Effects of transport of pore water and material heterogeneity on strain localization of fluid‐saturated gradient‐dependent viscoplastic geomaterial

The purpose of the present paper is to clarify the effects of permeability and initial heterogeneity on the strain localization of fluid‐saturated cohesive soil modelled by a strain gradient‐dependent poro‐viscoplastic constitutive model. The effects of permeability and gradient parameters on the growth rate of the fluctuation were obtained by a linear instability analysis. Deformation behaviour of clay specimens modelled as a viscoplastic model with a second order strain gradient during shear was numerically analysed by a soil–water coupled FEM under both globally undrained and partially drained conditions. It was found that the deformation pattern and the stress–strain curve greatly depend on the permeability, the drainage conditions and the initial non‐homogeneous properties. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of undrained cavity expansion in elasto‐plastic soils with non‐linear elasticity

A large strain analysis of undrained expansion of a spherical/cylindrical cavity in a soil modelled as non‐linear elastic modified Cam clay material is presented. The stress–strain response of the soil is assumed to obey non‐linear elasticity until yielding. A power‐law characteristic or a hyperbolic stress–strain curve is used to describe the gradual reduction of soil stiffness with shear strain. It is assumed that, after yielding, the elasto‐plastic behaviour of the soil can be described by the modified Cam clay model. Based on a closed‐form stress–strain response in undrained condition, a numerical solution is obtained with the aid of simple numerical integration technique. The results show that the stresses and the pore pressure in the soil around an expanded cavity are significantly affected by the non‐linear elasticity, especially if the soil is overconsolidated. The difference between large strain and small strain solutions in the elastic zone is not significant. The stresses and the pore pressure at the cavity wall can be expressed as an approximate closed‐form solution. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐isothermal plasticity model for cyclic behaviour of soils

On the one hand, it has been observed that liquefaction‐induced shear deformation of soils accumulates in a cycle‐by‐cycle pattern. On the other hand, it is known that heating could induce plastic hardening. This study deals with the constitutive modelling of the effect that heat may have on the cyclic mechanical properties of cohesive soils, a relatively new area of interest in soil mechanics. In this paper, after a presentation of the thermo‐mechanical framework, a non‐isothermal plasticity cyclic model formulation is presented and discussed. The model calibration is described based on data from laboratory sample tests. It includes numerical simulations of triaxial shear tests at various constant temperatures. Then, the model predictions are compared with experimental results and discussed in the final section. Both drained and undrained loading conditions are considered. The proposed constitutive model shows good ability to capture the characteristic features of behaviour. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SPH procedures for modeling multiple intersecting discontinuities in geomaterial

A methodology is developed in SPH framework to analyze the behavior of preexisting multiple intersecting discontinuities or joints in rock material. The procedure does not require any additional unknowns to represent discontinuities and to capture velocity jump across them. Instead, a discontinuity is represented by a set of joint particles placed along the discontinuity plane, in which relative velocity and traction vector is evaluated, obeying the Mohr–Coulomb friction law with zero tension constrain. For failure of continuous rock material, the Drucker–Prager yield criterion with tensile cracking is employed in the elastic‐plastic constitutive model. Free‐sip, no‐slip, and symmetric boundary conditions are also implemented in SPH framework for proper representation of physical system. The paper analyzes behavior of a rock sample having a discontinuity plane under uniaxial loading and compares velocity and stress with a theoretical solution derived considering effective vertical stiffness of the joint planes. The efficacy of the proposed method is successfully demonstrated by solving another two problems of jointed rock mass under uniaxial and gravitational loading conditions.Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A non‐linear coupled finite element–boundary element model for the prediction of vibrations due to vibratory and impact pile driving

