On engineering characterisation of a low plastic sensitive soft clay

Abstract

In central Norway, the soft clays can be extremely sensitive to disturbance during sampling and preparation for laboratory testing. In this paper a low plastic sensitive soft clay from Klett is presented. It is challenging to retrieve samples from the site and good quality samples are rare. For this study, two different laboratories participated in testing the samples taken with a downsized (160 mm) Sherbrooke block sampler. The block samples were opened in Lab. 1 and transported to the other laboratory. The observations indicate a reduction in measured preconsolidation pressure and undrained shear strength in the time delayed tests carried out at Lab. 2. The observed differences in the results from the two laboratories may be explained by the transport of samples, stress release due to delayed testing, handling of samples and dissimilarities in laboratory procedures.