The regional temperature effects on consolidation of saturated clays

In different areas, the consolidation process of saturated clay is influenced by local regional temperature. This paper presented the effects of regional temperature on the consolidation of saturated clays based on Terzaghi's one-dimensional consolidation theory. The impact-factors induced by temperature during the process of consolidation were studied. The results show the differences of degree of consolidation and consolidation time. For the degree of consolidation, results show that the degree of consolidation in the area with higher regional temperature is larger than that in the area with lower regional temperature, and it would achieve the maximum difference when T_V is in the range of (0.3, 0.5). For consolidation time, it needs less time to reach a certain settlement in higher regional temperature than in lower regional temperature. When the average degree of consolidation is lower, there is no obvious difference in the consolidation time in different regional temperature area, but when it becomes higher, the difference would become more obvious.