Drained creep of undisturbed cohesive marine sediments

Long-term, drained triaxial creep and direct simple shear creep tests were conducted on undisturbed marine specimens from the Gulf of Mexico and the north-central Pacific. Results indicated that time-dependent deformations can be represented by a power law equation, and the creep strain rate can be represented by an equation similar to that suggested earlier by other researchers. However, it was found that the m parameter suggested by these scientists was not a constant but dependent on stress level and sediment plasticity. Ageing effects were evidenced in triaxial specimens by the increase of shear strength with both test duration and stress level. The results provided a guide for the development of mathematical stress–strain–time relationships that will be developed in a separate paper. Key words : drained triaxial creep, simple shear creep, stress–strain–time behavior.