Elasto-plastic consolidation of soil

A theory of the behaviour of an ideal mass of two-phase soil is developed. This theory unites the usually separately considered aspects of analytical soil mechanics of settlement and deformation; time dependent consolidation; and yielding leading to collapse of the mass. The theory assumes the soil to be an elasto-plastic permeable material and a finite element approximation of the resulting equations is derived through the principle of virtual work. Two example problems are treated numerically.