Numerical simulation of fabric anisotropy and strain localization of sand under simple shear

This paper studies the effects of initial fabric anisotropy of dry sand in simple shear deformation. The effects of anisotropy are taken into consideration through the modification of the mobilized friction in the Mohr–Coulomb‐type yield surface as a function of a fabric parameter. In addition, the constitutive model uses a gradient term that directly incorporates the effects of material length scale. The constitutive formulation is implemented into ABAQUS finite element code and used to simulate shearing of the dry sand under various conditions of simple shear. The numerical simulations show that while the shear stress response is affected by fabric anisotropy, its effects on strain localization in simple shear are minimal. This is in contrast to other devices such as the biaxial shear. The strain localization in simple shear is controlled more by the imposed boundary conditions. The use of material length scale is shown to remove the effects of strain localization in the shearing response. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bearing capacity of shallow foundations in transversely isotropic granular media

The main focus in this work is on the assessment of bearing capacity of a shallow foundation in an inherently anisotropic particulate medium. Both the experimental and numerical investigations are carried out using a crushed limestone with elongated angular‐shaped aggregates. The experimental study involves small‐scale model tests aimed at examining the variation of bearing capacity as a function of the angle of deposition of the material. In addition, the results of a series of triaxial and direct shear tests are presented and later employed to identify the material functions/parameters. The numerical part of this work is associated with the development and implementation of a constitutive framework that describes the mechanical response of transversely isotropic frictional materials. The framework is based on the elastoplasticity and accounts for the effects of strain localization and inherent anisotropy of both the deformation and strength characteristics. The results of numerical simulations are compared withthe experimental data. A parametric study is also carried out aimed at examining the influence of various simplifications in the mathematical framework on its predictive abilities. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of anisotropy with saturation and its implications for the elastoplastic responses of clay rocks

Many clay rocks have distinct bedding planes. Experimental studies have shown that their mechanical properties evolve with the degree of saturation (DOS), often with higher stiffness and strength after drying. For transversely isotropic rocks, the effects of saturation can differ between the bed-normal (BN) and bed-parallel (BP) directions, which gives rise to saturation-dependent stiffness and strength anisotropy. Accurate prediction of the mechanical behavior of clay rocks under partially saturated conditions requires numerical models that can capture the evolving elastic and plastic anisotropy with DOS. In this study, we present an anisotropy framework for coupled solid deformation-fluid flow in unsaturated elastoplastic media. We incorporate saturation-dependent strength anisotropy into an anisotropic modified Cam-Clay (MCC) model and consider the evolving anisotropy in both the elastic and plastic responses. The model was calibrated using experimental data from triaxial tests to demonstrate its capability in capturing strength anisotropy at various levels of saturation. Through numerical simulations, we demonstrate the role of evolving stiffness and strength anisotropy in the mechanical behavior of clay rocks. Plane strain simulations of triaxial compression tests were also conducted to demonstrate the impacts of material anisotropy and DOS on the mechanical and fluid flow responses.     

A micromechanics-based model for estimating localized failure with effects of fabric anisotropy

This paper presents a micromechanics-based approach to investigate the effects of fabric anisotropy on the behavior of localized failure in granular materials. Based on a micromechanical analysis, the origin of deviatoric stress is decomposed into two components: contact force anisotropy and fabric anisotropy. Using a micro–macro approach, the back stress is interpreted as an contribution to the change of the fabric’s principal direction. The evolution of the back stress is deduced from the stress–fabric relationship and determined with reference to the deviation of the principal directions between the rate of the reduced stress tensor and the actual reduced stress tensor. With this micro–macro framework, a mixed (isotropic–kinematic) hardening model is developed based on the classical isotropic hardening theory. A laboratory simple shear test is first analyzed to validate the proposed model and illustrate the kinematic-hardening mechanism which is usually displayed under non-proportional loading. The analysis further focuses on the anisotropic aspect of localized failure. It has been discovered that the fabric anisotropy can play an important role in the occurrence of shear banding. An increasing degree of fabric anisotropy tends to delay the initiation of the strain localization and result in higher failure strength. The effects of fabric anisotropy have also been illustrated by comparing the theoretical predictions and measured results on the shear band inclination angle, shear strain level and dilatancy at bifurcation.     

