Identification and quantification of transitional modes of behaviour in sediments of Venice lagoon

An analysis was made of an extensive series of oedometer and triaxial tests on intact samples of silts and silty clays from the lagoon of Venice, as well as a more limited series of carefully controlled oedometer tests on reconstituted specimens. The soils appear to have transitional modes of behaviour with compression curves that converge only slowly in the v–log v9plane and critical state lines defined for triaxial compression that are non-unique in the v–ln p9plane. Two means of quantifying the degree of transitional behaviour are introduced, one factor, m, being based on the oedometer data and the second, P, on the critical state data. The values of mwere in general lower than those of P, because of the higher stress level considered. The values of mwere also found to depend on unloading, which must be accounted for when comparing data from intact and reconstituted speci­mens.