Dear jmcc3265,
Not to be glib in my response. I've designed many projects with consolidation. Mitigated it using wick drains, surcharges, etc. At the core of all this are our first principals. That's what I go by - nothing more and nothing less.
You should have Cv, Cc, Cr, e-naught, gammaB, gammaS, P-naught, etc for each layer/sublayer that will consolidate. You should have loads and the attenuation of those loads with depth. You should already have figured out to what depth the delta sigmaH is less than 10 percent of the overburden load and know your, "Seat of Settlement."
In that light, you now have all your boundary conditions. Now you just have to adapt these boundary conditions to the expect5ations of the client. If the client expects ground improvement in 2 months and when their new loads are applied the latent settlement is less than 1 or 2 inches, then you have everything needed to run the numbers. Wicks on 2-ft centers? Wicks on 5-ft centers? No wicks at all? 5-ft preload? For how long? What do you expect for the excess pore pressures when the preload is removed? These are all topics addressed by Terzhagi and others.
This is the fun stuff!
f-d
ípapß gordo ainÆt no madre flaca!