Acta Geotechnica

DOI 10.1007/s11440-015-0411-y

RESEARCH PAPER

Nonlinearity of one-dimensional creep characteristics of soft clays

Qi-Yin Zhu1 • Zhen-Yu Yin2,3 • Pierre-Yves Hicher3 • Shui-Long Shen4

Received: 10 February 2015 / Accepted: 24 July 2015

Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Abstract This study focuses on the quantitative used in the formulation are correlated with Atterberg lim-
description of the evolution of creep coefficient (Cae) with its, allowing us to suggest a relationship between Cae,
both soil density and soil structure under 1D compression. Atterberg limits and inter-particle bonding for a given soil.
Firstly, conventional consolidation test results on various Finally, the validity of the proposed formulation is exam-
reconstituted clays are selected in order to investigate the ined by comparing experimental and predicted Cae values
evolution of Cae with void ratio of soils, which can be for both reconstituted and intact samples of natural soft
described by a simple nonlinear creep formulation. Sec- clays. The proposed formulation is also validated by
ondly, the contributions of the inter-particle bonding and comparing the computed and measured void ratio with time
debonding for soft structured clays to Cae are analyzed on two intact clays.
based on test results on intact and reconstituted samples of
the same clay. A material constant q, function of the Keywords Atterberg limits  Creep  Density 
bonding ratio v, is introduced in order to quantify the Destructuration  Oedometer test  Soft clays
contribution of the soil structure to Cae, and a nonlinear
creep formulation accounting for both soil density and soil
structure is finally proposed. Furthermore, the parameters 1 Introduction

Natural soft clays exhibit significant creep under both

laboratory and in situ conditions after primary consolida-
tion [2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17, 19, 27, 29–32, 34]. In early days,
this was often called ‘‘secondary consolidation.’’ The term
‘‘creep’’ is preferable because it is referred to the com-
pression of soil skeleton under a constant loading, having
& Zhen-Yu Yin
[email protected]
nothing to do with consolidation [28]. The creep coeffi-
cient, defined as Cae = De/Dlogt based on one-dimensional
1
State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep creep testing, is a key parameter for engineering practice
Underground Engineering, China University of Mining and and viscoplastic modeling [1, 11, 12, 26, 29, 32, 33]. Thus,
Technology, Xuzhou 221008, People’s Republic of China
it is important to evaluate this coefficient with accuracy.
2
Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Many studies on the characteristics of the creep have
Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of
Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering,
been carried out through one-dimensional creep tests on
Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, both reconstituted and intact natural clay samples. For
People’s Republic of China reconstituted clay, the value of Cae varies with the void
3
Ecole Centrale de Nantes, GeM UMR CNRS 6183, LUNAM ratio. For instance, Yin [27] and Yin et al. [30] formulated
University, Nantes, France a nonlinear expression of Cae function of volumetric strain
4
Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong and time under applied stresses considering the density or
University, Shanghai 200240, People’s Republic of China void ratio of soils. More recently, Yin et al. [34] proposed

