It has been well documented that the mechanical behavior of naturally structured clays is different from that of remolded clays due to aging during depositional and post-depositional processes. However

the effect of soil structure on secondary consolidation is still seldom investigated. A series of oedometer and secondary consolidation tests were performed on both undisturbed and remolded samples of Lianyungang marine clay to investigate the secondary consolidation behavior. The results show that the secondary consolidation behavior changes dramatically in the vicinity of the consolidation yield stress. When the consolidation pressure is less than the consolidation yield stress

the creep can be neglected. However

the coefficient of secondary consolidation Cα

increases dramatically in the vicinity of the consolidation yield stress. Then

Cα decreases with the increase in consolidation stress. It is also found that the coefficient of secondary consolidation is a function of the ratio of t over tp and compression index. A method for calculating the secondary consolidation deformation is also proposed based on the above relationships. The data compiled from available literature were used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.