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CH-5 Compressibility and

Consolidation of Soils
Soil
Mechanics-I

1 The Leaning Tower of 2Pisa.

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Introduction
 After you have studied this chapter, you
should:
o Have a basic understanding of soil
consolidation under vertical loads.
o Be able to calculate one-dimensional
consolidation settlement and time rate of
settlement.
Introduction
 Consolidation is the time-dependent settlement
of soils resulting from the expulsion(discharge) of
water from the soil pores.
 What is the difference between consolidation and
compaction?
 Total settlement of a structure usually consists of
three parts:
o Immediate or elastic compression
o Primary consolidation
o Secondary compression

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Basic Concepts …Basic Concepts

 Experimental setup
 In our development of the different ideas EF1

on consolidation settlement, we will

assume:
o A homogenous, saturated soil
o The soil particles and the water to be
incompressible
o Vertical flow of water
o The validity of Darcy’s law
o Small strains
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…Basic Concepts …Basic Concepts

 Instantaneous Load  Primary Consolidation

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EF1 Ephrem Feleke, 24/01/2023


…Basic Concepts
 Primary Consolidation is the change in volume of a fine-grained
soil caused by the expulsion of water from the voids and the
transfer of load from the excess pore water pressure to the soil
particles.
 Primary consolidation ends with Δu = 0.
 The later time settlement response is called Secondary
Compression or Creep which is the change in volume of fine-
grained soils caused by the adjustment of the soil fabric (internal
structure) after primary consolidation has been completed.
 The term “Consolidation” is reserved for the process in which
settlement of a soil occurs from changes in effective stresses
resulting from decreases in excess porewater pressure.
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Void Ratio and Settlement
…Basic Concepts Changes Under a Constant Load
 At the end of primary consolidation, as Δu = 0, the
change in vertical effective stress is equal to the change in
vertical total stress (Δσ’z = Δσz).
 The change in volume of the soil (ΔV) is equal to the
change in void ratio (Δe); so volumetric strain
 Void ratio and settlement changes under a constant load
 For one-dimensional consolidation, ez = ep,
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…Basic Concepts
 The distance of the longest vertical path taken by water to exit
the soil is called the length of the drainage path.
 For the case where drainage is allowed on top and bottom faces
(double drainage), the drainage path (Hdr) is
 If drainage were permitted from only one face of the soil, then
Hdr = Hav.
 Shorter drainage paths will cause the soil to complete its
settlement in a shorter time than longer drainage path.
 The rate of consolidation for a homogeneous soil depends on the
soil’s hydraulic conductivity (permeability), the thickness, and the
length of the drainage path.
…Basic Concepts
 In our calculations we will usually use Sc instead of Dz.
 The void ratio at any time under load P is
 For a saturated soil, eo= wGs,
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…Basic Concepts …Basic Concepts

 Effects of vertical stresses on primary consolidation
 The segment AB is called the virgin consolidation
Virgin consolidation line or (normal consolidation line (NCL)
line or normal consolidation line (NCL).
 We will represent the unloading-reloading path by an
average slope BC and refer to it as the
recompression line or the unloading-reloading line
(URL).

CD = Reloading
BC = Unloading (average slope referred as Three plots of settlement data from soil
recompression line (unloading-reloading line(URL) consolidation

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…Basic Concepts …Basic Concepts

 Primary consolidation parameters.  Because of conducting compression

(consolidation) test is relatively time
consuming (usually takes 2Weeks); Cc is
usually related toother soil index properties.

 The slopes Cc, Cr, mv, and mvr are taken as positive
values to satisfy our sign convention of compression
or recompression as positive.

