Asimoe in-si:U

'ors~a ow 'i
by

J. A. CHARLES, BSc, MSc, PhD,

MICE,

In order to establish the in-situ settlementtime characteristics of shallow-filled sites

under typical low-rise construction loading, a simple test using a weighted rubbish skip has been developed. Results are
presented for a one-month test conducted
on a redevelopment site in London; they
suggest that the fill may be more suitable
as a foundation material than might have
been expected.

Introduction
RE-DEVELOPMENT
OF inner city
areas frequently necessitates construction
on sites covered by old, relatively shallow fills (often less than 3m deep). A
simple solution to foundation
problems
may be to take the foundation
down
through the fill (using either deep strip
footings or piles) into a firm stratum below the fill. However, this solution may
for small, lightweight
prove expensive
structures. Also, in some situations the
fill may overlie soft natural
soils which
are themselves not adequate to carry the
foundation load and even deeper foundations must then be considered. For a
large, heavy structure there may be no
alternative.
For small,
lightly-loaded
buildings
economic factors may compel
a developer
to consider founding his
structures in the made-ground. In this situation it is necessary to have some method of assessing the quality of the fill as

Ilt

oac:es:

R. DRISCOLL, BSc

the amount of settlement that will occur

in the long-term under working load; some
form of in-situ testing technique is needed to make realistic estimates.
Lightweight structures with strip footings will not stress the ground to great
depth; only 1.5m to 2.5m of ground beneath the footing is likely to be significantly stressed. It is not difficult to devise a
means of test-loading the fill to reproduce
approximately the actual stress level and
distribution with depth.

THE

a foundation

material.

Requirements
The

principal

for an in-situ load test

aim

of the in-situ

test is to estimate the long-term

ment under working load of a foundation

on the shallow fill and any poor underlying ground. In designing such a test it
must be decided:
(a) to what depth pressure should be
extended (this will depend on the
nature of the ground and the proposed foundation widths);
(b) what pressure to apply (this will
depend on the foundation load and

widths);

(c)

how long
tained; and
(d) how many
ticular site
variability,

the test should

Both authors sre with the Geotechnics Division,

Building Research Station, Building Research Establishment, Department of tha Environment

be main-

tests to conduct on a par-

(this will depend on the

composition, density and
thickness of the fill and on the underlying material).
The greater the depth of ground to be

Site investigation
It is important that the site investigation of an area covered by shallow fill
on which it is proposed to build small
structures should be appropriate for these
conditions '. The conventional
approach
in a geotechnical
site investigation is to
drill a number of boreholes, logging the
strata and taking 'undisturbed'amples
(usually 100mm diameter) for testing in
the laboratory. On a shallow fill site this
approach may give valuable information
about the depth of different strata and
the properties of the natural soil beneath
the fill. However, it will not usually be
possible to obtain 'undisturbed'amples
of the fill itself in this way, and, even
were it possible, such small samples
would be unrepresentative.
If a solution involving
founding structures in the fill is under consideration
should be
clearly the site investigation
concerned to some extent, though not, of
course, entirely, with the fill itself. Trial
pits at a number of locations enable a
significant amount of the fill to be visually
examined and handled, and an assessrelative
ment made of its composition,
of
density
and, hence, the feasibility
on the fill. In this
founding structures
situation the major uncertainty is usually

load

settle-

tested the larger must be the loaded

area; this may then put a practical limit
on the pressure that can De applied conveniently. BRE Digest 67 indicates that
the maximum loading from a typical modhouse of
ern, two-storey, semi-detached
85m'rea will be at the party-wall which
run
will apply a load of about 50kN/m
to the foundation'. A typical foundation
width of 0.5m would, therefore, apply a
stress of 100kN/m'o the ground.
However, on the type of filled site under consideration, likely solutions to the
foundation problems could involve reducing bearing pressures either by using wider, reinforced concrete strip footings or
some semi-raft design incorporating reinforced edge beams with an integral reinforced slab'. The effective width of the
foundation transmitting
the wall load to
the fill might be between 0.5m and 1m in
the former case and somewhat greater in
the latter situation.
Fig. 1 shows the distribution
of vertical stress, o-, with depth (as predicted
by elastic theory") on the centre-line of
aThe approximation
of real fill behaviour to that
of a homogeneous,
isotropic, elastic medium
may appear crude. However, Burlsnd et al have
shown< that the vertical stress distribution
is
not sensitive to the assumption
of linear elasticity. Certainly, with variable fill material any
more sophisticated analysis would not be Iustified. Where a relatively stiff fill overlies soft
natural
soils the stress distribution
will
be
significantly
modified+, with the fill acting to
spread the load.

