Settlement and pore pressure behaviour and predictions of test embankments on an organic clay

ABSTRACT Two test embankments were built on an organic clay at the Lampen test site in Sweden and movements and pore pressures were measured over a period of six years. Well-established 2D and 1D constitutive models, were used to predict the settlement and pore pressures. The predictions suggest, with model parameters based on laboratory test results for carefully taken and handled standard piston samples, that creep should be included to provide better agreement with the in situ measured settlements and pore pressures. A comparison between the predictions and the measured settlements and pore pressures showed that it is important to study the trend over time and at different depths, and not just settlements at a few times at the ground surface. The 2D model including creep agreed relatively well with the measured total settlements and with pore pressures at different depths, but the settlement-time relationship was not qualitatively well described.