Estimating Consolidation Coefficient and Final Settlement: Triangular Excess Pore-Water Pressure

The exact analytical solutions for the one-dimensional transient consolidation settlement of clay under triangular loadings of pore-water pressure are presented. Using these solutions, two new methods, a “diagnostic curve” method and a “peak derivative” method are developed for a simultaneous estimation of the coefficient of consolidation and final consolidation settlement. The diagnostic curve method uses a master diagnostic curve for matching and the peak derivative method requires locating the peak of a unimodal curve. The proposed methods require only a few but adequate observations of settlements. The peak derivative method has a high diagnostic property for identifying a nonideal condition.