Modelling the time-dependent behaviour of soft soils

Time dependence of soft soils has already been thoroughly investigated. The knowledge on creep and relaxation phenomena is generally available in the literature. However, it is still rarely applied in practice. Regarding the organic soils, geotechnical engineers mostly base their calculations on the simple assumptions. Yet, as presented within this article, the rate-dependent behaviour of soft soils is a very special and important feature. It influences both the strength and the stiffness of a soil depending on time. It is, thus, significant to account for time dependence in the geotechnical design when considering the soft soils. This can result in a more robust and economic design of geotechnical structures. Hence, the up-to-date possibilities of regarding creep in practice, which are provided by the existing theories, are reviewed herein.

In this article, we first justify the importance of creep effects in practical applications. Next, we present the fundamental theories explaining the time-dependent behaviour of organic soils. Finally, the revision of the existing constitutive models that can be used in numerical simulations involving soft soils is introduced. Both the models that are implemented in the commercial geotechnical software and some more advanced models that take into account further aspects of soft soils behaviour are revised. The assumptions, the basic equations along with the advantages and the drawbacks of the considered models are described.