Numerical simulations of simple shear with non‐coaxial soil models

This paper investigates the effects of a non‐coaxial model on simulated stress–strain behaviour of granular materials subject to simple shearing under various initial conditions. In most cases, a significant difference of predictions between coaxial and non‐coaxial modelling is found during the early stage in shearing. With the increase in shearing, non‐coaxial simulations approach and tend to coincide with coaxial simulations. It is also found that the roles of non‐coaxial modelling in simulating simple shear behaviour are considerably influenced by hardening rules, flow rules, initial static lateral pressure coefficients. In some cases, the non‐coaxial modelling gives a similar simulation as the coaxial modelling. In other cases, the non‐coaxial modelling decreases the hardening response or softening response of materials, compared with the coaxial modelling. Under certain conditions, the predicted peak strength of materials with non‐coaxial modelling is larger than that for coaxial modelling. Some of these observations can be attributed to the amount of principal stress rotation in various cases analysed. Others can be attributed to the difference between the directions of the non‐coaxial plastic flow and those for coaxial plastic flow. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of non‐coaxiality in the simulation of strain localization based on classical and Cosserat continua

It is normally accepted that materials inside the shear band undergo severe rotation of the principal stress direction, which causes non‐coaxiality between the principal stress and principal plastic strain rate. However, classical plasticity flow theory implicitly assumes that the principal stress and the principal plastic strain rate are coaxial; thus, it may not correctly predict the onset of the shear band. In addition, classical continuum does not contain any internal length scales; as a result, it cannot provide a reasonable shear band thickness. In this study, the original vertex non‐coaxial plastic model based on the classical continuum is extended to the Cosserat continuum. The corresponding codes are implemented via the interface of the user defined element subroutine in ABAQUS. Through a simple shear test, the effectiveness of the user's codes is verified. Through a uniaxial compression test, the influence of non‐coaxiality on the onset, the orientation, and the thickness of the shear band is investigated. Results show that the onset of the shear localization is delayed, and the thickness of the shear band is widened when the non‐coaxial degree increases, while the orientation of the shear band is little affected by the non‐coaxial degree. In addition, it is found that the non‐coaxiality can weaken the micro‐polar effect to some extent; nonetheless, the Cosserat non‐coaxial model still has its advantage over the classical non‐coaxial model in capturing the pre‐bifurcation as well as the post‐bifurcation behaviors of strain localization. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A non‐coaxial constitutive model for sand deformation under rotation of principal stress axes

A constitutive model for the simulation of non‐coaxiality, an aspect of anisotropic behavior of sand subjected to the rotation of the principal stress axes, is presented in this paper. Experimental studies have shown that non‐coaxiality or non‐coincidence of principal plastic strain increments with principal stress axes under loadings involving the rotation of principal stress axes may be considerable. Besides, the rotation of the principal stress axes results in dramatic effects on stiffness and dilatant behavior of sand. Therefore, the consequences of principal stress axes rotation on deformational behavior, dilatancy and soil stiffness must be taken into account in theoretical and practical problems. To this aim, the following steps are taken: (1) A general relationship for flow direction with respect to possibility of non‐coaxial flow is developed. Moreover, special circumstances linking non‐coaxiality to instantaneous interaction between loading and soil fabric are proposed. (2) Proposing novel expressions for plastic modulus and dilatancy function, the model is enforced to provide realistic simulations when sand is subjected to the rotation of the principal stress axes. Finally, with numerous examples and comparisons, the model capabilities are shown under various stress paths and drainage conditions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A critical state sand plasticity model accounting for fabric evolution

