Abstract
Fully softened shear strength is an important engineering concept for slope stability analyses of cuts in stiff clays and compacted embankments constructed of high plasticity clays. The “softening” concept has been used to explain many first-time failures for which the back-calculated shear strength is below the peak strength measured in the laboratory using undisturbed or freshly compacted samples. A comprehensive laboratory testing program was undertaken to measure the fully softened shear strength of 46 soils using over 300 direct shear tests. These results were used to develop correlations that allow estimation of a continuous and nonlinear fully softened failure envelope using soil index properties. These new correlations were developed to address some of the problems observed with existing correlations for fully softened shear strength parameters. The new correlations are presented along with the statistical parameters needed to assess reliability of the shear strength parameters and to allow use within a probabilistic framework.
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