Assessment of the Relationship between Undrained Shear Strength and Geotechnical Parameters for Sensitive Clays of Eastern Canada
Publication: Geo-Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
Eastern Canadian clays are characterized by high sensitivity and compressibility and warrant the need for an appropriate estimation of the undrained shear strength for a safe geotechnical design. A multivariate geotechnical database consisting of natural water content, Atterberg limits, undrained shear strength, effective vertical stress, preconsolidation pressure, and overconsolidation ratio from 49 sites in Eastern Canada is compiled from literature for this purpose. The primary objective of this study is to analyse the dependence of undrained shear strength on the aforementioned parameters and propose a correlation that satisfies practical conditions through regression analysis. Bias and uncertainties of existing empirical correlations are assessed. A comparative study is also made with sensitive clays of Norway and Sweden. The results show the poor correlation of Eastern Canadian clays with index parameters and their strong dependence on the stress history of the soil.
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Published online: Feb 22, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Clays
- Comparative studies
- Engineering fundamentals
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials engineering
- Mathematics
- Methodology (by type)
- Parameters (statistics)
- Research methods (by type)
- Shear strength
- Soil compression
- Soil dynamics
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Soil strength
- Soils (by type)
- Statistics
- Strength of materials
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