Coupled creep and nonlinear consolidation of soft soils in disturbed state concept framework

Abstract

A simplified solution for coupled creep and nonlinear consolidation of soils has been presented based on the disturbed state concept (DSC). The nonlinearity of the problem due to the change of the material properties and thicknesses of the soil layer, and creep was considered in the proposed solution. The state of the soil before primary consolidation was considered as initially relatively intact, and after primary consolidation during the pure creep phase was considered as finally fully adjusted state. The state of the soil during the coupled creep and consolidation process was related to its relatively intact and fully adjusted states using two consolidation and creep state functions that have been derived based on the numerical solution of the problem. Using the consolidation state function, the solutions of Terzaghi’s theory of consolidation in two initial and end of the primary consolidation states were interpolated to achieve the solution of the nonlinear primary consolidation phase. The creep state function was used to implement the effect of the creep deformation during and after the primary consolidation in the settlement calculations. The result of the proposed method was verified by the results of the numerical and approximate methods along with laboratory data in the literature.