A simple model for the effect on soil strength of episodes of remoulding and reconsolidation

Many geotechnical processes related to offshore foundations and pipelines on clay soils involve intermittent episodes of remoulding and reconsolidation. To assess the resulting response, it is necessary to predict the operative soil strength, which decreases due to remoulding but can increase due to reconsolidation. A simple framework that allows these processes to be linked, via concepts from critical state soil mechanics, is described. The framework is illustrated by back-analysing a T-bar penetrometer test that involved episodes of both remoulding and reconsolidation, which was conducted in a geotechnical centrifuge. It is shown that the model can capture the surprising increases in both the intact and the remoulded strength that are observed between episodes of remoulding.