A Large-Strain Vacuum-Assisted Radial Consolidation Model for Dredged Sludge Considering Lateral Deformation

A calculation model has been developed for large-strain radial consolidation incorporating lateral deformation in order to solve the problem of poor consolidation prediction for dredged sludge at high water content in vacuum preloading process. The differential solution for the proposed model is given, considering the effect of initial water content on the compression behavior. The model is suitable for unconsolidated soil and normally consolidated soil, which can take into account such factors as lateral deformation, varying compressibility and permeability coefficients, smearing effect, self-weight stress, negative pressure attenuation along the depth, etc. The proposed model is verified by comparing it with other existing theoretical solutions. Poisson's ratio (v) is used to reflect the influence of lateral deformation on soil consolidation. The results show that lateral deformation has an important influence on soil consolidation degree, especially on consolidation degree defined by stress (U-p). The consolidation rate increases with the increase of v. The traditional equal-strain solution overestimates the consolidation rate of foundation. At the same normalized elevation, the void ratio increases while the excess pore water pressure decreases with the increase of v.