Three-dimensional consolidation deformation analysis of porous layered soft soils considering asymmetric effects

Long-term settlements for underground structures, such as tunnels and pipelines, are generally observed after the completion of construction in soft clay. The soil consolidation characteristic has great influences on the long-term deformation for underground structures. A three-dimensional consolidation analysis method under the asymmetric loads is developed for porous layered soil based on Biot's classical theory. Time-displacement effects can be fully considered in this work and the analytical solutions are obtained by the state space approach in the Cartesian coordinate. The Laplace and double Fourier integral transform are applied to the state variables in order to reduce the partial differential equations into algebraic differential equations and easily obtain the state space solution. Starting from the governing equations of saturated porous soil, the basic relationship of state space variables is established between the ground surface and the arbitrary depth in the integral transform domain. Based on the continuity conditions and boundary conditions of the multi-layered pore soil model, the multi-layered pore half-space solutions are obtained by means of the transfer matrix method and the inverse integral transforms. The accuracy of proposed method is demonstrated with existing classical solutions. The results indicate that the porous homogenous soils as well as the porous non-homogenous layered soils can be considered in this proposed method. When the consolidation time factor is 0.01, the value of immediate consolidation settlement coefficient calculated by the weighted homogenous solution is 27.4% bigger than the one calculated by the non-homogeneity solution. When the consolidation time factor is 0.05, the value of excess pore water pressure for the weighted homogenous solution is 27.2% bigger than the one for the non-homogeneity solution. It is shown that the material non-homogeneity has a great influence on the long-term settlements and the dissipation process of excess pore water pressure.

Theoretical and experimental studies of heat transfer with moving phase-change interface in freezing and thawing of porous potting soil

Soil in a cold region is subject to frequent freezing and thawing cycles.Soil frozen for a prolonged period may cause adverse freeze damage to the plants due to cell dehydration or root cell rupture.It is important to understand the detailed heat transfer behaviors of the freezing and thawing processes to prevent freeze damage,and to devise proper mitigation measures for effective pot planting in cold regions.A theoretical model was developed to analyze the transient moving phase-change interface heat transfer in the freezing and thawing of porous potting soil.The theoretical derivation is based on the assumption that the soil freezes completely at a single temperature.Microscopic poromechanic effects on heat transfer behavior were ignored.The spatial domain of the problem was simplified to a 1D spherical coordinate system with variation in the radial direction.Green's function was applied to solve for the time-dependent body temperature.Experiments were conducted for validation of the theoretical model.Reasonable agreement between the theoretical predictions and experimental measurements was obtained.The theoretical model developed can be easily used to determine the sensitivity of various parameters in the freezing/thawing processes,e.g.,thermal properties of soil,ambient temperature,and planting pot size.