A simple analytical solution to one‐dimensional consolidation for unsaturated soils

This paper presents a simple analytical solution to Fredlund and Hasan's one‐dimensional (1‐D) consolidation theory for unsaturated soils. The coefficients of permeability and volume change for unsaturated soils are assumed to remain constant throughout the consolidation process. The mathematical expression of the present solution is much simpler compared with the previous available solutions in the literature. Two new variables are introduced to transform the two coupled governing equations of pore‐water and pore‐air pressures into an equivalent set of partial differential equations, which are easily solved with standard mathematical formulas. It is shown that the present analytical solution can be degenerated into that of Terzaghi consolidation for fully saturated condition. The analytical solutions to 1‐D consolidation of an unsaturated soil subjected to instantaneous loading, ramp loading, and exponential loading, for different drainage conditions and initial pore pressure conditions, are summarized in tables for ease of use by practical engineers. In the case studies, the analytical results show good agreement with the available analytical solution in the literature. The consolidation behaviors of unsaturated soils are investigated. The average degree of consolidation at different loading patterns and drainage conditions is presented. The pore‐water pressure isochrones for two different drainage conditions and three initial pore pressure distributions are presented and discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exact solutions for one‐dimensional transient response of fluid‐saturated porous media

Based on the Biot theory, the exact solutions for one‐dimensional transient response of single layer of fluid‐saturated porous media and semi‐infinite media are developed, in which the fluid and solid particles are assumed to be compressible and the inertial, viscous and mechanical couplings are taken into account. First, the control equations in terms of the solid displacement u and a relative displacement w are expressed in matrix form. For problems of single layer under homogeneous boundary conditions, the eigen‐values and the eigen‐functions are obtained by means of the variable separation method, and the displacement vector u is put forward using the searching method. In the case of nonhomogeneous boundary conditions, the boundary conditions are first homogenized, and the displacement field is constructed basing upon the eigen‐functions. Making use of the orthogonality of eigen‐functions, a series of ordinary differential equations with respect to dimensionless time and their corresponding initial conditions are obtained. Those differential equations are solved by the state‐space method, and the series solutions for three typical nonhomogeneous boundary conditions are developed. For semi‐infinite media, the exact solutions in integral form for two kinds of nonhomogeneous boundary conditions are presented by applying the cosine and sine transforms to the basic equations. Finally, three examples are studied to illustrate the validity of the solutions, and to assess the influence of the dynamic permeability coefficient and the fluid inertia to the transient response of porous media. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical solution for one‐dimensional consolidation of unsaturated soils using eigenfunction expansion method

This paper introduces an exact analytical solution for governing flow equations for one‐dimensional consolidation in unsaturated soil stratum using the techniques of eigenfunction expansion and Laplace transformation. The homogeneous boundary conditions adopted in this study are as follows: (i) a one‐way drainage system of homogenous soils, in which the top surface is considered as permeable to air and water, whereas the base is an impervious bedrock; and (ii) a two‐way drainage system where both soil ends allow free dissipation of pore‐air and pore‐water pressures. In addition, the analytical development adopts initial conditions capturing both uniform and linear distributions of the initial excess pore pressures within the soil stratum. Eigenfunctions and eigenvalues are parts of the general solution and can be obtained based on the proposed boundary conditions. Besides, the Laplace transform method is adopted to solve the first‐order differential equations. Once equations with transformed domain are all obtained, the final solutions, which are proposed to be functions of time and depth, can be achieved by taking an inverse Laplace transform. To verify the proposed solution, two worked examples are provided to present the consolidation characteristics of unsaturated soils based on the proposed method. The validation of the recent results against other existing analytical solutions is graphically demonstrated. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐analytical solution to one‐dimensional consolidation for unsaturated soils with semi‐permeable drainage boundary under time‐dependent loading