Constitutive modeling of principal stress rotation by considering inherent and induced anisotropy of soils

In order to simulate the soil response during principal stress rotation, anisotropic unified hardening (UH) model is developed within the framework of elastoplastic theory. Without introducing any additional mechanism to display the role of stress rotation specifically, this model achieves the simulation by considering the material anisotropy. The effect of inherent anisotropy is reflected using the anisotropic transformed stress method, but a new formula for the stress mapping is adopted to keep the mean stress unchanged. Analysis indicates that from the view of the transformed stress tensor, the anisotropic soil is subjected to loading during pure rotation of principal stress axes, so that plastic strains can be calculated. To represent the induced anisotropy, a fabric evolution law is proposed based on laboratory and numerical test results. At the critical state, the fabric tensor reaches a stable value determined by the stress state, while the critical state line is unique in the plane of void ratio versus mean stress. The anisotropic UH model has concise formulation and explicit elastoplastic flexibility matrix and can provide reasonable predictions for the deformation of anisotropic soils when principal stresses rotate.     

从各向异性的角度解释和模拟土的非共轴特性

从发挥面的角度出发,分析论证各向异性是引起岩土材料出现非共轴现象的根本原因,得到与材料力学一致的结论。当共轭的两发挥面与沉积面的夹角不相等时,主应力面上将出现塑性应变增量的切向分量,所以塑性应变增量的主方向与应力的主方向非共轴。按照这一结论,对非共轴的数值模拟,也应当根据各向异性本构模型进行。为考虑各向异性影响新近提出的各向异性变换应力法,改变了各应力分量的相对大小,得到的各向异性变换应力张量与真实应力张量的主方向不一致,因此也能反映非共轴。利用各向异性变换应力法,能够在现有的弹塑性本构模型的框架下,描述土的非共轴现象。以各向异性UH模型为例,预测各种加载条件下的非共轴变形,验证了该方法的有效性。     

Evaluation of an anisotropic elastoplastic–viscoplastic bounding surface model for clays

An anisotropic time-dependent bounding surface model for clays is developed by generalizing a previous time-independent model that adopts a flexible bounding surface. It is based on the framework for coupled elastoplasticity–viscoplasticity for clays and Perzyna’s overstress theory. Three viscoplastic parameters were introduced and explained in detail. The model was validated against undrained creep tests for both isotropically and anisotropically consolidated clays, undrained and drained stress relaxation tests on some undisturbed clays, and undrained triaxial tests with varying strain rates on natural Hong Kong marine deposit clay. The general agreement between the model simulations and test results was satisfactory. The varying effects of lower-level parameters were discussed on the undrained multistage stress relaxation response for normally consolidated soils which had been ignored in literature. The flexibility of the model in capturing the shear strengths, which is the unique feature of the current model, was shown in the simulations of time-dependent triaxial tests on Taipei silty clay. All the simulations show that the proposed model is a relatively practical model considering both anisotropy and time dependency of clays.     

Borehole failure analysis in a sandstone under anisotropic stresses

Borehole failure under anisotropic stresses in a sandstone is analyze numerically for various borehole sizes using a nonlinear elastic–plastic constitutive model for a Cosserat continuum. Borehole failure is identified as macroscopic failure of the borehole through the development of shear bands and breakouts. The results compare well both qualitatively and quantitatively with experimental results from polyaxial tests on Red Wildmoor sandstone. They show that the hole size effect of the borehole failure strength is independent of the far‐field stress anisotropy and follows a ? power law of the hole size. A similar scale effect equation with a ? power law is proposed for the scale effect of the maximum plastic shear strain at failure. This equation can be useful for better predicting hole‐size‐dependent failure with standard codes based on classical continua. The effect of stress anisotropy on the borehole failure stress is found to be independent of the hole size. The failure stress decreases linearly to 40% as the stress anisotropy increases. However, the maximum plastic shear strain at failure is stress anisotropy independent and therefore the critical plastic shear strain for failure is only hole‐size dependent. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