Vertical stress

50

tyt

(kN/ma)

100

=0 5m

vt
Cl
1

IE

1-

at

Y=bulk density

of

nt

'D
C

fill

0
Q

Ia

Fig. 1. Vertical stress on centre-line of stri p footings of different

widths with net load of 50kN/m run
January,

1981

31

strip

footings

which are assumed to apstress to the ground; footing

widths, b, vary from 0.5m to 1.5m for a
net loading of 50k N/m run, It can be
seen that 1m below foundation level there
is little difference in vertical stress despite

APPROPRIATE TEST LOAD AREAS FOR STRIP FOOTINGS

OF DIFFERENT WIDTHS

TABLE I.

ply uniform

large differences in footing widths. Also

plotted on Fig. 1 is the overburden pressure, that is the vertical stress in the
soil prior to construction.
The overburden pressure is designated
by 1(z + x), where y is the bulk density
of the fill, z is the depth below foundation level and x is the depth of the foundation.
Appreciable compression of the fill is
only likely to occur at depths where the
increase in stress due to foundation load,
0, is a significant proportion of the existing in-situ stress level,

y(z

+ x).

Strip footing width

(metres)

0.5

1.0

1.5

Square test area

(metres)

1.0 x 1.0

1.5 x 1.5

2.0 x 2.0

to 6 months, whenever possible. The number of tests that should be performed

on a particular site needs to be considered. Where there are definite areas
with different types and depths of fill, or
soft underlying material, tests need to be
carried out on each area. Even where this
is not the case, a shallow fill on an inner
city site is likely to be quite variable

tests would be a minimum reto give some indication of the

and three
quirement

likely

variability

Fig, 2. Initial levelling of a skip before filling wi th sand

Wl~

~I

'as

32

Ground

Engineering

Fig,

MAIR

". Skip

behaviour

At a site in London, close to the

Thames, old property had been demolished
and the area was ready for re-development with two-storey
nousing. A site
investigation
had been carried out by
drilling
a limited
number of boreholes
and it appeared that the site was covered

s'III

settlement

Case history

A reasonable, limiting value of the ratio

o /y(z + x), below which a, has no significance, is in the range 0.5-0.2. It can
be seen from Fig. 1 that, on this basis,
the ground is significantly stressed, by
the foundation load, down to a depth of

between 1.5m to 2.5m.

A practical form of load test can be
achieved by applying to a square test
area the pressure applied by the foundation. As the vertical stress decreases more
rapidly with depth under a square footing
than under a strip footing of equal width,
the sides of the square test load area
should be of a greater dimension
than
the proposed strip footing width.
Table
suggests dimensions for square
test areas appropriate for footings of various widths. The table is based on elastic
theory with the square test area dimensions calculated to give maximum agreement between vertical stress under the
centre of the test load and under the
strip footing, down to a depth of 1.5m,
In the past when
plate loading tests
have been carried out on filled sites, they
have usually been performed to determine
bearing capacities. The loading has been
applied by jacking against the reaction
provided by a heavy vehicle and the immediate settlement
has been measured
as the load was increased.
By its very nature such a test is completed in a matter of hours and provides
little, if any, information about the lonpterm settlement characteristics of the fill
under working load. Clearly, such longterm settlement is of much greater significance to the satisfactory functioning of
the structures built on:he site than the
movements that occur during construction,
The type of test that is required is one
in which the load can be kept constant
over a comparatively long perioo and this
can be done most simply by the direct
application of dead weight.
Cox
described the use of a rubbish
skip acting as kentledge on a 1m x 1m
square concrete base and this approach
clearly forms a very simple means of carrying out an in-situ test. Settlement measurem nts can be made by precise levelling from bench-marks
established away
from the test area on ground which is
not expected to move significantly during
the period of the test. The actual period
over which the test is carried out is inevitably a compromise between the theoreticaliy desirable requirement of a period
comparable with the life of the structure
and the practic"I requirement of early development of the site. A month would
seem to be an absolute minimum for tho
test and it would be highly desirable for
tests to be carried out over periods of 3

in

across the site.

filled with sand and protected by layer of concrete

with about 2m of fill consisting

medium dense, sandy, gravelly

mainly of
clay with
brick fragments. Beneath the fill was a
layer of cohesive soil varying in thickness and composition across the site; over
part of the site the layer consisted of a
firm-to-stiff brown, silty clay
35
80kN/m'), whereas elsewhere there was
soft, clayey peat
18kN/m'). Underlying this layer was dense, sandy gravel
at a depth not exceeding 4m. The water
table was located near the base of the

(c=

(c=

fill.

