Abstract: Structured soft clays are widely distributed in the coastal regions of China. The characteristics of the natural structure greatly influence the compressibility and permeability of marine soft clays and should be considered in the theory of their consolidation. When a large surcharge load is applied to a structured clay deposit, large strains can be induced in the clay layer due to the high compressibility, where the consolidation process follows the large strain assumption. However, there are few published theories of consolidation in which both the natural structure of marine soft clays and the large strain assumption can be considered simultaneously. In this study, a novel large strain consolidation model for structured marine soft clays was developed by considering the variation of structural yield stress with depth and using different calculation methods for initial effective stress of structured clay deposits in the Lagrangian coordinate system. The corresponding solution was derived by the finite difference method. Finally, the influences of the natural structure of soft clays and different geometric assumptions on consolidation behavior were investigated. The results show that the dissipation rate of excess pore water pressure of structured clays under the large strain assumption is expected to be faster than that under the small strain assumption, and the difference in consolidation behavior between the two assumptions increases with the strain level of natural structured clays. If the strain level in the clay layer is more than 15%, the difference in consolidation behavior between the large and small strain assumptions must be considered.

Key words: Structured soft clays; Large strain consolidation; Structural yield stress; Finite difference method

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