By the method of Laplace transform

consolidation of viscoelastic soil under arbitrary loading was studied. The general solution in the Laplace transform field was obtained; and then the effective stress and average degree of consolidation in the soil under arbitrary loading could be calculated by the Laplace inversion. In addition

according to numerical examples

the influence of parameters of Merchant model on the consolidation was investigated. The results show that the rate of effective stress increment is different from that of settlement during the consolidation of viscoelastic soil and the viscous effect can result in faster effective stress increment in the early stage and slower effective stress increment in advanced stage. Obtained results also indicate that the consolidation of soil layer is more sensitive to the change of modulus in separated spring than that of modulus in Kelvin spring under cyclic loading.