Numerical Solution to One-dimensional Consolidation by the Finite Element Method

Adequate prediction of structures settlement is of utmost importance in order to prevent future failure of civil engineering structures due to excessive settlement resulting from an inadequate settlement prediction. In this paper, laboratory consolidation test was performed on five different clay samples from different locations to determine the soil consolidation in terms of pore water pressure. A formulation of Finite Element (FE) method was also developed for solving one-dimensional consolidation problem and its validity checked out. The one-dimensional consolidation differential equation was solved using finite element analysis by Rayleigh-Ritz method to obtain an approximate solution and ten elements were used to discretize the domain. MATLAB program was used to write the finite element codes. Considering the graphs generated from the MATLAB program which compares the consolidation behavior of the soil sample from analytical and numerical point of view, it is seen that there is a good agreement between Terzaghi’s exact solution to consolidation behavior of soils and numerical solution using the finite element method.