is particularly true of piles in

30
rock and soils with high friction capacities.
Elastic shortening (mm)
40 Expansion of the O-cells, compression and
Total settlement (mm)

50
head movements are used to determine the mag-
nitude and direction of the movements. The
Figure 4 Combined behaviour Cemset® prediction. measurement of the expansion of the O-cells is
provided by accurate instrumentation attached to
the lower and upper bearing plates. Since the O-
4 SETTLEMENT CRITERIA. cell expansion gauges are the most sensitive
measurements of the instrumentation system,
The ICE settlement criterion is given as: these are recommended to be used as the pre-
x For pile head displacements of less than ferred method of assessing settlement rate in an
10mm, each load increment shall be main- O-cell bi-directional test. The combined upwards
tained until the rate of settlement is reducing and downwards settlement rates are measured in
and is 0.1mm/hour. combination.
x For pile head displacements between 10mm The specified 1 hour minimum holding time
and 24mm, each load increment shall be in the ICE specification is generally appropriate
maintained until the rate of settlement is re- for assessing settlement rate, however with regu-
ducing and is 1% x pile head displace- lar digital data collection, if little or no move-
ment/hour. ment is detected this can safely be reduced to 30
x For pile head displacements of greater than minutes without compromising the quality of
24mm, each load increment shall be main- data. In addition to the minimum period, having
tained until the rate of settlement is reducing a settlement criteria specified allows the time pe-
and is 0.24mm/hour. riod to be extended to allow creep and end bear-
If sufficient data is recorded, the displace- ing settlement to stabilise within acceptable pa-
ment-time can be analysed to find the final set- rameters.
tlement using such techniques as Timeset®[4], In general, a rate of 0.25mm/hour or
thus providing a reliable means of assessing the 0.3mm/hour for expansion is normally recom-
fully drained long-term pile behaviour without mended as the creep criterion for O-cell bi-
the need for protracted hold periods. directional testing, without being dependant upon
The bi-directional technique can apply the the location of the jacks within the shaft. These
load directly to the bearing strata. In some cir- rates allow for a combination of upward creep
and downward creep/end bearing settlement, the
860 M.G. England and P.F. Cheesman / Optimum Loading Specifications
higher rate being more applicable when the O-
cell assembly is positioned near the base of the
foundation element.
With the bi-directional test, it is possible to
continue testing once the lower element has been
fully mobilised. If sufficient data has been
achieved to deduce the ultimate end bearing ca-
pacity, the end bearing behaviour can then be ig-
nored and the test continued using the end bear-
ing as reaction to obtain information regarding
the skin friction parameters in the upper element.
In this case, the settlement rate below the O-cell
can also be ignored and the test continued using
the upward movement as the determining factor
of settlement rate rather than the overall expan-
sion. In this way, the full stroke of the O-cell can
be utilised.
A maximum hold time of 3 hours per step is
recommended. It has been considered that three
hours of high quality data is sufficient to perform
a projected final settlement value that would oc-
cur if the load was held indefinitely, using dis-
placement-time analysis.
This hold time is in excess of the ASTM stan-
dard 2 hour hold maximum, and is in line with
the ICE specification if the reduced increment
loading is considered. Provided the settlement is
stable and within the creep criterion, a protracted
holding time at either 100% or 150% DVL is
considered unnecessary.
5 COMPARISON OF TECHNIQUES AND
TEST RESULTS
Several comparisons between the O-cell bi-
directional and the top down static testing tech-
niques have been performed where the loading
specifications for both methods have been differ-
ent. In all cases, differences in the loading
schedules have not resulted in significant differ-
ences in results obtained and the comparisons
have been favourable as would be expected even
when the foundation elements have been pre-
loaded.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Both the ICE SPERW 2007 and the ASTM
D1134D-07 specifications are applicable to bi-
directional testing since the test is essentially full
scale static load tests. Certain modification of the
specifications is required to allow the bi-
directional technique to meet its full capabilities
as a geotechnical tool successfully. Adaptations
to other National and International standards can
be made by following the same guidelines illus-
trated in this paper.
Settlement rates need to be considered in both
the upward and downward directions, where end
bearing may be immediately engaged at the first
loading increments.
Loading stages should be sufficient to allow
for more precise analysis techniques to be em-
ployed. Acquisition of good quality data is essen-
tial to the application of these techniques.
Loading schedules that combine both a fixed
hold period and a settlement criteria should be
avoided as comparisons on the obtained load-
settlement graph may be misguided.
Use of analysis tools such as Cemset® require
good quality well defined data that can be ob-
tained by adaptation of the relevant standards to
bi-directional testing.
REFERENCES
[1] The ICE Specification for Piling and Embedded Retain-
ing walls (SPERW), Thomas Telford, 2007.
[2] ASTM D1143D Standard Test Methods for Deep Foun-
dations Under Static Axial Compressive Load 2007.
[3] M. England & W.G.K.Fleming, Review of foundation
testing methods and procedures, Geotechnical Eng. Proc.
Instn Civ. Engrs. Geotech. Engng, 107, (1994), 132-142.
[4] M. England, ,A Method of analysis of stress induced
displacement in soils with respect to time, International
seminar, Deep foundations on Bored and Auger Piles,
BAPII Ghent, A.A.Balkema June, (1993), 241-246.
[5] Fleming W.G.K.,. A new method for single pile settle-
ment prediction and analysis, Geotechnique 42, No 3,
(1992), 411-425.
[6] Fellenius, B. H.,. From Strain measurements to load in
an instrumented pile. Geotechnical News Magazine Vol
19, No.1, (2001) 35-38.
[7] England M., Review of methods of analysis of test re-
sults from bi-directional static load tests, Deep Founda-
tions on Bored and Auger Piles, BAP V, Ghent, (2008),
235-239.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 861
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-861

Prediction of the axial load response of open-

ended pipe piles in glacial soils
Prédiction de la réponse de charge axiale des pieux tubulaires
ouvertes dans les sols glaciaires
K. Gavin1 and P. Doherty
Geotechnical Research Group, School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering, University
College Dublin, Ireland
J. Bevin and L. Twomey,
Arup Consulting Engineers, Dublin, Ireland

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a case history describing the installation and load testing of a 610 mm diameter, steel tubular piles, driven
into glacial soils at Greystones Harbour to support a new pier structure. The pile resistance during installation and subsequent
static load testing is compared to the results of driving analyses, dynamic load tests and predictions made using simple non-
linear models which are commonly used in industry. Simple pile capacity and non-linear settlement models which can be im-
plemented in a spreadsheet format are shown to provide excellent predictions of the pile response. A particular strength of these
models is that settlements under working load were predicted accurately, a key feature of design to new limit state methods.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article présente une histoire de cas décrivant les tests d'installation et de la charge d'un diamètre de 610 mm, pieux tubulaires
en acier, entraîné dans les sols à glaciaire à Harbour Greystones à l'appui d'une structure nouvelle jetée. La résistance de la pile
pendant l'installation et après les tests de charge stat-IC est comparé aux résultats des analyses de conduite, des tests de charge
dynamique et les prévisions faites en utilisant de simples modèles non-linéaires qui sont couramment utilisés dans l'industrie. La
capacité des pieux simples et les modèles de règlement non-linéaire qui peut être mis en œuvre dans un format de feuille de cal-
cul sont illustrées afin de fournir d'excellentes prédictions de la réponse du pieu. Une force particulière de ces modèles est que
les colonies sous la charge de travail ont été prédit avec précision, un élément clé de la conception de nouvelles méthodes de
l'état limite.

Keywords: Pile driving, pile settlement, installation resistance.

1 INTRODUCTION
The widespread use of pre-cast concrete and
The ultimate capacity of a pile (Qult) is derived Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piles in Ireland
from a combination of unit skin friction (W) de- has led to joint industry-academia research pro-
veloped over the shaft area and base resistance jects which have enabled reasonably good esti-
(qb) developed at the pile tip. mates of qs and qb values [1,2] to be made. In
near shore developments such as harbours and
[1] Qult = W As + qb Ab offshore developments including wind farms
open-ended steel tubular piles are widely used as
Where As and Ab are the shaft and base areas of the relatively small base area facilitates driving
the pile respectively. in dense soils. Designers need to be able to esti-

1
Corresponding Author.
862 K. Gavin et al. / Prediction of the Axial Load Response of Open-Ended Pipe Piles in Glacial Soils

mate the pile capacity during installation (to en-
sure the correct hammer and pile size is adopted)
and during in-service loading. In addition moves
towards limit state design require the designer to
provide some estimate of pile settlement. Settle-
ment prediction models tend to range from the
simple linear elastic type to complex non-linear
elastic finite element methods. In the first type,
the models do not adequately represent real soil
behaviour. In the second, the input parameters
required for the constitutive models which de-
scribe real soil behaviour are rarely available.
Paikowsky and Whitman [3] described the
process of soil plug formation wherein; during
the initial stages of pile installation, the length of
the soil plug (Lp) inside the pipe, equals the pile
penetration depth (L) and the pile is said to be
coring. The development of the soil core during
installation is quantified by the Plug Length Ra-
tio (PLR) or the Incremental Filling Ratio (IFR):
which in turn overlay greywacke bedrock. The
Standard Penetration Test (SPT) N values re-
corded in the boulder clay, shown in Figure 1
varied from 30 to 85 (with an average of 53).
SPT values in the dense gravel were more uni-
form and slightly higher than the boulder clay,
with an average N value of 59. The results of At-
terberg limit tests performed in the boulder clay
were consistent with depth, with a Plastic Limit
(PL) of |14%, a Liquid Limit (LL) | 38% and a
Plasticity Index (PI) of 24%. The in-situ water
content was | 15% giving a liquidity index close
to zero. The SPT N values give an su value of |
300 kPa using standard correlations with N val-
ues.

[2a] PLR = Lp/L

[2b] IFR = 'Lp/'L

They noted that although many full-scale piles

have PLR values close to unity, partial plugging
during installation may occur, which results in
large increases in the axial resistance (and thus
penetration resistance) of piles installed in sand,
and large increases in the excess porewater pres-
sure surrounding piles in clay.

This paper describes the installation and load

testing of a 610 mm diameter, open-ended steel
pipe pile at the Greystones harbour development
in County Wicklow. Open-ended steel tubular
piles are not widely used in Ireland, their use is Figure 1: SPT N values at test site
often confined to maritime projects, where there
are no local case histories available to aid design.
3 STATIC PILE RESISTANCE MODELS

2 SITE DESCRIPTION
3.1 Pile Capacity Models
The ground conditions were investigated us- The maximum shear stress developed in the
ing a series of shell and auger boreholes. These boulder clay and gravel layers was estimated us-
revealed a relatively uniform soil profile. An 8.5 ing:
m thick layer of stiff to very stiff boulder clay
overlay a 5 m thick layer of very dense gravel
 K. Gavin et al. / Prediction of the Axial Load Response of Open-Ended Pipe Piles in Glacial Soils 863

[3a] Wmax (kPa) = D su (boulder clay) til the normalised settlement exceeds the yield
strain level. The yield strain wby/D was assumed
0.5
[3b] W qc §h· to be 1.5% for the test pile. This is followed by a
tan G (Gravel)
0.3
max Ar ,eff ¨ ¸ non-linear stage up to wb/D=10%, when the base
33 ©D¹
pressure is qb0.1 (that is, at wb/D=10%).
where: qc is the end resistance measured in a
Cone Penetration Test (CPT), Areff the effective
area = 1-IFR(Di/D)2, and D and Di are the exter-
nal and internal pile diameter. Since no CPT data
were available at the site a correlation between qc
and SPT N proposed by Mayne and Kulhawy [4]
was used to estimate qc values:

[4] qc (kPa) = 544 N D500.25

where: D50 is the mean particle size of the soil in

mm. For a D50 is value of 2 mm and a measured
N value of 59, Eqn. 4 yield a qc value of 38,100
kPa. The end bearing resistance mobilized at a
pile head displacement of 10% of the pile diame-
ter (qb0.1) was given by:

[5] qb0.1/qc = 0.15 + 0.45 Areff

Figure 2 Base pressure-settlement model (after Gavin and
Lehane 2007)
For static loading the mobilisation of shaft re-
sistance was modelled using an elastic solution
The linear portion of the curve when wb/D <
proposed by Randolph and Wroth [5]:
wby/D can be described by:
2G w
[6] W [8a] qb = [k (wb/D)] + qbres
4D where k = (4/ª) E0/(1-]2) for wb/D<wby/D
where: G, the operational shear modulus was
estimated from the expression proposed by Fa- The non-linear stage from wby/D to wb/D = 0.15
hey and Carter [6]: is of parabolic form, and the base stress at a giv-
en displacement can be determined from:
g
[7] G § W ·
1  f ¨¨ ¸¸ [8b] qb = [k (wby/D)1-n (wb/D)n] + qbres
G0 © W max ¹ for 0.1>wb/D>wby/D and wby/D S0.015

where: G0 is the small strain shear modulus, f
and g are curve fitting parameters.
The base pressure-settlement response was
modelled using a 3 stage model proposed by Ga-
vin and Lehane [7], See Figure 2. For fully cor-
ing open-ended piles residual base stresses (qbres)
are low and can be ignored. The predicted resis-
tance follows a linear stage, with settlement con-
trolled by the small strain elastic stiffness E0 un-
A class A prediction of the static load resis-
tance of the pile was undertaken. In the pre-
dicttion the D value (Eqn 3a) used to estimate the
shaft resistance in the boulder clay layer was tak-
en as 0.5. This value is used widely in Irish prac-
tice to estimate the shaft resistance of closed-
ended driven piles in boulder clay. No reduction
factor was applied to account for the open-ended
pile condition. This is in keeping with observa-
tions from case histories by Doherty and Gavin
864 K. Gavin et al. / Prediction of the Axial Load Response of Open-Ended Pipe Piles in Glacial Soils

[8]. The shaft and base resistance in gravel was
predicted using IFR = 1. The mobilisation of the
predicted shaft and base resistance for the very
dense gravel was calculated using E0 of 200 MPa
and a G0 of 250 MPa was assumed for the boul-
der clay. Elastic shortening of the pile was in-
cluded in the analysis.
4 COMPARISON TO STATIC LOAD TEST
RESULTS
5 CAPWAP TETS
Whilst the class A prediction of the pile resis-
tance resulted in excellent correlation with the
measured pile response, in order to provide addi-
tional feedback on the accuracy of the model the
predicted response was compared to CAPWAP
analyses performed on the pile two weeks after
installation. The local shear stress profile and
base resistance inferred from the CAPWAP ana-
lyses are compared with the model prediction in
Figure 4.

A computer controlled maintained static load

test was performed on the test pile 8 months after
installation. The maximum load applied of 5200
kN was twice the safe working load. The pile
performed adequately in the load tests with a
measured settlement of only 4 mm at the Safe
Working Load, SWL (2600 kN) which increased
to 12.24 mm at two times the working load.
Comparison of the measured and predicted set-
tlement profiles in Figure 3 shows that excellent
prediction of the pile response was achieved us-
ing the non-linear elastic settlement model, albeit
with a slight tendency to under-predict the pile
resistance at settlements above 10 mm.

(a)

Figure 3 Measured and predicted load-displacement response (b)

during static loading
Figure 4 Comparison of CAPWAP and model predictions of
(a) shaft resistance and (b) base resistance
 K. Gavin et al. / Prediction of the Axial Load Response of Open-Ended Pipe Piles in Glacial Soils
Whilst the predicted base resistance correlates
well with the CAPWAP results, the shaft resis-
tance estimated in the glacial till layer of 150 kPa
(with D = 0.5) was significantly under-predicted.
The CAPWAP analyses suggested the mobilised
shaft resistance varied from 200 to 300 kPa in
this layer (suggesting back-figured D values
close to unity). Obviously the use of a constant
value in the static capacity calculations ignores
the effects of friction fatigue, a term used to de-
scribe the reduction in shear stress mobilised
along the pile shaft as a result of cyclic loading.
Recent CPT based design methods incorporate
friction fatigue effects using the h/D reduction
factor (See Eqn 3b). The exponent n for clay is
lower than for piles installed in sand, Jardine et
al. [9], Gavin et al [10]. A formulation which in-
cluded friction fatigue effects in a simple alpha
approach was developed for the back-analyses,
where Wf was calculated using:
[9] Wf (kPa) = su (h/D) n
The mobilized shear stress was predicted using
n values of 0.1 and 0.2 (See Figure 4a). Whilst
the shaft resistance was under-predicted, the dis-
tribution was better matched using the friction
fatigue parameter.
6 PILE DRIVING ANALYSIS
The total resistance of a pile to driving includes
the initial static resistance to driving (SRD), in-
creases in pile capacity due to viscous rate ef-
fects and dynamic increases in capacity due to
inertia. Once the SRD was determined it was im-
plemented within a 1-Dimensional wave equa-
tion analysis using the GRLWEAP software
[11]. Standard quake values of 2.5 mm were used
for the shaft and base resistance in line with the
recommendations given by Stevens et al. [12].
The dynamic components of the total resistance
are normally accounted for using damping fac-
tors applied separately to the pile shaft and toe.
For all analyses in this study Smith damping fac-
865
tors of 0.65s/m and 0.5s/m were used for the
shaft and base respectively, while driving
through the clay, with values of 0.16s/m and
0.5s/m used in the sand. The hammer used in the
analyses was a BSP 357 9-Te.
Blows /250mm
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
Predicted - alpha=1
Predicted - alpha=0.5
2
Measured
4
Depth [m]
6
8
10
12
Figure 5 Pile driving analyses ignoring friction fatigue in gla-
cial till
The SRD was initially calculated using a un-
drained total stress approach (as per equation 3a)
in the boulder clay and the UWA method [13] in
the gravel. Alpha values ranging from 0.5 to 1.0
were used in the analysis. The base resistance of
the pile mobilized during installation was calcu-
lated using the base mobilization model given by
equation 8 and assuming a displacement of 1%
of the pile diameter per blow. The predicted
range blow-counts are shown in figure 5. The
blow-counts predicted using an alpha value of
0.5 underestimated the measured blow-counts at
depth between 3 m and 10 m penetration. In
contrast, an alpha value of 1.0 resulted in pile re-
fusal before the tip reaches the target penetration,
with blowcounts in excess of 100blows/250mm
at a penetration of 9 m.
The GRLWEAP analysis was rerun with the
shaft resistance in the glacial till layer estimated
using Equation 9 with an alpha value of 1.0 ap-
866 K. Gavin et al. / Prediction of the Axial Load Response of Open-Ended Pipe Piles in Glacial Soils
plied at pile tip and n values ranging from 0.1
and 0.2. These predictions offered a reasonable
comparison to the measured driving records (See
Figure 6).
Blows /250mm
0 20 40 60 80
0 of ICE, Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 161, Issue 4,
Predicted n=0.1
2 Predicted n=0.2
Measured
4 [4]
Depth [m]
6 formation of vertically loaded piles, ASCE Journal of
8 [6]
10
12
Figure 6 Pile driving analyses incorporating friction fatigue
in glacial till
7 CONCLUSIONS
A case history was presented in which the pre-
dicted load-settlement response of a 610 mm
open-ended pile which was driven through boul-
der clay to found in a dense gravel layer was
compared to the measured response. A simple
load-settlement prediction model was shown to
provide excellent estimates of the measured pile
response. Back-analyses of the pile test result
suggested that large shaft resistance was mobi-
lised by the test pile, particularly near the toe of
the open-ended pile. The importance of including
friction fatigue effects in drivability studies was
highlighted. Instrumented pile tests are currently
underway to confirm this mechanism which can
then be incorporated fully into design practice.
REFERENCES
[1] E. Farrell, B.Lehane and M. Looby , Instrumented dri-
ven pile in Dublin Boulder Clay. Proceedings of the In-
stitution of Civil Engineers–Geotechnical Engineering,
1998, 131, No. 4, 233-241.
[2] K.G. Gavin, D. Cadogan and L.Twomey, Axial resis-
100 tance of CFA piles in Dublin boulder clay Proceedings
pp. 171-180. August 2008. DOI
10.1680/geng.2008.161.4.171
[3] S.G. Paikowsky, and R.V. Whitman, The effect of
plugging on pile performance and design. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, 1990. 27(44), 429-440.
Mayne, P and Kulhawy, F. (1990), Manual for estimat-
ing soil properties
[5] M.F. Randolph, M.F and C.P. Worth, Analysis of de-
Geotechnical Engineering Division, 1978, Vol. 104,
No. GT12, pp 1465-1488
Fahey, M and Carter, Fahey, M and Carter, J.P. (1993)
A finite element study of the pressuremeter test in sand
using a nonlinear elastic model, Canadian geotechnical
Journal, No. 30, pp 348-362.
[7] Gavin K.G. and Lehane B.M. (2007). Base load-
displacement response of piles in sand. Canadian Geo-
technical Journal, Vol. 44, No.9, pp 1053-1063.
[8] Doherty, P, Gavin, K and Gallagher ,D (2010), Field
investigation of the base resistance of pipe piles in clay,
Paul Doherty, Kenneth Gavin and David Gallagher,
Proceedings of ICE Journal of Geotechnical Engineer-
ing, February 2010, Vol. 163, GE1, pp 13-22, DOI
10.1680/geng.2009.163.1.1
[9] Jardine, R.J, Chow, F.C, R Jardine, R Overy, and J
Standing (2005) "ICP design methods for driven piles
in sands and clays." London: Imperial College London,
[10] K.Gavin, D.Gallagher, Paul Doherty and B.McCabe,
Field investigation of the effect of installation method
on the shaft resistance on piles in clay, Canadian Geo-
technical Journal. Vol. 47, No.7 July 2010, pp 730-741.
[11] GRLWEAP Pile Dynamics (2010) Software Man-
ual:GRLWEAP
[12] R F Stevens, E A Wiltsie, and T H Turton (1982) "Eva-
luating pile driveability for hard clay, very dense sand,
and rock," 14th Offshore Technology Conference. Hou-
ston, Texas, 465-469
[13] B Lehane, J Schneider, and X Xu (2005) "The UWA-05
method for prediction of axial capacity of driven piles
in sand," ISFOG. University of Western Australia,
Perth: 683-689
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 867
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-867

Bearing capacity of piles based on static load tests

and calculation principles provided by EN 1997-1
Capacité portante des pieux à partir des essais de chargement
statique et les principes de calcul prévues par la norme EN 1997-1

Ӛ
ÔÆ¡!Õ 1
ٚ
Ó¨Û¨{, T. Brzozowski
Gdansk University of Technology, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Department of Geotechnics, Geology and Maritime Engineering

ABSTRACT
Predicting the bearing capacity and settlement of piles continues to be a difficult task in engineering practice and scientific
research. That is why static load tests are still an essential element in verifying predictions. A new factor, however, the
introduction of Eurocode regulations and guidelines for Poland and Europe, has now necessitated current practice to be reviewed
and submitted to detailed analysis. In the case of geotechnics and foundation engineering these guidelines and regulations are set
out in Eurocode 7. With regard to the pile research and usage in Poland, so far two European standards have applied: PN-EN
1536:2001 for bored piles and PN-EN 12699:2002 for displacement piles. It is now a matter of urgency to properly analyse and
harmonise current law and many years of practical experience with this new Eurocode. This article deals with problems
concerning the conduct of static load tests and the interpretation of their results.

RÉSUMÉ
Prédiction de la capacité portante du pieu et de tassements continuent d’être la tâche difficile dans les applications d’ingénierie et
scientifiques. Par conséquent il est souvent necessaire de vérifier ces prédiction avec des essais de chargement statique.
L’introduction d’un système de règlements selon les Eurocodes en Europe constitue un élément supplémentaire et necessite des
analyses détaillées. Deux normes europeennes : PN-EN 1536:2001 pieux forés et PN-EN 12699:2002 pieux aux déplacements
sont déja en viguer en Pologne. Il est nécessaire harmoniser des experiences venues des applications des norms polonaises et des
norms europeennes. Le papier est concentre sur l’execution des statiques et leur interpretation.

Keywords: bearing capacity, static load test, codes

1 FORMAL EUROCODE 7 experiences has been proved by calculations

RECOMMENDATIONS
The design of pile foundations is described in
detail in Section 7 of Eurocode 7 (EC7).
According to the Eurocode recommendations,
the design of pile foundations should be conduc-
ted using one of the following approaches:
a) on the basis of static load test results, the
consistency of which with other comparable
or in some other way,
b) based on empirical or analytical calculation
methods, the reliability of which has been
confirmed by static load tests in comparable
conditions,
c) based on dynamic load test results, the
reliability of which has been revealed by static
load tests in similar soil conditions and for the
same type of piles,

1
Corresponding Author
868 K. Gwizdała et al. / Bearing Capacity of Piles Based on Static Load Tests
d) based on the observation of the behaviour of
comparable pile foundations, provided that the
data were verified by field tests (site investi-
gations and soil testing).
It should be stressed that according to the
Eurocode, the basic, most preferable design
method for piles are static load tests. Next, it is
suggested to apply empirical and analytical
methods, dynamic load tests with dynamic
formulae and finally, data from engineering
experience gained from observed foundation
behaviour in similar soil and loading conditions.
Additionally, the behaviour of an individual pile
in the group of piles as well as a rigidity and
strength of cap construction should be also
considered.
The calculation approaches a, b, c and d given
by Eurocode 7 are formulated in a quite general
manner and do not contain detailed, neither
measuring nor calculation methods. In the next
parts of the article some practical calculation
methods from approach “a” will be described.
Eurocode 7 places great emphasis on the
problem of pile load tests. Clause 7.5 sets out
general and formal recommendations concern-
ing, among other things, the purpose of conduct-
ing load tests, load test procedures and the
principles of selecting piles for testing. Clause
7.5.2.1 states the most basic principle to be
accepted, namely that: “For load test pile, the
loading shall be such that conclusions can also
be drawn about the ultimate failure load”. These
recommendations will be more precisely defined
with the publication of the Polish annex to
Eurocode 7.
It should be noted that Eurocode 7
distinguishes between load test piles (Clause
7.5.2.2) and “working piles” (Clause 7.5.2.3).
Load test piles are defined as additional piles,
created primarily for the purpose of load testing.
These piles are necessary to verify project
assumptions by being loaded to the ultimate
failure load and, in some cases, to the tensile
limit load. Working piles, on the other hand,
cannot be subjected to such extreme tests as they
will eventually constitute an integral part of
foundations. Therefore, they should be tested to
no more than the design load with the negative
skin friction doubled.
These guidelines are increasingly applied in
Poland, particularly in the case of large invest-
ments and strategically important structures.
Carrying out preliminary pile load tests not only
increases project safety but may also have
considerable financial benefits. Generally,
however, the practice persists whereby load tests
are conducted on working piles only, and only
after pile completion.
In the case of large diameter piles, Eurocode
permits load tests to be conducted on piles with
smaller diameters but by no more than a half.
This is convenient, but it may also pose a
problem in translating accurate results and
interpretations to working piles. That is why in
such cases a new requirement has been
introduced whereby piles are tested with
equipment to measure resistances carried by the
shaft and base.
2 PILE LOAD TEST RESULT
INTERPRETATION ACCORDING TO
EUROCODE 7
According to Eurocode regulations static load
tests need to establish a pile’s characteristic Rc;k
compressive limit resistance as well as its Rc;d
design compressive resistance and, in the case of
uplift piles, its respective Rt;k and Rt;d tensile
limit resistances.
Ultimate characteristic compressive resistance
are defined according to the following equation:
f( R ) (R ) m
Rc ;k  Minh c ;m mean ; c ;m min n (1)
i 31 32 o
where:
Rc;m – compressive resistance of one or
more load test piles,
(Rc;m)mean – mean compressive resistance of
several load test piles,
(Rc;m)min – the lowest compressive resistance of
several load test piles,
31, 32 – correlation factors relative to the
number of load test piles n, whose
recommended values are presented
 K. Gwizdała et al. / Bearing Capacity of Piles Based on Static Load Tests 869

in Table 1 (in the Eurocode this table of larger numbers of piles, at least 2% of the total
appears in A.9 of Appendix A). number.
Table 1. Correlation factor values 31 and 32 (n – number of
tested piles)
3 for n = 1 2 3 4 `5 3 INTERPRETATION OF PILE LOAD TEST
31 1.40 1.30 1.20 1.10 1.00 RESULTS ACCORDING TO THE POLISH
32 1.40 1.20 1.05 1.00 1.00 PN-83/B-02482 STANDARD

For structures with sufficient stiffness and The interpretation of pile load tests in accordance
strength to transfer loads from ‘weak’ to ‘strong’ with the Polish standard PN-83/B-02482 has
piles (e.g. in the case of foundation caps in the been described in detail, for instance in a paper
form of thick concrete slabs, blocks or stiff by ÔÆ¡!Õ
‚‚ š
ݨ
¨!!
!¨


monolithic foundations), the values of 31 and 32
may be divided by 1.1, provided 31 is not less
than 1.0.
In the Polish Annex the values of 31 and 32
will probably be subjected to some minor
adjustments.
The design compressive resistance of a pile
Rc;d shall be obtained from:
Rc ,d  Rc ;k /
t (2)
or
Rc ,d  Rb ;k /
b  Rs ;k /
s (3) perform in the construction of bridges, quays,
where:
Rb;k, Rs;k – ultimate characteristic compressive
resistance of the pile base and shaft,

and fairly precise guidelines for pile load test
procedures, including: the minimal load values,
the number of load steps, the duration of
particular steps, measurement methods, etc. One
can generally say that these guidelines have
stood the test of time. Nevertheless, the
Eurocode recommendation to include static load
tests in the load test design stage does seem
justified, for a pile should be adapted to the
specific nature of a given structure and the work
carried out by the foundations. The nature of
work performed by piles in the foundations of
normal buildings is quite different to work they
power stations, tanks or silos.
The interpretation of load test results
according to the Polish standard is based on the
Q-s ¨€
ÝÞ€
ÔÆ¡!Õ
ÓÕ¨
respectively,
t,
b,
s – partial factors who values are
recommended in tables A6, A7 and
A8 of Eurocode 7. These partial
factors are defined for three types of
pile (driven, bored and CFA) and
depend on the selected method of
calculation.
Equation (3) may be applied if the ultimate
characteristic compressive resistance of the pile
base and shaft (Rb;k and Rs;k, respectively) are
derived from direct measurements or estimated
using proven methods (e.g. load-transfer
1985). There are two types of curve: “a” and “b”.
The type of curve used is derived from the dQ/ds
graph, which next allows us to determine the real
and design bearing capacity of a pile deemed
safe to be used in structure design. The Polish
standard does not require the establishing of a
pile’s ultimate failure load. But with an adequate
load settlement curve range, the dQ/ds
interpretation does allow us to determine the
ultimate failure load Ng (Fig. 1). Moreover, in
practice, attempts are usually made to establish
the maximal load values during load tests,
whereas during interpretation, the ultimate
functions, ÔÆ¡!Õ
‚‚Î). Equation (1) may failure load is often derived using the
also be applied with regard to resistance limits extrapolation method. Thus result interpretation
Rb;k and Rs;k. according to the Polish method does not have to
When foundation piles are pulled out loaded, rely on the pile technology (driven, bored or
it is recommended that the tensile resistance of CFA) or on the number of load tested piles.
more than one pile be examined and in the case
870 K. Gwizdała et al. / Bearing Capacity of Piles Based on Static Load Tests

4 EXAMPLES OF PILE LOAD TEST These values can only be used in calculations
INTERPRETATIONS ACCORDING TO following PN-83/B-02482 guidelines load factors
EUROCODE AND PN-83/B-02482 included therein. For interpretation according to
GUIDELINES Eurocode guidelines, it was accepted that
(Rc;m) U Ng, and the results of this interpretation
In this article we shall attempt a comparative are presented in Table 2.
analysis of examples of load test result Table 2. Interpretation of bored pile load test results from
interpretations following PN-83/B-02482 guide- Fig. 1
lines with ones conducted in accordance with Rc;m (Rc;m)mean/31 (Rc;m)min/32 Rc;d = Rc;k /
t
Pile No.
Eurocode 7. For this purpose some diverse Q-s [kN] [kN] [kN] [kN]
graphs have been selected. (1) 4440
4330/1.20= 4250/1.05= 3610/1.1=
(2) 4300
=3610 =4050 =3280
(3) 4250
Example 1
This example concerns the load test results of 3 By comparing the two interpretations we can
bored, wide diameter piles ( 1200 mm, see that the design load bearing capacity of the
L = 10 m), with an injection under the base piles is slightly higher according to Eurocode
ÝÞ€
ÔÆ¡!Õ
`\\
`\\@š
ÝÂ
¨
guidelines than it is according to the Polish PN-
were made for the construction of a bridge and 83/B-02482 standard. In the analysis of the Q-s
inserted into a sandy clay. The Q-s graphs graphs we should note that the Rc;d load values
showed characteristically accentuated curves of cause the piles to settle in the region of 12 –
the ‘a’ type according to the PN-83/B-02482 16 mm. In this case the condition of the
standard. Graph interpretation, thanks to the serviceability limit state could prove to be
dQ/ds curves, provided a fairly accurate decisive. Here the Eurocode interpretation seems
description of the design load kNc0 (Fig. 1) and somewhat optimistic.
ultimate failure load Ng ÝÞ€
ÔÆ¡!Õ

ÓÕ¨
‚Í
PN-83/B-02482). The design bearing Example 2
capacities kNc0 (NB, design, not ultimate failure
This example concerns load test results for 2
limit) determine the load value on the Q-s
settlement curve when we start to observe plastic
deformation (the critical load zone).
Fig. 1. Pile load test curves for example 1
Vibro piles ( 508/550 mm, L = 14.5 m) made
for the foundations of a viaduct and inserted into
fine, dense sand. The Q-s graphs (Fig. 2) reveal a
flat characteristic, which is typical for driven
Vibro piles. By using the dQ/ds graph, the Q-s
curve was classified as a “b” type. Thus it was
not possible to obtain a reliable estimate of the
ultimate failure loads, so instead it was assumed
that ultimate failure loads equalled the maximal
loads: Rc;m = Qmax. In accordance with Polish
standard guidelines, pile design loads kNc0 were
defined by accepting that Nc0 = Qmax, and the
correction factor was k = 0.8. The thus acquired
kNc0 values are presented in Fig. 2. The
interpretational results according EC7 are shown
in Table 3.
 K. Gwizdała et al. / Bearing Capacity of Piles Based on Static Load Tests 871

Fig. 2. Pile load test curves for example 2

Table 3. Interpretation of Vibro pile load test results from

Fig. 2
Rc;m (Rc;m)mean/31 (Rc;m)min/32 Rc;d = Rc;k /
t
Pile No.
[kN] [kN] [kN] [kN]
(1) 2830 2670/1.3= 2510/1.20= 2050/1.1=
(2) 2510 =2050 =2090 =1865

This time the results were opposite to those in

example 1. The EC7 interpretation this time
produced a lower design bearing capacity for the
piles (Rc;d) than the Polish standard interpretation
(kNc0). Nevertheless, we should note that this
result assumes Rc;m = Qmax. In such situations
(with flat Q-s curves) one should apply greater
load values during pile load tests and/or accept
reduced 31 and 32, factor values, though this
latter option is less advisable.

Example 3
Example 3 is analysis of the result for a single, Rys. 3. Pile test load graph for example 3
bored pile, made in expansive clays, during Table 4. EC7 interpretation of results presented in Fig 3
which the ultimate failure load was reached.
Rc;m
Here one should note that ultimate load failure Pile No. (Rc;m)min/32 [kN] Rc;d = Rc;k /
t [kN]
[kN]
was reached not on account of the actual load but (1) 4060 4060/1.4=2900 2900/1.1=2640
on the unfavourable soil conditions (worse than NB: Rc;m = Ng according to Fig. 3
had been predicted at the design stage). The
bored pile ( 1200 mm, L = 16.0 m) was made in
the foundations of a viaduct. The Q-s graph
obtained from the results is presented in Fig. 3,
together with the PN-83/B-02482 interpretation.
The EC7 interpretation is presented in Table 4.
Again there were differences between the PN-
83/B-02482 and the EC7 interpretations. As in
Example 2, here the EC7 interpretation yielded a
lower bearing capacity value than the Polish
standard interpretation. However, this time the
main reason was the number of tests: only one
was carried out and the maximal value of its 32
factor was taken to equal 1.4.
872 K. Gwizdała et al. / Bearing Capacity of Piles Based on Static Load Tests

If 2 tests had been carried out in example 3, Moreover, it has to be stressed that we need to
then the EC7 interpretation would have probably consider the Polish standard and Eurocode 7 in
yielded a result closer to the Polish standard (see: their entirety. As far as bearing capacity and load
Table 5). factors are concerned, one has to be consistent.
Table 5. The interpretation of results assuming 2 bored pile
load tests had been carried out (n =2)
Rc;m (Rc;m)mean/31 (Rc;m)min/32 Rc;d = Rc;k /
t REFERENCES
Pile No.
[kN] [kN] [kN] [kN]
(1) 4060 4060/1.20= 4060/1.30= 3123/1.1= [1] ÔÆ¡!Õ
Ӛ
‚‚Î
$QDOL]D RVLDGDĔ SDOL SU]\
(2) 4060 =3383 =3123 =2840 wykorzystaniu funkcji transformacyjnych. (The analysis
of pile settlements employing load-transfer functions).
ë§!ÆÆ
ì{Æ
|Â{
Ô!Û¨{Þ

𨡧§
ì{Æ
|Â{
Ô!Û¨{Þ
ì
@`

5 CONCLUSIONS Budownictwo Wodne XLI, 1996 (in Polish)

[2] ÔÆ¡!Õ
Ӛ
‚‚ Ò
|¨Â
!¨}
€Â!¨

¨}

The above analyses allow us to conclude that the axially loaded piles. Design of Axially Loaded Piles –
differences in interpretations of pile load test European Practice, Brussels, 291 – 306.
results between the Polish standard and Eurocode [3] ÝÞ€
ٚ
ÔÆ¡!Õ
Ӛ
`\\@
ف


injection under base of bored piles in cohesive soils.

7 result primarily from procedural factors.
XIIIth European Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Eurocode 7 includes some regulations that may Geotechnical Engineering. Praha 2003, 399-406.
be interpreted either too stringently or too [4] ÝÞ€
ٚ
ÔÆ¡!Õ
Ӛ
`\\2, Improvements of
liberally. An example of this is the stipulation
that makes the result dependent on the number of
tests carried out. Increasing the number of tests
might increase the accuracy of the results, but
bearing capacity of bored piles by grouting method.
Proc. of the Ninth International Conference on Piling
and Deep Foundations. Nice, 3-5 June 2002, 257-262.
[5] ÝÞ€
ٚ
ÔÆ¡!Õ
Ӛ
ÓÕ¨
ñš
‚Í
ف

of In situ tests for evaluation of pile bearing capacity.

will it increase the bearing capacity of piles? The Proc. Of the 11th Int. Conf. on Soil Mech. and Found.
definition of design bearing capacity on the basis Eng., San Francisco 1985, 1479-1482.
of its ultimate failure value and binding both [6] ISSMFE Subcommittee on Field and Laboratory
with arbitrarily defined factors (31, 32 and
t) as Testing, Axial Pile Loading Test, Suggested Method.
recommended by this Eurocode is also debatable. ASTM Journal, June 1985, 79-90.
Experience tells us that relations between design [7] PN-83/B-\`ÏÍ`š
ò!€§
¿!Æš
ìõõŸ


i fundamentów palowych.
bearing capacity and ultimate failure vary
depending on the type of pile as well as the type [8] PN-EN 1997-1:2005. Eurokod 7, Projektowanie
geotechniczne. PKN, Warszawa, 2005.
of soil. Strict adherence to Eurocode recom-
[9] PN-EN 1536:2001, Pale wiercone.
mendations in this respect might produce too
[10] PN-EN 12699:2002, Pale przemieszczeniowe.
optimistic or too pessimistic interpretations of
[11] EN 1997-1:2004, Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design -
pile load test results. Therefore, in addition to the Part 1. General rules.
EC7 recommendations, one should also take into
[12] EN 1536:2000, Execution of special geotechnical
account the type of structure to be supported by works. Bored piles.
the piles and how the structure will be used. In [13] EN 12699:2001, Execution of special geotechnical
this respect the Polish standard recommendations works. Displacement piles.
regarding load test interpretations appear to be
more flexible.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 873
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-873

Flexural effects in dynamic determination of pile

capacity
Effets de flexion dans la détermination dynamique de la
capacité portante d’un pieu
A. Holeyman 1, M. Allani
Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve. Belgique

ABSTRACT
The flexural vibration of piles during dynamic tests have to be investigated carefully. In this paper, we present two large scale
case histories of high strain dynamic pile testing where eccentric impacts where generated. First, dynamic measured signals are
presented to show the different quantities relationships (force, velovity, bending moment, and angular velocity). Then, flexural
effects on the dynamic pile capacity are determined by wave reflexions.

RÉSUMÉ
L’analyse de la flexion des pieux lors de la mise en charge dynamique doit être minutieusement traitée. On présente dans cet ar-
ticle deux cas de chargement dynamique de pieu à grande déformation où un impact excentré à été généré. Nous analysons en
premier lieu les signaux mesurés afin de mettre en valeur des différentes relations entre les paramètres (force, vitesse, moment
fléchissant et vitesse angulaire). Les effets de flexion sur la capacité portante du pieu, évaluée sur base de réflexions d’ondes.

