Excess Pore Pressure During One-Dimensional Self-weight Consolidation

Consolidation of porous media under self-weight is a common process in nature environment and engineering facilities, such as sedimentation of soil particles in river delta and the consolidation of mine tailings during operation of tailings reservoir. During self-weight consolidation, the excess pore pressure is a typical indicator for degree of consolidation. In this study, a one-dimensional (1D) model coupling the nonlinear variation of hydraulic conductivity and compressibility was proposed to simulate the self-weight consolidation process. Because of the nonlinear variation of soil parameters, a nonzero excess pore pressure was formed at steady state, and an iterative method was employed to obtain the distribution of the ultimate excess pore pressure along the model height. The results of the iterative method was then verified by the results from numerical simulation. The magnitude of the ultimate excess pore pressure induced by the nonlinear soil properties could be significant and should be adequately considered in engineering practice.