Land reclamation: a review of initial consolidation conditions

Abstract

The consolidation behavior of soils is dependent upon the shape of the initial excess pore water pressure distribution. Despite this fact, a uniform distribution of excess pore pressure is commonly adopted in most geotechnical problems. In the case of land reclamation on soft soil foundations, a variety of non-uniform initial excess pore pressure distributions can be generated during various stages of the land reclamation process, as different loading and placement conditions are encountered. Two examples of land reclamation have been discussed, highlighting the conditions during which linearly increasing and decreasing initial excess pore pressure distributions can be expected to occur. The resulting excess pore pressure dissipation and consolidation settlement of a clay layer subjected to these distributions are investigated, with particular focus on the effect of one- or two-way initial drainage conditions.