Semi-analytical solutions to one-dimensional electro-osmotic consolidation in unsaturated soils

Abstract

This paper presents a 1D model for electro-osmotic consolidation of unsaturated soils. Pore-water pressure, pore-air pressure, and soil settlement are obtained in the Laplace domain. Then, Crump's method is adopted to obtain semi-analytical solutions for the time domain. The present solutions are more general and can be degenerated into conventional solutions to 1D consolidation of fully saturated soils and unsaturated soils without electro-osmosis. The parametric studies indicate that electro-osmosis has little impact on the dissipation of excess pore pressures at the first stage, while electro-osmosis is suggested to start at the second stage after pore-air pressure dissipates completely.