Trend of settlement in primary and secondary consolidations

Abstract

The trend/rate of settlement of any load on clay can be measured at any time without knowing the past history of load increment. It can be a source of some useful information like quick evaluation of consolidation characteristics, time-compression data of the present, past and future, type and stage of consolidation, drainage conditions, time of load increment, etc. Basic mathematical/graphical properties of vertical, radial, 3D and secondary consolidations are studied from this angle. Two types of 3D consolidations are discussed. First is the combined vertical and radial consolidation with vertical drains. Second is the general 3D consolidation in Cartesian co-ordinates where drainage occurs through all the six phases of a parallelopipe-shaped sample. But the settlement in both cases is allowed in the vertical direction only. It is shown that primary compression after 60% consolidation, with whatever simple or complicated drainage conditions, essentially gives a straight line on a linear plot of settlement versus rate of settlement while secondary consolidation is a straight line on semi-log plot of settlement versus rate of settlement.

Keywords:

• consolidation
• vertical drains
• load increment ratio
• clay
• settlement
• creep