An Introduction to Settlement and Volume Expansion in Soils (Geotechnical Engineering)

This publication concerns (a) immediate settlements, (b) long-term settlements, (c) rate of settlement, (d) criteria for tolerable settlement, (e) methods of reducing or accelerating settlements for saturated fine-grained soils and (f) methods for controlling and/or estimating heave in swelling soils. Procedures given are for fine-grained compressible soils as well as for coarse-grained soils. The settlement of saturated cohesive soil consists of the sum of three components; (1) immediate settlement occurring as the load is applied, (2) consolidation settlement occurring gradually as excess pore pressures generated by loads are dissipated, and (3) secondary compression essentially controlled by the composition and structure of the soil skeleton. The settlement of coarse-grained granular soils subjected to foundation loads occurs primarily from the compression of the soil skeleton due to rearrangement of particles. The permeability of coarse-grained soil is large enough to justify the assumption of immediate excess pore pressure dissipation upon application of load. Settlement of coarse-grained soil can also be induced by vibratory ground motion due to earthquakes, blasting or machinery, or by soaking and submergence. Read more