Determination of radial coefficient of consolidation using log t method

摘要

Vertical drains are extensively used to accelerate the consolidation of soft clay deposits when preloading is used as a ground improvement technique. Barren's theory is widely adopted for the design of vertical drains. The important input parameter required in Barren's solution is the coefficient of radial consolidation (c_r) and a rational assessment of c_r is necessary for the economic design of vertical drains. Several methods are available for the determination of the coefficient of consolidation (c_v) under vertical drainage. However, very few methods were developed for the determination of c_r. The vt method and log t method are considered as standard methods and are commonly used in practice for the determination of c_v. The utility of vt method for the determination of c_r is attempted in the literature. However, no attempt has been made in the literature to use the other standard method, the log t method, for the determination of c_r. In this paper, the log t method is proposed for the determination of c_r from the time-compression data obtained from consolidation tests under radial drainage. The validity of the method is evaluated by matching the experimental data with the theory and comparing with the existing methods.