Conroy 2010 Creep Control Surcharge
Conroy 2010 Creep Control Surcharge
Conroy 2010 Creep Control Surcharge
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Abstract
The construction of embankments over soft alluvium deposits of varying depths
presents designers with many significant problems, most notably short term stability
and long term settlement. High levels of consolidation settlement but also high rates of
secondary compression often lead to significant long term settlements of the
embankments. In order to overcome the problem of secondary compression a
surcharge loading regime for the embankments, combined with perforated vertical
drains to reduce the time for primary consolidation to take place could be
implemented. This paper presents an investigation into the amount of surcharge that is
required to achieve a specified improvement in the rate of secondary compression.
The surcharge level required can be calculated on the basis of the procedure presented
by Charles C. Ladd (1971) which involves the analysis of the results of several long
duration oedometer tests at different levels of surcharge loading. Special long term
oedometer tests which mimic the typical site loading regime for the construction of an
embankment were carried out at University College Dublin. The laboratory test results
are used to calculate the rate of secondary compression for normally consolidated soils
(Cα), and the improved rate of secondary compression (C'α) following removal of the
surcharge load. The UCD results have been correlated with Ladd’s method and
historical data to assess the applicability of the method to an Irish alluvium soil. The
results and their implications for design will be presented in this paper.
1. Introduction
The principle of surcharge loading is that the soil is temporarily loaded to an effective
stress (σ'vs) which is higher than the final effective stress (σ'vf) which it will
experience under the permanent embankment load. This means that the soil will
become ‘artificially’ over consolidated (OC) when under the final embankment load.
This is illustrated in Figure 1 (part A). The advantage here lies in the fact that OC soils
exhibit lower creep rates than normally consolidated (NC) soils. Figure 1 (part B)
shows the typical loading sequence which is carried out when surcharge loading is
used. The soil is loaded to stress level σ'vs and allowed to consolidate. The value of Cα
is calculated as the slope of the curve between times tp and tr. The load is then
removed and the soil is now at stress level σ'vf. Swelling occurs following unloading
until creep reappears at some time ts, a new lower creep rate C'α is now observed and
can be calculated from the linear portion of the graph after ts. Since C'α is smaller than
Cα the rate and amount of secondary compression is reduced. The magnitude of this
reduction depends on the amount of surcharge loading used.
This paper looks at the method of predicting the effect of surcharge loading in
reducing the rate of secondary compression as proposed by Ladd (1971) and whether
this method is applicable to soft alluvium soils from the Shannon Estuary in Ireland.
Using data collected on several cohesive soil deposits, Ladd (1971) found that the
ratio of C'α to Cα is directly related to the level of surcharge loading applied to the soil.
Figure 2 shows Ladd’s relationship between C'α/ Cα and adjusted amount of surcharge
(AAOS) where:
' vs ' vf
AAOS = where: (1)
'
vf
Other authors who have investigated the effects of surcharge loading on creep
behaviour include Mesri and Nash. Mesri’s analysis of the improvement of Cα is
based on his Cα /Cc concept as presented by Mesri and Castro (1987). This constant
value of Cα /Cc for a soil is applicable to both compression and recompression and
could be used in conjunction with Cc values along recompression curve to calculate
the corresponding values of C'α.
Nash and Ryde (1999, 2000) developed models based on the work of Yin and
Graham (1989, 1996) and Bjerrum (1972) which models creep as a set of isotaches on
a strain versus stress plot. Each isotache represents a different constant creep rate. The
Yin and Graham model makes use of the λ-κ model used in critical state soil
mechanics to define the instant elastic-plastic behaviour. This results in the normally
consolidated line being replaced by a reference time line (RTL). Creep rate at a
particular time can be determined from a set of isotaches through the introduction of
the concept of “equivalent time” te which is the time taken to creep under constant
effective stress from the RTL to the present state. A feature of both the Mesri and
Nash approaches is that the post surcharge creep rate C'α is not constant but slowly
increases to approach the original creep rate of NC soil after sufficient time has
passed. The time required to fully recover Cα is variable and is dependant on the strain
which occurs during surcharge, itself a function of the surcharge load.
