A numerical method of analysis is presented to study the behavior of vertically loaded pile groups embedded in a nonhomogencous soil with the pile caps in contact with the ground. The considered soil profiles consist of soil with Young's moduli increasing linearly with depth. Parametric solutions are presented to show the influence of the distribution of the soil Young's moduli on the behavior of the groups. For the nonhomogeneous‐soil profiles considered, the effect of the cap in contact with the ground has a small influence on the stiffness of the group compared to the case without a ground‐contacting cap. The load carried by the cap, as expected, is significantly affected by the distribution of the soil Young's moduli. Case studies of field tests in clay show that the consideration of the nature of the soil inhomogeneity at the sites better models the behavior of pile groups with ground‐contacting caps.

The bearing capacity of an eccentrically obliquely loaded footing is determined by limit equilibrium analysis. The footing is considered rigid with a rough base. It is assumed that the rupture surface is a log spiral and that failure occurs on the same side as the eccentricity, with respect to the center of the footing. The resistance mobilized on this side is fully passive and partial on the other. The footing is assumed to lose contact with an increase in eccentricity; the results are given in the form of bearing capacity factors, $N_{\gamma }\text{,}$ $N_q$ and $N_c\text{.}$ For the verification of analytical solutions, model tests were conducted on sand. Footings were tested both at the surface and at a depth such that $D_f/B=0.5\text{,}$ eccentricity of load ranged from 0.1B to 0.3B, and inclination of load varied from 5° to 20°, in which $D_f$ and B are, respectively, depth and width of footing. The results of the previous investigators are also analyzed and compared with the proposed theory. A reasonable agreement was found between the theory and the test data.

A new design procedure for stage‐constructed embankments on soft clays is developed. The critical‐state theory is applied and the plastic behavior of normally consolidated clays is taken into account. In the stage construction of an embankment the major concern is to control shear stresses induced in the clay body. To keep the shear stresses below the critical‐state line an intermediate line is constructed and the effective stress states attained by the soil element during undrained loading stages are kept below the intermediate line. The construction of the intermediate line allows a sufficient factor of safety against shear failure at each stage of construction. The procedure inherits the condition that automatically satisfies the bearing capacity consideration and enables the designer to optimize the length of consolidation pause periods. In this paper the procedure is applied for both isotropically normally consolidated and anisotropically normally consolidated soft clays, and the results are correlated.

In this paper, a method is presented that may be used for the analysis of axially loaded piles in isotropic or cross‐anisotropic soils. The method employs the finite‐layer theory for the analysis of the soil, and because the method requires very little computer storage, it is particularly suited to microcomputers. The performance and versatility of the method is studied by comparing the finite‐layer solutions with those obtained from other continuum approaches. For all of the cases studied (which involved isotropic, layered, or nonhomogencous soils), the finite‐layer results are found to be in very close agreement with the results of the other methods. The method is shown to be capable of producing accurate results, and some original solutions are obtained to the problem of a pile bearing onto a thin layer of soil that is cither softer or stiffcr than the rest of the soil. The effect of the cross‐anisotropic soil model used in the pile analysis is demonstrated with parametric solutions and also with a field case study of a pile embedded in over‐consolidated London clay.

The analysis of consolidation in the field is not easy, because the soil properties are often difficult to determine, especially when the clay deposit is very soft and nonhomogeneous. To monitor the consolidation in such cases, a method that assumes that the settlement (s) versus time (t) behavior approaches a straight line in a $t/s$ versus t diagram after some time is proposed. This straight line describes a hyperbolic relation, hence the term hyperbolic method. The inverse of the slope of this line would then yield the ultimate settlement. Thus, once sufficient data are available during the early stage for the settlement to reach the hyperbolic line, the subsequent consolidation can be predicted. Previously, this method was recognized to work for infinitesimal strain consolidation. Through analytical and numerical means, and using both laboratory and field data, the method is now extended to a wide range of conditions, including finite strain, nonlinear properties, and nonhomogeneous conditions. The attractiveness of the method lies in its simplicity and accuracy in the field.

This paper describes the results of tests on model instrumented grouted pile shafts installed into beds of an offshore calcareous sand. This calcareous sand was obtained from the North‐West Shelf of Australia, at the site of the North Rankin A offshore gas platform. The main characteristics of this sand are its high void ratio and tendency to crush under relatively moderate stresses. The behavior of the pile shaft during installation, under static loading, and under both displacement‐controlled and load‐controlled cyclic loadings is investigated. It is found that the residual stresses developed along the pile shaft as a result of installation are insignificant. Although the static skin friction of the pile shaft is found to be relatively high, it can be reduced substantially when subjected to cyclic loading under both displacement‐controlled and load‐controlled conditions. Comparisons are made between the data from the present investigation and those obtained from previous tests for small model piles and also some field tests. The results are found to be consistent.

Representation of geological discontinuities by means of structural diagrams, often called stereoplots, is standard practice. When the dip directions of such discontinuities form a roughly circular cluster about the horizontal, bimodal pole distributions are observed (and vice versa). This is problematic in the interpretation of any rock‐engineering or structural‐geology problem where one does not want to be misled by single fracture sets being represented by two projected sets and vice versa. In this paper, the mathematical relations are developed that substantiate this unimodal‐bimodal relationship. The paper goes beyond this in analytically developing a few other relationships between dip directions and poles. Examples from several practical cases illustrate the theoretical relationships. The mathematical relations provide a rational proof for the bimodal‐unimodal relation and allow one to generalize it. The practically important consequence of this paper is to make the reader aware of the possibility of making mistakes in using stereoplots. This can be avoided if both dip and pole distributions are plotted, particularly for cases where dip or pole clusters represent joint sets that are very steep or very flat.

A review of Terzaghi's published and unpublished papers and notes made it possible to trace his way from geology over geotechnical engineering to engineering geology. Not only does this reflect his career, it also is the path which led him from observation to quantification to judgment and culminated in the integration of these three components in his concept of engineering geology and, specifically, in the observational method.

A parametric study is presented in this paper to show the effect of several parameters on the stresses induced by loads applied at the surface of anisotropic and regularly jointed rock masses. Factors considered include: (1) The type of loading at the ground surface; (2) the shape of the ground surface (flat or curved); (3) the degree of rock anisotropy; and (4) the orientation (strike and dip) of rock strata or joint planes with respect to the surface loads. The parametric study is based on a solution proposed by Lekhnitskii. The study is conducted for the special cases of a concrete gravity dam founded on anisotropic rock and for the uniform loading of flat and concave ground surfaces on regularly jointed rock.

Response of embankment dams to horizontal seismic motions accounting for nonlinearities in dynamic soil behavior and for three-dimensional effects due to the geometrical configuration of canyon walls is analyzed by means of a simple numerical integration procedure. The mechanical model uses Seed's equivalent linear approach and the kinematic assumptions of a shear beam in the central vertical cantilever, coupled with horizontal shear beams that simulate the restraining effects introduced by canyon wall. The resulting model is computationally one-dimensional, but it is meant to capture the main 3-D characteristics of the dam and canyon. A dam, for which recorded seismic base/crest response and 3-D finite element analyses are available, is analyzed with the proposed simplified procedure. Numerical results confirm the capacity of the proposed simplified method to represent the main characteristics of 3-D seismic response of nonhomogeneous embankment dams to horizontal seismic motions.