1 INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the recent results of a field study based on a consistent set of pie-
zocone tests (CPTU) performed at the Treporti Test Site (Venice lagoon, Italy)
within an extensive research programme aimed at better understanding the behaviour
of the heterogeneous and highly stratified silty sediments forming the upper 50m of
the Venetian lagoon basin.
The whole research programme, consisting of a detailed geotechnical characteri-
zation through in-situ tests, continuous coring boreholes and high quality laboratory
tests, also included the construction of a full scale vertical-walled cylindrical test
bank in conjunction with a very detailed monitoring system towards subsoil strains
and pore water pressures (Simonini, 2004; Jamiolkowski et al., 2009).
This study provides an attempt to evaluate some relevant characteristics of Ve-
netian sediments - such as overconsolidation and deformation properties in both
loading and unloading conditions - from the interpretation of CPTU measurements in
conjunction with subsoil vertical strains continuously recorded since the start of the
bank construction up to its complete removal. Besides, the effectiveness of existing
classification procedures is discussed with reference to their capability of capturing
the complex alternation of different grain-sized sediments of the Venetian subsoil.
Classification, overconsolidation and stiffness of Venice
lagoon soils from CPTU
L. Tonni & G. Gottardi
DISTART, University of Bologna (Italy)
V. Berengo & P. Simonini
IMAGE, University of Padova (Italy)

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the latest results of a field study based on a consis-
tent set of piezocone tests (CPTU) performed at the Treporti Test Site(Venice, Italy)
within an extensive research project aimed at better understanding the heterogeneous
Venetian lagoon subsoil, mainly composed of silts combined with sands or clays. The
project also included the construction and the subsequent gradual removal of a full
scale test bank, together with a detailed monitoring system of subsoil strains and pore
water pressures. This study especially focuses on the evaluation of overconsolidation
and loading-unloading stiffness of such complex silty sediments from the interpreta-
tion of CPTU measurements and discusses the effectiveness of some existing and
well-established approaches for classification and mechanical characterization of Ve-
netian soils. Site specific correlations, calibrated on field measurements, are proposed
in order to properly estimate typical soil parameters.

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010
50
150
250
350
450
550
S
e
t
t
l
e
m
e
n
t

[
m
m
]
12/09/02
12/09/03
11/09/04
11/09/05
11/09/06
11/09/07
10/09/08
time
0
2
4
6
0 365 730 1095 1460 1825 2190
days
8 m
34
14
20
40
S3
N
q = 106 kPa
0
2
4
6
8 m
40 m

CPTU before bank construction

CPTU after bank construction

CPTU after bank removal
S3: Sliding deformeter
Venice
Treporti Test
Site

Figure 1. Construction history of the test bank and associated settlement measured in the centre of the
loaded area, together with location of the piezocone testing campaigns.
2 THE TREPORTI TEST SITE
Sediments forming the upper 100 m of the Venetian lagoon basin consist of a chaotic
assortment of interbedded NC or slightly OC silts (ML), medium-fine silty sands
(SP-SM) and silty clays (CL) (Cola & Simonini, 2002).
A representative test site of such heterogeneous subsoil was located near Treporti,
in the North Eastern lagoon. Here, a full-scale 6.5 m high, 40 m diameter, geogrid-
reinforced vertical-walled cylindrical test bank was progressively built and continu-
ously monitored towards a number of relevant geotechnical quantities such as pore
water pressure, induced soil total stresses, horizontal displacements with depth, sur-
face settlements. A crucial role in the analysis of soil vertical strains was played by
the sliding deformeters installed beneath the bank, which provided soil axial dis-
placements at 1 m intervals along four different vertical directions. Monitoring went
on for almost four years after the loading bank construction, as well as throughout
the gradual removal of the bank, from June 2007 to March 2008. A scheme showing
the construction history of the test bank and the associated settlement measured in
the centre of the loaded area is reported in Figure 1.
The extensive CPTU programme was carried out in different phases, i.e. before
and at the end of the loading bank construction. The final piezocone testing cam-
paign was launched four years later, once the gradual removal of the test embank-
ment was completed. It included tests located close to selected verticals previously
investigated as well as a couple of tests performed at non-standard penetration rates.
The idea was essentially to examine the stress-history effects on piezocone meas-
urements as well as to detect possible phenomena of partial drainage during penetra-
tion in silty layers. Details on the whole CPTU programme can be found in Mayne
and McGillivray (2004), Gottardi & Tonni (2004), Tonni & Gottardi (2009).

