ABSTRACT

Variability of soil properties is traditionally expressed by the mean and standard deviation of a soil stratum. The importance of the scale of fluctuation in the evaluation of spatial variability of soil profiles is highlighted in the paper which also suggests a modified and more convenient method of determining the scale of fluctuation. The scale of fluctuation has been applied to cone bearing, sleeve friction and pore pressure measurements obtained from the cone penetration test to determine the averaging effects of the above properties. The scale of fluctuation of soil properties is also compared with the conventional coefficient of variation and the advantages of the former method are discussed.