Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Department of Infrastructure & Geomatic
Engineering
Subject: Geotechnics II (BFC 35403)
Tutorial: CHAPTER 3 (Consolidation)
1. The time for 65% consolidation of a 19-mm clay specimen (drained at top and bottom) in
the laboratory is 10 minutes. How long (years) will it take for a 4-m-thick clay layer in the
field to undergo 40% consolidation under the same pressure increment? In the field, there
is a rock layer at the bottom of the clay. (Answer : 1.25 years)
2. A 3.75 m clay layer in the field (drained on one side) is normally consolidated. When the
pressure is increased from 50 kN/m2 to 150 kN/m2, the void ratio decreases from 0.9 to
0.75. The hydraulic conductivity, k, of the clay for the above loading range was found to
be 6x10-7 cm/sec.
a. How long (in days) will it take for the clay layer to reach 50% consolidation? (Answer:
44 days)
b. What is the settlement at that time (that is, at 50% consolidation)? (Answer: 0.16m)
3. For a laboratory consolidation test on a 25-mm-thick clay specimen (drained on both ends),
the following data were obtained:
Void ratio, e Effective stress, ’ (kN/m2)
0.85 125
0.71 250
If the time for 70% consolidation is 4.8 min, determine the hydraulic conductivity.
4. A 4.5 m saturated clay layer (two-way drainage) subjected to surcharge loading underwent
90% primary consolidation in 180 days.
a. Find the coefficient of consolidation of the clay for the pressure range. (Answer: 0.0239
m/day)
b. How long will it take for a 19-mm-thick clay specimen to undergo 65% consolidation
in a laboratory test?
5. A 3m thick layer of saturated clay under a surcharge loading underwent 90% primary
consolidation in 100 days. The laboratory test’s specimen will have two way drainage.
a. Find the coefficient of consolidation of clay for the pressure range.
b. For a 25 mm thick undisturbed clay specimen, how long will it take to undergo 80%
consolidation in the laboratory for a similar pressure range?
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6. Consider the soil profile shown in Figure 11.44 subjected to the uniformly distributed load,
, on the ground surface. Given: = 26 kN/m2; H1 = 1.83 m; H2 = 3.66 m; and H 3 = 5.5
m. Soil characteristics are as follows:
• Sand: dry =17.9 kN/m3; sat =18.5 kN/m3
• Clay: sat =18.3 kN/m3 ; LL = 38; e = 0.73; Cs = 1/5 Cc
Estimate the primary consolidation settlement in the clay if
a. The clay is normally consolidated
b. The preconsolidation pressure ’c = 105 kN/m2
7. Based on the figure in Question 5, estimate the primary consolidation settlement in the clay
layer. Given: = 85 kN/m2; H1 = 2 m; H2 = 4 m; and H3 = 6 m. Soil characteristics are as
follows:
• Sand: e = 0.65; Gs = 2.66
• Clay: LL = 54; e = 0.98; Gs = 2.74; ’c = 150 kN/m2; Cs = 1/6 Cc
8. Following are the results of a laboratory consolidation test on a sample
of undisturbed clay obtained from the field.
Pressure, ’ Final height of the
(kg/cm3) specimen (cm)
6 0.284
12 0.150
24 0.315
48 0.564
100 0.823
200 2.25
400 5.34
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The height of the specimen at the beginning of the test was 25.4 mm, and the diameter was
63.5 mm. The moist specimen weighed 140 g and the water content was determined to be
19%. Estimate the compression index and the preconsolidation pressure from the e-log
curve. Given: Gs = 2.7.
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