ABSTRACT
Figure 1(a) shows the first load monotonic response from steps 0 to 4, described by the authors as follows
(0-1) First load monotonic breakout (dependent on initial penetration);
1 INTRODUCTION
Physical modelling has been used to study soft soil problems since the early days of centrifuge modelling. For instance, one of the earliest reported centrifuge model studies was that by Mikasa and Takada (1966) and involved a series of self-weight consolidation tests of clay in a centrifuge to validate Mikasa’s (1963) self-weight consolidation theory. Since then, many soft soil problems have been studied using physical modelling. An examination of the soft soil engineering papers published in the last two International Conferences on Physical Modelling in Geomechanics shows that most of the papers can be grouped several categories, namely foundations, consolidation and preloading, ground improvement, retaining structures, excavations and underground constructions.
