ABSTRACT
The aim of this research is to gain a more thorough understanding of how soft clays can be modeled and predicted more accurately with respect to primary consolidation settlements by using finite element analysis, and how to cope with uncertainties that follow the selection of soil parameters drawn from standard soil investigation reports. The natural soil used in this study is a brown soft clay soil brought from Al- Sadder site east of Baghdad city. Standard tests were performed to determine the physical and chemical properties of the soil. The grain size distribution of the soil used is which reveals that the soil is composed of (7%) sand, (38%) silt and (55 %) clay. The consistency limit tests include liquid limit and plastic limit tests of soil by using the Casagrande apparatus in accordance with ASTM D 4318 standard procedure. Soil classification was (CL) according to plasticity chart.
