Earth-rockfill dam is the most commonly used type of dam due to its strong adaptation to displacements and high economical efficiency. The settlement of embankment dams occurred during and after construction could lead to serious hazards, therefore the accurate prediction and control of the displacements is critical to the safety of dam construction. In this paper, a finite element method (FEM) analysis focused on the settlement behaviour of Aertashi dam is conducted, and the constitutive characteristics of the rockfill are analysed using the CSUH model as well as the modified Cam-clay (MCC) model for comparison. Model parameters are calibrated by employing the differential evolution optimisation algorism combined with the modified Local Search algorism. The results indicate that the settlement behaviour predicted with the CSUH model exhibits a significantly higher precision compared to that with the MCC model. This is because in the CSUH model the introduction of the parameter \(p_{s}\) enables an adequate modelling of the compressibility of the rockfill.