When designing a foundation for an embankment its influence on its surroundings is often an important issue. In considering this influence a proper indication of horizontal deformations and horizontal stresses in the subsoil is needed. Many sediment deposits are deposited in horizontal strata, so it is to be expected that their mechanical properties in both horizontal directions might differ from their properties in vertical direction. Standard soil sampling produces mainly vertically retrieved samples. Therefore standard soil investigation gives parameters mainly valid for the vertical direction. In general practice it will take a great effort to retrieve horizontally drilled samples and this is rarely done. So although it is widely recognized that soft soil might show anisotropic behaviour information on parameters in horizontal direction is scarce.
Soft soil is often described as an anisotropic heterogeneous material. Principally each soil property like permeability, stiffness or strength might show anisotropic behaviour. This thesis focuses on anisotropy in stiffness and the possibility to use conventional laboratory measurement techniques to determine the level of anisotropy in stiffness.
