The use of pressuremeter for the evaluation of the mechanical characteristics of flysch formations

One of the limits of the use of laboratory geotechnical tests for the mechanical characterization of flysch formations is connected to the representative of soil or rock samples, because the heterogeneity, the anisotropy and the complex geostructural order of flysch formations strongly affect their large scale mechanical behaviour. To obtain reliable results it is necessary to use test procedures that could involve a large portion of the soil or rock mass, so that it can be considered representative of the material characteristic and of their geostructural order This paper presents the experience of a pressuremeter test campaign executed on flysch formations largely outcropping in the Italy Southern Apennine Pressuremeter tests have made it possible to highlight the different mechanical behaviour of the various lithotypes constituting the flysch, contributing to clarifying how they affect the mechanical behaviour of the whole flysch formation.