Abstract: One-dimensional indoor consolidation creep test was conducted for the foundation soil of heap mountain project in Zhenjiang city. It was found that the rheological characteristics of the soil is in line with Burgers rheological model. Then the creep equation was transformed to empirical model of settlement calculation. The empirical model was fitted according to the measured settlement data, and the fitting precision is high. It avoids tedious inversion of rheological model parameter, and also enhances the precision of prediction model. The empirical model was used to predict the subsequent settlement of the foundation. Results demonstrate that the empirical model based on Burgers model is closer to the actual situation compared with other prediction methods. It is necessary to consider the rheological properties of soil when calculating foundation settlement.

Key words: rheology, Burgers model, heap mountain project, settlement prediction