This paper presents semi‐analytical solutions to Fredlund and Hasan's one‐dimensional consolidation of unsaturated soils with semi‐permeable drainage boundary under time‐dependent loadings. Two variables are introduced to transform two coupled governing equations of pore‐water and pore‐air pressures into an equivalent set of partial differential equations, which are easily solved by the Laplace transform. The pore‐water pressure, pore‐air pressure and settlement are obtained in the Laplace domain. Crump's method is adopted to perform the inverse Laplace transform in order to obtain semi‐analytical solutions in time domain. It is shown that the present solutions are more general and have a good agreement with the existing solutions from literatures. Furthermore, the current solutions can also be degenerated into conventional solutions to one‐dimensional consolidation of unsaturated soils with homogeneous boundaries. Finally, several numerical examples are provided to illustrate consolidation behavior of unsaturated soils under four types of time‐dependent loadings, including instantaneous loading, ramp loading, exponential loading and sinusoidal loading. Parametric studies are illustrated by variations of pore‐air pressure, pore‐water pressure and settlement at different values of the ratio of air–water permeability coefficient, depth and loading parameters. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An explicit one-dimensional consolidation solution with semi-permeable drainage boundary for unsaturated soil

Existing solutions for analyzing one-dimensional (1-D) consolidation of unsaturated soil are only derived to cater to two extreme drainage conditions (fully drained and undrained). This study presents a new explicit solution for 1-D consolidation of unsaturated soil with semi-permeable drainage boundary. Based on the assumptions of two independent stress variables and the governing equations proposed by Fredlund, the eigenfunction expansion method is adopted to develop an explicit analytical solution to calculate excess pore-water and pore-air pressures in an unsaturated soil when it is subjected to external loads. The developed general solutions are expressed in terms of depth, z, and time, t. For the semi-permeable drainage boundary, eigenvalues and eigenfunctions in the space domain are developed. The technique of Laplace transform is used to solve the coupled ordinary differential equations in the time domain. The newly derived explicit solution is verified with the existing semi-analytical method in the literature, and an excellent agreement is obtained. Compared with the semi-analytical solution, the newly derived analytical solution is more straightforward and explicit so that this solution is relatively easier to be implemented into a computer program to carry out a preliminary assessment of 1-D consolidation of unsaturated soil.     

考虑渗透系数变化的非饱和土固结性状分析

基于Fredlund非饱和土一维固结理论,研究了有限厚度的表面透水透气、底面不透水不透气的线弹性和黏弹性非饱和土地基在加荷随时间指数性变化时的一维固结特性。分别得到了两类地基在固结过程中同时考虑液相、气相渗透系数非线性变化和仅考虑液相渗透系数变化两种情况下的半解析解答。利用典型算例进行计算,分析了不同情况下两类地基中超孔隙水、气压力消散以及地基固结度随时间的变化规律,并与不考虑渗透系数变化时的半解析解计算结果进行了对比。结果发现：固结过程中渗透系数呈非线性变化;只考虑液相渗透系数变化时,超孔隙气压力的消散变化不大,超孔隙水压力的消散加快;气相渗透系数变化对超孔隙气的消散产生明显影响,对超孔隙水压力消散影响不大。同时考虑液相和气相渗透系数变化时,土体中超孔隙水、气压力的消散均有明显变化,土体固结速度也相应加快;分析结果对非饱和土固结的进一步研究具有重要意义。     

A closed form analytical solution for two‐dimensional plane strain consolidation of unsaturated soil stratum

This paper discusses the excess pore‐air and pore‐water pressure dissipations and the average degree of consolidation in the 2D plane strain consolidation of an unsaturated soil stratum using eigenfunction expansion and Laplace transformation techniques. In this study, the application of a constant external loading on a soil surface is assumed to immediately generate uniformly or linearly distributed initial excess pore pressures. The general solutions consisting of eigenfunctions and eigenvalues are first proposed. The Laplace transform is then applied to convert the time variable t in partial differential equations into the Laplace complex argument s. Once the domain is obtained, a simplified set of equations with variable s can be achieved. The final analytical solutions can be computed by taking a Laplace inverse. The proposed equations predict the two‐dimensional consolidation behaviour of an unsaturated soil stratum capturing the uniformly and linearly distributed initial excess pore pressures. This study investigates the effects of isotropic and anisotropic permeability conditions on variations of excess pore pressures and the average degree of consolidation. Additionally, isochrones of excess pore pressures along vertical and horizontal directions are presented. It is found that the initial distribution of pore pressures, varying with depth, results in considerable effects on the pore‐water pressure dissipation rate whilst it has insignificant effects on the excess pore‐air pressure dissipation rate. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

