Analysis of non-linear consolidation of soft clay by differential quadrature method

Due to the complexity of the non-linear consolidation of soft clay, numerical method is always adopted to its solution. The differential quadrature method (DQ method) equaling to a high precision finite difference method can obtain highly accurate numerical solutions of differential equations using less grid points. This numerical method is always used to solve the complicated nonlinear physical problem governed by partial equations. In this paper, DQ method is implemented to one dimensional non-liner consolidation equation and the boundary conditions. Euler forward scheme is used to solve the discrete equation, and the pore pressure and consolidation curves are prepared. The present numerical results are compared with the analytical solutions. Compared with the other numerical method, the method of solving the non-linear consolidation equation by the DQ method in this paper is very simple and reasonable. The DQ method is successfully implemented to the soft clay consolidation analysis and can assure satisfied numerical results with less grid points.