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Reprinted fom Vertical ana Ho ‘of Foundations and Embankmenss Proceedings of Settlement '94 “Sponsored bythe Geotechnical Engineering Div ASCE Held June 16-18, 1994, College Staion. Texas al Deformations ‘SETTLEMENT OF EMBANKMENTS ON SOFT CLAYS Gholamreza Mesri,! Member, ASCE, Dominic 0. Kwan Lo,* and Tao-Wei Feng,” Associate Members, ASCE, AnsTRACT: It is aow possible to make reliable predictions of settlement of embankments on soft clays. In most situations, where the embankment is designed to resist undrained instability: during construction, one-dimensional soitement analysis is applicable and is the most appropriate approach. Equipment and procedures for hi ‘quality soil sampling for laboratory tests, as well as reliable in situ {ests ate available for detailed profiling of compressible ground ‘With the help of the computer, itis no longer necessary to idealize the compressible profile into one or two homogeneous layers. The most important information required for setlement analysis is for ‘each layer, end-of primary © — log 6; curve, including reliable estimate of 9, and ¢ — log ky, a8 well as ¢ ~ log ky relations when Vertical drains aré used. The proposed approach and procedures are illustrated by predictions and field observations of surface and ‘subsurface settlement for ten large-scale embankment construction projects, Analysis of field observations suggest that prefabricated vertical drains in typical field situations mobilize discharge capacities significantly less than those measured in laboratory longitudinal flow tests. However, in most soft clay applications the mobilized discharge capacity of high-quality prefabricated drains is comparable to the minimum discharge capacity required for negligible well resistance * Professor of Civil Engineering, University of llinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 [North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801 * project Engines, Golder Astociaes, Tnc., 305 Fellowship Rd, Mt. Laurel, New Jersey 08054, 9 Associate Profestor, Chung Yuan Univesity, Chung Li, Taiwan 32023, Republic of China _EMBANKMENTS 9 INrRopucrion Settlement of embankments on soft clays results from the consolidation of soft clay and from the flow of soft clay out from under the embankment. For embankments that are designed and constructed with an adequate factor of safety against an undrained instability during construction (e.g., FS 2 1.4), the latter component of settlement is generally small and consolidation settlement is the most important component. "The present state-of-the-art methods of settlement analysis, Of soft clays are based on undisturbed sampling and laboratory testing to determine compressibility and permeability of the ground. In addition, a consolidation theory in terms of compressibility and permeability behavior is required for predicting the progress of surface and subsurface settlement for the prevailing natural or imposed drainage boundary conditions. When vertical drains are used to speed up consolidation, information is required on the discharge capacity ofthe drain, and on the compressibility and permeability of the smear zone which is produced by the vertical drain installation, When the duration of primary consolidation is short relative to the design life of the embankment and secondary settlement becomes significant factor, methods are required to compute settlement resulting from secondary compression and if necessary to design @ surcharging program (o ‘minimize secondary setllement, This lecture outlines the current form of the ILLICON methodology (Mesti and Choi 1988) for setlement analysis, in terms of: 1. Permeability of soft clays Compressiitity of soft clays {A theory of consolidation Discharge capacity of vertical drains, and the smear zone ‘Secondary compression without and with surcharping Example consolidation setlement calculation Settlement resulting from flow of soil Prediction versus performance kvo Go Sp -@9 | €o-b=4 log ky log oy FIG. 1, Permeability and Compressibility of Soft Clays 0 [FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS ‘The major factors controlling one-dimensional consolidation illustrated in Fig. 1, are the preconsolidation pressure which defines the boundary between recompression and compression, and permeability which may decrease significantly during consolidation PERMEABILITY OF SOFT CLAYS. ‘Most post-glacial marine and lacustrine soft clay deposits are sufficiently uniform to justify laboratory permeability tests using relatively small clay specimens. ‘These measurements, which are generally obtained as part of oedometer testing, provide information on permeability in the vertical and horizontal directions atin Sita void ratio, Kye and Kjp, a8 well as on the decrease in permeability with decrease in void ratio, interns of € ~ log k, and ¢ ~ log ky relations or values of Cy equal to Ae/A log k, and Ae/A log ky (Mest et al., 1994). Laboratory falling hhead and constant-head flow measurements during incremental loading (IL) or constant cate of strain (CRS) oedometer tests, as well as pore water pressure measurements during CRS cedometer (ests, provide reliable information on permeability of natural soft clay deposits, “These are illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 tsing undisturbed soft clay specimens that are identified in Table 1. This is quite fortunate because only certain special in situ permeameters (e.g., self-boring, non- clogging probes) and testing procedures provide reliable information on kyo; and no information on C, is readily obtained from dhe in sits measurements (Taveras el. 1986). In fact, for soft clays With Kyy/kyy = 1, excellent agreement has been found ‘between laboratory and reliable in situ permeability test results (Fig. 2). The simpler 18 In Situ Megsurement PERMAG, Falling Head 5 tel © Tks Falling Heod (@Specimens) 9 » - ‘e + GRS, Constant Heod te ( Specimens) K 4 were SCs 074 e oe 2x10 oT ‘BxO? ky, cm/s FIG. 2. Falling Head and Constant Head Permeability Test Results on A. Soft Clay, and Comparison of An In Situ Permeability Measurement with k,, at ¢, from Laboratory Tests EMBANKMENTS n 6 RS Oedometer Tess ky Computed from CRS up, cm/s. ott cloys © Batecan 8 Barinervite 8 stmicite 1 Vonby i on oT 8 Directly Measured ky, cmv FIG. 3. Comparison of ky Computed from Pore Water Pressure ‘Measurements During CRS Ocdometer Test with That Measured Directly by Falling Head or Constant Head Tests falling-head measurement during IL oedometer test, which does ot require sophisticated equipment for control and accurate measurement of pore water pressure, may be preferred. However, CRS oedometer testis the mast efficient in providing information on compressibility and permeability of soft clays (Mesti and Feng 1992). The pore size and shape in each soft clay deposit lead to a particular relationship between permeability and void ratio. Mesri et al. (1994) include pore size and shape effecis in terms of the clay size fraction, CB = % < 2um and activity, A; = Iy/CF, in general relationship between permeability and void ratio, ‘The resulting empirical relationship, which is shown in Fig. 4, may be used to estimate ky, of soft clay deposits in terms of A, and ¢/CF (Fig. 5). Permeability is a function of activity because the later ig an indicator of mineralogy which determines particle size and thus pore size. Permeability is directly related 10 €,. but itis inversely related to CF, high values of which indicate small and tortuous pores, ‘The values of in si ky, of soft clays are near 1 x 10" cm/s. In fact, values ‘of kyo for a majority of soft clays fall within the narrow range of 5 x 10" cm/s to 5x 107 emis for a number of reasons. As the clay mineral and organic content cerease, or as the soft clays become more and more silly, under natural deposition consolidation conditions, they come to equilibrium at smaller and smaller void ratios. Thus, the combination of large void ratios but small void sizes inthe high plasticity clays, i balanced by the smaller void ratios but larger void sizes in the 2 FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS. TABLE 1. Soft Clays Used in the Consolidation Tests and Permeabil Measurements Soft Clay Wee WI WR Oploey CIC. ‘Atchatlaya 70-8 «0 ~S~SC*S OO Batiscan 18 49-22 161.7 0.030 Boston Blue 29 3k 32 0.026 Broadback. 