Abstract
The theory of consolidation has been achieved remarkable development in terms of theory such as finite consolidation theory, two dimensional Rendulic consolidation theory. Though those theories are well defined, the analysis is by no means straightforward, because associated properties are very difficult to determine in the laboratory, Therefore Terzaghi's one dimensional consolidation theory and Barron's cylindrical consolidation theory are still widely used in engineering practice. The theoretical shortcomings of those consolidation theories and uncertainties of associated properties make inevitably some discrepancy between theoretical and field settlements. Field settlement measurement by settlement plate is, therefore, widely used to overcome the discrepancy. Ultimate settlement is one of the most important factor of embankment construction on soft soils. Nowadays the ultimate settlement prediction methods using field settlement data are widely accepted as a helpful tool for field settlement analysis of embankment construction on soft soils. Among the various methods of ultimate settlement prediction, hyperbolic method and Asaoka's method are most commonly used because of their simplicity and ability to give a reasonable estimate of consolidation settlement. In this paper, the reliability of hyperbolic method and Asaoka's method has been examined using analytical methods. It is shown that both hyperbolic method and Asaoka's method are significantly affected by the direction of drainage.
