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 Geotechnical and Geophysical Site Characterisation 5 – Lehane, Acosta-Martínez & Kelly (Eds)
© 2016 Australian Geomechanics Society, Sydney, Australia, ISBN 978-0-9946261-1-0

A method for predicting the undrained shear strength from piezocone

dissipation tests: case studies
E. Odebrecht
UDSC, Joinville, Brazil
F. Mantaras
Geoforma Engenharia Ltda, Joinvile, Brazil
F. Schnaid
UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil

ABSTRACT: Case studies in clay deposits are presented to evaluate the applicability of the method devel-
oped by Mantaras et al (2015) to estimate the soil undrained shear strength (su) from the measured piezocone
 Three testing sites located along the Brazilian coast are presented
dissipation excess pore-water pressure (u).
and discussed. The predicted su values obtained from the proposed approach are show to be consistent and en-

courage the use of the method in engineering practice.

1 INTRODUCTION
This approach offers major advantage with respect
The piezocone is instrumented with pressure trans- to su and qt type correlations that have to rely on the
ducers located at the tip or shoulder of the cone to Nkt factor which is known to range from 10 to 20
measure pore water pressures generated during and are influenced by soil plasticity, overconsolida-
penetration. Pore pressures in excess of hydrostatic tion ratio, sample disturbance, strain rate and scale
values allow the evaluation of geoenvironmental pa- effects (Aas et al, 1986; Mesri, 1989; Lunne et al,
rameters including the coefficient of consolidation 1997).
and the permeability of a soil deposit. This is The present paper presents a series of well report-
achieved by interpreting dissipation test response us- ed case studies that are analysed to demonstrate the
ing cavity expansion or strain path methods (Tor- applicability of the proposed approach. It includes
stensson, 1977; Randolph & Wroth, 1979; Baligh & evaluation of data from three (3) sites were compre-
Levadoux, 1986; Teh & Houlsby, 1991; Burns & hensive geotechnical data is available: the Tubarão
Mayne, 1998). The mathematical solution proposed experimental testing site, the Athletic Village for the
by Burns & Mayne (1998), based on the cavity ex- Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro and a motorway in
pansion-critical state, can model the monotonic and Florianópolis, all distributed along the Brazilian
dilatory pore pressure responses with regard to time, coast.
allowing both the octahedral and shear-induced
components during penetration to be calculated as a
function of OCR, ’ and Ir (=G/su). Incidentally, the 2 CASE STUDIES
 vo is also a func-
undrained shear strength ratio su/´
2.1 Olympic Villa: Rio de Janeiro
tion of the same variables (e.g. Wroth, 1984; Ja-

miolkowski et al., 1985; Ladd, 1991). By combining The city of Rio de Janeiro has been selected to host
these concepts, Mantaras et al (2015) demonstrated the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016. In the
the possibility to define the ratio of the maximum Olympic Villa, athletes will be housed in thirty-one
pore water pressure u max and the undrained shear storey buildings, which make up seven com-
strength su. The derived formulation shows little pounds. In all, there will be 3,604 flats and over 18
 on OCR and ’,
sensitivity to variations  and for typ- thousand beds. With a total of 200,000m², it will al-
ical soil parameters can be reduced to a relatively so have a 72,000m² park with green areas, 4.5 km of
simple expression expressed as:  cycle lane and a 5,500 m² reflecting pool. For the
Paralympic Games, 21 buildings and 5 compounds
∆𝑢𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
∆𝑢𝑢 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 will be used. There will be 800 accessible flats and
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑢𝑢𝑢𝑢 =
=
log(𝐼𝐼𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟))
4.2(±0.2) ∙∙ log(𝐼𝐼
(1) over 8 thousand beds. The longest distance to the
4.2(±0.2)
∆𝑢𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 Villa’s main restaurant will be of 800m.
𝑆𝑆𝑢𝑢 =
4.2(±0.2)
where log(𝐼𝐼𝑟𝑟 ) index, Ir = G/su.
Ir is the∙ rigidity

503
 Figure 1. Olympic Villa at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A typical soil profile is shown in Figure 1. The the surface, yielding a cone factor (NKT) of 13.
profile shows a normally consolidated Holocene de- Along depth the consistency of predictions is evalu-
posit, recently formed (last 10 thousand years) with  ated by comparing values estimated from qt and
an overconsolidation ratio close to unity in the deep- umax. The agreement between the predicted and ex-
er layers. The undrained shear strength was estimat- perimental values is reasonably accurate and en-
ed from vane, piezocone tip resistance and dissipa- courages the use of the proposed methodology.
tion pore pressure. The 3 different procedures yield
su values in close agreement along the soft clay lay-
er. It is interesting to note that some scatter is ob-
served when tests are performed near sand layers (at
7m and 20m depth) where the vane strength is high-
er than values estimated by dissipation tests.
Figure 2 shows the results of the four dissipation
tests carried out the site. These examples of the rec-
orded data are representative of normally to lightly
overconsolidated clay, indicating large excess pore
pressures generated during penetration, followed by
an initial dilatant response during dissipation that,
after 10s to 50s turn into monotonic dissipation. The
maximum measured pore pressure in each dissipa-
tion test is used to derived the undrained shear
strength at each depth.

2.2 Motorway at Florianópolis, Southen Brazil

The second case describes a profile located 35 kilo-
meters northern from the city of Florianópolis, at the
BR101 motorway. This profile is also characteristic
of a Quaternary deposit from the Holocene period,
Figure 2. Dissipation test at the Olympic Villa.
formed in the last twelve to eight thousand years
(Figure 3). It a relatively homogenous clay profile
with a number of sand lenses. The vane test was
used to calibrate the undrained shear strength near

504
 Figure 3. BR101 motorway near Florianópolis, Northern Brazil.

Figure 4. Typical soil profile at the Tubarão experimental testing site (Schnaid et al, 2016).

505
 Figure 5. The Tubarão testing site undrained shear strength.

4 REFERENCES
2.3 Tubarão Experimental Testing Site
Aas, G., Lacasse, S., Lunne, T. & Hoeg, K. 1986. Use of in situ
Comprehensive site investigation carried out in test for foundation design on clay. Proc. of the ASCE Spe-
cialty Conf. In Situ’86: Use of In Situ Tests in Geotech. En-
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zil comprises SDMT, CPTU, vane, shear wave ve- Engineers (ASCE).
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3 CONCLUSIONS Mantaras, F.M.B; Odebrecht, E.; Schnaid, F. 2014. Using
piezocone dissipation test to estimate the undrained shear
The paper describes three case studies reporting in strength in cohesive soil. CPT’14; 3rd International
situ tests in soft clay deposits with the aim of evalu- Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Las Vegas.
Mantaras, F.M.B; Odebrecht, E.; Schnaid, F. 2014. Using
ating the applicability of the method developed by piezocone dissipation test to estimate the undrained shear
Mantaras et al (2015) to estimate the undrained strength in cohesive soil. CPT’14; 3rd International
shear strength from CPTU dissipation tests. In the Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Las Vegas.
method, stress history, shear strength and compress- Mantaras, F.M.B; Odebrecht, E.; Schnaid, F. 2015. Using pie-
ibility are the critical factors affecting the accuracy zocone dissipation test to estimate the undrained shear
of predictions. Reported case studies encourage the strength in cohesive soil. Canadiam Geotechnical Journal,
52(3): 318-325.
use of the method in engineering practice. Mantaras, F.M.B; Odebrecht, E.; Schnaid, F. 2015. Using
piezocone dissipation test to estimate the undrained shear
strength in cohesive soil. CPT’14; 3rd International
Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Las Vegas.

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