Interpretation of undrained self-boring pressuremeter test results incorporating unloading

Abstract

An interpretation method has been developed to incorporate nonlinear soil behavior to interpret undrained pressuremeter test results. The method makes use of both the loading and unloading portions of the pressuremeter test. The proposed interpretation method accepts that some level of soil disturbance may exist during the early loading portion of the pressuremeter test. This is accomplished by putting greater emphasis on the unloading portion and the final part of the loading portion of the test. The method is evaluated using self-boring pressuremeter results from Fucino, Italy. Key words : pressuremeter, interpretation, undrained, unloading.