CE 3821 – TUTORIAL 1 – SEMESTER 2, 2018

1. A building site consists of two clay layers, each of 1m thick, sandwiched among three sand
layers. Thickness of the sand layer at the top is 2.5m, that at the middle is 6m and that at the
bottom is 2m. The bottom sand layer is underlain by impervious rock. Water table is at the
surface level and the saturated unit weights of sand and clay layers are 20 and 22 kN/m2
respectively. The building load is uniformly distributed and calculated to be 60 kPa at the surface
level. For clay, pre-consolidation pressure is 80 kPa and Cc/(1+e0) = 0.1 and Cs/(1+e0) = 0.01.
Assume that the vertical stress due to the building load remains constant throughout the depth of
the soil deposits.

Find the total consolidated settlement of the deposit.

2. The load on a footing of a proposed building is expected to apply a uniform stress of 60 kN/m2
at the level of the foundation. The building site consists of a 8 m thick clay layer at the top,
underlain by a sandy gravel deposit overlying the bedrock. Water table is at a 2 m depth from the
ground level. Coefficient of volume compressibility and the coefficient of consolidation for the
clay layer are, 0.23 MPa-1 and 2.1 m2/year respectively. Assuming that the vertical stress due to
the building load remains constant throughout the depth of the soil deposits, find (a) the final
consolidation settlement of the footing, (b) the time required for a consolidation settlement of 40
mm to take place and (c) the consolidation settlement in two years.

SBSA / 29 Jun 2018