Abstract: Cobbly soil is widely applied in geotechnical engineering construction by virtue of its good engineering characteristics. The inadequate research on cobbly soil, especially on its creep characteristics, results in improper ways in evaluating its long-term stability. In the present research, the creep properties of cobbly soil are studied via laboratory triaxial compression test, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The relations of creep versus time and stress are analyzed, and a creep model containing eleven parameters is put forward. The creep model is embedded in ABAQUS software to calculate the long-term deformation of the foundation of a bridge as a case study. Results manifest that the constitutive model presented in the paper well describes the rheological properties of cobbly soil. Compared with monitoring results of anchorage deformation, the result of settlement calculation in creep acceleration stage is larger, while in stable creep stage is smaller.

Key words: cobbly soil, creep constitutive model, laboratory test, numerical simulation, long-term deformation