Immediate Settlements of Three Test Embankments on Champlain Clay

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Abstract
As part of an extensive field testing program, three full scale test fills were built on a soft Champlain clay deposit in Saint-Alban, Quebec.The fills were built to the same height of 11 ft (3.3 m) but with different slopes of 1.5/1, 2.5/1, and 4/1, and with resulting factors of safety of 1.24, 1.32, and 1.52. The foundations were heavily instrumented.From the observed construction behavior it was shown that the foundations behave elastically up to a critical height equal to 6, 8, and 9 ft (1.8, 2.4, and 2.7 m), respectively, or to about 50% of the failure height of each fill. Beyond this limit, local yielding of the clay occurred.The behavior in the elastic phase could be predicted adequately on the basis of CIU tests, provided Poisson's ratio be assigned a value of 0.3 instead of the usual 0.5. To obtain an adequate settlement prediction over the full range of heights, the finite element method could be used but a modified clay model should be developed which includes a yield criterion in addition to the classical failure criterion and which allow for a certain compressibility of the clay at yielding.

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