不同应力路径下剪切带的数值模拟

采用回映应力更新算法,编写了基于伏斯列夫面的超固结黏土本构关系模型子程序,嵌入非线性有限元软件ABAQUS。通过对单元试验进行三轴压缩、三轴伸长及平面应变等问题的模型预测,再现了超固结黏土在不同初始超固结比和应力路径时的变形和强度特性,从而验证了子程序的正确性。借助该本构模型,对三轴压缩、三轴伸长及平面应变应力路径下超固结黏土体变形局部化问题,进行了三维数值模拟。分析结果表明：超固结黏土在三轴压缩及伸长状态时,土体变形局部化在应力-应变关系软化时出现,而平面应变状态时,在应力-应变关系硬化阶段出现,其超固结黏土的剪胀特性在剪切带的形成过程中起重要作用。     

A hypoplastic model for granular soils incorporating anisotropic critical state theory

It is well known that soil is inherently anisotropic and its mechanical behavior is significantly influenced by its fabric anisotropy. Hypoplasticity is increasingly being accepted in the constitutive modeling for soils, in which many salient features, such as nonlinear stress-strain relations, dilatancy, and critical state failure, can be described by a single tensorial equation. However, within the framework of hypoplasticity, modeling fabric anisotropy remains challenging, as the fabric and its evolution are often vaguely assumed without a sound basis. This paper presents a hypoplastic constitutive model for granular soils based on the newly developed anisotropic critical state theory, in which the conditions of fabric anisotropy are concurrently satisfied along with the traditional conditions at the critical state. A deviatoric fabric tensor is introduced into the Gudehus-Bauer hypoplastic model, and a scalar-valued anisotropic state variable signifying the interplay between the fabric and the stress state is used to characterize its impact on the dilatancy and strength of the soils. In addition, fabric evolution during shearing can explicitly be addressed. Modifications have also been undertaken to improve the performance of the undrained response of the model. The anisotropic hypoplastic model can simulate experimental tests for sand under various combinations of principle stress direction, intermediate principal stress (or mode of shearing), soil densities, and confining pressures, and the associated drastic effect of different principal stress orientations in reference to the material axes of anisotropy can be well captured.     

Dynamic analysis of strain localization in water‐saturated clay using a cyclic elasto‐viscoplastic model

A computational framework is presented for dynamic strain localization and deformation analyses of water‐saturated clay by using a cyclic elasto‐viscoplastic constitutive model. In the model, the nonlinear kinematic hardening rule and softening due to the structural degradation of soil particles are considered. In order to appropriately simulate the large deformation phenomenon in strain localization analysis, the dynamic finite element formulation for a two‐phase mixture is derived in the updated Lagrangian framework. The shear band development is shown through the distributions of viscoplastic shear strain, the axial strain, the mean effective stress, and the pore water pressure in a normally consolidated clay specimen. From the local stress–strain relations, more brittleness is found inside the shear bands than outside of them. The effects of partially drained conditions and mesh‐size dependency on the shear banding are also investigated. The effect of a partially drained boundary is found to be insignificant on the dynamic shear band propagation because of the rapid rate of applied loading and low permeability of the clay. Using the finer mesh results in slightly narrower shear bands; nonetheless, the results manifest convergency through the mesh refinement in terms of the overall shape of shear banding and stress–strain relations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation of yielding and stress–stain behavior of shanghai soft clay

In this paper, a simple bounding surface plasticity model is used to reproduce the yielding and stress–strain behavior of the structured soft clay found at Shanghai of China. A series of undrained triaxial tests and drained stress probe tests under isotropic and anisotropic consolidation modes were performed on undisturbed samples of Shanghai soft clay to study the yielding characteristics. The degradation of the clay structure is modeled with an internal variable that allows the size of the bounding surface to decay with accumulated plastic strain. An anisotropic tensor and rotational hardening law are introduced to reflect the initial anisotropy and the evolution of anisotropy. Combined with the isotropic hardening rule, the rotational hardening rule and the degradation law are incorporated into the bounding surface formulation with an associated flow rule. Validity of the model is verified by the undrained isotropic and anisotropic triaxial test and drained stress probe test results for Shanghai soft clay. The effects of stress anisotropy and loss of structure are well captured by the model.     

