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Strength and Compressibility Characteristics of a Soft Clay Subjected to Ground Treatment

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Abstract

The compressibility properties, undrained shear strength, and stress history are essential for reliable calculations of settlement and bearing capacity of soft soils. However, it is sometimes a challenge to determine representative parameters for very soft and high plasticity clays, which are often found in Brazilian coastal areas. In this study an extensive site investigation was planned aiming to interpret the behaviour of a trial embankment on stabilized soft ground. The site investigation was carried out in a test area located in the west of city of Rio de Janeiro, consisted of three clusters in which standard penetration tests, vane shear tests, and piezocone tests (CPTu) were performed. A number of correlations was developed and compared with empirical equations in order to verify their reliability. The results of these tests made it possible to define geotechnical parameters of the soft clay to use in the numerical and analytical computations of the embankment on reinforced ground.

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Abbreviations

\(\gamma^{\prime }\) :

Submerged unit weight

\(\phi^{\prime }\) :

Drained angle of friction

c′:

Effective cohesion

G s :

Specific gravity

w n :

Natural water content

w L :

Liquidity limit

w p :

Plasticity index

C c :

Compressibility index

C s :

Swelling index

CR :

Compression ratio

e 0 :

Initial voids ratio

\(e_{{(\sigma_{v0}^{\prime } )}}\) :

Voids ratio at in situ vertical stress level

k v :

Vertical permeability coefficient

k h :

Horizontal permeability coefficient

c v :

Vertical consolidation coefficient

c h :

Horizontal consolidation coefficient

G :

Shear modulus

E oed :

Oedometer modulus

E ur :

Undrained elastic modulus

I r :

Stiffness ratio

K 0 :

Earth pressure coefficient

\(\sigma_{v0}\) :

Initial vertical total stress

\(\sigma_{v0}^{\prime }\) :

In situ vertical effective stress

\(\sigma_{h0}^{\prime }\) :

In situ horizontal effective stress

\(\sigma_{vm}^{\prime }\) :

Pre-consolidation effective stress

\(\sigma_{3}\) :

Confining stress

S u :

Clay undrained strength

S ur :

Undrained strength of remoulded clay

S t :

Clay sensitivity

N kt , N ke , N Δu :

Piezocone empirical factors

R :

Radius of piezocone probe

u 0 :

Hydrostatic water pressure

u 1 :

Pore water pressure at cone face

u 2 :

Pore water pressure at cone tip

T * :

Time factor

q T :

Corrected cone resistance

z :

Depth

J :

Geosynthetic tensile modulus

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank to technical staff of the geotechnical laboratory of UFRJ for their assistance along the site investigation. The financial supports provided by the Brazilian Funding Agencies CNPq, CAPES and INCT (Reageo Project) are also appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Engineering (COPPE), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Iman Hosseinpour & Marcio S. S. Almeida

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

    Mario Riccio

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil

    Magnos Baroni

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  1. Iman Hosseinpour
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  2. Marcio S. S. Almeida
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  3. Mario Riccio
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  4. Magnos Baroni
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Correspondence to Iman Hosseinpour.

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Hosseinpour, I., Almeida, M.S.S., Riccio, M. et al. Strength and Compressibility Characteristics of a Soft Clay Subjected to Ground Treatment. Geotech Geol Eng 35, 1051–1066 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-017-0161-8

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