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in a more precise way a linear decrease in Cae with the void correlations could be established in order to estimate the
ratio in a double logarithm plane based on results on var- value of Cae from Atterberg limits for a given natural soft
ious reconstituted clays. For intact natural soft clays, the clay. Then, the proposed function is validated by compar-
value of Cae depends highly on the destructuration, as ing the estimated and experimental Cae values.
demonstrated by Karstunen and Yin [10], Leroueil et al.
[15], Mesri and Godlewski [17] and Yin et al. [33], etc.
Therefore, Cae is generally not constant but dependent on 2 Nonlinear creep related to soil density
both the void ratio and the soil structure (or inter-particle
bonding and debonding) of soft soils. However, few studies 2.1 Experimental evidence
have been devoted to a quantitative description of the
nonlinear evolution of Cae due to changes of both soil Conventional consolidation tests on various soft clays with
density and soil structure in natural soft clays. Furthermore, different mineral contents and Atterberg limits were
for correlating Cae to clay physical properties (e.g., Atter- selected for this study. In this section, all the selected data
berg limits), an average value or the value of Cae corre- are based on reconstituted samples to eliminate the influ-
sponding to a final high stress level in conventional ence of soil structure. Some physical properties of the
oedometer tests has usually been adopted. Since Cae is not selected clays are summarized in Table 1. According to the
a constant, it is necessary to seek a reference value of Cae chart shown in Fig. 1, the selected soils consist of low
to re-establish the correlation. plastic clays, high plastic inorganic clays and high plastic
In this study, therefore, we focus on the quantitative silty clays. Since the void ratio (e) is a physical state of
description of the evolution of Cae with both void ratio and soils representing the soil density and the deformation
soil structure under the condition of applied stresses potential, the Cae values for all the selected clays are
exceeding the yield stress. For this purpose, available test individually plotted against the void ratio in a double
results on intact and reconstituted samples of natural soft logarithmic plane, presented in Fig. 2. All the results show
clays are selected for analyses. We also carry out con- that log(Cae) is linearly related to log(e).
ventional consolidation tests on reconstituted and intact
samples of several clays for expanding our data base. The 2.2 Nonlinear creep formulation accounting
values of Cae corresponding to liquid and plastic limits for void ratio
(CaeL, CaeP) are then estimated as reference values, based
on which Cae could be expressed as a function of one of the The consideration of the density and void ratio has been
reference values Caef (=CaeL or CaeP), the water content addressed by Yin [27] based on Hong Kong marine clay.
(w) and the inter-particle bonding (v). Furthermore, Based on the results in Fig. 2, the nonlinear creep

Table 1 Summary of creep coefficient of reconstituted clays under normally consolidated state
Clay Depth/m Cae Applied stress corresponding m e0 Gs wL IP
to Cae/kPa

Nanjing clay (1) [36] 7 0.007–0.011 25–1600 0.6627 1.8 2.7 44 21

Nanjing clay (2) [36] 9 0.011–0.015 200–800 0.7257 1.33 2.72 52 26
Wenzhou clay (1) [36] 4 0.013–0.021 25–1600 0.5489 1.67 2.7 60 32
Wenzhou clay (2) [36] 10 0.015–0.023 50–1600 0.5503 1.79 2.7 65 37
Lianyungang clay (1) [36] 4 0.023–0.039 25–1600 0.7013 2.3 2.74 86 55
Lianyungang clay (2) [36] 12 0.014–0.022 50–1600 0.6472 1.78 2.72 63 36
Shanghai clay (1) [16] 8.5 0.0072–0.0086 100–800 0.5464 1.02 2.64 51 24.6
Haarajoki clay [24] 5–15 0.0108–0.0668 40–640 2.1169 2.97 2.77 88 62
Suurpelto clay [24] 11 0.0117–0.0585 40–640 1.2273 2.66 2.52 80 57
Vanttila clay [33] 2.8 0.0212–0.0516 40–640 0.8205 3.35 2.7 90 60
Murro clay [10] 4 0.0184–0.0375 10–600 0.7337 1.94 2.66 88 54
HKMC [30] Seabed 0.0054–0.0163 100–3200 1.0881 1.5 2.66 60 32
Shanghai clay (2)* 12 0.0062–0.0076 100–1600 0.4209 1.06 2.7 42.5 20
Zhoushan clay* 8 0.0058–0.0076 50–1600 0.3239 1.07 2.72 40.7 20
Kaolin* – 0.0058–0.0062 50–1600 0.1372 1.13 2.65 40 20
e0 initial void ratio, Gs specific gravity, wL liquid limit, IP plasticity index
* values from tests conducted by authors in this study

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150 Nanjing clay(1) schematic plot of the compression curves of intact and
CL: Low plastic inorganic clays, sandy and silty clays Wenzhou clay(1)
OL: Low plastic inorganic or organic silty clays
Lianyungang clay(1)
reconstituted clay samples. For a given inelastic strain level
CH: High plastic inorganic clays
OH: High plastic fine sandy and silty clays Haarajoki clay Dep, the bond degradation results in the current stress r0v
Suurpelto clay
100 *: Present study
Vanttila clay
reaching point A instead of point B (assuming no
CH Murro clay destructuring). Corresponding to stress r0v at DeP, we define
an intrinsic stress r0vi , which is the stress for a reconstituted
IP

