Soil deformation is largely controlled by the migration of the pore water. The self-boring pressuremeter (SBP) testdata on clayis often interpreted based on the conditions that the soil remains in the undrained condition during the pressuremeterexpansion and that the soil deformation is one-dimensional. The former condition is related to the expansion rate and thepermea bility of the soil, whereas the latter condition is related to the pressuremeter geometry. Soil-water coupledfiniteelement analysis using the finite deformation theory was performed to investigate the validity of the assumptions used ininterpreting the SBP data. The effect of permeability and expansion rate on the SBP strength was examined for differentplasticity clays with different overconsolidation ratios. The various effects caused by pore water migration on the SBP strengthwere clarified.