This paper presents a non‐linear coupled finite element–boundary element approach for the prediction of free field vibrations due to vibratory and impact pile driving. Both the non‐linear constitutive behavior of the soil in the vicinity of the pile and the dynamic interaction between the pile and the soil are accounted for. A subdomain approach is used, defining a generalized structure consisting of the pile and a bounded region of soil around the pile, and an unbounded exterior linear soil domain. The soil around the pile may exhibit non‐linear constitutive behavior and is modelled with a time‐domain finite element method. The dynamic stiffness matrix of the exterior unbounded soil domain is calculated using a boundary element formulation in the frequency domain based on a limited number of modes defined on the interface between the generalized structure and the unbounded soil. The soil–structure interaction forces are evaluated as a convolution of the displacement history and the soil flexibility matrices, which are obtained by an inverse Fourier transformation from the frequency to the time domain. This results in a hybrid frequency–time domain formulation of the non‐linear dynamic soil–structure interaction problem, which is solved in the time domain using Newmark's time integration method; the interaction force time history is evaluated using the θ‐scheme in order to obtain stable solutions. The proposed hybrid formulation is validated for linear problems of vibratory and impact pile driving, showing very good agreement with the results obtained with a frequency‐domain solution. Linear predictions, however, overestimate the free field peak particle velocities as observed in reported field experiments during vibratory and impact pile driving at comparable levels of the transferred energy. This is mainly due to energy dissipation related to plastic deformations in the soil around the pile. Ground vibrations due to vibratory and impact pile driving are, therefore, also computed with a non‐linear model where the soil is modelled as an isotropic elastic, perfectly plastic solid, which yields according to the Drucker–Prager failure criterion. This results in lower predicted free field vibrations with respect to linear predictions, which are also in much better agreement with experimental results recorded during vibratory and impact pile driving. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling of fibre–cohesive soil mixtures

A new constitutive model for fibre-reinforced cohesive soil is proposed. The model combines a Cam-Clay like bounding surface model with an elastic–plastic one-dimensional fibrous element model. A “smearing procedure”, which can consider any spatial distribution of fibre orientation, is employed to transform discrete tensile forces developed in the fibres into stresses for the composite material. The fibre stress contribution is bounded by both degradation of soil–fibre bonding due to pull-out mechanism and tensile strength of the fibres. Eventual occurrence of fibre breakage is also considered. The model performances are analysed for both consolidation and shearing loading modes, and qualitative comparison is performed with experimental data available in the literature. For consolidation loading, tensile stresses are not developed in the fibres and thus the fibre effect is rather limited. For drained shear loading, addition of fibres can result in a consistent shear strength increase. The beneficial effect of fibres seems to be controlled by two parameters: the fibre tensile stiffness and the fibre/soil strain ratio that accounts for any possible slippage or shear deformation at the fibre/soil matrix interface. For undrained shear loading, the strengthening effect of the fibres appears to be counteracted by the increase in pore water pressure, induced by the additional confining contribution of the fibres. In agreement with published experimental data, the model suggests also that the moisture content is a key factor governing fibre effectiveness for undrained shearing. Finally, analysis of the model predicted critical states for fibre-reinforced cohesive soil is provided.     

On the effects of deformation induced anisotropy in isotropic materials

Effects of recoverable deformation induced anisotropy in the elastic stiffness of isotropic materials are described. In isotropic materials, thermodynamics predicts coupling of hydrostatic and deviatoric responses. It is shown that the coupling of the two responses is more significant than previously recognized in the literature. Properly accounting for the coupling of hydrostatic and deviatoric responses requires re‐evaluating elastic materials characterization data, allowing for the coupled response. The result is an apparent decrease in the pressure sensitivity of the elastic shear modulus. The decrease in the pressure sensitivity of the shear modulus leads to stress paths that are more tangential to the yield surface in stress space, resulting in an increase in predicted elastic strain at each step of an elastic–plastic stress update. Consequently, predicted plastic strains and, in particular, volumetric plastic strains, are smaller than if recoverable deformation induced anisotropy had been neglected. The result is an associated plasticity model, which appears to be non‐associated. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite deformation analysis of geomaterials

