Experimental study on secondary consolidation considering structural strength of clay

The conventional methods for the secondary consolidation coefficient of soils do not consider the influence of structure. In this work, the secondary consolidation tests on undisturbed soils and artificially structured soils are carried out to study the influence of the structural strength on the secondary consolidation coefficient. It is shown that the proposed method for preconsolidation pressure can effectively reduce the errors of Casagrande. The artificially structured soil can well simulate the influence of structural characteristic on the consolidation of the clay. The structural characteristics of the soils can make it accelerate into the secondary consolidation stage. The remnant structure of the soils may be conducive to the secondary consolidation when the load is close to the structural yield pressure. At the same time, the secondary consolidation coefficient of the soils has a strong correlation with the structural strength. A method is developed, which is useful for the prediction of the secondary consolidation deformation of structured soils.