Application of Merchant's model to forecast the embankment settlement of Zhangzhou-Zhaoan highway

The Merchant's viscolastic model which considering the primary and secondary consolidation is relatively an ideal model to calculate the settlement of embankment in the coastal soft soil area. This paper analyzed the settlement of the soft ground under the highway embankment by adopting finite element method of Biot's consolidation theory. The result from calculation shows the thinking and the method in the paper are suitable,it can be proved its rationality and feasibility in forcasting the settlement of embankment,which provides a helpful reference to designing and controlling the settlement of high fill embankment.