Consolidation of sensitive clay as phase change process

Abstract

In one‐dimensional consolidation tests, sensitive clays exhibit a nonlinear compression behavior characterized by a small change in void ratio up to the maximum past effective vertical stress, followed by an abrupt decrease in the void ratio over a small effective stress range. As the effective stress increases still further, the rate of change of void ratio diminishes. It is proposed to represent this behavior by two models, one very simple, and a second somewhat more complex, analogous to those used to describe the phase transition of liquid to a solid with a decrease in temperature below the melting (or solidification) point. The maximum past effective stress is equivalent to the solidification temperature. A simplified analysis, which can be performed by hand, of the one‐dimensional compression of over‐consolidated clay results, and is presented for the field case of the settlement measured at the Olga B test site, with some success.