Abstract: A series of long-term 1D oedometer test on compacted loess has been conducted using a high pressure consolidometer. It is found that the compacted loess has remarkable creep deformation and the proportion of the creep deformation in total deformation can come up to 6%-23%. The creep deformation proportion goes higher as the water content of the sample increases and the compaction degree reduces. And the creep deformation proportion decreases with the increase of stress level. A nonlinear creep model, which can well describe the rules of post-construction settlement of compacted loess, is proposed. The validity of model is verified by comparing the results from proposed model with those from the layer-wise summation method. The proposed model is employed to examine the variation law of the post-construction settlement under the conditions of the different water contents and compaction degrees. It is found that there exist logarithmic relationships between the post-construction settlement and the compaction degree/ water contents. Supposing the velocity of the post-construction settlement v < 0.1 mm/d is the stabilized standard, the high embankment settlement trends to be stable in 200 to 650 days after construction. The higher the compaction degree is, the lower the water content is, the longer the time up to stable required is.

Key words: compacted loess, 1D oedometer test, creep, empirical creep model, post-construction settlement