248 3625 2.63.2 0.040 Brown Mexico City 313-40 361.91 14 0.046 La Grande 15b 5559 62 262.830 0.057 La Grande 23a 5558 64 28.82.0082 Saint Alban 5864 431 213,3 0.025 Saint Espirit W975 MT 3.43.7 0.038. Saint Hilaire ON $5 3 AIS 0.031 Vasby 14422 1220 at 151.9 0.055 Berthierville rd Louisevitle On 6 2% 2629 0.030 Ouawa wool 89 17 0.030 Olga a4 67 2.225 0.083 9 ( 9/CE\* BOF hy 654 x10°9( CT) of CF Act! 20] to oF o® 07 o® ky, cm/s, FIG. 4. Fermeabiiy-Void Ratio Kelationship of Soft Clays Normalized Using Activity A; and Clay Size Fraction CF. The Solid Points Correspond t0 ke at EMBANKMENTS a 2 4 6 8 e0/CF FIG. 5. An Empirical Correlation Between k,, and e,/CF for Soft Clay ‘Compositions with Different A, sity clays. Furthermore, the Nocculated or aggregated fabric which is most ‘common in soft clays, minimizes the effect of mineral composition on the size, and shape and total volume of pores. "The shape of ¢ ~ log k relationshipe for soft clays is such that in general C, = Ae/A log k gradually decreases with vertical compression. However, the iniial portion from (€,, kyo OF Kyo) up to about 20% vertical strain can be represented by a constant value of C,, For natural soft clays, an empicical correlation for C, exists with in sit void ratio, e,, a is shown in Fig. 6 (Tavenas et al, 1983), The direct correlation between C,and e, implies that for a given ‘decrease in void ratio, clay compositions which have stabilized at small void ratios experience a larger decrease in permeability than those clays which have high in situ void ratios ‘When vertical drains are used, horizontal permeability, ky, which is often expressed in terms of permeability ‘anisotropy Ky/kyg. becomes an important parameter. A number of independent factors can lead to permeability anisotropy in soft clay deposits (Mest etal. 1994). One factor is inherent clay fabrie anisotropy ‘which is related to the possible predominant horizontal orientation of plate-shaped or elongated clay mineral panicles. However, most soft clay deposits of marine ‘origin consist of a more or less homogeneous mixture of clay minerals which are occulated of aggregated and space lattice minerals, leading to an overall random, fabric. Thus, in soft clays of marine origin, kyo/y, rarely exceeds 1-5 and often is near 1.0 (Ladd 1976; Leroucil et al. 1990). The second source of possible permeability anisetropy is the varved nature oF lacustrine soft clay eposlts (Chan and Kenney 1973: Kenney and Chan 1973; Kenney 1963, 1976). However, even FIG. 6. FIG. 7. FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS. 20) 15} Ce 19} 0 10 20 ~=«30 0 ‘An Empirical Correlation Between C), and ¢, Includes Data ‘Collected at Laval University by Tavenas et al. (1983) and from ‘Tests Conducted on Soft Clays at the University of Ilinois Kho om/s 107 oF oT oF kyo, cm/s Existing Data on Permeability Anisotropy of Soft Clay Deposits. ‘Open Circles Are Data from Literature, Solid Circles from Measurements and Consolidation Analysis at the University of Miinois EMBANKMENTS: Is in varved clay deposits, Ky/hyp rarely exceeds $ and often itis less than 3. This been convincingly explained by Kenney (1963, 1976) in terms of the gradu ‘opposed to abrupt gradation and permeabily variation in the vertical direction within the varves. Existing data on ky/y fom the literature (e.g. Tavena et al 1983; Leroveil etal. 1990) together with new data including values back-caleuated from a comparison of observed and computed settlements and pore water pressures under embankments on soft lays are summarized in Fig. 7. Magnitudes of kay as large a 10 apparently correspond to Very segregated varved clay deposits (Ladd and Wissa 1970; Ladd and Foot 1977). In the absence of complete information on permeabily of the compresible profile, the empirical correlations in Figs. 5,6 and “can be used to estimate permeability for setlement analysis. (CownessimLtry oF Sor CLaYs Compressibility of soft