Fabric and its evolution need to be fully considered for effective modeling of the anisotropic behavior of cohesionless granular sand. In this study, a three‐dimensional anisotropic model for granular material is proposed based on the anisotropic critical state theory recently proposed by Li & Dafalias [2012], in which the role of fabric evolution is highlighted. An explicit expression for the yield function is proposed in terms of the invariants and joint invariants of the normalized deviatoric stress ratio tensor and the deviatoric fabric tensor. A void‐based fabric tensor that characterizes the average void size and its orientation of a granular assembly is employed in the model. Upon plastic loading, the material fabric is assumed to evolve continuously with its principal direction tending steadily towards the loading direction. A fabric evolution law is proposed to describe this behavior. With these considerations, a non‐coaxial flow rule is naturally obtained. The model is shown to be capable of characterizing the complex anisotropic behavior of granular materials under monotonic loading conditions and meanwhile retains a relatively simple formulation for numerical implementation. The model predictions of typical behavior of both Toyoura sand and Fraser River sand compare well with experimental data. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Liquefaction and cyclic mobility model for saturated granular media

A new constitutive law for the behaviour of undrained sand subjected to dynamic loading is presented. The proposed model works for small and large strain ranges and incorporates contractive and dilative properties of the sand into the unified numerical scheme. These features allow to correctly predict liquefaction and cyclic mobility phenomena for different initial relative densities of the soil. The model has been calibrated as an element test, by using cyclic simple shear data reported in the literature. For the contractive sand behaviour a well‐known endochronic densification model has been used, whereas a plastic model with a new non‐associative flow rule is applied when the sand tends to dilate. Both dilatancy and flow rule are based on a new state parameter, associated to the stiffness degradation of the material as the shaking goes on. Also, the function that represents the rearrangement memory of the soil takes a zero value when the material dilates, in order to easily model the change in the internal structure. Proceeding along this kind of approach, liquefaction and cyclic mobility are modelled with the same constitutive law, within the framework of a bi‐dimensional FEM coupled algorithm developed in the paper. For calibration purposes, the behaviour of the soil in a cyclic simple shear test has been simulated, in order to estimate the influence of permeability, frequency of loading, and homogeneity of the shear stress field on the laboratory data. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CASM: a unified state parameter model for clay and sand

The purpose of this paper is to present a simple, unified critical state constitutive model for both clay and sand. The model, called CASM (Clay And Sand Model), is formulated in terms of the state parameter that is defined as the vertical distance between current state (v, p′) and the critical state line in v–ln p′ space. The paper first shows that the standard Cam-clay models (i.e. the original and modified Cam-clay models) can be reformulated in terms of the state parameter. Although the standard Cam-clay models prove to be successful in modelling normally consolidated clays, it is well known that they cannot predict many important features of the behavior of sands and overconsolidated clays. By adopting a general stress ratio-state parameter relation to describe the state boundary surface of soils, it is shown that a simple, unified constitutive model (CASM) can be developed for both clay and sand. It is also demonstrated that the standard Cam-clay yield surfaces can be either recovered or approximated as special cases of the yield locus assumed in CASM. The main feature of the proposed model is that a single set of yield and plastic potential functions has been used to model the behaviour of clay and sand under both drained and undrained loading conditions. In addition, it is shown that the behaviour of overconsolidated clays can also be satisfactorily modelled. Simplicity is a major advantage of the present state parameter model, as only two new material constants need to be introduced when compared with the standard Cam-clay models. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于临界状态模型的砂土非共轴本构模拟

传统的砂土本构理论隐含了应力和塑性应变率的共轴条件,无法客观描述主应力轴旋转试验中的非共轴现象,并且当密度和围压变化较大时也不适用。基于材料状态相关砂土临界状态概念,将Pietruszczak和Stolle所提出的砂土本构模型进行了改进,并在模型中引入非共轴塑性流动理论来描述非共轴现象。通过对单剪试验和空心圆柱试验进行数值模拟,表明基于临界状态理论的非共轴模型能够合理描述主应力轴旋转过程中砂土的非共轴变形特性     

Three‐dimensional elasto‐plastic model for unsaturated compacted soils with different initial densities

