Consolidation Analysis by the Extended Taylor Method ( ETM ).

The Taylor t method is extended for improving the estimation of the end-of-primary (EOP) settlement p  and coefficient of vertical consolidation v c . The extended Taylor method (ETM) utilizes the same graphical procedure of the conventional Taylor method, but this procedure is repeated twice at any two U values greater than 52.6% instead of the one used in the Taylor method at 90%; U is the average degree of consolidation. The ETM explicitly relates v c to the slope of the initial linear portion of the t  - t curve as well as the EOP settlement p  ; t  is the settlement at time t during consolidation. The ETM can be applied with a minimum of four consolidation data points for estimating p  and v c . Two types of EOP settlements are distinguished; firstly, local EOP settlement pi  obtained by matching experimental results to theory at a particular U value; secondly, global EOP settlement p  obtained by extrapolation using two or more local EOP settlements. The ETM explains the observed differences in v c values estimated by the existing methods in terms of the differences in p  values obtained by these existing methods. Experimental results are used to validate and compare the extended Taylor method with the existing methods.