Drying of aggregated slurries proceeds through a stage of consolidation prior to bed desaturation. During this period, volume fraction profiles develop within the bed. The magnitude of volume fraction variation is controlled by the rate of mass transfer and the strength of the bed. A two-phase fluid model for stress balances in conjunction with the compressive yield stress constitutive equation is explored to describe the temporal evolution of bed volume fraction profiles. For this purpose, the compressive rheology of the saturated bed is characterized through independent experiments that fix all adjustable parameters. Excellent agreement is found between model predictions and experimental results.