Coefficient of Consolidation

A parameter quantifying the rate at which excess pore water pressure dissipates and one-dimensional volume change occurs in a saturated porous soil undergoing consolidation; in Terzaghi's classical one-dimensional consolidation model it appears as the hydraulic diffusivity Cv that governs the diffusion equation ∂u/∂t = Cv ∂²u/∂z² and is commonly expressed from measurable quantities as Cv = k/(mv γ