Analysis on the Influence of the Primary Consolidation Settlement of the e~p Curves and the Soil Bulk Density of the Soft Soil Foundation

Abstract

In general, primary consolidation settlement of soft foundation is calculated by layerwise summation method considering the design load in seawall engineering design, and the total settlement is obtained by multiplying a settlement correction coefficient which is difficult to select. In this paper, one seawall engineering case is enumerated, the impact on the thickness of compressible stratum and the primary consolidation settlement is studied by considering the changes of the e~p curves of the soft soil foundation. The results indicate that the thickness of the compressible stratum changes obviously for different stress ratio owing to the difference of the soil bulk density of the compressible soil, and the primary consolidation settlement has corresponding change tendency according to the shape of the e ~ p curves and the soil bulk density of the compressed soil. At last, this paper suggests that a designer can weaken the weight of settlement correction coefficient based on the analysis of the influence of primary consolidation settlement with different e ~ p curves of the soft soil foundation in future design.