Abstract: A more general assumption than that in the classical one-dimensional large strain consolidation theory is adopted and the exact analytical solution of nonlinear finite strain self-weight consolidation based on this assumption is obtained. By applying the same experimental data, the comparison of the solutions of linear and nonlinear finite strain theory, as well as the numerical calculating results based on finite element method is presented. The results of the comparison show that the analytical solution obtained here takes on better agreement with practical cases than that of linear one, and they also show that, compared with the solutions based on nonlinear theory, the settlement and the consolidation degree based on linear theory are smaller.

Key words: Burgers equation, large strain, Lie group transformation, similarity solution, self-weight consolidation