Evaluation of Curve Fitting Techniques for Estimating End of Primary Consolidation Settlement: Provo Westside Connector Project, Utah

15-8263This final report discusses the installation of magnet extensometer instrumentation associated with the Provo Westside Connector construction project in Utah County, Utah. The settlement monitoring instrumentation was installed in August of 2014, and embankment construction followed shortly thereafter. Maximum fill height was achieved in early December 2014. This report includes a summary of the installation, readings that were collected, and the modeling work regarding the settlement monitoring and end-of-primary settlement projections. Two different curve fitting techniques were evaluated in this research: using the standard primary consolidation equations and the finite difference equations for estimating the end of primary consolidation settlement. For the site investigated, the curve fitting techniques proved to be somewhat problematic because the soil layers had small magnitudes of settlement and the transition between primary and secondary settlement was not readily apparent during the evaluation of real time field data. Using the finite difference equations also proved somewhat problematic in trying to fit the full record of field data based on all of the different stages of loading