KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
(GMES)
ADVANCED SOIL MECHANICS (TCS 6102)
ONE DIMESIONAL CONSOLIDATION
PRESENTATION
BY GROUP G REGISTRATION NUMBER
S/NO NAME
1 NGABIROCH BELIEVE 21/U/GMES/14480/PE

LECTURER: DR. BULOLO

1
SAM
TYPICAL VALUES OF CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT
PARAMETERS AND EMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPS

 There exist some relationships between simple soil tests and

consolidation settlement parameters are given below.

 One should be cautious in using these relationships because

they may not be applicable to his/her soil type being
considered for the assessment.
 PRECONSOLIDATION OF SOILS USING WICK
DRAINS
The purpose of wick drains:
• The purpose is to accelerate the consolidation settlement of soft,
saturated clays by reducing the drainage path.

What is a wick drain?

• A wick drain is a prefabricated drainage strip that consists of a
plastic core surrounded by a nonwoven polypropylene geotextile
jacket (Figure 9.19).
• The geotextile (a filter fabric) allows passage of water into the
core that is then pumped out.
How to install a wick drain
• A wick drain is installed by enclosing the drain in a tubular steel
mandrel and supporting it at the base by an anchor plate.
• The mandrel is then driven into the soil by a vibratory rig or
pushed by a hydraulic rig. At the desired depth, the mandrel is
removed, the drain and anchor plate remain in place, and the
drain is cut off with a tail about 300 mm long.

Impact and types of wick drain

• The effect of wick drains on the soil consolidation is illustrated in

Figure 9.20.

• A wick drain in which one end is on an impervious boundary is

called a half-closed drain (Figure 9.21). Sometimes the drain may
penetrate into a pervious layer below an impervious layer,
allowing the porewater to be expelled from the top and bottom of
• Such a drain provides two-way drainage and would accelerate
the consolidation of the soil.

• Recall that for one-dimensional consolidation, two-way

drainage reduces the time for a given degree of consolidation by
four times compared with single drainage.

The governing Equation

The governing equation for axisymmetric radial drainage is

…………………
Eqn-1.0
where r =the radial distance from the center of the drain and
Ch=the coefficient of consolidation in the horizontal or
radial direction.

The boundary conditions to solve Equation (9.49) are:

and the initial condition is t = 0, u = uo, where rd is the radius of

the drains, t is time, and R is the radius of the cylindrical
influence zone (Figure 9.21).
(Figure 9.19).
Figure 9.20
 Figure 9.21

(a) Vertical section of a half-closed wick drain. (b) Plan of a square

grid wick drain. (c) Plan of a triangular grid wick drain.
Solutions to Equation 9.49
Richard (1959) reported solutions for Equation (9.49) for two cases
—free strain and equal strain.

• Free strain occurs when the surface load is uniformly distributed

(flexible foundation, Figure 9.21) and the resulting surface
settlement is uneven. Equal strain occurs when the surface
settlement is forced to be uniform (rigid foundation) and the
resulting surface load is not uniformly distributed.

• Richard showed that the differences in the two cases are small and
the solution for equal strain is often used in practice.
The time factor for consolidation in the vertical direction is given by
Equation (9.33), while the time factor for consolidation in the radial
direction (Tr) is

…………Eqn-9.50

• The hydraulic conductivity of the soil in the horizontal or radial

direction is sometimes much greater (2 to 10 times for many
soils) than in the vertical direction (Chapter 6) and, consequently,
Ch is greater than Cv, usually Ch/Cv ≈ 1.2 to 2.
• During drilling of the borehole and installation of the drain, a thin
layer of soil at the interface of the drain is often remolded.
• This thin layer of remolded soil is called a smear zone. The
values of Cv and Ch are often much lower in the smear zone
than in the natural soil. It is customary to use reduced values of
Cv and Ch to account for the smear zone.
• The average degree of consolidation for vertical and radial
dissipation of porewater pressure (Uvr) is

…………Eqn-
9.51
where U is the average degree of consolidation for vertical
drainage [Equation (9.35)] and Ur is the aver-age degree of
consolidation for radial drainage.
The low into wick drains is predominantly radial. Assuming no soil
disturbances during installation, the time for soil consolidation for a
finite vertical discharge capacity is

