Long-term deformation in soft soils

​Long term settlements in clay constitute an engineering challenge in road design and construction in areas with deep deposits of soft clay. Soil improvement or foundation of embankments can be rather expensive in construction of roads in such areas. Construction costs have to be balanced to high maintenance costs. To be able to do this in an optimal way, there is a need for prediction of long term settlements with high accuracy.

Research of long term settlements of clay has to a large extent been based upon laboratory testing and development of models based upon this test results. Recent development has to a large extent concerned incorporating creep deformations in the model. Only small extents of published observations are based upon full scale field testing or observations of actual geotechnical projects. In the actual project the aim is to from a basic, conceptually consistent model, set up application rules for long-term predictions of settlements in clay.

The project is carried out at the Division of GeoEngineering, research group Geotechnical Engineering.

• Minna Karstunen

  Full Professor, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics, Unit manager of the Geotechnics Research Group.

  Minna is a Full Professor in the Division of Geology and Geotechnics, and unit manager research group Geotechnics. The focus of her research is the complex rate-dependent stress-strain behavior of...
• Aaro Pirhonen

  Technican, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

  Aaro Pirhonen is a Technician at the Division of Geology and Geotechnics. His work focuses on the design and manufacture of equipment for both research in laboratories and equipment for research at...
• Claes Alén

  Professor, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics, Geotechnics

  Claes Alén is a Professor in the Division of Geology and Geotechnics, research group Geotechnics. He is a researcher in soils technical properties and its applications. The research is important for...