THE φ_u=0 ANALYSIS OF STABILITY AND UNCONFINED COMPRESSION STRENGTH

Abstract

The accuracy in determining the undrained strength of saturated cohesive soils and its sequence to the result of stability analysis are examined. As for the accuracy in determining the strength, the mechanical disturbance in the whole process from sampling to testing is found to have far greater influence than the effect of stress release in sampling, as far as the unconfined compression strength is concerned.Three case records of failure in cohesive soils are analyzed by considering respectively the maximum, average and minimum values of measured unconfined compression strengh. Results of the analysis show that the occurrence of failure can be explained reasonably by the φ_u=0 analysis, provided that the distribution of the average unconfined compression strength with depth is considered.