Influence of cohesive soil depth on compressibility coefficient and coefficient of volume change

The settlement is the most serious problem of fine-grained soils which caused by a phenomenon called soil consolidation. Most of previous studies were concerned with studying consolidation conditions depending on the consolidation's theories as Terzaghi's theory. These studies, in some cases, do not give a simulation of reality representation. It was necessary to study the effect of soil depth from ground surface on consolidation parameters to simulate what happens to the fine soil in nature. Therefore, the consolidation behavior of four cohesive soils was investigated in this paper. The studied soil samples were collected from different depths of cohesive soil layers at four different sites, in El-Qalubia governorate, Egypt. A series of laboratory consolidation tests were carried out using Oedometer apparatus. So, the effect of soil sample depths (D) from ground surface on compressibility coefficient (av) and volume change coefficient (mv) was checked. Also, the empirical equations were conducted according to the relationship between soil sample depths D vs. av and D vs. mv. Keywords – Fine-grained soil, cohesive soil, soil sample depth, consolidation, coefficient of compressibility, coefficient of volume change, settlement