New Design Procedure for Stability of Soft Clays

A new method of selecting design shear strengths for soft clay foundations is presented which avoids much of the empiricism of the present methods. Current design practice is analyzed in light of the results of recent research into the behavior of soft clays. The concept of determining normalized shear strength parameters from laboratory reconsolidated samples sheared under the in situ modes of failure is developed. These normalized parameters are applied to the measured stress history (over-consolidation ratio profile) of the deposit to yield design strengths. The technique is called SHANSEP. Four examples of its use are presented and compared with present practice.