On the strength of transversely isotropic rocks

Accurate prediction of strength in rocks with distinct bedding planes requires knowledge of the bedding plane orientation relative to the load direction. Thermal softening adds complexity to the problem since it is known to have significant influence on the strength and strain localization properties of rocks. In this paper, we use a recently proposed thermoplastic constitutive model appropriate for rocks exhibiting transverse isotropy in both the elastic and plastic responses to predict their strength and strain localization properties. Recognizing that laboratory‐derived strengths can be influenced by material and geometric inhomogeneities of the rock samples, we consider both stress‐point and boundary‐value problem simulations of rock strength behavior. Both plane strain and 3D loading conditions are considered. Results of the simulations of the strength of a natural Tournemire shale and a synthetic transversely isotropic rock suggest that the mechanical model can reproduce the general U‐shaped variation of rock strength with bedding plane orientation quite well. We show that this variation could depend on many factors, including the stress loading condition (plane strain versus 3D), degree of anisotropy, temperature, shear‐induced dilation versus shear‐induced compaction, specimen imperfections, and boundary restraints.     

土体应变局部化现象的理论解析

引起土体失稳的应变局部化现象是在特定应力状态下,土体本构产生的分叉特性。基于有限变形理论推导了应变局部化产生的三维解析解。基于应变局部化的理论解析,分析了轴对称和平面应变条件下应变局部化现象在弹塑性硬化阶段的存在性以及剪切带的方向性。 理论分析表明,在轴对称条件下,土体应变局部化产生于土体应力-应变的软化阶段,而平面应变条件下,土体应变局部化一般出现在应力-应变的硬化阶段,其剪切带方向角的理论预测与Arthur等[1]建议值较为一致。     

Description of deformation process in inherently anisotropic granular materials

The main focus in this work is on modeling of mechanical response of granular materials that display inherent anisotropy. Both the experimental and numerical investigations are described. First, the results of direct shear as well as drained/undrained triaxial tests that involve crushed limestone with elongated angular‐shaped particles are reviewed. Afterward, a mathematical framework is presented for modeling of elastic/ inelastic deformation that incorporates the multi‐laminate approach. The deformation is monitored on a set of randomly oriented planes, and the formulation incorporates the thickness of the shear band that is associated with sliding/separation process. A systematic procedure for identification of material functions/ parameters is outlined that is based on the results of direct shear tests, and the framework is later applied to simulate the behavior under triaxial conditions. The results of numerical simulations are compared with the experimental data. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

循环荷载作用下饱和软土的各向异性边界面模型

在临界状态弹塑性力学的框架内,建立了可以考虑循环荷载作用下各向异性对饱和软土力学特性影响的边界面塑性模型。该模型采用非关联的流动法则,引入了反映土体各向异性的内变量,利用该内变量的初始值描述初始各向异性,采用一种理论更为严谨、模型参数确定更为恰当的旋转硬化法则描述循环加载过程中各向异性的演化,利用更新映射中心的径向映射法则和与塑性偏应变路径长度有关的塑性模量插值规律,保证模型能够模拟循环加载时应力-应变响应的非线性、滞回性、应变累积性等基本特性,解释了模型参数的物理意义和确定方法,特别是给出了一种合理确定描述土体初始各向异性状态变量方法。通过文献中等压固结和偏压固结饱和黏土的循环三轴试验结果与模型预测结果的对比验证了模型的合理性。     

A model for stress and plastic strain induced nonlinear,hyperelastic anisotropy in soils

The experimental evidence that cohesive and granular soils possess an elastic range in which the elasticity is both nonlinear and anisotropic—with stiffness and directional characteristics strongly dependent on stress and plastic strain (the so‐called ‘stress history’)—is given a formulation based on hyperelasticity. This is accomplished within the framework of elastoplastic coupling, through a new proposal of elastic potentials and a combined use of a plastic‐strain‐dependent fabric tensor and nonlinear elasticity. When used within a simple elastoplastic framework, the proposed model is shown to yield very accurate simulations of the evolution of elastic properties from initial directional stiffening to final isotropic degradation. Within the proposed constitutive framework, it is shown that predictions of shear band formation and evolution become closer to the existing experimental results, when compared to modelling in which elasticity does not evolve. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.