Abstract: Biot’s theory of consolidation of saturated soil .regards the consolidation process as a coupling problem between stress of elastic body and flow of fluid existing in pofes^[1]. It can more precisely reflect the mechanism of consolidation than-Terzhi-gi’s theory^[2]. In this article, we obtain the general Biot’s finite element equations of consolidation with classical varia-tional principles. The equations have clear physical meaning and have been applied to analysing the consolidation of Bajia-zui earth dan. The computational results are in accord with engineering practice.

Key words: variational principle in elasticy, Chien’s generalized variational principles, Hu-Washizu principle, semi-inverse method, trial-functional, variational crisis