Overestimalion of settlement on overconsolidated soft clays may require ground improvement before construction with added delay and cost to a project. Since the soft soil shear strength is low, the structures on the soft soils are generally designed so that the increase in stress is relatively small and the total stress in the ground will be close to the preconsolidation pressure. Hence the recompression index, determined from a consolidation lest is very important parameter in estimating the settlement. Although recompression index has been quantified in the literature, its determination may not be applicable to all soft soils in its current form. The influence of stress level on the recompression index is not clearly quantified. This study focused on developing methods for determining the recompression index of overconsolidated soft clay soils. Based on the methods used to determine the recompression index, over 750% difference in the minimum and maximum C_r values was observed for the Houston area soft clay. Effect of applied stresses on the recompression index was also investigated.
展开▼
