Geotechnical Correlations for Soils and Rocks

The modelling tools for soils and rocks require more and more specific parameters not always available from the standard or usual survey campaigns, this generally for reasons of delay or costs. The use of correlations to solve the gap between available parameters and the required ones is a common practice. Many of them exist but are spread throughout numerous papers or books. The aim of this formulary is to provide a large synthesis of the existing correlations accumulated by the authors during more than 40 years academic and consulting careers.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements xi Preface xiii Chapter 1. Physical Parameters 1 1.1. Unit weights and volumes 1 1.2. Soil behavior type index and soil classification index 3 1.3. Consistency or Atterberg limits 3 1.4. Consistency and liquidity indices 4 1.5. Rigidity index 5 1.6. Relative density of sands 5 1.7. Wave velocity 7 1.8. Cation exchange capacity 8 Chapter 2. Identification of Soil Types 11 2.1. From identification tests 11 2.2. From cone soil index ∗ IC 12 2.3. From CPT 12 2.4. From PMT 15 2.5. From SPT 17 2.6. From DMT 18 Chapter 3. Hydraulic Parameters 21 3.1. Hydraulic conductivity 21 3.2. Water storage capacity 23 3.2.1. For a free water table 23 3.2.2. For a confined aquifer 24 Chapter 4. Strength Parameters of Saturated and Dry Soils 25 4.1. Undrained shear strength and cohesion 25 4.1.1. From identification tests 25 4.1.2. From laboratory tests 26 4.1.3. From CPT 27 4.1.4. From PMT 28 4.1.5. From SPT 29 4.1.6. From SCPT 29 4.1.7. From DMT 30 4.1.8. From VST 30 4.1.9. Overconsolidated soils 31 4.1.10. Miscellaneous: peats and remolded soils 32 4.2. Effective cohesion 33 4.3. Internal friction angle 33 4.3.1. From identification tests 33 4.3.2. From CPT and CPTu 35 4.3.3. From SCPT 36 4.3.4. From PMT 36 4.3.5. From SPT 37 4.3.6. From DMT 38 4.3.7. Peak, critical state and residual friction angles 39 4.3.8. Influence of intermediate stress 40 4.4. The angle of dilatancy 41 4.5. Sensitivity 42 Chapter 5. Soil Deformations 43 5.1. Compression and swelling 43 5.1.1. Compression index 43 5.1.2. Constants of compressibility 47 5.1.3. Swelling index 48 5.2. Soil moduli 48 5.2.1. From CPT 49 5.2.2. From DMT 51 5.2.3. From SPT 52 5.2.4. From CBR 53 5.2.5. Influence of loading rate 54 5.3. Small strain modulus 54 5.4. Poisson’s ratio 58 5.5. Modulus of subgrade reaction 59 5.6. Resilient modulus 60 5.7. Collapse and expansion 60 Chapter 6. Soil State Parameters 63 6.1. Preconsolidation pressure 63 6.2. Overconsolidation ratio 66 Chapter 7. Consolidation 69 7.1. Primary consolidation coefficient 69 7.2. Secondary consolidation coefficient 70 7.3. Consolidation of peats 71 7.4. Degree of consolidation 72 Chapter 8. Coefficient of Earth Pressure at Rest 73 Chapter 9. Soil Compaction Tests 77 9.1. Proctor tests 77 9.1.1. Standard Proctor test 77 9.1.2. Modified Proctor test 78 9.2. CBR 79 Chapter 10. Unsaturated Soils 81 10.1. Suction 81 10.2. Bishop’s coefficient 83 10.3. Quasi-saturated domain 84 10.4. tress dependency of suction 84 10.5. Drying path of quasi-saturated soils 85 10.6. Capillary or apparent cohesion 86 10.7. Estimation of porosity and degree of saturation from compression wave velocity 87 Chapter 11. Cross Relations between In Situ Test Parameters 89 11.1. CPT 89 11.1.1. Correction factors and correlations between different CPT tests or parameters 89 11.1.2. CPT and DPT 91 11.1.3. CPT and PMT 92 11.1.4. CPT and DMT 93 11.1.5. CPT and SPT 94 11.2. MT 97 11.2.1. MT and DPT 97 11.2.2. MT and DMT 98 11.2.3. MT and SPT 98 11.3. DMT 99 11.3.1. DMT and SPT 99 11.4. SPT 100 11.4.1. SPT and DPT 100 11.5. PANDA dynamic penetration test 100 11.5.1. PANDA and CPT 100 11.5.2. PANDA and DPT 101 11.5.3. PANDA and PMT 101 11.5.4. PANDA and VST 101 Chapter 12. Rocks 103 12.1. Introduction 103 12.2. Fundamental properties of intact minerals 106 12.3. Rock material (rm) 108 12.3.1. UCS 109 12.3.2. Abrasiveness 117 12.3.3. Attrition 119 12.3.4. Polished stone value (PSV) 122 12.4. Rock masses (RMs) 124 12.4.1. Shear strength of discontinuities 124 12.4.2. RM classification systems 126 Chapter 13. Usual Values of Soils and Rock Parameters 141 13.1. Physical parameters 141 13.1.1. Plasticity, unit weights and porosity 141 13.1.2. Consistency and related strength parameters 142 13.1.3. Soil indices 142 13.1.4. Soil and rock resistivity 143 13.1.5. Wave velocity 143 13.1.6. Clay minerals and CEC 144 13.2. Hydraulic parameters 144 13.2.1. Hydraulic conductivity 144 13.2.2. Water storage capacity 145 13.3. Strength parameters 145 13.4. Deformation parameters 145 13.4.1. Compression index 145 13.4.2. Soil modulus 146 13.4.3. Poisson’s ratio 146 13.4.4. mall strain modulus 147 13.5. Consolidation parameters 147 13.5.1. Primary consolidation 147 13.6. In situ test parameters 148 13.6.1. CPT 148 13.6.2. MT 148 13.6.3. DMT 149 13.6.4. SPT 149 13.7. Rock parameters 149 13.7.1. Rock materials 150 13.7.2. Rock masses 153 List of Symbols 159 List of Equations 169 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms 173 Bibliography 177 Index 205

About the Author :
Jean-Claude Verbrugge, Université libre de Bruxelles and University of Liège, Belgium. Christian Schroeder, Université libre de Bruxelles and University of Liège, Belgium.