Keywords: Pile dynamics, flexural effects, Case Method

1 INTRODUCTION remain the reference for checking a pile per-

Pile design analysis is needed to verify re-
quired functions (bearing capacity, allowable
settlement, installation feasibility…). There
are 3 types of dynamic pile tests: 1) high strain
dynamic test, 2) high strain kinetic test, also
known as “rapid load test” (with longer load
application period comparing to classical high
strain test) and 3) integrity test (short wave-
length for better detection anomalies in the
pile) [4]. We will focus in this paper on high
strain dynamic testing where the main objec-
tive is to evaluate the dynamic and static bear-
ing capacity of the pile. Static loading tests
1
Corresponding Author.
formance since they best approach the real
load in terms of duration and loading rate.
Nevertheless, carrying out static tests takes a
long time and involves a very expensive mobi-
lization of the load and associated reaction.
For these reasons dynamic loading tests
(DLTs) have now been adopted by most engi-
neering communities with the aim to improve
productivity in term of quality control and de-
sign confirmation. These objectives seem to be
satisfactorily achieved as the DLT test be-
comes more and more accepted as a routine
procedure [3].
874 A. Holeyman and M. Allani / Flexural Effects in Dynamic Determination of Pile Capacity
High strain dynamic pile testing consists in
the measurement of pile strain and acceleration
at the pile head under impacts of large
weights. Pile strains and accelerations are
measured with strain transducers and accele-
rometers, respectively.
However, it is worth noting that DLTs still
include some limitations even though high
technology and sophisticated interpretation are
used during measurement and in signals post
analysis. An important uncertainty or difficulty
we may find in a DLT is the complex combi-
nation of compressive, tensile and also bend-
ing forces that may induce higher stresses than
in service conditions and which may cause not
only pile damage but also a signal mismatch-
ing that corresponding to a purely axial condi-
tion, as assumed for test interpretation.
Poskitt (1992), Holeyman (2000) and Cha-
rue (2004) indicate that eccentricity of the
mass ram is often observed in DLTs. It is also
well observed in pile driving where extreme
conditions may be reached. Poskitt (1991,
1992 and 1996) was among the rare authors
who addressed the problem of non axial ef-
fects in pile driving. To study the misalign-
ment problem, he studied the general theory of
impacts in two dimensions using Smith’s 1960
model to represent the loading rate effects.
However, no conclusions were derived con-
cerning the flexural effects on the axial bear-
ing capacity determination.
In this paper, case histories of pile dynamic
testing under eccentric impacts are presented.
First we present the Limelette and Tessenderlo
sites geotechnical conditions and the experi-
mental procedure. Then, axial and flexural
signal analyses are performed with a focus on
transferred energy to the pile and ram-pile mi-
salignment effects. Finally, determination of
static and dynamic pile capacity from dynamic
measurements are developed. The Case me-
thod [4,9] is used for the calculation of shaft,
base and total soil resistance. Conclusions
about flexural effects on bearing capacity are
finally made.
2 GEOTECHNICAL SITE DESCRIPTION
AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
In-situ dynamic pile tests were performed in
Limelette and Tessenderlo sites, both located
in Belgium. CPTs indicate that the stratigraphy
consists of 8 m thickness of silt layer over
Brussellian sand layer at Limelette while com-
pact sandy silt prevails in the top 6 m over silt
to clayey sand layer at Tessenderlo. Dynamic
impacts on piles were generated using a Dy-
namic Loading Test Module. The system,
called ‘FondyTest’, has been developed at the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engi-
neering of UCL. It consists in a 4 tonnes ram
mass with an adjustable drop height, easily
transportable to the field. The eccentricity of
impact may also be controlled thanks to an au-
tomatic air cushion actuation. The actual ec-
centricity imposed to each blow might also be
verified manually in the field.
A driven precast prestressed square con-
crete pile with a  35 cm side and 9.5 m
length was tested at the Limelette site. A con-
tinuous flight auger pile, with large hollow
stem of diameter 2r  60 cm and about 15.5
m long was tested at the Tessenderlo site. Fig-
ure 1 presents the configuration of transducers
for both sites with reference to pile axes,
showing where four uniaxial piezoelectric ac-
celerometers (Acc) and four strain gauges (Sg)
were mounted.
(a) (b)
Figure 1: Sensors location at pile head for (a) Limelette
and (b) Tessenderlo sites
From measured acceleration, one can obtain
by integration the velocity and displacement at
the pile head. Unfortunately, this is not an easy
task as it seems because environmental signal
noise, parasitic errors and offsetting integra-
 A. Holeyman and M. Allani / Flexural Effects in Dynamic Determination of Pile Capacity 875

tion problems affect the integration process. 3 DYNAMIC SIGNAL ANALYSIS

For noise elimination, a non-causal filtering
(Butterworth type, 6th order with 1.5 kHz cu-
toff frequency) was used and a corrective con-
stant velocity was incorporated in the signals
to eliminate the integration offset. We have
used PCB353B04 (500g) and PCB353M231
(5000g) accelerometer type to avoid traducers
saturation based on maximum acceleration as-
sessments. We also have considered high sam-
pling frequencies at both sites to confirm Ny-
quist criteria; 20 kHz and 5 kHz for the
Limelette and Tessenderlo sites respectively.
For the calculation of applied force F , we
used the formula: F  EA p % mean where E : is
the pile Young modulus, A p the pile cross
n
section and % mean   % i / n is the mean
i 1
strain measured within a cross-sectional plane.
Tables 1 and 2, summarize the sequential
pile loading at both sites. H, ex and ey denote
the drop heights and eccentricities. Eccentric
impacts in x and y directions are generated at
the Limelette site and only in y direction at the
Tessenderlo site.
3.1 Axial force, velocity and displacement
relationships
In the very first moments of the impact,
measured force and velocity times pile imped-
ance I are superposed as functions of time (fig.
2). When the peak force Fmax is correlated to
the peak velocity Vmax (fig. 3), the observed
trend must reflect the nominal impedance of
the pile I. The latter is equivalent to a dashpot
factor modelling the behaviour of a semi-
infinite pile subjected to an imposed velocity
at its head: I   pile cA p where  is the pile
pile
volumetric mass and c  E /  is the bar wave
pile
propagation velocity. The 1.1 and 2.5
MN/m.s-1 values obtained by such regression
confirm the impedance values expected from
nominal properties of the impacted sections.

Table 1: Summary of impacts features, axial and flexural behavior, and dynamic soil resistance evaluations at the Limelette site.

Impact Axial mode Flexural mode Dynamic resistance

Blow H ex ey Vmax Fmax EMAX y

M max Wmax
y y
Emax Rf QB Rdyn _ case
n° (cm) (mm) (mm) (m/s) (kN) (kN.m) (MN) (MN)
(kN.m) (rad/s) (kN.m) (MN)
1,2 30 0 0 0.66 1.28 4.5 20.2 0.25 0.01 1.35 0.3 1.61
3 60 20 -20 1.65 2.19 15.5 53.1 0.62 0.07 1.80 0.9 2.68

4 40 20 -20 1.46 1.96 11.0 33.4 0.36 0.03 1.60 0.8 2.39
5 80 20 -20 2.06 2.67 23.1 42.0 0.42 0.05 1.84 1.2 3.01

6 80 20 -40 2.17 2.80 24.7 53.3 0.44 0.06 1.81 1.0 2.75
7,8 120 18 -32 2.66 3.36 36.6 113.0 1.10 0.16 1.85 1.1 2.85

9,10 80 22 -31 2.26 2.88 26.7 85.3 1.09 0.14 1.78 0.85 2.62

11 160 22 -31 3.16 4.04 52.3 123.2 1.90 0.15 1.91 1.13 3.04

12 40 2 -3 1.51 2.02 12.3 41.7 0.58 0.03 1.60 0.68 2.29

13 40 2 -40 1.55 1.99 12.3 42.6 0.51 0.02 1.59 0.7 2.30

14 40 3 -34 1.47 1.95 11.9 37.2 0.56 0.04 1.60 0.7 2.28
876 A. Holeyman and M. Allani / Flexural Effects in Dynamic Determination of Pile Capacity

4000 tlement evolve as parallel curves, separated by

004 -H=0.4m -e=0mm Force
004 -H=0.4m -e=0mm Impedance*velocity a constant “rebound”.
3000
0.025
Maximum displacement
Force (kN)

2000 Permanent settelement

0.02

Displacement (m)
1000
0.015
Rebound
0
0.01
-1000
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
L/c 0.005

Figure 2: F and V*I signals at the Tessenderlo site 0

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
6000 Drop height (cm)
Limelette site
5000 Linear regression
Tessenderlo site Figure 4: Permanent and maximum settlement versus drop
F=2500*V+870 Linear regression
4000 height at the Limelette site.
Force (kN)

3000
F= 1100*V + 340
2000
3.2 Energy analysis
1000 The axial energy transmitted to the pile
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 (called ‘Enthru’) is defined as the integration
velocity (m/s)
over time of the product of force and velocity
Figure 3: Fmax and V max Regression signals, until the end of impact tf:
tf
Figure 4 presents the evolution of maxi-
Enthru  $ F (t )V (t )dt
mum and permanent settlements versus the 0
hammer drop height at the Limelette site. The
maximum settlement curve is characterized by
a decreasing slope from the origin up to a giv- This term reflects the performance of the
en drop height beyond which a constant slope system which can be compared to the hammer
prevails. The permanent settlement curve is potential energy (MgH). It can be concluded
characterized by negligible values up to a giv- that the net energy transferred to the pile
en drop height called the ‘critical height’ amounts to approximately 80% of the hammer
beyond which maximum and permanent set- potential energy.

Table 2: Impacts features, axial and flexural behavior, and dynamic soil resistance evaluations at the Tessenderlo site.
Impact Axial mode Flexural Dynamic resistance
Vmax Fmax EMAX y Rf QB Rdyn _ case
Blow H ey
(m/s) (kN) (kN.m)
M max (MN)
n° (cm) (mm) (kN.m) (MN) (MN)
1 70 0 1.34 4.29 17.0 38.3 3.09 3.24 6.22
2 110 0 1.88 5.69 3.0 38.2 3.70 4.60 8.14
3 40 0 0.89 3.19 9.8 37.7 2.42 2.14 4.62

4 40 37 0.89 3.13 9.7 -53.0 2.35 2.12 4.64

5 70 37 1.43 4.43 19.7 -61.7 3.02 3.44 6.61
6 40 62 0.91 3.08 9.9 -91.7 2.21 2.15 4.63

7 40 37 0.92 3.21 10.6 89.2 2.41 2.15 4.81

8 70 37 1.41 4.47 20.1 114.7 3.15 3.42 6.65

9 40 55 0.89 3.24 10.4 119.9 2.44 2.15 4.71
 A. Holeyman and M. Allani / Flexural Effects in Dynamic Determination of Pile Capacity 877

By analogy with the axial analysis we esti-
mate the flexural energy transmitted to the pile
using the relation:
tf
Enthru flex  $ M (t )W(t )dt
0 The Case method (Goble et al 1975) is based
where M is the bending moment at the
pile head and W is the pile head cross section
angular velocity.
The bending moment Mx (My) about the x-
(y-) direction for both sites was calculated
based on diametrically opposed measured
strains ( %1 and % 2 ) on the pile head section.
Bernoulli assumptions lead
E . . r ³
Ea ³ ( % 2  % 1 ) for
M (% 2  %1 ) and M 
12 8 and 2 respectively.
a square and circular cross section, respective-
ly.
Table 1 and 2 also contain axial and flexur-
al data for the Limelette and Tessenderlo sites
respectively. Large bending moments (more
than 100 kN.m) are observed for both sites
even though limited eccentricities are imposed.
Furthermore, the dependency of the bending
moment to the eccentricity is more pronounced
than that to the drop height.
The ‘Enthruflex’ signals are quite similar to
the ‘Enthru’ energy signals. However, the ratio
of the maximum flexural energy y to the
Emax
maximum axial energy EMAX is very small,
typically of the order of 0.5% (Table 1).
where t+ is a time selected to obtain the maxi-
mum value of QB. The skin friction Rf mobi-
lized down to the pile depth can be can be de-
rived form the difference between force and
velocity Rf =F-IV, reaching a maximum value
at t++2L/c.
on the difference between signals of a free pile
and soil resistance perturbation:
1 2L I 2L
Rdyn _ case  [ F (t  )  F (t   )]  [V (t  )  V (t   )]
2 c 2 c
The total dynamic soil resistance is derived
based on a rigid plastic soil model. For this
reason, time t+ is picked as to correspond to
peak velocity Vmax. Validity of this assump-
tion especially for base modeling is discussed
to in Holeyman (1992) and Charue (2004). To-
tal, base, and shaft soil resistance in Limelette
and Tessenderlo sites are presented in Tables 1
It was concluded that it seems reasonable to

choose time t at the time when first peak ve-
locity occurs since soil resistance achieves a
maximum value at that time. It was further
confirmed that higher impacts mobilize more
of the ultimately available soil resistance.
An increase can be noted in the total dynam-
ic soil resistance under eccentric impacts, es-
pecially for the 70cm drop height at Tessen-
derlo (about 400kN increase) and for the 40
cm drop height at Limelette (about 200kN in-
crease).
5 AXIAL AND FLEXURAL PILE
RESPONSE

4 DYNAMIC PILE CAPACITY Several numerical models (TNOWAVE,

DERTERMINATION
As already explained, pile impedance
represents the proportionality between force
and velocity for a free semi-infinite pile where
no soil interaction is considered. For the pile
base, the following expression can give some
indication about the dynamic toe resistance if
rigid plastic behavior is assumed [4]:
1 1 2L 2L
Q B  [ F (t  )  IV (t  )]  [ F (t   )]  IV (t   )]
2 2 c c
CAPWAP, SIMBAT, NUSUM-UCL…) ap-
proach pile/soil interaction by a computer si-
mulation with a view to reproduce measured
force and velocity signals. Either the force or
the velocity (or a combination of signals like
the downward force wave) are imposed as a
stimulus at the top boundary of the model
(Charue 2004). The load-velocity trace (fig. 5)
can be used to visually assess the quality of the
optimizing procedure. The initial portion of
the trace is linear and provides another evalua-
878 A. Holeyman and M. Allani / Flexural Effects in Dynamic Determination of Pile Capacity

tion of the impedance of the piles (1.2 and 2.1 ty was applied during impacts, the transferred
MN/ms-1, respectively) flexural energy remains very small compared
The same reasoning may also be applied to to the axially transferred one. However, an in-
the flexural mode. Allani and Holeyman [2] crease of the Case determined dynamic soil re-
elaborated a back calculation analysis to assess sistance was observed under eccentric impacts
lateral soil stiffness and damping under steady at the Tessenderlo site. By analogy to the cur-
state lateral pile loading. Lissajous type curves rent axial analysis, a flexural response curve
of experimental bending moment versus pile has been suggested at the pile head as a refer-
head angular velocity (fig. 6) allows one to ence to deduce lateral soil stiffness and damp-
graphically monitor the corresponding optimi- ing through a matching back-calculation algo-
zation procedure curve which is presently un- rithm.
dergoing development.
2.5
REFERENCES
2
Pile head velocity (m/s)

Limelette site Tessenderlo site

1.5

1 [1] M. Allani and A. Holeyman. Non axial effects in

005 -H=0.8m -ex=20 -ey=-20 dynamic pile testing: Pile vibration analysis using
0.5 006 -H=0.8m -ex=20 -ey=-40
012 -H=0.4m -ex=2 -ey=-3 Timoshenko beam theory. Geotechnical Engineering
0 013 -H=0.4m -ex=2 -ey=-40 20, View of Young European Geotechnical Engi-
014 -H=0.4m -ex=3 -ey=-34 neers, Brno (2010), 158-163.
-0.5 001 -H=0.7m -ey=0
005 -H=0.7m -ey=37mm [2] M. Allani and A. Holeyman. Signal analysis of axial
-1
0 500 1000 1500 2000 25000083000
-H=0.7m -ey=-37mm
3500 4000 4500 and flexural behavior in high strain dynamic pile
Force (kN)
testing. Proceedings of the 2nd International confe-
Figure 5: Axial load-velocity curves for Limelette and rence on Geotechnical Engineering, Hammamet,
Tessenderlo sites. Tunisia (2010), 477-486.
60 [3] N. Charue, Loading rate effects on pile load-
006 -H=0.8m -ex=20 -ey=-40 displacement behaviour derived from back calcula-
40 013 -H=0.4m -ex=2 -ey=-40 tion analysis of two load testing procedure, 2004.
Pile head bending
moment (kN.m)

[4] A. E. Holeyman, Keynote lecture: Technology of

20 pile dynamics, Application of Stress waves theory to
piles (2000), 195-215.
0 [5] T.J.Poskitt, Keynote lecture: problems of reconciling
stress wave measurements with theory application of
-20 Stress Waves theory to piles, Rotterdam, 1992.
[6] T.J.Poskitt, Energy losses in pile-driving due to soil
-40 rate effects and hammer misalignment, Proc Instn
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Pile head angular velocity (rad/s) Engrs 2, 1991, 823-851.
[7] F. Rausche, G.G. Goble, G.E. Likins, Dynamic de-
Figure 6: M y  W y curves at the Limelette site. termination of pile capacity, Journal of geotechnical
Engineering, 11 (1985), 367-383.
[8] G. VanAlboom, and V. Whenham, Soil investiga-
tion campaign at Limelette (Belgium) Results. In
Proceeding of the Symposium on screw piles in
6 CONCLUSION sand. Design and recent development (2003), Swts
and Zeitlinger, Eds.
Two case histories of axial and flexural sig- [9] S. Yao and T. Nogami, Lateral cyclic response on
pile in viscoelastic Winkler subgrade. Journal of en-
nal analysis in high strain dynamic pile tests geneering mechanics 120 (1994), 758-775.
have been presented. Although high eccentrici-
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 879
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-879

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 885
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-885

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 891
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-891

Approach for a deep construction pit and a piled-

raft foundation in urban environment
Procédure de projet une profonde fouille et une fondation
profonde dans l'environnement urbain
S. Meissner, H. Quick 1, J. Michael
Prof. Dipl.-Ing. H. Quick Ingenieure und Geologen GmbH, Germany
U. Arslan
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

ABSTRACT
The foundation system for the high-rise building TOWER185 is an excellent example to show the specific considerations under-
taken to design the building pit and the piled-raft foundation. On the basis of experiences made during the past 20 years in the
design, the construction and the back-analysis of the load-settlement behaviour of numerous high-rise buildings in Frankfurt and
consequently the well known soil and groundwater conditions, a realistic soil-structure-interaction-behavior in combination with
numerical methods could be applied to design an optimized foundation system for the TOWER185. Since the center of area does
not correspond to the center of mass certain considerations had to be taken into account in order to reduce the tilting of the tower
and to guarantee the serviceability.

RÉSUMÉ
Le système de fondation pour le gratte-ciel TOWER185 est un exemple excellent pour montrer les considérations spécifiques en-
treprises pour concevoir la fouille et la fondation profonde. Sur la base des expériences faites pendant les 20 ans passés dans le
dimensionnent, la construction et le re-calcul de nombreux gratte-ciels dans à Francfort et par conséquent le sol bien connu et
conditions de nappe phréatique dans la combinaison avec les méthodes numériques pourrait être appliqué pour concevoir un sys-
tème de fondation optimisé au TOWER185.

Keywords: piled- raft foundation, optimized foundation and pit design

1 GROUND INVESTIGATIONS The results and the interpretation of the investi-

A ground investigation is essential preliminary to
the construction of high-rise buildings. The ob-
jectives of a ground investigation are to obtain
reliable information to generate an economic and
appropriate design, to evaluate all conditions as-
sociated with the ground and the groundwater as
well as to meet the requirement for the tendering,
the construction, the time and the cost schedule.
gations are crucial factors for the stability and
serviceability of the structure. Especially when
designing high-rise buildings the ground and
groundwater conditions as well as all relevant
geological data must be investigated in detail.
The ground conditions have to be worked out by
a geotechnical engineer. The investigation can
consist of:
 Direct investigations (drillings, trial pits)
 Geophysical methods (crosshole seismic)

1
Corresponding Author.
892 S. Meissner et al. / Approach for a Deep Construction Pit and a Piled-Raft Foundation
 Field and laboratory tests (geotechnical /
geothermal)
 Load tests (plate or pile)
In order to evaluate the ground conditions
within the area of the project T185 properly,
11 boreholes with length up to 110 m were inter-
preted. The ground encountered consists of Qua-
ternary sands down to 5 m below the surface fol-
lowed by the so called Frankfurt clay which was
formed 2 to 10 million years ago as a result of
the sedimentation in the Tertiary sea in the
Mainz basin (Figure 1). This clay includes limes-
tone banks and layers of calcareous sand. The
clay is geologically overconsolidated through
older, already eroded sediments. Therefore, the
subsoil is highly horizontally stressed.
Figure 1. Ground model.
The first groundwater level in the Quaternary
sands is approximately 3 m below ground sur-
face. The second groundwater level is perched
and circulates in the fissured limestone banks
and sand lenses. The energy level of the perched
groundwater level in the Tertiary reaches the
level of the Quaternary groundwater level.
Figure 2 shows a recent photo of the skyline
of Frankfurt including the Tower185 dated Sep-
tember 2010.
Tower 185
Figure 2. Skyline of Frankfurt (Sept. 2010).
2 PIT CONSTRUCTION
Due to the above mentioned ground conditions,
the influence on adjacent structures (subway,
buildings etc.) and the presence of ground /
groundwater contaminations in some areas, the
lowering of the groundwater tables had to be
prevented. This could be achieved by applying
an impermeable retaining wall around the exca-
vation area. In order to reduce the energy level in
the Tertiary sediments it is necessary to install
pressure relief wells distributed over the pit area
(Fig. 4). The length of these relief wells is go-
verned by the uplift situation of the excavation
level.
The retaining wall consists of secant pile walls
as well as of diaphragm walls (Figure 3). To op-
timize construction time the excavation area was
divided into two areas. The excavation level
within the tower area is 85.75 mNN (-11.5 m)
and for the low-rise complex 90.0 mNN (-7.0 m).
The areas are divided by a diaphragm wall with-
out reinforcement. By means of the pit division
the two areas were treated accordingly regarding
the length of the retaining walls, dewatering situ-
ation and excavation process, which led to opti-
 S. Meissner et al. / Approach for a Deep Construction Pit and a Piled-Raft Foundation 893

mization in terms of construction costs and time.
The bottom of the retaining wall for the tower
area reaches down to 75.50 mNN (-21.5 m) re-
spectively down to 85.5 mNN (-11.5 m) for the
low-rise complex (Figure 3 and 4).
quence of the high-quality construction works in
this cross section the monitored deformations
added up only to 0.5 cm and were in good
agreement with the calculated deformations.

Figure 3. Layout plan building pit.

dividing
diaphragm wall
Figure 5. Building pit – cross section subway.

Figure 4. Cross section through the building pit.

The serviceability of the adjacent subway and

the sewage channel directly next to the retaining
wall had to be guaranteed at all times. Since a Figure 6. Building pit – numerical simulation.
conventional anchoring system could not be ap-
plied, the retaining wall was supported by struts The monitoring of the dewatering of the pit
with temporary pressure cells to pre-stress the re- showed that the building pit was nearly imper-
taining wall and additional piles with anchoring meable. The chosen retain wall lengths were suf-
system (Figure 5). In order to prove the servicea- ficient. Only 50 % of the calculated amount of
bility of the adjacent subway plane numerical groundwater was withdrawn.
simulations were carried out. The construction
phases were simulated in detail. The calculated
deformations are presented in Figure 6. In conse-
894 S. Meissner et al. / Approach for a Deep Construction Pit and a Piled-Raft Foundation
3 FOUNDATION DESIGN
The design of a foundation system has to satisfy
always the following conditions:
 Factor of safety against failure of the foun-
dation and of the supporting soil has to be
adequate at ultimate limit state (ULS)
 Settlement of the foundation, as a whole
and in particular differential settlements
under working loads, should not be so large
as to affect the serviceability of the struc-
ture at serviceability limit state (SLS)
 Safety and stability of nearby buildings and
services must not be put at risk at ultimate
limit state (ULS) / serviceability limit state
(SLS)
With increasing height of buildings respec-
tively increasing loads a raft foundation is not
suitable to transfer the loads properly into the
ground. Therefore a pile foundation is often
used. The main function of a pile foundation is to
transfer all loads by piles to a lower level of the
ground which is capable of sustaining the load
with an adequate factor of safety (ULS).
In addition to the often used raft or pile foun-
dation, the innovative piled-raft foundation is
nowadays often used to transfer the loads into the
ground. In comparison to a pile foundation, in
the piled-raft foundation, both the piles and the
raft transfer the loads into the ground. The loads
are transferred by skin friction and end (toe)
bearing as well as contact pressures of the raft
with the ground (bearing pressure). The piles are
used up to their ultimate bearing capacity (load
level) which is higher than the allowable design
value for a comparable single pile. The piled-raft
foundation represents a complex foundation sys-
tem, which requires a qualified understanding of
the soil-structure interactions.
The task for the geotechnical engineer is to
evaluate by means of numerical calculations the
load distribution between the piles and the raft as
well as the pile stiffness parameter and the sub-
grade modulus. The distribution of the total load
between the raft and the piles is described by the
coefficient of the piled-raft foundation.
The piled-raft foundations system can lead to
the following advantages in comparison to a raft
or pile foundation:
 Reduction of settlements and differential
settlements of structures
 Reduction of tilt in consideration of eccen-
tric loading or inhomogeneous soil condi-
tions
 In case of hybrid foundation it is possible
to avoid joints in the raft
 Reduction of number of piles and pile
length in comparison to a pile foundation
 Reduction of forces, stresses within the raft
in case of an optimal position of the piles
In case of the high-rise building T185 vari-
ous three-dimensional numerical simulations
with the Finite-Element-Method were carried out
in order to obtain an optimized foundation de-
sign. The following geotechnical idealizations
were considered for the mesh generation:
 Tower area: modeling under consideration
of the symmetries (raft: 3.5 m)
 Location of the piles
 Piles with diameter of 1.5 m (piles are
modeled quadratically with the same skin
area)
 Relevant areas of the connected low-rise
buildings (raft thickness: 0.9 m)
The three-dimensional numerical model con-
sists of continuum wedge elements with 15
nodes and 6 integration points for each element.
Simulations with the Finite-Element-Method are
always based on material laws. A material law
can be depicted as the mathematical relation be-
tween stress and strain. A number of material
laws for soil mechanical applications are availa-
ble. The appropriate law has to be used in respect
of the particular problem and the scientific objec-
tive. In this case the elastoplastic Hardening Soil
model was used. The yield surface of the Har-
dening Soil model consists of two parts in the
principal stress space (conus and cap). They can
expand due to plastic straining. Furthermore it is
distinguished between different stiffness of the
material for loading, unloading and reloading.
The deformation behavior can be simulated with
a hyperbolic relationship between the vertical
 S. Meissner et al. / Approach for a Deep Construction Pit and a Piled-Raft Foundation 895

strain and the deviator stress. Both the shear

conus and the yield cap have the hexagonal
shape of the classical Mohr-Coulomb failure sur-
face. The cap expands as a function of the pre-
consolidation stress. The Hardening soil model
involves six parameters.
Due to the eccentric loading situation of the
overall system various numerical simulations
were carried out to find the optimal pile length
and to minimize the tilting of the tower. Piles
within the core of the tower area as well as at one
edge of the tower had to be longer (l = 50 m).
The calculated settlements under serviceability
loads add up to nearly 10 cm (Figure 7 and 8).
Figure 8. settlement plot (layout) and pile layout plan

Additionally, simulations with a raft founda-

tion were carried out to show the effect of the ec-
centric loading due to the adjacent low-rise com-
plex. These simulations show settlement of
nearly 25 cm and a large tilting value of the
tower (fig. 9).

4 MONITORING PROGRAM
(OBSERVATIONAL METHOD)

A monitoring program to proof the quality of the

foundation system is always recommended, so
for the aforementioned high-rise buildings on a
piled-raft foundation. With help of the program it
is possible to compare the prognosis with the in-
situ behavior of the foundation. The monitoring
program must be worked out by a geotechnical
expert in consideration of the foundation system,
ground conditions, loading, construction phases,
etc. The geotechnical expert has also to interpret
all data obtained by the program. A typical moni-
toring program should consist of pile load cells,
earth pressure cells, porewater pressure cells, ex-
tensometers and geodetical (gauging) bolts. The
data can be collected for decisive construction
phase or continuously.
In case of the T185 the monitoring program
consists of 3 instrumented piles with load cells,
9 earth pressure cells, 2 porewater pressure cells
Figure 7. Numerical model and settlement plot.
underneath the tower raft and 20 geodetical
(gauging) bolts on the raft.
896 S. Meissner et al. / Approach for a Deep Construction Pit and a Piled-Raft Foundation

The monitoring results of the settlements have
shown so far a very good correspondence to the
calculated values. Figure 8 illustrates the calcu-
lated settlements for the piled-raft foundation
under serviceability loading. The last measure-
ment (60 % of the loading) is also illustrated.
Within a few weeks the next measurement will
be carried out.
systems and to evaluate deformations of the
structure and neighboring structures.
By carrying out a monitoring system it is
possible to verify the assumptions made and to
improve the design methods for future projects.
REFERENCES

[1] Reul, O. (2000):In-situ-Messungen und numerische

Studien zum Tragverhalten der Kombinierten Pfahl-
Plattengründung, Mitteilungen des Instituts und der
Versuchsanstalt für Geotechnik, Technische Universität
Darmstadt, Heft 53.2000
[2] Hanisch, J. et al. (2001): Richtlinie für den Entwurf, die
Bemessung und den Bau von Kombinierten Pfahl-
Plattengründungen (KPP) (KPP-Richtlinie)
[3] Burland, J. B. (2004): Interaction between structural
and geotechnical engineer, Imperial College London,
Joint Structural Division Annual Seminar 2004
[4] Quick, H., Meißner, S., Keiper, K. (2005): High-rise
buildings: From the ground investigation to the founda-
tion design – 6th International Conference on Tall
Buildings, Hong Kong, 6-8 December 2005
[5] Quick, H., Meißner, S., Keiper, K., Arslan, U. (2005):
Figure 9. Settlement of the construction Complex foundation design in inhomogeneous ground
conditions for a (high)rise building in Frankfurt, Ger-
many – 16th International Conference on Soil Mechan-
ics and Geotechnical Engineering, Osaka, 12.-
5 CONCLUSIONS 16.09.2005
[6] Quick, H., Michael, J., Meissner, S., Arslan, U. (2007):
On the basis of an extensive ground investigation Deep foundations and geothermal energy – a multi-
and a detailed description of the ground, the purpose solution - 8th International Conference on Mul-
ti-purpose High-Rise Towers and Tall Buildings, Abu
foundation of high-rise buildings can be planned Dhabi, 10.12.2007
in an economic and safe manner. The choice of
the adequate building pit and foundations system
is often depending on the proof of the servicea-
bility of the high-rise building and / or neighbor-
ing structures.
Where piles are primarily used to reduce set-
tlements (satisfy the serviceability) and where an
adequate factor of safety against failure is pro-
vided, the innovative piled-raft foundation has
been put forward in the past. The essence of the
piled-raft foundation is to employ piles so that
settlements are reduced to an acceptable amount.
The successful design and construction has been
verified by many structures including many high-
rise buildings.
Based on the theoretical knowledge and a
qualified understanding of the soil-structure inte-
raction numerical simulations can be used espe-
cially to optimize buildings pits and foundation
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 897
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-897

 

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 903
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-903

Chargement cyclique de pieux-tests instrumentés:

le programme SOLCYP
Cyclic loading of instrumented test piles: the SOLCYP project

A. Puech 1, S. Po & O. Benzaria

Fugro France, Nanterre, France
F. Rocher- Lacoste & A. Le Kouby
IFSTTAR, Paris, France

ABSTRACT
The joint industry research project SOLCYP is aimed at i) improving our understanding of the response of piles subjected to cy-
clic loading and ii) developing design procedures taking into account the accumulation of pile head displacements and the deg-
radation of friction along the pile wall.
The project comprises several complementary tasks : cyclic laboratory tests on reference soils and on soil-steel and soil-concrete
interfaces ; model pile tests in calibration chambers and in centrifuge ; instrumented pile tests on experimental sites ; numerical
modelling ; development of design procedures.
The paper presents the main objectives of the project and describes the complementary experimental and numerical techniques
implemented. The program of the full scale pile tests is detailed as well as the results of a feasibility study on the instrumentation
of a pile submitted to cyclic axial loading using the LPC removable extensometer technique. Results are satisfactory and validate
the selected monitoring technique.

RESUMÉ
Le projet national SOLCYP a pour objet d’approfondir les connaissances sur le comportement des pieux soumis à des sollicita-
tions cycliques et de développer des procédures de dimensionnement permettant de prendre en compte les phénomènes
d’accumulation des déplacements et de dégradation des frottements.
Le projet comporte plusieurs volets complémentaires: essais cycliques de laboratoire sur des sols de référence et sur des inter-
faces sol-acier et sol-béton ; essais de pieux modèles en chambre de calibration et en centrifugeuse ; essais de pieux instrumentés
sur sites expérimentaux ; simulations numériques ; développement de procédures de calcul.
La communication est centrée sur la description des objectifs du projet ainsi que les moyens mis en œuvre. Le programme prévi-
sionnel des essais en vraie grandeur est présenté ainsi que quelques résultats d’une étude de faisabilité sur l’instrumentation d’un
pieu soumis à un chargement cyclique axial avec la technique de l’extensomètre amovible. Les résultats satisfaisants de cette
étude permettent de valider la technique d’instrumentation choisie.

Keywords: SOLCYP, cyclic loading, pile test, instrumented pile

1 INTRODUCTION l’étude du comportement des pieux sous sollici-

Le projet de recherche SOLCYP (SOLlicitations
CYcliques sur les Pieux) a été lancé en France en
2008 pour une durée de 4 ans [1]. Il a pour objet
1
Corresponding Author.
tations cycliques.
Le projet SOLCYP est constitué de deux vo-
lets complémentaires:
- un volet dit ANR-SOLCYP financé par
l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche,
904 A. Puech et al. / Chargement cyclique de pieux-tests instrumentés: le programme SOLCYP
- un volet dit PN-SOLCYP, Projet National fi-
nancé par les partenaires (entreprises, bureaux
d’études et de contrôle, sociétés de service, labo-
ratoires publics et privés) avec le concours du
Ministère de l’Energie et du Développement Du-
rable (MEDDTL).
La présente communication a pour objet de
préciser les objectifs et le contenu global du pro-
jet. Elle se focalise ensuite sur le programme des
essais de pieux instrumentés à réaliser sur le site
expérimental de Merville
2 LES OBJECTIFS DU PROJET SOLCYP
Le projet SOLCYP vise à améliorer les connais-
sances sur le comportement des pieux de fonda-
tions soumis à des sollicitations cycliques et se
propose de développer des procédures permettant
la prise en compte de l’effet des cycles dans le
dimensionnement des ouvrages de génie civil ou
maritime.
Une approche méthodologique et systéma-
tique a été développée de manière à parvenir à
une compréhension approfondie des phénomènes
physiques complexes régissant la réponse des
pieux soumis à des sollicitations cycliques verti-
cales ou horizontales. Elle doit permettre à terme
de quantifier l’effet des chargements cycliques
sur la réponse et la capacité des pieux.
Sur ces bases essentiellement expérimentales,
on s’attachera à développer des procédures de
dimensionnement et des méthodes d’ingénierie.
La phase ultime du projet portera sur un tra-
vail prénormatif en vue de l’introduction dans les
réglementations nationale et internationales de la
méthodologie proposée et des méthodes de calcul
associées.
3 LA CARENCE REGLEMENTAIRE
L’effet des sollicitations cycliques sur le compor-
tement des fondations est largement ignoré dans
le champ d’activité de la construction et du génie
civil. Il existe quelques exceptions notoires
comme l’étude de la liquéfaction des sols sous
sollicitations sismiques, la fatigue des chaussées
ou des remblais ferroviaires et bien sûr la ré-
ponse des fondations de structures offshore à la
houle. Mais d’une manière générale, il n’y a pas
- sur le plan national aussi bien qu’au niveau eu-
ropéen (Eurocodes) ou international (ISO) - de
document spécifique (norme, texte règlemen-
taire, recommandation professionnelle) traitant
explicitement des risques liés aux sollicitations
cycliques et proposant une approche méthodolo-
gique pour les prendre en compte dans le dimen-
sionnement des fondations.
4 LES OUVRAGES CONCERNES
La problématique des sollicitations cycliques in-
téresse une large gamme d’ouvrages et d’actions
associées. On peut citer notamment :
- les structures supports légères ou élancées
sous l’action du vent telles que : pylônes de
transport d’énergie, éoliennes terrestres, chemi-
nées et tours de grande hauteur ;
- les réservoirs de stockage soumis à des cycles
d’exploitation (vidange-remplissage) ;
- les ouvrages maritimes sous l’action de la
houle et de la marée ;
- les ouvrages d’art supportant les infrastruc-
tures de transport, notamment ponts ferroviaires ;
- les fondations de grues et ponts roulants ;
- les bâtiments industriels équipés de presses
emboutisseuses, machines tournantes, etc.
Les ancrages des nouvelles structures liées au
marché émergent des énergies nouvelles (éo-
liennes terrestres et offshore, hydroliennes, pan-
neaux photovoltaïques de grande surface) sont
particulièrement sensibles à la répétitivité et au
cumul des chargements.
5 LE PROGRAMME SOLCYP
Le programme de recherche et développement du
projet SOLCYP a été mis au point dans le cadre
des travaux d’un groupe de travail de l’IREX. Il
a été restreint au domaine des fondations sur
pieux et s’articule autour de six thèmes.
 A. Puech et al. / Chargement cyclique de pieux-tests instrumentés: le programme SOLCYP
5.1 Caractérisation des chargements
Il est d’usage de considérer dans le domaine de
la construction et du génie civil que les charges
appliquées sont de nature statique ou quasi-
statique. Elles sont alors seulement caractérisées
par la valeur maximale attendue selon les condi-
tions de calcul envisagées (opérationnelles, ex-
trêmes, exceptionnelles).
Les connaissances sur la réponse élémentaire
des sols aux chargements cycliques indiquent
que les sollicitations cycliques doivent être défi-
nies en termes : i) de sollicitation moyenne et
d’amplitude de sollicitation cyclique, chaque
composante ayant un effet différent sur
l’évolution des déformations permanentes et ré-
versibles ; ii) de fréquence de sollicitation, ce pa-
ramètre conditionnant la réponse drainée ou non
drainée du matériau mais également la résistance
des argiles qui est sensible à la vitesse de sollici-
tation (l’existence de périodes de repos doit aussi
être considérée) et iii) de nombre de cycles signi-
ficatifs, celui-ci pouvant varier de quelques
cycles à dizaines de cycles lors d’un séisme à
plusieurs centaines de milliers voire millions de
cycles sous un ouvrage de ligne ferroviaire.
Ces aspects sont aujourd’hui bien appréhendés
par l’industrie offshore dans la limite des types
de sollicitations générées par la houle (périodes
de l’ordre de 10 secondes et nombre de cycles
significatifs de l’ordre du millier).
Un travail important de caractérisation des
sollicitations appliquées aux fondations par la
grande variété des structures terrestres ou mari-
times visées par le projet doit être mené. Il
s’appuie sur plusieurs instrumentations de struc-
tures-types.
Une fois connue l’histoire fortement aléatoire
du chargement réel, il est nécessaire d’idéaliser
le chargement en plusieurs séries de cycles régu-
liers d’amplitude constante pouvant être simulées
sur les échantillons de sol en laboratoire et sus-
ceptibles de fournir un endommagement équiva-
lent au sol. Une méthodologie sera proposée.
5.2 Réponse des sols aux sollicitations
cycliques
Les études les plus avancées sur la réponse des
sols sous sollicitations cycliques se basent sur le
905
concept de diagrammes d’interaction et de stabi-
lité cycliques. Il s’agit de caractériser en
quelques diagrammes synthétiques le comporte-
ment d’un matériau en termes de nombre de
cycles conduisant à la rupture, de génération de
pressions interstitielles et de déformations per-
manentes et cycliques. La construction de ces
diagrammes suppose la réalisation de séries
d’essais triaxiaux en compression (CAUc) et ex-
tension (CAUe) et d’essais de cisaillement
simple direct (DSS) de manière à appréhender
l’anisotropie de résistance du sol.
On se propose d’établir les diagrammes cy-
cliques de quatre sols-types : une argile de réfé-
rence (kaolinite), une argile naturelle surconsoli-
dée (argile des Flandres), un sable fin de
référence (Fontainebleau) et un sable naturel
moyen à grossier (Dunkerque).
La recherche des effets de la vitesse de char-
gement et du grand nombre de cycles (N >
10 000) est une spécificité du projet.
5.3 Comportement des interfaces sol-pieu
Les mécanismes de rupture sous chargement
axial d’une fondation sur pieu se localisent à
l’interface sol-pieu (sable) ou à proximité de
cette interface (argile). Le comportement des in-
terfaces sol-pieu sous sollicitations cycliques est
mal connu et fait l’objet d’expérimentations
poussées en laboratoire. La mise au point d’un
type d’essai et d’une méthodologie pour la dé-
termination des paramètres représentatifs est un
objectif de la tâche.
Les résultats devront être applicables aussi
bien pour les pieux métalliques battus, fréquem-
ment utilisés en travaux portuaires et offshore
(interface sol-acier), que pour les pieux forés,
plus largement utilisés à terre (interface sol-
béton).
5.4 Dégradation des frottements
L’effet le plus significatif de sollicitations cy-
cliques sur le comportement d’un pieu de fonda-
tion est la chute de sa capacité en frottement. La
dégradation du frottement latéral n’est pas ho-
mogène tout le long du fût mais se propage d’une
manière générale de la tête du pieu vers la base
au fur et à mesure de l’accroissement du niveau
906 A. Puech et al. / Chargement cyclique de pieux-tests instrumentés: le programme SOLCYP

de sollicitation et du nombre de cycles appliqués. Un effort important de modélisation numé-

La rigidité propre du pieu joue un rôle prépondé-
rant.
Les phénomènes de dégradation du frottement
sont étudiés à partir de pieux-modèles instrumen-
tés testés dans des chambres de calibration et en
centrifugeuse. Ces essais sont effectués sur les
matériaux de référence.
Parallèlement on procèdera à l’installation de
pieux réels instrumentés sur deux sites expéri-
mentaux (Merville, argile des Flandres et Dun-
kerque, sables denses) qui seront soumis à des
programmes extensifs de chargements cycliques.
5.5 Obtention des paramètres cycliques
La réponse des sols aux sollicitations cycliques
est complexe et n’a été abordée à ce jour qu’au
travers d’essais de laboratoire. La pratique
offshore a consacré ce type d’approche qui reste-
ra nécessaire au moins dans une certaine mesure.
Un travail important sera effectué pour parvenir
à des recommandations pour l’obtention des pa-
ramètres cycliques des sols à des fins
d’ingénierie.
Toutefois, il est apparu que, dans le contexte
des travaux de génie civil, une approche basée
sur la réalisation d’essais in situ devait être re-
cherchée. Le développement d’un pressiomètre
cyclique et d’un pénétromètre cyclique fait partie
des objectifs du projet. Ces outils sont potentiel-
lement aptes à donner accès à certains aspects es-
sentiels de la réponse du sol.
rique est mené dans le cadre du projet. Des avan-
cées sont nécessaires tant sur le plan de
l’élaboration de lois constitutives que dans celui
du traitement d’un grand nombre de cycles.
En parallèle on s’intéresse à des modèles sim-
plifiés basés sur la notion de courbes de transfert
de charge connues sous le nom de courbes t-z
(chargement axial) ou courbes p-y (chargement
latéral). Le développement de courbes de trans-
fert cycliques basées sur l’ensemble des résultats
expérimentaux du projet est un défi majeur. La
construction de ces courbes à partir des résultats
d’essais in situ devrait être possible. Cela ouvri-
rait la voie à des méthodes de dimensionnement
d’un usage relativement pratique.
6 LES ESSAIS DE MERVILLE
6.1 Objectif des essais in situ
Le site de Merville est situé dans le Nord de la
France. Il est constitué d’Argiles des Flandres
plastiques (IP de l’ordre de 45) et surconsolidées
de sorte que leur cohésion non drainée se situe
entre 100 et 200kPa [2]. L’argile fait l’objet d’un
programme de caractérisation poussé par essais
in situ et de laboratoire avec notamment
l’établissement de son diagramme cyclique.

