A method of determining nonlinear large strain consolidation parameters of dredged clays

A method of obtaining the large strain consolidation parameters of dredged clays considering the influence of the initial water content is investigated in this study. According to the test results of remolded clays with high initial water contents reported by Hong et al. (2010), a relationship between the void ratio (e) and effective stress (σ') is established. Furthermore, based on the available permeability data from the literature, a new relationship between the permeability coefficient (k) and the ratio (e/eL) of the void ratio to the void ratio at the liquid limit (eL) is proposed. The new proposed expression considering the initial water content improves the e-k equation established by Nagaraj et al. (1994). Finally, the influence of the initial void ratio and effective stress on the large strain consolidation coefficient g(e) defined by Gibson et al. (1981) and k/(1+e) in large strain analysis is discussed. The results show that, under a constant effective stress, the value of k/(1+e) increases with the initial void ratio. The large strain consolidation coefficient shows the law of segmentation change, which decreases with the increase of the effective stress when the effective stress is less than the remolded yield stress, but increases rapidly with the effective stress when the effective stress is larger than the remolded yield stress.