Finite element method for consolidation analysis of one-dimensional pr

The consolidation analysis of clay strata, such as the prediction of settlement of foundation and reclamation over clay soils, is of practical importance in geotechnical engineering. The first rational approach to this problem based on the principle of effective stress was proposed by Terzaghi (1943). Since then, extensive research has been carried out in this field. The stress-strain behavior of normally consolidated clay has been clearly demonstrated to be elastoplastic and viscous in nature (Bjerrum, 1967; Schofield and Wroth, 1968; Dafalias, 1982; Adachi and Oka, 1982; Adachi et al., 1987; Leroueil et al., 1985, 1988; Yin and Graham, 1989, 1994). However, analytical solutions of consolidation problems considering general stress-strain behavior of soils can only be found in limited cases because of the complexity of the coupled set of partial differential equations. For general situations, numerical techniques should be utilized to obtain the consolidation solutions (Garlanger, 1972; Schiffman and Arya, 1977; Desai et al., 1979; Kabbaj et al., 1986; Yin and Graham, 1996; Zhu and Yin, 1999, 2000).