Soils and Foundations 2013;53(2):357359

The Japanese Geotechnical Society

Soils and Foundations

www.sciencedirect.com
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sandf

Long-term consolidation behavior interpreted with isotache concept for

worldwide clays: By Watabe, Y., Udaka, K., Nakatani, Y., Leroueil, S.,
2012. Soils and Foundations 52 (3), 449464
Gholamreza Mesri
Ralph B. Peck Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
Received 12 September 2012; accepted 16 January 2013

Keywords: Consolidation; Primary compression; Secondary compression; Soft clays

The authors attempt to revive the isotache concept using

the Ca/Cc law of compressibility. However, a fundamental
limitation of the authors approach leads them to reach
incorrect and misleading conclusions about the magnitude
and behavior of Ca/Cc. The objective of this discussion is
to clarify that the authors parameter D log pc/D log e_ vp is
not necessarily equal to Ca/Cc (where Ca De/D log t,
0
Cc De/D log sv in recompression and compression range,
0
e void ratio, t elapsed time, and sv effective vertical
stress), which has been dened and determined by Mesri
and co-workers (Mesri et al., 1994, 1997a, 1997b; Mesri
and Godlewski, 1977; Mesri, 1986, 1987, 2001, 2004; Mesri
and Castro, 1987; Mesri and Feng, 1992, 1991; Mesri and
Ajlouni, 2007; Mesri and Vardhanabhuti, 2009).
Starting in 1979, Mesri and co-workers have published
0
empirical equations relating preconsolidation pressure sp to
vertical strain rate e_ (Mesri and Choi, 1979, 1984; Mesri,
1987; Mesri and Feng, 1992; Mesri and Shahien, 1994; Mesri
et al., 1994). The primary intention for these equations has

DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2012.05.005

E-mail address: gmesri@illinois.edu
Peer review under responsibility of The Japanese Geotechnical Society.

been to interpolate and extrapolate preconsolidation pressure

data from CRS oedometer tests. For example, Terzaghi et al.
(1996) proposes the following equation for estimating EOP
0
sp corresponding to the EOP vertical strain rate e_ p from the
preconsolidation pressure determined from a CRS oedometer
test subjected to the imposed vertical strain rate e_ I :
 Ca =Cc
e_ p
0
0
0
EOPsp sp e_ p sp e_ I
1
e_ I
The empirical Eq. (1) is based on simplifying assumptions; for example, ignoring thixotropic hardening which
may be signicant for geologic times and small strain rates
(Mesri, 1993). For example, Mesri (1987) and Mesri and
Choi (1984) developed a somewhat more general relation0
ship between sp and e_ , and then they obtained Eq. (1) by
assuming (Cr)j 1/(Cr)j 1.0, where Cr is the recompression
0
0
index from svo to sp . In summary, expressions such as
0
Eq. (1) relating sp to e_ are empirical and approximate, and
they were not intended for examining the magnitude and
behavior of Ca/Cc using the measurements of preconsolidation pressure.
Based on assumptions similar to those in Eq. 1, the
authors compute D log pc/D log e_ vp , assume it to be equal
to the fundamental soil property Ca/Cc, and then proceed
to arrive at incorrect and misleading conclusions on Ca/Cc.
Also note that all data reported by Mesri and co-workers
have been in terms of total vertical strain and not in terms
of the rather arbitrarily dened so-called visco-plastic

0038-0806 & 2013 The Japanese Geotechnical Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2013.01.002

358

G. Mesri / Soils and Foundations 53 (2013) 357359

strain. Based on a very large number of exceptional

quality IL oedometer tests on a wide range of soft clay
and silt deposits as well as other soils, Mesri and coworkers have determined Ca/Cc for each soil to be
independent of void ratio, effective vertical stress, elapsed
time, and strain rate.
The authors claim that their interpretation of secondary
compression is applicable to world wide clays only
illustrates that even an approximation of the Ca/Cc law
of compressibility successfully explains the behavior of a
wide range of clays. This is not, however, surprising
because Mesri and co-workers have illustrated the applicability of the Ca/Cc law of compressibility to granular soils
including rock ll, shales and mudstones, inorganic clays
and silts, organic clays and silts, and amorphous and
brous peats.
The authors apparently have overlooked the fact that
the Ca/Cc law of compressibility already does calculate
secondary consolidation settlement of large-scale structures. The only information required for each soil layer
0
are Ca/Cc, EOP e versus log sv relation either from IL or
CRS oedometer test (also required for computing primary
settlement), and duration of primary consolidation, tp,
from a reliable consolidation analysis for the soil prole
(for an example reference is made to Fig. 25.16 in Terzaghi
et al., 1996). There are many other details of this paper
that deserve discussion; some (for lack of space) are as
follows.
0
According to Table 1, for the Ma 13 sample, svo 88 kPa
0
0
and sp /svo 1.4. If in fact target pressures in the range of
0
1.53.5 times sp were specied for each sample these
correspond to pressure increment ratios of 1.13.9 (Table 2
suggests a pressure increment ratio of as high as 4.7 and
Table 4 a pressure increment ratio of as high as 7.0). Would
the authors comment on such high pressure increments
applied to a very soft clay specimen? Such large pressure
increments could lead to serious extrusion problems, and
inuence oedometer specimen behavior especially at large
elapsed times and very slow compression rates.
A remolded specimen of Ma 13, a very soft clay
0
showing a bi-linear relationship, which yields at pc also
requires further explanation by the authors. Even though
according to Table 1, the liquidity index was 0.70 for the
0
Ma 13 sample, the EOP e versus log sv relation of
remolded soft clays do not display a preconsolidation
pressure.
The authors denition of EOP strain in Fig. 4, especially for Ma 9 specimen in Fig. 4b (also in Fig. 12j) is
completely in contrast to those suggested by currently
accepted methods in geotechnical engineering. In fact, the
authors EOP point in Fig. 4b is near the inection point
corresponding to an average degree of consolidation of
70% (Robinson, 1997, Mesri et al., 1999). Would the
authors care to justify this serious discrepancy?
A serious aw in the authors interpretation of consolidation test data is suggested by the comparison of
Figs. 3 and 5. Whereas Fig. 3, in the compression range

