Hello there,
I was trying to predict the settlement of layered soils due to the groundwater lowering.
My guess is that, in order to model the consolidation process, I need to apply a flow function, modelling the hydraulic head lowering over time, in order to get the pore pressure variation, using a fully coupled flow-deformation analysis.
I do not want to use water wells for my purposes.
Any experience on similar cases?
Regards
Dear Alfonso,
If you're only interested in the final settlement due to groundwater lowering, simply modelling the high groundwater situation followed by the low groundwater situation (either with phreatic level or steady state groundwater flow) should be enough. However, if you want to model the complete time dependent settlement process, then indeed you would have to do a fully coupled analysis in which you lower the water level in a certain time period.
With kind regards,
Dennis Waterman