Lecture 1 Intro To Soft Soil

LECTURE 1 INTRODUCTION TO SOFT SOIL
LECTURE 1
INTRODUCTION TO SOFT SOIL
PROF. Ir. DR. HJ. RAMLI NAZIR

TROPICAL GEOENGINEERING CENTRE,
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
Unfortunately, soils are made by nature and not by

man, and the products of nature are always complex.
Karl von Terzaghi, 1936
1
• Soils are human in nature. Uncertainties, history,

colours and background dominates the behaviour of the
soil.
• Understanding its behaviour is a complicated task.

Prediction on its behaviour is the best solution offer so
far without any assurance on its performance.
• Terzaghi(1936) once said , “soils are made from natures

and not by man, and the product of natures are always
complex”.
Soil VS human : THE DEFINITION
HARD SOIL
INTERMEDIATE
SOIL
SOFT SOIL
2
HOW DO YOU MEASURE AN ELEPHANT?
A QUESTION REGARDING THE

POLITICS OF NUMBER
IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE THEN

YOU CAN’T MANAGE 5
Gue et. al (2006) 6
3
GEOTECHNIC IS ALL ABOUT STRESS

AND STRAIN WITH SOME
UNCERTAINTIES
s and e + x
4
THERE IS NO ACCURACY IN
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING. WE
ONLY USE THE TERM -
‘RELIABILITY’
The responsible of an engineer is not to calculate accurately

but more to judge soundly.
5
Soft Soil Behaviour
• Behaviour of the soft soil is influence by its parent

materials, deposition process, erosion, redeposition,
consolidation and fluctuation of ground water table.
• Name depend on the process how its developed.

• Peat
• Alluvium
• Marine clay
• Lacustrine
• Highly compressible
11
Interpretation Test
• Behaviour and properties can be translated from several standard

test:-
• Filed Test
• Light Dynamic penetrometer
• Bore holes, SPT, collection of UD and D samples.
• FVST
• Piezocone (CPTU)
• Laboratory Test
• UCT
• Triaxial (UU, CIU, CD)
• Consolidation
• Compaction
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Su > 10kPa
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PROBLEM RELATED WITH SOFT SOIL
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WHY CHOOSE to construct on SOFT

SOIL?
 Due to lack of suitable area for infrastructure
 The behaviour of the soft soil is normally influenced by the source

of the parent materials, depositional processes, erosion,
redeposition, consolidation and fluctuation in ground water level.
 The choice of construction method in this formation is not generally

governed by direct costs, but also the long term maintenance costs,
duration of completion and cost benefits.
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• Generaly the alluvial deposit consists of finest clays to very coarse

gravels and boulders.
• Alluvial soils usually show pronounced stratification and
sometimes organic matter, seashell and decayed wood.
• Due to highly compressible properties, excessive settlement is the
main concern of the problem statement.
• Construction over soft ground especially over very soft and soft
marine deposits are interesting engineering challenges to engineers
• The notes will present a brief guideline for selection and design of
the various commonly used techniques for construction of
embankment on soft soil.
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• There are two main geotechnical problems in soft clay

engineering, namely settlement and stability.
• However, many practicing engineers tend to forget about

the importance of settlement problem.
• Therefore, more effort should be emphasized in the

interpretation of compressibility parameters for settlement
analysis.
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Problem related to construction on soft soil
• Access problems
• Excessive Settlement
• Embankment Stability
• Bearing Stability
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Infrastructure serviceability failure in highly

compressible area
Courtesy from Forensic Unit CKG
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Septic Tank
Courtesy from Forensic Unit CKG

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How To Solve The Problems
• Treat geotechnical engineering as a ladies wear. Short and impressive but

long enough to cover the essential.
Geoffrey Meyerhof (2002)
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DESIGN ANALYSES
• Which one to use???
• TOTAL STRESS ANALYSIS

Or
• EFFECTIVE STRESS ANALYSIS
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TOTAL STRESS ANALYSES
• This type of analysis uses the undrained shear strength

of the cohesive soil and also known as short term
analysis.
• The undrained shear strength, cu can be obtained from
field such as vane shear and laboratory such as
unconfined compression test. If the undrained shear
strength is constant throughout the depth then cu = c
and f=0o. The use of unconsolidated undrained triaxial
compression test is also applicable provided that it is
saturated plastic soil.
• The groundwater does not have an effect in the use of
total stress parameters. 59
EFFECTIVE STRESS ANALYSIS
• This type of analysis uses the drained shear strength, c’ and

f’ of the plastic soil.
• The drained shear strength could be obtained from triaxial
compression test with pore pressure measurement tested
on a fully saturated specimen of the plastic soil.
• Also known as long term analysis since the shear-induced
pore water pressure (positive or negative) from the loading
has dissipated and the hydrostatic pore pressure conditions
now prevail in the field.
• Thus the location of the water table is significant in
considering in the analysis.
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Governing Conditions (TSA and ESA)
• Total stress analysis will provide a lower allowable bearing

