Practical method for calculating nonlinear settlement of soft ground based on e-p curve

It is well recognized that the settlement caused by lateral deformation of soft ground cannot be ignored. In China's technical codes and specifications, the current methods for calculating the settlement of soft ground are the one-dimensional ones with compression curve under zero lateral strain condition. To reflect the settlement of soft soil caused by lateral deformation, the calculated results are multiplied by an empirical correction coefficient (1.1~1.7). However, the coefficient is greatly changeable and cannot be quantified clearly. Therefore, an effective and reliable method is needed for calculating the settlement caused by lateral deformation in engineering practice. In this paper, a simple and practical method for calculating nonlinear settlement of soft ground is established based on the concepts of e-p curve and nonlinear tangent modulus E_t, which divides the foundation settlement into two parts. One is the compression settlement under zero lateral strain condition, which is calculated by the conventional layer-wise summation method with e-p curve; the other is the settlement caused by the lateral deformation, which is calculated by layer-wise summation method with nonlinear tangent modulus E_t. The parameters of this method can all be obtained by using the e-p curve. To describe the feasibility of the proposed method, a comparison with the measured results and those by other methods such as finite element method is made through a project case.