Extracting general knowledge of model parameters for clays out of numerous laboratory tests

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the process of determining the material parameters of advanced constitutive models for clays. Provided results are applicable already in the early stages of geotechnical survey when no detailed data from laboratory tests of soils expected at construction site are known. A worldwide database of laboratory tests obtained during four year operation of web calibration application ExCalibre was used for this purpose. This application allows automatic calibration of three advanced constitutive soil models based on detailed data from triaxial and edometric tests. The paper describes the process of determining the confidence intervals of each material parameter of modified Cam-clay and hypoplastic clay models for low (CL) and high (CH) plasticity clay according to unified soil classification system (USCS) and tabulates their typical ranges. The purpose of presented work was to contribute to the use of advanced constitutive models among practical engineers.