capacity for soft or very soft saturated plastic soils.
• This is due to the load from foundation that will
consolidate the plastic soil leading to an increase in shear
strength as time passes.
• For Effective stress analysis, the shear strength is higher for
soft or very soft saturated plastic soils which will results in
higher bearing capacity.
• Effective stress analysis will provide lower bearing capacity
for very stiff or hard saturated plastic soils.
• This is due to the dilation of plastic soil during undrained
shear deformation since the soil are usually heavily
overconsolidated.
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• As the soil dilates it tends to develop negative pore pressure. As these

pressure dissipates with times the shear strength of the heavily
overconsolidated plastic soil will decrease. This will lower the bearing
capacity of the soil.
• Firm to stiff saturated plastic soils are intermediate conditions.
• The OCR and the tendency of the saturated plastics soil to consolidate
will determine whether the TSA or ESA provides the lower bearing
capacity.
• Geotechnical works in deep deposit of highly compressible soft clay is
often associated with problems such as excessive differential
settlement, negative skin friction and bearing capacity failure
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Important Parameter
• Compression index, Cc is the slope of the linear portion of

the e – log s plot and is dimensionless.
• Many attempts also have been carried out to correlate Cc
with the basic index properties of soil, especially with the
liquid limit, LL.
• Cc is influenced by the sensitivity of natural clays, it can
generally be related to void ratio and sensitivity.
• The recompression index, Cr is also an important
parameter for soft compressible ground settlement analysis.
• Cr is defined in the same way as Cc except that it applies to
the unloading-reloading phase of the oedometer test.
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• Undrained shear strength is a soil parameter essential for

the analysis of embankment stability (total stress) and
bearing capacity of foundation in saturated clay.
• Shear strength of soil can be measured directly or indirectly
with different apparatus, including laboratory and in-situ
tests.
• The results of laboratory tests are usually subjected to
uncertainties primarily due to the inevitable sample
disturbance particularly for very soft to soft clay.
• Normalized undrained shear strength with the
preconsolidation pressure, Pc is an important index to
evaluate the undrained shear strength of saturated clay.
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• In ground settlement analysis, one of the important parameters for

geotechnical design over soft clay is overconsolidation ratio (OCR).
• Underestimating OCR will cause overestimation of consolidation
settlement magnitude and thus lead to expensive and time-consuming
geotechnical solutions.
• Hence, it is extremely useful if reliable correlations on OCR can be
obtained from piezocone data.
• Many attempts have been carried out to estimate OCR from piezocone
data.
• OCR of soft marine clay can be estimated with the following simple
formula:
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• Many geotechnical options are available for engineers’

consideration.
• Of course, the one that uses the local materials and
resources that are cheaper and easier to construct would
no doubt be the choice.
PERCIEVE PROBLEMS
ACTUAL PROBLEMS
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PROBLEMS WITH CONSTRUCTION

ON SOFT SOIL IN MALAYSIA
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SUCCESS IS ABOUT PLANNING
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Geotechnical forensic cases carried out by PWD

(Mohamad Nor Omar et.al (2016)
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Preventive Measures
• Proper design and review
• Stability check of embankment & abutment
• Most critical :-
• Anticipation and planning
• During construction (must check temporary works)
• Proper full-time supervision (with relevant experience & understand design

assumptions)
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• Failures (temporary works)
• Inadequate geotechnical design
• Subsoil Condition (Lack of understanding)
• Lack of construction control & supervision (due to inexperience or

ignorance)
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THE ARTS OF ANTICIPATION 79
Begin with end

in mind!
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Begin with end

in mind! 81
Begin with end

in mind! 82
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• A whole-of-life approach should be considered to derive best value for

money.
• It takes into account satisfactory performance requirements without

excessive capital expenditure.
• It also ensures that the regime of long-term maintenance and cost will be
within acceptable limits throughout the design life of the infrastructure.
• By balancing capital cost and long-term maintenance cost, a whole-of-life

approach generally provides the best value for money solution.
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Lessons learn from SOFT SOIL

