Disturbances Due to “Ideal” Tube Sampling

Abstract

The “ideal sampling approach” (ISA) for elucidating, formulating, and predicting minimum disturbance effects in deep tube samples of saturated clays is proposed. The ISA relies on approximate solutions based on the strain path method to incorporate tube penetration disturbances. Laboratory test results on normally consolidated Boston blue clay indicate that the ISA provides more realistic predictions than the existing perfect sampling approach and that tube penetration disturbances are significant in “undisturbed” tube samples of soft clays obtained by means of existing thin‐walled sampling techniques.