Uncertainty-based characterisation of Troll marine clay

The paper aims at providinga case-study of uncertainty-based characterisation of selected engineering parameters in Troll marine clay. Second-moment uncertainty characterisa-tion for data from laboratory and in-situ tests is performed. First-Order Second-Moment (FOSM) approximation is applied for probabilistic second-moment characterisation of derived parameters. Spatial variability of cone penetration testing results is investigated. A practical ex-ample regarding the characterisation of uncertainty of undrained strength calculated from cone tip resistance is presented. For each of the above, the sources of uncertainty are examined critically and discussed. Crite-ria to evaluate the validity of results are provided. Emphasis is placed upon: (a) importance of referring to geotechnical expertise in defining uncertainty models; (b) effort to present data in a synthetic, simple yet rigorous form to enable seamless implementation in geotechnical design; and (c) necessity to report explicitly, along with the results of uncertainty-based characterisa-tion, testing methods and engineering models used in the characterisation procedure.