A case study in evaluating the status of consolidation of a soft soil deposit by incomplete piezocone dissipation tests using laboratory and field data

By using the piezocone penetration test (PCPT or CPTu), one can develop not only a better understanding of the soil stratification, but also an understanding of soil behavior parameters related to soil compressibility, as well as soil strength. This paper describes a case study that utilizes incomplete piezocone dissipation test to estimate status of consolidation of a soil deposit. Incomplete pore pressure dissipation record of PCPT is extrapolated on an inverse time scale (1/t method) to estimate the “in situ” pore pressure and “residual excess” pore pressure. No case study has been reported in open literature where this methodology has been utilized to estimate the status of consolidation of the soil deposit. In this paper, the 1/t method was verified using dissipation data from rigorous calibration chamber tests and field test data.