HKMC
U-line: IP=0.9(wL-8)
Zhoushan clay*
50 Kaolin* sample at the same inelastic strain increment (point C).
OH Nanjing clay(2)
Based on this plot, a bonding ratio can be defined by v ¼
Wenzhou clay(2)
A-line: IP=0.73(wL-20) 
CL
OL
Lianyungang clay(2)
r0v r0vi  1 with an initial bonding ratio of v0 ¼
Shanghai(1)
0 Shanghai(2)*
.
0 50
wL
100 150
Zhangzhou clay r0p0 r0pi0  1 (similar to Gens and Nova [8]; Yin et al. [33,
34]). When the strain increases, the inter-particle bonds are
Fig. 1 Classification of soils by liquid limit and plasticity index progressively broken and v decreases from its initial value
v0 toward zero, corresponding to a state where all the bonds
formulation based on Finnish clays proposed by Yin et al.
are completely destroyed, as shown in Fig. 3.
[34] can be adopted:
Adopting this concept, we consider that the difference
Cae =Caef ¼ ðe=ef Þm ð1Þ between the values of Cae at point A and point C is due to
the effect of soil structure. Defining the creep coefficients
where Caef and ef are reference values of Cae and e,
Cae(I) and Cae(R) at points A and C (Fig. 3), the additional
respectively (the initial in situ void ratio e0 was used as ef
creep induced by destructuration (or inter-particle
by Yin et al. [34]) and m is a material constant representing
debonding) can be written as:
the slope of the log(Cae)–log(e) curve which can be mea-
sured in a straightforward way (summarized in Table 1 for DCae ¼ Cae ðI Þ  Cae ðRÞ ð3Þ
all clays). It is worth noting that Cae is conventionally
3.2 Nonlinear creep formulation accounting for soil
defined as the slope of the secondary compression line with
structure
the logarithm of time, which is reasonable for design
purpose in civil engineering, but resulting in a negative
To investigate the contribution of soil structure on Cae,
void ratio during creep under long periods of time, whereas
conventional consolidation tests on both intact and recon-
Eq. (1) imposes a value of e converging toward zero but
stituted clay samples of the same clay are necessary.
remaining always positive.
Table 2 summarizes the available results of 1D creep tests
The reference point (Caef, ef) can be arbitrary selected.
on both intact and reconstituted samples of ten different
However, it could be of interest to select specific values of
clays (corresponding to the first ten clays in Table 2,
the reference void ratio. The void ratio at the liquid or
including the tests on Shanghai clay performed in this
plastic limit (eL or eP) is usually adopted to establish the
study). The classification of these clays is shown in Fig. 1.
equations for compressibility [20, 21]. These two values
Figure 4 presents the plots of Cae(I) with the bonding
can be easily determined from the liquid or plastic limits
ratio v, where Cae(I) in these graphs was directly measured
wL and wP which are usually available physical properties
from tests on intact clays. Note that Cae(R) was estimated
of clayey soils. Along these lines, two representative points
by Eq. (1) from experimental data on reconstituted clays at
(corresponding to eL and eP) on the log(Cae)–log(e) curve
the corresponding void ratio (point C in Fig. 3) and served
can be alternatively used as reference points. Based on
as the reference for the effect of destructuration. It can be
Fig. 2, both CaeL and CaeP corresponding to the void ratios
seen that Cae(I) decreases linearly with the decreasing of v
eL and eP can be obtained and Eq. (1) can be rewritten as
in a logarithmic scale. Based on the concept used to define
Cae ¼ CaeL ðe=wL Gs Þm or Cae ¼ CaeP ðe=wP Gs Þm ð2Þ v (Fig. 3), we can express the contribution of the soil
structure to the creep coefficient by the index q:
3 Nonlinear creep related to soil structure q ¼ Cae ðI Þ=Cae ðRÞ  1 or q ¼ DCae =Cae ðRÞ ð4Þ
where q is always positive. In order to investigate the
3.1 Experimental evidence relation between q and v, values of q for all the selected
clays were estimated by Eq. (4) and plotted versus v in
During conventional consolidation tests on intact samples Fig. 5. It can be observed that q presents a linear
of natural soft clays, the shape of the post-yield compres- relationship with log(v), which can be expressed as:
sion curve is significantly influenced by the debonding
process during straining [10, 13, 23]. Figure 3 shows the q ¼ n logðv=v0 Þ þ q0 ð5Þ

