Properties of secondary consolidation of two types of dredger fill sites

By use of the unidirectional oedometer apparatus, a series of 1-D compression secondary consolidation tests on soil samples in two kinds of dredger fill sites are done. The relationship among stress, strain, void ratio and time is obtained, and the characteristics of the secondary consolidation and its influencing factors are compared. The results show that the secondary consolidation coefficient first increases with the increase of load and then decreases. In contrast, the value in unprocessed site is more than that in processed site. It also increases with the increases of moisture content, and the relationship curve is a concave. It keeps a linear increase with the compression index, at the same time, it keeps a logarithmic downtrend with the increasing time. The characteristics of the secondary consolidation are obviously influenced by the height and the drainage condition of soil samples. Based on the results, a simple and practical secondary consolidation coefficient model and deformation forecast method, which are suitable for the characteristics of dredger fill sites, are proposed. Compared with the experimenta; results, the proposed model can be employed to predict the deformation characteristics of the dredger fill sites.