5.6 Méthodes de dimensionnement

L’ambition du projet SOLCYP est de proposer
des méthodes de dimensionnement des pieux
sous sollicitations cycliques axiales et latérales.
Plusieurs approches sont menées de front. Elles
devront permettre de répondre à des probléma-
tiques de nature et de complexité diverses.
L’approche par diagrammes cycliques, telle
qu’utilisée en offshore, est puissante et générale
mais nécessite en revanche la réalisation de
nombreux essais de laboratoire. Elle est relati-
vement coûteuse et ne se justifiera que pour des Figure 1. Plot expérimental de Merville en cours de réalisa-
ouvrages importants, des cas de sollicitations sé- tion (Mars 2011).
vères ou des sols difficiles.
 A. Puech et al. / Chargement cyclique de pieux-tests instrumentés: le programme SOLCYP
Les objectifs des essais de Merville sont :
- étudier la réponse du pieu sous chargement cy-
clique en termes de déplacement et de capacité ;
- déterminer l’influence du chargement moyen,
de l’amplitude des cycles et du nombre de cycles
sur cette réponse ;
- étudier le comportement local de l’interface
sol-pieu lors du chargement cyclique pour plu-
sieurs tronçons de pieu et évaluer la dégradation
du frottement latéral avec les cycles.
Il est envisagé de conduire ultérieurement un
programme similaire sur un sol sableux dense
(région de Dunkerque) de manière à disposer à
terme d’une base de données étendue et de haute
qualité comprenant les essais de Cran [3] en ar-
gile molle normalement consolidée, de Plancoët
[4] dans des silts et sables lâches, et de Dun-
kerque [5].
6.2 Programme expérimental.
Le plot expérimental (figure 1) est constitué de 8
pieux tests et 10 pieux de réaction. L’espacement
moyen entre pieux est supérieur à 7 diamètres.
Deux types de pieux seront testés :
- 4 pieux battus type tube métallique fermé
(B1, B2, B3) de longueur L=13 m et diamètre Ø
= 406 mm. (Figure2a)
- 4 pieux forés réalisés à la tarière (F1, F2, F3
et F4) de longueur L=13 m et diamètre Ø = 420
mm. (Figure 2b)
Fig :2a Fig :2b
Figure 2. Installation des pieux à Merville. Pieu battu avec
instrumentation en cours de battage et tubes de réservation
907
pour extensomètres LPC (Fig.2a) . Pieu en cours de forage
avec remontées d’argile sur la tarière creuse (Fig 2b).
Pour les deux types de pieux, il est prévu de
réaliser :
- un essai statique en compression de réfé-
rence : pieux B1 et F1
- une série d’essais cycliques en compression :
pieux B2 et F2
- une série d’essais cycliques en traction :
pieux B3, F3
Les pieux de réaction B4 et F4 seront utilisés
comme pieux d’essai et testés en trac-
tion/compression alternée.
Le détail du programme expérimental sera dé-
fini de telle façon qu’il permette de couvrir la
zone de stabilité et d’instabilité du pieu (Figure
3) telle que définie par Poulos [6]
Figure 3. Représentation du programme d’essais cycliques
dans le diagramme de stabilité [6].
6.3 Moyens expérimentaux
La technique de l’extensomètre amovible LPC
[7] sera utilisée pour instrumenter les différents
tronçons de pieu. Un vérin hydraulique spécial
de capacité 1000 kN et de course 200 mm per-
mettra de réaliser des essais de chargement cy-
clique à une fréquence maximale de 1Hz et pour
un très grand nombre de cycles (N >10 000). Ce
vérin sera utilisé pour les essais de compression
et de traction. En revanche, pour l’essai alterné
(traction et compression), un système de double
vérin sera nécessaire. Les fréquences seront voi-
sines de 1Hz.
908 A. Puech et al. / Chargement cyclique de pieux-tests instrumentés: le programme SOLCYP
En 2008, un essai de faisabilité a été réalisé
sur un site expérimental à Rouen (France) sur un
pieu équipé d’extensomètres amovibles (L=6 m,
Ø=200 mm) et sollicité sous 1Hz afin de tester
le fonctionnement du vérin aux faibles charges et
la réponse des jauges d’extensométrie (Le Kouby
et al., 2009).
La distribution des déformations mesurées
pour quatre tronçons de pieu de 1m (de haut en
bas : D, C, B, A) (figure 4) montre que
l’amplitude des déformations décroît avec la pro-
fondeur. Cette observation traduit la distribution
des efforts qui s’effectue du haut du pieu (tron-
çon D) vers sa base (tronçon A). On n’a pas ob-
servé pas de glissement relatif bloqueur/tube
acier/béton pendant les cycles validant ainsi
l’utilisation de l’extensomètre.
Figure 4. Essai de faisabilité. Résultats typiques (séquence
cyclique 105 kN - 170 kN)
7 CONCLUSIONS
Le projet SOLCYP a pour ambition d’effectuer
une avancée technologique décisive dans la con-
naissance du comportement des pieux sous solli-
citations cycliques et de combler à terme une la-
cune règlementaire majeure en proposant une
méthodologie de dimensionnement rationnelle.
Une composante essentielle du processus ré-
side dans la réalisation de pieux instrumentés sur
des sites de référence.
L’étude de faisabilité effectuée pour valider la
technique d’instrumentation des pieux à l’aide de
la technique de l’extensomètre amovible semble
donner des résultats satisfaisants et sera privilé-
giée pour les essais en vraie grandeur.
8 REMERCIEMENTS
Le travail présenté se situe dans le cadre du Pro-
jet National de recherche français SOLCYP qui
regroupe 12 entreprises et bureaux d’études du
génie civil et 6 organismes universitaires et de
recherche. Il est piloté par l’IREX et financé par
les partenaires, l’ANR, le MEDDTL et la FNTP.
Les auteurs remercient les partenaires d’avoir au-
torisé la publication de cet article.
9 REFERENCES
[1] A. Puech, J. Canou, C. Bernardini . SOLCYP : un pro-
jet de recherche sur le comportement des pieux soumis
a des sollicitations cycliques. JNGG 2008, Nantes, pp.
735-742, LCPC...
[2] Y. Canépa, S. Borel, J. Deconinck . Détermination de la
courbe d’évolution du module de cisaillement d’un sol
en fonction de sa déformation à partir d’essais en place.
PARAM 2002, Paris, pp. 25-32, Presses des Ponts et
Chaussées.
[3] A. Puech, M. Boulon, Y. Meimon. Tension piles: field
data and numerical modelling. 2nd International Con-
ference on Numerical Methods in Offshore Piling
(1982), Austin.
[4] A. Puech, J.F. Jezequel. The effects of long time cyclic
loading on the behaviour of a tension pile. Offshore
Technology Conference (1980), Houston, OTC 3870.
[5] R.J. Jardine, R.J. Standing. Pile load testing performed
for HSE cycling loading study at Dunkirk, France.
Offshore Technology Report OTO 2000-007 (2000)
Helath and Safety Executive.
[6] H.G. Poulos. Cyclic stability diagram for axially loaded
piles. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Division
(1988), Report R574, Vol. 114, N° 8, pp. 877-895.
[7] Bustamante, M.and Gianeselli, L. (2001). « Méthode
d’essai n°34. La mesure des déformations à l’aide des
extensomètres amovibles LPC ». Laboratoire Central
des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris Report 34
[8] A. Le Kouby, F. Rocher-Lacoste, F. Dudouyt, G. Vin-
ceslas, K. Calmo. Faisabilité d’un essai de chargement
cyclique axial sur un pieu. Rapport SOLCYP (2009).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 909
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-909

Heave of a piled foundation on a sulphated

claystone
Soulèvement d’une fondation avec pieux dans des argillites
sulfatées
A. Ramon and E.E. Alonso1
Department of Geotechnical Engineering and Geosciences, UPC, Barcelona

ABSTRACT
A railway bridge founded on massive large diameter piles, socketed into hard anhydritic claystone, experienced a significant
heave after construction. Field investigations revealed the presence of a swelling active layer below the piles tip. Heave was
explained by the growth of gypsum crystals in discontinuities, a consequence of a previous dissolution of anhydrite. Percolating
water to initiate the process was probably supplied by an upper aquifer which was connected with the underlying fractured
claystone through borings and the piles themselves.

RÉSUMÉ
Un pont ferroviaire fondé sur des pieux massifs de grand diamètre, ancrés dans des argilites anhydritiques dures, a expérimenté
un soulèvement significatif après sa construction. L’auscultation a révélé la présence d’une couche active gonflante sous la
pointe des pieux. Le soulèvement s’explique par la croissance de cristaux de gypse dans les discontinuités, à cause d’une dissolu-
tion d’anhydrite antérieure. La percolation d’eau à la source du processus provenait probablement d’un aquifère supérieur
connecté à l’argilite fracturée sous-jacente par les forages ou les pieux eux-mêmes.

Anhydrite, heave, piles, gypsum, claystone, railway bridge

1 INTRODUCTION of the bottom slab reaching 800 mm in a

Severe heave phenomena experienced by a
tunnel (Lilla tunnel) on the high speed railway
line Madrid-Barcelona were described by [1].
Lilla tunnel was excavated in early Eocene
claystones containing anhydrite and gypsum
veins crossing the cemented clay matrix. The
non-sulphated rock phase included illite and
palygorskite clay minerals and a significant
proportion of dolomite. A small presence of
smectite was detected in some specimens. Lilla
tunnel experienced vertical heave displacements
measuring period of 14 months. The tunnel,
originally designed as a horse-shaped tube, was
eventually modified into a heavily reinforced
circular cross section. Measured swelling
pressures against the rigid lining recorded in a
recent survey reached maximum values of 6
MPa.
The phenomenon leading to the swelling of
the rock in Lilla was explained in [1] to be the
consequence of the growth of gypsum crystals in
discontinuities. Discontinuities were thought to
be more frequent immediately below the bottom

1
Corresponding Author.
910 A. Ramon and E.E. Alonso / Heave of a Piled Foundation on a Sulphated Claystone
flat slab of the original excavation because of the
stress relief associated with tunnel drill and blast
excavation. Gypsum precipitation was explained
by the evaporation of water, mainly on the
exposed base of the tunnel. Massif water, rich in
calcium sulphate, will flow towards the tunnel
surface and, as it evaporates, will create solid
gypsum deposits. In fact, gypsum precipitates in
a crystalline structure (monoclinic) favoured by
the presence of pre-existent crystallized gypsum
veins. Measurements of the humidity of the
tunnel atmosphere during a few months indicated
that the relative humidity could vary from low
values, RH=30% to high values, in the vicinity of
RH=90%. It was concluded that evaporation was
possible at all times.
At about the same time of Lilla tunnel
construction (2002), a 413 m long bridge, giving
access to the North portal of the tunnel was built
(Figure 1). The viaduct has 10 spans and crosses
a valley eroded in gypsum-claystone formations
of early Eocene age. Viaduct piers reached
heights of 56 m in the central part of the bridge.
The initial geotechnical investigations
suggested that piers could be supported by
shallow slabs on the Eocene formation.
However, a more detailed site investigation
performed during the initial construction stages
led to design a deep foundation for all the piers.
Figure 1. Pont de Candí viaduct and North portal of Lilla
tunnel in the background.
Bridge piers were supported by a 3x3 pile
group and a massive reinforced concrete cap
3.5 m thick. Large diameter (1.65m) piles were
excavated by a rotary drilling machine. The
upper 6 m of the excavation was protected by a
steel liner. The majority of the piles reached a
depth of 20 m in the central part of the viaduct.
Figure 2 shows the soil profile found in pier 6. A
superficial colluvial soil layer, 4 m thick, covers
a level of brown clays of medium consistency, 8-
9 m thick. This layer covers a gypsum-claystone
substratum. Gypsum veins and massive gypsum
layers are found in the red gypsum claystones. At
depth gypsum changes into anhydrite. Piles tip
are embedded in hard anhydrite-claystone layers.
Piles were designed to support working unit
vertical loads of 5 MPa. Unconfined
compression tests of specimens recovered from
the deep anhydritic formation provided qu values
ranging from 5 to 20 MPa.
Pile point resistance was conservatively
estimated to be at least 8MPa. The presence of
gypsum veins was not considered to be negative.
On the contrary it was thought that it would
contribute to reinforce the claystones.
Once the upper bridge deck was built and the
railway line completed, systematic levelling
indicated the heave of the four central piers
(piers 4 to 7). The intensity of the heave decayed
sharply towards both ends of the bridge. Heave
rate was significant in the central piers (5-7
mm/month in 2007).
Figure 2. Foundation of piers and soil profile.
 A. Ramon and E.E. Alonso / Heave of a Piled Foundation on a Sulphated Claystone 911

A monitoring program and further soil gap had developed at the cap-pile interface.
investigations were launched to identify the However, this may be the result of a non-uniform
problem and to decide on remedial measures. movement of piles.
This paper reports on some relevant findings.
This is a rather unique case with no similar
past reported experiences found in the technical
literature. The proximity of Lilla tunnel and its
associated problems were an interesting
background. Concepts and teachings derived
from Lilla were thought to be of direct
application for this new case. However, the
heave of the bridge turned out to be difficult to
explain on the basis of the hypothesis put
forward to understand the behaviour of Lilla
tunnel. In fact, no evaporation and gypsum
precipitation could be possible involved in this
case and an alternative explanation had to be
found.

2 FIELD MEASUREMENTS

A grid of surface levelling points was installed

with the purpose of establishing the extent of the
heave phenomena. The plot in Figure 3 provides
contours of equal surface heave during the period
26.11.2007 – 30.4.2008 (5 months). The figure
shows the position of levelling marks as well as
the location of piers. Maximum heave
displacements (44.1 mm) were recorded in the
position of pier 5. The interpolated contours
adopt elliptical shapes in a transversal direction
to the bridge alignment. The major axis of these
approximate elliptical contours follows the
direction of the valley. It is interpreted that the
natural percolation flow within the foundation, in
the direction of flowing waters contributes to
explain the distribution of heave in plan view.
One of the first interpretations given to the
heave of the bridge piers was the expansion of
the clay layers in the upper part of the pile’s
shaft. A swelling phenomena taking place in,
say, the upper 10 m of the pile’s overall length,
would push upwards the pile’s cap and will be
resisted by the deeper part of the piles embedded
into the hard claystone. This interpretation was
backed by some televiewer images which were
taken in holes bored through the piles cap into
the pile themselves. The images indicated that a
Figure 3. Surface ground heave. Contours of equal vertical
heave in the period 29.11.2007 to 30.4.2008.
Deep continuous extensometers were also
installed in several locations. They provided the
best information on the origin of the heave
phenomena. The measurements provided by one
of them (Extensometer IX-C located between
pier 5 and 6) is given on Figure 4. The figure
shows the incremental vertical displacements,
measured at one meter intervals during the
period from 14.6.2007 to 13.2.2008. The data
shows that swelling strains accumulate in a
relatively narrow level of rock under the pile’s
tip. Successive measurements in time accumulate
in the same position. In other words, the heave
phenomenon does not extend in the vertical
direction. Deformations above this active level
were minor. In particular, the upper 20 m of the
ground did not exhibit any heave. At some
912 A. Ramon and E.E. Alonso / Heave of a Piled Foundation on a Sulphated Claystone
locations some very limited settlements were
recorded. Other extensometers showed similar
results: heave was concentrated in an active layer
located under the tip of the piles of the central
piers of the bridge. The situation is schematically
indicated in Figure 5. The entire foundation was
being pushed upwards by an active heave
phenomenon taking place in a layer located
below the pile’s tip. Plots of the development of
the heave in time (Figure 6) indicate that the
displacements accumulate in time at a sustained
rate. This behaviour is difficult to reconcile with
delayed phenomena directly associated with
hydro-mechanical interactions (such as the
theory of consolidation).
The sulphated environment suggested also
that gypsum precipitation was probably the main
reason for the observed heave.
Figure 4. Continuous extensometer IX-C. Measured relative
displacements in the period from14.6.2007 to 13.2.2008.
3 GYPSUM CRYSTAL GROWTH
The position of the active layer, at depths of 23-
33 m below the ground surface at the centre of
the valley, makes it difficult to accept that an
evaporation process could lead to gypsum
precipitation. A phreatic surface was located in
the upper layer of alluvial deposits located in the
valley bottom. Shallow open pits excavated in
the central part of the valley found a superficial
aquifer.
A direct transformation of anhydrite into
gypsum (anhydrite+water›gypsum) is not a
possible phenomenon. Gypsum precipitates
always from a supersaturated solution of calcium
sulphate.
Cores recovered in the active zone provided
some evidence of crystal growth in open
discontinuities (Figure 7). Discontinuities were
partially filled by gypsum needles. These
partially filled fissures allow the flow of water.
Some of the gypsum deposited in fissures had a
planar shape and were shown to fill the entire
fissure volume (Figure 8).
Figure 5. Position of the active layer.
 A. Ramon and E.E. Alonso / Heave of a Piled Foundation on a Sulphated Claystone
Figure 6. Evolution of heave at the cap of extensometer IX-C.
Figure 7. Open discontinuity filled by gypsum crystal needles
Figure 8. Gypsum deposited in fissures with a planar shape
The process of gypsum crystal growth may be
explained with the help of Figure 9. The figure
shows the variation of solubility of gypsum and
anhydrite with temperature, T. When T<57ºC (a
likely situation in practice) the solubility of
913
anhydrite is higher than the solubility of gypsum.
Consider now the following scenario: water in
contact with anhydrite reaches a concentration
given by point A. Point A represents
supersaturated conditions with respect to
gypsum, which may maintain a concentration not
higher than point B. The difference in
concentrations of points A and B is then ready to
precipitate. Precipitation is enhanced if:
• There exist already gypsum crystals in
contact with the supersaturated solution.
• Space is available for crystal to grow.
This phenomenon requires the presence of
water. If natural water was already present in the
active layer, before the construction of the
bridge, then the outlined phenomena would have
taken place in geological times. The associated
heave would have ceased also at the time of
bridge construction.
If it is accepted that the works triggered the
heave phenomena some consistent explanation,
respectful with field observations and the basics
of gypsum crystal growth, must be found. The
working hypothesis is that the site investigation
borings, the additional borings performed during
the installation of deep extensometers and
piezometers and the construction of the piles
succeeded in connecting an upper aquifer and a
fractured anhydritic claystone at depth. Then a
downward flow which possibly flowed also
following the general gradients of the valley
could be established.
The presence of anhydrite is fundamental to
explain the dissolution-precipitation process
described above. The growth of crystals in
discontinuities seems to be able to open them and
to exert a significant pressure if deformations are
prevented. This was the case in Lilla tunnel. In
the case of the bridge the crystals are capable of
pushing upwards the rock cover overlying the
active zone. Vertical geostatic stresses at the
position of the active layer are estimated to be
0.5MPa to 0.8MPa. However, the effect of
pressure on crystal growth is not known.
914 A. Ramon and E.E. Alonso / Heave of a Piled Foundation on a Sulphated Claystone
Figure 9. Solubility of gypsum and anhydrite
4 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Remedial measures for the case described have
been discussed in parallel with the accumulation
of data provided by field instrumentation. One
proposal was to control the access of water on
the active layer. The idea was to inject the open
fissures around and below the tip of the pile
group of each of the affected piers.
An alternative idea was to counteract the
heave by adding weight to the foundation. An
embankment filling partially the valley was
proposed as a suitable solution. This solution was
adopted recently and the available limited
information indicates a significant reduction of
the heave rate.
Cases of severe swelling phenomena
associated with anhydritic formations have been
often described in Triassic formations of central
Europe ([1], [2], [3] and [4]). They refer to
tunnels. The case described here extends the
problem to a different geotechnical environment.
A basic set of conditions remain as triggering
factors: the presence of anhydrite,
hydrogeological conditions favouring the flow of
water and the existence of open cracks or fissures
to allow the initiation of the crystallization
process. The role of the clay matrix, present in
most cases, is not well understood.
All the cases, tunnels and the foundation
heave problem described here, have a common
characteristic: the severity of the problem. The
case of Pont de Candí Bridge stresses also the
risk of changing artificially the natural
hydrologic conditions in the presence of
anhydritic formations. Vertical borings or piles
are a procedure to connect isolated aquifers and
to initiate a new flowing process.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge with thanks the
support provided by ADIF (National Agency for
Railway Infrastructure). Thanks are also given to
contractors FCC and IIC, for their helpful
discussions and their contribution to the
identification and characterization of the
geotechnical conditions of the foundations.
REFERENCES
[1] E. E. Alonso, I. R. Berdugo, D. Tarragó. & A. Ramon
(2007). Tunneling in sulphate claystones, Proc. Of the
XIV European Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Geothecnical Engineering, Madrid, Cuéllar et al
(editors), Millpress, Rottherdam, Vol 1: 103-122
[2] H. Krause (1976). Sulphate rocks in Baden-
Württemberg and their importance in relation to civil
engineering. Bulletin - Association of Engineering
Geologists, no.13: 45-49.
[3] D. Nagel (1986). Sohlhebungen in den Keupertunneln
von Baden-Württemberg, Tunnelbau, Kontakt &
Studium, Band 184: 110-125.
[4] M. Wittke (2006). Design, construction, supervision
and long-term behaviour of tunnels in swelling rocks.
Proc. of the International Symposium of the
International Society for Rock Mechanics, Eurock
2006, Liège, Van Cotthen, Charlier, Thimus &
Tshibangu (editors), Taylor & Francis Group, London:
211-216.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 915
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-915

Méthode de dimensionnement directe des pieux

basée sur l’essai de chargement de pointe
Pile direct design method based on cone loading test
Ph.Reiffsteck 1, H.Ali
Université Paris Est, IFSTTAR, Paris, France
F.Baguelin,
Fondasol, Argenteuil, France
H.Van de Graaf,
Lankelma, Oirschot, Pays-Bas
C. Bacconnet, R.Gourvès
Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont Ferrand, France

ABSTRACT
The cone loading test conducted step by step until failure during a CPT, presents great similarities with a pile load test. It is
therefore possible to extrapolate a direct design method using the tip resistance and skin friction measured by the electric cone
to calculate the tip and the unit skin friction coefficients. We propose in this paper a new approach to transform the loading
curves and mobilization of friction of a cone loading test point by point into a load-displacement curve of a pile (t-z curves) in
sandy and silty soils. This paper presents a practical approach to the evaluation and normalization of t-z curves, the direct design
method proposed for predicting the settlement and a comparison with instrumented pile load test performed in Limelette slightly
clayey sands.
The results are compared to the design achieved with conventional methods using the results of Menard pressuremeter tests
and.CPTu.

RÉSUMÉ
Le pénétromètre statique, lors de l’essai de chargement de pointe réalisé par paliers jusqu’à la résistance de pointe, présente de
grandes similitudes avec un essai de chargement de pieu. Il est donc possible d’extrapoler une méthode de dimensionnement di-
recte utilisant la résistance de pointe et le frottement latéral mesurés par la pointe électrique pour calculer le coefficient de pointe
et le frottement latéral unitaire. Nous proposons dans cette communication une nouvelle approche transformant les courbes de
chargement et celles de mobilisation de frottement d’un essai de chargement de pointe point par point en courbe charge-
déplacement d’un pieu dans les limons et les sables. Cet article présente une approche pratique pour l'évaluation et la normalisa-
tion des courbes t-z, la méthode de conception directe proposée pour la prévision du tassement et une comparaison avec des es-
sais de chargement de pieux instrumenté du site de Limelette dans des sables légèrement argileux.
Les résultats sont comparés aux dimensionnements réalisés avec les méthodes de dimensionnement classiques utilisant les résul-
tats des essais au pressiomètre Ménard et au pénétromètre statique avec piézocone.

Keywords: in situ testing, cone penetrometer, pile, design method

Mots clés : reconnaissance géotechnique, pénétromètre à cône, pieux, dimensionnement

1
Corresponding Author.
916 Ph. Reiffsteck et al. / Méthode de dimensionnement directe des pieux basée

1 INTRODUCTION 2.1 Principe de l’essai de chargement de

Le chargement par palier d'une pointe piézo-
cône effectué avec un essai de dissipation est une
amélioration de l'essai de pénétration statique
avec pointe électrique, réalisable lors d'un essai
sans modifications notables. L'analogie de cet
essai avec l'essai de chargement d'un pieu ouvre
la possibilité de concevoir une méthode de di-
mensionnement direct. Cet article présente une
nouvelle méthode de conception directe pour
l'évaluation de la capacité portante et du tasse-
ment et une comparaison avec un essai de char-
gement de pieu instrumenté, valable pour des
sables.
2 L'APPROCHE DE L'ESSAI DE
CHARGEMENT DE POINTE
La détermination de la capacité portante d’un
pointe
Après plusieurs tentatives pour développer
une méthode d'essai au pénétromètre basée sur
l'essai à la plaque ou les méthodes d'essai de
chargement statique de pieu pour obtenir un rap-
port de contrainte-déformation ([5], [7], [13]),
une nouvelle procédure a été proposée récem-
ment. Cet essai, appelé l'essai de chargement de
pointe (Cone Loading Test, ou CLT), peut être
effectué pendant un essai de pénétration statique
au cône classique (CPT) en tant qu'essai com-
plémentaire. Après un essai de dissipation, un
chargement de la pointe est fait par dix paliers
successifs maintenus chacun pendant 60 se-
condes, jusqu'à ce que la résistance de pointe du
sol soit atteinte [2] et [12]. La courbe de charge-
ment relie la pression appliquée sur la pointe au
tassement mesuré en tête du train de tiges à la fin
de chaque palier de chargement (Figure 1a).
25
2m
3m

pieu est encore une opération délicate. Généra- 4m

5m
6m

lement, la capacité portante Qu d'un pieu est cal- 7m

Pression appliquée sur la pointe (MPa)

20
8m
9m

culée de la façon suivante : 9,5 m

10 m
11 m
15
12 m
13 m
14 m

Qu = Qpu + Qsu [1] 10

15 m
16 m
17 m
18 m

où: Qpu est la capacité portante en pointe du 5

pieu et, Qsu est la charge limite de frottement la-

téral. Cette séparation de la charge limite du pieu 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

en deux termes est un processus commun de a) déplacement corrigé (mm)

300 2m

toutes les méthodes de conception utilisées dans 250

3m
4m
5m

la pratique : méthode pénétrométrique, pressio- 200

6m
7m
8m

métrique ou à partir de l’essai de pénétration au 150

9m
9,5 m
Frottement latéral fs (kPa)

10 m

carottier SPT. La capacité en pointe est liée à une 100

11 m
12 m
13 m

valeur moyenne de la résistance au cisaillement 50 14 m

15 m
16 m

déduite des essais de laboratoire ou des essais in 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
17 m
18 m50

situ, et multipliée par un facteur lié au méca- -50

nisme de rupture et ajusté en fonction du type de -100

-150
sol et du mode de mise en place (avec ou sans re-
-200
foulement du sol). La charge limite de frottement b) déplacement corrigé (mm)

latéral dépend du changement des propriétés de
sol à proximité du pieu après qu'il ait été installé,
notamment : la variabilité de sol et l'interaction
complexe sol-pieu. Par conséquent, pour chaque
segment du fût du pieu, la charge limite de frot-
tement doit être calculée à partir de la résistance
au cisaillement multipliée par un paramètre qui
dépend des facteurs d’influence.
Figure 1. (a) Courbes de chargement CLT obtenues à Lime-
lette (b) Courbes de mobilisation de frottement durant l'essai
Les courbes se composent d'une partie li-
néaire en petites déformations, puis d'une partie
incurvée au début de la plasticité et d'une partie
linéaire à un niveau plus élevé de déformations.
 Ph. Reiffsteck et al. / Méthode de dimensionnement directe des pieux basée 917

Cet essai peut être réalisé avec une pointe en aucune mesure affecté par la réalisation des
électrique normalisée [4]. En cas d'utilisation essais CLT (figure 2b).
d'un piézocône, la variation de la pression inters- La figure 1.a montre que les courbes de char-
titielle et la résistance au cisaillement sur man- gement (résistance de pointe en fonction du dé-
chon de frottement sont mesurées. placement) sont très régulières et l'essai est répé-
Les courbes de mobilisation du frottement la- titif et permet de distinguer les différentes
téral peuvent ainsi être obtenues d'une manière couches. La figure 1.b montre les courbes de
très semblable à celle employée pour obtenir le mobilisation de frottement (fsCLT en fonction du
frottement latéral pendant un essai de charge- déplacement de la pointe) obtenues. La valeur
ment statique de pieu équipé d'extensomètres finale de la pression appliquée durant chaque pa-
amovibles [12] (figure 1.b). lier également appelée qCLT est proche de la va-
Cependant, l'essai de chargement de pointe exige leur moyenne de la résistance de pointe classique
des corrections résultant de l'effet de la compres- qc. Les pressions limites qCLT restent inférieures
sion élastique des tiges ou des conditions ini- à qc avec une différence constante de 25%. Cette
tiales de l'essai. Le calcul de la correction, con- différence a été déjà étudiée par [13].
siste à évaluer l’effort moyen déduit de la 0 20 40
EM (MPa)
60 0 25
Modules E_CLT corrigés (MPa)
50 75 100 125 0 50
ED (MPa)
100 150
0
différence entre la force mesurée en tête et celle 1 PMT1-bis
Eini CLT

E50% CLT

au niveau de la pointe [1]. À de faibles profon- 2

3
PMT2-bis
PMT3_LCPC
Edec CLT

deurs, le flambement des tiges est négligé, mais 4

5

si des essais plus profonds sont envisagés, l'utili- 6

7
sation de l'inclinomètre est suggérée [4]. 8
9

10

2.2 Résultats typiques d’un essai CLT 11

12

13
Le site de Limelette (Belgique) propriété du 14

CSTC a le profil géologique suivant [14]: 15

16
z (m)
- de 0 à 6 m : limon calcaire quaternaire, a 17
b c
- de 6 à 8 m : sol argilo-sableux,
Figure 3. Profils de modules de chargements obtenus au pres-
- au delà de 8 m: sable légèrement argileux. siomètre au cône et au dilatomètre
La nappe phréatique se trouve à 40m de pro-
fondeur. La figure 3 montre la très bonne qualité de
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5
pl (MPa)
3 3,5 0 10 20 30
qc (MPa)
40 0 20 NSPT 40 mesure du module de chargement de l'essai CLT
0
1
PMT1-bis moyen
par rapport à deux autres techniques classiques
2

3
PMT2-bis
PMT3_LCPC
Minimum
Maximum
de mesure [12].
CPT_LCPC
4
5
6
7

8
3 METHODE DE DIMENSIONNEMENT
9
10
DE L’ESSAI DE CHARGEMENT DE
11 POINTE
12
13
SPT 1
14
15
SPT 2 En considérant que la pointe pénétrométrique
SPT 3
16
z (m)
est un modèle réduit de pieu, et que la déforma-
a 17
b c tion du sol autour de la pointe indique des effets
Figure 2. Profils obtenus avec le pressiomètre, le pénétro- semblables à ceux observés autour d'un pieu
mètre statique et l'essai au carottier. pendant le chargement, alors les courbes de
Les différents essais réalisés sur le site per- chargement de pointe reflètent l'interaction entre
mettent de localiser ces transitions avec précision un pieu et le sol environnant. De la même ma-
(figure 2). On note que le pénétrogramme n'est nière, la valeur de la force mesurée agissant sur
le manchon de frottement divisée par la section
918 Ph. Reiffsteck et al. / Méthode de dimensionnement directe des pieux basée

du manchon peut être identifiée comme la résis- fondation profonde (figure 5). La manière par
tance unitaire de frottement latéral sur le fût d'un laquelle cette nouvelle méthode a été construite
pieu [9]. Dans le cas général d’un sol multi- est très proche de celle proposée par Briaud et
couche pour lequel la distribution de la résistance également utilisée dans la norme hollandaise
limite fs en fonction de la profondeur est connue, NEN6743 ([3], [8], [10]). La raison du choix des
les deux équations suivantes sont proposées : courbes de l’essai CLT est l'observation faite
dans les paragraphes précédents d’une bonne
Qpu = [qo+kp.(qCLT)]..B²/4 [2] correspondance entre l'essai de chargement de
pieu et l'essai de chargement de pointe, ce qui
n’est pas évident au premier abord pour un essai
Qsu =tin ks.fs..B.li [3] d'expansion tel que l’essai pressiométrique.

q/qmax et fs/fsmax
1,2

Avec : qo la contrainte verticale en place, kp 1

un facteur de portance, ks un facteur de frotte-
0,8
ment latéral, B le diamètre du pieu, fs le frotte-
ment limite de la couche i, li l’épaisseur de la 0,6

couche i, qCLT la résistance limite de l’essai de

0,4
chargement de pointe.
450 Tronçon A
Tronçon B 0,2
B
Tronçon C
400
Tronçon D
A
Tronçon E et F 0
Frottement latéral fs ou qs (kPa)

350
C CLT à 9,5 m
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
CLT à 9 m
300
CLT à 8 m h/diamètre pointe
CLT à 7 m
250 CLT à 6 m
CLT à 5 m Figure 5. Normalisation des courbes pour la création des
200 CLT à 4 m
CLT à 3 m courbes (t,z) pour le sable
150 CLT à 2 m
D
100
Le déplacement en tête du pieu wpieu peut être
50 E&F
déterminé en fonction de la charge de pieu
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 comme étant la somme de la valeur du déplace-
Déplacement (mm)
ment au niveau du fût du pieu et du déplacement
Figure 4. Comparaison des frottements latéraux de l'essai sta- dû à la compression des couches de sol situées
tique de pieu A1bis et essai de chargement de pointe [6] au-dessous du niveau de la pointe du pieu. Le
déplacement le long du fût inclut le déplacement
La comparaison et la corrélation entre la dû à l'élasticité du pieu.
courbe de mobilisation obtenue à partir de l'essai
de chargement de pointe et celle de l'essai de
chargement statique de pieu, pour le même site et
w pieu  w fut  w po int e  wél [4]
le même type de sol, donne accès aux facteurs Avec :
d'influence (figure 4). Cependant, il y a quelques  wpointe et wfût déduits à partir des courbes re-
singularités qui dépendent de la géométrie de la latives de charge déplacement construites
pointe utilisée dans l'essai CLT, ainsi que l'in- avec des valeurs moyennes de qc et fs en
fluence du manchon de frottement. En effet, il fonction du déplacement relatif normalisé
est nécessaire d'intégrer un facteur de correction s/B (figure 6),
qui tient compte des effets d’échelle et de forme  wél fonction de la variation linéaire de
pour le terme du frottement latéral (ks) et de l’effort vertical dans le pieu.
pointe (kp).
Il est également possible de transformer les
courbes de chargement de pointe et de mobilisa-
tion de frottement sur le manchon dans un essai
CLT point par point en une courbe (t-z) pour la
 Ph. Reiffsteck et al. / Méthode de dimensionnement directe des pieux basée 919

Effort de frottement latéral Qs (kN)

-2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500
Effort de pointe Qp (kN)
2000 2500 3000
22477-1-1 et équipé d'un système de mesure par
0 extensométrie.
10
20
Les courbes de mobilisation de frottement (fs-
30 déplacement) sont déterminées directement pour
40 Qu = Qp+Qs chaque segment du pieu (figure 4) et les courbes
50
60 Tassement (mm)
de transfert de charge le long de l'axe du pieu
70 pour chaque étape (figure 8). La prévision du
80
90
Effort de pointe
Effort de frottement latéral
transfert des charges et de l'état limite en utilisant
100 les paramètres de l’essai CLT est donnée dans le
tableau 1. On note qu'il y a une inversion des
Figure 6. Courbes relatives de charge/déplacement proportions de capacité portance attribuées à la
pointe et au fût entre l'essai de chargement sta-
tique de pieu et l'approche de l’essai de charge-
4 VALIDATION DE LA METHODE ment de pointe. Cette différence représente l'effet
d’échelle et de forme ainsi que l’effet du mode
Pour étudier le potentiel de la méthode propo- de mise en place entre le pieu et la forme conique
sée, la détermination de la capacité portante sous de la pointe pénétrométrique.
une charge axiale est comparée aux résultats d'un Load distribution (kN)
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
essai axial de chargement d’un pieu vissé de type 0

fundex 38/45 [6]. Le fût du pieu a un diamètre 1

de 390 mm alors que la pointe du pieu fait 450

2
mm de diamètre et se trouve à la même profon- E&F

deur de l’essai CLT. 3

La figure 7 montre une comparaison des

Depth (m)

courbes de l’essai CLT obtenue avec un simple 5

tableur ou le logiciel PIVER, en comparaison 6

avec la courbe réelle de l’essai de chargement de 7

C

pieu. Pour des raisons de clarté, seulement deux

couches de sol ont été considérées dans cet 8 B

exemple. 9
A

Pile base level

10
Charge Q (kN) 50 % de la charge totale
0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500 2750 3000 3250 3500
0 Figure 8. Transfert de charge sur la longueur du pieu
2

4
Tableau 1. Comparaison des méthodes de dimensionnement
Essai de pieu CLT
6
Qpu 1059 2448
Tassement (mm)

8
Qsu 2064 972
10
Essai de pieu_tass en tete Qu 3123 3420
12
Essai de pieu_tass en pointe
14
Méthode CLT_moyenne
16
Calcul PIVER avec 2 points
18
Calcul PIVER avec plusieurs points
5 CONCLUSION
20

Figure 7. Courbe de charge – déplacement avec différentes Cette publication a essayé de décrire une nou-
méthodes velle méthode de conception directe de pieux ba-
sée sur l'essai de chargement de pointe (CLT) ti-
L'essai de chargement statique de pieu est ef- rant profit de la qualité intrinsèque de cet essai:
fectué selon la norme européenne EN ISO reproductibilité, précision et accès à la force mais
également à la rigidité. Davantage de recherches
920 Ph. Reiffsteck et al. / Méthode de dimensionnement directe des pieux basée

sont nécessaires afin de rassembler des études de by means of cone penetrometer, Soils and Foundations,
2009, 49(3) 397-408.
cas sur différents sites : limon, sables, etc. pour
[13] Sanglerat G. The state of the Art in France, ESOPT,
définir les facteurs rhéologiques adaptés [11]. Stockholm, 1974, pp.47-58
[14] Van Alboom, G. Whenham, V. (2003). Soil investiga-
tion campaign at Limelette (Belgium): Results. Pro-
ceedings of the Symposium on screw piles in sand
REMERCIEMENTS – design & recent developments, 7 mai 2003, Brux-
elles.
Les auteurs tiennent à remercier N. Huy-
brecht, M. de Vos, V. Wenham du CSTC, Lime-
lette, Belgique, pour leurs aides dans la réalisa-
tion des essais

REFERENCES

[1] Ali H., Reiffsteck P., Bacconnet C., Gourves R., Bague-
lin F., Van De Graaf H. Facteurs d'influence de l'essai
de chargement de pointe, Journées Nationales de Géo-
technique et de Géologie de l’Ingénieur JNGG' 08,
Nantes, 2008, pp 467-474.
[2] Arbaoui H., Gourvès R., Bressolette Ph., Bodé L., Me-
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sai de chargement statique d'une pointe pénétromé-
trique, Can. Geotech. J, 2006, 43(4) 355-369.
[3] Briaud J.-L., Spread Footings in Sand: Load Settlement
Curve Approach, J. of Geotech. and Geoenv. Engrg,
ASCE, 2007, 133(8) 805-920.
[4] CEN/ISO (2005) Geotechnical investigation and testing
- Field testing - Part 1: Electrical cone and piezocone
penetration tests, EN/ISO 22476-1, 41 p
[5] Haefeli R., Fehlmann H.B. Measurement of soil com-
pressibility in situ by means of the model pile test, Proc.
4th Int. Conf. SMFE, London, 1957, (1) 225-230
[6] Huybrechts, N. Whenham, V. (2003). Pile Testing
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techniques of screw piles. Proceedings of the 2nd
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[7] Ladanyi B. Use of the static penetration tests in frozen
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[8] Larsson, R., Bengtsson, P.-E. Field determination of
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[9] MELT. Règles techniques de calcul et de conception
des fondations des ouvrages de génie civil, CCTG Fas-
cicule 62 Titre V, Ministère de l’Équipement, du Lo-
gement et des Transports, Paris, Texte officiel, 1993, l
N° 93-3, 182 p.
[10] NEN (1991). Calculation method for bearing capacity
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[11] Reiffsteck Ph., ISP5 Pile Prediction Revisited, ASCE
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H.C., Thorel L. Measurements of soil compressibility
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 921
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-921

Design, load tests & completion of bored piles

80 m depth in Pliocene clays on a Danube bridge
Conception, tests de charge et réalisation des pieux forés 80 m
de long dans des argiles du Pliocène dans un pont sur le Danube
F. Rodríguez Ballesteros1, G. Gómez Burgaz, J. M. Gutiérrez Manjón
FCC Construcción, Madrid, Spain

ABSTRACT
The process from design to execution of the foundations of Danube Bridge Vidin-Calafat (Bulgaria-Romania border) is summa-
rised. The foundations are made of 2.0 m and 1.5 m diameter floating concrete bored piles. excavated mainly on Pliocene clay
that is founded below alluvial strata or loessian soils with variable thickness around 20 m. For the design the focus was put on
the triaxial and the pressiometric tests carried out inside investigating boreholes. To lower the safety factor and make more pre-
cise the pile lengths, several loading tests on trial piles were made (a total of 6 O-cell tests). This paper emphasizes specially the
parameters deduced from these tests and its correlation with .the previsions based on design. From the analysis of the O-Cell
Test results some conclusions were derived: the loading tests showed that the calculus parameters derived from the tests were
placed between those obtained from the triaxial tests and from the pressiometric tests; and that the ultimate values from loading
tests matched to the limiting values established in the specialized literature and common standards for overconsolidated clays.

