Modelling time-dependent behaviour of Murro test embankment

Abstract

This paper investigates the time-dependent behaviour of Murro test embankment in Finland. The embankment was built in 1993 on a soft natural clay deposit, which exhibits large strain anisotropy, destructuration and viscosity. The study is based on extensive experimental data from triaxial and oedometer tests on intact and reconstituted soil samples which shed light on the influence of time on mechanical properties, including testing designed for studying soil anisotropy and destructuration. The interpretation of the results is done in the framework of a recently developed elasto-viscoplastic model EVP-SCLAY1S, which is used to simulate the soft soil deposit coupled with Biot's consolidation theory. The determination of model parameters from the test results demonstrates that the model can be relatively easily used for practical applications. Using these parameters, two-dimensional finite-element analyses have been made as large deformation analysis. The comparisons between calculations and measurements demonstrate that the proposed model can be satisfactorily used to describe the time-dependent behaviour of the embankment on structured clay.