连续渗透边界下非饱和土竖井地基固结解析解EI北大核心CSCD

基于非饱和土轴对称固结理论和等应变假设,引入连续渗透边界条件,采用边界条件齐次化、本征函数法,推导得到瞬时均布荷载下非饱和土竖井地基三维固结解析解。通过与双面完全渗透边界条件下已有解析解进行对比,验证了所得解析解的正确性。对所得解进行算例分析发现:通过设置合理上、下界面参数,所得解可用于模拟实际上、下边界透水透气任意分布的情况,弥补了目前无法考虑上、下边界渗透性介于渗透与不渗透之间或不对称分布的不足;在井径比及井深适当的前提下,当径、竖向渗透系数比大于2时,竖向渗流对于超孔隙压力消散的影响较小;当考虑竖向渗流时,上述影响随着上、下边界渗透性能的增强而愈加明显。     

Analytical solutions of linear finite‐ and small‐strain one‐dimensional consolidation

Analytical solutions are presented for linear finite‐strain one‐dimensional consolidation of initially unconsolidated soil layers with surcharge loading for both one‐ and two‐way drainage. These solutions complement earlier solutions for initially unconsolidated soil layers without surcharge and initially normally consolidated soil layers with surcharge. Small‐strain solutions for the consolidation of initially unconsolidated soil layers with surcharge loading are also presented, and the relationship between the earlier solutions for initially unconsolidated soil without surcharge and the corresponding small‐strain solutions, which was not addressed in the earlier work, is clarified. The new solutions for initially unconsolidated soil with surcharge loading can be applied to the analysis of low stress consolidation tests and to the partial validation of numerical solutions of non‐linear finite‐strain consolidation. They also clarify a formerly perplexing aspect of finite‐strain solution charts first noted in numerical solutions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

非饱和土拟二维平面应变固结问题的解析计算方法

基于Fredlund非饱和土一维固结理论,建立了二维平面应变条件下的固结方程组,并得到了单层非饱和土平面应变条件下的解析解。基于相关理论,假设体变系数和渗透系数都为常量,同时考虑到瞬时加载条件下,沿着土体深度方向上产生均匀或者线性分布的初始超孔隙压力,建立了二阶二元偏微分方程组。求解时,引入函数方法来降低方程的阶数,然后通过分离变量法获得方程的通解。在此基础上,结合一个针对单面排水条件下二维平面应变问题案例,通过与数值解对比,验证了所提方法的正确性。并采用所提方法计算获得了二维平面下超孔隙水压力、气压力沿垂直和水平方向消散的等时线,通过计算对比,分析了不同线性分布情况下,初始超孔隙压力对固结消散过程的影响。研究结果表明:初始超孔隙压力的不同分布对超孔隙气压力消散的影响几乎可以忽略,而对超孔隙水压力消散的影响更大。     

非饱和土一维固结混合流体方法的解析分析

对采用混合可压缩流体方法分析非饱和土一维固结问题的固结方程进行了求解,在得到的解析解的基础上,对影响非饱和土一维固结的因素进行了分析。分析结果表明,在采用混合流体方法计算非饱和土一维固结的孔隙水压力时,所用公式与计算饱和土一维固结的太沙基理论公式基本相同,不同之处在于引入Bishop有效应力系数来体现孔隙气对孔隙水的影响。而在非饱和土孔隙气压的计算公式中除了体现孔隙水对孔隙气的影响参数以外,还有体现孔隙气体的可压缩性对固结影响的参数。在所有影响因素中,影响非饱和土一维固结最重要的因素是孔隙流体的渗流路径。     

Three‐dimensional transient thermo‐hydro‐mechanical fundamental solutions of unsaturated soils

