An effective stress constitutive model to study the problem numericall
y of creep in the field is presented. A double-yield surface model for
the stress-strain-time behaviour of wet clay is described. The model
adopts the concept of separating the total deformation into immediate
and delayed components. The yield surfaces employed are the modified C
am-clay ellipsoid and the Von Mises cylinder inscribed in the ellipsoi
d. The proposed numerical scheme incorporates the pore pressure based
on field observations into a finite element analysis. An interpolation
technique is used to determine the pore pressure at every element. A
field example is presented to illustrate the interpolation technique p
rocedure. The scheme not only avoids the complexity of making predicti
ons of pore-water pressure, but also allows the analysis to be carried
out in terms of effective stresses based on the actual observed pore
pressure. Two stress integration algorithms based on the implicit calc
ulation of plastic strain are implemented and tested for the double-yi
eld surface model. A numerical simulation of stress-controlled drained
creep tests confirms the numerical procedure.