10-1

10. CONSOLIDATION

10.1

INFLUENCE OF DRAINAGE ON RATE OF SETTLEMENT

When a saturated stratum of sandy soil is subjected to a stress increase, such as that
caused by the erection of a building on the ground surface, the pore water pressure is increased.
This increase in pore pressure leads to drainage of some water from the voids of the soil. Because
of the relatively high permeability of the sandy soil this drainage process will occur quite quickly.
In other words the pore pressure increase will dissipate rapidly. As a consequence of the drainage
of some water from the soil, volume change will occur and settlement will take place.
When a saturated stratum of clayey soil is subjected to a stress increase, the dissipation
of the excess pore pressure generated will take place much more slowly because of the relatively
low permeability of the clayey soil. This means that the settlement, caused by the drainage of
some water from the voids of the soil, will take place gradually over a long period of time.
Fig. 10.1(a) represents a rigid but smooth walled container which is filled with saturated
soil. The container is sealed by means of a membrane covering the upper surface of the soil. A
uniform pressure of is applied to the top of the soil. Since the soil is saturated and the
container is rigid no settlement of the soil will be observed. If the pore pressure change within the
soil was observed it would be found to equal the applied stress . Since the applied (total) stress
and the pore pressure both increase by equal amounts, there will be no change in effective stress.
The absence of any observed settlement is therefore consistent with the principle of effective
stress, which requires that volume change will occur only as a result of an effective stress change.
In Fig. 10.1(b) an opening has been provided in the membrane to enable water to be
expelled or drained from the container of soil. Under the effect of the increase in pore pressure
u (=), water will be expelled from the soil and this drainage of water will continue until the
water pressure decreases to the equilibrium value prevailing before the stress change of was
applied to the soil. This means that the pore pressure change finally will be zero. Since the total
stress has increased by the effective stress will also increase by . In response to this
effective stress change, settlement of the soil will occur, the amount depending upon the
compressibility of the soil.
These observations illustrate that in a one dimensional compression situation for a
saturated soil, settlement of the soil in response to an applied stress occurs only when water is
allowed to be expelled from the soil.