PROBLEMS
• Ground Variability which leads to uncertainties.
• Engineering judgment as an acceptable engineering practice.
• Instrumentations is a useful tool to supplement what we cannot identify at

early design stage.
• Every instrument shall be placed at the site to answer specific question. If

no question, then no instrument
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• Instrumentation results to justify any shortcomings or negligence in the

design of the project designer and also those by the work contractor
• Be aware that instruments only provide point measurement with

dependence on localized characteristics. It may not represent the whole
problem unless large number of point measurement instruments are
installed
• Good conformance of instrument and installation procedures are necessary

for measurement of good reliability.
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• If you can not get high quality and reliable data, then better don’t initiate
any instrumentation scheme because it will create more problems than
being advantageous
• Bearing capacity and settlement assessment by CRUDE check at initial

stage need to be done to view the severity of the problems.
• SYSTEMATIC check & review process need to be done by engineering

expert in soft ground.
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• Beware of any changes of properties related to parameters to be measured

due to presence of instruments.
• Exact interpretation of soil parameters in any remedial works in soft soil

shall be fully understood.
• Cost incurred during constructions is inevitable but can be minimized with

proper planning.
• Typical geotechnical reports taken as Geotechnical memoranda to defined

uncertainties shall be included as a contract document, when used together,
help to avoid claims or provide efficient resolution.
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CONCLUSIONS
• Uncertainties in soft ground cause a big challenge for engineers to design.
• Uncertainties that reasonably exist are lightning rods for contractual claims
because they are interpreted as sources of ambiguity under the contract
• Geotechnical expert (Not experience engineer) shall be call upon to resolve

the issues related to Geotechnical initially before construction started.
Normally at design stage.
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• Improvement method shall be closely monitored with full-time

SUPERVISION with team of suitable experience on site.
• Designers need to layout their planning and scheduling prior to the

construction on soft ground including possible cause of modes of failure
(arts of anticipation)
• Observational Method through instrumentation is recommended.
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• Extra Care on TEMPORARY WORKS when needed especially for

excavation. This need to be anticipate as it will increase the construction
cost.
• Understand the Limitation of Software used . It may not check all the
required modes of failures. It is a tools to expedite design process.
• STRUCTURED training programmes (enhance technical knowledge &

share lessons learned)
• Group discussions
• Colloquium
• Classes
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• DO NOT
• Abuse geotechnical design, detailed analysis
• Overlook localised weak zones
• Overlook structural detailing
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• Engineering is not about calculating or obtaining results accurately but it

is more on the reliability and judgement.
• Finally our judgement and feels will dictate the final results of the design.
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We Have an Abundance of Data but a

Lack of Knowledge
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Those who fail to learn from

the past are doomed to
repeat it.
George Santayana (1863 Spain –1952
Italy)
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END LECTURE 1
48

Lecture 1 Intro To Soft Soil

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LECTURE 1 INTRODUCTION TO SOFT SOIL

PROF. Ir. DR. HJ. RAMLI NAZIR

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

Unfortunately, soils are made by nature and not by

Karl von Terzaghi, 1936

• Soils are human in nature. Uncertainties, history,

• Understanding its behaviour is a complicated task.

• Terzaghi(1936) once said , “soils are made from natures

Soil VS human : THE DEFINITION

HOW DO YOU MEASURE AN ELEPHANT?

A QUESTION REGARDING THE

IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE THEN

Gue et. al (2006) 6

GEOTECHNIC IS ALL ABOUT STRESS

The responsible of an engineer is not to calculate accurately

Soft Soil Behaviour

• Behaviour of the soft soil is influence by its parent

• Name depend on the process how its developed.

• Behaviour and properties can be translated from several standard

PROBLEM RELATED WITH SOFT SOIL

WHY CHOOSE to construct on SOFT

 Due to lack of suitable area for infrastructure

 The behaviour of the soft soil is normally influenced by the source

 The choice of construction method in this formation is not generally

• Generaly the alluvial deposit consists of finest clays to very coarse

• There are two main geotechnical problems in soft clay

• However, many practicing engineers tend to forget about

• Therefore, more effort should be emphasized in the

Problem related to construction on soft soil

Infrastructure serviceability failure in highly

Courtesy from Forensic Unit CKG

Courtesy from Forensic Unit CKG

How To Solve The Problems

• Treat geotechnical engineering as a ladies wear. Short and impressive but

Geoffrey Meyerhof (2002)

• Which one to use???

• TOTAL STRESS ANALYSIS

TOTAL STRESS ANALYSES

• This type of analysis uses the undrained shear strength

EFFECTIVE STRESS ANALYSIS

• This type of analysis uses the drained shear strength, c’ and

Governing Conditions (TSA and ESA)

• Total stress analysis will provide a lower allowable bearing

• As the soil dilates it tends to develop negative pore pressure. As these

• Compression index, Cc is the slope of the linear portion of

• Undrained shear strength is a soil parameter essential for

• In ground settlement analysis, one of the important parameters for

• Many geotechnical options are available for engineers’

PROBLEMS WITH CONSTRUCTION

SUCCESS IS ABOUT PLANNING

Geotechnical forensic cases carried out by PWD

• Proper design and review

• Stability check of embankment & abutment

• Anticipation and planning

• During construction (must check temporary works)

• Proper full-time supervision (with relevant experience & understand design

• Failures (temporary works)

• Inadequate geotechnical design

• Subsoil Condition (Lack of understanding)

• Lack of construction control & supervision (due to inexperience or

THE ARTS OF ANTICIPATION 79

Begin with end