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Fig. 2 Creep coefficient versus void ratio in double logarithmic scale for different reconstituted clays

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variables v and e. As described earlier, eL or eP can be used

as ef, and the corresponding values CaeL or CaeP obtained
from Fig. 2 can be used as Caef. The material constants
Caef, ef, m can be determined from tests on reconstituted
clay and v0, q0, n from tests on both reconstituted and
intact clays. Note that all material constants can be deter-
mined from conventional oedometer tests in a straightfor-
ward way.
The creep behavior is closely connected to the micro-
properties of clay, such as the shape of particle, the inter-/
intra-aggregate pore size distribution and the double layer,
which can be characterized by Atterberg limits [18]. Thus,
the correlations between material constants relating to
creep (Eq. 6) and Atterberg limits were investigated based
on available results, considering that such correlations
Fig. 3 Definition of the amount of inter-particle bonds would be useful for engineering practice.

where n is a material constant representing the slope of the

q–log(v) curve, q0 is the initial value of q corresponding to 4 Correlations of nonlinear creep properties
v = v0 and q decreases from q0 toward zero when all the with Atterberg Limits
bonds are completely destroyed.
Substituting Eqs. (1) and (5) into Eq. (4), the creep 4.1 Correlations of CaeL and CaeP with Atterberg
coefficient for intact natural soft clays can be written as: Limits
Cae ¼ ðn logðv=v0 Þ þ q0 þ 1ÞCaef ðe=ef Þm ð6Þ
For correlating CaeL and CaeP with Atterberg limits, the
Equation (6) indicates that Cae depends on the material available test results on 15 reconstituted clays (with tests
constants Caef, ef, m, v0, q0, n and the current state on three clays performed in this study) listed in Table 1
Table 2 Summary of creep coefficient of intact clays under normally consolidated state
Clay Depth/m Cae Applied stress corresponding e0 Gs wL IP v0
to Cae/kPa

Murro clay [10] 4 0.0163–0.0363 100–1600 2.39 2.66 88 54 22.3

Vanttila [33] 2.8 0.024–0.058 75–1200 3.4 2.7 90 60 35.2
Zhangzhou clay [37] 1.9 0.025–0.018 100–1600 1.91 2.74 70.5 35.8 8
Nanjing clay (1) [36] 7 0.009–0.019 200–1600 1.14 2.7 44 21 3.3
Nanjing clay (2) [36] 9 0.0152–0.0291 200–800 1.31 2.72 52 26.1 9.7
Wenzhou (1) [36] 4 0.021–0.049 200–1600 1.73 2.7 60 32 13.1
Wenzhou (2) [36] 10 0.016–0.040 200–1600 1.79 2.7 65 37 14.5
Lianyungang (1) [36] 4 0.024–0.055 100–800 2.2 2.74 80 49 8.6
Lianyungang (2) [36] 12 0.016–0.032 200–1600 1.78 2.72 63 36 9
Shanghai clay (2)* 12 0.01–0.017 200–1600 1.06 2.7 42.5 20 13.1
Shantou clay [35] 4.5 0.0442–0.009 100–1600 2.65 2.67 – 33 –
Guangzhou clay [6] 5 0.009–0.0076 50–100 1.25 2.7 47.5 24 –
Pusan clay [25] – 0.1266–0.0111 320–1280 0.53–2.1 – 50–68 28–45 –
Bothkennar clay [22] 5.2 0.0454–0.0212 100–1600 – 2.65 85 48 –
Bethville clay [14] 3.2–3.5 0.023–0.115 51–135 1.73 – 46 24 –
Bastican clay [15] 7.3 0.101–0.0092 90–151 1.92 – 43 21 –
Ottawa clay [9] – 0.0852–0.0092 200–2700 – – 58 33 –
Leda clay [17] – 0.0576–0.0128 30–685 – 2.74 57–60 – –
Mexico clay [17] 38–45 0.315–0.083 80–685 – 2.35 500 350 –
New Haven clay [17] 6–26 0.1135–0.0493 25–380 – 2.68 79–97 – –
St. Herblain clay [32] 5.7 0.193–0.020 132–515 2.29 – 96 42 –
e0 initial void ratio, Gs specific gravity, wL liquid limit, IP plasticity index, v0 initial amout of structure
* values from tests conducted by authors in this study