To assess the settlement characteristics

of the fill and the underlying natural soil
at working load, it was decided to carry
out in-situ load tests at four locations
on the site. At each location a small excavation was dug to about 0.5m and a
10cm layer of dry sand was placed in it.
An Byd'ubbish
skip was then lowered
onto the sand bed. The skip had a base
area of 1.8m x 1.85m. The levels of the
four lifting lugs at the corners of each skip
were determined by precise levelling from
temporary bench-marks established close
to each skip position (Fig. 2). The skips
were then filled with damp sand. Further
levels were taken as the sand was placed
in the skips. When the skips were full
the sand was covered with a polythene
sheet and a 75mm deep layer of concrete
placed over it (Fig. 3). This proved to
be an effective deterrent
in preventing
theft of the sand!
The bearing pressure applied to the fill
by the full skip was about 30kN/m2. A
higher pressure would have been preferable but this value represented a reasonable compromise between size of loaded
area and applied pressure. After the skips
had been filled levels were taken at regu-

I,

~"

'"

l II

jq ~ jj;j jj

lar intervals throughout

the day. Subsequent measurements
were then made at
increasing time intervals. The skips were
left in position for one month only; this
was the maximum period that could be
allowed for the tests due to the timetable for development of the site. Precise
levelling was carried out using a Wild
NA2 automatic level with parallel plate
micrometer adjustment
(Fig. 4) and an
invar staff (Fig. 5).
The measured settlements of the skips
are shown plotted against time in Fig. 6.
It can be seen that about 80% of the
settlement
at the end of one month
actually occurred almost immediately,
as
the skips were being loaded; subsequent
settlements were small.
Creep settlement of fill under constant
load often shows an approximately
linear
relationship
between settlement and the
logarithm of time. It is of interest therefore to re-plot the data presented in Fig. 6
with time represented
on a logarithmic
scale (Fig. 7). It would seem reasonable
to predict future settlements by extrapolating the settlement
v. time wAtionship on the assumption of a linear relationship between settlement and the logarithm of time. It is anticipated that the maximum skip settlement
(skip B) would be
only about 20mm over a period of 45
years. As well over 50% of the total predicted settlement had occurred by the end
of the loading stage, the maximum predicted settlement over the 45-year prediction period, following completion
of
loading, is less than 10mm.
Skips A and B were located in the
area where fill overlies the firm-to-stiff
silty clay, while skips C and D were located in the area of the clayey peat layer.

The smaller movements that were measured in locations C and D suggest that
the fill was acting as a comparatively stiff
layer overlying softer material, so spreading the load and reducing the stress increment applied to the clayey peat.
A possible way of developing the site
might, therefore, be to use some form of
spread, reinforced concrete foundation at
a shallow depth in the fill. The practicality
of this approach must depend on both
the type of development
and the variability of the fill. Clearly, adequate reinforcement of the foundation can only be
achieved
economically
for small units
(say, semi-detached houses) and not for
long terraces. The measurement of similar
values of settlement for the four skips
suggests that the fill may not be very
variable. This would need to be confirmed
by visual inspection of numerous trial pits.

Concluding

remarks

Appropriate methods should be adopted

when investigating inner city sites covered
by shallow fills which are to be redeveloped with two-storey housing or other
lightweight structures. It is important to
examine the fill itself as well as the sequence and nature
of the underlying
strata. The fill can most conveniently be
examined by digging numerous trial pits.
If founding
the buildings in the fill is
under serious consideration it is important
also to carry out some tests to assess
its load-carrying characteristics. The most
important
consideration
is the long-term
settlement behaviour under working load.
A simple, in-situ load test can be carried out by monitoring, over a period of
at least one month, the settlement of a
rubbish skip filled with sand. Clearly a

ei(IIINLf

II

4
t

I'

++jrM~

Fig. 4. Precise levelling at the site

34

Ground

Eng sacring

Fig. 5. Routine
invar staff

settlement

measurement

of a skip, using an

6
Key

~ Skip
Skip
0 Skip
Skip

8
C

SHORTAGE
and private

E 10 I)
E

12
E

1618

20

200

100

300

400

500

600

800

700

Time (hours)

Fig.

