CONSOLIDATION CHARACTERISTICS OF A SILTY CLAY: CONCERNING THE EFFECT OF SOIL DISTURBANCE

Abstract

In this paper, undisturbed specimen of a silty clay constituting of Phu Bai formation (ambQ₂^1-2 pb) was collected from boreholes in Hue city and surrounding areas. The soil, under both undisturbed and disturbed conditions, was then subjected to standard one-dimensional consolidation tests with 7 loading increments. It is shown from the experimental results that the time to the end of primary consolidation (EOP), determined by Log Time method (t_LT) and 3-t method (t_3T), decreases with the load increment and under the same vertical stress, the primary consolidation of disturbed silty clay finish at a shorter time than those of the undisturbed one. The coefficient of secondary consolidation (C_α) increases with the vertical stress and reaches the maximum values before decreasing. The obtained values of C_α = 0.005 - 0.020 suggest a relatively low secondary compressibility of the silty clay constituting of Phu Bai formation.