Compression index (chi so nen)

It describes variation of the void ratio e as a function of the change of effective stress ef plotted in the logarithmic scale:

Void ratio e versus effective stress ef It therefore represents a deformation characteristic of overconsolidated soil:

where:

e logef

variation of void ratio variation of effective stress

Range of compression index Cc (Naval Facilities Engineering Command Soil MechanicsDESIGN MANUAL 7.01) A typical range of the compression index is from 0,1 to 10. Approximate values for homogeneous sand for the loading range from 95 kPa to3926 kPa attain the values from 0,05 to 0,06 for loose state and 0,02 to 0,03 for dense state. For silts this value is 0,20. For lightly overconsolidated clays and silts tested in USA Louisiana Kaufmann and Shermann (1964) present the following values:

Soil

Effective consolidation stress cef [kPa] 160 170 230 340

Final effective stress in the soil ef [kPa] 200 250 350 350 290

Compression index Cc [-] 0,34 0,44 0,16 0,84 0,52

CL soft clay CL hard clay ML silt of low plasticity CH soft clay with silt

CH clay of high plasticity 280

layers
Prof. Juan M.Pestana-Nascimento (University of California, Berkeley) offers the following typical values of the compression index Cc:

Soil Normal consolidated clays Chicago clay with silt (CL) Boston blue clay (CL) Vickburgs clay - dray falls into lumps (CH) Swedish clay (CL CH) Canada clay from Leda (CL CH) Mexico City clay (MH) Organic clays (OH) Peats (Pt) Organic silts and claye silts (ML MH) San Francisco sediments (CL) Clay in the old San Francisco Bay Bangkok clay (CH)
and organic soils; their applicability, however, is more or less local:

Compression index Cc [-] 0,20 0,50 0,15 - 0,30 0,3 0,5 0,3 0,6 13 14 7 10 4 a vce 10 15 1,5 4,0 0,4 1,2 0,7 0,9 0,4

In addition, there are empirical expressions available to determine approximate values of Cc for silts, clays

Soil Transformed clays Clays Brazilian clays Sao Paulo clays New York clays Clays of low plasticity Taipei clays and silts

Equations

Reference Skempton 1944 Nishida 1956 Cozzolino 1961

Terzaghi a Peck 1948 Sowers 1970 Moh a kol. 1989

Clays

Pestana 1994

Recompression index( chi so nen lai)

The recompression index Cr is determined from the graph representing the variation of void ratio e as a function of the effective stress efplotted in the logarithmic scale for unloading reloading sequence:

Determination of recompression index Cr

where:

e logef

- change of void ratio for the unloading-reloading curve - change of effective stress for the unloading-reloading curve

If no results from either laboratory or in situ measurements are available, the recompression index Cr can be approximately derived from:

where:

Cc

- compression constant