During embankment construction, the deformation behavior of soil will vary with increasing fill height because the principal stresses applied on soil elements in $K_0$ -consolidated subsoil will rotate. In this study, a series of tests is conducted on natural $K_0$ -consolidated Wenzhou soft clay in a hollow cylinder apparatus (HCA) to clarify the response of soils during principal stress rotation. Specimens are sheared with different angles of inclination ($\beta$ ) with respect to the vertical direction in undrained conditions. The stress-strain relationship, pore-water pressure evolution, shear strength, and noncoaxiality are discussed. The test results show that the development of strain components (vertical, radial, circumferential, and shear strains) is clearly distinct during orientational shearing. The coupling action of the axial and shear stresses results in different evolution processes of the excess pore-water pressure in tests with different $\beta$ values. Under a critical state, the elliptical and asymmetric effective stress strength envelope conclusively shows a strong undrained strength anisotropy. In addition, the different noncoaxial angles between the major principal strain increment direction and corresponding major principal stress direction at failure is revealed, and the noncoaxial behavior is dependent on the $\beta$ value.

The pile–bucket foundation that features a bucket slipped onto a monopile is a new type of symmetric offshore foundation supporting the wind turbine. Its load bearing and deformation resistance capacity are unclear, especially when subjected to cyclic horizontal loadings. In this paper, a model test has been designed and carried out for investigating the cyclic behavior of the pile–bucket foundation embedded in soft marine clay. Cyclic horizontal loads are applied in a displacement-controlled manner with different amplitudes and frequencies. The influences of cyclic loading parameters, including the amplitude, the frequency and the cycle number, have been studied from the perspectives of stiffness-degradation and damping effect that are evaluated from the recorded horizontal force–displacement relationships at the loading point. In addition, the influences of cyclic horizontal loading on the bending moment distribution and on the p–y curve have been presented and discussed. The results show that significant reductions in the foundation stiffness and in the soil resistance may be observed during the first few cycles when the loading displacement is relatively high.

In the vacuum treatment of dredged slurries via prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs), both filtration and consolidation may happen to dredged slurries when subjected to the vacuum gradient. Similar to the consolidation, the filtration may provide equally useful information on interpreting the constitutive behavior of the slurry. In this paper, a new approach utilizing the filtration process is devised to evaluate the constitutive behaviors of dredged slurries. The approach is composed of a vacuum filtration device and an iterative curve fitting algorithm. Two types of tests, namely step-vacuum filtration and constant-vacuum filtration followed by compression test, must be conducted on the slurry specimens, and only the time variations of the filtrate discharge should be recorded. On the basis of the recorded data, the curve fitting algorithm is adopted for determining the parameters of the constitutive equations. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified through comparing the obtained compressibility and permeability of the slurries with the data provided by the oedometer test and with the empirical relationships from different sources. The comparisons demonstrate that the constitutive relationships determined by the present approach can predict the compressibility and permeability characteristics of dredged slurries with an acceptable degree of accuracy.

In land reclamation projects, the vacuum preloading method has been widely used to strengthen dredged fills by removing water. However, during the improvement process, clogging inevitably occurs in the drains and soils, hindering water drainage and causing inhomogeneous consolidation results. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the effect of clogging on the consolidation behavior of dredged slurry at different radii. In this study, analytical solutions are derived under an uneven strain assumption to calculate the consolidation in the clogging zone and the normal zone, with time-dependent discharge capacity and clogging in the soil considered. Results calculated by the proposed solutions indicated that the clogging effect slows down the development of consolidation, reduces the final consolidation degree, and increases the difference between consolidations at different radii. It is found that the influence of the clogging effect's varies with the speed of the discharge capacity decay, the value of the initial discharge capacity of the drain, the permeability, and the radius of the clogging zone. Finally, a practical application of the proposed solution is discussed, and the proposed solution is suggested for the calculation of consolidation when treating high-water-content slurry.