SID:490043947 Computer Assignment: Question C

Introduction
As the load applied to the soil, there will be the settlement occur. This meant settlement is proportional to the
applied load. In the civil engineer, the concept of the settlement of the soil is considered the most critical ideas. This
idea widely practices in the constructing foundation of the building. Moreover, the different types of soil provide the
varies of settlement magnitude.

There are two types of studying the settlement that are a 1D settlement and 3D settlement. In the 1D settlement, it
is the study of vertical stress applies to the soil surface. The calculation of the settlement can be hard to find the
specific values as there are many soil variables get involved. Furthermore, some of the variables are to use the
estimation to obtain the number.

A numerical solution for the 1D problem was applied to tackle the problem, that is a ring beam with 8m and 12m for
inner and outer radius. The soil profile is 2m of clay with the over consolidation ratio (OCR) of 4 and 7m of clay with
OCR= 2. The water table is 1m below the surface and Cc = 0.3, Cr = 0.08 and. The applied stress on the soil surface is
100kPa.The soil was divided into n sublayers and calculate the settlement of soil with n sublayers.

Figure1: illustration of problem

Result
The evaluation of the magnitude of settlement (maximum, minimum and differential under the surface)
when the soil is divided into several sublayers from 3 to 300 sublayers. The depth of 9meter soil that 2m
clays have different OCR from 7m meter clay. The result is shown in figure 2.

Settlment Vs n.sublayers
200
Figure2: the calculations of
Settlment (mm)

150
settlement versus number of
100
sublayers.
50

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
n.sublayers

Maximum Minimum Differential

Figure 2 demonstrated the minimum settlement that is shown to be a straight line from the 3 to 300
sublayers. Moreover, the maximum settlement is 97mm when the soil divided into 3sublayers. According
to figure2, the maximum settlement is an increasing curve 3sublayers to 300sublayers. Then, the value of
the maximum settlement is stable as it approached the 300sublayers. The trend of the differential
settlement is the same as the maximum settlement. it is clear that the maximum of the settlement is
189.1mm, the minimum is 24.5mm and the differential settlement is 169.2mm.
Discussion
The calculation of the settlement under the ring circle foundation is related to the applied stress on the
clay surface. The vertical load under the soil surface divided into two types of stress. These two types are
the maximum stress, where located on the edge of the ring. Other stress is known minimum stress that all
the stress location in the centre. Furthermore, the determination of the stress in the ring beam problem
can be complicated. This is because there may be some errors occur to the effective stress ratio. Also, the
equation of calculating the effective stress ratio is integrated from the excel by entering the few points. So,
it can make many errors occur to the calculation.
The increasing number of sublayers in the depth of clay, it causes the larger settlement. From the graph 2:
it is shown that the stress increased as the number of the sublayers increase. However, the void ratio of
the clay is inverse to the number of sublayers. It is the reason that the clay will compress until it reaches
the sublayers that have small or approximate zero value of the void ratio. In this problem, the value
n=300sublayer is the number that soil cannot compress any further.
The calculation of the minimum settlement is seemed to be an error occurring in the calculation
procedure. The graph1 of the settlement is shown a straight line from 3 sublayers to 300sub-layers.
However, it is supposed to be a curve. So, this can be caused by the assumptions of calculation in the
minimum stress from the ring or the void ratio.

Stress Vs Depth of soil

140 Settlement Vs n.sublayers
120
0.02
100 0.02
settlment(m)
Stress(KPa)

80 0.01
Initial Stress
Settlement
60
Minimum stress 0.01
40 Maximun Stress 0
20 1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97
0
13
19
25
31
37
43
49
55
61
67
73
79
85
91
97
1
7

Number of sublaers
Depth of the soil

Figure3: Stress and number of sublayers Figure4: different settlement Vs number of sublayers

In the firgure3, it is presented the different settlement of the between the maximum stress and minimum
stress. The differential settlement will be stabled as the number of the sublayers increase to around 100
sublayers. This is because the clay is hard to compress as the sublayers increase. That is reflected in the
theory in the 1D settlement that the soil will not compress as it has no void ratio in that sub-layer.
It can be examined that the assumption of the 1D settlement is considered as an inappropriate assumption
in this problem as the value of the minimum settlement is found to be relatively small compared to the
hand calculation. In this problem, it is required the method to analysis the problem as the assumption in
the 1D consolidation is not enough to solve this problem. The 3D consolidation method is needed to apply
to this problem to make the result more accurate.
Conclusion

From the problem is found that the different settlement is 169.2mm under the ring beam foundation with
the maximum settlement 189.2mm and minimum settlement 24.5mm. The number of the minimum
settlement can be slightly wrong as there are many assumptions of calculating in effective stress ratio and
void ratio. It is proved that increasing the sublayer in the soil depth lead to approach the finite number of
settlements which mean that the soil cannot compress further.