The instabilities of soil specimens in laboratory or soil made geotechnical structures in field are always numerically simulated by the classical continuum mechanics-based constitutive models with finite element method. However, finite element mesh dependency problems are inevitably encountered when the strain localized failure occurs especially in the post-bifurcation regime. In this paper, an attempt is made to summarize several main numerical regularization techniques used in alleviating the mesh dependency problems, i.e., viscosity theory, nonlocal theory, high-order gradient and micropolar theory. Their fundamentals as well as the advantages and limitations are presented, based on which the combinations of two or more regularization techniques are also suggested. For all the regularization techniques, at least one implicit or explicit parameter with length scale is necessary to preserve the ellipticity of the partial differential governing equations. It is worth noting that, however, the physical meanings and their relations between the length parameters in different regularization techniques are still an open question, and need to be further studied. Therefore, the micropolar theory or its combinations with other numerical methods are promising in the future.

Previous studies have shown that over-wet soil is challenging to compact and exhibits large creep deformation. The consolidation test of small specimens cannot accurately reflect the compression law, and creep is underestimated owing to size effects, which affects the engineering quality. In order to accurately analyze the compression process of over-wet soil and establish its settlement calculation method, this study focuses on over-wet soil in Anhui Province, China, and uses a large-sized tester to load and analyze its compression law. The thermogravimetric analysis method was employed to investigate the changes in water with different binding forces during the compression process, and the settlement calculation method for over-wet soil was explored. The results show that the creep of over-wet soil is large and long-lasting, and the three-stage consolidation division method based on the $d-t$ curve is more effective in analyzing its regularity. The creep of over-wet soil is directly proportional to its water content. When the load exceeds the pre-consolidation pressure, the creep deformation becomes more significant, accounting for about 60% of the deformation under a single level load. It is recommended to use the creep coefficient ($\lambda$) for calculation. The results of the thermogravimetric analysis indicate that during the primary consolidation stage, free water is discharged, and weakly bound water is mainly discharged during the third consolidation stage, which is the main cause of creep. Finally, based on the relationship between the creep strain and water content of large samples, a calculation method for the settlement of over-wet soil foundations based on the layered summation method was established, which had a higher prediction accuracy than the conventional layered summation method. The results of this study will help clarify the deformation process and principle of over-wet soil and improve the quality of engineering.