Part 3 SECONDARY CONSOLIDATION
Typical plot showing time rate of consolidation for an organic silty clay. Secondary consolidation occurs due to continual expunging of chemically-adsorbed pore water, at a reduced, but more-or-less constant rate under a more or less constant load (surcharge)
Secondary Consolidation The physical process believed to be responsible for secondary consolidation is sketched here; illustrating how planar clay platelets are slowly re-aligned perpendicular to the maximum principal stress, while expunging chemically-adsorbed moisture between the platelets
Raw secondary compression test data, as measured in a 14 week long test battery. Samples of this sandy silt were taken from a a deep urban fill in San Bruno, CA
Secondary Compression Index Relationship between natural water content and secondary compression index, from Mesri (1973) and NAVFAC DM Note values for fibrous peats are the highest