Hydraulic conductivities were measured on three compacted clays that were permeated with water, methanol, and heptane in rigid‐wall and flexible‐wall permeameters. The type of permeameter had little effect when the soils were permeated with water. However, rigid‐wall permeameters generally yielded much higher hydraulic conductivities than flexible‐wall cells when the soils were permeated with organic compounds. Differences in effective stress and confinement along the sidewall of the test specimen are thought to be responsible for the different patterns noted. Permeation of water‐saturated clay with heptane caused the hydraulic conductivity to drop to practically zero because of surface tension effects at the water‐heptane interface. There appeared to be a threshold hydraulic gradient below which the hydraulic conductivity to heptane was zero. The results of this study show order‐of‐magnitude differences in hydraulic conductivity depending on testing apparatus and procedures.

In order to determine the deformational response of a rock mass, the rock mass is often considered and characterized as an anisotropic composite material. This compliance is generally defined in terms of deformation; the effects of stress distributions within the rock mass are not considered. Two simple models are used in this paper to define the total rock mass compliance. The one model represents the deformational mode where the stresses within the composite material are equal and the second model represents the stress distributions within the composite material where the strains between the composite material are equal. In addition to neglecting the effects of stress distribution on the compliance of the rock mass, relative volumes of the intact and joint material and their spatial distribution are generally neglected. These relative volumes and their spatial distribution relative to the applied loads are an important part of the rock mass compliance, especially when shear tractions are applied.

Bearing capacity tests on model footings on sand subgrades reinforced with galvanized rods placed vertically in the subgrade have shown beneficial effects of the reinforcements. The improvement compares favorably with the results obtained by investigations using horizontal forms of reinforcements. The improvement is a function of the spacing, diameter, roughness, and extent of the reinforcing elements.

Piezocone measurements during steady cone penetration provide valuable soil‐profiling and soil‐identification data. The potential of the piezocone as a soil‐exploration tool can be significantly enahnced if the pore‐pressure decay that takes place after interrupting penetration can be interpreted to estimate the consolidation and/or permeability of the soil. This paper provides the necessary theoretical background to develop a rational interpretation method and presents linear consolidation solutions to be used in analyzing dissipation data in clays. Results show the two‐dimensional aspects of the problem and evaluate the effects of clay anisotropy, cone angle, porous sensing element location, linear coupling, mesh size, and resolution as well as sensitivity of predictions to soil variability and measurement errors.

A rational interpretation method for estimating the in situ consolidation and permeability characteristics of clays from pore pressure dissipation measurements after piezocone penetration is presented. The method is based on linear consolidation analyses and initial pore pressure distributions calculated by the strain path method for undrained penetration in Boston blue clay (BBC). Extensive dissipation measurements in BBC are consistent with predictions for two cone angles and various locations of the porous element. Backfigured values of the coefficients of consolidation and permeability are in reasonable agreement with laboratory and field performance data.