ABSTRACT
Many researches indicated that the deformation behavior of porous media is related to the viscosity effect (Ehlers & Markert 2000, Xie et al. 2004, Hsu & Lu 2006). Guo (2000) investigated the influence of soil viscosity on pile installation. Hsieh (2006) developed a viscoelastic model for the analysis of dynamic response of soils under periodical surface water disturbance. Hsieh and Hsieh (2007) conducted the study of viscosity effect on the dynamic response of multilayered soils subjected to water wave and flow. However, due to the use of traditional Terzaghi consolidation theory the viscosity effect was not taken into account in modeling soil consolidation in the two-step concept. This could lead to inaccurate assessment of land subsidence. The purpose of this study is to examine the viscosity effect on consolidation of poroelastic soil due to groundwater table variation. A viscoelastic consolidation numerical model is developed herein to conduct this examination. In the following sections, the governing equations for consolidation of poroelastic soil with the consideration of viscosity effect are described first. The governing equations are then nondimensionalized and discretized. Finally, the viscosity effect on consolidation of poroelastic soil under groundwater table depression is investigated.