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(a) (b) (c)

0.06 Murro clay 0.08 Vanttila clay 0.04 Zhangzhou clay

Intact clay
Intact clay Intact clay
Reconstituted clay
0.06 Reconstituted clay 0.03 Reconstituted clay
0.04

0.04 0.02

0.02
0.02 0.01

0 0 0
1 10 0.01 0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10

(d) (e) (f)

0.06 Nanjing clay (1) 0.06 Nanjing clay (2) 0.06 Wenzhou clay (1)
Intact clay Intact clay Intact clay
Reconstituted clay Reconstituted clay Reconstituted clay

0.04 0.04 0.04

0.02 0.02 0.02

0 0 0
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10

(g) (h) (i)

0.06 Wenzhou clay (2) 0.08 0.04 Shanghai clay (2)
Intact clay
Intact clay
Reconstituted clay Intact clay
Reconstituted clay
0.06 0.03 Reconstituted clay
0.04

Lianyungang
0.04 clay (1) 0.02

0.02
0.02 0.01
Lianyungang
clay (2)
0 0 0
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10

Fig. 4 Creep coefficient of intact and reconstituted clays versus bonding ratio

were selected. Figure 6a, b presents the plots of CaeL with CaeP ¼ 0:0013wL  0:0013Ip  0:0209 ð8Þ
Atterberg limits, from which the following relation could
be obtained with a correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9336: From these correlations, it appears that the choice of
CaeL as the reference value for Cae in Eqs. (2) and (6) is
CaeL ¼ 0:0007wL  0:0223 ð7Þ preferable given the higher correlation coefficient. Thus,
Similarly, Fig. 6c, d shows the correlations for CaeP the CaeL with wL can be used as reference in Eq. (6), and
indicating that the optimized correlation is obtained by the Eq. (6) is rewritten as,
using both the liquid limit and the plasticity index with a Cae ¼ ðn logðv=v0 Þ þ q0 þ 1ÞCaeL ðw=wL Þm ð9Þ
correlation coefficient R2 = 0.6913:

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Fig. 5 Inter-particle debonding induced creep versus normalized bonding ratio

4.2 Correlation of m with Atterberg Limits m ¼ 0:7872  0:0369wL þ 0:0619IP : ð10Þ

Based on all the estimated values of m shown in Eq. (6) 4.3 Correlation of n with Atterberg Limits
for 15 reconstituted clays, the correlations between m and
Atterberg limits were fitted. Figure 7 shows that the Figure 8 presents the correlations between the material
optimized correlation is obtained by using both liquid constant n shown in Eq. (6) and Atterberg limits based on
limit and plasticity index with a correlation coefficient test results on both intact and reconstituted samples of ten
R2 = 0.5217: clays. It can be observed that the magnitude of n decreases

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(a) (b)
0.06 C eL = -0.0274 +0.0011wL -0.00048IP
R2 = 0.9247

0.04
y = 0.0007x - 0.0223 0.05
0.05
eL

R² = 0.9336 0.04
0.04
0.03

eL
0.03

eL
0.02 0.02
0.02
0.01
0.01
0
0 80
60 70
0
0 50 100 50 60
40 50
Liquid limit, wL 30 4 Liquid limit, wL
Plasticity index, IP 20 0

(c) (d)
0.03 C eP = -0.0209 + 0.0013wL 0.0013IP
R2 = 0.6913

y = 0.0012x - 0.0218
0.02 R² = 0.6453 0.03
0.03
eP

eP
0.02
0.02
eP

0.01 0.01
0.01
0
0 80
60 70
0 50 60
40
0 10 20 30 40
50 Liquid limit, wL
0
Plastic limit, wP Plasticity index, IP 3 4
20 0

Fig. 6 Relationship between reference creep coefficients and Atterberg limits

(a) (b) (c)

2.5 2.5 m = 0.7872 - 0.0369wL + 0.0619IP
R2 = 0.5217
2 2 y = 0.2386e0.0264x
y = 0.0157x - 0.2418 R² = 0.475
R² = 0.3964
3
1.5 1.5 3
m

