Settlement of Mat Foundation on Thick Stratum of Sensitive Clay

Abstract

Foundation investigations for an industrial plant on a thick stratum of preconsolidated, sensitive clay are presented. In spite of the fact that the effective stresses in the clay caused by the building load remained below the average preconsolidation pressure of the clay, the settlement of the buildings locally appreciably exceeded the anticipated order of magnitude. It is shown that a drop in the groundwater level by a few feet would result in the effective stresses exceeding the preconsolidation pressure within the upper portion of the clay stratum. With such an assumption, the consolidation would not be governed by the very flat recompression branch of the consolidation curve, but in part also by the steep virgin compression branch of the consolidation curve. It is concluded that, when dealing with preconsolidated, sensitive clays, the total effective stresses caused by a proposed structure should be kept within a safe margin below the average preconsolidation pressure in order to make provision for any unforeseen load increase such as might arise from a drop in the groundwater elevation.