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Soft marine deposits are widely distributed in the coastal region of China. The marine soft clays have high water content and high sensitivity, which shows high compressibility and low strength. The installation of precast piles for wind turbines over soft marine clay will generate high excess pore water pressure (EPWP) with very low dissipation rate, resulting in low bearing capacity and large postconstruction settlement, which will affect long-term stability. This study investigated the generation and dissipation of the EPWP correlated with the change in soil structure during the installation of pile foundations in a project of 100 MW wind-power generation in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, China. The results show that the marine soft clay soils feature strong natural structures based on the intrinsic compression concept. The EPWP decreases with increasing distance from the pile, whose influence reaches a distance of 6 m (about 10 times the pile side length). The structural strength of natural sedimentary clay has a remarkable impact on the generated EPWP. The dissipation rate of the EPWP is very slow in mucky clay with more than half the residual value after 30 days, which is mainly attributed to the sharp decline of consolidation coefficient induced by the disturbance of natural clay soils from pile driving. Moreover, hydraulic fracturing can well explain the dissipation characteristics of the EPWP in clay. This phenomenon is actually an ongoing process especially in marine soft clay soils with a strong cementation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of its large size ( in plan), the 17.85- to 25.89-m-deep foundation pit of the 492-m-high Shanghai World Finance Center building was excavated by the central-island technique, i.e., bottom-up construction of the central cylindrical shaft first and then top-down construction of the peripheral rectangular pit. As part of the comprehensive study on the characteristics of this large-scale foundation pit, this study mainly focuses on the behaviors of the peripheral pit via the following investigated items: (1) lateral wall deflections; (2) vertical wall movements; (3) lateral ground movements; (4) axial forces in the cast floor slabs and braced struts; (5) lateral earth pressures on both sides of retaining walls; (6) variation of pore pressures along depth and deep artesian water levels; (7) ground settlements; (8) subsurface settlements; (9) basal heaves; (10) vertical column movements; and (11) column stresses. To explore the potential effects of pit sizes on the excavation behaviors, field data from another 33 top-down excavations in Shanghai were also included for comparison. The comprehensive comparisons show that in addition to the well-known factors (e.g., excavation depths, supporting system stiffness, and factor of safety against basal heave), pit sizes in plan played a key role in determination of the pit behaviors. The large-scale pits with the areas in plan of experienced wall deflections and ground settlements three to five times those of regular building basement and metro station excavations with the sizes in plan no more than , and the corresponding influence zones behind the large-sized pits were also much wider. Different from the braced struts that just carried the load because of soil removal in the proximity, the floor slabs sustained the load induced by exposure of the entire retaining wall along the depth. For the top-down excavations in Shanghai soft clay, the lateral earth pressure envelopes behind the retaining walls were trapezoidal, but their magnitudes were significantly smaller than those predicted by the methods available in the literature, and the corresponding peak values occurred at a greater depth. The influence zones of basal heave caused by soil removal (stress relief) extended much deeper below the excavation bases than those assumed in the conventional slip circle basal stability models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two commonly encountered saprolitic soils in Hong Kong, weathered volcanic tuff (WT) and weathered granite (WG), were studied using high-quality intact samples. The intact samples exhibited quasi-preconsolidation pressure or yield stress under isotropic compression due to their bonded structures, but the yield was progressive and not abrupt. As the stress increased, significant volumetric changes were measured. These changes resembled clay-type behavior. The soils also exhibited anisotropic deformation under isotropic loading and unloading, which was associated with the features of their parent rocks. During the drained tests, shearing at the in situ stress-state produced peak strength and volumetric dilation. Undrained shearing showed complicated stress paths and dilatancy behavior in these soils. Phase transformation states and dilative shear failure were readily seen, which resembles typical sand-type behavior. Distinct shear band(s) appeared in the WT specimens during shearing, whereas a bulging type of failure appeared in the WG specimens. The soils ultimately approached the corresponding state guided by a unique critical state line, regardless of their complex initial states in relation to the bonded structure and drainage conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]