Soft ground improvement techniques have evolved substantially in Brazil in recent years. However, their application in soft and very soft clays requires a good understanding of the fundamentals of ground improvement techniques suited to the problem as well as the actual field behavior when implemented on a real scale. This paper describes some of the mo...

The anchoring of floating platforms is one of many processes in the oil industry that requires innovative strategies. In this respect, there is interest in developing techniques that improve the shear strength of soft soils in order to increase the bearing capacity of offshore foundations anchored in these soils. Normally consolidated clay soil is known...

According to previously available research and seismic microzonation studies a large area of the Guayaquil (Ecuador, South America) sits on estuarine deltaic deposits which consist of weak and highly compressible clays with diatoms. The nature of these finegrained deposits may determine difficulties in a proper estimation of the soil properties. In this...

Classical theory of consolidation was conceived considering loads instantaneously applied. Since then, researchers have addressed this issue by suggesting graphical and/or analytical solutions to incorporate different time-depending load schemes. The simplest alternative is to assume a linearly increasing load. Another approach to predict the average de...