Experimental investigation on the creep behavior of an unsaturated clay

Abstract

To better understand the long-term deformation of landslides with consideration of the influence of water content variation, a series of triaxial creep tests with suction control was conducted on clay specimens taken from one large-scale landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir area in China. Results indicate that, in the double-logarithmic coordinates, the axial strain increases linearly and the axial strain-rate decreases linearly with the elapsed time; the axial strain and strain rate increase with increasing deviator stress levels and decreasing matric suction. For theoretical analysis, based on the simulation of the test results by an empirical creep model developed for saturated soils, a linear relationship was established between suction and one of the parameters of the model. Then, a revised model with consideration of suction effects was developed. In the revised model, a power function was adopted for the description of the strain–time relationship and a hyperbolic function was employed for the stress–strain relationship. Verification indicated that the calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental ones.