NAHYOMI ELLOISA M.

ONIFA BSCE 4

1. Define the following:

a) Primary Consolidation Settlement

- The reduction in volume of a soil mass caused by the application of a sustained load on the
mass; principally due to the squeezing out of water from the voids in the mass,
accompanied by a transfer of the load from the soil water to the soil solids.
- The primary consolidation settlement can be calculated from the coefficient of volume
compressibility mv, which can further lead to the Young's modulus E′ = (1 + v′)(1 − 2v′)/[mv(1
− v′)], with an assumed Poisson's ratio v′.

b) Secondary Consolidation Settlement

- Secondary consolidation is the continued deformation of the soil structure after excess pore
pressure has dissipated, as small numbers of particles move at random shear strains, in a
Poisson process, to new final positions.
- The secondary compression settlement (creep) can be estimated from the secondary
compression index Cɛα = Cα/ (1 + e0), where Cα is the coefficient of secondary compression
and e0 is the initial void ratio. Hydraulic conductivity parameters: Assessment of rate of
consolidation.

c) Elastic or Immediate Settlement

- Immediate settlement better represents elastoplastic deformation of soils which is time
independent and occurs immediately after loading.

2. Factors affecting consolidation.

a) Thickness of clay layer
b) Number of drainage path
c) Coefficient of permeability
d) Coefficient of consolidation
e) Magnitude of the consolidating pressure and the manner of its distribution across the
thickness of the layer.
f) Time factor

3. What is the tolerable settlement of structures?

- Generally the settlements of shallow foundations such as pad or strip footings are limited to
25 mm (Terzaghi, 1996). Recent studies on (especially small scale) shallow foundations have
shown that allowable bearing capacity occur at settlement of between 5 to 10 % of
foundation width.