beyond sv /sp of about 2, shows a decrease in compression

index with consolidation pressure, for the interpretation of
data in Fig. 5 the authors assume compression index
constant and independent of consolidation pressure. The
authors state that The shape of the curves in the
secondary consolidation stage is concave, indicating that
slope Devp/D log t y gradually decreases with the logarithm of time, which according to the Ca/Cc law of
compressibility is consistent with the decrease in Devp/
D log p0 with the increase in p0 in Fig. 3. This misinterpretation alone could explain the authors incorrect and
misleading claims on the behavior of Ca/Cc with
strain rate.
It is interesting that the authors reference strain rate of
10  7 s  1 is close to the typical value of EOP strain rate, e_ p ,
for soft clays determined by Mesri and Feng (1986, 1992)
and suggested by Mesri and co-workers for soft clay and
silt deposits in general (Mesri et al. 1994, Terzaghi et al.
1996). Needless to repeat here that most soils, oedometer
specimens, and testing procedures, are not aware that there
are 24 h in a day.
In summary, the data and conclusions reported in this
paper should be viewed with great caution.

References
Mesri, G., 1986. Post construction settlement of an expressway built on
peat by precompression: Discussion. Canadian Geotechnical Journal
23 (3), 403407.
Mesri, G., 1987. Fourth law of soil mechanics: a law of compressibility.
In: Proceedings of International Symposium on Geotechnical Engineering of Soft Soils, Mexico City, Mexico, 2, pp. 179187.
Mesri, G., 1993. Aging of Soils. Simposio Sobre Envejecimiento de Suelos
(Aging of Soils Symposium), Mexico City, Mexico. pp. 129.
Mesri, G., 2001. Primary compression and secondary compression. Soil
Behavior and Soft Ground Construction, Geotechnical Special Publication 119, ASCE, 122-166.
Mesri, G., 2004. Long-term settlement of the reclaimed quasi-overconsolidated
pleistocene clay deposits in Osaka Bay. Discussion, Soils and Foundations
44 (6), 132133.
Mesri, G., Ajlouni, M.A., 2007. Engineering properties of brous peats.
Journal of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, ASCE 133
(7), 850866.
Mesri, G., Castro, A., 1987. The Ca/Cc concept and Ko during secondary
compression. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division,
ASCE 112 (3), 230247.
Mesri, G., Choi, Y.K., 1979. Strain rate behavior of saint jean vianney
clay: Discussion. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 16 (4), 831834.
Mesri, G., Choi, Y.K., 1984. Time effects on the stress strain behavior of
natural soft clays: Discussion. Geotechnique 34 (3), 439442.
Mesri, G., Feng, T.W., 1992. Constant rate of strain consolidation testing
of soft clays. Marsal volume, Mexico City, Mexico, pp. 4959.
Mesri, G., Godlewski, P.M., 1977. Time and stress compressibility interrelationship. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE
103, 417430 GT5.
Mesri, G., Lo, D.O.K., Feng, T.W., 1994. Settlement of embankments on
soft clays. Keynote Lecture, Settlement94, Texas A&M University,
College Station, Texas, Geotechnical Special Publication 40 (1), pp. 856.
Mesri, G., Heiden, J.E., Shahien, M., 1997a. Geotechnical characteristics and
compression of pisa clay. In: Proceedings of the 14th International
Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Hamburg,
Germany. pp. 373376.

G. Mesri / Soils and Foundations 53 (2013) 357359

Mesri, G., Stark, T.D., Ajlouni, M.A., Chen, C.S., 1997b. Secondary
compression of peat with or without surcharging. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE 123 (5), 411421.
Mesri, G., Feng, T.W., Shahien, M., 1999. Coefcient of consolidation by
the inection point method. Journal of the Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Division, ASCE 125 (8), 716718.
Mesri, G., Shahien, M., 1994. Preconsolidation versus aging behavior of
kaolinite clay. Discussion, Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering
Division, ASCE 120 (9), 16431645.

359

Mesri, G., Vardhanabhuti, B., 2009. Compression of granular materials.

Canadian Geotechnical Journal 46 (4), 369392.
Robinson, R.G., 1997. Consolidation analysis by an inection point
method. Geotechnique 47 (1), 199200.
Terzaghi, K., Peck, R.B., Mesri, G., 1996. Soil Mechanics in Engineering
Practice Third Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York 549 p.