Question

During the laboratory test of consolidation, each pressure increment is maintained constant until the compression virtually ceases and it generally takes ________

(a) 2 minutes

(b) 30 minutes

(c) 1 hour

(d) 24 hours

This question was posed to me in an internship interview.

This interesting question is from Laboratory Consolidation Test in portion One Dimensional Consolidation of Geotechnical Engineering I

Answer 1

The correct answer is (d) 24 hours

Explanation: The consolidation of the soil takes a lot of time, so in order to test it, the specimen is allowed to consolidate under a number of increments of vertical pressures of 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1000 kPa and each pressure is maintained constant until the compression virtually ceases. This generally takes 24 hours or even more to complete.