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A large proportion of the southern UK is underlain by stiff clays. Improving their geotechnical characterisation is important for many current and future infrastructure projects. This paper presents an integrated study of the complex stiffness behaviour of four key medium-plasticity, highly overconsolidated strata: the Gault, Kimmeridge, Oxford and London clays. The latter were deposited between the Jurassic and the Eocene under broadly similar marine conditions. Coordinated programmes of advanced static and dynamic laboratory measurements have been undertaken on high-quality samples, concentrating on samples taken from similar depths at inland sites and including triaxial and hollow cylinder stress path experiments employing high-resolution local strain, multi-axial bender element and resonant column techniques. A new approach was employed to interpret the hollow cylinder experiments and the laboratory measurements are examined in combination with independent field shear wave data. The clays' stiffness characteristics are shown to be markedly anisotropic, pressure dependent and highly non-linear. Synthesis allows key conclusions to be drawn regarding: the relative reliability of alternative measurement approaches; the potential spread of stiffness behaviours between the clays; and whether the clays' varying geological ages and burial depths have any systematic influence on their stiffness characteristics. The results have important geotechnical engineering implications.

The shear strength of heavily overconsolidated, stiff-to-hard plastic clays is crucial to their stability and also influential on the ground movements they develop in many geotechnical engineering applications. This paper considers the shear strength anisotropy of the London, Gault, Kimmeridge and Oxford clays through advanced hollow cylinder experiments on multiple high-quality samples taken at similar depths from inland sites where the geotechnical profiles have been established by comprehensive laboratory and in situ testing. Suites of undrained tests are reported, which loaded specimens from their in situ stress states to reach ultimate failure at pre-defined final major principal stress axis orientations defined in the vertical plane, while also controlling or monitoring the intermediate principal stress ratio, b. Both stress path and simple shear tests were undertaken with the hollow cylinder apparatus, which offers key advantages over conventional simple shear equipment. The interpretation reveals patterns of marked shear strength anisotropy that impact significantly on numerous geotechnical engineering applications.