RÉSUMÉ
La procédure de la conception à l'exécution des fondations du pont du Danube Vidin-Calafat (Bulgarie-Roumanie frontière) est
résumée. Ce sont pieux forés flottants de 1,5 et 2,0 mètres de diamètre creusés principalement sur des argiles du Pliocène, qui
sous-tendent des sols alluviaux ou loessians d'épaisseur variable autour de 20 m. Le design est basée sur des essais triaxiaux et
pressiométriques. Pour abaisser le facteur de sécurité et de rendre plus précise les longueurs de pieux, des essais de charge sur
des pieux ont été faites (pour un total de 6 essais de cellules Osterberg). Cette communication souligne les paramètres déduits de
ces tests et sa corrélation avec. les prévisions basées sur les basées sur les essais précédents. De l'analyse des résultats des tests
O-Cell certaines conclusions ont été tirées: les essais de chargement ont montré que les paramètres de calcul ont été placés entre
ceux obtenus à partir des essais triaxiaux et des essais pressiométriques, et que les valeurs ultimes des essais de chargement
coïncident avec les valeurs limites établies dans la littérature spécialisée et des normes communes pour argiles surconsolidées.

Keywords: Pliocene clays, Bored Piles, Floating piles, Axial loads, Load Tests, Offshore.

1 INTRODUCTION structure consisting on a continuous beam with 8

This bridge is part of the Pan-European corridor
IV. The bridge is an integrated solution for cross-
ing, road and rail traffic at the same time, involv-
ing three separate structures: the river crossing
structure composed by a cable stayed bridge of
five spans (124+3×180+115); the road-access
spans (52+7×80); and the rail-access structure
consisting on a continuous beam of regular
thickness with 14 spans (32+13×40). All of
which sums up a total length of approximately
2.0 km.
Sub-surface conditions at the test pile loca-
tions consisted primarily of sand and gravels

1
Corresponding Author.
922 F. Rodríguez Ballesteros et al. / Design, Load Tests & Completion of Bored Piles 80 m Depth

overlying Pliocene CLAYS. The present paper \=VR – V0H=CU[1+Ln(G/CU)] + CULn('V/V)]

deals with the following issues: P*l = \ (Ln('V/V) = 0)
x Laboratory and in situ tests of Pliocene CU = '[\]/'[Ln('V/V)]
Clays’ mechanical properties concerning to
design of piles versus axial loads. The CU values obtained satisfy:
x Load Tests on 6 Trial and 4 Working Piles P*l/9.1  CU  P*l/5.8
x Correlation between the parameters de- Table 1. Geomechanical Parameters
duced before. USCS CH
x Construction % < 1.6P 44 ± 10
Bulk density (kN/m3) 19 ± 0.4
Void ratio [e] 0.84 ± 0.07
2 GEOMECHANICAL Liquid Limit 77 ± 15
Plastic Limit 31 ± 4
CHARACTERIZATION
Plasticity Index 46 ± 14
Moisture Content 30 ± 2.4
The underlying layer is Pliocene Clays. Over this CU = UCS/2 (kPa) 160 ± 115
stratum it can be distinguished two different geo- CCU (kPa) 204 ± 58
technical profiles: )CU (º) 13.0 ± 1.6
CUU (kPa) 137 ± 31
x Alluvial deposits )UU (º) 17.0 ± 2.8
x Loess and alluvial deposits Figure 1 includes the undrained shear strength
The Pliocene sediments are represented by values obtained from triaxial and pressuremeters
grey-blue to grey-green clays/silts and sandy- tests carried out. Table 2 includes the ranges of
silty clays. In the zones where the clay has al- variation and the proposals for these values.
ready been exposed to weathering it is of rusty- Table 2: Pliocene Clays: Strength Parameters Profile
yellow to rusty-brown colour. The thickness of Elev. P*l N CU
this weathered zone varies from 1.0 to about h(m) (MPa) (SPT) (kPa)
5.0m. >-7.5 < 4.0 <35 to40 250– 400
-7.5> h>-30 4 to 6 35 to 50 400– 600
The shear resistances of the Pliocene clays of < -30 > 6.0 > 50 600
the subsoil are deduced from:
As usual, the values deduced from Laboratory
x Laboratory Tests Results (Identification, Tests are lower than Pressuremeters Test results.
UCS, UU & CU Triaxial Tests)
x SPT Results
x Pressuremeter Tests Results 3 DESIGN PARAMETERS
The mean values and typical standard devia-
For the design of piles, the following shaft (f)
tions on Pliocene clays are in Table 1.
and point resistances (q) were proposed:
The assessment of the magnitude of
Undrained Shear Strength from CU and UU tri- x f = DCU  120 kPa (1)
axial tests has been carried out from the follow- D =Mf/CU = 0.21 + 26/CU S 0.30
ing expressions (Vv: Total in situ overburden (Kulhawy and Phoon, 1993) with the
pressure): lower limit indicated on BS 8004:1986 [1]
x q = 9 CU (2)
x CU = CCU + Vv (1- sen )CU) tg )CU
x CU = CUU + Vv (1- sen )UU) tg )UU The values deduced of CU with (1) & (2) from
From the net limit pressure (Pl*), the f and q obtained in O-Cell Tests, are represented
undrained shear strength (CU) was obtained in
accordance with the theoretical expression of the
pressuremetric curve in its plastic range:
 F. Rodríguez Ballesteros et al. / Design, Load Tests & Completion of Bored Piles 80 m Depth 923

in Figure 1, superimposed to those deduced from

previous tests.

O-Cell Tests
CEMSOLVE Analysis Undrained shear strength C U(kPa)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700

8
4
End Bearing Elev h (m)

0
-4 TP2
TP3
-8
-12 TP-1
-16
TP6 TP4 TP7
-20 TP1
TP-3
-24
-28
-32
-36 Cu(q) = q/9
Cu (Triaxials)
10N
Cu (Pressuremeter) ^ 17.5 N

Figure 1 Undrained shear strengths from Triaxial, Pressuremeters and O-Cell Pile Tets
The O-Cell Tests were performed on 1200 mm
diameter, 60 – 68.5 m long test piles, TP1 to TP4,
TP6 & TP7 (Summary in Table 3).
The maximum sustained bi-directional load
applied to the pile was 12.7 MN with a maximum
cell opening (upward + downward) of 156 mm..
The loading assembly consisted of two 405 mm
O-cells, located 12.63 metres above the pile’s toe
The Test Piles were provided with the follow-
ing internal instrumentation:
x Four Linear Vibrating Wire Displacement
Transducers between the plates of the O-cell
assembly to measure expansion.
x Two lengths of 6 mm diameter telltale rods
attached to the reinforcing cage diametri-
cally opposed, extending above & below the
steel bearing plates of the O-cell assembly
to measure the profile of the pile.
x Strain gauges to assess the skin friction load
transfer above and below the O-cell.
x Two lengths of steel pipe were also in-
stalled, extending from the top of the pile to
the top of the bottom plate, to vent the break
in the pile formed by the expansion of the
O-cells. The pipes were filled with water
prior to the start of the test.
An auger and bucket were used for drilling
and cleaning the pile tips respectively. The rein-
forcing cage with attached O-cell was inserted
into the excavation and temporarily supported
from the steel casing. Concrete was then deliv-
ered by tremie into the base of the pile until the
top of the concrete reached piling platform level.
Using the procedures described in [2], equiva-
lent top load curves for the test piles were con-
structed, with the CEMSOLVE Method (Fig .3).
924 F. Rodríguez Ballesteros et al. / Design, Load Tests & Completion of Bored Piles 80 m Depth

base resistances reduced values were attributed to

Figure 2. Tremmie tube hole
In all the cases, the jack stroke ( 140 mm)
was developed by the downward pile part in the
majority of cases (130 – 135 mm). Therefore the
upward shaft resistance could not be developed
except –perhaps– in the vicinity of the O-cell.
that the bucket used for these piles construction
was not the best for this kind of soil. This led to
introduce a big force in the perforation device,
which might have cause disturbance in the shaft
and, especially, in the pile toe. The bucket was
changed to a big one in the other piles.
In Figure 5 the values of f deduced from O-
Cell Tests and the design values finally adopted
are indicated. The design value for point resis-
tance below elev.+28 was:
q  9 × CU(Triaxial) = 3.5 MPa
At service loads, the settlement deduced from
O-Cell Tests in Working Piles were beteen 5.3
and 12.8 mm (Table 4)
4 PILES IN THE NAVIGABLE CHANNEL.
CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

O-Cell CEMSOLVE Estimation

4.1 Preliminary works
Load (MN) Pile Tests In the known as "Navigable channel" of the
32 river, 96 bored piles were executed with a diame-
ter of 2000 mm. All the piles were grouped into
28 TP7 four piers of 24 piles each, with lengths ranging
between 58 and 80 meters. All piles were exe-
24 cuted under a permanent casing of 27 meters long
TP6 and 12 mm thick, weighing about 18 tons each.
20
TP4

16
TP2

12
TP1

8
TP3
4

0
0 5 10 15 20
Settlement (mm)

Figure 3. Top Load Curves deduced from Tests

Figure 4. Piles in the Navigable Chanel
Consequently, these values (Table 3) are con-
sidered more representative of the shaft resis-
tance than those further away from the O-Cell
The Test piles TP1 and TP3 were the first two
piles executed of the six trial piles tested. Their
 F. Rodríguez Ballesteros et al. / Design, Load Tests & Completion of Bored Piles 80 m Depth 925

Table 3. O-Cell Tests on 1.2m diameter Trial Piles. Summary of results

Max- mobilised
Maximum Ultimate strengths
Elevation (m) Maximum Unit Skin Friction
Displacements (mm) CEMSOLVE Analysis
Test Bi-directional Str. Gauges f (kPa)
Pile Load (MN) Point Resistance Load (1)
O-Cell Up Down Up Down
Toe q (MPa) P(MN)
TP1 - 17.6 - 8.0 8.32 7.9 138.1 230 158 1.185 16.60
TP2 - 30.0 -16.1 8.8 6.1 105.8 170 115 4.520 18.50
TP3 - 17.9 - 8.0 5.29 7.1 132.8 91 113 1.565 9.70
TP4 - 30.0 -17.4 10.8 6.0 131.7 130 120 4.100 24.70
TP6 - 35.0 -17.0 9.9 10.2 145.5 > 120 85 5.500 27.65
TP7 - 35.0 -17.0 12.7 10.1 144.1 120 160 5.050 35.20
(1) At Settlement = 0.1×diameter = 120 mm
Table 4. O-Cell Tests on Working Piles. Summary of results.
Max- mobilised
Max. Ultimate strengths
Pile Elevation (m) Unit Skin Friction
D Bi-dir CEMSOLVE Analysis
Length Str. Gauges f (kPa)
Test Load
(m) Pile Working Settl.(mm)
(m) O-Cell (MN) Up Down
Toe Load (MN) at WL
TP8 2.0 56.5 -31.2 -16.6 12.8 17.4 8.3
No Str. Gauges
TP9 2.0 35.0 + 2.5 5.0 3.05
TP10 2.0 76.5 -43.5 -20.1 14.3 151 119 24.0 12.8
TP11 1.5 50.0 +1.7 +14.0 7.1 89 90 7.8 5.3

O-Cell Tests
CEMSOLVE Analysis Skin Friction f (kPa)
60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
8
4
0
Elevation h (m)

-4
-8
-12
-16
TP3 TP2 TP4 TP1 TP7
-20
-24
-28
TP6
-32
-36 Design values

Figure 5. Skin friction of bored piles in Pliocene Clays

926 F. Rodríguez Ballesteros et al. / Design, Load Tests & Completion of Bored Piles 80 m Depth
A temporary cargo port was constructed for
loading equipment on barges. The mooring of the
pontoon was made with four concrete blocks of
23 tons, placed in the river bottom. They had a
larger plant area than height, to not allow the
overturning in case of strong flows.
In order to avoid possible shock of the barge
on piles already completed, the piling was started
by the upstream pile file, following downstream.
So, in the case of an accidental breakage of a
cable tie, the barge always moves with the river
flow and not hurt the completed piles.
Bargage River flow
Anchor
Bargage
Anchor
Figure 6. Barge anchor and pile execution order pile
The welding between the different sections of
the casing was made in the ‘Precast Casting yard’
of the works, placed 3 km downstream from the
bridge. The casings were transported in two 500
tons barges with 40 m long by 9.5 m wide, pulled
by a tugboat. Once the barge were moored to the
main barge, it proceeded to the positioning of the
main barge. For driving the 27-meter long
casings a metallic structure was available,
specially designed for guidance purposes
4.2 Piles excecution
Bentonite mud was used for the containment of
the borehole walls below the permanent casings.
A RT-3 drill head attached to a lattice crane was
used. In order to ensure the cleanliness of the
bottom of the excavation, the excavation bucket
for clays was changed for a cleaning one. The
cleaning was completed with an air lift through
the tremie pipe, connected to the mud pump, and
pumping air into the pile tip. Thus, the bentonite
was recirculating for 3/4 hours to collect all the
soil detritus suspended in the pile excavation.
After finishing the assembly of the cage and
holding it on the casing’s top, a second air lift
was done. The concrete was formulated for 2.5
hours of workability and the beginning of the
setting for 6 hours.
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis of the O-Cell Test results some
conclusions were derived concerning the design
of bored piles against axial loads in these high
plasticity overconsolidated clays:
x The values of shaft (f) and point resistances
(q) deduced from the Pile Tests were placed
between those obtained from the triaxial
tests and from the pressiometric tests.
x The correlation between ultimate values
from loading tests and the undrained shear
strength matched to the limiting values es-
tablished in the specialized literature and
common standards for this kind of soils.
With "traditional" Methods carefully
implemented, it was possible to make bored piles
of magnitudes much higher than usual: 80 meters
long and 2.0 meters diameter in a very mighty
river stream without traffic affections.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ministry of Transport, Information Technology
and Communications. Republic of Bulgaria.
J. Ruiz Cabrero, FCC Site Manager
I. Diaz de Argote, FCC Design Coordinator
F. Flórez , FCC Head of Site Technical Office
M. England, LOAD TEST.
REFERENCES
[1] BS 8004:1986
[2] Fleming, W.G.K., (1992) “A new method for single pile
settlement prediction and analysis”, Geotechnique 42,
No3, pp. 411-425.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 927
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-927

Pile Integrity Testing Developments

Développements du contrôle de pieu
par les méthodes impulsionelles
A.J.G. Schellingerhout 1, A.J. van Rietschoten-Rietveld
Profound BV

ABSTRACT
Low strain integrity testing is a widely used method for the quality control of concrete piles. The detection of pile defects with
this method strongly depends on the length of the generated stress wave. However, when the stress wave is too short the wave
propagation will be a three dimensional wave propagation which is conflicting with the standard signal interpretation
method that is based on the one dimensional wave theory.
This paper gives an overview of a number of three dimensional effects and proposes two parameters to determine the
validity of the interpretation method based on the one dimensional wave theory. Based on this, analysis guidelines can be
derived for the optimized use of hammers in order to stay in the realm of the standard low strain integrity testing interpretation
method.

RÉSUMÉ
La méthode de contrôle d'intégrité des pieux par réflexion ou impédance est largement utilisée pour l'auscultation d'un pieu en
béton. La détection des défauts des pieux avec cette méthode dépend fortement de la longueur de l'onde plane générée.
Toutefois, lorsque l'onde plane est trop courte, sa propagation sera une propagation tridimensionnelle, ce qui est en conflit avec
la méthode standard d'interprétation du signal, qui est basée sur la théorie d'onde unidimensionnelle.
Cet article donne un aperçu d'un certain nombre d'effets tridimensionnels et propose deux paramètres afin de
déterminer la validité de la méthode d'interprétation basée sur la théorie d'onde unidimensionnelle. En se basant sur cette théorie,
les règles d'analyse peuvent être obtenues pour l'utilisation optimisée des marteaux, afin de rester dans le domaine de la méthode
standard d'interprétation du contrôle de pieu par les méthodes impulsionelles.

Keywords: low strain integrity testing, one dimensional wave equation, three dimensional effects, stress wave, shock wave,
impulse hammer, pile integrity testing

1 INTRODUCTION measurement is performed by hitting the pile

Pile quality is very often determined by
performing a low strain integrity test directly
after pile driving or within days after installation
of cast-in-situ piles. Testing can point out which
piles require further examination. The
1
Corresponding Author.
head with a hand-held hammer and measuring
the response of the head with an accelerometer.
For each pile multiple signals should be acquired
for proper evaluation. Nowadays there is a large
choice of reliable measuring equipment which
can be used to perform these measurements on
928 A.J.G. Schellingerhout and A.J. van Rietschoten-Rietveld / Pile Integrity Testing Developments
the construction site. The measured signals are
interpreted using the one dimensional wave
theory.
The low strain integrity test is a quick, non-
destructive test to detect pile defects which can
possibly reduce the bearing capacity. This me-
thod measures the integrity of the pile and cannot
be used to estimate the bearing capacity of piles.
The sensitivity of the measurement method is
dependent on the length of the hammer generated
stress wave. Defects that are of a smaller size
than the generated wave length are reduced in
amplitude in the measured signal, as is discussed
in Schellingerhout [1].
In general, the blow should therefore be a
sharp and narrow pulse with a high frequency
content. When the generated wave is too short,
the one dimensional approximation is no longer
valid and cannot be used any longer for the
interpretation, as three dimensional effects will
occur. Several three dimensional wave effects
must be reduced for an accurate analysis.
2 ORIGINS OF THREE DIMENSIONAL
EFFECTS
A number of three dimensional effects can occur
while performing a sonic integrity test. These can
be caused by the geometrical dispersion, pile
diameter changes or the stress wave length.
2.1 Geometrical dispersion
The wave velocity in a slender pile is given by
the equation:
E hand held hammer is much smaller than the
c (1)

with:
c = the wave velocity [m/s]
E = Young’s modules [Pa]
ȡ = density [kg/m3]
Pochhammer [2] and Chree formulated an
analytic solution for the wave propagation in a
semi-infinite elastic cylindrical rod. This analytic
solution shows a geometric dispersion of the
wave velocity and leads to a reduction of the
wave velocity for higher frequencies. This
reduction has a small dependency on the Poisson
constant of the material. The results of these
calculations are shown in Benetar [3]. Wave
lengths of four times the pile diameter have
about a 10 % reduced wave velocity compared to
the wave velocity given in equation (1). At even
shorter wave lengths the reduction is about 40 %.
2.2 Pile diameter changes
A pile defect is detected in an integrity test
signal, because the wave reflects on a change in
pile impedance. The biggest change in
impedance is obviously the end of a free pile or
fixed end, which leads to the full reflection of the
traveling wave.
During the interpretation the impedance
change is usually attributed to a change in pile
diameter (area) and not to a change in material
parameters. A change in pile diameter can lead to
three dimensional effects which where studied in
small plastic piles by Schellingerhout [4]. This
study shows that these three dimensional effects
lead to an increase in the reflected amplitude of
the wave improving the detection of defects in
the signal. This result is positive for the
discovery of defects, but results in an
overestimation of the size of the defect in the one
dimensional wave theory.
2.3 Stress wave length
The stress wave is generated in the pile by the
blow of a small hammer. The diameter of the
diameter of the pile. This leads to strong three
dimensional effects which were studied by Chow
et al. [5] in three dimensional finite element
models as well as in field studies. One of their
conclusions is not to place the acceleration
sensor in the vicinity of the place of impact of
the hammer, as is also prescribed in the French
code on integrity testing NF P94-160-4 [6]. A
transition distance is necessary to minimize these
effects especially for large piles.
 A.J.G. Schellingerhout and A.J. van Rietschoten-Rietveld / Pile Integrity Testing Developments 929

3 PARAMETERS c t 50%
3D  (2)
All day to day measurements are still interpreted D
with the one dimensional wave theory. To be
sure this interpretation is valid, two parameters 3D = cross over parameter
are relevant. c = wave velocity [m/s]
t50% = blow duration when the loading pulse
3.1 Parameter t50% exceeds 50% of the max. value [s]
D = pile diameter [m]
The first parameter is t50% which defines the
hammer blow duration at half of the maximum This 3D parameter is the ratio of the stress
value, as is shown in figure 1. Usually the soil wave length to the diameter of the pile. For
damping is low at the pile top and in that case, square piles an effective diameter is suggested
the velocity signal can also be used for this mea- which has the same area as an equivalent round
surement of t50%. pile.
Thus it is possible to obtain this parameter
from integrity tests without an instrumented The impulse of the hammer blow can be given
force hammer. The duration is the preferred by:
parameter, because this is the most relevant
parameter for the impact of the hammer on the
pile head. $ F (t ) d t  2 m h vimpact (3)

Pile head velocity as function of time F(t) = force as a function of time on the pile
50 head [N]
t50% = 0.30 ms
mh = mass of the hammer [kg]
40 vimpact = impact velocity of the hammer [m/s]
30
v impact [mm/s]

Equation (3) is valid when there are no energy

20
losses during the impact. The energy loss in the
plastic of the hammer head and the loss caused
10 by the generated stress wave can be neglected
which makes this equation a sufficiently accurate
0
approximation.
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

time [ms] With equation (2) and (3) and a low soil
damping at the pile top, the pile head velocity
Figure 1. The hammer blow on a pile and the definition of can be approximated by:
t50%.
8 1 mh
The definition of the parameter t50% has also vp  v (4)
been described in the Dutch CUR code on Sonic  3D  D 3 impact
Integrity Testing of concrete foundation piles [7].
vp = pile head velocity [m/s]
3.2 3D parameter mh = mass of the hammer [kg]
vimpact = impact velocity of the hammer [m/s]
The second parameter is given in the following
ȡ = density [kg/m3]
equation:
D = pile diameter [m]
930 A.J.G. Schellingerhout and A.J. van Rietschoten-Rietveld / Pile Integrity Testing Developments
Equation (4) shows that the pile head
velocity vp strongly depends on the pile diameter.
The t50% of the hammer impact can be
derived from mathematical models of the hand
held hammer. If the hammer is modeled with a
mass spring combination, the t50% is about 1/3
of the resonance time and independent of the
impact velocity.
A better approximation for t50% can be
obtained by using the Hertz theory of impact
which predicts a dependency on the impact
duration with the impact velocity. This theory is
also given in Timosheko [8].
t50% as a function of hammer impact velocity
0.6
0.55
0.5
t50% [ms]
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0 1 2 3 4 5
vimpact [m/s]
Figure 2. Parameter t50% as a function of the hammer impact
velocity. This measurement is executed with a 0.65 kg
hammer with nylon caps on a precast concrete pile with a
smooth surface. The continuous line is the Hertz prediction.
4 DISCUSSION
The proposed parameter 3D can be used to
obtain an optimal detection of defects and at the
same time to verify the validity of the use of the
one dimensional interpretation method. The
geometric effects suggest that the 3D parameter
must be between 3 and 4 which is not a very
sharp optimum.
If the 3D parameter is significantly higher
than 4, a reduced detection of defects will occur
but the one dimensional wave theory can be
applied.
The results of Chow et al.[5] must be
reviewed with a constant 3D parameter, because
their calculations used a constant input pulse
duration while changing the diameter of the pile.
The previously discussed geometric effects affect
their calculations as well. This analysis also sug-
gests an optimum value for 3D between 3 and 4.
Their conclusion about the transition distance
between the point of impact of the hammer and
the placement of the accelerometer remains un-
changed.
Only t50% can be optimized to obtain the
optimum value for 3D. This implies a range of
hammers with a different impact duration,
because this value is relatively constant for a
hammer. A large diameter pile needs a hammer
generating a longer t50%. Equation (4) also
Hertz theory (vimpact)-0.2
shows that the hammer mass must increase to
measurements
have an acceptable pile head velocity vp. The
range of impact velocities vimpact is limited by the
user, so an increase in hammer mass is helpful
for obtaining a good signal to noise ratio.
However, there will be a reduction in amplitude
because a constant value of vp would result in a
hammer too heavy to be convenient for field
6 7 8 applications.
The t50% can also be increased by electronic
filtering of the measured signal. This method
leads to suboptimal results, because the resulting
acceleration levels must be higher, which
therefore results in a lower quality signal.
However, most important is that a longer t50%
during the impact needs a less stiff hammer,
which as a result has a much bigger contact area.
This reduces the stress levels in hammer and pile
and also reduces the three dimensional effects as
studied in Chow [5].
Pile : 101- 2 06/10/2010
v = 7.1 mm/s
t50% = 0.31 ms
0 2 4 6 8 10
c = 4200 m/s l = 8.60 m fil = 0.10 ms exp : 2 V 7.93 auto
Figure 3. A measured integrity test signal with a t50% of
0.31 ms. The filter has a t50% of 0.10 ms.
 A.J.G. Schellingerhout and A.J. van Rietschoten-Rietveld / Pile Integrity Testing Developments
5 CONCLUSIONS
 The parameters t50% and 3D can be
calculated for every integrity test. These
parameters give information about the
applicability of the one dimensional wave
theory and, if optimized during the
measurement, maximize the detection of
pile defects in the generated signal.
 The quality of an integrity test can be
improved by using the optimal hammer for
a pile diameter. This will lead to better
signals, which are the basis for further
interpretation and signal comparison by an
experienced engineer. Engineers can also
make use of additional analysis software.
As discussed, using the optimal hammer is
a much better approach than adjusting the
duration of the hammer blow by electronic
filtering in the post processing of the
signal. This latter method leads to much
higher acceleration levels which reduces
the signal quality. To cover a range of pile
diameters several hammers are necessary.
931
REFERENCES
[1] A.J.G. Schellingerhout and T.K. Muller, Detection
Limits of Integrity Testing, Proceedings of the fifth
International Conference On The Application of Stress-
Wave Theory to Piles (1996), 960-964.
[2] L. Pochhammer, Biegung des Kreiscylinders-
Fortpflanzungs-Geschwindigkeit kleiner Schwingungen
in einem Kreiscylinder. Journal für die reine
angewandte Mathematik 81 (1876), 324-336.
[3] A. Benatar, D. Rittel, A.L. Yarin, Theoretical and
experimental analysis of longitudinal wave propagation
in cylindrical viscoelastic rods, Journal of the
Mechanics and Physics of solids 51 (2003), 1413-1431.
[4] A.J.G. Schellingerhout, Quantifying pile defects by
integrity testing. Proceedings of the fourth Internation-
al Conference On The Application of Stress-Wave
Theory to Piles (1992), 319-324.
[5] Y.K. Chow, K.K. Phoon and W.F. Chow, Three-
Dimensional Stress Wave Analysis of Pile Integrity
Tests, Proceedings of the seventh International
Conference On The Application of Stress-wave Theory
to Piles (2004), 83-93.
[6] Association Francaise de Normalisation, NFP 94-160-4
Auscultation d'un élément de fondation. Partie IV -
Méthode par impédance, AFNOR (Mars 1994).
[7] CURNET, CUR-aanbeveling AA109 Akoestisch
doormeten van betonnen funderingspalen (in Dutch),
CURNET (2007).
[8] S.P. Timoshenko, J.N. Goodier, Theory of Elasticity,
p. 420-421, McGraw-Hill, Singapore, 3 rd edition 1982.
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 933
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-933

Capacity of rock sockets in weak mud/siltstone

La capacité de douilles de roche dans faible mud/siltstone
J. S. Steenfelt 1, J. Abild
COWI A/S Denmark

ABSTRACT
Ruwais Sulphur Expansion Phase III in Abu Dhabi is part of a multi-billion dollars investment in Ruwais Industrial Complex. To
meet the increased sulphur export demand the existing loading facility was expanded. The marine facilities consist of a quadrant
beam and a pivot foundation for the ship loader, four mooring and four breasting dolphins. All structural elements are founded
on raking steel piles rock socketed into the weak mudstone/siltstone bedrock. The paper describes the design of the piles (Ø762,
914 and 1067 mm) and in particular the pile load test set-up and the inferences from the load testing. It is concluded that the rock
socket capacity is well over predictions by current design methods and it is demonstrated that the recommended tension pull out
capacity referring to ground anchor design is extremely conservative.

RÉSUMÉ
La Phase III d'extension du complexe d'exportation de souffre de Ruwais à Abou Dhabi fait partie d'un investissement global de
plusieurs milliards de dollars sur le site industriel de Ruwais. Afin de satisfaire la demande accrue en soufre, les installations de
chargement existantes ont été élargies. Les installations maritimes consistent en une poutre quadrant et une fondation en pivot
pour la grue de chargement des navires, quatre duc d'albe d'amarrage et de quatre ducs d'albe d'accostage. Tous les éléments sont
fondés sur des pieux en acier inclinés ancrés dans substratum rocheux. si qu'une partie de la roche ont été dragués avant l'instal-
lation de pieux afin d'obtenir un tirant d'eau suffisant pour les navires. Cet article décrit les éléments pris en compte pour la con-
ception des pieux, notamment le test de chargement de pieux mis en place et les conclusions de ces tests. Il a été démontré que la
capacité de résistance observée est bien supérieure à celle obtenue par les méthodes de calcul actuelles et il est démontré en par-
ticulier que la capacité en tension recommandée pour les calculs des pieux ancrés dans le substratum rocheux est extrêmement
conservatrice.

Rock sockets, Pile capacity, Pile loading tests, cone pull out, weak rock, Mudstone, Siltstone

1 PROJECT & GROUND CONDITIONS
The layout of the sulphur loading facility appears
from Figure 1. The marine works, comprising the
loading facility and the mooring systems for the
vessel, are all founded on inclining (1:4) steel
piles rock socketed into the weak bedrock. For
the onshore part of the quadrant beam the bed-
rock is overlain by soft marine sand deposits.
Offshore these deposits have been removed by
capital dredging exposing the bedrock surface.
The available offshore boreholes giving the
overall stratigraphy and the strength in terms of
UCS values are seen in Figure 2.

1
Corresponding Author.
934 J.S. Steenfelt and J. Abild / Capacity of Rock Sockets in Weak Mud/Siltstone
Figure 1. Layout of sulphur loading facility (new marine
works within circle. The dome has a diameter of 148 m).
Figure 2. Plan of area with available offshore boreholes and
capital dredging extent.
Note that the mooring dolphins and the quadrant
beam are situated on the dredged slope, whereas
the breasting dolphins are at the basin at level -
15 mCD. The level onshore is +5 mCD.
All concrete works were made as precast
shells subsequently filled with in situ concrete.
This allowed for proper quality control onshore
and reduced risks and lifting weights considera-
bly. On the same token it was decided to use a
special kind of rock sockets for the tubular steel
piles in order to allow for fast offshore produc-
tion. The production of the piles was as follows:
 Drive a temporary casing into the top of
bedrock
 Core a rock socket to the designated depth
 Flush and clean the rock socket
 Fill the rock socket with tremie concrete
 Vibrate the steel pile with external shear
keys into the wet concrete (spacers on out-
side to ensure central position in socket)
 Fill annulus between temporary casing and
steel pile with sand (to top of marine de-
posits)
 Retract temporary casing and support pile
head to already placed piles.
The piles were fitted with shear keys per 0.5 m to
ensure that shear deformation would take place
between the concrete/rock interface rather than
the concrete/steel interface.
The main advantage over traditional rock
sockets - where a reinforcement case is installed
in the hole before tremie concreting - is that the
steel pile solution allows immediate progress
without having to wait extensively for curing of
the concrete.
The bedrock is predominantly Siltstone/ Clay-
stone, Mudstone/Sandstone and Calcarenite/Cal-
cisiltite with varying degree of crystalline Gyp-
sum as nodules and layers. The values of uncon-
fined compressive strength, c, from the offshore
boreholes are shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. UCS values from offshore boreholes
The average value of all 65 UCS tests is c =
4.12 MPa and the (5% fractile) characteristic
mean value for the 46 non-Gypsum tests is 2.25
MPa. The values and the distribution are borne
out by nearby sites (1.7 and 3.3 km distance
within the area) with similar number of UCS
tests and statistical distribution from offshore
boreholes.
The properties of the soft marine deposits are
disregarded here, as only the axial capacity of the
rock sockets is considered in the paper.
 J.S. Steenfelt and J. Abild / Capacity of Rock Sockets in Weak Mud/Siltstone
2 BASIS FOR ROCK SOCKET DESIGN
In the assessment of the axial capacity of the
rock sockets a number of specific questions had
to be addressed:
 Characterization of ground properties (see
above)
 Theoretical basis for shaft (and toe) bearing
 Rock socket diameter: pile or socket?
 Tension cone pull out scenario
 Loading tests for verification or optimization
 Feasible loading test set-up
2.1 Pile design methodology
The nearby 3rd NGL Train Trestle was founded
on similar types of piles, albeit without external
shear keys. Unfortunately, the load test carried
out on the 7 m long Ø1.067 m pile in an Ø1.087
m rock socket (max load 6.4 MN or ult = 268
kPa) was very far from failure with a maximum
displacement at the top of rock socket of 0.4 mm.
A standard rock socket Ø1.067 m was subse-
quently tested to failure at the site with a maxi-
mum residual shaft load of 16.5 MN (ult = 703
kPa) at 35 mm displacement. In this context it is
interesting that API (2000) advocates a charac-
teristic cut off value of 525 kPa for the steel-
concrete interface.
The testing was carried out to validate the de-
sign using the approach by Tomlinson (1994),
based on UCS and RQD which would give a
shaft capacity of 6.4 MN where the Fleming et al
(1992), based on UCS would give 9.8 MN.
Despite some shortcomings the tests provided
sufficient information to confidently use the ap-
proach by Fleming et al (1992) in the current de-
sign with c,char = 2.25 MPa:
c such a failure mode.
 ult  0.41( MPa)  0.615 MPa
1 MPa
To limit the displacements the design of the piles
was based on (1), disregarding any contribution
from end bearing. It was assumed that the dis-
placement to develop the shaft adhesion would in
935
COWI's experience be of the order 6±4 mm, but
values up to 2% of D are suggested in the litera-
ture.
The relationship between mobilized and ulti-
mate shear stress along the shaft may tentatively
be expressed (Brinch Hansen, 1965) as:
 mob 4# mob
 (2)
 ult 3# mob  # ult
where mob, ult are the mobilized shear stresses at
displacements of #mob, #ult, respectively.
2.2 Tension cone pull out
The pile design was discussed at length with the
Client representative. It was agreed that (1) could
be used for the design of the rock sockets pro-
vided that the steel piles were fitted with external
shear keys per 0.5 m. This alleviates any risk of
potential steel/concrete rather than concrete/rock
interface displacement irrespective of develop-
ment of cracks along the pile/concrete interface
during curing.
However, the question of tension capacity was
not resolved, in that the Client was of the opinion
that the methodology for ground anchors with
tension cone pull-out should be considered
(BS8081, 1989). The philosophy is that the ten-
sion capacity can not exceed the weight of
ground material limited by a cone with an apex
angle of 60° or 90° from the midpoint of the ac-
tive anchor length (here the total rock socket).
For piles with no overburden this is an ex-
tremely onerous requirement, which may well be
merited for the rather flexible ground anchors but
in the opinion of the Designer not for piles which
are orders of magnitude stiffer and will not allow
(1) As a compromise the pile design length was
extended by some 1.5 m for the Breasting Dol-
phins corresponding to a cone apex angle of 90°
from the midpoint of the rock socket, but allow-
ing for full adhesion on the lower half of the rock
socket, pending verification by testing. For the
936 J.S. Steenfelt and J. Abild / Capacity of Rock Sockets in Weak Mud/Siltstone
remaining piles this cone pull out criterion was
not decisive for the socket length.
2.3 Pile loading test set-up
The previous loading test on the type of rock
socket chosen was not ideal and hence an inno-
vative testing set-up was developed. The princi-
ple is shown in Figure 4.
The Contractor opted for an "O-cell" housed
in the special pile top, seen in Figure 4c, where
the lower part is welded onto the test pile and the
top part is bolted onto the lower part after insert-
ing the "O-cell" in a special housing.
Figure 4. Loading test set-up; (a) Principle; (b) test pile with
reaction pile inserted; (c) Pile head with housing for "O-cell"
and LVDT-instrumentation
The overall idea is to transfer the O-cell load si-
multaneously to the test pile (moving up) in real
tension and the slightly shorter reaction pile in-
side, moving down and utilizing both end and
shaft bearing. For the purpose of the test only the
outside shaft adhesion on the test pile is mobi-
lized to avoid interference with the reaction pile,
whereas the working piles will also have con-
crete on the inside. The concrete is stopped from
entering the space between the test and reaction
piles by foam (rubber stop).
The instrumentation consisted of the "O-cell"
itself where the pressure, i.e. the load and the
relative movement of the top and bottom of the
O-cell are measured. One of the advantages of
the developed set-up is that the "O-cells" can be
re-used as they can be retrieved after the test.
A reaction frame independent of the test set-
up (seen on Figure 4c for the onshore test) al-
lowed measurement of the axial (two LVDTs at
180° arrangement) and transverse movement
(two LVDTs at 90° arrangement) of the pile
head. The vertical movements of the reaction
frame, due to temperature variations, although
shaded throughout the test period, were meas-
ured by two digital survey levels from a distance
of some 8 m in the onshore test and by an on-
shore total station in the offshore testing.
Five sets of two extensometer tubes at 180°
arrangement were welded onto the test pile (over
the length of the active rock socket) and fitted
with extensometer rods allowing monitoring of
relative displacement by LVDTs on the top of
the tubes. The bottom of the tubes were placed to
allow the relative socket displacement at 0/4 (1,
1'), 1/4 (2, 2'), 2/4 (3, 3'), 3/4 (4, 4') and 4/4 (5,
5') distance along the rock socket to be meas-
ured.
For the three types of piles Ø762 mm, Ø914
mm and Ø1067 mm, the drilled socket diameters
were 1000, 1160 and 1400 mm, respectively.
3 ONSHORE TEST OF Ø914 MM PILE
Owing to the set-up the test results are basically
a net tension load and corresponding rock socket
extension of the 6 m long rock socket at five dif-
ferent levels. Unfortunately, the extensometer
tubes (5, 5') at the top of rock socket were only
welded to the pile at this level and hence the
 J.S. Steenfelt and J. Abild / Capacity of Rock Sockets in Weak Mud/Siltstone 937

elastic elongation of the 11.3 m free length of the rock socket a best fit line through the re-
pile between the top of the rock socket/trial pile corded displacements was used to provide inter-
and the point of recording of the pile head dis- polated values over the bottom metre as summa-
placement can only be estimated based on the rized in Figure 6 for load steps 1 and 2 in the first
elastic properties of the steel tube as seen in Fig- load cycle and 8, 12 and 14 in the second load
ure 5. cycle.

