The Role of Laboratory Testing in the Determination of Deep-Sea Sediment Engineering Properties

Abstract

Engineering properties are needed primarily for engineering activities such as the design of foundations or anchors. They may be evaluated either through direct in situ testing or laboratory testing of samples. Laboratory testing provides a degree of flexibility, control, and economy not usually achieved with in situ testing and is, therefore, given primary attention in this paper. The area of sediment property determination for direct embedment anchor design is considered specifically and two examples are given of possible uses of laboratory testing. The first deals with quantitatively correcting laboratory strength results for sample disturbance. The procedure is evaluated using in situ and laboratory vane shear and residual pore pressure measurements. The second example deals with using triaxial testing to investigate shear strength variation with sub-bottom depth and drainage. Results of tests performed on “red” clay are given. The two examples given provide information for predicting the holding capacity of an embedment anchor. The examples are followed by a discussion of suggested additional research.