ABSTRACT
The history of centrifuge modelling in the geotechnical field in Japan was initiated by M. Mikasa as early as 1965, Mikasa studied the consolidation problems of very soft clay deposits and realised the importance of self-weight of soil. He successfully derived the well-known Mikasa’s consolidation equation in terms of strains of clay. In 1975 Japan experienced a major catastrophe due to the failure of a large oil storage tank. In order to study the cause of failure a series of centrifuge tests was carried out by applying load on the top surface of slopes consisting of sand. Contact stresses at the base near the loading side became very small at yield load due to tilting of caisson. From the results of the experiments on centrifuge concepts the group could deduce a design chart for selecting a reasonable improvement area ratio for different combinations of lateral and vertical load intensity.
