This paper presents a critical review of various viscoelastic lumped parameter
models (Maxwell model, Kelvin-Voigt model, Poynting-Thompson model and
Burger model) commonly used to represent the stress-strain-time behavior of a
compressible viscoelastic medium. Efficacy of such models has been checked to
suggest a rational model so as to represent the time-dependent behavior of such
media. Though Burger’s four element model can incorporate all the phenomena of
viscoelastic behavior of materials and all other models can be degenerated to other
lower order models, it has not yet found general acceptability amongst the soil
engineers to model such behavior of soils. Through this study, an effort has been
made to demonstrate that it is probably the most effective model to predict the
behavior of structures resting on such soils. Therefore, the efficacy of the model so
chosen has been demonstrated through a case-study available in literature. Based on
the studies, it has been inferred that the Burger model possesses an excellent
potential for proper representation of the time-dependent behavior of a saturated
viscoelastic medium when subjected to loading an unloading phenomena.