• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2000.09a
• /
• pp.73-78
• /
• 2000

The reinforced soil has been widely used for constructing retaining walls and embankment with steep slope. However, the benefits of soil reinforcing are often-restricted by a lack of good quality backfill material. In this study, plane strain compression tests were carried out to study the effects of preloading on the behavior of geosynthetic-reinforced saturated clay. For the unreinforced and reinforced soil, drained and undrained shearing tests were peformed after anisotropic consolidation in a constant strain rate. A preoading test was carried out by preloading, creep, unloading, aging and undrained shearing after anisotropic consolidation(K=0.3, σ'₃=50 kPa). It was observed that a reinforced clay, Kanto loam, can have a great initial secant modulus in undraind condition by well compaction and over consolidation. The results shown that the increasing of drained strength should be used to apply a large preloading in the case of reinforced clay.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.247-256
• /
• 2003

FEM analyses which are based on modified Cam-clay theory have been generally used in such cases as analyses of stability and displacement fur embankment construction on soft clays. However, the Modified Cam Clay Model can generate some problems in anisotropic stress conditions of field because the critical state theory has been developed through many laboratory tests in isotropic conditions. Thus, the applicability on the prediction of undrained shear strength and pore water pressure which was based on the critical state theory was evaluated by triaxial tests and numerical analyses in isotropic and anisotropic conditions. Used samples often come out in domestic area, together with general low plastic clays which are showing dilatant behavior in shearing process. They were evaluated by laboratory tests and FEM based on MCCM. From the results of test and numerical analysis, the predictions of undrained strength in low plastic clays well coincided with each other in both isotropic and anisotropic conditions. However, the generation of porewater pressure was often overestimated during undrained shearing in anisotropic conditions. The results can generate the errors in the prediction of stress path of field sites during loading such as construction of embankment on soft clays because the field is subjected to anisotropic conditions during loading.