On rate-sensitive behaviour of anisotropic soils

A mathematical formulation is developed for describing the rate-dependent behaviour of transversely isotropic soils. The constitutive relations are derived within the framework of elasto-viscoplasticity and the soil microstructure is defined in terms of a unit vector specifying the preferred material orientation. The formulation is applied to analyse an embankment problem involving the progressive creep of a lightly overconsolidated clay under …