Reliability of Methods for Determination of Stress History Parameters in Soils

Abstract

Stress history acquired by any cohesive soil influences, to a large extent, three groups of fundamental properties indispensable in geotechnical design i.e. state of soil, shear strength, and stiffness characteristics. The basic stress history parameter (from which other parameters are derived) determined directly from laboratory tests is a preconsolidation stress σ′p. Since the first method proposed by Casagrande in 1936, value σ′p is determined in the oedometer test as a border between overconsolidated (OC) and normally consolidated (NC) zones. Approach based on division between predominantly elastic, (recoverable) strain, and plastic (irrecoverable) strain is a main principle of several methods of σ′p determination, which have been proposed over the past eighty-six years.

Keywords

• cohesive soils
• stress history
• preconsolidation stress
• lab methods