Fourth Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium: Strength and slope stability in Canadian soft clay deposits

Abstract

It is generally admitted that the long term stability of clay slopes should be analysed in terms of effective stresses, which necessitates the knowledge of the pore pressure conditions and of the relationship between the shear strength and the effective stresses. This paper deals with the determination of shear strength for stability analysis of clay slopes in Eastern Canada. First the various concepts pertinent to slope stability in soft clay are examined and a certain justification of the use of the post-peak or large strain strength is demonstrated. In a second part, 14 case records of natural slopes or permanent excavation slopes are presented and analysed in terms of the post-peak strength. Finally, values of post-peak strength determined in the laboratory for more than 30 sites are presented and it is attempted to derive correlations by which the shear strength parameters could be readily approximated from other properties such as the apparent preconsolidation pressure or the vane strength.