…Eqn-2
where t is time(s) required to achieve the desired consolidation, Dw
is diameter (m) of the zone of influence, Ch is the coefficient of
consolidation for horizontal low (m/s), dw (m) = 2(h + b)/p is the
equivalent drain diameter, b (m) is the width and h (m) is the
thickness of the drain, z(m) is
the distance to low point, L (m) is the effective drain length (total
drain length when drainage occurs at one end only, half-length
when drainage occurs at both ends), k (m/s) is the hydraulic
conductivity of the soil (usually, either the radial or equivalent k
value is used), qw (m3/s) is discharge capacity of the wick drain at
a gradient of 1, and U is average degree of consolidation.
• For a square arrangement of drains, the spacing, s, is about
0.88Dw, while for a triangular arrangement, s = 0.95Dw.
• The spacing of the wick drains is the primary design parameter
for a desired amount of settlement in a desired time period.
• The other design parameter is the surcharge height. In general,
by varying the spacing and surcharge height, the designer can
obtain the most economical combination of wick spacing,
consolidation time, and surcharge height for a project.
 EXAMPLE
Qn. A foundation for a structure is to be constructed on a soft
deposit of clay, 20 m thick. Below the soft clay is a stiff, over
consolidated clay. The calculated settlement cannot be tolerated,
and it was decided that the soft soil should be pre-consolidated by
an embankment equivalent to the building load to achieve 90%
consolidation in 12 months. Wick drains are required to speed up
the time for soil consolidation. The wick drains are 100 mm wide
and 3 mm thick, with a discharge of 1.0X10-6 m3/s. The properties
of the soils are K=0.01 X 10-8 m/s and Ch=1.0 X 10-8 m2/s. The
distance to the low point is 10 m and the system is half-closed.
Determine the spacing of the wick drains arranged in a square grid.
SOLUTION:
Approach: Assume a spacing such that the calculated time using
Equation (9.52) matches the desired time of 12 months. It is best to
set up a spreadsheet to do this calculation and use the Goal Seek
function.

Set the spreadsheet as follows.

  A B C D
1 Spacing S 0.97 m
2 Drain configuration S  
3 Drain width h 100 mm
4 Thickness b 3 mm
5 Degree of consolidation u 90 %
Coef. of horizontal
X 10-6 m3/s
6 consolidation Ch 1
7 Desired time t 365 days
8 Soil thickness L 20 m
9 Distance to flow point z 10 m
10 Discharge capacity qw 0.1 X 10-6 m3/s
11 Soil permeability Ks 0.01 X 10-6 m3/s
12 Diameter of influence Dw 1.107 m
13 Equivalent diameter dw 65.57 mm
14 k/qw ratio 0.1 X 10-6 m3/s
15 Calculated time tc 365 days
• Set cell C15 To value 365 that is the required time in the question
by varying the value of C1 with different values until the value of
C15 is 365 days as required by the question then take the value of
C1 that gives the value of the required time in C15 as the spacing.
In this case, the value is 0.97 m. Then in practice use 1 m spacing
for the drains
• Consolidation settlement of a soil is a time-dependent process
that depends on the hydraulic conductivity and thickness of the
soil, and the drainage conditions.

• When an increment of vertical stress is applied to a soil, the

instantaneous (initial) excess porewater pressure is equal to the
vertical stress increment.

• With time, the initial excess porewater pressure decreases, the

vertical effective stress increases by the amount of decrease of the
initial excess porewater pressure, and settlement increases.
Summary
• The consolidation settlement is made up of two parts—the early time
response called primary consolidation and a later time response called
secondary compression.

• Soils retain a memory of the past maximum effective stress, which

may be erased by loading to a higher stress level.

• If the current vertical effective stress on a soil was never exceeded in

the past (a normally consolidated soil), it would behave
elastoplastically when stressed.

• If the current vertical effective stress on a soil was exceeded in the

past (an overconsolidated soil), it would behave elastically
(approximately) for stresses less than its past maximum effective
stress.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
 OTHER PRACTICAL
EXAMPLES
A soil was consolidated in an oedometer to a vertical stress of 100
kPa and then unloaded incrementally to 50 kPa. The excess

porewater pressure is zero. If the frictional soil constant ᶲ’ is 250,

determine the lateral stress.

Approach: The soil in this case becomes overconsolidated—the

past maximum vertical effective stress is 100 kPa and the current
effective stress is 50 kPa. You need to find Konc and then Kooc using
the OCR of your soil.