DISCUSSION

All soils are compressible so deformation will occur whenever stress is applied to soils.Soil
minerals and water are both incompressible.Therefore,when saturated soils are loaded, the load first
acts on the pore water causing pore water pressures that are in excess of the hydrostatic pressures.
The excess pore water pressures are largest near the application of load and decrease with distance
from the loading. The variations in excess pore water pressure cause total head gradients in the soil
which,according to Darcy’s Law, will induce water to flow from locations of high total head to low
total head.The excess pore water ressures dissipate as water flows from the soil and,to compensate
for the applied stress,the stress is transferred to the soil minerals resulting in higher effective soil
stress.The flow of water from the soil also causes reductions in the soil volume and settlements at
the ground surface.Fine-grained soils have very low permeability so they can require substantial
periodsof time before the excess pore water pressuresfully dissipate.This process of time
dependent settlement is referred to as consolidation.Terzaghi’s theory for one-dimensional
consolidation provided the means to calculate the total amount of consolidation settlement
and the consolidation settlement rate. In practice, engineers obtain representative soil samples,
conduct consolidation tests and use Terzaghi’s consolidation theory to predict the total settlement
and time rate of settlement for embankments and foundations.

Consolidation test was conducted to determine the coefficient consolidation of soil for the
35 km stretch of highway project. During the experiment, when a compressive load is applied to
soil mass, a decrease in its volume takes place. Decrease in volume can be seen when the volume
start from 73539.3 mm3 decrease to 68132.5 mm3 after the test was conducted. The volume
difference is 5406.8 mm3. The decrease in volume of soil mass under stress is known as
compression and the property of soil mass pertaining to its tendency to decrease in volume under
pressure is known as compressibility.

Soil minerals and water are both incompressible. Therefore, when saturated soils are
loaded, the load first acts on the pore water causing pore water pressures that are in excess of the
hydrostatic pressures. The load applied 97.08 kg was usually carried initially by water in the
pores because the water is incompressible in comparison to the soil structure. The excess pore
water pressures are largest near the application of load and decrease with distance from the
loading. The excess pore water pressures dissipate as water flows from the soil and, to
compensate for the applied stress, the stress is transferred to the soil minerals resulting in higher
effective soil stress. The flow of water from the soil also causes reductions in the soil volume and
settlements at the ground surface when water is expelled out of the voids. As the water drains out
of the soil mass, the load increment is shifted to the soil structure, this transference of the load is
accompanied by a change in the volume of soil equal to the volume of water drained.

Based on the graph by using logarithm of time method (Casagrande’s method), the
results showed that shorter time duration, the higher its consolidation of settlement. The
coefficient of consolidation is 68.78mm3 /min. While, by using the Taylor method, the
coefficient of consolidation is 81.16mm3 /min. The results showed average 74.97 mm3 /min
between two methods. This is due to the elapsed time required to transfer the load increment
from the water to the soil depends how rapidly the water is permitted to escape out of the soil.
This time depends on several factors which is degree of saturation, coefficient of permeability of
the soil, viscosity and compressibility of the pore fluid and length of path the expelled water
must take to find the equilibrium.

Furthermore, this process of time-dependent settlement is referred to as consolidation.

Terzaghi’s theory for one-dimensional consolidation provided the means to calculate the total
amount of consolidation settlement and the consolidation settlement rate. Based on the data
obtained ,the saturation of soil is increases from 1.15 before test to1.16 after test.Voids ratio
changes factor is 0.093/ mm. After test, total settlement of soil is 1.15 mm and density is 2060.8
kg/m3. All this kind of result for consolidation test was logically due to the consolidation
settlement of a structure.