clay deposits is most commonly determined from ccedometer tests on undisturbed specimens. Sample disturbance is best evaluated by the axial strain of an oedometer specimen at effective overburden pressure, 0/5, is defined in Fig. 8. For the oedometer testing of soft clays, A and B quality specimens are desirable and those with SQD less than C are unacceptable. Most of the existing empirical information on void ratio against effective vertical stress telationships of soft clays, including data on recompression index, C, = Ae/A log SPECIMEN QUALITY DESIGNATION Axial Stroin,% —SQD ty, and secondary setiement can be the mos significant factor. This is illustrated by means of two laboratory test results in Figs. 27 and 28, and by a field measurement in Fig. 29. In Fig. 27, the of is near the in situ of.” ‘The excess pore water pressure 1, min FIG. 27, Secondary Compression of A Soft Clay Specimen (L, = 20 mu) Loaded in the Laboratory to Am Effective Vertical Stress Near the In Situ Preconsolidation Pressure of, Ey FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS ‘BROWN MEXICO cin cLay 1, min ‘Secondary Compression of A Soft Clay Specimen (1, = 20 mm) Loaded to An Effective Vertical Stress Near A Preconsolidation Pressure o{, Produced by Laboratory Drained Aging for 90 days Measured Settlement of Mal2 Diluvial Layer South Port of Osaka o 1 2 Time, years FIG. 29. Secondary Settlement of Clay Layer (L, = 20 m) Loaded in the Field to e’, Near the Preconsolidation Pressure ‘measurements show, as is also confirmed by the Casagrande construction on the settlement curve, that primary consolidation is completed in about 5 minutes and secondary settlement follows with a C, that is increasing with time. The preconsolidation pressure a, in Fig. 28 was developed hy 90 days of secondary compression and drained thixotropic hardening (Mesri 1993). Then, when the specimen is loaded to a of; near oj, primary consolidation is completed in about 20 [EMBANKMENTS. 3s ‘minutes and is insignificant compared to secondary compression during which C,, behavior is completely consistent with the C,/C, law of compressibility (Mest! 1987), ‘There isa significant number of settlement observations at Osaka Bay that show large secondary compression of thick diluvial layers when reclamation loads produce values of oye neat 0}, Figure 29 corresponds to the 1000 ha South Port of ‘Osaka reclamation project which was started in 1958 (Kiyama 1991; Mesci 1991). ‘When C,, is not a constant in the ty to t range of interest, then the graphical application of the C,/C, law of compressibility can be used t0 compute secondary setilement (Mesri and Godlewski 1977). This procedure has” been recently ‘demonstrated for a diluvial clay layer in Osaka Bay, and is shown in Fig. 30 (Mesti and Shahien 1993), Settlement, em Mp FIG. 30, Secondary Settlement of A Diluvial Clay in Osaka Bay Predicted by the CJC, Law of Compressibility ‘When te final consolidation pressure, ois in he compression range beyond aj and is small asa result of vertical drain installaion, then secondary setlement ‘ean be significant and unacceptable for embankment consiruction projects For roads, airport, buildings, and storage facilities. Surcharging is used to minimize post construction secondary settlement of soft clays (Mest and Feng 1991). Sutcharging effort is expressed in terms of tol surcharge ratio R, = (ayo) ~ 1, and surcarging time ratio t/t, Where dy = oy + A Oya, a 8 the final effective ‘ential stress afer the removal of surcharge, do, isthe total surcharge pressure, {1 is surcharging time, and, isthe time to EOP compression under surcharge (Fig. 3p. ly, surcharging effort may be defined in terms of effective surcharge ratio, R: = (i/o) - 1, where ois the maximum effective vertical stress reached before the removal of surcharge. When tt, = 1, then Ry = Ry. Effective surcharge ratio Ris less than R, when «ty is Tess thaw one, and it Is % FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS. greater than R, when U/tj, is greater Gun one, Unless very large values of R, are utilized, surcharging may be ineffective whenever