5 1000
Net head - elastic displacement
2L-14

Mobilized shear stress (kPa)

Elongation of rock socket
Pile head displacement (mm)

4 2L-12
800 2L-8
1L-4
3 1L-2
600

2
400
1

200
0

0
-1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Tension load on trial pile (MN) Depth below top of trial pile (m)

Figure 5. Top of rock socket displacement and elongation of Figure 6. Inferred shear stress distribution along rock socket
rock socket as a function of trial pile tension load assuming ult = 832 kPa and using #ult = 3.22 mm
Based on the extensometer measurements the Other interpretations are also possible assuming
maximum elongation of the rock socket is 3.55 higher values of ult and ult.
mm at the maximum tension load of 15.59 MN. Due to limitations in the capacity of the test
The standard value of E = 21 104 MPa for steel set-up, it was unfortunately not possible to find
would give a value of 3.14 mm upward move- the ultimate capacity despite loading the trial
ment at the top of rock socket. It seems likely socket to 3.6 times the maximum working load
that the elastic modulus is slightly higher than for the Ø914 mm pile. Based on the estimated ult
the guaranteed value and a value of 22.6 104 = 832 kPa along the total rock socket surface the
MPa was therefore applied in Figure 5. maximum capacity would be 18.2 MN.
The figure shows hysteresis for the rock During the holding time of 60 minutes for the
socket and surprisingly also for the free pile maximum load the creep rate was as low as 0.07
length. The latter is most likely associated with mm/log cycle of time compared to 2 mm/log cy-
the inclination of the pile and slight out of plumb cle of time which is often used as a substitute
status combined with initial stress set up in the failure criterion for ground anchors and piles.
pile (could possibly explain the "negative" dis-
placements during the first load-unload loop).
The shear stresses developed along the rock 4 OFFSHORE ROCK SOCKET TESTS
socket were evaluated based on zero displace-
ment at the bottom of the rock socket, an ulti- Despite using the same set-up, pile installation
mate shear strength of ult =832 kPa, correspond- technique, software and instrumentation the ex-
ing to c = 4.12 MPa in Eq (1) or #ult = 3.55 mm tensometer readings for the offshore tests on
in Eq. (2) (equivalent to the maximum rock Ø762 mm and Ø1067 mm piles were completely
socket elongation). unreliable. Despite concerted efforts the source
The axial, upwards displacement of the rock of the error was not found and hence only the to-
socket was found from the extensometer read- tal tension capacity can be evaluated from these
ings. To allow a more differentiated account of tests. Due to the extensive weight of the test as-
the shear stress distribution near the bottom of sembly the Ø1067 mm pile was tested as a verti-
938 J.S. Steenfelt and J. Abild / Capacity of Rock Sockets in Weak Mud/Siltstone

cal pile whereas the Ø762 mm pile was inclined tion of the cone pull out criterion using a 90°
1:4 as the working piles. cone from midpoint of rock socket and full adhe-
For both piles a slight miscalculation by the Con- sion below.
tractor resulted in a concrete level slightly above Table 1.Summary of test capacities compared with design
the toe of the temporary casing. In the evaluation and cone pull out criterion
of the net tension load the weight of the pile head Pile di- Socket Working1 Test Failure?2 Cone pull
and the pile above rock socket is of course sub- ameter diameter load load out3
tracted. Furthermore, the effective weight of (mm) (mm) (MN) (MN) (MN) (MN)
concrete above the toe of the temporary casing 762 1000 1.97 7.2 10.5 5.5 [3.4]
914 1200 3.78 13.6 18.2 -
and the casing itself is subtracted. Thus, the net 1067 1400 5.99 19.0 38.4 22.7 [14.3]
tension load was 7.18 MN at about 2 mm dis- 1
Unfactored; 2char = 832 kPa,& socket diameter; 390° cone
placement at the top of rock socket for the Ø762 from midpoint, socket diameter & char = 832 kPa (values in
mm pile and 19.0 MN at 5 mm displacement for brackets are design values)
the Ø1067 mm pile.
From the near linear load/displacement curve
for the Ø1067 mm pile (1400 mm rock socket) in 6 CONCLUSIONS
Figure 7 it is apparent that the capacity is far
from exhausted. The trial pile testing was carried out to achieve a
10
tension load of three times the working load or
failure, whichever came first. In all three cases
the max load was far from the failure load. The
Axial - elastic free pile (mm)

onshore pile allowed inference on the develop-

6
4
2 kPa (corresponding to the average unconfined
0 veloped at a minimum displacement of 3.2 mm.
-2
0 5 10
Gross O-cell load (MN)
Figure 7. Displacement of top of rock socket versus gross O-
cell load for Ø1067 mm offshore trial pile load test
The initial negative values of displacement are a
function of built-in stresses when placing the pile
and non-linearity in the steel material?
In line with the interpretation of the onshore
trial pile a minimum of 3.2 mm displacement
would be required to fully develop the shear ca-
pacity of the rock socket, which only occurred at
the very top of the socket.
5 INTERPRETATION OF TESTS
The results of the three rock socket tests are
summarized in Table 1 together with the evalua-
ment of shear stresses along the rock socket.
Based on these observations it was found that a
minimum characteristic shear stress of  = 832
compressive strength of the rock) could be de-
The testing demonstrates the efficiency of the
15 20
shear keys as this allows calculation of capacity
based on rock socket diameter rather than steel
pile diameter.
By a large margin it is demonstrated that the
cone uplift scenario based on ground anchorages
is extremely conservative, even when including
shear capacity on the lower half of the socket.
REFERENCES
[1] API (2000). Recommended Practice for Planning, De-
sign and Construction of Fixed Offshore Platforms -
Working Stress Design. 2A-WDS (RP 2A-WSD)
[2] BS8081:1989 (1989). British Standard Code of Prac-
tice for Ground Anchorages, pp 176. British Standard
Institution, London.
[3] Fleming, W.G.K. et al. (1992), Piling Engineering, 2nd
edition, Blackie & Son Ltd, ISBN 0-470-21825-8
[4] Tomlinson, M.J. (1994), Pile design and construction
practice, 4. edition, SPON Press. ISBN 0-419-18450-3
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 939
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-939

Effects of crushing on pile point bearing capacity

in sand tested in a geotechnical centrifuge
Les effets de l'écrasement sur la pile dirigent la portance en sa-
ble examiné dans une centrifugeuse géotechnique
R. Stoevelaar, A. Bezuijen1, H. van Lottum
Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands
A.F. van Tol
Deltares, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT
The pile tip bearing capacity in sand is tested at different depths and g-levels in a geotechnical centrifuge. Aim of the experi-
ments was to investigate the influence of crushing on the tip bearing capacity. Different installation techniques were applied.
Some piles were jacked with a constant velocity until a certain depth; other piles were also jacked but with sinus superimposed
on the constant displacement rate, so that the piles were lifted for 0.1 or 0.2 mm (model dimensions) before it were pushed fur-
ther. The last procedure was used to simulate the cyclic effect of pile driving (the dynamic effect was not simulated). Crushing
was found when the pile tip stress exceeded approximately 15 MPa. However, no significant effect on the bearing capacity could
be found.

RÉSUMÉ
La portance de bout de pile en sable est examinée à différents profondeurs et g-niveaux dans une centrifugeuse géotechnique. Le
but des expériences était d'étudier l'influence de l'écrasement sur la portance de bout. Les différentes techniques d'installation
étaient appliquées. Quelques piles ont été mises sur cric avec une vitesse constante jusqu'à une certaine profondeur, d'autres piles
ont été également mises sur cric mais avec le sinus superposé au taux volumétrique, de sorte que la pile ait été soulevée 0.1 ou
0.2 millimètre (dimensions modèles) avant qu'il ait été poussé plus loin. Le dernier procédé a été employé pour simuler l'effet
cyclique de l'entraînement de pile (l'effet dynamique n'a pas été simulé). L'écrasement a été trouvé quand l'effort de bout de pile
a dépassé MPA approximativement 15. Cependant, aucun effet significatif sur la portance n'a pu être trouvé.

Keywords: geotechnical centrifuge, pile bearing capacity, model tests, grain crushing, jacked piles, cyclic loading

1 INTRODUCTION (2007) has shown that jacked piles probably have

The evaluation of pile loading tests has shown
that driven piles, installed in sand at depth of
more than approximately 8 times the diameter,
have on average a 40% lower end bearing capac-
ity than predicted in the Dutch standard (NEN
6743-1: 2006). At smaller penetration depths
there is better agreement. Furthermore, Xu
a better end bearing capacity than driven piles,
but also Xu’s results for the jacked piles at larger
penetration depth are 10% lower than according
to the Dutch standard for driven piles.
Crushing of sand particles can be a possible
reason for the discrepancy between the Dutch
Standard and the measurements at installation
depths of more then 8 times the diameter, which

1
Corresponding Author.
940 R. Stoevelaar et al. / Effects of Crushing on Pile Point Bearing Capacity in Sand Tested
usually correspond with high stresses underneath
the tip. Crushing will lead to volume loss and
lower stresses underneath the pile tip and conse-
quently lower end bearing capacity.
To check the effect of crushing 10 centrifuge
tests on pile installation were performed, with
different g-levels, relative densities of the sand
and installation methods. The grain size distribu-
tion of the sand close to the pile was determined
before and after each test.
The paper describes briefly the context of the
tests, the set-up, the tests performed and the re-
sults, to end with conclusions.
2 DUTCH PILE LOAD TESTS
Under the authority of Delft Cluster and under
supervision of the CUR-committee: “H409-
Axially loaded piles” Deltares conducted a re-
search project investigating calculation methods
for the bearing capacity of vertically loaded piles
in sand using static pile load tests. A data set was
produced with 25 full scale, fully instrumented,
on-shore pile load tests on closed ended steel
piles and prefabricated concrete piles in quartz
sands (CUR 229, 2010).
The instrumentation of the piles made it pos-
sible to draw some conclusions for the shaft
bearing capacity and for the end bearing capacity
of the piles with respect to the current Dutch de-
sign standard NEN 6743-1. The test results sup-
port the design approach for shaft friction capac-
ity for these full displacement piles, however the
end bearing capacity according to the Dutch
method (Van Mierlo & Koppejan, 1952, De
Ruiter & Beringen, 1979) appeared to be de-
pendent on the penetration of the piles in the
sand layer. This aspect is not addressed in the
current design approach.
In the work of Xu (2007) also a lower bearing
capacity factor of 60% of the calculated value
was reported, based on analysis of a database for
closed ended piles. The database from the CUR –
committee showed a lot of scatter (as to be ex-
pected from field tests), but assuming a Gaussian
distribution with a standard deviation of 8 L/D
(L=length, D=diameter), it was found that a fit
through the data points results in a ratio meas-
ured/calculated of 1 for the piles tips at low
depths in the sand and 0.55 for the value at large
depth, see Figure 1, close to the values found by
Xu.
1.6
1.4
1.2
perfect fit
measured/calculated
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Length/Diameter in sand
Figure 1: Dependency of end bearing capacity to depth pile
into the sand layer. Calculated values according to the Dutch
standard.
3 TEST SET-UP
3.1 Model container and piles
The tests are carried out in four stacked Ø600
mm steel sand filled containers, mounted on an
assembly plate. The loading frame with the plun-
gers is mounted on top of the containers. The in-
strumented pile is connected to the plungers. The
complete test setup is presented in Figure 2.
The pile loading system consists of two plun-
gers connected in series. The first and biggest
plunger is fixed on the loading frame and is used
to install the pile (in flight) to the starting point
of the static pile loading program. The second
and smallest plunger is a loading plunger with a
stroke of 50 mm and is fixed to the plunger rod
of the first plunger. This second plunger is used
to perform the static pile loading program. The
instrumented pile is attached to the second plun-
ger. The slow movements during the static pile
loading programme (0.02 mm/s) can be easily
disturbed by the slip-stick effect when performed
with the plunger 1. Plunger 2 has a hydraulic
bearing system and is accurate within microns.
The pile had a length of 300 mm with a di-
ameter 11.3 mm.
A force transducer was placed on the pile tip
to measure the pile tip resistance during the tests.
 R. Stoevelaar et al. / Effects of Crushing on Pile Point Bearing Capacity in Sand Tested 941

The pile was placed 100 mm out of the centre
from the container, to allow 2 tests to be done in
one sand sample. In this way the influence of in-
stallation could be tested in the same sand sam-
ple. The first pile test has negligible influence on
the sand sample for the second test.
3.2 Loading programme
The loading programme was the same for all
tests and was as follows: Installation at 6 times
the pile diameter (D), removal of load, pile load-
ing test over 0.1D and then the same procedure at
a penetration of 12 and 24 D.
The pile installation procedure was different
in different tests. In all tests during the installa-
tion phases, the pile was pushed into the sand
with 1 mm/s. However, in Tests 2, 4, 6 and 8 a
sinus was superimposed on the constant rate of
penetration with a period of 1 s and amplitude of
0.25 mm. In Test 9 the amplitude was increased
up to 0.5 mm. This movement was chosen to si-
mulate the unloading and loading that occurs
during pile driving in the field.

3.3 Soil model

Baskarp sand with a d50 of 130 Pm was used for
the tests. In Table 1 the basic soil parameters are
shown for the Baskarp sand.
Table 1. Soil parameters Baskarp sand.
Parameter Value Dimension
Density grains 2,647 kg/m3
d10/d50/d90 90/130/200 Pm
Min./max porosity 34/46.9 %
Permeability at min. porosity 6.5*10-5 m/s
Figure 2. Test setup rapid pile loading centrifuge test. KAS 50 -
Friction angle at RD=50% 41 degr.

A soil model of homogeneous saturated sand,

with a pre-determined, constant, relative density,
was used to avoid uncertainties introduced by a
complicated soil model. The preparation of this
soil body was done by using wet sand raining to
make a loose sample. Next, the required density
is achieved by a controlled drop of the model
container (Rietdijk et al. 2010). Two relative
densities were used in the tests, around 65 % and
around 38%.

4 TESTS RESULTS

4.1 Overview
In total 10 tests were performed. The results of
the tests are summarized in Table 2. The table
Figure 3. Plunger system with two plungers shows the test number, the amplitude of the sinus
942 R. Stoevelaar et al. / Effects of Crushing on Pile Point Bearing Capacity in Sand Tested

with a period of one second (- when no sinus is
applied), the g level, the maximum tip force dur-
ing the loading tests at 6 D, 12 D and 24 D, the
ultimate penetration force during installation 24
Di and in the last column it is indicated if crush-
ing was measured after the test (- means not de-
termined).
Table 2. Tests performed and measured tip forces, see also
text.
that the crushing process does not really break a
particle in 2 equal halves, but more that small
parts break from the larger particles. Remarkable
is further that the largest particles (above the d70)
are hardly influenced by crushing. This is be-
cause these are relatively strong and because a
small part of 10 Pm breaking from a larger grain
of 150 Pm hardly influences the size of the larger
grain.
100

percentage passing sieve (%)

1
90
No Rel. Ampl. g Ftip Ftip; Ftip Ftip; C shaft
80
D. 6D 12D 24D 24Di - pile tip
70
% [mm] [-] [kN] [kN] [kN] [kN] random
1 61 - 40 0.58 1.03 1.45 1.82 N 60
2 65 0.25 40 0.46 0.73 1.27 1.45 N 50
3 66 - 80 0.74 1.22 2.11 2.44 Y 40
4 66 0.25 80 0.67 1.22 2.20 2.50 Y 30
5 38 - 80 0.31 0.47 0.70 0.81 N 20
6 38 0.25 80 0.25 0.39 0.63 0.76 N 10
7 65 - 40 0.39 0.65 1.41 1.71 -
0
8 65 0.25 40 0.43 - 1.52 1.75 Y
9 65 0.50 80 0.74 1.27 2.01 2.15 - 1 10 100
10 65 - 80 - - 2.21 2.50 Y Size (Pm)
1
C means crushing
Figure 4. Test 10, grain size distribution, far from the pile
(random) close to the shaft and close to the pile tip.
4.2 Crushing
4.3 Penetration resistance
To determine whether crushing had occurred,
sand samples were taken before the tests and The penetration resistance as a function of the
some samples close to the pile tip after the test. penetration depth is shown in Figure 5 for the
When crushing occurs, there is a shift to the tests with monotonic penetration in sand. To be
smaller grain sizes, see Figure 4. From Table 2 it able to compare tests at different g-levels the pe-
appeared that crushing was measured when the netration depth was calculated for the 1-g proto-
penetration resistance of the model pile was lar- type. It should be realized that the 40 g prototype
ger than 1.7 kN. Since the cross-sectional area of is a pile of only halve the diameter of the 80 g
the model pile is 1 cm2, this means that crushing prototype (since the same model pile is used in
was measured when the stresses underneath the all tests). Clearly the penetration resistance is
tip exceed 17 MPa. This agrees with results from largely influenced by the relative density of the
literature (Dong, 2010) where 15-20 MPa is sand as could be expected. Tests 3, 7 and 10
mentioned at the stress where crushing starts. show a comparable penetration resistance and
Test 1 is a remarkable exception. Probably in this have the same relative density. Test 1 deviates
first test the sampling was not adequate, since the with a relative high penetration resistance for the
penetration resistance indicates that there might relative density. The reason for this deviation is
have been some crushing as will be explained in not clear. It may be caused by a measurement er-
the next section. The change in particle size dis- ror in the relative density for this first test.
tribution is comparable to the changes measured The tests in which pile driving was simulated
by Yang et al. (2010) in 1-g pressure chamber show a varying penetration force, but the maxi-
tests. For the sieve curve shown in Figure 4 this mum penetration force at a certain depth is quite
means that crushing hardly generates particles comparable with the monotonic penetration tests,
with a size of 40 Pm that were also not present in see Figure 6, where the maxima in the resistance
the original sieve curve (random), but it does for cyclic loading are compared with a mono-
generate particles of 20 Pm and less. This means tonic loading test in the same sand sample.
 R. Stoevelaar et al. / Effects of Crushing on Pile Point Bearing Capacity in Sand Tested 943

The cyclic loading results in an elastic unload- also be caused by less dilatancy at higher stress
ing of the pile tip as can be seen on a detail of the levels (see Fellinius and Altaee, 1995).
penetration between 20 and 20.5 m penetration in
Figure 7, where the full signal for both tests is Penetration resistance (MPa)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
presented. 0
Test 1, RD 61%
2 Test 3, RD 66%
4.4 Static loading tests

Penetration depth of 1-g prototype (m)

4 Test 5, RD 38%
Test 7, RD 65%
Static loading tests were performed after penetra- 6 Test 10, RD 65%
tion until 6, 12 and 24 times the diameter of the 8
pile with a slow displacement of 0.02 mm/s. The 10
results are summarized in Table 2. Plotting the 12
results as a function of the prototype depth the 14
only clear influence that was found was the in- 16
fluence of the relative density, see Figure 8. The
18
installation method (The cyclic tests have an ex-
20
tra circle marker, the monotonic tests have only
22
one marker) seems to have limited influence.
24
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

5 DISCUSSION ON THE RESULTS Figure 5. Penetration resistance of the pile tip as a function
of depth for monotonic penetration.
The pile tip resistance appears to be very sen- Penetration resistance (MPa)
sitive to the relative density of the sand. This re- 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

sult and the fact that sand samples never are 0

Test 9, RD 65%
completely homogeneous complicates the inter- 2 Test 10, RD 65%
Penetration depth of 1-g prototype (m)

pretation of the results of pile tests, even when 4

performed in a geotechnical centrifuge under 6

controlled conditions. 8

10
The grain size distribution taken around the
12
pile clearly shows that crushing has occurred
14
during the test. However, there is no clear result
16
whether or not this has influenced the penetration
18
resistance. Figure 5 shows that the increase of
20
the penetration resistance with depth (the gradi-
22
ent in the penetration resistance) decreases when
24
the penetration resistance becomes higher than 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
approximately 15 MPa in the Tests 1 and 10.
Test 5 has a ‘bend’ in the curve at a much Figure 6. Penetration resistance for the pile tip compared for
cyclic (Test 9) and monotonic loading (Test 10). Test 9
lower penetration resistance of approximately 3 shows only the maxima.
MPa. The gradient in the penetration resistance
as measured in the monotonic tests with a rela- Crushing will also counteract the increase in
tive density of 65% is presented in Table 3. It horizontal stress due to dilatancy and conse-
appeared that the gradient is always lower when quently also lead to a decrease in the gradient in
the penetration resistance is higher. It is remark- the penetration resistance.
able that the difference in the measured gradients Test 1 has the biggest change in the gradient
is smaller when the penetration resistance is below and above 15 MPa what could be an influ-
higher than 15 MPa. However, apart from Test 1 ence of crushing but for this test no crushing was
the difference in gradient is only small and could found in the grain size distribution.
944 R. Stoevelaar et al. / Effects of Crushing on Pile Point Bearing Capacity in Sand Tested

6 CONCLUSIONS
penetration resistance (MPa)
0 10 20 30
20.00 The centrifuge tests on model piles at 40 and 80
penetration of 1-g prototype (m)

Test 9, RD 65%
20.05
Test 10, RD 65%
g in sand led to the following conclusions:
20.10 - Crushing of sand grains has been detected when
20.15
20.20
the pile tip resistance reaches values of approxi-
20.25 mately 15 MPa or higher.
20.30 - This probably has some influence on the pene-
20.35
tration resistance, but this could not be proven by
20.40
20.45
the results of the experiments.
20.50 - The tests did not explain the discrepancy be-
0 10 20 30 tween the Dutch code NEN6743-1 and the field
Figure 7. Pile tip response: detail of cyclic penetration test measurements.
(Test 9) compared with monotonic loading (Test 10). - The different installation methods tested had no
significant influence on the penetration resis-
22.5
tance and the bearing capacity.
resistance in loading tests (MPa)

20.0
17.5
15.0
12.5
10.0
7.5
5.0
2.5
0.0
0 5
Figure 8. Results of pile loading tests for various densities
and different amplitudes during penetration
Table 3. Increase in penetration resistance per m (in MPa/m)
for the tests with monotonic loading and Rd=65%.
Test <10 MPa
1 2.4
3 1.0
7 1.6
10 0.98
The test results show no clear influence of the
installation method as was shown in Figure 8.
The hypotheses was that the cyclic loading on
the pile may lead to rearrangements of the grains
around the pile, which may influence crushing,
but this was not proven by the experiments, al-
though it is still possible that real dynamic pile
driving may have some influence. From Figure 7
it seems reasonable to assume that the cyclic
loading as applied in these tests only led to elas-
tic unloading. In pile driving there can also be
plastic unloading of sand in front of the pile tip.
RD 65%
RD 38% - The relative density has a very large influence
0.25 mm on the pile resistance. Homogeneous soil sam-
0.5 mm
ples are very important is this kind of research.
REFERENCES
[1]. CUR 229 (2010) Axial bearing capacity of piles (in
Dutch). CUR. Gouda. The Netherlands.
10 15 20 25
[2]. Dong Y.(2010) Hydraulic fracture containment in
depth at 1g (m) sand. Phd. Thesis Delft University of Technology
[3]. Fellinius B.H. and Altae A.A. (1995) Critical depth:
how it came into being and why it does not exist. Proc.
Instn. Civ. Engrs. Geotech. Engng, 113, April 107-
111.
[4]. Mierlo, W.C. van and Koppejan, A.W. (1952), Length
and bearing capacity of piles (in Dutch). Bouw
[5]. Ruiter J. de and Beringen F.L. (1979), Pile foundations
>15 MPa
for large North Sea structures, Marine Geotechnology.
0.82 3 (3): 267-314
0.93 [6]. NEN6743-1; (2006). Geotechniek
1.5
Berekeningsmethode op palen. Drukpalen (in Dutch).
0.78 The Netherlands Standardization Institute. Delft. The
Netherlands, November.
[7]. Rietdijk J., Schenkeveld F.M., Schaminée P.E.L. and
Bezuijen A. (2010). “The drizzle method for sand
sample preparatoin” Proc. 6th Int. Conf. on Physical
Modelling, Zürich
[8]. Xu, X (2007) Investigation of the End Bearing Per-
formance of Displacement Piles in Sand, PhD thesis,
the University of Western Australia.
[9]. Yang, Z.X., Jardine R.J., Zhu B.T., Foray P. and Tsuha
C.H.C. Sand grain crushing and interface shearing dur-
ing displacement pile installation in sand. Géotech-
nique 60, No. 6, 469-482
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 945
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-945

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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 951
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-951

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3.3. Ground Reinforcement
Renforcements des sols
This page intentionally left blank
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 959
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-959

Numerical Back-Analysis of compaction grouting

with a hypoplastic soil model
Analyse numérique pour l’injection solide avec un modèle
hypoplastique
A. Anthogalidis 1, U. Arslan, O. Reul
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt, Germany

ABSTRACT
Compaction grouting is a well established ground improvement technique, which is mainly based on empirical data. Analytical
and numerical models are not widely used in engineering practice yet. To develop the numerical modelling of compaction grout-
ing, a back-analysis of a laboratory test was performed. A finite element model of compaction grouting was developed. It was
possible to simulate the deformations measured in the laboratory tests with sufficient accuracy. The variable stress-strain beha-
viour of the soil-sample due to the progressive compaction was described with hypoplasticity by Kolymbas [11], extended by
von Wolffersdorff [13].

RÉSUMÉ
L' injection solide, est une technique d' amelioration de sol bien établie, qui est basée principalement sur les données empiriques.
Jusqu'à présent, les modèles analytiques et numériques ne sont pas utilisés dans la pratique. Pour développer le modelage numé-
rique de l’injection solide, un calcul d'un essai de laboratoire a été exécuté. Un modèle de la méthode des éléments finis pour
l’injection solide a été développé. Il était possible de simuler les déformations mesurées dans les essais de laboratoire avec
l'exactitude suffisante. Le comportement d'effort de la tension variable de l'échantillon du sol en raison de compaction progressif
a été décrit avec hypoplasticity par Kolymbas [11], élargi par von Wolffersdorff [13].

Keywords: soil improvement, Compaction grouting, laboratory test, numerical simulation, finite element methode, hypoplastici-
ty, pycnotropy, barotropic

1 PRACTICE OF COMPACTION The two main effects intended by compaction

GROUTING
Primarily compaction grouting was applied for
controlled uplift of buildings with inadmissible
settlements. Due to the developments in compac-
tion grouting, especially in pump technique, the
range of applications was extended in the past
years.
grouting are:
 Compaction of surrounding soil,
 Controlled uplift of buildings or ground sur-
face.
These two effects can be achieved separately
or in combination. Additionally the purpose de-
pends on building – and soil conditions. Thus,
the categories of compaction grouting applica-
tions can be defined as follows:

1
Corresponding Author.
960 A. Anthogalidis et al. / Numerical Back-Analysis of Compaction Grouting

The quality control of the obtained compac-

tion is carried out by means of field tests such as
cone penetration tests and the monitoring and re-
cording of a number of parameters during the
grouting process. The main parameters to be mo-
nitored include grout pressure, grout volume and
deformations of the ground surface. A standard-
ized correlation of these parameters and the
amount of compaction does not exist till now.

2 MODELLING OF THE GROUTING

PROCESS

Compaction grouting causes a compact volume

Figure 1. Categories of compaction grouting. of grout mass without mixing it with the sur-
rounding soil. The grout volume can be unsteadi-
Planning of compaction grouting is based on ly formed. In case of isotropic, homogeneous soil
empirical data. Hence, field tests are usually car- conditions the volume is approximately cylin-
ried out to determine parameters of grouting, grid drical or spherical. Around the grout mass a
patterns and abort criteria. Abort criteria are: complex system of radial and tangential stresses
 The maximum grout pressure is exceeded. occurs, with its maximum close to the grout
 The planned grout volume is reached. mass. These stresses decrease with increasing
 Inadmissible uplift. distance from the grout mass. With increasing
At the beginning, the amount of compaction grout volume the grout pressure increases until
has to be defined. Therefore the difference be- uplift occurs, preventing further compaction.
tween explored and required compaction is an Analytical solutions for the grouting process
approximated value, assuming that reduction of are based on the cavity expansion theory [12].
pore volume in soil is equal to the grout volume Uplift is modelled by an ultimate limit state such
[4]. The grout volume is usually up to 20 % or as the conical shear failure [7] (Fig. 2).
more from the total volume of the compaction
grouting area. The grid spacing can be approx-
imately double to triple of the grout bulb diame-
ter [4]. A triangular grid pattern with primary,
secondary and tertiary grout locations is advisa-
ble. The grid spacing for primary grout points
usually lies between 2.5 m and 3.7 m. The ver-
tical spacing is set to approximately 60 cm.
Compaction grouting can be carried out by a
top–down or the more common bottom-up pro-
cedure.
Due to the development of grout pressure soil
properties can be estimated [3]. In case of con-
stant development of grout pressure over time a
homogeneous soil, otherwise heterogeneous soil Figure 2. Conical shear failure [5].
can be assumed. The difference between the peak The closed-form solutions exist for cylindrical
of grout pressure and relaxation is an indication and for spherical, displacement-controlled cavity
for the level of compaction. expansion in an infinite, homogeneous, isotropic
continuum under isotropic stress state [2]. These
 A. Anthogalidis et al. / Numerical Back-Analysis of Compaction Grouting 961

assumptions lead to a 2-dimensional and symme- 3 LABORATORY TESTS

tric analysis.
The boundary conditions are given by the
stresses and strains at the border of soil and grout
mass as well as at an infinite distance from the
grout mass. To model the soil behavior, elasto-
plastic constitutive laws such as Mohr-Coulomb
or Cam-Clay are applied. Vesic [12] assumes a
plastic zone around the grout mass up to a radial
distance Rp. For distances larger than Rp elastic
behaviour is assumed (Fig. 3).
The back-analysis (Chapter 4) was performed for
the laboratory tests of El-Kelesh et al., [6]. The
test apparatus comprises a calibration chamber
with accurately defined boundary conditions
filled with dry sand with a relative density of
50 %. Injections were carried out under variation
of the consolidation stress. Grout volume and
vertical soil displacement were recorded.
For the back-analyzed laboratory test dry sand
with a grading curve shown in Figure 4 and soil
properties according to Table 2 was used.

Figure 3. Stress and strain [12].

Numerical approaches for simulating compac- Figure 4. Grading curve of dry sand [6].
tion grouting have to satisfy the requirement of
large deformations and a soil constitutive model Table 2. Soil properties of dry sand [6].
with variable soil properties such as density or Specific weight  = 15.2 kN/m³
stiffness. Finite-element-modelling were carried
out with modified Cam-Clay models (Tab. 1). Maximum void ratio emax = 0.923
Minimum void ratio emin = 0.562
Table 1. Numerical modelling of compaction grouting. Relative density Dr = 0.5
Paper/ FE- Specivic gravity s = 26.5 kN/m³
Subject Soil Soil consti-
Report Prog-
tutive law Void ratio at deposition eini = 0.743
ram
Au et al., Grouting elastoplastic Coefficient of uniformity CU = 19
clay ABAQUS
2006, [2] test (Cam Clay)

Iagolnitzer,
Compaction After deposition of the dry sand in the calibra-
grouting test sand elastoplastic ABAQUS tion chamber, 4 different tests were carried out
2000, [9]
area
with consolidation stresses of 85 kN/m²,
Jafari et al., Grouting elastoplastic 125 kN/m², 165 kN/m² and 205 kN/m², respec-
clay ABAQUS
2000, [10] test (Cam Clay) tively. The consolidation stresses were applied
on the top of the specimen. During the volume-
controlled test up to 40 l to 60 l grout mass was
injected by means of 2 to 3 strokes per approx-
imately 20 l with a break between the strokes [6].
962 A. Anthogalidis et al. / Numerical Back-Analysis of Compaction Grouting
4 BACK-ANALYSIS WITH THE FINITE-
ELEMENT-METHOD
To simulate the grouting process an axisymme-
tric finite-element-model with 2233 nodes and
4270 linear triangle elements was designed with
the program Tochnog 5.4.
Figure 5. Finite element model.
The dry sand was modelled with the hypoplas-
tic model of von Wolffersdorff [13]. The boun-
dary conditions illustrated in Figure 5 (right side)
were defined according to the laboratory test de-
scription [6]. The grouting process was simulated
volume-controlled based on the eulerian descrip-
tion for the continuum. Hence, the grout mass
expands convectively and spherically over a
mesh fixed in space.
With the first two steps of the calculation the
self-weight of the sand specimen and the consol-
idation stress v were applied. According to the
initial relative density Dr = 50 % after deposition
of the sand and the maximum and minimum void
ratio of emax = 0.923 and emin = 0.562 (Tab. 2)
[6], an initial void ratio of eini = 0.743 was as-
sumed before applying consolidation stress.
In [1] the results of an elastoplastic analysis
with the Mohr-Coulomb criterion and an analysis
with the hypoplastic constitutive law [13] were
compared. Consequently, the further investiga-
tion are carried out with the more accurate hy-
poplastic constitutive law. According to [8] the
void ratios were set to ed0 = emin = 0.56 and
ec0 = emax =0.92 and ei0 = 1.22×emax= 1.12. The
other 5 parameters of the hypoplastic constitutive
law were determined by a back-analysis. The
back-analysis was carried out for the consolida-
tion stress of v = 125 kN/m². The set of parame-
ters with the best agreement to the measured ver-
tical displacements s in the laboratory test were
taken to analyze the grouting processes with
v = 165 kN/m² and 205 kN/m² consolidation
stresses.
5 RESULTS
The best agreement with the results of the labora-
tory tests were achieved by the following set of
hypoplasticity parameters for the dry sand:
Table 3. Hypoplasticity parameters.
c hs n ec0 ed0 ei0  
[°] [MPa] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-]
41 2000 0.11 0.92 0.56 1.12 0.1 0.3
In order to contrast calculated and measured
results, Figure 6 shows the comparison of the
vertical displacements s and the lateral stresses
x in dependency of the injected grout volume Vi
for a consolidation stress of v = 125 kN/m².
The calculated lateral stress show better
agreement with the measurements than the ver-
tical displacements (Fig. 6). The maximum dis-
crepancy to the measured lateral stresses is
<10 %. As detected in previous investigations [1]
the accuracy of the recalculated lateral stresses
was sufficient even with the Mohr-Coulomb
model. Therefore the focus has to be turned on
the vertical displacements. The detected curve
characteristic from the laboratory tests is a set-
tlement that gradually changes to uplift with in-
creasing grout volume. This is an indication of
 A. Anthogalidis et al. / Numerical Back-Analysis of Compaction Grouting 963

compaction. The curve characteristic was deter- after consolidation Vi = 19,3 l Vi = 38,7 l
mined in the analysis, too. Though, the calcu-
lated settlement at the beginning of injection was
overestimated. At Vi = ~20 l uplift is already ob-
served in the analysis, while the measurements
still show settlements for this grout volume. Void ratio e [-]
Hence, the vertical displacement is overestimated
at Vi = 19.3 l and underestimated at Vi = 38.7 l.
The maximum discrepancy was ~1 mm.

Grout Volume Vi (l)

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
-50

-60

-70 measured
Figure 7. Distribution of void ratio.
lateral stress x (kN/m²)

-80 calculated

-90

-100
consolidation stress x (kN/m²)
-110 85 105 125 145 165 185 205
0,0
vertical displacement s (mm)

-120 measured - ~20 l

-130 -1,0 calculated - ~20 l

-140
-2,0

Grout Volume Vi (l)

-3,0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
1,0 -4,0

0,0
-5,0
-1,0
vertical displacement s (mm)

consolidation stress x (kN/m²)

-2,0
85 105 125 145 165 185 205
-3,0 0,0
measured - ~40 l
vertical displacement s (mm)

-4,0
-1,0 calculated - ~40 l
-5,0
-6,0 -2,0
-7,0 measured
-3,0
-8,0 calculated

-9,0 -4,0
-10,0
-5,0

Figure 6. Comparison of measurements and finite element

analysis. Figure 8. Dependency of settlement on consolidation stress
v.
In Figure 7 the distribution of void ratio for
three analysis steps is shown. Accordingly, the
sand is mainly loose after consolidation and 6 CONCLUSIONS
dense to middle dense after the full injection with
a grout volume of 38.7 l. For the simulation of a compaction grouting
Figure 8 shows the measured and calculated process the use of the hypoplasticity law by Ko-
vertical displacements in dependency of the con- lymbas [11] extended by von Wolffersdorff [13]
solidation stress. Within an accuracy range of is suitable. More common soil constitutive laws
~1 mm the measured vertical displacements like Mohr-Coulomb can simulate the state of
show a clearer dependency on the consolidation stress with a sufficient accuracy, but cannot si-
stress v than the calculated ones. mulate compaction at all [1].
964 A. Anthogalidis et al. / Numerical Back-Analysis of Compaction Grouting

Though, compaction grouting causes extreme
states of stress and deformations, the accuracy of
the developed finite element model is sufficient
for simulation of the complex deformation me-
chanism. The discrepancy in the curve characte-
ristics of calculated and measured vertical dis-
placements on the top of the specimen (Fig. 6)
possibly results from slight differences in the lat-
eral boundary conditions between analysis and
laboratory test. In the finite element model no
lateral displacements are allowed at the lateral
boundary. This condition is also assumed for the
laboratory apparatus. However, for measurement
of the lateral stresses minimal lateral displace-
ments have to be allowed by the configuration of
the laboratory apparatus. This leads to less uplift
compared to the boundary conditions in calcula-
tion.
As shown in Figure 7 the model is able to
quantify compaction in dependency of the dis-
tance to the injection for different grout volumes.
In consequence of the verification of the pre-
sented finite element model for single point in-
jections, further research will investigate multi-
point injections and injections of whole
compaction grouting columns.
[7] Graf E.D. (1969). Compaction Grouting Technique and
Observations. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foun-
dations Division, Proc. ASCE, SM 5, pp. 1151-1158.
[8] Herle I. (1997). Hypoplastizität und Granulometrie ein-
facher Konrgerüste. Veröffentlichungen des Institutes
für Bodenmechanik und Felsmechanik der Universität
Fridericiana in Karlsruhe; Heft 142
[9] Iagolnitzer, Y. (2000). A Comparative Field Experi-
ment on Compaction Grouting. Mitteilungen des Insti-
tuts und der Versuchsanstalt für Geotechnik der Tech-
nischen Universität Darmstadt, Heft Nr. 52, S. 75-85.
[10] Jafari, M.R., Au, S.K.A., Soga, K., Bolton, M.D., Ka-
rim, U.F.A., Komiya, K. (2000). Experimental and
Numerical Investigation of Compensation Grouting in
Clay. Proceedings of GeoEng 2000, Melbourne.
[11] Kolymbas D. (1988). Eine konstitutive Theorie für Bö-
den und andere körnige Stoffe. Veröffentlichungen des
Institutes für Bodenmechanik und Felsmechanik der
Universität Fridericiana in Karlsruhe, Heft 109.
[12] Vesic A.S. (1972). Expansion of Cavities in Infinite
Soil Mass. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Founda-
tions Division, Proceedings of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, pp. 265-290.
[13] von Wolffersdorff P.-A. (1996). A hypoplastic relation
for granular materials with a predefined limit state sur-
face. Mechanics of cohesive-frictional materials, Vol.
1, pp. 251-271.

REFERENCES

[1] Arslan U., Anthogalidis A. (2011). Numerische Back-

Analysis von Verdichtungsinjektionen. 8. Österreichi-
sche Geotechnik Tagung, 3.&4. Febuary 2011, Vienna
[2] Au S.K.A., Yeung A.T. und Soga K. (2006). Pressure-
controlled cavity expansion in clay. Canadian Geo-
technical Journal, No. 43, pp. 714-725.
[3] Brown D.R. und Warner J. (1973). Compaction Grout-
ing. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations
Division, Vol. 99, No. 8, Journal Paper, pp. 589-601.
[4] Byle M.J. (2000). An Approach to the Design of LMD
Grouting. GSP 104 Advances in Grouting and Ground
Modification, Geo- Denver.
[5] El-Kelesh A.M., Mossaad M.E. und Basha I.M. (2001).
Model of Compaction Grouting. Journal of Geotech-
nical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol. 127,
No. 11, Journal Paper, pp. 955-964.
[6] El-Kelesh A.M., Matsui T. und Tokida K. (2009). Cali-
bration chamber investigation of confirming pressure
on mechanisms of compaction grouting. Proceedings of
the 17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics
and Geotechnical Engineering, pp. 19-22.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 965
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-965

Réponse dynamique d’un sol après travaux de

compactage haute énergie
Soil dynamic response after heavy compaction
S.Brûlé 1 , E.H. Javelaud & Ph. Liausu
Ménard
A.Bitri
Bureau de Recherche Géologique et Minière

ABSTRACT
Soil improvement work by dynamic compaction improves the granular soils’ mechanical characteristics obtained by in situ in-
vestigations. In the example detailed, the shear wave velocity Vs increases as well but in a much smaller proportion. The varia-
tion of dynamic soil parameters may however requires to estimate again, after the soil improvement work is carried out, the elas-
tic response spectra obtained from the site class as given in the standard NF EN 1998. This paper describes the geotechnical
situations where specific care should be taken when performing soil improvement techniques as heavy dynamic compaction or
vibrocompaction. It also point out the importance of specific site studies to estimate representative soil response excited by
earthquakes.

RÉSUMÉ
Les travaux d’amélioration des sols dans la masse par compactage dynamique améliorent les caractéristiques mécaniques obte-
nues par essais in situ. Dans l’exemple étudié, la vitesse Vs des ondes de cisaillement augmente mais pas dans les mêmes propor-
tions. Cette variation des paramètres dynamiques pour des sites de plusieurs hectares peut toutefois conduire à vérifier, après tra-
vaux, l’adéquation du spectre de réponse élastique obtenu à partir de la classe de sol telle que décrite dans la Norme NF EN
1998. Cet article présente les contextes géotechniques particuliers pour lesquels une attention doit être apportée en cas d’une
amélioration significative des terrains. Il est rappelé l’importance de la traduction représentative du site à partir d’études spécifi-
ques pour une prise en compte pertinente des effets de site en cas de séisme.