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010
0 4 8 12
q
t
(MPa)
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
D
e
p
t
h

(
m
)
ML
SM-SP
W.T.
0 25 50 75
Grading (%)
CL
0 0.1 0.2
f
s
(MPa)
0 0.5 1
u
2
(MPa)
Before bank construction
After bank removal
CPTU 40
CPTU 20

Figure 2. Typical CPTU profile before bank construction (continuous line) and after bank removal
(dotted line).


A typical piezocone log profile of Venetian subsoil is reported in Figure 2, show-
ing the corrected cone resistance q
t
, the sleeve friction f
s
and the pore pressure u from
the initial test CPTU 20, in conjunction with the grading characteristics as obtained
by the soil samples of a nearby borehole. Profiles provide immediate evidence of a
highly stratified system, with a well-defined top layer of fine clean Holocene sand, 6-
7 m thick, followed by clayey silts interbedding sandy silts. Data from the adjacent
CPTU 40, performed after the bank removal, are superimposed for comparison in the
same figure. As a consequence of overconsolidation, a general increase in q
t
and f
s
, in
conjunction with a more pronounced dilative behaviour, especially within the silty
layer from 8 to 20 m depth, can be detected.
3 SOIL CLASSIFICATION
Classification of Venetian sediments from insitu measurements has been first per-
formed using the well-known and widely accepted soil behaviour type (SBT) charts
proposed by Robertson (1990), based on CPTU data normalized with respect to ver-
tical stress (Q
t
, F
r
and B
q
). The application of these charts to CPTU 20 shows (Fig-
ures 3a and 3b) that most of the relevant points fall in zones 3, 4, 5 and 6, which in-
clude soils ranging from clays-silty clays to silty sands. Comparison with
classification from laboratory tests reveals certain differences from the Robertson
(1990) SBT approach when applied to silts, which generally fall in both the silt mix-
tures and clay domains.
Indeed, partial drainage phenomena which are likely to occur during cone penetra-
tion in intermediate soils can have significant implications not only on the assess-
ment of reliable soil properties, but also on the proper use of classification charts.
Attempts have been made to improve accuracy of Venetian soil classification

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010
from piezocone measurements by using the alternative charts recently proposed by
Schneider et al. (2008), based on the normalized piezocone parameters Q
t
and
Au
2
/o'
v0
rather than Q
t
and B
q
. However, the application of the method to CPTU 20
(Figure 3c), does not provide significant additional details to the classification of Ve-
netian sediments but confirms once more the difficulty of separating interbedded
clays and silts, which result indistinctly located in the domain of transitional soils.
4 STRESS HISTORY
Reliable OCR estimates of Venetian sediments prior to bank construction, based
on the interpretation of subsoil strain measurements on loading, turned out to range
between 1.1 and 1.3, thus confirming that Venetian sediments are in general slightly
overconsolidated (Simonini et al., 2007).
Final OCR values, after the bank removal, could be easily back-calculated from
the stress history applied with the loading bank.


