A Simple Method for Calculating Consolidation Settlements of Clayey Soils and Settlement Prediction-Control
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21467/proceedings.8.2.28Abstract
Large settlements of foundations or artificial islands on soft soil grounds such as the Tower of Pisa, Japan Kansai Airport Reclamations, and Hong Kong reclamations, are caused by viscous behaviour (creep) of clayey soil skeleton. The paper then presents (i) Hypothesis A and Hypothesis B methods for calculating consolidation settlements of clayey soils and (ii) the history and equations of the two methods, explaining the inherent logical mistakes of Hypothesis A method. A simplified Hypothesis B method, namely simple method, is presented for calculating consolidation settlements of one-layer and multi-layers of clayey soils with or without vertical drains. Verifications of the simple method by comparison with lab data and values from fully coupled numerical methods are presented. The fully coupled numerical methods and simple method presented in this paper have been adopted in the 5th edition of “Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual”. The control of post-construction settlement is important and can be achieved by over-surcharging soft soils beyond the designed vertical pressure and making the soft soils over-consolidated. The simple method can be used to predict and control the settlement of soils during and after construction.
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