2
2
m
m

1 1
1
1
0.5 0.5 0
0 80
70
60
50 60
0 0
0 50 100 0 20 40 60 80
40 50
Liquid limit, wL Plasticity index, IP 30 40 Liquid limit, wL
Plasticity index, IP 20

Fig. 7 Relationship between m and Atterberg limits

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(a) (b) (c)

2 2
n = 2.02486 0.03718wL + 0.02764IP
y = -0.0173x + 1.2552 R2 = 0.6300
R² = 0.5316
1.5 1.5

1.5
y = -0.0149x + 1.5914 1.5
1 R² = 0.5937
1 1

n
n

n
cae
0.5

n
0.5
0.5 0.5
0
0
80
70
0 50
0 60
0 50 100 0 10 20 30 40 40 50
30 Liquid limit, wL
Liquid limit, wL Plasticity index, IP 40
Plasticity index, IP 20

Fig. 8 Relationship between n and Atterberg limits

(a) 1 (b) 1 (c) = -0.0227 + 10.256exp(-0.047wL)

2.679exp(-0.056IP)
R2 = 0.5974
0.8 0.8

1
0.6 0.6 1
0.8
y = 2.34e-0.047x y = 0.8403e-0.056x 0.8
0.6
R² = 0.7641 R² = 0.714 0.6
0.4 0.4 0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2
0.2 0.2 0
0 80
70
50 60
0
0 50 100
0
10 30 50 70 40 50
30 40 Liquid limit, wL
Liquid limit, wL Plasticity index, IP Plasticity index, IP 20

Fig. 9 Relationship between ratio q0/v0 and Atterberg limits

80
n ¼ 2:4630  0:0585wL þ 0:0532IP : ð11Þ
This study
60 y = 0.8381x - 16.438 4.4 Correlation of q0 with Atterberg Limits
R² = 0.9587

IP = 0.73(wL-13)
As mentioned above, q0 is the initial value of q corre-
IP

40 sponding to v = v0 and it represents the secondary com-

(Biarez & Hicher,1994)
pression potential induced by debonding. Consequently, a
IP = 0.73(wL-20) certain relation between q0 and v0 can be observed. Hence,
20
(Burland,1990) the link between the ratio q0/v0 and Atterberg limits was
analyzed from the test results on both intact and reconsti-
0
tuted samples of ten clays. Based on the findings, q0/v0 can
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 be expressed either by the liquid limit (Fig. 9a), or the
wL
plasticity index (Fig. 9b), or also by a unified expression
Fig. 10 Relationship between plasticity index and liquid limit with the liquid limit and the plasticity index (Fig. 9c). We
adopted the latter expression with a correlation coefficient
with the increase in the liquid limit or plasticity index. R2 = 0.7641:
Furthermore, the values of n are shown to relate better with
the liquid limit and plasticity index with a correlation
q0 =v0 ¼ 2:34 expð0:047wL Þ ð12Þ
coefficient R2 = 0.6300:

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5 Discussions selected in this study together with the two lines repre-
senting the above correlations. The differences between
5.1 Correlation between IP with wL these two lines and the experimental points are rather
small, and we could consider one or the other correlation
A certain relationship between IP and wL is apparent. In the for our own materials. In order to remain as close as pos-
past, several expressions have been proposed such as the sible to our set of data, we chose to adopt the following
ones by Burland [4] with IP = 0.73(wL - 20) and Biarez best correlation represented in Fig. 10 by the bold line with
and Hicher [5] with IP = 0.73(wL - 13). Figure 10 pre- a correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9587:
sents the plots of these two parameters for the clays IP ¼ 0:8381wL  16:438 ð13Þ

(a) (b) (c)

0.04 0.04 0.08 Experimental
Experimental Experimental
Nanjing clay(1) Wenzhou clay(1) Theoretical
Lianyungang clay(1)
Theoretical Theoretical
Experimental Experimental Experimental
0.03 Nanjing clay(2) 0.03 0.06 Lianyungang clay(2)
Theoretical Theoretical Wenzhou clay(2) Theoretical
Cαe

Cαe

Cαe
0.02 0.02 0.04

0.01 0.01 0.02

0 0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 20 40 60 0 20 40 60 80 100
w (%) w (%) w (%)

