Summary In this study, a fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) theoretical model, called the TSINGHUA-THERMOSOIL model, which is applicable in saturated soils, was developed based on a non-equilibrium thermodynamic approach (see Groot S, Mazur P. Non-Equilibrium thermodynamics. Amsterdam: North-Holland Pub. Co., 1962). This model simplifies the mathematical description of a THM coupling system to the modeling of a group of migration coefficients and energy functions by means of the non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory. The important concept of granular entropy was introduced for describing the granular fluctuation and the resulting transient elasticity. Therefore, non-elastic mechanical constitutive relations that do not require such concepts as yield surface and flow rule are obtained. The physical process of bound pore water transforming into free water when the temperature rises was taken into consideration for describing the phenomenon of the volumetric compression of normally consolidated and slightly over-consolidated clays under non-isothermal conditions. The behavior of thermal consolidation and drained shear tests at different temperatures for saturated Kaolin clay with different over-consolidation ratios (OCR) were simulated using this model. The effect of the OCR value, the heating rate and temperature cycling on the thermal consolidation and the effect of the temperature on the shear strength were analyzed and compared with existing experimental data. The results showed that the model proposed in this paper can accurately describe the thermal consolidation and the basic law of shearing for saturated soil, which preliminarily proves the validity of the model. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.