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Soil consolidation refers to the mechanical process by which soil changes volume gradually in response to a change in pressure. This happens because soil is a three-phase material, comprising soil grains and pore fluid, usually groundwater [ clarification needed ] .
Soil that has been consolidated to a large pressure and has been subsequently unloaded is considered to be overconsolidated. The maximum past vertical effective stress is termed the preconsolidation stress. A soil which is currently experiencing the maximum past vertical effective stress is said to be normally consolidated.
Preconsolidation pressure is the maximum effective vertical overburden stress that a particular soil sample has sustained in the past. [1] This quantity is important in geotechnical engineering, particularly for finding the expected settlement of foundations and embankments.
Normally consolidated soil goes to critical state along the stress path on Roscoe surface. Critical state soil mechanics is the area of soil mechanics that encompasses the conceptual models representing the mechanical behavior of saturated remoulded soils based on the critical state concept.
Terzaghi's principle applies well to porous materials whose solid constituents are incompressible - soil, for example, is composed of grains of incompressible silica so that the volume change in soil during consolidation is due solely to the rearrangement of these constituents with respect to one another.
The term is particularly used for soil consolidation. [2] Rarely, as a term for the conversion of a mobile belt to a rigid part of a continental platform; an orogeny. [1]
In geotechnical engineering, soil compaction is the process in which stress applied to a soil causes densification as air is displaced from the pores between the soil grains. When stress is applied that causes densification due to water (or other liquid) being displaced from between the soil grains, then consolidation, not compaction, has occurred.
An example of lateral earth pressure overturning a retaining wall. The lateral earth pressure is the pressure that soil exerts in the horizontal direction. It is important because it affects the consolidation behavior and strength of the soil and because it is considered in the design of geotechnical engineering structures such as retaining walls, basements, tunnels, deep foundations and ...