ABSTRACT
Laboratory testing for routine geotechnical design in Italy is mainly based on the results of oedometer, triaxial and direct shear tests. Advanced stress-strain testing is in practice required only for special projects such as microzonation studies and/or design of very important infrastructures especially in seismic areas. A booklet prepared by the Italian Geotechnical Society suggests the procedures recommended for laboratory tests such as: grain size analysis, odometer, direct shear and triaxial tests. Anyway, none of these suggested methods deal with the assessment of the stress-strain relationship of geomaterials. The Italian Ministry of Public Work has recently established that Geotechnical Laboratories in Italy should guarantee some requirements and should follow given standards in performing laboratory and in situ tests on soils and rocks. The Italian round robin test on natural Augusta clay was performed between 1996 and 1999 in four geotechnical laboratories, three in Italy and one in the USA.