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…Basic Concepts
 Compression Index, Cc, is the slope of the normal
consolidation line on a plot of the logarithm of
vertical effective stress versus void ratio.
 Unloading/reloading index or recompression index,
Cr, is the average slope of the unloading/reloading
curves in a plot of the logarithm of vertical effective
stress versus void ratio.
 Modulus of volume compressibility, mv, is the slope
of the curve between two stress points in a plot of
vertical effective stress versus vertical strain.
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…Basic Concepts
 Over-consolidation ratio, OCR, is the ratio by which
the current vertical effective stress in the soil was
exceeded in the past (OCR = σ’zc / σ’z0).
 Effects of Loading History?
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…Basic Concepts
 Pre-consolidation Stress or past maximum effective
stress, σ'zc, is the maximum vertical effective stress
that a soil was subjected to in the past.
 Normally Consolidated Soil is one that has never
experienced vertical effective stresses greater than
its current vertical effective stress (σ’z0 = σ'zc).
 Over-consolidated Soil is one that has experienced
vertical effective stresses greater than its current
vertical effective stress (σ’z0 < σ'zc).
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Calculation of Primary
Consolidation Settlement
 Effects of unloading/reloading of a sample taken
from field
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Primary Consolidation Settlement Primary Consolidation Settlement

Normally Consolidated soil
 Let us consider a site consisting of a normally
consolidated soil on which we wish to construct a
building. We will assume that the increase in vertical
stress due to the building at depth z, where we took
our soil sample, is Δσz.
Over-consolidated soil
 If the soil is over-consolidated, we have to consider
two cases depending on the magnitude of Δσz.
o Case 1: the increase in Dsz is such that s’fin = s’zo + Dsz
is less than s’zc (Consolidation occurs in URL)
Sc

 The increase in vertical stress will cause the soil to

settle following the NCL, and the primary
consolidation settlement is

Sc ;

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Primary Consolidation Settlement Calculation of Primary

Overconsolidated soil Consolidation Settlement
o Case 2: the increase in Dsz is such that s’fin = s’zo + Dsz  Procedure to calculate primary consolidation settlement
is greater than s’zc (two components of settlement—one
along the URL and the other along the NCL.)
1. Calculate the current vertical effective stress
(s’zo) and the current void ratio (eo) at the
Sc
Or
center of the soil layer for which settlement is
required.
Sc
2. Calculate the applied vertical stress increase
(Dsz) at the center of the soil layer.
3. Calculate the final vertical effective stress s’fin
= s’zo + Dsz.

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…Calculation of Primary …Calculation of Primary

Consolidation Settlement Consolidation Settlement
4. Calculate the current vertical effective stress (s’zo) and b. If the soil is overconsolidated and s’fin < s’zc, the primary
the current void ratio (eo) at the center of the soil layer consolidation settlement is
for which settlement is required. Sc
a. If the soil is normally consolidated (OCR = 1), the
primary consolidation settlement is
c. If the soil is overconsolidated and s’fin > s’zc, the primary
consolidation settlement is
Sc
Sc

 The primary consolidation settlement, using mv, is

Sc

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Example-1
…Calculation of Primary
Consolidation Settlement
 For better accuracy, when dealing with thick layers (Ho
> 2m), you should divide the soil layer into sublayers
(about two to five sublayers) and find the settlement for
each sublayer.
 Add up the settlement of each sublayer to find the total
primary consolidation settlement.
 An alternative method is to use a harmonic mean value
of the vertical stress increase for the sublayers in the
equations for primary consolidation settlement.

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Example-1 Example-2

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Example-2 Example-2

Sc

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Terzaghi’s One-Dimensional
Secondary Compression Settlement
Consolidation Theory
 It is the theory for time rate of settlement.
 Governing equation

 Cv is called the coefficient of consolidation and is equal

to

 The governing can be solved by Fouries series or by Finite

Difference Method (FDM) to obtain the time rate of
settlement, degree of consolidation and pore water
pressure at any time and depth.
Ss

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One-dimensional Consolidation One-dimensional Consolidation

Laboratory Test
 The one-dimensional consolidation test, called the oedometer
test, is used to find Cc, Cr, Cα, mv, and s’zc.
 The coefficient of permeability kz, can also be calculated from
the test data.
Laboratory Test
 The data obtained from the one-dimensional
consolidation test are as follows:
o Initial height of the soil, Ho, which is fixed by the
height of the ring.
o Current height of the soil at various time intervals
under each load (time–settlement data).
o Water content at the beginning and at the end of
the test, and the dry weight of the soil at the end
of the test.

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Summary

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