The governing differential equations of unsaturated soils considering the thermo‐poro‐mechanical behaviour consist of equilibrium, moisture air and heat transfer equations. In this paper at first, following some necessary simplifications, the thermal three‐dimensional fundamental solution for an unsaturated deformable porous medium with linear elastic behaviour in Laplace transform domain is presented. Subsequently, the closed‐form time domain fundamental solutions are derived by analytical inversion of the Laplace transform domain solutions. Then a set of numerical results are presented, which demonstrate the accuracies and some salient features of the derived analytical transient fundamental solutions. Finally, the closed‐form time domain fundamental solution will be verified mathematically by comparison with the previously introduced corresponding fundamental solution. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

非饱和土一维大变形固结模型

基于分段线性差分法,建立了一种非饱和土一维大变形固结模型。该模型可考虑土性参数非线性变化,可计算与分析大变形问题,并编制了Fortran计算程序。在现有解答和试验数据的基础上,对该模型进行了验证,瞬时加载情况下模型数值解与现有解答基本吻合,考虑加载过程下的数值解与试验数据吻合。进行了大变形算例分析,对比了加荷压密与消散固结阶段土层变形,探讨了孔隙气、水渗透系数比对土层沉降量、饱和度和不同应变情况下固结度的影响规律,分析了非饱和土大、小变形固结理论计算孔隙水（气）压和沉降量的差异。     

Semi-analytical solutions to one-dimensional consolidation for unsaturated soils with symmetric semi-permeable drainage boundary

This paper presents semi-analytical solutions to Fredlund and Hasan’s one-dimensional consolidation for unsaturated soils under symmetric semi-permeable drainage boundary conditions. Two variables are introduced to transform two coupled governing equations of pore-air and pore-water pressures into an equivalent set of partial differential equations, which are easily solved by the Laplace transform. Then, the pore-air and pore-water pressures, and soil settlement are obtained in the Laplace domain. Crump’s method is adopted to perform the inverse Laplace transform in order to obtain semi-analytical solutions in time domain. It is shown that the present solution is more applicable to various types of drainage boundary conditions, and in a good agreement with existing solutions from the literature. Furthermore, several numerical examples are provided to investigate the consolidation behavior of an unsaturated single-layer soil with traditional drainage boundary (single or double), and single-sided and double-sided semi-permeable drainage boundaries. Finally, it illustrates the changes in pore-air and pore-water pressures and soil settlement with time at different values of symmetric semi-permeable drainage boundary conditions parameters. In addition, parametric studies are conducted by the variations of pore-air and pore-water pressures at different ratios of air-water permeability coefficient and the depth.     

Semi-analytical solutions of two-dimensional plane strain consolidation in unsaturated soils subjected to the lateral semipermeable drainage boundary

The study presents semi-analytical solutions of two-dimensional plane strain consolidation problem in unsaturated soils incorporating the lateral semipermeable drainage boundary by adopting Fourier sine series and Laplace transform. The two-dimensional plane strain consolidation equations in the form of two-order partial differential equations with three variables are firstly converted to two-order partial differential equations with two variables, which are similar to those of one-dimensional consolidation problem. The four-order ordinary differential equations about excess pore-air and excess pore-water pressures are got by applying Laplace transform and the substitution method. Then, the solutions of excess pore pressures and settlement are achieved in the Laplace transform domain. Afterwards, on the basis of Crump's method, the inverse Laplace transform is conducted to obtain the analytical solutions in time domain. The comparison is conducted to verify the exactness of the obtained solutions, and the two-dimensional plane strain consolidation property with the lateral semipermeable drainage boundary is illustrated and discussed. Parametric studies are demonstrated for the excess pore pressures and normalized settlement with the change of the boundary parameters, air-water and lateral-vertical permeability coefficients, and the distance and depth. It can be found that the lateral semipermeable drainage boundary impedes the consolidation rate obviously, and when different investigated parameters are adopted, the consolidation property is similar to each other under the later permeable and semipermeable drainage boundary conditions.     

