Assessment principles for the mechanical behavior of clay soils

Abstract

The factors that determine the geotechnical behavior of soils are mainly their composition, the size of their grains and their moisture content. The design of a soil structure or foundation project must ensure the shear adequacy of the soil in all phases of construction and throughout the life of the project. However, the shear strength, in general, of the soil is not "constant" but depends on key external factors such as the prehistory of loads, the time and succession of load states, the overpressure of the pore water as well as other factors such as relative density, or any preload, the pressure field, the rate of change of the intensive state, etc. The influence of the deformations as well as the change of the intensive state during the sampling should not be ignored. Unlike other materials, in clay materials the determination of shear strength and its interpretation is a very complex problem. The aim of this article is to search for the mechanical behavior of clay soils (lignite, kaolinite, marl) as shown by the laboratory illustration related with the problems on shear strength of materials, based on the results of experimental research.