Keywords: dynamic compaction, vibrocompaction, eurocode 8, soil dynamic spectra

Mots clés: compactage dynamique, vibrocompactage, eurocode 8, spectre de réponse dynamique

1 CONTEXTE GENERAL dynamique « haute énergie ». L’énergie mise en

L’objet de cet article est l’identification des con-
ditions géotechniques pouvant conduire les tra-
vaux d’amélioration de sol par renforcement
dans la masse, à influencer le spectre de réponse
élastique réglementaire sous séisme.
Pour illustrer notre propos, nous bénéficions
de mesures géotechniques et géophysiques réali-
sées sur un site de près de 10 ha à Givors
(France) avant et après travaux de compactage
jeu est de plus de 500 t.m à chaque impact de la
masse. La démarche a été effectuée par anticipa-
tion de l’entrée en vigueur en 2011 d’un nouveau
zonage sismique de la France et de règles cons-
tructives décrites dans la norme NF EN 1998 [1].
Les résultats d’un chantier réalisé à Dakar au
Sénégal avec la méthode du vibrocompactage
sont également présentés pour illustrer
l’importance possible de l’augmentation des pa-

1
Corresponding Author.
966 S.Brûlé et al. / Réponse dynamique d’un sol après travaux de compactage haute énergie
ramètres mécaniques mesurés avec des essais in
situ.
1.1 Description du projet
Le projet se trouve à l’emplacement d’une an-
cienne verrerie située à présent dans une Zone
d’Activité Concertée [2]. Le site a été occupé
pendant plus d’un siècle pour des activités indus-
trielles (figure 1). L’usine a été démantelée ré-
cemment et de nouvelles constructions de type
bâtiments industriels sont prévues. Pour fonder
ces ouvrages, une technique d’amélioration de
sol a été envisagée par les concepteurs. C’est la
technique du compactage dynamique « haute
énergie » (Energie > 5 000 kJ/impact) qui a été
retenue pour répondre à la double problématique
de sols offrant des caractéristiques mécaniques
faibles et hétérogènes ainsi que la contrainte en-
vironnementale se traduisant ici par un impact
chimique résiduel du sol et de l’eau.
Le programme de compactage a été mis au
point de façon à améliorer des remblais de type
graves sableuses reposant sur les sables et gra-
viers déposés par le Gier. Au droit de la zone
d’étude, l’épaisseur du remblai est d’une dou-
zaine de mètres au maximum [3].
1.2 Prise en compte de la sismicité
La réglementation française pour les ouvrages à
risque normal en zone métropolitaine, définit des
accélérations de référence agr inférieures à 0,16.g
ou un produit ag = agr x S inférieur à 2,3m/s² soit
0,23.g. Cette valeur sert à caler en amplitude le
spectre de réponse élastique à période nulle. Elle
correspond à la valeur maximale temporelle de
l’accélération considérée. Elle est à comparer
avec les accélérations supérieures à 1g pouvant
être observées dans des pays à plus forte sismici-
té. Pour le site à l’étude, il s’agit d’une sismicité
modéré : 1,65 à 1,76 m/s².
Lors de la propagation des ondes sismiques
dans des bassins offrant un empilement de cou-
ches alluvionnaires, des phénomènes
d’amplification du mouvement sismique par ré-
fraction/diffraction peuvent se manifester dans
certaines conditions et accroître l’impact du
séisme (e.g. Mexico en 1985). Il s’agit des « ef-
fets de site » [4], contrôlant la forme des spectres
de réponse du sol et pouvant être interprétés
comme une mise en résonance globale des bas-
sins sédimentaires. Cependant, l’analyse de tels
phénomènes est complexe car cela nécessiterait
de prendre en compte la résonance de l’ensemble
du bassin, la propagation des ondes en milieu hé-
térogène, l’apparition d’ondes de surface en bord
de bassin, le comportement non linéaire des
géomatériaux de surface.
Nous excluons de notre étude, les cas de séis-
mes forts pour lesquels l’influence des non linéa-
rités de comportement des matériaux dans les
couches superficielles est significative, ainsi que
les effets topographiques.
Par ailleurs, les structures de surface peuvent
agir comme des sources sismiques secondaires et
influencer le "champ libre" sismique. Cet effet
n’est pas examiné dans cet article.
Une hypothèse forte de la norme NF EN 1998
est de considérer que la valeur moyenne de la vi-
tesse des ondes de cisaillement Vs,30 est suffi-
sante pour caractériser les effets de site.
2 COMPACTAGE DYNAMIQUE
La norme NF EN 1998 [1] laisse la possibilité de
classer les sols avec des essais fournissant des
mesures obtenues dans une large gamme de dé-
formations des sols : les méthodes géophysiques
permettant d’obtenir des paramètres de sol défi-
nis dans les gammes des petites déformations
(H<<10-4), les sondages mécaniques comme les
essais au pénétromètre statique (Cone Penetra-
tion Test en anglais), au pénétromètre dynamique
type SPT (Standard Penetration Test en anglais)
et les essais laboratoires pour des mesures dans
une gamme de déformation telle que H>10-4.
Mesures géophysiques de type MASW (Mul-
tichannel Analysis of Surface Wave) et essais
mécaniques in situ sont présentés dans cet article.
2.1 Résultats des essais mécanique in situ
Des sondages au pénétromètre statique et au
pressiomètre Ménard ont été réalisés sur une
planche d’essai de 35 x 150 m avant et après les
travaux de compactage. Avant compactage, les
moyennes arithmétiques des caractéristiques mé-
 S.Brûlé et al. / Réponse dynamique d’un sol après travaux de compactage haute énergie
caniques du remblai sont les suivantes au droit de
la planche d’essai : qc = 3,7 MPa, Rf = fs/qc ~ 1%,
pl* = 0,53 MPa et EM = 8,2 MPa. qc est la résis-
tance de pointe (39 mm) obtenue avec le péntro-
mètre statique, pl* et EM sont respectivement la
pression limite nette et le module pressiomètri-
que Ménard, fs est frottement latéral sur le man-
chon du pénétromètre statique et Rf correspond
au rapport de frottement.
Les courbes de résistance en pointe qc sont
présentées en figure 2. Ce sont des moyennes
arithmétiques sur un mètre. Le niveau de la
nappe se situe environ 6 m sous la surface du ter-
rain d’origine.
Pour se rattacher à la classification de la
norme NF EN 1998-1 [1] basée sur les essais au
SPT ou le Vs,30, nous avons déduit la valeur du
nombre de coups au pénétromètre dynamique
SPT pour 30 cm, NSPT par corrélation avec
l’essai de pénétration au pénétromètre statique.
Les valeurs initiales obtenues par corrélation
pour NSPT sont inférieures à 15 coups/30 cm sur
une quinzaine de mètres. Le site au droit du pro-
jet serait donc de classe D avant compactage.
Nous avons utilisé une moyenne harmonique sur
30 m d’épaisseur à l’identique de ce qui est pro-
posé par la norme NF EN 1998 pour les vitesses
des ondes cisaillement (1) avec hi et qci les épais-
seurs de sol et la résistance de pointe correspon-
dant à la cote d’échantillonnage.
Figure 1. Plan de situation du projet et localisation de la plan-
che d’essai.
Nous avons considéré un sol bicouche consti-
tué du terrain amélioré sur 10 m et du sol naturel
de 10 à 30 m de profondeur.
967
Après travaux, les moyennes arithmétiques
des caractéristiques mécaniques du remblai sont
les suivantes : qc = 7,3 MPa, pl* = 2,4 MPa et
EM = 18,4 MPa. La valeur NSPT déduite de qc,30
obtenue à partir des pénétrogrammes, donne une
classe C au sol après compactage dynamique.
30
qc ,30 n
(1)
hi
¦
i 1 qci
Il est à noter que le tassement en surface cor-
respondait à 80 à 100 cm, soit plus de 5% de
l’épaisseur de la couche à densifier et à homogé-
néiser.
µ15
Avant travaux de compactage dynamique
Après travaux de compactage dynamique
Figure 2. Exemple de pénétrogrammes obtenus avant (courbe
de gauche) et après (courbe de droite) les travaux
d’amélioration de sol par compactage dynamique, au même
emplacement.
2.2 Résultats des mesures géophysiques
Le Bureau de Recherche Géologique et Minière
(B.R.G.M.) a effectué des mesures géophysiques
avec la méthode MASW (Multichannel Analysis
of Surface Wave). Elle permet de déterminer le
profil de vitesse des ondes de cisaillement Vs en
fonction de la profondeur par inversion des cour-
bes de dispersion des ondes de Rayleigh [5].
Le dispositif expérimental et les profils de
mesure sont les mêmes avant et après travaux de
compactage dynamique.
968 S.Brûlé et al. / Réponse dynamique d’un sol après travaux de compactage haute énergie
Plus de 40 tirs ont été réalisés par le B.R.G.M.
Pour chaque tir, une courbe de dispersion des vi-
tesses de phase (vitesse de phase en fonction de
la fréquence) est obtenue, puis inversée pour ob-
tenir un profil de la vitesse des ondes de cisail-
lement Vs avec un écart type. La figure 3 pré-
sente le profil de vitesse obtenu lors d’un tir,
ainsi que l’écart-type sur la vitesse.
La figure 4 correspond à la moyenne de dix
tirs. Les deux courbes situées de part et d’autre
du profil de vitesse moyen représentent l’écart
type sur la moyenne.
30
Vs ,30 n
(2)
hi
¦
i 1 Vsi
Avant travaux, la vitesse moyenne des ondes
de cisaillement obtenue sur les trente premiers
mètres, déterminée selon la formule de la
moyenne harmonique de la Norme NF EN 1998
(2), donne une vitesse Vs,30 de 244 m/s, soit un
site de classe C.
Après travaux, les résultats montrent une
augmentation nette de la vitesse des ondes de ci-
saillement sur les 5 premiers mètres, avec une
valeur moyenne passant de 134 à 163 m/s uni-
quement sur cet intervalle, soit une augmentation
de 22%.
Figure 3. MASW (Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave) :
exemple type d’un profil de vitesse des ondes de cisaillement
en fonction de la profondeur, avec l’écart type sur la vitesse.
L’augmentation de Vs est nette jusqu’à 7 m de
profondeur puis peu ou pas significative à plus
grande profondeur. La valeur de Vs,30 est de 252
m/s après travaux, soit toujours un site de classe
C à la différence de l’approche par essais méca-
niques orientant vers un sol de classe D à C.
Vitesse des ondes de cisaillement [m/s]
0 100 200 300 400 500
0
5
10
Profondeur [m]
15
20
25
30
Figure 4. MASW (Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave) :
moyenne de 10 profils d’une seule file ; les deux courbes fi-
nes représentent l’écart type obtenu sur la moyenne.
3 ENJEUX ET DISCUSSION
3.1 Spectres de réponse élastique
La classification de sol selon la norme NF EN
1998 doit être représentative du contexte géolo-
gique pour une prise en compte fidèle des effets
de sites : lithologie et épaisseur de sol recouvrant
le substratum. Pour une représentation de base de
l’action sismique conduisant à l’utilisation de
l’expression des spectres de réponse présentés
dans la norme NF EN 1998, la figure 5 illustre la
différence entre les spectres obtenus pour des
sols de classe C et D.
Dans l’hypothèse d’une amélioration de sol
dans la masse conduisant à un passage de classe
 S.Brûlé et al. / Réponse dynamique d’un sol après travaux de compactage haute énergie
de sol de D à C, le dimensionnement de la struc-
ture doit être adaptée, notamment pour des ou-
vrages à période supérieure à 0,2 s.
Par exemple, en utilisant l’expression (3) pour
obtenir une valeur approchée de la période fon-
damentale de vibration T1 d’un bâtiment de hau-
teur H inférieure à 40 m, à portiques spatiaux en
béton (Ct = 0,075), un impact sur le dimension-
nement peut exister à partir de deux niveaux de
construction.
34
T1 Ct .H (3)
Figure 5. Spectres de réponse élastique Se pour sols de classe
C et D dans le cas d’un coefficient d’amortissement visqueux
de ?=5%. Exemple d’un bâtiment de catégorie d’importance
II (aI=1).
Des changements réglementaires de classe
peuvent également être attendus sur des sites de
vibrocompactage. En figure 6 sont présentés les
résultats obtenus sur un chantier de la zone por-
tuaire de Dakar au Sénégal [6]. L’amélioration
concernait une plate-forme de 70 000 m2 avec
des remblais hydrauliques sableux de 12 à 13 m
d’épaisseur reposant sur des formations marneu-
ses (NSPT > 50). En utilisant une moyenne har-
monique sur les trente premiers mètres avec les
valeurs NSPT présentées en figure 6, le sol serait
969
de classe C avant travaux. Après vibrocompac-
tage, le site serait de classe B toujours en consi-
dérant une moyenne harmonique sur trente mè-
tres depuis la surface.
Après
Avant
Figure 6. Evolution des caractéristiques moyennes au SPT
des remblais portuaires de Dakar [6].
3.2 Impédances dynamiques des fondations
Les impédances dynamiques des fondations Kh,
horizontale, Kv, verticale et KT, de rotation sont
fonction du module de cisaillement G [7], lui-
même égal dans le cas d’un comportement de sol
élastique à G=© Vs² [4] où © est la masse volumi-
que du matériau. D’où Kh, Kv et KT, sont fonc-
tion de Vs². Une augmentation de Vs de 2,4% es-
timée dans le cas du projet de compactage
dynamique de Givors sur toute la hauteur des
formations superficielles recouvrant le substra-
tum sismique entraîne une augmentation des im-
pédances dynamiques des fondations de près de
5%.
3.3 Cas de figure envisageables
Ces premiers retours d’expérience de chantiers
d’amélioration dans la masse permettent
d’appréhender dans le tableau 1 les contextes
géotechniques singuliers pour lesquels la bascule
d’une classe de sol vers une autre moins élevée
est envisageable [3].
970 S.Brûlé et al. / Réponse dynamique d’un sol après travaux de compactage haute énergie

Tableau 1. Influence possible de l’amélioration des sols dans REFERENCES

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E : Profil de sol
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d’alluvions avec des
valeurs de Vs de
Pour les sols de la classe E correspon-
classe C ou D et une
dant à des alluvions de classe D, voir
épaisseur comprise
commentaires pour les sols de classe D ci-
entre 5 m environ et
dessus.
20 m,
reposant sur un
matériau plus raide
avec Vs > 800 m/s.

Etudes au cas par cas selon la nature

des sols, la géométrie lenticulaire du dépôt
susceptible de liquéfaction, l’intensité des
travaux d’amélioration, etc.
S1, S2 : Sols pouvant Il doit s’agir de sol à dominante granu-
être le siège de liqué- laire. Pour les cas de lentilles sableuses
faction (voir NF EN peu épaisses au regard de l’épaisseur totale
1998). de sol, l’influence de l’amélioration sera a
priori faible à négligeable. En revanche,
dans le cas de sols liquéfiables sur des
épaisseurs importantes, l’amélioration
dans la masse fixera la nouvelle classe de
sol, donc le spectre de calcul.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 971
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-971

Consolidation of extremely soft mud for the A-380

factory in Hamburg - long time experience
Consolidation de boue extrêmement molle pour l'usine de
montage de l’A-380 à Hambourg - Résultats à long terme
J.-L. Chaumeny1
Ménard DYNIV GmbH, Seevetal, Germany
J. Kirstein
Bodenverbesserungstechniken DYNIV GmbH, Seevetal, Germany
J. Reiner
iwb Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, Germany

ABSTRACT
The new Airbus plant in Hamburg (Germany) was built on the soft soil of the river Elbe, which is characterized by mud on top
and different layers of clay, soft clay, gyttja and peat below.
The project was carried out in two phases: first, closing 160 hectares with a dyke and second, filling the area with sand and op-
timizing of the consolidation process of the soft soil.
The article describes the design, the parameters and the methods of vertical drainage and especially the Ménard Vacuum Conso-
lidation (MVC) as preloading system.
Since the primary settlement was up to 4 m and largely completed on delivery of the areas, the residual settlement was definiti-
vely determined based on the secondary settlement. The present measurements confirm the predicted residual settlement. The
secondary consolidation could also be limited by preloading.

RÉSUMÉ
La nouvelle usine d'Airbus à Hambourg (Allemagne) a été construit sur le sol mou de l'Elbe, qui se caractérise par de la boue sur
les couches supérieures et de différents types d'argile, argile molle, tourbe et gyttja en-dessous.
Le projet a été réalisé en deux phases: d'abord la fermeture de 160 hectares avec une digue et d'autre part, remplissage du polder
avec du sable tout en optimisant le processus de consolidation du sol mou.
L'article décrit la conception, les paramètres et les méthodes de drainage vertical et en particulier la consolidation par le vide
Ménard (MVC) en tant que systèmes de préchargement.
Comme le tassement primaire était de 4 m et en grande partie achevée à la livraison des zones, le tassement résiduel a été défini-
tivement déterminée sur la base du tassement secondaire. Les mesures ont confirmé les estimations du tassement résiduel. Grâce
au préchargement le tassement secondaire a pu être limité.

Keywords: Hamburg, Ménard, vacuum, consolidation, MVC, drains, settlements, primary, secondary, preloading, soft soil,
mud, clay, peat, measurement, predicted, residual, settlement

1 INTRODUCTION bor industries in the south Mühlenberger Loch

lies in the mouth of the south Elbe in the Elbe
The city of Hamburg is separated by the river west of Hamburg. By damming off the south
Elbe, with the old town in the north, and the har- Elbe after the storm flooding in 1962, a bay was

1
Corresponding Author.
972 J.-L. Chaumeny et al. / Consolidation of Extremely Soft Mud for the A-380 Factory in Hamburg

created in which large quantities of alluvial mud Due to the different sedimentation conditions
are deposited due to the changed flow conditions. and the associated proportions of sand, the com-
Before construction began in 2001, the sediment pressibility increases from west to east approach-
surface laid between approximately NN +1 m ing the land. The initial shear decreases simulta-
and NN -1.5 m and regularly went dry at low- neously.
water under tide influence. Table 1. Subsoil characteristics, Eoed at 100 kPa
Soil water organ. Cu Phi Eoed CB Cv
Type % % kN/m² ° MN/m² - m²/a
2 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
Peat 240 33 5-15 20 0,5 0,04 0,5
Mud 142 13,5 0,5-5 20 0,8 0,03 0,35
2.1 Construction Clay 90 12,5 5-20 17 1,5 0,02 0,5
Sand 10 - - 33 50 - -
A detailed description of the construction se-
quences can be found in [1] and [2]. The main
phases are summarized below: The soil parameters identified in laboratory
x Construction of a retaining dyke app. 2.4 and field experiments are summarised in table 1.
km long on sand columns wrapped in geo- Note that the secondary consolidation coeffi-
textile in grids of 1.5 m to 3 m and separa- cients were derived from oedometer tests.
tion of the construction area from the tide.
x Maintaining the water level behind the 2.3 Settlement criteria
dyke at around NN +3 m. After full primary consolidation, with 2 to 4 m
x Sprinkling of thin sand layers (d = 15 to 30 settlements, the residual settlements of 15 or 30
cm) on the alluvial mud surface. cm during 5 years after handover had to be guar-
x Hydraulic filling up to NN +3.4 m (above anteed.
the water level). Table 2. Contractual settlement criteria within first 5 years
x Installing vertical drain and surcharge or
Area Permissible resi- echnic
installing Ménard Vacuum Consolidation dual settlements
MVC.
Runways and taxi- max. 15 cm vertical drains +
x Grading the site at NN +5.5 m. ways, aircraft park- in 5 years surcharge or
ing, etc MVC
2.2 Soil parameters Surfaces under deep- max.30 cm vertical drains +
foundation halls, in 5 years surchage
The soft soil is characterised by mud on top and green spaces
different layers of clay, soft clay, gyttja and peat
below. The mud is 3 to 12 m thick and the peat 2.4 Consolidation techniques
up to 5 m thick.

Figure 1. Typical cross section of the soft soil before the fill.

Figure 2. Installation of vertical drains on the airbus site

 J.-L. Chaumeny et al. / Consolidation of Extremely Soft Mud for the A-380 Factory in Hamburg 973

The prefabricated drains were installed on the The atmospheric depression avoids the horizon-
Airbus site in grids of 0.5 to 1.5 m depending on tal movement and outwards creep due to a clas-
the soil, consolidation time, height of surcharge sical surcharge. The depression effect appears to
and settlement requirements. 30 millions meters add cohesion and to increase the dewatering. The
of vertical drains were placed in the structural closed system works like a vacuumed package of
areas. coffee. In the closed package the vacuum brings
immediate stability and it is not necessary to wait
In critical stability conditions the surface load for the consolidation process. The risk of a short
can be replaced or increased by the vacuum me- interruption is relatively small and a rapid fill up
thod. The drainage blanket is covered by an air- to final elevation is possible. [5] and [6]
tight membrane and sealed hermetically along its
outer borders. The drainage blanket is connected
to a vacuum pump, which removes atmospheric
pressure in the drains. According to Cognon [3]
and [4] the depression achieved by the vacuum
method in this case is of 70 to 80 kPa at most all
over the treated area.
The concept for MVC is:
x Soil is too soft for surcharge,
x The schedule does not allow step loading,
x Surcharge soil is not available,
x Available area does not allow berms,
x Special settlement requirements have to be
guaranteed.

Figure 4. MVC stress and deformation.

Figure 3. Principle of Ménard Vacuum Consolidation.

Figure 4 gives a view to the oedometric theory

which is the most important aspect of the atmos-
pheric consolidation. With classical surcharge,
point A moves to point B and, with a normal
consolidation process, then moves to point C.
With Ménard Vacuum the under-pressure moves
point A directly to point E but the point is more
between D and E. This is a result of horizontal
movement, which goes through vacuum effect
the other direction like with classical surcharge.
Figure 5. MVC working as a shear foot.
For stability reasons MVC worked as a shear
wall in front of berms, providing sufficient sta-
bility of the filling process towards the inner
polder, which had to be completed in a very short
time. [7]
974 J.-L. Chaumeny et al. / Consolidation of Extremely Soft Mud for the A-380 Factory in Hamburg

In the worst geotechnical case of the project, 3 EVALUATION OF MEASUREMENTS

where the mud thickness reached 12 m, MVC
was applied to obtain the post construction set-
tlement criteria of 0.15 m in 5 years for the
crossing of the runway. All the experience of the
previous field work was used for the calculation
of the last 66.000 m² vacuum block.
3.1 Total and residual settlement
The total settlements of the area till the begin-
ning of 2010 are shown in Fig.7 as isolines.
They are between approximately 0.8 m and 3.5
m since the start of measurement. Taking the ini-
tial settlement that was not recorded into ac-
count; they thus are in the range of the prognosis.

3.2 Settlement success of MVC

The first settlements appear as soon as the
first fill is placed on the mud. The measurement
and prediction start in the elevation of the work-
ing platform for vertical drains. The first settle-
ments of 0.6 to 0.8 m were measured by cone
penetration from the working platform. With that
information the theoretical and actual values start
at the same elevation with the vacuum.
Figure 6. MVC in one block of 66.000 m².

2.5 Geotechnical measurement program

A large number of different monitoring systems
like pore pressure measurement, ground water
level, horizontal and vertical inclinometers, va-
cuum pressure meters and settlement plates were
installed.
The geotechnical measurement program was
continuously installed from the start of construc-
tion in 2001 and adjusted to the demands of the
construction site.
Till 2010 measurements were documented for
up to 9 years and then evaluated.
Thanks to the duration of the measurements it
was possible to make statements about the sec-
ondary consolidation behaviour.
In particularly 170 total plate gauges were set up
on the dry sand surface at around NN+3.4 in
connection with the first raising step and length-
ened successively with the progression of raising
Fig.7: Total settlements at the beginning of 2010
the surface.
32 multiple-point settlement gauges were in-
The monitored vacuum process fits the pre-
stalled to identify the settlement of each different
dicted vacuum and dewatering effect of 70 kPa.
type of layer.
The mean total settlements were of 2.8 to 3.5 m,
about 10 % less than predicted. The residual set-
 J.-L. Chaumeny et al. / Consolidation of Extremely Soft Mud for the A-380 Factory in Hamburg 975

tlements after 4 years were up to 0.08 m, which

is largely less than the required 0.15 m residual
settlement criteria.
Two targets were aimed: 0.15 m residual set-
tlement criteria and optimizing surcharge sand
quantity.
In Figure 10 is the comparison of settlement
prediction and measured settlements for one set-
tlement plate of the 66.000 m² vacuum block. [8]

Figure 9. measured and calculated layer settlement of alluvial

Figure 8. Comparison between predicted and measured set-
tlements.
3.3 Layer-Based consolidation settlements
The deformation behaviour over time (as set-
tlement or differential settlement between differ-
ent measurement plates) on the basis of the set-
tlement measurements in the depth plates for a
total of 21 layers of alluvial mud, 11 clay layers
and 4 peat layers was investigated [9].
The goal of these investigations is primarily to
derive the definitive soil parameters for the soil
H98 * log (t/t98) (1)
layers from the measurements and then set them
in relation to those identified in the laboratory.
The insights into soil behaviour thus obtained,
which are calibrated to nature can be of use in
the future for comparable projects. Fig.9 shows
the curves of the alluvial mud layers over time at
gauges SI1.1 and SI4.9 as examples. The layer
thicknesses of these layers lie at 3.4 m and 5.7 m.
The curve progressions in the measurements can
be largely matched with the calculations. At
gauge 4.9 in the initial phase at lower added
loads with respect to the calculations occur with
delay, but are converging to the same results af-
ter preloading.
mud
3.4 Secondary Settlements
The laboratory investigations have clearly
shown that secondary settlements follow the end
of the primary consolidation. The secondary
curve is approximately linearly in a logarithmic
scale of time.
In the evaluations, the following relationship
(Buisman) was assumed to determine the secon-
dary settlements:
sc = CB
CB secondary settlements coefficient
H98 = layer thickness at end of primary consoli-
dation
In the evaluation of the measurement results
from the multiple-point gauges, the start of the
secondary settlement was identified taking into
account the course of settlements over time and
the existing pore water pressure measurements.
In these measurements also there was a signifi-
cant linear settlement time line in a logarithmic
scale.
976 J.-L. Chaumeny et al. / Consolidation of Extremely Soft Mud for the A-380 Factory in Hamburg
Pre-loads of different heights were used on the
majority of the surfaces being raised. The secon-
dary settlement coefficients from measurements
without pre-loads are summarized in together
with those determined from laboratory tests ver-
sus water content, which is correlated to the or-
ganic content. They range from about CB = 0.01
to 0.04. [9]
Furthermore, the clear influence of the pre-
load on secondary settlements can be derived
from the measurements:
The deformation time lines (Fig.9) for gauges
SI1.1 and SI4.9 provide examples of a measure-
ment point without preload and a measurement
point with preload. At SI1.1 some increase in set-
tlements after the completion of the primary con-
solidation has been observed, while at level SI4.9
hardly any further settlements occur.
Fig.10 shows the secondary consolidation co-
efficients derived from the measurements de-
pending on the excess load (max. load incl. pre-
load/permanent load in %). The secondary con-
solidation decreases to nearly zero as an excess
load of more than approximately 50% is applied.
Figure 10. Change in secondary consolidation coefficient CB
with excess load
The present measurements cover a secondary
settlement period of approximately 5.5 to 6.5
years. Whether secondary consolidation will per-
haps begin again at some later point in time and
how the time and scope of such secondary con-
solidation relates to the size of the pre-load can-
not be determined at this time.
4 CONCLUSION
The results show an impressive limitation of
residual settlements by means of vertical drains
and preloading, especially with the isotropic
Ménard vacuum consolidation MVC. Further-
more over consolidation is confirmed to reduce
secondary settlement relevantly within the ob-
served period of about 6 years after preloading.
REFERENCES
[1] Reiner, J., Stadie, R, Geotechnisches Konzept der
Flächenaufhöhung im Mühlenberger Loch, Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Geotechnik, Vorträge der Baugrundta-
gung in Mainz (2002), 55 f.
[2] Varaksin, S. 2003. Aménagement à Hambourg de la
nouvelle usine AIRBUS 380 gagnée sur des vases
hautement compressibles. Salon et Congrès des Tra-
vaux Publics et du Génie Civil, Paris
[3] Cognon, J.-M., La consolidation atmosphérique. Révue
Française Géotechnique, No. 57 (1991), 37-47
[4] Cognon, J.-M. et al. S. 1994. Vacuum consolidation
technology – principles and field experience. Proceed-
ings of Settlement '94 – Sponsored by ASCE – Held
June 16-18, 1994. College Station, Texas, 1994
[5] Chaumeny, J.-L. et al. 1997, Consolidation atmosphé-
rique de boue de drainage dans le port de Lübeck. Proc.
14th int. Conf. Soil Mech. Found. Eng, Hamburg, Vol.
3: (1969-1972)
[6] Ihm, C.W. & Massé, F., Successful application of
Menard Vacuum Consolidation Method to Nakdong
River soft clay in Kimhae, South Korea. Proc. 4th In-
ternational Conference on Ground Improvement Tech-
niques Kuala Lumpur, 2002.
[7] Lund, N.-Ch. et al., Airbuserweiterung: Anwendung
von Bodenverbesserungsmaßnahmen zur Landgewin-
nung in kürzester Bauzeit. Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Geotechnik, Vorträge der Baugrundtagung in Mainz
(2002), 71-79.
[8] Chaumeny, J.-L., Kirstein, J., Varaksin, S., Consolida-
tion of extremely soft mud for the Airbus A-380 as-
sembly factory in Hamburg, NUMGE Glasgow, 2008
[9] Reiner, J., Kußmaul, M., Ergebnisse der geotechnischen
Langzeitmessung im Zusammenhang mit der
Flächenaufhöhung im Mühlenberger Loch in Hamburg,
Loch, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geotechnik, Vorträge
der Baugrundtagung in München (2010), 87-94.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 977
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-977

Soil mix: influence of soil inclusions on structural

behaviour
Soil mix : influence des inclusions de sol sur le comportement
structurel
P. Ganne, N. Denies & N. Huybrechts 1
Belgian Building Research Institute
A. Vervoort, A. Tavallali
Catholic University Leuven
J. Maertens
Jan Maertens bvba & Catholic University Leuven
B. Lameire
Belgian Association of Foundation Contractors, ABEF
F. De Cock
Geotechnical Expert Office, Geo.be

ABSTRACT
This paper first describes the soil mix procedures applied in Belgium. Then, it concentrates on the influence of soil inclusions
(un-mixed materials) on the soil mix structural behaviour. Methodologies describing and quantifying inclusions are presented
and applied on in situ executed soil mix materials from 18 sites in Belgium. Finally, first results of numerical simulations inves-
tigating the influence of soil inclusions on the stiffness of soil mix material are discussed.

RÉSUMÉ
Le présent article donne un aperçu des techniques de « soil-mix » appliquées en Belgique. Il se concentre ensuite sur l’influence
des inclusions de sols (non mélangées) sur le comportement structurel du « soil-mix ». Des méthodologies, décrivant et quanti-
fiant la présence des inclusions, sont présentées et appliquées sur des éléments de « soil-mix » exécutés in situ. Ces derniers
proviennent de 18 sites en Belgique. Finalement, les premiers résultats de simulations numériques, investiguant l’influence des
inclusions de sol sur la raideur du matériau « soil-mix », sont discutés.

Keywords: Sol mix, deep mixing, retaining structure, soil inclusion, structural behaviour

1 INTRODUCTION pean research programs have been published in

Since several decades, the (deep) soil mix tech-
nique is known as a ground improvement tech-
nique [1] : the ground is in situ mechanically
mixed while a binder, based on cement and lime
[2], is injected. The results of national and Euro-
multiple reports (such as [3]), while also the
European standard for the execution of deep
mixing “Execution of special geotechnical works
– Deep Mixing” (EN 14679) was published in
2005 [4]. Most of these research projects focus-

1
Corresponding Author
978 P. Ganne et al. / Soil Mix: Influence of Soil Inclusions on Structural Behaviour
sed on the global stabilisation of soft cohesive
soils such as peat, clay, gyttja and silt.
More recently, soil mix is increasingly used
for the retaining of soil and water in the case of
excavations as a more economical alternative for
concrete secant pile walls and even for king post
walls (i.e. soldier pile walls). The soil mix cylin-
drical columns or rectangular panels are placed
next to each other, in a secant way. By overlap-
ping the different soil mix elements [5], a con-
tinuous soil mix wall is executed. Steel H or I-
beams are inserted into the soil mix before curing
to resist the shear forces and bending moments in
the retaining wall. In general the maximum in-
stallation depth of the soil mix walls in Belgium
is – so far – about 20 m.
The use of soil mix as ground and/or water re-
taining structures has some specific advantages.
No important vibrations are caused by the execu-
tion of soil mix. As the stress relaxation of the
soil is limited, soil mix can be executed nearby
existing constructions. Contrary to concreted se-
cant pile walls, the execution of the soil mix
walls does not suffer from delayed supply (e.g.
due to traffic jams) of the fresh concrete. The
amount of binder returning to the surface is lim-
ited in comparison with jet-grouting.
The main structural difference between these
soil mix walls and the more traditional secant
pile walls is the constitutive wall material which
consists of a mixture of soil and cement instead
of traditional concrete. The structural behaviour
of soil mix material is governed among others by
the type of binder, the volume of injected binder
and the nature of the soil. It is also influenced by
the presence of soil inclusions (by their number,
their volume, their shape, and their scattering in
the material). In this paper, all inclusions in deep
mix material are considered as soft soil inclu-
sions. Hence, soil inclusions represent the un-
mixed part of the soil-mix material.
This paper describes firstly the different types
of soil mix systems applied in Belgium. The
methodology describing and quantifying inclu-
sions is then presented. Finally, the influence of
the inclusions on the soil mix stiffness is dis-
cussed.
Test results and methodologies with regard to
the strength and stiffness properties are referred
in [6] in terms of unconfined compressive
strength (UCS) and elastic modulus. The meth-
ods are validated on a large population of labora-
tory tests on in situ soil mix material, executed in
Belgian soils.
2 SOIL MIX SYSTEMS IN BELGIUM
The CVR C-mix®, the TSM and the CSM are the
three most used types of deep mix systems in
Belgium. All three are wet deep mixing systems.
2.1 CVR C-mix®
The CVR C-mix® is performed with an adapted
bored pile rig and a special designed shaft and
mixing tool. This tool rotates around a vertical
axis at about 100 rpm and cuts the soil mechani-
cally. Simultaneously, the water\binder mixture
(w\b weight ratio between 0.6 and 0.8), is in-
jected at low pressure (< 5 bar). The injected
quantity of binder amounts mostly to 350 and
450 kg binder/m³, depending on the soil condi-
tions. The binder partly (between 0% and 30%)
returns to the surface. This is called ‘spoil re-
turn’.
The resulting deep mix elements are cylin-
drical columns with diameter corresponding to
the mixing tool diameter, varying between 0.43
and 1.03 m. When deep mix is used as a retain-
ing structure, the production rate is about 160 m²
of deep mix wall per day (single 8 hrs shift).
In order to increase the production rate, a
CVR Twinmix® and a CVR Triple C-MIX® can
be used. A twinmix has two mixing tools, mixing
two overlapping cylindrical columns (total wall
element length of 0.8 to 1.2 m) at the same time.
The daily production increases till 210 m². A
CVR Triple C-mix® has three mixing tools in
line, with a total wall element length of 1.5 to 1.8
m. The production rate increases to 300 m² per
day.
2.2 Tubular Soil Mix (TSM)
The TSM technique uses a mechanical and a hy-
draulic way of mixing. Apart from the rotating
(around the vertical axis) mixing tool, the soil is
cut by the high pressure injection (till 500 bar) of
 P. Ganne et al. / Soil Mix: Influence of Soil Inclusions on Structural Behaviour
the water\binder mixture with w\b chosen be-
tween 0.6 and 1.2. The injected quantity of bind-
er mixture amounts mostly to 200 and 450 kg
binder/m³, depending on the soil conditions. Part
of the binder (between 0% and 30%) returns to
the surface as spoil return.
The resulting deep mix elements are cylin-
drical columns with a diameter between 0.38 and
0.73 m. The production rate is about 80 m² of
deep mix wall per day.
Again, a twin and a triple version exist. The
total wall length of the two (three) cylindrical
columns of a twin (triple), varies between 0.8
and 1.4 m (1.2 and 2.1 m). In this way, the pro-
duction rate is increased till about 180 (twin) and
250 m² (triple) of deep mix wall per day.
2.3 Cutter Soil Mix (CSM)
A CSM device is commercially available. It
makes use of two cutting wheels that rotate inde-
pendently around a horizontal axis, cutting the
soil. At the same time, the water\binder mixture
is injected at low pressure (< 5 bar) with w\b ra-
tio chosen between 0.6 and 1.2. The injected
quantity of binder amounts mostly to 200 and
400 kg binder/m³, depending on the soil condi-
tions. Part of the binder (between 0% and 30%)
returns to the surface as spoil return.
The resulting deep mix elements are rectangu-
lar panels. In Belgium, these panels have mostly
a length of 2.4 m and a thickness of 0.55 m,
though cutter devices with other dimensions are
available. The production rate is about 100 m² to
250 m² per day.
3 DESCRIPTION OF SOIL INCLUSIONS
Due to the specific procedure of deep mixing,
soil inclusions are inevitable. The volume of soil
inclusions of in situ executed deep mix should be
quantified in order to study its influence on the
material stiffness.
Two methodologies taking into account soil
inclusions are first presented and then illustrated
with an overview of in situ results of deep mix
material executed in several Belgian soils.
979
3.1 Methodology of the description of soil
inclusions
In order to quantify the volume of soil inclu-
sions, in situ executed deep mix columns and pa-
nels are observed. Soil inclusions can be de-
scribed based on entire sections of deep mix
columns/panels as well as on drilled cores.
The two methodologies are the surface per-
centage (A) and the line percentage (B).
(A) The calculation of the surface percentage
of soil inclusions involves five processing steps:
1. Deep mix columns or panels are executed
in situ by standard deep mixing procedure.
2. The test columns/panels are (partly) exca-
vated; the column/panel should be sawn to create
a statistically representative ‘fresh’ saw-cut sec-
tion. Alternatively, the saw-cut of a core drill can
also be used.
3. The saw-cut surface is photo-graphically
digitized to recompose one digital mosaic photo.
The pixel resolution is about 0.3 mm.
4. Using commercially available image
processing techniques (IPT), soil inclusions are
assigned in black on the digital mosaic photo. As
the soil inclusions are not always observable,
manual verifications are performed on the saw-
cut surface.
5. The determination of the surface percen-
tage of soil inclusions consists in the calculation
of the amount of assigned (black) inclusions and
the total surface of the saw-cut using IPT.
(B) The methodology to calculate the line per-
centage of soil inclusions involves three
processing steps.
The steps 1 and 2 are similar to those of me-
thodology A.
3. Parallel lines with an interdistance of min-
imum 7 cm are drawn on the deep mix material.
The cumulative length of soil inclusions along
the line is manually measured. The line percen-
tage is calculated as the proportion of this cumu-
lative length to the total line length.
The observed line and surface percentages can
be considered as unbiased estimations of the vo-
lume percentage of soil inclusions in the deep
mix material [7].
980 P. Ganne et al. / Soil Mix: Influence of Soil Inclusions on Structural Behaviour
3.2 Overview of observed soil inclusions
Figure 1 gives an overview of the quantified soil
inclusions in soil mix material, executed on 18
job sites, in different types of Belgian soils (qua-
ternary and tertiary sands, silt, alluvial clay, stiff
clay and clay with peat). In Figure 1, soil inclu-
sions are quantified using:
- method A, applied on saw-cuts of in situ
executed deep mix columns or panels,
Figure 1. Percentage of soil inclusions in soil mix material,
executed on 18 sites in Belgium.
- method A, applied on the saw-cuts of
drilled cores of in situ executed deep
mix columns of panels,
- method B, applied on the saw-cuts of
drilled cores of in situ executed deep
mix columns of panels.
The amount of soil inclusions depends on the
nature of the soil, wherein the deep mix is per-
formed:
- in quaternary of tertiary sands, the
amount of soil inclusions in deep mix
material varies between 0 and 3.5
vol%,
- in silty soils or alluvial clays, it varies
between 3 and 10 vol%,
- in clayey soils with organic material
(such as peat) or in tertiary (overcon-
solidated) clays, it can amount up to
35 vol% and higher (not represented
in Figure 1).
4 INFLUENCE OF SOIL INCLUSIONS ON
THE ELASTIC MODULUS OF SOIL MIX
MATERIAL
Soil inclusions or volumetric parts which are not
well mixed are an integral part of soil mix ma-
terial. Various observations allow deriving cer-
tain conclusions on the way that the number of
inclusions, their sizes, their shapes and their rela-
tive positions influence the soil mix material be-
havior. However, it is not possible to analyse in
detail this influence by observations only. That is
the reason why the laboratory tests and numeri-
cal simulations complement each other. Sensitiv-
ity analyses can be conducted easily in numerical
modelling. Here, the results of linear elastic si-
mulations using a continuous code (FLAC) are
presented.
The starting point for the model is a real 2D-
section with dimensions of 120 x 240 mm², in
which 11 inclusions are observed, corresponding
to about 11% surface area. From this, 69 differ-
ent models were generated. The % surface area
of inclusions was changed by varying the num-
ber and size of the inclusions resulting in 1, 5, 10
and 20% inclusions. Apart from changing the
number and the size, the shape of the inclusion
was also varied. Hence, some of these models
contain inclusions with a more rounded shape or
inclusions with sharper corners. In Figure 2, the
mesh of a 10% model with the original shape and
size of the inclusions is presented.
The mixed part in each model corresponds to
a Young’s modulus E and a Poisson’s ratio of re-
spectively 11.6 GPa and 0.3, while for the soil
inclusions (un-mixed material) these values are
0.165 GPa and 0.4. The resulting Young’s mod-
uli for the entire models are presented in Figure
3, as a function of the % surface area of soil in-
clusions.
The presence of a mere 1% of weak inclusions
results in about a reduction of 3% of the stiff-
ness.
 P. Ganne et al. / Soil Mix: Influence of Soil Inclusions on Structural Behaviour
Figure 2. Mesh of the reference model (10% of surface area
is composed of soil inclusions and the original observed
shapes are used).
Figure 3. Variation of the Young’s modulus as a function of
the percentage surface area corresponding to the soil inclu-
sions.
The presence of 10% of inclusions results on
average to a reduction of 30% of the stiffness. It
can also be observed that for a certain percentage
the variation in Young’s moduli is relatively
large, but there is no real overlap between the
four percentages considered. For example for
10% inclusions, the E-modulus varies between
7.3 and 8.9 GPa, while the smallest value for 5%
is 9.4 GPa and the largest value for 20% is 6.5
GPa.
For a fixed percentage, the variation of the
Young modulus is mainly related to the shape of
the inclusions. Sharp corners strongly reduce the
Young’s modulus, while the rounded shapes (e.g.
circle) are less harmful to the stiffness of the ma-
terial. Figure 4 illustrates the influence of the
shape for 30 different models corresponding to
10% of inclusions. Of course, size and number of
981
inclusions play also a role. It is assumed that
once individual fractures are being simulated the
effect of the shape will even be larger.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In Belgium, the soil mix technique is used more
and more as a practical solution for the retaining
of soil and water in the case of excavations. If it
represents an interesting economical alternative
Shape and number of un-mixed
Circle
1
Sharp corners
1
Circle
3
parts
Sharp corners
3
Real
9
10 Real
7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0
Average E (GPa)
Figure 4. Variation of average Young’s modulus as a func-
tion of the shape of the inclusions (10% surface area corres-
ponding to the soil inclusions).
for concrete secant pile walls, it remains a lot of
uncertainties relating to its structural behaviour
and notably concerning the influence of soil in-
clusions on its stiffness.
In the framework of the research program
“Soil Mix” that the Belgian Building Research
Institute (BBRI) carries out in collaboration with
the Catholic University of Leuven and the Bel-
gian Association of Foundation Contractors
(ABEF), numerous tests on in situ soil mix ma-
terial have been performed. A good insight has
been acquired with regard to strength and stiff-
ness characteristics that can be obtained with the
CVR C-mix®, the TSM and the CSM procedures
in several Belgian soils. A methodology and an
interpretation method to determine the strength
and stiffness characteristics of soil mix material
have been proposed and validated [6].
The present paper focuses on the influence of
soil inclusions on the soil mix structural behav-
iour. The surface percentage (A) and the line
percentage (B) methodologies, quantifying soil
inclusions, are described and illustrated by in situ
results from 18 sites in Belgium. The amount of
982 P. Ganne et al. / Soil Mix: Influence of Soil Inclusions on Structural Behaviour

inclusions in soil mix material depends on the REFERENCES

nature of the soil. In the present study, soil mix
materials executed in situ in quaternary and ter- [1] A. Probaha, State of the art in deep mixing technology,
tiary sands, silt, alluvial clay, stiff clay and clay Part I: basic concepts and overview, Ground Improve-
ment 2 (1998), 81-92.
with peat are considered (figure 1). [2] A. Probaha, H. Tanaka & M. Kobayashi, State of the art
Once the presence of soil inclusions is quanti- in deep mixing technology, Part II: applications,
fied, numerical modelling is used to characterize Ground Improvement 3 (1998), 125-139.
its influence on the stiffness of the soil mix mate- [3] Eurosoilstab, Development of design and construction
methods to stabilize soft organic soils. Design Guide
rial. Numerical simulations clearly highlight the Soft Soil Stabilisation (2002). EC project BE 96-3177.
influence of the amount and the characteristics of [4] EN 14679, Execution of special geotechnical works –
soil inclusions on the Young modulus of the soil Deep mixing (2005), CEN TC 288 WI 011.
mix material (figures 3 and 4). [5] C.J. Rutherford, G. Biscontin, D. Koutsoftas & J.L.
Briaud, Design process of deep soil mixed walls for ex-
Within this research program, the tests to de- cavation support, International Journal of Geoengi-
termine strength and stiffness characteristics and neering Case Histories 1 (2007), 56-72.
numerical simulations will continue. In parallel, [6] Ganne, P., Huybrechts, N., De Cock, F., Lameire, B.,
numerous tests dealing with porosity, permeabili- Maertens, J. 2010. SOIL MIX walls as retaining struc-
tures – critical analysis of the material design parame-
ty, long term behavior (e.g. creep) and adherence ters, International conference on geotechnical chal-
with steel reinforcement have been launched. lenges in megacities, Moscow 07-10.06.2010
[7] Weibel, E. R. Stereological methods. Vol. 2. Theoreti-
If soil mix walls were previously used only cal foundations, Academic Press, New York, 1980.
for temporary excavation support, permanent re-
taining and foundation applications with soil mix
are increasingly applied in Belgium. Hence, the
durability aspects of the soil mix material have to
be treated.
In the second half of the research program, the
soil mix material should be investigated in terms
of its alkalinity properties, with the help of pH
long term measurements, in order to control its
level of corrosion protection. The viability of the
process in presence of polluted soils should be
also considered.
Based on the results of this research program,
a design methodology for the soil mix structures,
accounting for the presence of the heterogenei-
ties and soil-inclusions, the scale effects and the
time-effects such as curing time and creep shall
be developed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research program is financially supported

by the Agency for Innovation by Science and
Technology of the Flemish Region IWT (BBRI,
2009-2013).
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 983
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-983

