3. FY-68Gulf of Mexico field tests 



4. FY-68 laboratory tests 



5. FY-71 laboratory tests 



Because the soil at the Seal Beach facility was so heterogeneous, the 

 results were inconsistent and conflicting. The Seal Beach tests, therefore, will 

 not be considered further in this report. 



The specific procedural details of the field tests at San Francisco Bay 

 and Gulf of Mexico and the FY-68 laboratory tests are given by two earlier 

 NCEL reports.^'' The procedures followed in the FY-71 laboratory tests are 

 given in Appendix A of this report. The procedures followed in all of these 

 test series can be generalized by these steps: 



1 . The first step in the performance of a breakout test is the 

 placement of the object into the cohesive soil medium. In 

 the field tests, this was accomplished by merely placing the 

 objects on the soil surface and allowing them to settle under 

 their own weight. In the laboratory tests, the objects were 

 pressed onto the soil to predetermined embedment depths. 

 The objects used in the various tests are listed in Table 1 . 



2. The second step is a waiting period during which the soil 

 around the object may regain some of the strength lost 

 during penetration and also during which objects may con- 

 tinue to settle. In the San Francisco Bay field tests and 

 FY-68 laboratory tests, the objects were unsupported dur- 

 ing this period. In some of the Gulf of Mexico field tests, 

 a constant upward force on a line attached to the object 

 was applied during the waiting period. In all of the FY-71 

 laboratory tests, an upward line force approximately equal 

 to the object weight was applied so that no further settle- 

 ment would occur during the waiting period. This was 

 done to maintain the embedment depth as an independent 

 variable. The length of the waiting period will be identified 

 in this report as t^ and the total upward line force applied 

 to the objects during this period as Fg^. (A foldout 

 NOMENCLATURE, after the REFERENCES, gives a 

 complete list of symbols.) The embedment depth at the 

 end of this period will be identified as D. 



3. The third step is the application of the breakout force. In 

 the NCEL tests, this included as many as three different 

 phases: 



