Abstract
The coefficient of consolidation has been determined by fitting manually Terzaghi's one-dimensional consolidation theory to the time-settlement curve in an incremental loading consolidation test. In this paper, a numerical method for the determination of the coefficient of consolidation is proposed. The identification of parameters by using nonlinear least square method derives the coefficient of consolidation. This method has three features; to evaluate the initial offset and the primary consolidation settlement as the conventional method does, to express clearly the deviation between the theoretical and experimental curves, and to construct easily the automatic processing of computation. The coefficient of consolidation determined by this method was greatly higher than that by Casagrande's method, but almost equal to that by Taylor's method. The primary consolidation settlement and initial offset identified by this method also were about the same as those of Taylor's method. Thus, the proposed method could be comparable to the conventional method.
