Comparative Su measurements with vane shear and T-bar testing on soft soils in laboratory

Abstract

Determination of undrained shear strength Su and sensitivity St of soft soils and sediments are important in geotechnical design as well as in sediment management. Usually these properties are deduced from laboratory or field tests,. In lab, vane shear test (VST) is commonly used in clayey soft soils. Other testing is available such as the full flow penetrometers mainly used for in situ offshore engineering and for centrifuge modeling applications. Among them, the T-bar test (TBT) is not really used in geotechnical lab at 1g level in small layers of soft soil put in containers. This paper deals with measurement of undrained shear strength (Su) of soft clays (kaolin clay) and dam sediment under conditions of natural drying, consolidation and drainage, using two different metghodologies, namely T-bar and vane shear tests.