Geotechnical Engineering Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers

Volume 166 Issue GE5
Briefing: Soil parameters, sampling and
testing for design to Eurocode 7
Atkinson
Geotechnical Engineering 166 October 2013 Issue GE5
Pages 428–430 http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/geng.12.00131
Paper 1200131
Received 12/12/2012 Accepted 21/02/2013
Published online 24/06/2013
Keywords: codes of practice & standards/geotechnical engineering/site
investigation
ICE Publishing: All rights reserved

Briefing: Soil parameters,

sampling and testing for
design to Eurocode 7
John Atkinson PhD, FICE, CEng, FGS, CGROI
Senior Principal, Coffey Geotechnics and Emeritus Professor of Soil Mechanics, City University, London, UK

Eurocode 7 defines a characteristic strength for an ultimate limit state analysis with specified partial factors and
related codes specify how the characteristic strength should be determined from laboratory tests on samples. The
note discusses how designers might choose between peak, critical state and residual strengths and how they might
determine values from tests on samples of different quality class.

1. Features of Eurocode 7 normally consolidated or only lightly overconsolidated to avoid

Eurocode 7 Geotechnical Design is part of the family of
Eurocodes for the design of building and civil engineering works.
It refers to related standards for investigation, testing and
execution of geotechnical structures. A design that is claimed to
comply with Eurocode 7 has to comply with all the other related
codes. An essential feature of Eurocode 7, and of any geotechni-
cal design, is the selection and determination of appropriate
strength and stiffness parameters.
Other members of the Eurocode family cover structures made
from manufactured materials such as steel and concrete, for
which strength and stiffness parameters can be specified and
validated relatively easily. It is much more difficult to determine
the appropriate strength and stiffness of the ground, which has to
be taken as it is, and for which the strength and stiffness depend
on stress, water content and strain – and on how the parameter is
defined.
2. Sampling categories, quality classes and
soil properties.
In EN 1997-1:2004 (BSI, 2004), clauses 3.3.6(1)P and 3.3.7(1)P
give lists of features that are to be considered when assessing soil
strength and stiffness. In EN 1997-2:2007 (BSI, 2007), Table 3.1
requires quality class 1 samples to be obtained from sampling
category A, and clause 3.2.(2)P says that the requirements of EN
ISO 22475-1 are to be followed. In EN ISO 22475-1:2006 (BSI,
2006), Table 3, there are very few cases in which quality class 1
samples can be achieved, and none from driven thick-walled
samplers in any soils.
These requirements do not take into account how the strength or
stiffness parameter being measured varies with sample quality,
sample preparation, or the conduct of the test. Some parameters,
such as the critical-state friction angle, are material parameters,
and they depend only on the grains. Material parameters are best
measured on samples that have been reconstituted, and are
localisations and slip planes (Atkinson, 2000). The simple way to
measure the critical state friction angle, 9c , of coarse-grained soil
is to dry it and form a failing slope, and there are well-established
relationships between 9c and index properties (Muir Wood,
1990).
Some parameters, such as peak strength, depend on state (which
is a combination of effective stress and water content) and
structure (which is a combination of fabric and bonding). Some
soils, such as glacial tills that were remoulded after deposition by
ice movements, have very little structure, and for these soils peak
strength parameters can be obtained from tests on reconstituted
samples, provided the data are correctly interpreted to take
account of stress and water content (Atkinson and Little, 1988).
Other soils, particularly those deposited from water or wind, have
fabric (usually layering), and may be bonded, owing to the
precipitation of salts. For these soils disturbance can have a
significant impact on the parameters measured in tests, and it is
important to recover quality class 1 samples as defined in the
Eurocodes.
Soil stiffness is highly non-linear, and so stiffness parameters
depend also on strain. Mean strains in the ground near well-
designed structures are commonly around 0.1%, and measure-
ment of these small strains in laboratory tests requires special
equipment and procedures (Atkinson, 2000).
The sampling and testing requirements of Eurocode 7 are
helpful for determining the peak strength parameters of soils
that are structured, and contain bonding and fabric. They are
less helpful for determining other strength and stiffness
parameters. The appropriate and logical advice in Eurocode 7
is that sampling and testing methods should take account of
both the type of soil and the parameter being measured. In
some cases fully disturbed samples are best, in some cases
samples reconstituted to the field stress and water content are