非饱和土层一维固结特性分析

在Fredlund非饱和土的一维固结理论的基础上进行假设,由得出的液相及气相的控制方程、Darcy定律及Fick定律,采用Laplace 变换、逆变换等数学方法得到了大面积均布瞬时加载下表面为透水透气面、底面为不透水和不透气面的非饱和土层一维固结时间域内的超孔隙水压力、超孔隙气压力及土层沉降的解析解;应用典型算例,分析了不同气、水渗透系数比情况下土体超孔隙水压力、超孔隙气压力消散及土层沉降随时间的变化规律以及不同时间超孔隙水压力、超孔隙气压力消散随深度的变化规律。将得出的结果退化成相应的饱和土的解与太沙基饱和土固结理论结果比较,验证了其正确性。     

非饱和土二维固结简化计算的研究

针对较高饱和度的非饱和土二维固结问题展开研究。对于较高饱和度的非饱和土,如饱和度 时,将孔隙中气、水近似地看作可压缩的气、水混合流体后,非饱和土近似为土骨架和混合流体的二相土。考虑混合流体的压缩性,建立混合流体的连续方程。联立平衡方程和混合流体的连续方程,求出应力-应变和混合流体压力;再建立水连续方程求解水压力,继而求出气压力、吸力等。算例表明：加载和消散过程中,混合流体与水压力变化基本一致,气压的作用并不大;地基变形过程与高速公路填筑过程中地基变形发生规律一致。说明该简化方法是合理的,并促进了非饱和土固结变形计算走向实用化。     

Numerical analysis of a one‐dimensional infiltration problem in unsaturated soil by a seepage–deformation coupled method

A multiphase coupled elasto‐viscoplastic finite element analysis formulation, based on the theory of porous media, is used to describe the rainfall infiltration process into a one‐dimensional soil column. Using this framework, we have numerically analyzed the generation of pore water pressure and deformations when rainfall is applied to the soil. A parametric study, including rainfall intensity, soil–water characteristic curves, and permeability, is carried out to observe their influence on the changes in pore water pressure and volumetric strain. From the numerical results, it is shown that the generation of pore water pressure and volumetric strain is mainly controlled by material parameters α and n′ that describe the soil–water characteristic curve. A comparison with the laboratory results shows that the proposed method can describe very well the characteristics observed during the experiments of one‐dimensional water infiltration into a layered unsaturated soil column. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Explicit approximate analytical solutions of seepage‐deformation in unsaturated soils

An approximate analytical solution is presented for the coupled seepage and deformation problem of unsaturated soils. Because of the matric suction dependence of both saturation and permeability coefficient, the coupled governing equations are strongly nonlinear. To obtain an analytical solution, these coupled governing equations are linearized and analytically solved for a specified saturation using the eigenfunction method. Then, the obtained analytical solutions are extended to the entire saturation range. Comparison between the current solution and the previous theoretical solution indicates that the proposed solution yields excellent results. Due to its analytical nature, the proposed procedure can be effectively used to obtain the solution of the coupled seepage and deformation of unsaturated soils.     

Analytical theory for one‐dimensional consolidation of clayey soils exhibiting rheological characteristics under time‐dependent loading

This paper presents analytical solutions to the one‐dimensional consolidation problem taking into consideration the rheological properties of clayey soil under variable loadings. A four‐element rheological model is introduced, and different loading types are involved, i.e. constant loading, one‐step loading, triangular loading, rectangular loading, and isosceles–trapezoidal cyclic loading. The differential equations governing consolidation are solved by the Laplace transform. Based on the solutions obtained, the influences of the rheological parameters and loading conditions on the consolidation process are investigated. It has been shown that the consolidation behavior is mainly governed by four dimensionless parameters, a₁, a₂, b, and T_v0. Load shape has a great influence on the rate of consolidation. A decrease either in the modulus of the spring in the Kelvin body or in the viscosity coefficient of independent dashpot will slow down the rate of consolidation. An increase in the viscosity coefficient of the dashpot in the Kelvin body will make the rate of consolidation increase at an early stage but decrease at a later stage. For isosceles–trapezoidal cyclic loading, the consolidation rate in each cycle reaches a maximum at the end of the constant loading phase and the minimum at the end of this cycle. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.