(d) (e) (f)

0.04 0.04 Haarajoki clay 0.04 Suurpelto clay
Experimental
Shanghai clay(1)
Theoretical Experimental Experimental
0.03 Experimental 0.03 Theoretical 0.03 Theoretical
Shanghai clay(2)
Theoretical
Cαe

Cαe
Cαe

0.02 0.02 0.02

0.01 0.01 0.01

0 0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 50 100 0 20 40 60 80
w (%) w (%) w (%)
(g) (h) (i)
0.04 Vanttila clay 0.04 Murro clay
0.04
Experimental Experimental
Experimental
0.03 Theoretical 0.03 Theoretical HKMC
0.03 Theoretical
Experimental
Zhoushan clay
Theoretical
Cαe

Cαe

0.02 0.02
Cαe

0.02 Experimental
Kaolin
Theoretical

0.01 0.01 0.01

0 0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60
w (%) w (%) w (%)

Fig. 11 Comparison of measured and estimated values of Cae for reconstituted clays

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0.05
Cae ¼ ð0:0007wL  0:0223Þðw=wL Þ0:014978wL 0:23031 ð14Þ
wL = 90% Figure 11 shows the comparison between experimental
0.04 and predicted results estimated by Eq. (14) for all the
selected clays. Despite there are some discrepancies
0.03
between measured and estimated values, Eq. (14)
generally describes the evolution of Cae for reconstituted
Cαe

clays fairly well. We illustrated the influence of wL on Cae

0.02 in Fig. 12. Because the maximum and minimum values of
wL in Table 1 are 90 and 40 %, we plotted the evolution of
Cae with water content for two clays having these liquid
0.01
wL = 40% limits. It can be seen that the clay with a higher wL presents
a higher increasing rate and that Cae decreases with the
0
decreasing water content (i.e., decreasing void ratio) for
0 20 40 60 80 100 each clay.
Water content, w (%)
5.4 Validation for intact clays
Fig. 12 Evolution of Cae with water content for liquid limit equal to
40 and 90 %
For the ten intact clays shown in Fig. 4, the predicted
Using Eq. (12), the above correlations of parameters with values of Cae were estimated by Eq. (9) with the liquid
Atterberg limits can be simplified. limit wL and the structural parameter v0 listed in Table 2.
Figure 13 compares experimental and predicted results in a
5.2 How to determine nonlinear creep 3D form (Cae–w–v). It can be concluded that Eq. (9) is able
to estimate with good accuracy the evolution of Cae for the
Over all, if the current water content (w), the bonding ratio majority of the studied clays. For the others, even if dif-
(v) and the liquid limit (wL) of the clayey soil are known, ferences between measured and estimated values still
the current Cae can be obtained with the following process: remain (e.g., Lianyungang clay), the trend is well captured.
Furthermore, the proposed formulation (Eq. 9) was
1. Substituting wL into Eqs. (7), (12) and (13), CaeL, q0/ examined on predicting the evolution of void ratio with
v0 and Ip are obtained, respectively. time during creep. For this, long-term oedometer tests on
2. With wL and Ip, m and n can be obtained by Eqs. (10) Vanttila and Wenzhou intact clays, with strong and
and (11), respectively. moderate level of soil structure, were selected. Only parts
3. The initial bonding ratio v0 can be taken equal to of curves apparently after consolidation or dissipation of
(St - 1) according to Karstunen and Yin [10] and Yin excess pore pressure were plotted for both computed and
et al. [32] with St the soil sensitivity, and then q0 can measured results in Fig. 14. Curves by using constant
be obtained since q0/v0 is known from the first step of CaeL were also computed shown by dash lines for com-
process. parison. The computed void ratio by Eq. (9) decreases
4. Substituted all above correlated parameters into nonlinearly with time in logarithm scale for each loading
Eq. (9), Cae is obtained. shown by solid lines, which demonstrates that the pro-
Note that w and v are two state variables representing posed formulation can well capture the nonlinear creep
current soil density and current soil structure, respectively. degradation.
Thus, Eq. (9) accounts for the soil density and the soil
structure during straining with clear physical meaning, and
can be of practical use for determining simply the creep 6 Conclusions
potential of a given natural soft clay.
The one-dimensional creep characteristics of soft clays
5.3 Validation for reconstituted clays have been investigated based on experimental results from
oedometer testing. The evolution of Cae for reconstituted
For reconstituted clays, the structure between particles is and intact clays was studied.
eliminated; therefore, v0 can be regarded null. Conse- For reconstituted clays, the influence of the soil structure
quently, a reduced form of Eq. (9) for reconstituted clays could be eliminated. A nonlinear creep behavior has been
can be written as: observed with Cae decreasing when the soil density