at any depth in soil, e, < ay and thus R; <0. In addition, it is generally uneconomical when t, > ty which corresponds to R; > R,. The most practical values of, correspond to ay < 0, S og + doy. When t/t, <1, then R; is nota constant within a soil layer, and ‘Compression, Rebound Definition of Elapsed Times Used in Surcharging of Soft Clays, ‘and Post-Surcharge Secondary Compression Index C, and Its Secant Value CZ an average effective surcharge ratio R; is used in post-surcharge secondary settlement analysis. The removal of surcharge leads to rebound, including primary rebound Up (0 ty, and secondary rebound that levels off at ty, is followed by secondary compression, as ig illustrated in Fig. 31. Both ty, and ty are measured from the time at which surcharge load is removed. ‘The C,/C, law of compressibility explains anu predicts the behavior of post- surcharge secondary compression (Mesti 1986, 1987; Mesri and Feng 1991). In general, C; defined in Fig. 31 is expected to start with a small value, gradually increase, Become constant, oF decrease, with time. The gencral shape of any recompression to compression EOP ¢ log af curve suggests that at very large times, in all cases C2 is expected to eventually decrease with time. Since C., is not ‘ constant with time, for practical setlement analysis a secant Ci is defined from ty at which post-surcharge secondary compression begins to any t at which post- surcharge secondary compression isto be evaluated (Fig. 31). Extensive series of surcharging tests on Bertierville, Singapore, Brown Mexico City, Saint Hilaire, Saint Alban and Vasby clays were used to develop the data on Cz in Fig. 32 (Feng 1991; Mesri and Feng 1991). The value of C; is normalized with respect to the C,, at of, without surcharging. Post-surcharge secondary seitlement fs computed using the following equation a ae Oe Ly og ® a EMBANKMENTS 3 Soft Clays ond Sitts + g3[ Ce/Ce 0024 to 0055 Ce Ca og al oF 1 1 10 10% ty FIG. 32. Post-Surcharge Secondary Compression Index Expressed in ‘Terms of Cz/C,, Where C, Is Secondary Compression Index at i without Surcharging, AS A Function of t/t, and at Different Values of Effective Surcharge Ratio, R; where CZ corresponds to Uty. For any soil the values of C/C., and C, at iy on ‘he compression curve, together with R;, ean be used to obtain Cy from Fig. 32, Post-surcharge ‘secondary compression reappears after primary rebound followed by secondary rebound. The duration of primary rebound depends on rebound characteristics of soil, as well s on permeability and drainage boundary Sondions, Therefor, tis comput fom a tine ate of bound ans for example, TLLICON: The value of ty is determined from the empirical correlation between tly and R; in Fig, 33. Note thatthe time at which secondary compression reappears, tnereases with Ry. ‘The proposed procedure is illustrated for the Skd-Edeby test fill Area III (Holtz and Broms 1972; Lo 1991; Feng 1991). In this area, as described in more detail in alter section, 18 cm diameter sand drains were used at 1.5 m spacing, and surcharge was removed at s/s = 0.9, wheres is surface settlement reached during sutcharging ands, isthe EOP setement daring surcharging. Predictions of surface and subsurface setlements are compared with measurements in Fig. 34. If a surcharge were not used, then primary consoldation would have been completed in 1800 days, and during’ the subsequent 10,000 days, ground surface secondary settlement would have amounted to 39 em. With surcharging effort corresponding to R; profile of 0.11 to 0.40, predicted and measured postsurcharge secondary seitkement amounted to only 4m. EXAMPLE CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT ANALYSIS ‘The ILLICON procedure for seitlement analysis has heen describe and ‘demonstrated by Mest ane Choi (1985a), Mes and Lo (1989), Mest etal. (1988), {Lo (1991) and Lo and Mesei (1994). The approach is only briefly outlined here for 2s HIG. 33. FIG. 34. FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS * Soft Cloys + Orgonie Solts a2 04 06 08 10 12 Re Empirical Correlation Between t,/tg, and Rj. (Data on