Analytical solution to one-dimensional consolidation in unsaturated soils under sinusoidal cyclic loading

Abstract

An analytical solution was presented to the unsaturated soil with a finite thickness under confinement in the lateral direction and sinusoidal cyclic loading in the vertical direction based on Fredlund’s one-dimensional consolidation equation for unsaturated soil. The transfer relationship between the state vectors at the top surface and any depth was gained by applying the Laplace transform and Cayley-Hamilton mathematical methods to the governing equations of water and air, Darcy’s law and Fick’s law. The excess pore-air and pore-water pressures and settlement in the Laplace-transformed domain were obtained by using the Laplace transform with the initial and boundary conditions. The analytical solutions of the excess pore-air and pore-water pressures at any depth and settlement were obtained in the time domain by performing the inverse Laplace transforms. A typical example illustrates the consolidation characteristics of unsaturated soil under sinusoidal loading from analytical results. Finally, comparisons between the analytical solutions and results of the numerical method indicate that the analytical solution is correct.