A borehole at a site for a proposed building reveals the following soil profile:
A building is to be constructed on this site with its foundation at 2 m below ground level. The building load is 30 MN and the foundation is rectangular with a width of 10 m and length of 15 m. A sample of the clay was tested in an oedometer, and the following results were obtained:
Calculate the primary consolidation settlement. Assuming that the primary consolidation took 5 years to achieve in the field, calculate the secondary compression for a period of 10 years beyond primary consolidation. The secondary compression index is Cc/6. [Hint: Determine ep for your σ'fin from a plot of e versus σ'z (log scale).]