Robust methods to estimate large-strain consolidation parameters from column experiments

New approaches are proposed for robustly determining the compressibility and permeability functions for large-strain consolidation (LSC), using limited measurements from one-dimensional tests, such as column or centrifuge experiments. These new methods are developed from several new findings reported in this paper, including (i) new analytical solutions that relate parameters of compressibility functions to the final density profile, (ii) analytical proof of the independence of the shape of the settlement curve from the parameter M, where the permeability or hydraulic conductivity k is given by Me P , e is void ratio, and M and P are material-related constants; and (iii) that when the same k function is employed, for the case of one-dimensional settlement, the optimal values of M and P are located on a unique straight line in the P–lnM space. The third finding was determined from optimization analysis of thousands of LSC simulations. Using different combinations of these new findings, three new methods are developed to estimate the permeability function. The efficiency, robustness, and accuracy of the three methods are investigated by their application to four column tests from the literature. The simplest of the three methods requires only two LSC analyses plus several hand-calculations, demonstrating strong potential for practical use.