Radial consolidation clay behaviour under haversine cyclic load

Abstract

The behaviour of a soft clay deposit during free-strain radial flow consolidation to vertical drains with no smear under haversine cyclic loading is presented and discussed thoroughly in this paper. The solution for the consolidation process was achieved using an implicit finite-difference technique assuming a constant coefficient of radial flow consolidation. The effect of vertical drain spacing and the frequency of cyclic loading on the consolidation process is studied thoroughly. The time variation of excess pore water pressure and effective stress at the impermeable boundary of a unit cell of a prefabricated vertical drain is presented for different values of relative drain spacing. Different periods of cyclic loading are considered to show the effect of the frequency of loading on the consolidation process. The findings indicated that an increase in the frequency of haversine cyclic loading causes an increase in the number of cycles required to achieve the steady state. The effective stress at the impermeable boundary of a unit cell of a prefabricated vertical drain increases with time but with some fluctuations without changing sign. These fluctuations become more pronounced for increasing values of cycle length, causing an increase in the maximum effective stress.