The mathematical structure and numerical analysis of classical small deformation elasto–plasticity is generally well established. However, development of large deformation elastic–plastic numerical formulation for dilatant, pressure sensitive material models is still a research area. In this paper we present development of the finite element formulation and implementation for large deformation, elastic–plastic analysis of geomaterials. Our developments are based on the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into elastic and plastic parts. A consistent linearization of the right deformation tensor together with the Newton method at the constitutive and global levels leads toward an efficient and robust numerical algorithm. The presented numerical formulation is capable of accurately modelling dilatant, pressure sensitive isotropic and anisotropic geomaterials subjected to large deformations. In particular, the formulation is capable of simulating the behaviour of geomaterials in which eigentriads of stress and strain do not coincide during the loading process. The algorithm is tested in conjunction with the novel hyperelasto–plastic model termed the B material model, which is a single surface (single yield surface, affine single ultimate surface and affine single potential surface) model for dilatant, pressure sensitive, hardening and softening geomaterials. It is specifically developed to model large deformation hyperelasto–plastic problems in geomechanics. We present an application of this formulation to numerical analysis of low confinement tests on cohesionless granular soil specimens recently performed in a SPACEHAB module aboard the Space Shuttle during the STS‐89 mission. We compare numerical modelling with test results and show the significance of added confinement by the thin hyperelastic latex membrane undergoing large stretching. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of unconstrained optimization and sensitivity analysis to calibration of a soil constitutive model

Large sets of soil experimental data (field and laboratory) are becoming increasingly available for calibration of soil constitutive models. A challenging task is to calibrate a potentially large number of model parameters to satisfactorily match many data sets simultaneously. This calibration effort can be facilitated by optimization techniques. The current study aims to explore systematic approaches for exercising optimization and sensitivity analysis in the area of soil constitutive modelling. Analytical, semi‐analytical and numerical optimization techniques are employed to calibrate a multi‐surface‐plasticity sand model. Calibration is based on results from a number of drained triaxial sample tests and a dynamic centrifuge liquefaction test. The analytical and semi‐analytical approaches and associated sensitivity analysis are applied to calibrate the model non‐linear shear stress–strain response. Thereafter, model parameters controlling shear–volume coupling effects (dilatancy) are calibrated using a solid–fluid fully coupled finite element program in conjunction with an advanced numerical optimization code. A related sensitivity study reveals the challenges often encountered in optimizing highly non‐linear functions. Overall, this study demonstrates applicability and limitations of optimization techniques for constitutive model calibration. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bifurcation and instability modelling by a multimechanism elasto‐plastic model

The bifurcation and instability conditions in geomechanics are closely related to the elasto‐plastic behaviour. In this paper the potential of a multimechanism elasto‐plastic model to predict various modes of failure is examined. First, a brief overview for the essential aspects of the constitutive model and the development of the elasto‐plastic constitutive matrix for this model are presented. Then, numerical simulations of different drained and undrained paths in the axisymmetric and plane‐strain conditions for the Hostun sand are illustrated. These examples confirm the capacity of the model to reproduce instability and strain localization phenomena. The obtained response is in agreement with experimental observations, theoretical developments and numerical analyses existing in the literature. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A three‐phase model for unsaturated soils

A comprehensive framework to define the constitutive behaviour of unsaturated soils is developed within the theory of mixtures applied to three‐phase porous media. Each of the three phases is endowed with its own strain and stress. Elastic and elastic–plastic constitutive equations are developed. Particular emphasis is laid on the interactions between the phases both in the elastic and plastic regimes. Nevertheless, the clear structure of the constitutive equations requires a minimal number of material parameters. Their identification is provided: in particular, it incorporates directly the soil–water characteristic curve. Crucial to the formulation is an appropriate definition of the effective stress. The coupled influence of this effective stress and of suction makes it possible to describe qualitatively many of the characteristic features observed in experiments, e.g. for normally consolidated soils, a plastic behaviour up to air entry followed by an elastic behaviour at increasing suctions, and, on the way back, an elastic behaviour, unless compression is applied in which case plastic collapse occurs. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stabilized Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics,Taylor–Galerkin algorithm for soil dynamics problems