This paper presents an elasto‐plastic model for unsaturated compacted soils and experimental results obtained from a series of suction‐controlled triaxial tests on unsaturated compacted clay with different initial densities. The initial density dependency of the compacted soil behaviour is modelled by establishing experimental relationships between the initial density and the corresponding yield stress and thereby between the initial density and the location and slope of normal compression line. The model is generalized to three‐dimensional stress states by assuming that the shapes of the failure surface and the yield surface in the deviatoric plane are given by the extended SMP criterion. A considerable number of the isotropic compression, triaxial compression and extension tests on unsaturated compacted clay with different initial densities were performed using a suction‐controllable triaxial apparatus, to measure the stress–strain–volume change in different stress paths and wetting paths. The model has well‐predicting capabilities to reproduce the mechanical behaviour of specimens compacted under different conditions not only in isotropic compression but also in triaxial compression and triaxial extension. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A non‐coaxial and unbalanced plastic flow rule for geomaterials and its application to the shear band orientation prediction

In this paper, the non‐coaxial relation between the principal plastic strain increments and the principal stresses, which results from the internal friction in geomaterials, is analyzed, and the phenomenon of the unbalanced development of plastic flow in two conjugate directions is discussed. A non‐coaxial, unbalanced plastic flow model for Coulomb frictional materials is developed and used to determine the orientation of shear band in geomaterials. It is shown that the unbalanced index r of plastic flow has important effect on the orientation of the shear band, and the orientation determined by the conventional plastic flow theory is only a special case of the proposed model when r=0. This result soundly explains the reason that the geomaterials with the same internal friction angle and dilatancy angle can have very different shear band orientations. In addition, the difference between the intrinsic and apparent dilatancy angles is analyzed, and it is emphasized that the dilatancy angle commonly used in practice is indeed the apparent dilatancy angle. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On double shearing in frictional materials

This paper evaluates the mechanical behaviour of yielding frictional geomaterials. The general Double Shearing model describes this behaviour. Non‐coaxiality of stress and plastic strain increments for plane strain conditions forms an important part of this model. The model is based on a micro‐mechanical and macro‐mechanical formulation. The stress–dilatancy theory in the model combines the mechanical behaviour on both scales. It is shown that the general Double Shearing formulation comprises other Double Shearing models. These models differ in the relation between the mobilized friction and dilatancy and in non‐coaxiality. In order to describe reversible and irreversible deformations the general Double Shearing model is extended with elasticity. The failure of soil masses is controlled by shear mechanisms. These shear mechanisms are determined by the conditions along the shear band. The shear stress ratio of a shear band depends on the orientation of the stress in the shear band. There is a difference between the peak strength and the residual strength in the shear band. While peak stress depends on strength properties only, the residual strength depends upon the yield conditions and the plastic deformation mechanisms and is generally considerably lower than the maximum strength. It is shown that non‐coaxial models give non‐unique solutions for the shear stress ratio on the shear band. The Double Shearing model is applied to various failure problems of soils such as the direct simple shear test, the biaxial test, infinite slopes, interfaces and for the calculation of the undrained shear strength. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cap model for partially saturated soils

The present paper deals with the extension of a cap model in order to describe the material behavior of partially saturated soils, in particular, of partially saturated sands and silts. The soil model is formulated in terms of two stress state variables, using net stress and matric suction and, alternatively, the average soil skeleton stress and suction, the latter playing the role of a stress‐like plastic internal variable. The yield surface, consisting of a shear failure surface and a hardening cap surface, the plastic potentials for the non‐associated flow rule and the hardening law for the cap are extended by taking into account the effects of matric suction on the material behavior. Furthermore, the third invariant of the deviatoric stress tensor is taken into account in the formulation of the yield surfaces. The developed model is validated by the numerical simulation of an extensive series of suction controlled tests for a silty sand, which were conducted at different constant values of suction. Although both versions of the soil model yield identical results for stress paths at constant values of matric suction, differences are encountered for stress paths involving wetting. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability and bifurcation of undrained,plane rectilinear deformations on water-saturated granular soils

Stability and bifurcation of plane-strain, undrained, rectilinear deformations on water-saturated granular soil specimens are discussed. The soil, sand or normally consolidated clay, is described by a 2D-flow theory of plasticity for frictional material with non-associated flow rule. Contractant material become unstable (liquefies) at the state of maximum deviatoric stress. For dilatant material the dominant failure mode is shear banding that occurs close to the state of maximum principal effectivestress ratio. The theoretical findings are supported by and are used to explain existing experimental results.     

