Stress-Deformation Behaviour of an Embankment on Boston Blue Clay

A/Prof Andrew Whittle, Dept Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

An 11m high embankment was thoroughly instrumented with piezometers, settlement rods and inclinometers to measure the behaviour of the underlying 40m thick deposit of Boston Blue Clay during staged loading and four years of subsequent consolidation. estimates of the engineering properties of the clay were made based on in-situ testing and laboratory test programs. Finite element analysis was undertaken incorporating coupled consolidation with two generalised effective stress soil models (Modified Cam Clay and MIT-E3). Comparisons of predicted versus measured performance during 1963-1973 are presented.

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