Organic Soils Are from Fukazawa and Hanawa 1988) ‘ap, sol tea *| Time, Days ‘Measured and Predicted Secondary Settlement After the Removal of Surcharge at Ski-Edeby Test Fill Area I [EMBANKMENTS, » the Skd-Edeby test fill Area TI, idemiied in Figs. 35 and 36 (Hlansbo 1960; Holtz and Broms 1972; Hansbo et al. 1981; Larsson 1986). For more details reference is made to Mesti and Lo (1989) and Lo (1991). Under test Area III, 18 cm ameter displacement type sand drains were installed at 1.5 m spacing. The vertical drains were installed in a triangular pattern, and with an average length of 12 m, ‘The top 25 em of soil was removed and a working platform of $0 10 70 em of sand was laid down. Vertical drains were then installed, followed by placement of additional sand-gravel to a fill thickness of 2.2 m. The 35-m diameter fill was surrounded with a 11.5 m wide berm (Fig, 35) to result in a factor of safety of 1.5 against undrained failure during construction. Based on the vertical profiles of ¢,, 0}, ad yy, the compressible profile was divided into 7 layers for ILLICON analysis, Each layer has its own EOP ¢ ~ fog o, including cy. oq. of a8 well as ‘io. Kym: and Cy. The €, profile in Fig. 37 is based on water content profiles from Hiansbo (1960), Holtz and Broms (1972) and Hansbo et a. (1981), In selecting the ¢, profile for settlement analysis, more weight was assigned to the data points from inside the test areas. The oy and o, profiles in Fig. 38 were selected by (Mesri and {Lo 1987) interpreting data from Hansbo (1960), Holtz and Broms (1972), Holm and Holtz (1977), Hansbo etal. (1981), and Larsson (1986). ‘The limited number of available oedometer € ~ log o; data (Hansbo 1960) were used to extrapolate C: data from different depths and locations. The value of C, for Ska-Eaeby clay was estimated t0 be 0.17. ‘These data on compressibility. together with the vertical profiles of e, oj. and of were used to construct an EOP ¢ ~ log of relationship for middepth of each layer. These are shown in Fig. 39. ‘The C,/C; in Fig. 40 for the Ski-Edeby clay was determined using the oedometer data from Hansbo (1960) Drain Spacing, m N a 09 bOI \ 2 8 T, Sand Drain, 1Bem. T, Sond Drain, 18cm iSm IT, Sond Drain, 18cm Sm YW, Geodrain C)UE; No Drain 8 ERO FIG. 35. SkA-Edeby Test Field, Sweden ” FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS Soil Description Water Content, % —ay(FVI,APo 4% 0 00 2 40 FIG. 36. Subsurface Conditions at Ska-Edeby Test Fill Area IIT Initial Void Ratio, ¢ a 20 30 49 FIG. 37. Vertical Profile of e, for the Layers Used in the ILLICON Analysis of Settlement ‘The data on ky were obtained from k, measurements by Hansho (1960) and ky values computed from the pore water ‘pressure measurements during CRS ‘oedometer test (Larsson 1986; Mesti and Feng 1992). Additional data on ky, were generated using clay fraction (CF) and plasticity index (I) and e, data (e.g. Figs 36 and 37), from Hansbo (1960), Holtz and Broms (1972) and Hansho etal. (1981), together with Fig. 5. These are shown in Fig. 41 together with the profile of Cy ‘The latter was cxtrapolated using e, together with C, = 0.5 ¢, which was FIG. 38. FIG. 39. EMBANKMENTS a Pressure, kPa Vertical Profiles of of op and oy, for Test Fill Area III. Note ‘That Since This Area Was Surcharged the o, on This Figure Is Actually oy + Ae, 35 aol 25} sid - Ee Brea nt” oy, KPO Reconstructed EOP e ~ log 6; Curves of Layers Used in the TLLICON Analysis 2 FOUNDATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS DEFORMATIONS, ‘confirmed, Fig. 42, for the Ski-Edeby clay using permeability data from Hansbo 4960) Ské - Edeby Ca/(I+e9) ‘ar ro Os 04 omies FIG. 40. CJC, of Ski-Edeby Clay Tn the absence of direct permeability measurements in the horizontal direction, 2 value of kyg/ky ~ 1 was used to estimate hy (detailed justification in “Mesti and Lo 1989), A'smear zone of radial extent coresponding try = 2 was assumed with K/kjg = I and an EOP e ~ log ot consisting of a sisight line Joining (a, €) and (oe) of the undisturbed soil where ¢, 18 EOP vod ratio at

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