Mathematical description of consolidation test

Consolidation and creep problems are important themes for soft soil engineering. Based on the uncoupling assumption that between the primary consolidation and the secondary consolidation is segregated artificially, piecewise analytic functions are used to express the primary consolidation stage and the secondary consolidation stage respectively. However, for most soft soil, the consolidation process and the creep process are coupled and the character of settlement time curve is obtained by the consolidation test at the same time. The paper presents a simple and continuous function to express the whole process of consolidation including immediate settlement stage, the primary consolidation stage and the secondary consolidation stage. And the features of the continuous function are analyzed. Then the results of the long-term (durations to 18 months) consolidation test on clays from the Chek Lap Kok formation prove the lightness of the method. In the end, the parameter meanings of the continuous function are discussed.