3-D time-dependent analysis of multilayered cross-anisotropic saturated soils based on the fractional viscoelastic model

Abstract

• The fractional Merchant model is introduced to simulate the viscoelasticity of soil skeleton. • 3-D solutions for fractional viscoelastic saturated soils are obtained by the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle. • Time-dependent analysis of multilayered cross-anisotropic fractional viscoelastic saturated soils is carried out. The fractional Merchant viscoelastic model is introduced to simulate the viscoelasticity of soil skeleton in this study. According to the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle, elastic parameters including shear modulus G v , horizontal elastic modulus E h and vertical elastic modulus E v are replaced by the reciprocal of the flexibility coefficient of viscoelastic media in the Laplace transformed domain. Then, based on the precise integration solutions of multilayered cross-anisotropic elastic saturated soils, 3-D solutions of viscoelastic saturated soils are derived. The final solutions in the physical domain are obtained by the Laplace numerical inversion. The correctness of theories and programs is verified by comparing the numerical results with existing references. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to investigate the effects of viscoelastic parameters, cross-anisotropic parameters and stratification of soils on time-dependent displacement and excess pore water pressure.