Abstract: Conventional consolidation tests on reconstituted specimens of numerous natural soft clays show a decreasing of creep index C_αe with increasing soil density. Based on all selected and conducted experimental results, a modified creep index C_αe^* defined in double logarithmic plane lge-lgt, was plotted for various clays, from which C_αe^* can be assumed as a constant for different soil densities. Then, the modified creep index was applied to a newly developed elastic viscoplastic model. In this way, the modified creep index C_αe^* can naturally take into account the nonlinear C_αe revealing the influence of soil density in the soil assemblies without additional parameters. Finally, the enhanced model was incorporated into the finite element code ABAQUS and used to simulate a consolidation test and a test embankment. The improvement of simulations by the modified creep index was highlighted by comparing simulations using the conventional creep index C_αe.

Key words: Clays, Creep, Consolidation test, Embankment, Finite element method, Viscoplasticity

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