Abstract: The settlement of deep foundation due to the excavation and reloading is an important subject in engineering design, which is worthy to be investigated. In the present paper, the major efforts have been made to study the deformation characteris- tics of soft clay subjected to unloading and reloading in Shanghai. Calculation method is proposed for evaluating the rebound and the compensated settlement displacements of the clay. The examination of the deformation characteristics of the clay under unloading and reloading Is performed on the basis of triaxial shear test, and the correspanding stress-strain models are also developed.