428
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 Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 166 Issue GE5
sufficient, and in some cases quality class 1 samples are
required.
3. Characteristic and design strength
A given soil with given effective stress and water content,
sheared drained, typically has a peak strength and a critical-
state strength, and may have a residual strength corresponding
to laminar flow. A soil sheared undrained has a peak strength
that is usually close to the critical-state strength. For practical
purposes the critical-state strength, which is the strength for
continuous turbulent shearing at constant volume and constant
stress, is the same as the fully softened strength (Skempton,
1970).
EN 1997-1:2004 (BSI, 2004), clause 2.4.5.2(2)P, requires that
‘The characteristic value of a geotechnical parameter shall be
selected as a cautious estimate of the value affecting the
occurrence of the limit state.’ EN 1997-1:2004 clause 2.4.6.2(1)P
(BSI, 2004) requires that ‘Design values of geotechnical para-
meters (Xd ) shall either be derived from characteristic values
using the following equation Xd ¼ Xk/ªM or shall be assessed
directly.’ Eurocode 7 places a requirement on the designer to
choose the strength (peak or critical state or residual, drained or
undrained) for which to select a characteristic value or a design
value.
For cases such as foundations when the soil consolidates after
loading, the undrained strength is less than the fully drained
strength. The undrained strength is the characteristic strength,
and the peak and critical-state strengths are close to one another.
However, for cases such as slopes and walls, either filled or
excavated, when the soil swells after construction, the drained
strength is less than the undrained strength, because the water
content increases. In this case the peak and critical-state
strengths are often very different, especially at small effective
stresses.
In an effective stress analysis of the ULS of a simple slope to
Eurocode 7, partial factors are applied to soil properties and
actions, but not to groundwater pressures, for which EN 1997-
1:2004 (BSI, 2004), clause 2.4.6.1(6)P, requires that ‘Design
values shall represent the most unfavourable values that could
occur during the design lifetime of the structure.’ A partial factor
applied to an action has no influence on the calculated ultimate
limit state (ULS) slope angle, because the angle at which a
frictional block slips down an inclined plane is independent of
the weight of the block.
Evidence from slope failures in the field (e.g. Atkinson and
Crabb, 1991; Skempton, 1970) and from model studies (Take and
Bolton, 2011) shows that if deformations are insufficient to
develop a residual strength, the strength mobilised in the ground
at failure is very close to the critical state or fully softened
strength. From laboratory triaxial tests carried out at small
effective stresses, comparable to those in the ground on observed
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Briefing: Soil parameters, sampling and
testing for design to Eurocode 7
Atkinson
slip planes, Atkinson and Crabb (1991) found that the peak
strength can be as much as twice the mobilised strength at failure
in the slopes at the same effective normal stress, and so design to
Eurocode 7 with a partial factor on peak strength of 1.25 would
have been unsafe.
A ULS design of a slope or wall to Eurocode 7 will not be
unsafe with a design strength that is a cautious estimate of
the critical-state strength and the worst credible groundwater
pressure. If a slope or wall is designed with the peak
strength as the characteristic strength with a partial factor, it
would be prudent to show that the slope or wall is not
unsafe with the critical-state drained strength as the design
strength.
4. Summary
Issues that tax engineers designing geotechnical works to Euro-
code 7 are which of several strength and stiffness parameters are
affecting the occurrence of the limit state being considered, and
which sample quality is needed to measure characteristic values
in laboratory tests.
Material parameters such as 9c that depend only on the grains
are best measured on fully disturbed and reconstituted samples.
State-dependent parameters, such as peak strength and un-
drained strength, can be measured on disturbed samples
reconstituted to the correct stress and water content. Most
stiffness parameters vary with strain, and require special
equipment and procedures. Soils that are significantly structured
(i.e. they have fabric and bonding) require quality class 1
samples.
For ULS analyses of slopes and walls it would be prudent to
show that the design is not unsafe with the critical-state drained
strength as the design strength and the worst credible groundwater
pressures.
REFERENCES
Atkinson JH (2000) 40th Rankine Lecture: Non-linear
stiffness in routine design. Géotechnique 50(5): 407–
508.
Atkinson JH and Crabb GI (1991) Determination of soil strength
parameters for the analysis of highway slope failures.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Slope
Stability Engineering Developments and Applications,
Shanklin, Isle of Wight, UK, pp. 11–16.
Atkinson JH and Little JA (1988) Undrained triaxial strength and
stress–strain characteristics of a glacial till soil. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal 25(3): 428–439.
BSI (2004) BS EN 1997-1:2004. Eurocode 7. Geotechnical
design. General rules. BSI, London, UK.
BSI (2006) BS EN ISO 22475-1:2006. Geotechnical investigation
and testing. Sampling methods and groundwater
measurements. Technical principles for execution. BSI,
London, UK.
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 Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 166 Issue GE5
BSI (2007) BS EN 1997-2:2007. Eurocode 7. Geotechnical
design. Ground investigation and testing. BSI, London,
UK.
Muir Wood DM (1990) Soil Behaviour and Critical State Soil
Mechanics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
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Briefing: Soil parameters, sampling and
testing for design to Eurocode 7
Atkinson
Skempton AW (1970) First time slides in overconsolidated clays.
Géotechnique 20(3): 320–324.
Take WA and Bolton MD (2011) Seasonal ratcheting and
softening in clay slopes, leading to first-time failure.
Géotechnique 61(9): 757–769.
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