Semianalytical Solution of One-Dimensional Consolidation of Multilayered Unsaturated Soils
Linzhong Li, Aifang Qin, Lianghua Jiang
Abstract
This study is devoted to deriving a semianalytical solution to one-dimensional consolidation of multilayered unsaturated soils subjected to an instantaneous loading. The proposed multilayered consolidation model based on Fredlund and Hasan's consolidation theory for unsaturated soils was analytically studied with a combination of Laplace transform and transfer matrix techniques. For two types of boundary conditions, the analytical solutions in the Laplace domain were acquired, while Crump's technique was utilized to carry out the semianalytical solutions in the physical domain. To verify the accuracy of the proposed solution, three examples for single-layered, two-layered, and three-layered soils were presented. In the case of single-layered and three-layered unsaturated soils, the solutions were in agreement with the existing analytical solutions. For two-layered unsaturated soils, the finite-difference result was adopted to illustrate the validity of the semianalytical solutions.