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Variation of hydraulic gradient in nonlinear finite strain consolidation

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Abstract

In the research field of ground water, hydraulic gradient is studied for decades. In the consolidation field, hydraulic gradient is yet to be investigated as an important hydraulic variable. So, the variation of hydraulic gradient in nonlinear finite strain consolidation was focused on in this work. Based on lab tests, the nonlinear compressibility and nonlinear permeability of Ningbo soft clay were obtained. Then, a strongly nonlinear governing equation was derived and it was solved with the finite element method. Afterwards, the numerical analysis was performed and it was verified with the existing experiment for Hong Kong marine clay. It can be found that the variation of hydraulic gradient is closely related to the magnitude of external load and the depth in soils. It is interesting that the absolute value of hydraulic gradient (AVHG) increases rapidly first and then decreases gradually after reaching the maximum at different depths of soils. Furthermore, the changing curves of AVHG can be roughly divided into five phases. This five-phase model can be employed to study the migration of pore water during consolidation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center of Coastal and Urban Geotechnical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Xin-yu Xie  (谢新宇) & Jie-qing Huang  (黄杰卿)

  2. School of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, 315100, China

    Xin-yu Xie  (谢新宇), Jie-qing Huang  (黄杰卿), Wen-jun Wang  (王文军) & Jin-zhu Li  (李金柱)

  3. Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Xin-yu Xie  (谢新宇) & Jie-qing Huang  (黄杰卿)

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  1. Xin-yu Xie  (谢新宇)
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  2. Jie-qing Huang  (黄杰卿)
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  3. Wen-jun Wang  (王文军)
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  4. Jin-zhu Li  (李金柱)
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Correspondence to Xin-yu Xie  (谢新宇).

Additional information

Foundation item: Project(51378469) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(Y1111240) supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(2013A610196) supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo City, China

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Xie, Xy., Huang, Jq., Wang, Wj. et al. Variation of hydraulic gradient in nonlinear finite strain consolidation. J. Cent. South Univ. 21, 4698–4706 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-014-2479-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-014-2479-1

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