ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR ONE-DIMENSIONAL CONSOLIDATION IN UNSATURATED SOILS CONSIDERING THE NON-DARCY LAW OF WATER FLOW

Analytical solutions were derived for the non-linear, one-dimensional consolidation equations for unsaturated soils. The governing equations with a non-homogeneous mixed-boundary condition were presented, in which the water flow was assumed to be governed by a non-Darcy law, whereas the air flow followed the Darcy law. The non-Darcy law was actually the non-linear, flux-gradients relationship. The consolidation equations were thus present in a strong, non-linear way. In order to analytically solve the equation, a homotopy analysis method (HAM) was introduced in the study, which is an analytical technique for nonlinear problems. Firstly, a governing equation in a dimensionless form was derived for a one-dimensional consolidation under unsaturated soils. The method was then used for a mapping technique to transfer the original nonlinear differential equations to a number of linear differential equations. These differential equations were independent with respect to any small parameters, and were convenient for controlling the convergence region. After this transferring, a series solution to the equations was then obtained using the HAM by selecting the linear operator and the auxiliary parameters. Meanwhile, comparisons between the analytical solutions and the results of the finite-difference method indicate that the analytical solution is more efficient. Furthermore, our solutions indicate that the dissipation of air pressure is much faster than that of water pressure, and the values for the threshold gradient I have obvious effects on the dissipation values of the excess pore-water pressure, but no significant effect on that of the excess pore-air pressure.