Effects of Consolidation and Specimen Disturbance on Strengths of Taipei Clays

Abstract

Presented herein are the results of a study supplementing the one carried out in the early 90’s for investigating the characteristics of Taipei clays for the design and construction of the Taipei Metro. It has been found that the lowering of piezometric level in the Chingmei Formation in the 70’s has drastically increased the shear strengths of the clays which can be estimated by using the SHANSEP equations, as a result of consolidation. Furthermore, the shear strengths obtained in the routine unconsolidated undrained shearing tests are far too low due to specimen disturbance.