Unified Compression Model for Venice Lagoon Natural Silts
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 8
Abstract
Over the last 50 years, the city of Venice, Italy, has observed a significant increase in the frequency of flooding. Numerous engineering solutions have been proposed, including the use of movable gates located at the three lagoon inlets. A key element in the prediction of performance is the estimation of settlements of the foundation system of the gates. The soils of Venice Lagoon are characterized by very erratic depositional patterns of clayey silts, resulting in an extremely heterogeneous stratigraphy with discontinuous layering. The soils are also characterized by varying contents of coarse and fine-grained particles. In contrast, the mineralogical composition of these deposits is quite uniform, which allows us to separate the influence of mineralogy from that of grain size distribution. A comprehensive geotechnical testing program was performed to assess the one-dimensional compression of Venice soils and examine the factors affecting the response in the transition from one material type to another. The compressibility of these natural silty clayey soils can be described by a single set of constitutive laws incorporating the relative fraction of granular to cohesive material.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Alessi, G. (2001). “Compressibility at the high stresses for a sandy-clayey soils from Venice.” MS thesis, Univ. of Padova, Padova, Italy (in Italian).
Biscontin, G., Pestana, J. M., Cola, S., and Simonini, P. (2001). “Influence of grain size on the compressibility of Venice Lagoon soils.” Proc., XV ICSMFE, Vol. 1, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 35–38.
Butterfield, R., Gottardi, G., Simonini, P., and Cola, S. (2003). “A new interpretation of the compressibility of Venetian silty-clay soils.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Foundations: Innovations, Observations, Design, and Practice, Thomas Telford, London, 149–159.
Cola, S., Ricceri, G., and Simonini, P. (1998). “Small stiffness of Venetian soils from field and laboratory tests.” Proc., 11th Danube-European Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 679–686.
Cola, S., and Simonini, P. (1999). “Some remarks on the behaviour of Venetian silts.” Proc., 2nd Int. Symp. on Pre-Failure Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 167–174.
Cola, S., and Simonini, P. (2002). “Mechanical behaviour of the silty soils of the Venice lagoon as a function of their grading characteristics.” Can. Geotech. J., 39(4), 879–893.
Coop, M. R., and Lee, I. K. (1993). “The behaviour of granular soils at elevated stresses.” Predictive soil mechanics, G. T. Houlsby and N. A. Schofield, eds., Thomas Telford, London, 186–199.
Curzi, P. V. (1995). “Studio sedimentologico-ambientale della Bocca di Malamocco (VE).” Rapporto finale, Consorzio Venezia Nuova, Venezia, Italy (in Italian).
Harleman, D. R. F., Bras, R. L., Rinaldo, A., and Malanotte, P. (2000). “Blocking the tide.” Civ. Eng. (N.Y.), 70(10), 52–57.
Hendron, A. J. (1963). “The behavior of sand in one-dimensional compression.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.
Jamiolkowski, M., Lancellotta, R., and Lo Presti, D. C. F. (1994). “Remarks on the stiffness at small strains of six Italian clays.” Proc., 1st Int. Symp. on Pre-Failure Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials, Vol. 2, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 817–836.
Marchetti, S. (1980). “In situ tests by flat dilatometer.” J. Geotech. Engrg. Div., 106, 299–321.
Mitchell, J. K. (1976). Fundamentals of soil behavior, Wiley, New York.
Pestana, J. M. (1994). “A unified constitutive model for clays and sands.” ScD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Pestana, J. M. (2002). “Compression model for cohesionless soils: An update.” GeoEngineering Research Rep. No. UCB/GE/2002-06, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Pestana, J. M., and Salvati, L. A. (2006). “Small strain behavior of granular soils. I: Model for cemented and uncemented sands and gravels.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 132(8), 1071–1081.
Pestana, J. M., and Whittle, A. J. (1995). “Compression model for cohesionless soils.” Geotechnique, 45(4), 611–632.
Simonini, P. (2004). “Characterization of the Venice lagoon silts from in-situ tests and the performance of a test embankment.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Geotechnical and Geophysical Site Characterization, ISC’2, Vol. 1, Porto, Portugal, 187–207.
Simonini, P., and Cola, S. (2000). “Use of piezocone to predict maximum stiffness of Venetian soils.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 126(4), 378–382.
Vello, R. (2000). “Influence of gradation and density on the compressibility of Venice soils at medium and high stresses.” MS thesis, Univ. of Padova, Padova, Italy (in Italian).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 8 • August 2007
Pages: 932 - 942
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 13, 2006
Accepted: Sep 11, 2006
Published online: Aug 1, 2007
Published in print: Aug 2007
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.