ABSTRACT
Overprediction of settlements of foundations on stiff clays based on stress-strain measurements on soil samples in the laboratory is often met in practice. This was recently attributed to deficiencies in measurements of soil stiffness at small strains in conventional laboratory tests. Shear stiffness of stiff clays, gravels and sands at very small strains is readily measured by modern geophysical non-destructive field methods. The paper presents a comparison of predicted and measured settlements obtained by series of plate load tests on a well compacted gravely road embankment. Predictions of settlements were based on shear wave velocity profiles measured by the SASW method, and they compared well to the measured values.
