×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Settlement Calculations

Settlement Calculations

Settlement Calculations

(OP)
Guys

Can you please suggest me a good software (possibly a free one) for consolidation settlement estimate. Evaluation versions are also fine as I am going to use the software one time for a report.

Thanks for your input
NT

RE: Settlement Calculations

Sounds like a lot of fooling around when a hand calculation will probably take no more than 10 minutes. There are better ways to impress a client.

RE: Settlement Calculations

(OP)
Sir

Thanks for your input. I was asked to prepare a report on settlement calculations. I have done the hand calculations and demonstrated that the settlement is beyond the acceptable limit but now I am trying to show it in a report using a software program.

Please let me know if you have any recommendations

Thanks
NT

RE: Settlement Calculations

I know that consolidation settlement can be calculated in Plaxis. However, if you don't provide the proper input values, you will get bullshit results. Why not just use Excel? I agree with oldestguy on it not being worth it.

RE: Settlement Calculations

FHWA also currently recommends the FoSSA program by ADAMA Engineering. I've never used it.

RE: Settlement Calculations

On how to show in a report the calculation results, well that depends on who is getting it. In my experience they don't give a darn as to how you got your answer, since that is your expertise. In general the simpler you can make your report, the better it is accepted usually. Most of the time I understand that my clients skip through all the garbelldy gook in front and look for the recommendations. If they see a computer program was used, unless they are well familiar with it and know its failings, they trust you to know that it produces dependable results and that's all. As I see it, when computer programs are referenced, the intent of the report then mentions that because it enabled the report writer to do a great many useful calcs and save time, thus money. For a simple settlement calc, that is not usually the case.

RE: Settlement Calculations

(OP)
Sir

Thanks for your input. It is indeed much helpful

NT

RE: Settlement Calculations

(OP)

Guys

One final question. While calculating the consolidation settlement, we check the overburden pressure at center of clay layer, pre-consolidation pressure (Pc) and stress increase at center of clay layer and use either Cc or Cr.

In case if the pre-consolidation pressure is in between the overburden pressure and sum of overburden pressure and Pc, some text books are referring to a method involving two step process

Step 1. overburden pressure to Pc using Cr
Step 2. Pc to sum of (overburden + stress increase) using Cc

some of the references do not consider this approach and the calculation is based on using one Cc as the Pc < (overburden + stress increase)

Can you guys comment which method is more conservative and practical?

Thanks for your input

NT



RE: Settlement Calculations

You have to make sure that the clay is already in its final stages of primary consolidation due to the pre-consolidation pressure. If you're not sure, then the latter is more conservative to use.

RE: Settlement Calculations

(OP)
tsek

Thanks for the response. How do we determine that clay is in its final stages of primary consolidation ?

NT

RE: Settlement Calculations

Of the many, many calculations to predict settlement, only one turned out to be reasonably accurate as to timing and amount. Most of the rest turned out to show less settlement than predicted and usually more rapidly than predicted. The major "problem" in my view is knowing exactly the location of drainage layers. Thus, in a fussy case, I depend on either test fills or control of the work based on settlement platform data. Specifically in answer to the question, never used a combination of values, since the test data probably was never that good..

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources