ABSTRACT
The deformations due to dead weight are usually completed upon generation and diagenesis of soil. The stresses generated by forces originated at structures cause additional deformations of soil. The temporal behaviour of both deformability and shear resistance of soil depends on the stresses transmitted to soil skeleton and pore water. The pore water is gradually expelled from voids under the action of external pressure and transmits the latter to soil skeleton; therefore the deformability and shear resistance of soil depend on seepage capacity of soil. The graphical representation of void ratio versus pressure is referred to as compression curve, which characterizes soil compressibility. The aforementioned overestimation, much as the overestimation of the strain modulus due to incomplete stabilization of soil deformation in time as the result of slow strain growth, is partly compensated by the reduction of stresses due to opening of well or drilling a borehole in the soil body subject to testing.
