Relationships between shearwave velocity and geotechnical parameters for Norwegian and Swedish sensitive clays

Book chapter, 2017

Shear wave velocity (Vs) is an important parameter in various geotechnical investigations especially in dynamic problems but is also useful in general characterisation studies and for problems such as landslide hazard assessment. This paper presents Vs data for sites in Norway and Sweden and shows that Vs can be measured reliably and repeatability using a variety of intrusive and non-intrusive techniques. Norwegian and Swedish Vs profiles show similar trends with depth. However the values for Norwegian soils are much higher. When correlated against the index properties water content and density the reason for the differences can be seen and the correlations apply across the soils from the two areas. Good correlations are found between Vsand suand Vs and pc′ and it is also shown that one can predict Vs from CPTU data. However it is not possible to use correlations developed for Norwegian soils for Swedish clays and the results of this work show that locally derived correlations are needed. This work also shows that it is not possible to predict whether a clay is quick or not from Vs measurements alone.