Consolidation Under Constant Rates of Strain

Abstract

Consolidation tests on three materials were conducted by inducing six different constant rates of strain on the samples. The total load on the sample, the pore pressure at the base and the deformation were measured. A theoretical solution was developed to enable the determination of the coefficient of consolidation, the compression index, and the preconsolidation pressure from this testing procedure. Within established limits, it is shown that the consolidation parameters determined by this method agree with parameters determined by the conventional testing method. The advantages of the proposed procedure are that a much shorter time is required to determine the consolidation parameters and that this procedure can be used to study the strain rate sensitivity of cohesive soils to consolidation loads.