Nonlinear FEM analysis of settlement of soft ground under highway embankment

On the base of the Biot consolidation theory and the principle of the Finite Element Method, the authors analyzed the settlement of the soft ground under the highway embankment with the nonlinear Finite Element Method. The method applied in this thesis can consider the influence of the lateral displacement and lateral seepage, consider the nonlinear relation between the stress and strain, consider the relation between the time and load. In this thesis, the authors analyzed an engineering case with the FEM program BP, the results calculated by BP were very close to the measured results. This proved that the FEM program BP is very credible and practical.