A series of oedometer tests (using 76mm diameter 19mm depth ring) were carried out
* load represents 20% AAOS, and this value changes for the different AAOS level
The results of two of the oedometer tests, 20% and 50% AAOS, are shown in Figure 3
and Figure 4 respectively.
Time (s)
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 10000000
0
0.05
10kPa
20kPa
40kPa
0.1
80kPa
240kPa
Strain
Cα
190kPa
0.15
200kPa
C'α
0.2
0.25
Time (s)
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1E+06 1E+07
0
10kPa
20kPa
0.05
40kPa
80kPa
0.1
Strain
300kPa
0.15 190kPa
Cα C'α
200kPa
0.2
0.25
From these graphs it is clear that the value of C'α is less than Cα, therefore less
secondary compression would be expected after the surcharge load has been applied
and removed. These graphs also confirm that there is a delay between the removal of
the surcharge load and the reappearance of creep. Comparing these graphs it can be
0.9
0.8
0.7
Ladd
0.6 m axim um
C'α/Cα
0.4 Ladd
m inimum
0.3
UCD 2010
0.2
UCD 2009
0.1
0
10 100
AAOS (%)
Figure 5 - C'α/Cα vs. AAOS % for Shannon Estuary Alluvium (UCD 2009, 2010)
Further to the results recently obtained at UCD, the authors researched a number of
the original papers from which Ladd used data to correlate a relationship for C'α / Cα
and AAOS. The data from four of these papers along with the results for the soft
alluvium obtained from the Shannon Estuary and Ladd’s mean plus upper / lower
limit lines are plotted on a graph of C'α / Cα vs. AAOS as shown in Figure 6. To this
entire data set of 31 points a mean trend line is added which is almost parallel to
Ladd’s mean line and gives a slightly greater improvement in Cα for a given AAOS
level. The fact that the trend obtained is so similar to Ladd’s, and that Ladd’s mean
line is slightly more conservative than this new relationship using all of the data from
the soft alluvium, suggests that Ladd’s mean line trend is suitable and readily
applicable to use in design of surcharge loading regimes for the Shannon Estuary soft
alluvium and similar Irish soils.
It should be noted that the authors used all the original data available from the four
papers Salt Lake City - Saye et al. (2000), Barcelona - Alonso, Gens and Lloret
(2000), New York - Stewart, Lacey and Ladd (1994) and Hong Kong - Koutsoftas et
al. (1987). The only exception to this was the Barcelona paper which included AAOS
tests of 4.4, 7.6 and 100%. These values were omitted because it was felt that the
results for C'α / Cα were potentially erroneous especially at the lower AAOS values
and because the test durations were only of the order of 10 to 12 days which may not
have been sufficiently long enough to ensure that the post surcharge creep rate had
fully reappeared. There was also no other data from other sites close to these values to
compare the results to.
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
10 Ladd maximum AAOS (% ) 100
Ladd mean
Ladd minimum
Conroy & Fahey "Shannon Esturary"
Ng "Lake Bonneville, Salt Lake City"
Alonso "Barcelona"
Stewart "Syracuse, New York"
Koutsoftas "Hong Kong Airport "
new mean line
4. Conclusions
The results obtained and the trends observed in Figures 3-6 provide good evidence
that Ladd’s method of analysing the improvement in Cα for a given level of surcharge
is applicable to the soft alluvium soils with modest organic contents such as those
found in the Shannon Esturary in Ireland. Ladd’s method may be used as a good rule
of thumb when designing surcharge loading regimes for the design of embankments
over clay soils.
It is advisable however where possible to carry out site specific tests to validate the
values of surcharge to be used. This will not only flag any potential problems i.e. if
improvement is not as good as expected, but also in the case where the improvement
is better than expected and data obtained lies close to the maximum improvement line
then potential economical savings may be made due to the need for a lower level of
surcharge.
It is emphasised that the data and trends presented in this paper relate primarily to
inorganic silts and clays or soils with relatively low organic content (5%) such as the
Shannon Estuary site in Ireland. Surcharge has been attempted in highly organic soils
such as mucks and peats. Some authors such as Yu & Frizzi (1994) have reported
good performance of surcharged organic soils, albeit that the range of improvement is
generally less and a greater variablility of results is observed compared to Ladd’s data.
5 Referen ces
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