Modelling of failure under dynamic conditions in geomaterials with finite elements presents a series of complex problems, among which we can mention those of (i) volumetric locking, which results on higher failure loads, (ii) influence of mesh alignment, resulting to unrealistic failure surfaces, (iii) diffusion of the shear band over some element widths, (iv) nonoptimal propagation properties (numerical diffusion and dispersion), (v) fulfilling Babuska–Brezzi conditions when using the same order of interpolation for displacement and pressures in coupled problems and (vi) large deformation analysis. This paper is based on previous work done by the authors, who developed a mixed approximation based on (i) casting the dynamic problem in the form of a system of first order PDEs and (ii) using stresses and velocities as nodal variables. The equations were discretized following a Taylor–Galerkin algorithm, first in time using a Taylor expansion and then in space using Galerkin method. The model was limited to small deformations. The purpose of this paper is to show how Taylor–Galerkin method can be extended to meshless formulations, such as the SPH method. The algorithm consists of (i) discretizing in time using a Taylor series expansion complemented with integration of source terms using a Runge–Kutta scheme and then (ii) discretizing in space using the SPH method. It is shown how the proposed method keeps the advantages of the Taylor–Galerkin method in Finite Elements (good propagation properties and capturing of shear bands) and avoids the tensile instability. A set of test problems ranging from elastic propagation of a wave in a bar to failure of a slope on a cohesive softening material are used to assess the performance of the method. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of extended Kalman filter to back analysis of the natural stress state accounting for measuring uncertainties

In this work, we present a numerical procedure for determining the nature stress state in the rock mass around a tunnel. A finite element method is applied for analyzing the direct problems of tunneling during the back analysis of parameter estimation, in which a no‐tension elastic–plastic model is used to simulate the elastic–tensile and elastic–plastic‐tensile failure states which often occur in the cases of underground excavation in heavily jointed rock masses. By considering the natural stress state as random parameters of the tunneling system, the Kalman filter method is employed for feedback analysis to modify the parameter values in a statistical context, which uses the prior information in the process of estimation and employs a set of displacements obtained from field measurements. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method of inverse analysis, the developed numerical procedure is applied to a synthetic example of deep tunnels in yielding rock masses. The relative importance of the a priori and updating information is investigated, as is the importance of their uncertainty. The results show great potential of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved SPH method for saturated soils and its application to investigate the mechanisms of embankment failure: Case of hydrostatic pore‐water pressure

The method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) has recently been applied to computational geomechanics and has been shown to be a powerful alternative to the standard numerical method, that is, the finite element method, for handling large deformation and post‐failure of geomaterials. However, very few studies apply the SPH method to model saturated or submerged soil problems. Our recent studies of this matter revealed that significant errors may be made if the gradient of the pore‐water pressure is handled using the standard SPH formulation. To overcome this problem and to enhance the SPH applications to computational geomechanics, this article proposes a general SPH formulation, which can be applied straightforwardly to dry and saturated soils. For simplicity, the current work assumes hydrostatic pore‐water pressure. It is shown that the proposed formulation can remove the numerical error mentioned earlier. Moreover, this formulation automatically satisfies the dynamic boundary conditions at a submerged ground surface, thereby saving computational cost. Discussions on the applications of the standard and new SPH formulations are also given through some numerical tests. Furthermore, techniques to obtain the correct SPH solution are also proposed and discussed throughout. As an application of the proposed method, the effect of the dilatancy angle on the failure mechanism of a two‐sided embankment subjected to a high groundwater table is presented and compared with that of other solutions. Finally, the proposed formulation can be considered a basic formulation for further developments of SPH for saturated soils. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial foundation structures over no tension soil

The problem of the stress distribution induced in the soil by a single circular foundation structure is approached in a three‐dimensional analysis. Since the soil is typically made by not‐cohesive materials, its behaviour is modelled by means of the not resisting tension (NRT) hypothesis, thus assuming that its very low resistance to tensile stresses can be completely neglected and that it keeps linearly elastic under pure compression. After developing the problem from a theoretical point of view on the basis of an energetic approach, a numerical application—which is able to reproduce the stress distribution induced by a circular foundation on the soil—is performed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kinematic hardening plasticity formulation of small strain behaviour of soils

An objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the small strain model developed by the authors can be incorporated into the conventional kinematic hardening plasticity framework to predict pre‐failure defor mations. The constitutive model described in this paper is constituted by three elliptical yield surfaces in triaxial stress space. Two inner surfaces are rotated ellipses of the same shape, representing the boundaries of the linear elastic and small strain regions, while the third surface is the modified Cam clay large‐scale yield surface. Within the linear elastic region, the soil behaviour is elastic with cross‐coupling between the shear and volumetric stress–strain components. Within the small strain region, the soil behaviour is elasto‐plastic, described by the kinematic hardening rule with an infinite number of loading surfaces defined by the incremental energy criterion. Within the large‐scale yield surface, the soil behaviour is elasto‐plastic, described by kinematic and isotropic hardening of the small strain region boundary. Since the yield surfaces have different shapes, the uniqueness of the plastic loading condition imposes a restriction on the ratio between their semi‐diameters. The model requires 12 parameters, which can be determined from a single consolidated undrained triaxial compression test. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Explicit integration of bounding surface model for the analysis of earthquake soil liquefaction

