Abstract：Based on the distribution of initial excess pore water pressure due to the cylindrical cavity expansion，an analytical solution for the consolidation around a cylindrical cavity under arbitrary drainage boundary was obtained by using separation of variables. And the effect of different drainage conditions and shear stress on the initial excess pore water pressure and its dissipation during cavity expansion was discussed. Additionally，the comparison between calculated result and field curves of excess pore water pressure dissipation shows that the analytical solution was close to the in-situ consolidation tests；so the analytical solution is valuable for in-situ testing of consolidation coefficient of soils and for analyzing the dissipation of excess pore water pressure due to driving piles.