Durabilité du comportement mécanique d’un limon

traité à la chaux soumis à un écoulement d’eau
Long term behaviour of lime-treated silty soil submitted to a
water flow
O. Cuisinier 1
Nancy-Université, Laboratoire Environnement, Géomécanique & Ouvrages, 54501 Nancy, France
B. Le Runigo, D. Deneele
Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, 44341 Bouguenais, France
Y. -Jun Cui
École des Ponts ParisTech, UR Navier – CERMES, 77455 Marne-la-Vallée, France
V. Ferber
Entreprise Charier, Service R&D, 45550 Montoir-de-Bretagne, France

ABSTRACT
The durability of mechanical improvements brought by the lime treatment is still in debate. This is particularly the case when the
treated soil is in permanent contact with water (river levee, canal) where the treated soil is subjected to water stress (immersion,
water circulation). In this context, the long-term behaviour of stabilised soils is unknown. This work focused on assessing the ef-
fect of water flow on the shear strength of a silt treated with 1 or 3% of lime. Samples were subjected to water flow in a flexible
wall permeameter and their shear strength was determined after various periods of circulation. The results showed that the per-
formance reached after 90 days of treatment (cohesion, friction angle) was equivalent for both lime treatment. However, im-
provements brought by 1% of lime are totally removed by 6 months of water circulation, whereas in the case of treatment to 3%,
the mechanical behaviour is stable after 6 months of circulation. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that lime stabilisation is
very sensitive to a water circulation. From a mechanical point of view, in the short term, using 3% of lime is not justified com-
pared to a dosage of 1%. However, in order to maintain the performance in the long term, it is necessary to use a dosage of 3%.

RÉSUMÉ
La pérennité des améliorations mécaniques apportées par le traitement à la chaux est une question débattue, notamment lorsque
le sol traité est en contact permanent avec l’eau (digue, canaux, etc.). Dans ce contexte, cette étude cherche à évaluer l’effet
d’une circulation d’eau sur la résistance au cisaillement d’un limon traité à la chaux. Les éprouvettes de limon traitées avec 1 ou
2 % de chaux ont été soumises à une circulation d’eau dans des perméamètres à paroi flexible. La résistance au cisaillement du
sol traité a été déterminée après différentes périodes de circulation. Les résultats montrent que la performance atteinte après 90
jours de cure était équivalentes pour les deux dosages retenus. Cependant, les améliorations mécaniques apportées par le traite-
ment à 1 % de chaux sont supprimées par 6 mois de circulation d’eau alors que le comportement mécanique est stable après 6
mois de circulation pour le limon traité à 3 %. Ces travaux montrent que les effets du traitement peuvent être éliminés par une
circulation d’eau. Si à court terme, le recours à un dosage de 3 % ne se justifie pas par rapport à un dosage de 1 %, il est néces-
saire de traiter à 3 % pour pérenniser les effets mécaniques du traitement dans le sol traité soumis à une circulation d’eau.

Keywords: lime, durability, shear strength, compacted soil, cemented soil.

1
Corresponding Author.
984 O. Cuisinier et al. / Durabilité du comportement mécanique d’un limon traité
1 INTRODUCTION
Le traitement à la chaux est une technique lar-
gement utilisée dans le domaine des terrasse-
ments routiers puisqu’elle permet d’améliorer
non seulement les propriétés mécaniques des sols
argileux humides mais aussi leur maniabilité.
Toutefois, dans le cas d’ouvrages en sol traité à
la chaux soumis à une circulation d’eau à long
terme (digues, barrages, berges de canaux, etc.),
la durabilité et la stabilité de ces améliorations
restent mal connues. En effet, la plupart des tra-
vaux réalisés jusqu’à présent a visé à mieux
comprendre le comportement des sols traités à la
chaux (e.g. Eades et Grim, 1962 ; Diamond et
Kinter, 1965 ; Little ,1995) sans prendre en
compte les différentes sollicitations auxquelles
les ouvrages en terre peuvent être soumis dans
leur environnement : contact prolongé avec
l’eau, cycles d’humidification et séchage, trafic
routier, etc.
Deux types de processus physico-chimiques
sont initiés suite à l’ajout de chaux dans un sol.
Le premier, appelé modification, a lieu immédia-
tement après l’ajout de chaux et correspond aux
processus d’échanges cationique et de flocula-
tion. Le second, appelé solidification, a lieu à
plus long terme et correspond au développement
des réactions pouzzolaniques, et donc, à la for-
mation de produits cimentaires. Les améliora-
tions géotechniques apportées par le traitement à
la chaux, tels que la diminution de l’indice de
plasticité ou l’augmentation de la résistance à la
compression simple peuvent être directement re-
liées à ces processus physico-chimiques.
Peu d’études ont été menées afin d’évaluer la
durabilité du traitement à la chaux – ou la péren-
nité de ces améliorations géotechniques et donc
des processus physico-chimiques – dans le cas de
sols exposés à des circulations d’eau. Une étude
de De Bel et al. (2005) montre pour un limon
traité à la chaux que les circulations d’eau con-
duisent à une diminution de sa résistance à la
compression simple. Toutefois, cette étude ne
permet pas de conclure quant à l’origine exacte
de la baisse de résistance. En effet, les auteurs
l’attribuent soit à l’augmentation de teneur en
eau des éprouvettes (i.e. phénomène de satura-
tion) soit à un effet négatif des circulations d’eau
sur l’activité pouzzolanique et donc sur les liens
de cimentations formés. Une autre étude réalisée
par McCallister (1990) sur trois sols argileux dif-
férents suggère que l’ampleur de la baisse de ré-
sistance observée est fortement liée à la quantité
de chaux ajoutée : plus le dosage en chaux utilisé
est fort, plus la baisse de résistance est faible.
L’hypothèse donnée par l’auteur pour expliquer
ce résultat est que, présent en quantité suffisante,
les composés pouzzolaniques sont stables vis-à-
vis des circulations d’eau.
Ainsi, le faible nombre d’études disponibles
dans la littérature sur le comportement des sols
traités à la chaux soumis à des circulations d’eau
ne permet pas de conclure quant à leur compor-
tement d’un point de vue physico-chimique, et
plus précisément, quant à la stabilité dans le
temps du comportement mécanique. Cet aspect
est pourtant déterminant car si les effets positifs
du traitement sur le comportement mécanique
sont pris en compte dans le dimensionnement de
la structure, il est indispensable de s’assurer de la
pérennité de ces effets sur la durée de vie de
l’ouvrage considéré.
Dans ce contexte, cette étude vise à évaluer
l’impact d’une circulation d’eau sur la résistance
au cisaillement d’un limon traité à deux dosages
en chaux différents. Les différents objectifs sont:
(i) de développer une procédure expérimentale
afin de simuler les circulations d’eau à long
terme, (ii) de décrire l’impact du traitement sur le
comportement mécanique à court terme (après la
cure), et (iii) d’évaluer l’effet des circulations sur
ce comportement. Dans le cadre d’une étude
connexe, une attention particulière avait été por-
tée à l’impact du traitement sur la perméabilité
du même limon, les résultats ont été publiés pré-
cedemment (Le Runigo et al. 2009).
2 PROCÉDURE EXPÉRIMENTALE
2.1 Matériaux – non traités et traités
Le sol testé dans cette étude est un sol limoneux
représentatif des sols pouvant être traités à la
chaux en France. Les principaux paramètres
d’identification du sol, présentés dans le tableau
 O. Cuisinier et al. / Durabilité du comportement mécanique d’un limon traité
I, ont été déterminés à partir des normes
françaises. L’analyse minéralogique du sol par
diffractométrie de rayons X a montré que la frac-
tion argileuse du limon est principalement consti-
tuée d’illite et de kaolinite avec une quantité si-
gnificative de minéraux de smectites et d’illites
interstratifiés. L’analyse thermique différentielle
de la chaux a montré qu’elle est constituée
d’environ 80 % d’oxyde de calcium, de 15 % de
portlandite, et de 3 % de calcite.
Tableau I. Principales propriétés géotechniques et physico-
chimiques du sol.
Propriétés géotechniques
Limite de plasticité, wL (%) 37,0
Limite de liquidité, wP (%) 18,7
Indice de plasticité, IP (%) 18,3
Valeur au bleu, VB (g/100 g) 3,2
Densité des particules,
S (Mg.m-3) 2,69 Types de
Fraction argileuse, < 2 μm (%) 29,4
Propriétes physico-chimiques
pH du sol 8,0
Teneur en carbonates (%) 1,30
Capacité d’échange cationique 15,1
(meq/100g)
2.2 Préparation des éprouvettes
Deux dosages en chaux différents ont été choisis.
Le premier, 1 % de chaux, correspond à un do-
sage usuel pour ce type de sol en France. Le se-
cond, 3 % de chaux, correspond à un dosage
maximal d’un point de vue économique.
Les éprouvettes de sol ont été compactées dy-
namiquement en 10 couches dans des moules cy-
lindriques de 5 cm de diamètre et de 10 cm de
hauteur à l’aide d’une mini dame de compactage.
Cette procédure a été détaillée dans Le Runigo et
al. (2011). Les caractéristiques de compactage
des éprouvettes ont été choisies égales à celles
des paramètres de compactage Proctor optimaux
(tableau II). Après compactage, les éprouvettes
de sols ont été conservées à température am-
biante (20 ± 1°C), et à teneur en eau constante,
pendant une période de 25 jours.
2.3 Dispositif et conditions de percolation
Les circulations d’eau ont été simulées via un
dispositif de percolation per ascensum. Les
éprouvettes sont placées, après la période de
cure, dans des cellules similaires à des perméa-
mètres à paroi flexible. Les cellules sont sou-
985
mises à une charge hydraulique de 80 kPa. Une
pression de confinement est aussi appliquée aux
cellules de façon à limiter les fuites de bords. De
l’eau déminéralisée est utilisée comme lixiviant.
Les lixiviats sont récupérés dans des bouteilles
de 1 litre au fur et à mesure des percolations. On
peut souligner que les conditions de percolations
ont été choisies plus sévères que celles observées
dans la pratique de façon à accélérer les dégrada-
tions éventuelles pouvant avoir lieu à long terme.
En effet, l’infiltration annuelle moyenne d’eau de
pluie en France dans le sol peut être estimée à
300 L.m-2. Avec les conditions de percolations
utilisées dans cette étude, cette valeur varie entre
2700 et 15000 L.m-2 par an.
Tableau II. Paramètres de compactage des éprouvettes.
Teneur en eau Masse volumique
matériau sèche
(%) (Mg.m-3)
Sol non traité 16,0 1,76
Sol traité à 1 % 21,0 1,64
de chaux
Sol traité à 3 % 23,0 1,58
de chaux
2.4 Détermination de la résistance au
cisaillement
Chaque essai triaxial a été réalisé en utilisant
trois éprouvettes soumises aux mêmes sollicita-
tions (temps de cure et de circulation) Les
éprouvettes avaient un diamètre de 50 mm et une
hauteur de 100 mm. Pour réaliser l’essai, cha-
cune de ces trois éprouvettes a d’abord été satu-
rée et consolidée sous une contrainte donnée. Ces
phases ont été réalisée en appliquant une contre
pression de 210 kPa puis en augmentant progres-
sivement par palier la pression de confinement
jusqu’à atteindre 350 kPa, 500 kPa et 800 kPa.
Une fois les éprouvettes saturées et consoli-
dées, les éprouvettes ont été chargées mécani-
quement à une vitesse constante de
0,03 mm.min-1. Les essais ont été poursuivis jus-
qu’à ce que le déviateur atteigne un pic et dimi-
nue. Le critère de rupture utilisé pour déterminer
l’enveloppe de rupture est le maximum des rap-
ports des contraintes ( 1/ 3)max.
986 O. Cuisinier et al. / Durabilité du comportement mécanique d’un limon traité
3 RESULTATS
3.1 Influence du traitement à la chaux
Dans le cas des matériaux traités à la chaux, les
essais triaxiaux ont été réalisés après 90 jours de
cure à teneur en eau constante. Les résultats des
essais sont donnés dans les figures 1 à 4, les pa-
ramètres de résistance au cisaillement dans le ta-
bleau III.
Les Figures 1 et 2 mettent en évidence une
modification profonde du comportement méca-
nique du limon suite au traitement à la chaux.
Après traitement, le limon acquiert un compor-
tement fragile avec un pic très prononcé sur les
courbes déviateur en fonction de la déformation
axiale (Figures 3 et 4). Cette modification du
comportement mécanique se traduit par une
augmentation de l’angle de frottement de l’ordre
de 5° par rapport au sol non traité. Elle ne dé-
pend pas du dosage utilisé. La cohésion est aussi
améliorée par le traitement à la chaux, avec une
augmentation de l’ordre de 50 kPa.
Le traitement à la chaux permet donc
d’améliorer significativement le comportement
mécanique du limon étudié. Il est intéressant de
noter que le dosage n’a que peu d’impact sur
l’ampleur de l’amélioration, les résultats étant
équivalents pour 1 et 3 % de chaux. Dans ces
conditions, dans le cadre d’une amélioration à
90 jours des propriétés mécaniques d’un limon,
un dosage de 1 % est suffisant. Le dosage à 3 %
de chaux n’est donc pas justifié.
3.2 Influence de la circulation
Dans le cas d’un dosage à 1 % de chaux, les es-
sais triaxiaux ont été conduits avec des éprou-
vettes soumises préalablement à une circulation
sur une période de l’ordre de 150 jours. Les ré-
sultats obtenus montrent que la circulation a un
consolidations. Par ailleurs, les courbes du dévia-
teur en fonction de la déformation axiale ne mon-
trent plus la présence d’un pic (Figure 3). Elles
sont elles-aussi très peu différentes des courbes
obtenues dans le cas du limon non traité. La cir-
culation se traduit par une réduction importante
de la cohésion qui chute, après circulation, jus-
qu’à une valeur proche de la cohésion du limon
non traité (Tableau III). De même, l’angle de
frottement baisse jusqu’à la valeur de l’angle de
frottement du limon non traité. Dans ces condi-
tions, ces résultats permettent de montrer que la
circulation imposée pendant 150 jours a conduit
à supprimer les effets du traitement avec 1 % de
chaux.
Les éprouvettes traitées avec 3 % de chaux
ont été soumises à une circulation d’une durée
comparable à celle respectée pour les essais à
1 % de chaux, bien que légèrement supérieure
(200 au lieu de 150 jours). La Figure 2 permet de
montrer que la circulation n’a pas modifié de
manière profonde le comportement mécanique
du sol traité avec 3 % de chaux qui reste stable
avant et après les 200 jours de circulation. De
plus, la Figure 4 met en évidence une augmenta-
tion du déviateur au pic entre la fin de la cure et
la fin de la circulation. Dans le cas d’une con-
trainte effective de consolidation de 140 kPa,
cette augmentation est de l’ordre d’une centaine
de kPa. La valeur de la déformation axiale au pic
reste stable en revanche. Le Tableau III montre
que si l’angle de frottement n’est pas impacté par
la circulation sur 200 jours, une légère augmenta-
tion de la cohésion est observée (+ 8 kPa). Ces
résultats montrent que les 200 jours de circula-
tion n’ont pas entraîné de dégradation profonde
du comportement mécanique du limon traité avec
3 % de chaux.
Tableau III. Impact de la circulation sur la cohésion et l’angle
de frottement du limon.
Avant circulation Après circulation
impact important sur le comportement méca- c’ (kPa) ’ (°) c’ (kPa) ’ (°)
nique du limon non traité. Ainsi, la Figure 1
permet de mettre en évidence l’impact de la cir- Non traité 22 26 / /
culation sur les chemins de contrainte. Après cir- 1 % de chaux 69 30 31 24
culation, les chemins de contrainte du limon trai- 3 % de chaux 72 32 80 31
té et soumis à la circulation sont confondus avec
les chemins de contraintes obtenus dans le cas du
limon non traité pour les mêmes contraintes de
 O. Cuisinier et al. / Durabilité du comportement mécanique d’un limon traité 987

Figure 1. Impact de la circulation d’eau sur les chemins de contraintes suivis dans le cas des éprouvettes traitées avec 1 % de
chaux vive.

Figure 2. Impact de la circulation d’eau sur les chemins de contraintes suivis dans le cas des éprouvettes traitées avec 3 % de
chaux vive.
3.3 Processus physico-chimiques cours de la circulation en fonction du dosage (Le
Runigo et al, 2009). Ces pertes de performances
Une étude parallèle menée par les auteurs a visé
peuvent être attribuées à une dissolution partielle
à caractériser l’évolution des propriétés physico-
de la chaux non consommée mais aussi à la dé-
chimiques du limon au cours de la circulation et
calcification des produits cimentaires formés
en fonction du dosage, notamment pour expli-
suite à l’ajout de chaux. L’ampleur de ces pro-
quer l’évolution de la performance du limon au
cessus s’avère être fonction de la perméabilité.
988 O. Cuisinier et al. / Durabilité du comportement mécanique d’un limon traité

4 CONCLUSION

Cette étude a permis de mettre en évidence

l’impact négatif que peut avoir une circulation
d’eau sur la durabilité du comportement méca-
nique d’un limon traité à la chaux. L’impact de la
circulation est une fonction directe du dosage en
chaux choisi lors du traitement. Ainsi, traiter à 1
ou 3 % de chaux a conduit à des performances
équivalentes à court terme : le traitement à 3 %
ne se justifiait donc pas dans ces conditions. En
revanche, la prise en compte de la durabilité des
effets du traitement vis-à-vis d’une circulation
d’eau nécessite d’avoir recours à un traitement à
3 % de chaux.
La détermination du dosage nécessaire pour
traiter un sol doit donc non seulement se baser
sur le niveau de performance à atteindre à court
terme, lors de la mise en service, mais aussi sur
la durée de vie prévue de la structure à réaliser,
en fonction des sollicitations envisagées (cycles
hydriques, circulation d’eau, etc.).
Figure 3. Influence de la circulation sur la courbe contrainte /
déformation axiale du limon traité avec 1 % de chaux.
REFERENCES

[1] Boardman, D.I., Glendinning, S., Rogers, C.D.F., De-

velopment of stabilisation and solidification in lime-
clay mixes. Géotechnique 50 (2001), 533-543
[2] De Bel, R., Bollens, Q., Duvigneaud, P.H., & Verbruge,
J.C., Influence of curing time, percolation and tempera-
ture on the compressive strength of a loam treated with
lime. Int. Symp. TREMTI, paper n°C022 (2005).
[3] Diamond, S. & Kinter, E.B., Mechanisms of soil-lime
stabilization. High. Res.Record 92 (1965), 83-102.
[4] Eades, J.L. & Grim, R.E., Reaction of hydrated lime
with pure clays minerals in soil stabilization. High. Res.
Board Bulletin 262 (1962), 51-63.
[5] Le Runigo, B., Cuisinier, O., Cui, Y.-J., Deneele, D. &
Ferber, V. Impact of the initial state on fabric and per-
meability of a lime treated silt under long term leach-
ing. Canadian Geotechnical J. 46 (2009), 1243-1257.
[6] Le Runigo, B, V. Ferber, V., Cui, Y.J., Cuisinier, O. &
Deneele, D. 2011. Performance of lime-treated silty soil
under long-term hydraulic conditions. Engineering Ge-
ology118, 20–28
[7] Little, D.N., Stabilization of pavement subgrades and
base courses with lime. National Lime Association, Ar-
lington, 1995.
[8] McCallister, L.D., The effects of leaching on lime-
treated expansive clays, PhD thesis, University of Tex-
as, Arlington, 417 p. 1990.
Figure 4. Influence de la circulation sur la courbe contrainte /
déformation axiale du limon traité avec 3 % de chaux.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 989
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-989

3-D analysis of stone columns

to support a roadway embankment on soft soil
Analyse en 3D de la construction sur pilotis servant de
fondations à des ouvrages bâtis sur talus sur sol meuble
E. Koch
Széchenyi István University, Gy‰r, Hungary

ABSTRACT
Engineering structures are now often built on soft soils with low strength and high compressibility. Adding to the problem are
low hydraulic conductivity and greater susceptibility to significant secondary compression. The reduced conductivity and pro-
longed secondary settlements can exacerbate construction problems and create intolerable delays. As a response to these prob-
lems, stone columns provide several positive benefits. They reduce settlement due to their innate stiffness as well as provide a
shorter consolidation drainage path with resulting shorter time to pore pressure reduction. The degree of drainage and support
however is difficult to estimate since the process is a complex interaction of columns, native soils and embankment placement.
This study examines reinforcement effects of stone columns in a 3-dimensional setting. Effects of spacing, diameter and depth of
penetration are examined with respect to requirements for increased stability for supporting a highway embankment. The results
of this study will enable geotechnical engineers to better evaluate the benefits of stone columns when applied to embankment
problems.

RÉSUMÉ
Nous devons affronter de plus en plus fréquemment les difficultés imposées par les travaux des fondations d’ouvrages posées sur
des sols compressibles de faible portance. Une partie de ces problèmes est due à la présence des sols de perméabilité réduite. La
faible de construire des ouvrages d’art sur un sol peu consistant, facilement compressible, d’une conductivité hydraulique faible.
La solidité faible perméabilité et la compressibilité à long terme (consolidation) exercent une influence défavorable sur les délais
d’exécution.
L’application des colonneas ballastées nous permet de résoudre ces problèmes. Grâce à leur structure ces rigide, les colonnes
ballastées réduisent les tassements et favorisent l’évacuation des eaux, ce qui aura pour résultant l’accélération de la
consolidation.
Il est difficile de déterminer l’effet favorable du drainage d’eau et de l’amélioration de la stabilité ; cela nous oblige d’étudier le
comportement global et les effets simulanés de l’ensamble colonne ballastée sous-sol et remblai.
Le but de l’exposé est d’étudier l’effet des colonnes ballastées sur la stabilité des remblais, faisant appel à la méthode 3D, et
faisant varier l’implantation et l’espacement des colonnes ballastées et de l’épaisseur de la zone compressible.

Keywords: stone column, FEM design, stability analysis, safety factor.

1 INTRODUCTION saturated, mostly organic subsoil. In the near fu-

ture further increase in the number of this type of
In the past five to ten years road and railway em- construction tasks is suspected, since due to envi-
bankments have been often constructed on soft, ronmental and land management considerations
990 E. Koch / 3-D Analysis of Stone Columns to Support a Roadway Embankment on Soft Soil
transportation infrastructure has to migrate to
low value areas. The low strength, the high com-
pressibility together with low permeability and
the high creeping potential will result in stability
problems and prolonged consolidation with ex-
tremely high settlements respectively.
As a solution, different techniques have been im-
plemented recently. By now the classic soil re-
placement technique has been almost completely
superseded by construction methods like staged
construction, application of overcharge, base re-
inforcement with geogrid or geocell, soil im-
provement with dynamic soil replacement or vi-
bro stone columns.
For projects implementing one or more of these
techniques finite element models (besides the
conventional methods of Skempton, Priebe,
Barron) are commonly used to predict the behav-
iour of the system.
This paper presents a parametric study to inves-
tigate the applicability of a novella 3D finite
element modelling technique to analyse the ef-
fects of stone column foundation on the stability
of an embankment constructed on soft soil [1][2].
2 CONVENTIONAL METHODS FOR
STABILITY ANALYSIS OF PILED
EMBANKMENT FOUNDATIONS
Rapidly constructed embankments on soft soils
are prone to stability problems due to the slow
increase of the effective stresses.
In practice, the stability analysis is carried out by
an ultimate limit state analysis generally using a
static approach. To determine the safety against
failure of the foundation the method of strips is
the most commonly used calculation technique,
taking into account the presence of the reinforc-
ing elements.
For the strength parameter of the fine grained
soils one option is to assume an increasing cu if
scheduling allows at least partial consolidation
during construction. If the required safety can be
achieved in these calculations the presence of the
columns can be neglected. If necessary, the col-
umns can be regarded as individual strips for
which their own strength parameters can be ap-
plied.
In another common method increased strength
parameters are applied for the soil mass that is
penetrated by the stone columns.
The strength parameters of the improved zone
are calculated as a weighted average, with
weights being the area ratio and the load distribu-
tion coefficient.
The 2D modelling of a 3D problem, the interac-
tion between the soft soil and the stone columns,
the compatibility of mobilized shear resistances,
the inclination between the slip plane and the
axis of the stone column and the unconsidered
effect of the consolidation during construction
are all reducing the reliability of the model [3].
3 STABILITY ANALYSIS WITH FINITE
ELEMENT PACKAGES
The finite element packages have generally been
employed to calculate settlements and consolida-
tion times for axisymmetric or plain strain mod-
els of stone column supported embankments. In
theory, stability analysis of 2D models can be
carried out using M-c reduction technique. Codes
suitable for this type of analysis are reducing the
cohesion (c) and the tangent of the friction angle
(tanM) until infinitely large displacements occur,
and calculate safety from the ratio of
cHxisting tan MHxisting (1)
SF
cUHTXLUHG tan MUHTXLUHG
that is identical to the safety definition of the De-
sign Approach 3 in Eurocode 7.
Main advantage of this method is that besides the
equilibrium criteria the compatibility conditions
are also fulfilled, therefore the difference be-
tween the mobilized shear resistance within the
system elements of different stiffness will auto-
matically be taken into account.
The critical slip plane (that can even change its
shape during the process) also develops by itself.
The contraversion of using 2D models of real 3D
prototype still persist when analyzing plain strain
numerical models.
Recently several 3D packages including novelle
constitutive models have been launched. With
these, the subsoil, the stone columns, the granual
load distribution layer and the embankment can
 E. Koch / 3-D Analysis of Stone Columns to Support a Roadway Embankment on Soft Soil 991

be modelled as 3D bodies. Applying state of the Table 1 Soil properties

art constitutive models, the interaction between Mohr-Coulomb
1
embankment
2
gravel
2
clay
3
sand
4
stone column

the different system elements is hoped to simu- Type

3
Drained Drained Undrained Drained Drained
γ unsat kN/m 20 20 15 20 22
late the prototype behaviour correctly. However, γ sat kN/m
3
20 20 18 20 22
k x=k y=k z m/day 1 1 0.0086 1 1
in the trials subject of this study to simplify the Eu MN/m
2
10 - 50
model the classic lineary elastic perfectly plastic E ref MN/m
2
24 20 22.5 30
ν - 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.3 0.3
constitutive model has been applied with Mohr- cu kN/m
2
20 - 80
2

Coulomb failure criterion. According to the rec- c ref

ϕ
kN/m
°
1
40
1
36 1
1
36
1
35
ommendations, this model gives adequate results ψ ° 10 6 0 6 5

for stability analysis. (Using the simple material

model reduced the calculation time demand as
Table 2 Tested parameter combinations and cal-
well.)[4].
culated safety factor
undrained shear strength
of subsoil c u [kPa] 20 30 35 40 50 60 70 80

no subsoil improvement
4 THE MODEL ANALYZED embankment 5 1.01 1.43 1.63 1.7 1.7 1.7
height 10 1.01 1.08 1.16 1.38 1.48 1.48 1.48
h [m]
15 1.08 1.24 1.39 1.43

In this paper the effect of stone columns on the 5 1.22

stone columns in 3x3 m square grid
1.59 1.58 1.58
embankment
stability of an embankment has been analyzed height
h [m]
10 1.13 1.35 1.54 1.52 1.51
15 1.11 1.26 1.4 1.4
using the Plaxis 3D package. Figure 1 shows the stone columns in 2x2 m square grid
1.35 1.7 1.6 1.59
geometry of a 60 m breadth 6 m thick slice of an embankment
height 10
5
1.04 1.26 1.47 1.46
h [m]
embankment that has been analyzed. The top 15 1.05 1.21 1.49 1.47

H=8m of the subsoil is soft clay, resting on 12 m

of sand. The undrained shear strength of the soft
layer was varied between cu=20-80kPa. The
height of the embankment was h=5-10-15m, with
a slope of 1:1.5. The d=60cm and H=8m stone
columns were placed in 2 or 3 m square grids. In
the 3D model 3 rows of stone columns were
used. The applied soil properties are shown in
Table 1.
The input parameters were selected to influence
the stability significantly. Due to the significant
time demand the number of calculations had to
be kept in a reasonable range. Table 2 shows the
parameter combinations that have been tested
and the calculated safety factor for those cases
[4].
Figure 1. The model geometry
5 RESULTS
To visualize the results, the safety factors were
plotted against (cu). The results for different em-
bankment heights are shown in Figures 2, 3 and
4. Independently from the grid spacing and the
embankment height, each SF-cu curve has two
distinct sections:
 a linearly increasing section that are basically
parallel with each other,
 a final constant section that is independent
from the grid spacing and the application of
the stone column improvement.
The linearly increasing sections of the SF-cu
curves belong to undercutting slip circles. The
slip planes were running down to the surface of
the high strength sand layer, and at decreasing
embankment height the slip zones moving to-
wards the slope face. Therefore, the value of the
safety factor was mainly governed by the shear
strength of the soft layer, partially by the grid
spacing of the columns and slightly by the shear
strength of the embankment material.
The SF=constant sections belong to a sliding
failure mechanism on the slope. The safety factor
in these cases depends mainly on the strength of
992 E. Koch / 3-D Analysis of Stone Columns to Support a Roadway Embankment on Soft Soil

the embankment material, and is slightly influ- 1.6

1,6

enced by the improvement level. Figure 5 shows 1.5

1,5
typical failure mechanisms.

safety factor SF
1.4
1,4

1.3
1,3 h =15 m high embankment

no improvement
6 ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS 1,2
1.2
3.0 × 3.0 m square grid
1,1
1.1
Figures 2-4 show the peak values of the safety 1,0
1.0
2.0 × 2.0 m square grid

factors that for the tested embankment cannot be 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

undrained shear strength c u (kPa)
exceeded by improving the subsoil. The plot
shows the threshold values of cu0 , Figure 4. SF vs. cu for h=15m high embankment
beyond which the safety is constant. In this re-
gion it is pointless to apply columns with the
tested (or smaller) spacing.
The uncertainty of the peak values of the safety
factors is probably due to secondary displace-
ments originating from the dish shape displace-
ment field under the embankment.
Table 3 shows the averaged limit values of SF
and the threshold values for cu0.
1.8
1,8

1.7
1,7

1.6
1,6
safety factor SF

1.5
1,5

1.4
1,4 h = 5 m high embankment Figure 5. Typical failure mechanisms
1.3
1,3 no improvement

1.2
1,2 2.0 × 2.0 m square grid Table 3 Maximum safety and threshold values of
1.1
1,1 3.0 × 3.0 m square grid undrained shear strength
1.0
1,0
20 30 40 50 60 70
undrained shear strength c u [kPa]

Figure 2. SF vs. cu for h=5m high embankment

1,6
1.6

1,5
1.5 In Figure 6 safety factors and cu0 values for the
safety factor SF

1,4
1.4 embankments built on soil with no improvement
1,3
1.3
h =10m high embankment are re-plotted against embankment height. The
no improvement safety is changing according to the plotted curve
1,2
1.2
2.0 × 2.0 m square grid and converging to
1,1
1.1
3.0 × 3.0 m square grid
tan M tan 40 (2)
1,0
1.0
SFmin 1,25
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 tan E tan 33,8
undrained shear strength c u [kPa]

Figure 3. SF vs. cu for h=10m high embankment which is the safety factor for an infinite slope.
It is also clear that in correlation with the in-
creasing height of the embankment, the threshold
value of cu0 also increases.
 E. Koch / 3-D Analysis of Stone Columns to Support a Roadway Embankment on Soft Soil 993

2,0
2.0
β = 33.8 ° For SF=1.0 equation
3
1.8
1,8 γ = 20 kN/m
c u0 > 37
ϕ t = 40 ° AF
cXUHT (SF 1 .0 ) ( 2.6  15 ˜
)˜h  4 (4)
safety factor SF

c u0 kPa
1.6
1,6
c u0 > 56
A
c u0 > 70 can be used, while for SF=1.35 the required
1.4
1,4
shear strength can be calculated from the
SF min= tanϕ / tanβ =1.25
1.2
1,2
AF
cXUHT (SF 1.35 ) (3.9  17 ˜ )˜h  7 (5)
1.0
1,0
0 5 10 15 20 25
A
hight of the embankment h [m]
formula. The above equations are valid for the no
Figure 6. Factor of safety and threshold values of undrained improvement case as well using Ac/A=0.
shear strength vs. the height of the embankment for the no
improvement case As an approximation of the safety against failure
according to Skempton, it can be determined by
Analysing the data for the improved cases a rela- comparing the stress on the embankment base
tionship for the threshold value of undrained and the bearing capacity of the subsoil, which
shear strength has been established. For subsoils can be assumed to be five times the undrained
having higher undrained shear strength than the shear strength.
threshold value applying stone columns will have (S  2) ˜ cXH[ 5 ˜ cXH[
no effect on the overall safety. SF | (6)
h ˜J h ˜J
A (3)
cX 0,03 ˜ ˜ h  2,2 ˜ h  15 On Figure 7 this relationship is also plotted for
AF the two different safety factors. Comparing the
In this formula A is the effective area of the col- results of the Skempton method with the values
umns, and Ac is the nominal area of the columns. obtained from FEM analysis, it is obvious that
From Figures 2-4 the required undrained shear the two methods yield to very similar undrained
strength can be determined for different em- shear strengths for embankments of h=4-6 m in
bankment heights to obtain SF=1.0 and 1.35. The height. For higher embankments (h=10-15m)
latter is important as the Hungarian national an- Skempton’s method seems to be more conserva-
nex of Eurocode 7 requires JM=Jc=1.35 safety tive, requiring higher shear strength than the
factor for analysis carried out according to the FEM analysis. In case of higher embankments
Design Approach 3. For construction stages val- with FEM calculations slightly economical solu-
ues between 1.0 and 1.35 can be accepted, there- tions can be obtained.
fore SF=1.0 value has also been plotted. The re- The best fitting equation to all data points can be
sults of this analysis can be seen in Figure 7. written as:
§ Ac ·
2
§ Ac · (7)
SF 0.044 ˜ cXH[  0.002 ˜ h ˜ cXH[  56 ˜ ¨ ¸  8.2 ˜ ¨ ¸  0,3
80 © A¹ © A¹
SF=1.00 no improvement

70
SF=1.00 3×3 m square grid The error of above safety factor formula is less
SF=1.00 2×2 m square grid
required undrained shear strength

60
SF=1.00 Skempton than 0.1 for over tested range.
SF=1.35 no improvement
SF=1.35 3×3 m square grid
c u;req (kPa)

50
SF=1.35 2×2 m square grid
SF=1.35 Skempton
40
7 CONCLUSIONS
30

20
For the foundation of infrastructure embank-
10 ments soil improvement is a frequently applied
0 technique. Stone columns is a complex soil im-
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

hight of embankment h (m)

provement technology to reduce settlements, and
Figure 7. Factor of safety vs. the height of the embankment consolidation times increase safety against fail-
for the SF=1.0 and SF=1.35 case
994 E. Koch / 3-D Analysis of Stone Columns to Support a Roadway Embankment on Soft Soil

ure. This paper presents a new type of analysis of difficult to assess the effectiveness of the differ-
the problem [5]. ent solutions. The presented plots and formulas
In current engineering practice stone column are useful means to reveal trends and inner corre-
supported embankments are analysed with limit lations to reduce the number of tests to find the
state methods. These models take into account optimal solution in particular design projects.
the effect of stone columns by the application of
increased shear strength parameters, which is not
a perfect solution. Increasingly popular 2D finite REFERENCES
element codes are also raising problems when
used for these kinds of problems. This paper pre- [1] Moseley, M.P., Kirsch, K. ed., Ground Improvement.
sents a 3D finite element parametric study to in- Taylor and Francis, London, 2004.
[2] Koch, E., Scharle, P., Szepesházi R., Példák és esetta-
vestigate the effect of stone columns on slope nulmányok a mából a kétfokozatú mérnökképzésben
stability. The parameters of the models such as hagyományos és újszer^ modellezéssel. 1. Kézdi Árpád
grid spacings soil properties were selected to Emlékülés, Budapesti M^szaki és Gazdaságtudományi
cover the ranges typical in these types of prob- Egyetem, Budapest, 2008.
[3] Brinkgreve R.B.J., Vermeer P.A., PLAXIS-Finite ele-
lems. cu undrained shear strength of the soil was ment code for soil and rock analyses, Plaxis 3D. Manu-
varied over the range of cu=20-80kPa. Three dif- als, Delft University of Technology Plaxis bv,The
ferent embankment heights (h=5-10-5m) were Netherlands, 2010.
tested. The spacing of the square grid was either [4] British Standard BS 8006 (1995), Code of practice for
stengthened/reinforced soils and other fills, London,
2.0 m or 3.0 m in the different tests. Other pa- 1995.
rameters such as slope angle, embankment mate- [5] Koch, E., Szepesházi R., Foundation of embankments
rial properties or the thickness of the soft layer on peaty subsoil at M7 Motorway in Hungary Proc. of
was held constant in the tests. As the shape of the the Seminar Ivan Poliacek Geotechnical Engineering in
Road Construction, Bratislava, 2009.
slip plane was influenced by the bottom bound-
ary of the soft layer, the failure mechanism is af-
fected by the thickness of the soft soil, as a con-
sequence, in the future the depth of the soft layer
should be involved as a variable.
The presented results obtained from the tests are
reasonable, well-interpreted. The correlation be-
tween the failure mechanisms and the safety fac-
tors is evident. Up to a certain shear strength of
the subsoil an undercutting slip plane is the
dominant failure mechanism, beyond a threshold
shear strength the failure occurs in the slope. The
correlations between the input parameters and
the obtained results are clear and comparable
with the conventional methods. Although the
presented figures and formulas refer to a particu-
lar case, the sensible selection of the input pa-
rameters allow more general interpretation and
practical application of the results. It can be as-
sumed that with similar input data the same kind
of relationships can be established. Besides the
validation of the results, this approach is impor-
tant as it was clear from the present test series
that the 3D FEM analysis of stone column sup-
ported embankments is extremely time consum-
ing. Therefore, in individual design cases it is
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 995
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-995

Interaction sol-structure : comparaison entre

un renforcement de sol par Colonnes à Module
Mixte CMM® et par Inclusions Rigides INSER®
Interaction soil-structure: comparison of
Mixed Modulus Columns and Rigid Inclusions
S. Lambert1
Keller Fondations Spéciales SAS, Duttlenheim, France
W. Wehr
Keller Holding GmbH, Offenbach, Germany
M. Bustamante
MB Fondations, Paris, France
ABSTRACT
®
Mixed modulus columns (CMM ) are becoming increasingly popular in Europe. They consist of a full displacement concrete
column at the bottom and a short vibro stone column at the top. It is pointed out that the hard point effect and punching failure of
the foundation slab or footing is avoided similar to pure vibro stone columns. Based on full scale load tests performed on single
and groups of CMM® columns, their load-settlement behaviour is analyzed.
Furthermore numerical studies with a finite element program have been made to compare their behaviour with rigid inclusions
(IR) showing several advantages of the CMM® method.

