Boundary element analysis of Biot consolidation in layered elastic soils

Abstract

Biot's linear consolidation analysis of three-dimensional fluid saturated layered soils is investigated. The time marching method, uncoupled boundary element method, and successive stiffness method are applied for the numerical modelling of this study. Settlement induced by surface loading and land subsidence due to pumping is studied. The results show that settlement induced by surface loading is mainly influenced by the properties of the soil layer, and that the settlement is larger for soil layers with smaller stiffness and greater thicknesses. The land subsidence induced by pumping is influenced by the properties of the soil layer as well as by the permeability of the pumped layer and the conditions at the top and bottom boundaries. The land subsidence is larger for soil layers with a smaller stiffness, lower permeability of the pumped layer, deeper pumping depth, larger pumping rate and an impervious top surface.

A symmetric boundary integral approach to transient poroelastic analysis

“…Systematic presentations of coupled problems from the computational standpoint and of the phenomenological theory of porous media from the continuum mechanics standpoint are contained in Lewis and Schrefler (1987) and in the recent treatise by Coussy (1995), respectively. Among the noteworthy publications on poroelasticity, somehow related to the present study, we quote here those due to Manolis and Beskos (1989), Pan (1991), Zhang and Cowin (1995), Chiou and Chi (1994), Chen and Dargush (1995). The last two of the above contributions specifically concern boundary integral equation (BIE)-boundary element (BE) methods based on traditional approaches which make use of a single kind of fundamental solution (mostly ''single layer'' concentrated sources), the first two provide fundamental solutions for both single and double layer sources.…”

Settlement Prediction Under Linearly Loading Condition

“…The first group is based mainly on consolidation theories, including the one-dimensional Terzaghi's theory and the threedimensional Boit's theory. In these methods, different kinds of soil constitutive relations are adopted into numerical analysis, such as finite difference method, finite element method, boundary element method, finite layer method, and meshless method to determine the time-dependant settlement (Wang et al 2007; Lewis and Sukirman 1993;Mei et al 2004;Chiou et al 1994;Oka et al 1986). However, these soil constitutive relations are established on strain-stress relation obtained from small specimen tests, which have great difference in stress level, loading rate, and boundary conditions with practical engineering.…”

Boundary Element Analysis for Free Surface of Seepage in Earth Dams

“…This method is essentially similar to the successive stiffness method for Biot consolidation in layered elastic soils proposed by one of the authors previously [7]. The equations for a represented region are developed, and the systems of equations are derived by considering the continuity and equilibrium equations at the interfaces.…”