MODELING OF SHEAR STRENGTH-WATER CONTENT RELATIONSHIP OF ULTRA-SOFT CLAYEY SOIL.

In this study, a detailed review on the reported correlations of shear strength and physical properties of soft soil has been investigated. An ultra-soft soil has been prepared from 2% to 10% bentonite clay soil with high water content. The shear strength of the prepared ultra-soft soil has been tested using modified vane shear device. Based on collected data and experimental results, two new mathematical models for shear strength-water content relationship has been proposed for shear strength and water content ranged from 6 kPa to 0.1 kPa and 50% to 1100% respectively. The second proposed model was compared with several reported models from literature to demonstrate shear strength-water content relationship for ultra-soft soil with low shear strength and high water content. The second proposed model has shown a very good agreement with the experimental results with coefficient of determination (R2) up to 0.91.