RÉSUMÉ
®
Les Colonnes à Module Mixte CMM sont une technique de renforcement de sol qui se développe de plus en plus en Europe.
Elles sont constituées d’une inclusion rigide surmontée d’une tête en gravier refoulée réalisée selon le procédé de la colonne
ballastée. Il apparaît que ce procédé permet d’augmenter la portance et de réduire significativement les tassements par rapport au
sol en place avant renforcement tout en générant une interaction faible voire négligeable sur le dimensionnement des fondations
et notamment des dallages. L’étude du comportement des Colonnes à Module Mixte CMM® se base sur des essais de
chargement en vraie grandeur réalisés sur des colonnes isolées ou en groupe.
Une étude numérique aux éléments finis comparant les inclusions rigides aux Colonnes à Module Mixte est effectuée pour
mettre en évidence l’intérêt de la tête en gravier.

Keywords: Colonne à Module Mixte CMM®, inclusions rigides, dallage, interaction sol-structure

1 PREAMBULE partition de charge, permettent de répondre à des

La Colonne à Module Mixte (CMM®) constituée
d’une inclusion rigide surmontée d’une tête de
gravier (voir figure 1) est une évolution de la
technique de renforcement de sol par inclusions
rigides type INSER®. Ces dernières, disposées en
général en réseau associées à un matelas de ré-
1
Corresponding Author.
tolérances de tassements strictes d’ouvrages
lourds sur des sols compressibles. L’absence de
liaison structurelle entre les ouvrages et les in-
clusions permet à ce procédé de se classer dans
la famille des renforcements de sol et donc de se
distinguer des fondations profondes. Cependant,
l’inconvénient majeur des inclusions rigides est
d’entrainer des incidences souvent non négligea-
996 S. Lambert et al. / Interaction sol-structure
bles sur les autres lots (essentiellement terrasse-
ment, gros-œuvre). Il est par exemple nécessaire
de tenir compte dans le dimensionnement des
dallages et des semelles de l’effet de point dur
des inclusions rigides car les matelas de réparti-
tion de charges sont souvent de faibles épais-
seurs.
La complexité des études d’interaction sol-
structure et le coût prohibitif des matériaux de
remblais granulaires ou traités sous les bâtiments
ont amené la société Keller à développer en 2004
le procédé de la Colonne à Module Mixte
CMM®.
La combinaison de ces deux procédés
inclusions rigides INSER® et Colonne à Module
Mixte CMM® a été retenue sur le projet du
Centre de Tri Postal à Eclépens (Suisse) par
rapport à d’autres techniques d’inclusions
rigides, car elle a su le mieux répondre aux
exigences très strictes du cahier des charges de
l’ouvrage sur les problèmes d’interfaces, que ce
soit au niveau du dimensionnement avec la
structure ou du phasage avec le gros-œuvre et le
terrassement.
Figure 1. Procédure de mise en œuvre de la CMM®.
2 EXEMPLE DE CHANTIER :
CENTRE DE TRI A ECLEPENS (SUISSE)
2.1 Nature et caractéristiques mécaniques des
sols
Deux campagnes de reconnaissance ont été
menées sur le site par les bureaux d’études de sol
CSD en 2004 et Bonnard & Gardel en 2005. Les
essais de reconnaissance se composent de 11
sondages carottés avec mesures SPT et d’essais
de laboratoire. Le profil géotechnique est
présenté sur la figure n° 2.
Le terrain naturel est en pente et varie entre
les cotes 446,50 et 451,50 environ. Les
colluvions composées d’argile limoneuse sur une
épaisseur variant entre 2,90 et 7,30 m reposent
sur des graviers et des sables fluviatiles compacts
d’une épaisseur minimale de 4,60 m.
Figure 2. Profil géotechnique du site à Eclépens
(coupe établie par le B.E. Karakas & Français).
2.2 Caractéristiques du projet
Le projet concerne la construction d’un centre de
tri à Eclépens (Suisse) de 25000 m² pour le
compte de la Poste. Compte tenu de la pente
naturelle du terrain, l’ouvrage se trouve en léger
déblai de 2 m de hauteur et en remblai sur de
fortes épaisseurs allant jusqu’à 4 m de hauteur.
L’ouvrage comporte un sous-sol dans la zone de
remblai.
 S. Lambert et al. / Interaction sol-structure 997

La surcharge sur dallage est de l’ordre de de l’interface, pour vérifier la diffusion des con-
30 kPa et la structure de type charpente béton traintes dans le matelas.
encastrée en pied présente des charges ponctuel- Les mesures sont effectuées dans l’axe de
les verticales variant entre 1000 et 3000 KN, des l’inclusion et en intermaille. Pour les mesures de
efforts horizontaux variant entre 100 et 300 kN et tassements, des piges de tassements sont mises
des moments entre 100 et 200 KN.m. en place selon la figure n° 5 et suivies par un
Le cahier des charges du maître d’ouvrage, géomètre indépendant.
vis-à-vis notamment de la planéité de son dal-
lage, est particulièrement contraignant avec un
tassement absolu maximum de 1,5 cm, un tasse-
ment différentiel L/1000 avec L = distance entre
2 points, et un tassement différentiel de 5 mm
maximum entre le dallage du RDC et le mur pé-
riphérique du sous-sol.
Le contexte du site (plateforme déblai/remblai
avec présence d’un sous-sol) a amené à envisa-
ger une planche d’essais préliminaire avant le
démarrage du chantier.

2.3 Planche d’essais

Cette planche d’essais consiste à charger le sol
par l’intermédiaire d’un remblai sur un maillage
d’inclusions rigides préalablement exécutées. Photo 1. Planche d’essais avec un remblai instrumenté
À proximité, un remblai de référence sans inclu- sur le sol renforcé par inclusions rigides.
sions rigides est monté pour bien estimer la con-
tribution des inclusions à la réduction des tasse-
ments (voir photos n° 1 et 2). Les inclusions
rigides de diamètre 45 cm sont disposées selon
une maille de 2,0 x 2,0 m et ancrées de 1 m dans
les alluvions graveleuses, soit une longueur de
6,50 m/T.N. La zone renforcée par inclusions ri-
gides est chargée par un remblai de 4,20 m de
hauteur, atteignant la cote 452,20, afin de simuler
les charges effectives qui agiront sur les inclu-
sions (poids du remblai et de l’ouvrage plus une
surcharge d’exploitation de 30 KN/m²). Afin de
respecter le même phasage qu’en phase chantier,
les inclusions sont réalisées sur une plate-forme à
la cote de 449,30. Le remblai de référence quant
à lui, n’est réalisé que jusqu’à la cote 450,20, soit
sur 2,20 m de hauteur. Photo 2. Planche d’essais avec un remblai instrumenté
L’instrumentation mise en place est destinée à sur le sol non renforcé.
mesurer les tassements et la répartition de con-
traintes entre les inclusions rigides et le sol.
La société Scetauroute est intervenue pour la
pose de 4 cellules de contrainte disposées sur
deux niveaux différents, l’un à l’interface tête
d’inclusion/matelas et l’autre à +50 cm au-dessus
998 S. Lambert et al. / Interaction sol-structure

zone d’influence de l’inclusion correspondant à

deux fois environ le diamètre de l’inclusion. Il
est également possible de constater une influence
de l’effet point dur de l’inclusion jusqu’à environ
1,50 m dans le remblai (voir figure 7).

Figure 3. Instrumentation de la planche d’essais.

2.3.1 Résultats de la planche d’essais Figure 4. Contrainte en tête de la colonne et celle appliquée
sur le sol.
Les résultats sont représentés sur les figures 4 et
5. Il est possible de constater que les contraintes
mesurées sur les deux plans distants de 0,50 m  
  





donnent les mêmes résultats que ce soit dans 

l’axe des inclusions ou au droit du sol. 
La hauteur de remblai au-dessus de la tête 


d’inclusion est de 4,20 m, soit 80 kPa pour un 

  !

poids volumique de 19 kN/m3 pour le remblai. 

"   !

Par contre, l’instrumentation est mise en place à 

partir d’une plate-forme située à 449,30 avant un 

remblaiement de 2.90 m correspondant à une

surcharge de remblai de 55 KPa.
Figure 5. Résultats des mesures du tassement.
Les contraintes mesurées sont de 275 kPa en
tête d’inclusion et de 30 kPa au droit du sol (voir
figure 4). Il y a bien eu concentration des con-
traintes en tête d’inclusion par une reprise de 20
% de la charge totale directement en tête
d’inclusion. Les tassements mesurés ont permis
de constater un tassement de 29 mm sans renfor-
cement de sol pour 2,20 m de remblai soit un tas-
sement par extrapolation de 38 mm pour 2,90 m
de remblai, à comparer au tassement du remblai
sur sol renforcé par inclusions rigides de 4 mm
sous la même surcharge (voir figure 5). La ré-
duction du tassement s’est donc faite dans un
rapport de pratiquement 10.
Une modélisation du remblai avec PLAXIS
3D permet de mieux comprendre la répartition
des contraintes entre les inclusions et le sol (voir
figure n° 6) et de constater la présence d’une Figure 6. Maillage EF 3D pour le modèle des INSER®.
 S. Lambert et al. / Interaction sol-structure
1.50 m
Figure 7. Contrainte verticale effective avant et après
traitement par INSER®.
2.4 Le chantier
À partir des résultats concluants de la planche
d’essais en termes de tassement, la technique
d’inclusions rigides type INSER® a été validée,
mais avec l’obligation de prendre toutes les dis-
positions nécessaires pour :
x éviter toute hétérogénéité en sous-face de
dallage due à la présence d’inclusions rigi-
des, sachant que la plateforme de travail,
pour une question de planning, se situait à
- 40 cm par rapport à la cote finie,
x laisser la possibilité au terrassier de
reprendre la plateforme de travail si elle
matelasse sans prendre le risque de cisailler
les inclusions, sachant que le démarrage
des travaux était en hiver et que les maté-
riaux de remblai étaient constitués des dé-
blais traités à la chaux.
Les mesures de contrainte dans l’axe de
l’inclusion mettent en évidence des contraintes
élevées de valeurs identiques sur les premiers
50 cm au-dessus de la tête d’inclusion. Le calcul
PLAXIS 3D montre effectivement que si l’on
souhaite « gommer » toute hétérogénéité en
999
sous-face de dallage, il est nécessaire pour ce
projet de prévoir une épaisseur de garde de 1,50
m entre la tête d’inclusion et la sous-face de
dallage (voir figure n° 7).
Pour respecter cette disposition, dans les
zones de remblai de forte épaisseur (supérieure à
1,50 m), le bétonnage est arrêté à - 1,50 m
environ par rapport à la cote 0.00 et le
complément du forage est rempli par du gravier
compacté et refoulé par un vibreur latéral de
profondeur. Dans la zone de transition avec le
déblai, là où l’épaisseur de remblai est inférieure
à 1,50 m, le procédé de Colonne à Module Mixte
CMM® est mis en œuvre afin d’éviter de sur
épaissir le matelas de 0,50 m prévue dans le
projet.
Pour les inclusions sous structure, ces disposi-
tions ont permis de s’assurer qu’un matelas de
répartition de 1 m d’épaisseur se situe entre les
têtes d’inclusions et la semelle permettant à
l’entreprise de gros-œuvre de réaliser ces fouilles
sans endommager les inclusions.
Les inclusions INSER® et CMM® réalisées sur
le chantier se caractérisent par un diamètre de
340 mm exécutées à l’aide d’une vis à refoule-
ment, ancrées dans les sables et graviers à une
profondeur de 3,00 et 8,00 m par rapport au ni-
veau de terrain naturel et disposées selon une
maille carrée variant entre 4 à 9 m² en fonction
de la densité de la charge appliquée (hauteur du
remblai). Au droit du sous-sol, aucun renforce-
ment de sol n’est nécessaire de même que dans la
zone de déblai supérieure à 1,50 m de hauteur.
Sous les semelles, un groupe de trois ou quatre
inclusions a permis de limiter les tassements à
1,5 cm. L’ensemble du chantier a représenté en-
viron 6000 inclusions CMM® et INSER®.
Dans le cadre de ce projet et afin de mieux
préciser le comportement des inclusions INSER®
sous l’effet des charges, plusieurs essais de
chargement dynamiques ont été réalisés par
Duba Pile Control AG.
Ces essais ont été complétés par des
écrasements d’éprouvettes à raison de trois
éprouvettes pour 500 m3 et par des enregis-
trements de paramètres édités sur papier pour
chaque inclusion de structure et un enregis-
trement toutes les 50 inclusions pour le dallage.
1000 S. Lambert et al. / Interaction sol-structure
INSER®
CMM®
Figure 8. Plan d’implantation des CMM® et des INSER®.
REFERENCES
2.5 Conclusion
La combinaison des procédés inclusions rigides
INSER® et des CMM® a parfaitement répondu
aux objectifs et exigences fixés par le maître
d’ouvrage et la maîtrise d’œuvre. Une forte
épaisseur de matelas dans le cas des inclusions
rigides et la partie supérieure en gravier de la
CMM®, ont permis d’éviter une interaction avec
les autres lots. Les effets de points durs des
inclusions rigides ont été négligeables sur le
dimensionnement de la structure (aucune
incidence sur le ratio d’armatures et l’épaisseur
de béton). Comme supposé au stade de l’appel
d’offre, le chantier s’est déroulé dans des
conditions climatiques hivernales
particulièrement défavorables et la plateforme de
travail en matériaux traités à la chaux a été
fortement endommagée par la circulation des
engins. Par contre, les travaux de réfection de la
plate-forme (purge, remblaiement, traitement aux
liants et compactage), ont pu se faire sans
dispositions constructives particulière vis-à-vis
des inclusions rigides dont la tête était située à
plus d’un mètre de profondeur.
INSER®
INSER®
[1]. Bustamante M., Blondeau F., Aguado P. (2004) Cahier
des charges Colonnes à Module Mixte CMM®. Keller
Fondations Spéciales.
[2]. Bustamante M., Lambert S., Pacheco J. (2006) Etudes
expérimentales sur la portance des Colonnes à Module
Mixte aux ELU, Symposium ELU, France.
[3]. Hatem A., Shahrour I., Lambert S., Alsaleh H. (2009)
Analyse du comportement sismique des sols renforcés
par des inclusions rigides et par des Colonnes à Mo-
dule Mixte CMM®. AUGC.
[4]. Zhang X., Foray P., Gotteland Ph., Lambert S., Al-
saleh H. (2010a) Seismic performance of mixed mod-
ule columns and rigid inclusions. 7th International Con-
ference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, July,
Zurich, Swizerland, 6pp.
[5]. Zhang X., Gotteland Ph., Foray P., Lambert S. (2010b)
Numerical Modeling of inertial soil-inclusion interac-
tion. Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering,
June, Trondheim, Norway, 6pp.
[6]. A.N. Author, Book Title, Publisher Name, Publisher
Location, 1995.
[7]. A.N. Author, Article title, Journal Title 66 (1993),
856–890.
Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 1001
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-1001

Behaviour of load carrying capacity for geogrid

encased stone columns using field tests
Comportement en site de la capacité de charge des colonnes
ballastées, renforcées par des geogrids à la partie supérieure
D.Y. Lee 1
Korea Institue of Construction Technology, 283, Goyangdae-Ro, Ilsanseo-Gu, Goyang, Korea
C. Yoo
Sungkyunkwan University, 300 Chunchun-Dong, Jangan-Gu, Suwon,Gyeonggi-Do, Korea

ABSTRACT
Recently, efficient ground improving method such as stone column have been developed and applied by geotechnical engi-
neer. Stone column method, which uses gravel or stone instead of sand to improve ground strength at weak ground construction
sites, has received increasing interest. The stone column method is a construction that replaces 10~30% weak ground with a col-
umn filled with crushed stone. However stone columns are used in weak soils, the lateral support provided by the surrounding
soil is often insufficient to prevent lateral column bulging and column failure. In these condition, Geosynthetic reinforced stone
column method approach has been developed to improve its load carrying capacity through increasing confinement effect. Al-
though such a concept has successfully been applied in practice, fundamentals of the method have not been fully explored. This
paper results of an investigation on the load carrying capacity and reduction in bulging failure of geogrid encased stone column
using field load tests. Also, to examine the effect of geogrid encasement depths from the upper part of 2D and 4D. The results of
analyses improved load carrying capacity of geogrid encased stone column method over the conventional stone column method
without geogrid reinforcing.

RÉSUMÉ
Le but de l’article est l’enquête sur la capacité de charge et la réduction de gonflement des colonnes ballastées, renforcées par
des geogrids à la partie supérieure de 2D à 4D, en utilisant des tests de charge sur le terrain. Les résultats des analyses présentent
une amélioration de la capacité de charge pour les colonnes ballastées qui sont renforcées par des geogrids en fonction des co-
lonnes ballastées non renforcées par des geogrids.

Keywords: Stone column, Geogrid-encased, Feld load test, Bulging, confinement effect

1 INTRODUCTION consolidation, dissipate porewater pressure gen-

Stone column is one of the ground improve-
ment systems that is used for increasing bearing
capacity for settlement sensitive structures like
load embankments, bridge abutments, oil storage
tanks etc. Advantageously, the stone column may
function as a vertical drain material to promote
1
Corresponding Author.
erated by the foundation or earthquake load, im-
prove the ground support, reduce the foundation
settlement, induce the stabilization of slope
etc.(Barksdale et al, 1983). Recently, the concept
of encasing granular piles with geosynthetics
over the full or partial height of the columns to
increase their loading carrying capacity has been
acknowledged by numerous researchers (Raithel
1002 D.Y. Lee and C. Yoo / Behaviour of Load Carrying Capacity
and Kempfert 2000; Alexiew et al. 2005; Mu-
rugesan and Rajagopal 2006, 2007; Yoo et al.
2007; Lee et al 2008; Gniel and Bouazza 2009;
Yoo 2010).
This method is widely used for road ground,
slopes, banks, abutment foundations, submarine
structure foundations, culverts, drainages, rail-
way trackbeds, large oil tanks and plant founda-
tion and reinforcement of weak ground(Al-
Joulani, 1995; Kempfert, et al, 2002). Since the
research on the geotextile encased column (GEC)
method , which is the method of increasing the
carrying capacity by encasing the sand in the soft
ground with geotextile, was started in Germany
in early 1994). The previous research on the
geogrid reinforced stone column method has
been conducted as laboratory model tests or nu-
merical analyses (Paul et al., 2004; Trunk et al.,
2004; Murugesan et al., 2006, 2007; Lee et al.
2006,2007; Gniel and Bouazza 2009; Yoo 2010),
and there has been no research on the application
of the geogrid-encased stone column method us-
ing field load tests.
In this study, full scale load tests have been
conducted on isolated GESC to investigate the
effect load bearing capacity and the deformation
characteristics of the stone columns.
2 CONSTRUCTION METHOD OF GESC
The GESC is the application of the method
which reduces the horizontal deformation and in-
creasingly load carrying capacity of stone col-
umn. The GESC method can be partly applied to
the weak part of the stone column by using en-
casement high strength geogrid. When encasing
the stone column, the lateral bulging is consider-
ably decreased due primarily to the added con-
finement by the encasement. GESC is likely to
be adapted to existing technique used to install
conventional stone column and GEC(Alexiew et
al., 2005).
The GESC installation method is illustrated in
Fig. 1, where encased georid sleeve would not be
constructed with a slightly smaller diameter than
the international diameter of the casing.
The GESC method consists of the following
procedure: installation of columns by using a
casing to install the geogrid to prevent the outer
wall from collapsing during drilling with consid-
eration of the features of soft ground.
z Install casing
z Drilling auger type machine
z Backfilling and compaction to target depth
z Install geogrid sleeve into the hole
z Backfilling and compaction into geogrid
sleeve
Figure 1. Proposed method of installation(Lee at el 2007)
3 CONSTRUCTION
The full-scale field test GESC was constructed
at the multilayered soft ground site(Pohang site)
in Korea. As shown in Fig. 2, the ground at the
site site consists of approximately 2.3m of fill
material with SPT blows counts less than 5. Un-
derlying the fill layer is a 6.5m thick silty clay
deposit with SPT blows count ranging 5 to 13,
followed by a silty clay overlying a weatherd soil
layer. The groundwater table is located at 0.7m
below the ground surface.
Geogrid encasement for the stone column was
constructed using crushed stones classified as
GP, having Cu=2 and Cc=0.2. The pick angle of
internal friction of crush stone determined from
direct shear test data is 48o.
Geogrid encasement for the stone column was
provided in the upper 2D (D= diameter of stone
column), 4D using geogrid reinforcement with
an axial stiffness of J=2,500kN/m.
Instrumentation included load cell, tell-tail ref-
erence plate, displacement transduce, inclinome-
ter casing and strain gauge. Strain gauges were
placed at different locations along the column
length. The strain gauge were oriented along the
 D.Y. Lee and C. Yoo / Behaviour of Load Carrying Capacity 1003

circumferential direction of the encasement to

measure the hoop strain developed in the geogr-
id. Prior to drilling the column cavities, a 70mm
diameter inclinometer casing was installed
200mm from the edge of the column. Inclinome-
ter measurement were made before and after
stone column installation and after selected stone  
column loading increment. Tell-tail reference
plates were installed on top of the first lift of (c) (d)
compacted aggregate in stone column. After con- Figure 3. Photo illustrating (a) drilling cavity; (b) backfilling
struction of the column, a concrete footing was and compaction; (c) install geogrid sleeve (d) compaction and
placed on top. The load cell and displacement complrted GESC
transducers were installed to measure the loads
and displacements at the column top. A layout plan of the load test setup is shown Fig.
SPT Blow Count 4. The test load was applied to the stone column
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0
Fill
0 area by a thick circular steel plate loaded using
0.7
4.0D 300t hydraulic jack.
2 2
2.3
Depth(m)

4 4
Depth(m)

Silty Clay

6 6

8 8
8.7
Weathered
Soil
10 10
Figure 2. Typical soil profile

The construction sequence is illustrated in Fig.

3. The excavation of the borehole to the target
depth in the ground was accomplished by auger
type machine(Fig. 1(a)) and backfilling in com- 
Figure 4. Load test setup
pact lifts with aggregate before install geogrid
sleeve(Fig. 1(b)). Next, we inserted the geogrid
sleeve into the hole and built the stone column to
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
the ground surface, repeating compaction and in-
sertion of the stone(Fig. 1(c)). Geogrid encased
stone column is compacted(Fig. 1(d)) and the fi-
4.1 Stress - settlement curve
nally built stone column was 8m in depth.
Figure 5 shows the results of load tests on iso-
lated geogrid encased stone column and rammed
aggregate pier(RAP). An estimated of the critical
load of each column can be made at the point
corresponding to the intercept of straight lines
fitting the initial and final parts of the load-
  settlement curve(Fellenius 1975). In the present
(a) (b) tests, the critical stress of the RAPs was approx-
1004 D.Y. Lee and C. Yoo / Behaviour of Load Carrying Capacity

imately equal to 600kpa and 2D, 4D(depth of 2 1.5D~4.0D(depth of 1.5 to 4 times column di-
and 4 times column diameter) geogrid encased ameter) below top of RAPs.
stone column it was equal to 750kPa and
630kPa, respectly. Thus, the critical stress of
the GESC was between 5% and 23% grater than
that of RAPs. According to several re-
search(Lawton et al. 1994; Wissmann et al 2007),
RAPs have been increasingly used to reduce set-
tlements and improve the bearing capacity of soft
soils by compact method using high energy im-
pact rammer. From the result, we can find that
the increasing load carrying capacity of the geo-
grid encasing prevented the sudden failure of the
stone column by preventing the bulging failure
of the stone column and reduced settlement.
Applied stress (kPa)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
0

20
Settlemment (mm)

40

60

80
D= 0.76m, L=8.0m

RAP-Top
100 GESC(Lenc = 2D, Top)
GESC(Lenc = 4D, Top)
RAP-Telltale
120
GESC(Lenc = 2D, Telltale)
GESC(Lenc = 4D, Telltale)
140

Figure 5. Figure caption.

4.2 Lateral displacement in GESC

Figure 6 shows the lateral displacement on the
GESC(encasement depth 4D) and RAPs accord-
ing to depth by increasingly load. It has been
observed that, due to application of axial load a
bulge is produced at the top of a single stone col-
umn up to a depth of 2 to 3 times the diameter
beneath the surface(Barksdale and Bachus, 1983).
Figure 6(a), it can be seen that maximum in-
cremental lateral displacement of 0.7, 1.1, 3.3,
5.8 and 9.2mm are observed from RAPs at com-
pressive stress of 176, 353, 528, 704 and 880kPa,
respectively. Lateral displace depth at depth of
Figure 6. Lateral displacement in the soil; (a) adjacent to iso-
lated RAPs; (b) ) adjacent to isolated GESC(encasement
depth = 4D)
As shown in Figure 6(b), maximum lateral dis-
placement of GESC is 2.3mm at compressive
stress of 880kP. It can be observed that the mag-
nitudes of the maximum lateral displacement de-
veloped in the encasement is reduced about 70%
than the maximum lateral displacement of RAPs.
From the results of lateral displacement investi-
 D.Y. Lee and C. Yoo / Behaviour of Load Carrying Capacity
gation, when encasing the stone column, the lat-
eral bulging is considerably decreased due to
primarily to the added confinement by the en-
casement.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the field load test investigation on
the performance of GESC-reinforced ground in
site construction are presented. The results of the
research can be summarized as follows.
(1) Increasingly load carrying capacity of the
GESC is preventing the sudden failure of the
stone column by limiting bulging failure.
(2) when encasing the stone column, the lateral
bulging is considerably decreased due to primari-
ly to the added confinement by the encasement.
(3) It is observed that the geogrid encasement
the soft soil from penetrating into the aggregate.
From the field test, Performance of GESC con-
struction was investigated .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by Korean Ministry
of Construction and Transportation under Grant
No. C105A1000017-05A0300-01700. The finan-
cial support is gratefully acknowledged..
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Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 1007
A. Anagnostopoulos et al. (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-801-4-1007

Behaviour of stabilized soft clay

Comportement de l’argile molle stabilisée
I. Mataic 1, P. Vepsäläinen, M. Lojander
Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Finland
O. Korhonen
City of Helsinki, Finland

ABSTRACT
The paper presents analysis of stabilized soft clay stress-strain behaviour based on drained triaxial test results performed on sta-
bilized and reconstituted soft clay. Main parameters concerning sample preparation and affecting efficiency of stabilization are
addressed. Throughout the paper stabilized clay behaviour is compared to that of normally and overconsolidated soil. It has been
done so in order to determine characteristic phenomena of stabilized clay behaviour with the main emphasis on effects of struc-
ture on strain hardening, strain softening, strength parameters and volume change behaviour.

RÉSUMÉ
L'article présente une analyse du comportement de relations contraintes- déformation de l`argile molle stabilisée, basée sur résul-
tats d'essai triaxial drainé réalisés sur l'argile molle stabilisée et reconstituée. Les paramètres principaux concernant la prépara-
tion de l'échantillon et ayant une incidence sur l'efficacité de la stabilisation sont abordés. Tout au long de l'article, le comporte-
ment d`argile stabilisée est comparé à ceci de sol normalement consolidé et sur consolidé. Il a été fait afin de déterminer les
phénomènes caractéristiques de comportement de l'argile stabilisée avec poids principaux sur les effets de structure sur durcis-
sement, souche adoucissement, paramètres de résistance et comportement en changement de volume.

Keywords: Stabilization, stabilized soft clay, structure, dilation, yield, strength

1 INTRODUCTION ing still present an area of considerable uncer-

Because of poor geotechnical characteristics, soft
clay materials are often improved by stabiliza-
tion; a soil improvement method based on mix-
ing of the in-situ soil with binding material
through application of augering and injecting
technology. The stabilized material produced has
higher strength, lower permeability, and lower
compressibility than the native ground. Stabiliza-
tion effects such as influence of artificially
created bonding on strain hardening and soften-
tainty. This paper presents outcomes of a testing
program performed with an agenda to enhance
understanding of the stabilized clay behaviour.
2 SOFT CLAY STABILIZATION
The properties of stabilized material reflect the
characteristics of the native soil, mixing technol-
ogy applied and binding agent. Methodology for
laboratory stabilization tests has not been stan-

1
Corresponding Author.
1008 I. Mataic et al. / Behaviour of Stabilized Soft Clay
dardized. However, substantial amount of re-
search has been done at HUT and Technical Re-
search Centre of Finland. [1,2]. The research
identified importance of; quantity and quality of
the binding agent, water content, water cement
ratio, pH, clay content, mixing, humus content
and equivalent time. Most common binding
agents used are cement, lime-cement mixture and
lime. Lime and cement mixture provides better
strength than pure lime and it has also proven to
work adequately in clay layers with high organic
content. The presence of lime improves homo-
geneity of stabilized soil when compared to those
containing cement alone. Reasons for poor com-
pression strength have included high humus and
sulphide content and low pH of the clay material.
The strength obtained in laboratory is substan-
tially higher than those obtained in-situ due to
more efficient mixing [2].
3 SAMPLE PREPARATION AND TESTING
3.1 Natural HUT clay
The tests presented are performed on soft clay
sampled in the area of Helsinki University of
Technology (HUT). HUT clay is normally con-
solidated soft natural clay of postglacial origin
typical for Nordic Countries. Lithostratigraphic
conditions of the sampling location include dry
crust layer followed by soft clay deposit be-
tween -1,0 and -5,5 m. Clay layer of interest is
succeeded by moraine sediment and finally by
bedrock underneath 6 m of depth. Water level
occurs at 0,5 m of depth. All HUT clay samples
are taken at the same range of depth of 1,3 to 2,1
m, i.e. material tested is of the same stress histo-
ry. Unit weight of the material is 1,64 g/cm3 and
specific gravity is 2,75 g/cm3. Initial void ratio
values are typically very low and vary between
1,7 and 2,1. Initial water content for HUT clay
material is relatively low 63%. Typical value of
water content in soft clays is 90 to 100%. Fur-
thermore, organic content of 0,75 % is low value
as well. Below the value of 1,5% organic content
has no effect on stabilization efficiency. Initial
pH value of samples was 6, the soil being almost
neutral. Typical value of initial plastic limit
measured is 26,0 % and liquid limit is of 65,0 %.
According to the plasticity chart these values po-
sition HUT clay below A-line in the area of or-
ganic clays.
3.2 Reconstituted HUT clay
Reconstituted samples were obtained by re-
moulding natural HUT clay. Consistent proce-
dure was applied regarding mixing efficiency.
Since the natural material prior to mixing was
fully saturated and at water content close to liq-
uid state, no additional water has been added.
Following the reconstitution, i.e. mixture reach-
ing smooth texture, the material was poured to
impermeable sample tubes (Ø50 mm) and stored
cured in a period of 7-14 days under uniaxial
load of 4,3 kPa at constant temperature of 6º C.
During curing, samples were allowed to drain.
Reduction of sample height was measured once a
day. After placement within the triaxial cell, con-
solidation in the period of 1 to 2 days followed.
Samples have been tested at cell pressures of 20,
50 and 100 kPa. Shearing phase took 8 to 15
days.
3.3 Stabilized HUT clay
Stabilization has been performed by mixing HUT
clay material with 1:1 admixture of cement
(CEM II 42.5N) and lime in the amount of 101,7
kg/m3 until unified mass of material was ob-
tained. Following the binder addition samples
were shaped with plastic cylinder (Ø50 mm) and
cured within the triaxial cell for 14 days under
loading conditions identical to those to be used in
consolidation. Temperature in curing process
was 22.5 ºC. After 14 days, samples were re-
moved from the triaxial cell in order to measure
their volume and to change the porous stone.
Prior to shearing samples were consolidated for 1
day. Stabilized samples have been tested at cell
pressures of 25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 kPa. Shear-
ing phase took typically 15 days. Compared to
natural clay, properties of stabilized samples de-
termined prior to shearing indicate water content
decrease to values between 46,1 and 49.9 % and
unit weight increase to values from 1,73 to 1,77
 I. Mataic et al. / Behaviour of Stabilized Soft Clay 1009

g/cm3. Void ratio varied between 1.28 and 1.36 ing occurs, accompanied by gradual reduction in
with saturation degree between 96,9 and 100 %. shear resistance. The results exhibit typical cohe-
sion hardening characterized by considerably
3.4 Test conditions
Analysis of stabilized and reconstituted soft clay
behaviour presented in this study is based on re-
sults of anisotropically consolidated drained tri-
axial compression test. Drained triaxial tests are
the most suitable type of test since the test condi-
tions allow volumetric deformations of a sample
which are of high importa nce for interpretation
of stabilized clay behaviour (e.g. dilation, de-
structuration). Consolidation stress ratio of
^3Q^1=0.8 was kept constant for the entire period
of consolidation. The shearing rate was 1.20 %/h
for all tests in order to exclude influence of strain
rate intensity on results obtained. During shear-
ing phase, cell pressure was kept constant. Figure 1. Deviator stress-axial strain diagram.

high elastic response. In accordance with cohe-

4 STABILIZED CLAY STRESS-STRAIN sion hardening mode, size of the elastic domain
BEHAVIOUR follows increase in the magnitude of radial stress
applied [3]. Peak shear strength values and asso-
ciated axial strains indicate linear proportionality
4.1 Deviator stress versus axial strain when related to cell pressure applied in tests. Ex-
diagram ception is test made at highest cell pressure (125
kPa), exhibiting peak strength at lower values of
Deviator stress versus axial strain diagram shown
axial strain than what would be expected in com-
on Figure 1 presents stress-strain paths obtained
parison with remaining results. Within stabilized
on reconstituted (dashed) and stabilized samples
clay test, considerable softening occurs in tests
(solid lines) of HUT clay. Data obtained on re-
performed at high cell pressures. The observation
constituted normally consolidated samples are
is valid for both post peak exponential and final
consistent. Initially elastic response is followed
linear softening section. Altogether, reconstituted
by almost linear strain hardening with shear re-
samples show typical response of normally con-
sistance increasing until the end of test. Succes-
solidated soft clay while behaviour of the stabi-
sive increase of shear strength with the increase
lized samples resemble those obtained in tests on
of cell pressure 20, 50 and 100 kPa is recorded.
heavily overconsolidated materials. Reconsti-
Response of reconstituted sample overconsoli-
tuted samples yield at very low values of devia-
dated to OCR=4 (preloading to 200 kPa in a pe-
tor stress and manifested substantially lower
riod of two days, followed by unloading to 50
shear resistance if compared to stabilized clay.
kPa for one day) is characterized by higher elas-
Therefore, cementation increased peak strength,
tic range and higher shear strength than those of
initial stiffness and brittleness of material [4].
reconstituted sample tested at same cell pressure.
Furthermore, slight strain softening is exhibited
4.2 Stress ratio versus shear strain and
towards the end of the test. Curves obtained for
volumetric strain diagram
stabilized samples exhibit features typical for
shearing of stabilized soil. Initial elastic beha- Diagram in Figure 2b) relates stress ratio with
viour is followed by exponential strain harden- shear strains. At fairly low shear, reconstituted
ing. After peak shear strength is reached soften- samples exhibit rapid increase in stress ratio.
1010 I. Mataic et al. / Behaviour of Stabilized Soft Clay
With continued shearing, response is changed to
those of gradual increase. Maximum values are
not reached until the end of the tests. Higher val-
ues of stress ratio are recorded in tests performed
at lower cell pressures. Overconsolidated sample,
shows most pronounced initial stress ratio in-
crease with maximum at 10,8 % of shear strain,
followed by slight stress ratio reduction. Stress
ratio values at the end of the tests are similar in
all the tests on reconstituted samples appearing
between 1,0 and 1,2. Within stabilized clay re-
sults, during strain hardening, stress ratio rises
exponentially towards maximum. The values of
stress ratio reached are inversely proportional to
cell pressures applied, with highest peak value of
2.26 recorded for sample sheared at 25 Pa. Ex-
ceptionally, for test at 125 kPa, same maximal
stress ratio is registered as in those for 100 kPa,
implying that further increase of consolidation
pressure would not lead to decrease in peak
stress ratio values recorded. Following maxi-
mum, firstly rapid exponential and finally almost
linear decrease of stress ratio occurs towards re-
sidual value of 1,74. Exceptions are tests consol-
idated at 25 and 50 kPa with slightly higher resi-
dual stress ratio values being 2.02 and 1.84,
suggesting that true critical density not been
reached until the end of test and/or residual stress
ratio being influenced by cell pressure intensity.
Presumably, registered results are related to both
effects resulting with localization of the failure
zone which is more pronounced at lower cell
pressures.
In Figure 2a), stress ratio values are related to
volumetric strains. Results for reconstituted sam-
ples suggest initially negligible and later consi-
derable linearly proportional volume reduction.
Overconsolidated sample initially shows some
volume reduction, but eventually volumetric
strains increase. For tests on stabilized soil, ini-
tial rapid increase of stress ratio is associated
duction compared to those obtained in other
tests. Altogether, samples without binder exhibit
considerably lower values of stress ratio com-
pared to those of stabilized soil. Data obtained on
normally consolidated samples indicate conti-
nuous increase of stress ratio values accompa-
nied by reduction in sample volume. Stabilized
samples on contrary exhibit stress ratio decrease
in the final portion of the curve. For stabilized
soil tests performed at cell pressures below 100
kPa, compression eventually changes to increase
in volumetric strain. On the contrary, for test per-
formed at the highest radial pressure, reduction
in sample volume is continuous.
On Figure 2c), shear strains are related to vo-
lume change. Results obtained on reconstituted
samples indicate compression only, typical for
normally consolidated clay. For test on overcon-
solidated reconstituted sample slight dilation is
recorded resulting from precompacted structure
(OCR=4). In stabilized soil tests volumetric
strain decreases until a certain minimum value is
reached which is reversely proportional to the
cell pressure applied, i.e. the higher the cell pres-
sure more pronounced contraction is achieved.
After reaching minimum volume, stabilized soil
samples dilate in a manner similar to those of
overconsolidated clay. The dilation effect is the
most prominent for the samples tested at lowest
cell pressure and is therefore, reversely propor-
tional to cell pressure intensity. Rate of volume
change during specific tests is not constant, but
characterized with maximal and residual dilatan-
cy angle. Exceptionally, sample tested at cell
pressure of 125 kPa exhibits significant conti-
nuous decrease of volumetric strain until failure,
similar to those obtained for reconstituted clay.
In the test dilation effect is lost due to cell pres-
sure influence, i.e. sample being tested at high
cell pressure. Values of dilation angles calculated
as a ratio of volume over shear strain