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Long-term heave of basement slabs is a significant problem in cities with overconsolidated clay, such as London. There is a dearth of data to calibrate the methods commonly used by designers to predict heave displacement and swell pressure. This paper presents results from two centrifuge tests aimed at reproducing the phenomenon of long-term basement heave. Reduced scale models of rectangular basements with different slab thicknesses underlain by overconsolidated clay were tested, to investigate the effect of base slab stiffness on heave behaviour. The centrifuge tests provided measurements of the profiles of vertical displacement, bending moments in the slab and contact pressure at the slab–soil interface. This is the first geotechnical centrifuge study to provide simultaneous measurements of vertical displacement and swell pressures during long-term basement heave. Whereas the flexible basement underwent significant differential heave and almost complete relaxation of swell pressures, the stiff basement generated large swell pressures and consequently large bending stresses. These results confirm that the prediction of high heave pressures is a self-fulfilling prophecy: a basement slab with high stiffness will beget large swell pressures. The experimental measurements of swell pressure and heave were compared to predictions by a simplified non-linear method of heave calculation. The simplified non-linear method produced acceptable predictions of total heave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-quality rotary core samples of natural London Clay were taken during installation of subsurface instrumentation to monitor the ground response at Hyde Park, London, to the construction of Crossrail tunnels. An extensive programme of advanced triaxial tests was performed on specimens from London Clay divisions A3 to C. Detailed analysis of their response to undrained shearing in compression from their estimated in situ stress state provides new insights into the magnitude of and changes in stiffness at small- and medium-strain levels. A consistent trend in the variation of small-strain stiffness with depth and lithological division is established for the Hyde Park research site. Differences between the stiffness magnitudes from this investigation and those reported earlier by others are shown to be a result of the conditions before and during undrained shearing, particularly the ratio of shearing axial strain rate to the preceding creep strain rate. This provides an explanation for significant discrepancies in small-strain stiffness values reported in recent years, which have led to uncertainties regarding which values to adopt, particularly for numerical analysis applications. Understanding the relevance of the axial shearing to creep rate ratio allows for improved triaxial testing techniques and the subsequent interpretation of the test data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]