6. Settlement of skips plotted against time

Slurry trench retains

iona's water supply

Key
~ Skip A

~l

j Concrete

e Srup 8

capping complete

o Skip C
e Skip 0

14-

9
16

ui

s
16

20

10
1

day

20
t

30

I
1month
Log,c (time)-lhoursl

year

I40

Fig. 7. Settlement of skips plotted against time on a logarithmic

longer test would be preferable, if possible. It is suggested that the long-term
settlement can be estimated by extrapolation from the plot of measured settlement v. logarithm of time. A number of
tests need to be carried out at different
parts of a site to obtain some indication
of the variability of the settlement characteristics of the fill.
It should be realised that this approach
assumes that the main cause of settlement
is the structural
loading. With a deep
fill, or even a shallow fill if it contains
domestic refuse, such an assumption may
not be valid as settlement of the fill under its own weight may be of major importance. With a deep fill, settlement due
to inundation may also be a major consideration a.
When realistic estimates of long-term
settlements have been made it should be
possible to make rational decisions about
foundations. If it is decided that settlements of structures founded ili the fill
would be unacceptably
large there may
bc other alternatives more economic than
taking foundations to great depth. Excavation and replacement of the fill in thin
layers with adequate compaction might

36

Ground Engineering

OF FUNDS for both public

construction
places a premium of interest on those techniques and
materials which offer cost reduction. One
area where such savings are possible is in
ground engineering, where the maximum
value of the ground itself as a structural
material can be utilised by the addition of
comparatively small quantities of chemicals, admixtures or fabrics. Perhaps the
most dramatic illustrations of this type of
development are provided by the various
ways in which reinforced soil can be
used as a structural element. However,
there are many other instances where
missing properties of the ground can be
added or adverse properties suppressed,
by the use of geotechnical materials. In
view of the possibilities for low-cost construction which these materials offer, we
mark with this feature the start of a regular series collating the latest information
on materials and their use to solve practical problems in ground engineering.

10 years

I60
t

46 years

scale

be considered as might a ground improvement process such as vibroflotation.

Acknowledgements
The work described in this Paper formed
part of the research programme
of the
Research Establishment
Building
and is
published by permission
of the Director
of the Building Research Establishment.
The authors are grateful to Dr. J, B.
Burland for his valuable advice and en-

SLURRY TRENCHING to provide an impermeable

cut-off has solved a water
problem on a remote Scottish
supply
island. Iona, one of the Inner Hebridean
islands, has a single loch (Staonaig) as
its major water source. Parts of the loch's
banks are composed of peat and much
of the water seeps away. As a result, the
island's
130 inhabitants
have suffered
seasonal water shortages for many years.
Rawell Marketing Ltd., the Merseyside
soil sealing specialists who carried out
the work for Strathclyde Regional Council, have used slurry trenching
to install a cut-off within
the peat. The
mineral
slurry, which is inorganic
and
non-toxic, forms a cohesive, permanent
and self-repairing
semi-solid body when
mixed with gravel and completely blocks
the passage of water, it is claimed.
The project involved the construction
of two trenches, the largest being 63m
long, 0.6m wide and 5m deep. A total
of 400ms was excavated. The back-fill for
these trenches had to be brought from
the island's beach, as no suitable material was available
near to the loch. The
high salt content of the sand and gravel
back-fill necessitated
the use of a contaminant-resistant
bentonite.

couragement.

References
1. BRE Digest 222 (1979): Fill and hardcore (Feb.).
2, BRE Digest 67 (1970): Soils and Foundations,
Part 3.
3. Tomiinson, M. J., Driscoll, R. & Bur(and, J. B.
(1978): "Foundations for low-rise buildings".
The Structural Engineer, Part A, 56A (6), pp.
161-173 (Also BRE Current Paper CP 61/78).
4. Borland, J. BBroms, B. B. & de Mei/o,
V, F, B. (1977): "Behaviour of foundations
and structures". State of the Art report, 9th
Int, Conf. Soil Mech. & Fndn. Engg., Tokyo,
Vol. 2, pp. 495-546. (Also BRE Current Paper
CP 51/78).
5. Cox, D. W. (1978): Contribution to discussion: Conf. on Clay Fills. Instn, Civ. Engrs.,
London, p. 271.
6. Charles, J, A, (1979): "Geotechnical problems of building on deep fill". Soc. of ChemiConf, on Reclamation of Concal Industry's
taminated Land, Eastbourne.

Mixing pit for bentonite slurry lined with

impervious sheeting