Coupled consolidation theory for saturated and unsaturated soils Conference Paper

Biot (1941) first proposed two constitutive relationships for consolidation of an unsaturated soil with occluded air bubbles. Fredlund and Morgenstern (1976) later proposed that the constitutive equation for an unsaturated soil with a continuous air phase would have the similar form based on the two stress state variables concept. In this study, the physical meanings of the parameters in the constitutive relationships are reexamined. A new set of differential equations for the coupled consolidation of saturated-unsaturated soils with a continuous air phase is derived by using a thermodynamic analogue. It is found that Biot's consolidation theory can only be used for saturated soils rather than for both saturated and unsaturated soils with air bubbles. A method to solve the derived differential equations is proposed. 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Poromechanics III: Biot Centennial (1905-2005) - Proceedings of the 3rd Biot Conference on Poromechanics

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