Unloading induces negative excess porewater pressure in soil mass around a foundation pit during excavation. In this work, the dissipation rule of negative excess porewater pressure after excavation was studied. Analytical formulas for calculating the negative excess porewater pressures and the effective stresses were derived based on one-dimensional consolidation theory and Terzaghi’s effective stress principle. The influence of the dissipation of negative excess porewater pressure on earth pressure inside and outside a foundation pit and the stability of the retaining structure were analyzed through a numerical example. It was indicated that the dissipation of negative excess porewater pressure is harmful to the stability of the retaining structure and that rapid construction can make full use of the negative porewater pressure.
This paper presents an analytical solution for one-dimensional consolidation of soft soil under some common types of cyclic loading such as trapezoidal cyclic loading, based on the assumptions proposed by Davis and Raymond (1965) that the decrease in permeability is proportional to the decrease in compressibility during the consolidation process of the soil and that the distribution of initial effective stress is constant with depth. It is verified by the existing analytical solutions in special cases. Using the solution obtained, some diagrams are prepared and the relevant consolidation behavior is investigated.
In this work, semi-analytical methods were used to solve the problem of 1-D consolidation of non-homogeneous soft clay with spatially varying coefficients of permeability and compressibility. The semi-analytical solution was programmed and then verified by comparison with the obtained analytical solution of a special case. Based on the results of some computations and comparisons with the 1-D homogeneous consolidation (by Terzaghi) and the 1-D non-linear consolidation theory (by Davis et al.) of soft clay, some diagrams were prepared and the relevant consolidation behavior of non-homogeneous soils is discussed. It was shown that the result obtained differs greatly from Terzaghi’s theory and that of the non-linear consolidation theory when the coefficients of permeability and compressibility vary greatly.