-0.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2
B
q
=
u
2
- u
0
q
t
- o
v0
1
10
100
1000
Q
t

=

q
t

-

o
v
0
o
'
v
0
Sand (SP-SM)
Silt (SM)
Clay (CL)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
a)
8
0.1 1 10
F
r
=100
f
s
q
t
- o
v0

(%)
1
10
100
1000
Q
t
=


q
t
-

o
v
0
o
'
v
0


Sand (SP-SM)
Silt (SM)
Clay (CL)
1
2
3
5
6
7
9
b)

-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Au
2
/o'
v0
1
10
100
1000
Q
t

=

q
n
e
t
/
o
'
v
0
Sand (SP-SM)
Silt (SM)
Clay (CL)
Transi tional Soil s
Silts
Clays
S
en
sitiv
e C
la
ys
Drained
Sands
c)

Figure 3. Soil classification according to the approaches proposed by: a), b) Robertson (1990); c)
Schneider et al. (2008) fro CPTU 20 (before bank construction).
1- sensitive, fine grained
2- organic soils-peats
3- clays; clay to silty clay
4- silt mixtures; clayey silt to silty clay
5- sand mixtures; silty sand to sandy silt
6- sands; clean sands to silty sands
7- gravelly sand to sand

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010

1 10 100
(qt - u2)/o'
v0
1
10
O
C
R
Sand (SP-SM)
Silt (SM)
Clay (CL)
a)

q
t
0 2 4 6 8
OCR
20
15
10
5
0
D
e
p
t
h

(
m
)
0 4 8
qt (MPa)
0 0.04 0.08
fs (MPa)
0.8 0.4 0
u
2
(MPa)
field OCR
OCR
predictions
f
s
CPTU 34
CPTU 34
b)

Figure 4. a) Interpretation of soil overconsolidation in terms of the normalized tip resistance; b) OCR
predictions for different soil classes obtained using eq. (1).


Interpretation of field OCRs in terms of (q
t
u
2
)/o'
v0
shows that the relevant
points defines two different trend lines (Figure 4a), associated to fine (ML, CL) and
coarse (SP-SM) sediments respectively. Besides, normalization of OCRs using the
friction ratio F
r
reveals that all points describe a unique curve, irrespective of the dif-
ferent soil classes. This is given by:
21 . 1
0
2
'
038 . 0
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
v
t
r
u q
F OCR
o
(OCR 1), (R
2
= 0.92) (1)
where the two numerical constants were determined as best fit of field-based OCR
values from ground surface to 20 m depth.
Unlike existing formulations, which resulted in unrealistic estimates of Venetian
sediment OCRs (Tonni & Gottardi, 2009), the new approach includes a dependence
on the friction ratio F
r
, which seems to act as a sort of material index for the different
grain-sized Venetian sediments. Predictions of OCRs, obtained by applying eq. (1) to
the final phase test CPTU 34, are depicted in Figure 4b.
Preliminary analyses have also shown that a relationship similar to eq. (1), based
on the soil behaviour type index I
c
(Robertson & Wride, 1998) instead of F
r
, may be
found to fit the data equally well.
5 STIFFNESS
Stiffness in both loading and unloading conditions of the upper 20 m sediments has
been evaluated from field data, using the vertical strain measurements obtained from
the sliding deformeter installed beneath the loading bank centre. In this case loading
and deformation conditions can be reasonably assumed as one dimensional, hence

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010
settlements can be computed using the one-dimensional modulus, M.
Previous interpretation of vertical strains induced by the loading bank showed that
the use of common empirical correlations, based on a clear distinction between
drained and undrained conditions, were unable to provide any reliable description of
the overall subsoil compressibility.
In this study, a site specific correlation for the 1-D modulus on loading has been
developed (Figure 5), fitting the vertical strains measured soon after the bank com-
pletion. Indeed, pore pressure monitoring proved that consolidation occurred almost
entirely during the bank construction.
The new formulation, given by:
( )
2
3 . 2 u q M
t L
= (R
2
= 0.93) (2)
is able to provide reliable estimates of the loading stiffness M
L
of both coarse and
fine Venetian sediments, when applied to the initial phase test CPTU 14, located in
the centre of the loaded area.
On unloading, a unique 1-D stiffness M
U
has been calculated, taking into account
vertical strains measurements at the start and the end of the bank removal. In this
case soil deformation can be reasonably assumed recoverable, hence the computed
stiffness may be interpreted as an elastic 1-D modulus.
Attempts have been made to relate soil stiffness M
U
to the final phase CPTU 34
measurements. To the authors knowledge there is substantial lack of available corre-
lations providing reliable estimates of unloading stiffness on the basis of CPTU data.
Following the procedure previously assumed for M
L
, the unloading modulus M
U
has been first related to (q
t
- u
2
). However, Figure 6a suggests that such modulus does
not show any evident dependence on the effective cone resistance (q
t
- u
2
).
Further analyses of data in terms of M
U
/F
r
and (q
t
u)/o'
v
showed that all the
relevant points seem to fit a unique linear relationship, as depicted in Figure 6b. This
is given by:
a
v
t
r U
p
u q
F M
0
42
o'

