A characteristic of consolidation parameters of marine clay in Busan Area - South Korea

Abstract

In this study the city of Busan was selected and investigated for a characteristic of consolidation parameters. Busan is one of representative cities in the southern coast of Korea, where main harbors are located, and many geotechnical investigations were performed due to massive harbor constructions in the past. Consolidation parameters, including pre-consolidation pressure, compression index (Cc), swelling index (Cs), overconsolidation ratio, vertical and horizontal consolidation coefficient (Cv, Ch), vertical and horizontal permeability coefficients (Kv, Kh), were investigated by using the general-purpose statistical analysis software (SPSS) with collected data from laboratory tests and field studies. A correlation between these parameters was evaluated from statistically processed data through regression analysis after removing outliers. As a result, it was shown that the relationship between swelling index and compression index was Cs = Cc/8 and correction constant (modified compression index/compression index) Cc’ = 1.1471Cc(lab). However, there was no relation with outliers. It was also shown that overconsolidation ratio with exponential decay formula, consolidation and permeability coefficients with rational function formula had the highest coefficient of determination. Key words: Consolidation parameters, correlation, regression analysis, coefficient of determination.