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Fig. 13 Comparison of measured and estimated values of Cae for intact clays

(a) (b)
2
3 Wenzhou clay (2) Experiment
Vanttila clay Experiment
Predicted Predicted
Cαe=CαeL=0.043 Cαe=CαeL=0.026
2.5
1.5
Void ratio, e
Void ratio, e

2 56.2 kPa 200 kPa

112.5 kPa 1 400 kPa

1.5
225 kPa 800 kPa

1 0.5
1 10 100 1000 10000 1 10 100 1000
Time (h) Time (h)

Fig. 14 Comparison of measured and computed void ratio versus time on two intact clays

increases. Based on these results, a simple nonlinear creep the bonding ratio with an additional parameter n, leading to
formulation was adopted with an additional parameter of a nonlinear creep formulation accounting for soil structure.
nonlinearity m. For simplification and practical use, CaeL The proposed formulation of Cae for intact clays con-
(corresponding to the liquid limit) and CaeP (corresponding tains five material constants CaeL, CaeP, m, n and q0, which
to the plastic limit) were suggested as the reference Cae. can be determined in a straightforward way from conven-
The bond degradation process during straining exerts a tional oedometer testing. Furthermore, correlations
significant influence on the values of Cae. The significant between these material parameters and Atterberg limits
difference of Cae between intact and reconstituted clays were proposed based on available data. By expressing the
was analyzed. The ratio of Cae between intact clay and the material constants as functions of the liquid limit and the
corresponding value for reconstituted clay was related to plasticity index, we are able to suggest a practical

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expression of Cae as a function of the current water content 12. Leoni M, Karstunen M, Vermeer PA (2008) Anisotropic creep
w, the bonding ratio and the physical properties of the clay. model for soft soils. Géotechnique 58(3):215–226
13. Leroueil S, Kabbaj M (1987) Discussion on ‘Composition and
These correlations allow the determination of the material compressibility of typical samples of Mexico City clay’ by Mesri
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of various clays has been demonstrated, and accurate r0v  ev  e_v model in in situ conditions. Soils Found 28(3):13–25
15. Leroueil S, Kabbaj M, Tavenas F, Bouchard R (1985) Stress–
estimations of the one-dimensional creep characteristics of strain–strain rate relation for the compressibility of sensitive
both reconstituted and natural soft clays were obtained. natural clays. Géotechnique 35(2):159–180
Furthermore, the proposed formulation is also validated by 16. Li Q, Ng CWW, Liu G (2012) Low secondary compressibility
comparing the computed and measured void ratio with time and shear strength of Shanghai clay. J Cent South Univ
19(8):2323–2332
on two intact clays. 17. Mesri G, Godlewski P (1977) Time and stress-compressibility
This study provides a simple way of estimating the creep interrelationship. J Geotech Eng Div 103(5):417–430
coefficient of natural clays, which can be of practical use in 18. Mitchell JK, Soga K (2005) Fundamentals of soil behavior.
geotechnical engineering. Since it is a key parameter for Wiley, New York
19. Niemunis A, Grandas-Tavera CE, Prada-Sarmiento LF (2009)
many creep modeling approaches, the creep coefficient can Anisotropic visco-hypoplasticity. Acta Geotech 4:293–314
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to a framework of modern and full-edged constitutive Skempton’s compressibility equation. Géotechnique
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Acknowledgments We acknowledge with gratitude the financial pression and consolidation of clayey soils is–Hiroshima, Japan,
support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of pp 537–542
China (Grant No. 41372285), the Fundamental Research Funds for 22. Nash DFT, Sills GC, Davison LR (1992) One-dimensional con-
the Central Universities in China (2015QNA64) and the European solidation testing of soft clay from Bothkennar. Géotechnique
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