• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.53-68
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• 1981

Most clays under sustained load exhibit time-dependent deformation because of creep movement of soil particles and many investigators have attempted to relate their findings to the creep behavior of natural ground and to the long-term stability of slopes. Since the creep behavior of clays may assume a variety of forms depending on such factors as soil plasticity, activity and water content, it is difficult and complicated to analyse the creep behavior of clays. Rheological models composed of linear springs in combination with linear or nonlinear dashpots and sliders, are generally used for the mathematical description of the time-dependent behavior of soils. Most rheological models, however, have been proposed to simulate the behavior of secondary compression for saturated clays and few definitive data exist that can evaluate the behavior of non-saturated clays under the action of sustained stress. The clays change gradually from a solid state through plastic state to a liquid state with increasing water content, therefore, the rheological models also change. On the other hand, creep is time-dependent, and also the effect of thixotropy is time-function. Consequently, there may be certain correlations between creep behavior and the effects of thixotropy in compacted clays. In addition, the states of clay depend on water content and hence the height of the specimen under drained conditions. Futhermore, based on present and past studies, because immediate elastic deformation occurs instantly after the pressure increment without time-delayed behavior, the factor representing immediate elastic deformations in the rheological model is necessary. The investigation described in this paper, based on rheological model, is designed to identify the immediate elastic deformations and the effects of thixotropy and height of clay specimens with varing water content and stress level on creep deformations. For these purposes, the uniaxial drain-type creep tests were performed. Test results and data for three compacted clays have shown that a linear top spring is needed to account for immediate elastic deformations in the rheological model, and at lower water content below the visco-plastic limit, the effects of thixotropy and height of clay specimens can be represented by the proposed rheological model not considering the effects. Therefore, the rheological model does not necessitate the other factors representing these effects. On the other hand, at water content higher than the visco-plastic limit, although the state behavior of clays is visco-plastic or viscous flow at the beginning of the test, the state behavior, in the case of the lower height sample, does not represent the same behavior during the process of the test, because of rapid drainage. In these cases, the rheological model does not coincide with the model in the case of the higher specimens.