Determination of Viscoelastic Properties of Soil and Prediction of Static and Dynamic Response

Abstract

This paper employs a general and direct method to determine the time-dependent stress–strain behavior of soil using a Prony series parameter fitting. The rheological stress–strain data obtained from the relaxation test of soil are used to evaluate the Prony series parameters employing the method of nonlinear curve fitting. The optimized extraction of Prony series parameters for four different Indian soils is presented, which depicts the viscoelastic behavior of different soils considered in the study. Later, finite-element models are developed to simulate and validate the time-dependent constitutive relationship of the soil under both static and dynamic loading conditions. Using such time-dependent constitutive relationships of the soil, stress relaxation, creep, and steady-state dynamic response of the footing-soil system are explored through some example problems.