Time-Dependent Consolidation Tutorial 2-1

Time-Dependent Consolidation Tutorial

This tutorial will describe how to perform a time-dependent consolidation
analysis in Settle3D. We will start with the circular load from Tutorial 1
and examine the evolution of excess pore pressure, effective stress and
settlement with time.

The finished product of this tutorial can be found in the file Tutorial 02
Consolidation.s3z in the Examples > Tutorials folder in the Settle3D
installation folder.

Topics covered

• Staging

• Groundwater

• Time-dependent consolidation

• Point query

• Line query

• Graph Query

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Defining the Model

For this tutorial we will start with the model from Tutorial 1 – Quick
Start Tutorial. If you have not done Tutorial 1 then please do so now.
Alternatively, the finished product of Tutorial 1 can be found in the file
Tutorial 01 Quick Start.s3z in the Examples > Tutorials folder in the
Settle3D installation folder.

Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the toolbar or the Analysis
menu. Under the General tab, select the Time-dependent Consolidation
Analysis checkbox. You will see a warning that the Groundwater analysis
option will be turned on:

Click OK. Set the Time Units = Years, and the Permeability Units =
meters/year. The dialog should look like this:

Click on the Stages tab. Stages in Settle3D can represent:

• different times at which you wish to view results (for a

consolidation analysis), and/or,

• additions or changes to the model input parameters (e.g. added or

modified loads).

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Set the Number of Stages = 5, and assign times and names to these
stages as shown below.

Click on the Groundwater tab. Here you can set the unit weight of water
and the depth to the water table. Note that 0 is the ground surface, and
depth is positive down. Leave the default values. This will define a water
table which is at the ground surface for all stages.

Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialog.

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Soil Properties
For time-dependent consolidation we need to assign additional material
properties. Select Soil Properties from the toolbar or the Properties
menu. Under Time-dependent Consolidation set Cv to 3. The Cv
parameter is the coefficient of consolidation, which influences the time it
takes for excess pore pressure to dissipate. Leave all other parameters so
that the dialog looks like this:

Click OK to close the dialog.

Soil Layers – Drainage

In Tutorial 1 we set the layer thickness. Now we will discuss the drainage
conditions. Select Soil Layers from the Properties menu. You will see
the Soil Layers dialog as shown.

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Notice the Drained Ground Surface checkbox at the lower left corner
of the dialog. By default, this checkbox is selected, which means that the
pore water pressure at the Ground Surface is 0 and water is free to flow
out of the soil. We will assume that water cannot flow out of the bottom of
the clay layer (the clay is underlain by impermeable bedrock), so leave
the Drained at Bottom checkbox next to the Clay layer unchecked.

Click OK to close the dialog.

Computation and Results Visualization

By default, query results are automatically re-computed after editing

input data, however the field point grid results are NOT automatically re-
computed. (These settings can be configured in the Autocompute dialog in
the Analysis menu).

Select Compute from the toolbar or the Analysis menu, to re-compute

results for the field point grid, line query and point query.

Settlement
By default, contours for the Total Settlement will be shown. Change the
plot to Consolidation Settlement using the drop-list of data types in the
toolbar at the top of the screen. If you are looking at Stage 1, you will see
that there is no consolidation settlement. This is because when the load is
applied, all of the stress is accommodated by an increase in excess pore
pressure. There is no consolidation settlement until some time passes and
pore pressures dissipate transferring stresses to the solid and causing
settlement.

Click through the other stages and you will see increasing consolidation
settlement with time. The contours for Stage 5 - Final (100 years) should
look like this:

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The maximum consolidation settlement at Stage 5 is 18.4 mm as

indicated below the contour legend in the sidebar.

Queries
To obtain results at specific locations, you can add Query Points or Query
Lines. These allow you to graphically plot data versus depth or horizontal
distance, as discussed in the Quick Start tutorial.

From the previous tutorial, you should have one Point Query and one
Line Query still defined. Let’s first look at the Point Query results.

Ensure that you are plotting Consolidation Settlement and that you are
looking at Stage 5 – Final. Rotate the model in the 3D View so that the
screen looks as follows:

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In the 3D View you can see the Consolidation Settlement plotted along
the vertical line represented by the query point.

Excess Pore Pressure

Use the drop-list in the toolbar to change the data being plotted to Excess
Pore Water Pressure. Go back to Stage 1 and your screen should look like
this:

Click through the stages and you can see how the pore pressure
dissipates with time.

Now let’s graph the Point Query Data. In order to select the Point Query
for graphing, we will have to first delete or hide the Line Query, because
it overlaps the Point Query.

Go to the View Controls in the Sidebar, and turn off the Line Queries
checkbox. The Line Query is now hidden.

Now right-click on the Point Query in the Plan View, and select Graph
Query from the popup menu.

You will see a dialog asking what you wish to plot. Choose Excess Pore
Water Pressure. At the bottom of the dialog hit the Select All button to
choose all stages for plotting. The dialog should look as follows.

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Click OK to generate the graph.

Here you can see the excess pore water pressure plotted versus depth at
different times. You can see the pore pressure generally decreasing with
time. You can also see how the bulb of high pressure that starts at the
surface moves downwards as water flows from areas of high pressure to
areas of lower pressure.

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Effective Stress
Still looking at the graph, change the data type to Effective Stress.

The stress generally increases with depth due to gravitational loading.

However you can see how the effective stress near the surface increases
with time as the pore pressure dissipates.

Close the graph view.

Line Query
Go to the View Controls in the Sidebar, and select the Line Queries
checkbox to re-display the Line Query.

1. Change the data type to Consolidation Settlement.

2. Right-click on the starting point of the line query (coordinates 5

5), and select Move To from the popup menu.

3. Enter the point 5 19 in the prompt line, to extend the line query
across the entire load.

4. Rotate the model in the 3D View so that screen looks as follows.

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5. Select the stage tabs 1 through 5, to view the increase in

consolidation settlement with time, in the 3D View.

6. Change the data type to Excess Pore Water Pressure.

7. Select the stage tabs 1 through 5, to view the decrease in excess

pore pressure with time, in the 3D View.

This concludes the tutorial; you may now exit the Settle3D program.

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual