In: Civil Engineering
A layer of soft, normally consolidated clay is 15 m thick and lies under a newly constructed building. The overburden pressure of the sand overlying the clay layer is 500 kN/m2 and the new construction increases it by 180 kN/m2. If the compression index is 0.25 and the recompression index is 0.015, compute the settlement of the building. The water content of the clay is 30%, the specific gravity of the soil grains is 2.7, and the clay is fully saturated. Consider a soil element at the middle of the clay layer. The water table is at the top of the clay layer.
a) Compute the settlement (one layer)
b) Compute the settlement by dividing the clay layer into three sub-layers, each 5 m thick. To find the total settlement, find the settlement at the center of each sub-layer. Compare with the settlement found in part a.
c) Compute the settlement (one layer) for an OCR = 1.2 and OCR = 2.0.