Consolidation Curves for Clays

A general nonlinear differential equation for the one‐dimensional consolidation of saturated plastic soils, taking into account the variations of compressibility and permeability of the soil, is integrated by numerical methods and the corresponding consolidation curves are presented. If $\lambda =1-\gamma \kappa$ where γ and κ are the nonlinear coefficient of compressibility and the coefficient of permeachange, respectively, the consolidation curves depend only on the ratio of the final to the initial thicknesses $H_2/H_1$ and on the ratio of the parameters $\lambda /\gamma \text{.}$ Taking as reference the consolidation curves for which the coefficient of consolidation is constant, for which case $\lambda =0\text{,}$ then it is found that the displacement of the consolidation curves increases with values of λ/γ compared to zero and with values of $H_2/H_1$ compared to unity. The Terzaghi's linear solution is found to be a very good solution for the special case $\lambda /\gamma =1\text{.}$