THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEORY OF SOIL CONSOLIDATION IN THE U.S.S.R., 1917-1967

Synopsis Problems in the theory of soil consolidation are of great significance in determining the settlement of structures, since foundations of rational size can be designed only on the basis of trustworthy prediction of the base deformation. In the past fifty years the development of soil consolidation theory has received much attention in the U.S.S.R., beginning with the basic works of Gersevanov (1931). The latest works in this field are devoted to the consolidation of multiple-phase soil systems, taking into account the deformability of all phases of the soil (including the creep of the soil skeleton), the degree of saturation, the natural compaction and the structural nature of the soils (Tsytovich and Zaretsky, 1967; et al.) The Paper treats in detail the main stages of development of the filtration consolidation theory as formulated by Terzaghi, Gersevanov and Florin and in the more general formulation the Florin-Biot theory of volumetric forces and the generalized theory of volumetric forces. Th...