Influence of anisotropy, destructuration and viscosity on the behavior of an embankment on soft clay

The paper aims to investigate the influence of different features of natural clays, namely anisotropy, destructuration and viscosity, on modeling the delayed behavior of a benchmark embankment on soft clay. The elasto-viscoplastic models, which are based on elasto-plastic models (Modified Cam Clay, S-CLAY1 and S-CLAY1S) and Perzyna's overstress theory are coupled with Biot's consolidation theory. The parameters for the models can be determined from the same set of triaxial and oedometer tests. The same set of common soil constants and state parameters is employed for all models, with additional parameters required for representing different soil features. The finite element predictions compare the results for settlement, horizontal displacement and excess pore pressure during the construction and the subsequent consolidation for all models. In addition, the stress paths under the embankment loading are also compared each other to improve the understanding of the effect of different soil features. All simulations demonstrate that all three features influence significantly the predictions. As a consequence, accounting for soil features need to be carefully considered when applied to real construction sites.