GGU-CONSOLIDATE: Test 4 - Consolidation (numerical) with real pore water pressure distribution and time-dependent loading function

It will be assumed that the 95 kN/m² surcharge is applied approximately linearly over a period of 100 days. In principal, the program can cope with any kind of stress increase. Select the menu item "Edit/Load increase". Change the number of load increments to 2 and enter the values from the following dialog box.

For times which exceed the final time given here, a load component of 100% will always be assumed, so that no further input is necessary.

Select the "System/Analyse" menu item. An evaluation of the analysis shows that the consolidation time until 80% settlement is achieved is now around 380 days. However, as this analysis also includes the tipping time of 100 days, the lying time after completion of tipping is reduced to 280 days, which represents a gain of 50 days compared to the Test 3 model.

The client is still not satisfied with this. Luckily, however, drilling carried out in the meantime has shown that there is a thin layer of sand between the two cohesive layers, which can drain laterally. The influence this is investigated in Test 5 below.