Abstract: The effects of over consolidation ratio (OCR) on thermal consolidation characteristics of hollow cylindrical saturated silty clay with different heating-cooling paths are discussed by laboratory tests. Given the same thermal loading, pore water pressures of samples with different OCR values caused by heating are almost the same, while the absolute value of negative pore water pressure caused by cooling increases with the increase of OCR value. The consolidation volumetric strain induced by heating or cooling decreases with the increase of OCR value, and the decrease can be described by exponential function. The amplitudes of the change increase with the increase of thermal loading. Besides, after a heating-cooling process circle, the final volumetric strain also decreases as OCR value increases. The volumetric strain is different under different temperature paths. Generally speaking, the more stages during heating or cooling to reach the final temperature, the larger the volumetric strain is. The difference in volumetric strain between different heating or cooling stages to the final temperature decreases with the increase of OCR value, while the OCR value has relatively small influence on the final volumetric strain after a heating-cooling process circle.

Key words: over consolidation ratio, temperature path, pore water pressure, volumetric strain, silty clay