= , R
2
= 0.97 (3)
where p
a
is the atmospheric pressure, assumed equal to 0.1 MPa.


0 2 4 6 8 10
q
t - u
2
(MPa)
0
5
10
15
20
M
L

(
M
P
a
)
Sand (SP-SM)
Silt (SM )
Cl ay (CL)
M
L
=2.3 (q
t
- u
2
) R
2
=0.93

Figure 5. Loading stiffness (M
L
) as a function of (q
t
- u
2
).

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010
0 2 4 6 8
(q
t
- u
2
) (MPa)
0
100
200
300
400
500
M
U

(
M
P
a
)
Sand (SP-SM)
Silt (ML)
Clay (CL)
a)

0 2 4 6 8 10
(q
t
- u
2
)/o'
v0
0
100
200
300
400
500
M
U

/

F
r

(
M
P
a
)
Sand (SP-SM)
Silt (ML)
Cl ay (CL)
M
U
/F
r
=42 *
q
t
- u
2
o'
v0
pa R
2
=0.97
b)

Figure 6. Interpretation of unloading stiffness (M
U
) in terms of: a) q
t
- u
2
; b) normalized tip resistance
and friction ratio.


The practical relevance of this approach is the ability of capturing the combined
influence of the cone resistance q
t
and the normalized friction ratio F
r
on the soil
stiffness, regardless of Venetian soil classes.
This result seems to confirm what previously noted in the case of OCR, i.e. that the
normalized friction ratio F
r
acts as a material parameter, allowing a unified descrip-
tion of soil response in unloading conditions.
Predictions of M
L
and M
U
, using eqs. (2) and (3) respectively, are finally reported
in Figure 7 and compared with the relevant back-calculated field moduli on both
loading and unloading.
However, it is worth remarking here that the approaches described by eqs. (2) and
(3) fully disregard the complex mechanics of cone penetration in intermediate soils.


0 50 100 150 200
1D Moduli, M
L
M
U
(MPa)
20
15
10
5
0
D
e
p
t
h

[
m
]
Field M
L
Predicted M
L
Field M
U
Predicted M
U

Figure 7. Stiffness predictions using eqs. (2) and (3).

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010
Indeed, a more accurate interpretation of piezocone data should account for possi-
ble phenomena of partial drainage which are likely to cause significant uncertainty in
the assessment of reliable soil properties (Tonni & Gottardi, 2009).
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
This paper has presented the latest results of a comprehensive research programme
carried out at the Treporti Test Site with the aim of having a better understanding of
the complex and rather stratified Venetian lagoon subsoil. Attention has been espe-
cially focused on the interpretation of the large amount of piezocone tests in terms of
deformation characteristics in both loading and unloading conditions.
Site specific correlations, requiring further evidence though, have been developed
for the estimate of OCR and both loading and unloading stiffness.
In particular, analyses have shown a clear dependence of overconsolidation ratio
and 1-D stiffness of overconsolidated sediments on the normalized friction ratio,
which enables a unified description of the soil response irrespective of the different
Venetian soil classes.
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2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, May 2010