The Twentieth Terzaghi Lecture

Abstract
In spite of our present very advanced analytical capabilities, our present ability to predict actual field behavior is, in many cases, woefully inadequate. Four cases are described to illustrate one of the reasons why actual and predicted performances are sometimes so widely divergent—namely, failure to understand how a soil might respond over time to changed conditions. The four cases are: (1) The aging of quick clay after sampling, in which the remolded strength increases in samples maintained at constant water content; (2) time effects in freshly densified or deposited sand, in which natural sand deposits can lose strength if disturbed but regain strength over time periods of weeks to months; (3) apparently sound lime‐stabilized soil that swells and disintegrates starting a few years after construction; and (4) the failure of excess pore pressures to dissipate as predicted during the consolidation of soft clays. Study of each of these problems has led to an understanding of the responsible phenomena an...

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