This paper presents a new plasticity model developed for the simulation of monotonic and cyclic loading of non‐cohesive soils and its implementation to the commercial finite‐difference code FLAC, using its User‐Defined‐Model (UDM) capability. The new model incorporates the framework of Critical State Soil Mechanics, while it relies upon bounding surface plasticity with a vanished elastic region to simulate the non‐linear soil response. Stress integration of constitutive relations is performed using a recently proposed explicit scheme with automatic error control and substepping, which so far has been employed in the literature only for constitutive models aiming at monotonic loading. The overall accuracy of this scheme is evaluated at element level by simulating cyclic loading along complex stress paths and by using iso‐error maps for paths involving change of the Lode angle. The performance of the new constitutive model and its stress integration scheme in complex boundary value problems involving earthquake‐induced liquefaction is evaluated, in terms of accuracy and computational cost, via a number of parametric analyses inspired by the successful simulation of the VELACS centrifuge Model Test No. 2 studying the lateral spreading response of a liquefied sand layer. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simplified analysis method for piled raft foundations in non‐homogeneous soils

A simplified method of numerical analysis based on elasticity theory has been developed for the analysis of axially and laterally loaded piled raft foundations embedded in non‐homogeneous soils and incorporated into a computer program “PRAB”. In this method, a hybrid model is employed in which the flexible raft is modelled as thin plates and the piles as elastic beams and the soil is treated as springs. The interactions between structural members, pile–soil–pile, pile–soil–raft and raft–soil–raft interactions, are approximated based on Mindlin's solutions for both vertical and lateral forces with consideration of non‐homogeneous soils. The validity of the proposed method is verified through comparisons with some published solutions for single piles, pile groups and capped pile groups in non‐homogeneous soils. Thereafter, the solutions from this approach for the analysis of axially and laterally loaded 4‐pile pile groups and 4‐pile piled rafts embedded in finite homogeneous and non‐homogeneous soil layers are compared with those from three‐dimensional finite element analysis. Good agreement between the present approach and the more rigorous finite element approach is demonstrated. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Probabilistic yielding and cyclic behavior of geomaterials

In this paper, the novel concept of probabilistic yielding is used for 1‐D cyclic simulation of the constitutive behavior of geomaterials. Fokker–Planck–Kolmogorov equation‐based probabilistic elastic–plastic constitutive framework is applied for obtaining the complete probabilistic (probability density function) material response. Both perfectly plastic and hardening‐type material models are considered. It is shown that when uncertainties in material parameters are taken into consideration, even the simple, elastic‐perfectly plastic model captures some of the important features of geomaterial behavior, for example, modulus reduction with cyclic strain, which, deterministically, is only possible with more advanced constitutive models. Furthermore, it is also shown that the use of isotropic and kinematic hardening rules does not significantly improve the probabilistic material response. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implicit numerical integration for a kinematic hardening soil plasticity model

Soil models based on kinematic hardening together with elements of bounding surface plasticity, provide a means of introducing some memory of recent history and stiffness variation in the predicted response of soils. Such models provide an improvement on simple elasto‐plastic models in describing soil behaviour under non‐monotonic loading. Routine use of such models requires robust numerical integration schemes. Explicit integration of highly non‐linear models requires extremely small steps in order to guarantee convergence. Here, a fully implicit scheme is presented for a simple kinematic hardening extension of the Cam clay soil model. The algorithm is based on the operator split methodology and the implicit Euler backward integration scheme is proposed to integrate the rate form of the constitutive relations. This algorithm maintains a quadratic rate of asymptotic convergence when used with a Newton–Raphson iterative procedure. Various strain‐driven axisymmetric triaxial paths are simulated in order to demonstrate the efficiency and good performance of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.