Consolidation of a soil layer subsequent to cessation of deposition

Abstract

It is necessary in certain cases to estimate the progress of consolidation in a soil layer that has ceased increasing in thickness over time. In this paper, the existing excess pore pressures for two time–thickness relations are used as the "initial" pore pressures for analysing the consolidation of soil subsequent to the cessation of deposition. Average degrees of consolidation of the soil layer are presented for one-way drainage and two-way drainage boundary conditions. The average degrees of consolidation are compared with those for uniform and triangular initial excess pore pressure distributions. It is found that the average degree of consolidation for one-way drainage boundaries can be estimated using the value for the triangular distribution. The average degree of consolidation for two-way drainage boundaries is bound by the averages for both the uniform and the triangular initial excess pore pressure distributions.Key words: consolidation, deposition, drainage, settlement, soil.