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.     

考虑卸荷速率的K0固结膨胀土应力-应变行为

通过GDS三轴试验系统对K0固结原状南阳膨胀土原状样进行了不同卸荷速率和卸荷路径下的不排水三轴剪切试验,在试验资料的基础上,建立了K0固结膨胀土的初始切线模量Ei和极限偏应力qult与固结应力及卸荷速率的关系式。发现,K0固结膨胀土在卸荷剪切过程中的应力-应变关系曲线呈典型双曲线特征;膨胀土的不排水剪切强度随轴向固结应力及卸荷速率的增加而单调增加;Ei及qult随固结应力及卸荷速率的变化规律与强度基本类似,但Ei随固结应力的增加呈指数增加,而qult则表现为线性增加。通过改进邓肯-张双曲线表达式,建立了K0固结膨胀土下不同卸荷速率时应力-应变关系的预测公式,并进行了模型验证。     

Unified 3D critical state bounding-surface plasticity model for soils incorporating continuous plastic loading under cyclic paths. Part I: Constitutive relations

The unified three-dimensional (3D) critical state bounding-surface plasticity model gUTS enables clays, silts and sands to be treated within a single framework. Furthermore, loose and dense states of a particular soil subjected to a wide range of confinements are viewed as a single material defined by the same set of constants. The model is able to handle both monotonic and complex cyclic paths including those involving a rotation of the principal stress directions. The model incorporates the following features: combined use of radial and deviatoric mapping rules and the use of an apparent normal consolidation line for sands; use of a non-associated flow rule where the ratio of the rates of volumetric plastic strain to deviatoric plastic strain is a function only of the ratio of deviatoric to mean effective stresses and the Lode angle; adoption of a bi-linear critical state line projected onto the plane of the void ratio versus logarithm of mean effective stress; inclusion of a sub-elliptic, or super-elliptic, segment in the plastic dilatancy surface for stress ratios less than critical; use of elliptic segments in the deviatoric planes; movement of the projection centre in the deviatoric mapping region and incorporation of a plastic stiffening effect for cyclic paths which repeatedly load in the same deviatoric direction.     

Experimental investigation on the deformation characteristics of granular materials under drained rotational shear

Rotational shear is the type of loading path where samples are subjected to cyclic rotation of principal stress directions while the magnitudes of principal stresses are maintained constant. This paper presents results from an experimental investigation on the drained deformation behaviour of saturated sand in rotational shear conducted in a hollow cylinder apparatus. Two types of granular materials, Leighton Buzzard sand and glass beads are tested. A range of influential factors are investigated including the material density, the deviatoric stress level, and the intermediate principal stress. It is observed that the volumetric strain during rotational shear is mainly contractive and most of strains are generated during the first 20 cycles. The mechanical behaviour of sand under rotational shear is generally non-coaxial, i.e., there is no coincidence between the principal axes of stress and incremental strain, and the variation of the non-coaxiality shows a periodic trend during the tests. The stress ratio has a significant effect on soil response in rotational shear. The larger the stress ratio, the more contractive behaviour and the lower degree of non-coaxiality are induced. The test also demonstrates that the effect of the intermediate principal stress, material density and particle shape on the results is pronounced.     

基于广义位势理论的土的非共轴特性研究

传统的塑性位势理论隐含了应力主方向和塑性应变增量主方向共轴的假定,无法客观地描述主应力轴旋转过程中的非共轴现象。基于广义位势理论提出的拟弹性弹塑性本构模型,把总的塑性应变分解为满足弹性分解准则的拟弹性部分和符合传统塑性理论假设的纯塑性部分,分解后建立的模型更为合理和简便,同时又可以解决土的非共轴问题。通过单剪试验结果的验证表明,基于广义位势理论的拟弹性弹塑性模型的模拟效果较好,传统的弹塑性模型（共轴模型）模拟得到的主应力方向和塑性主应变增量方向保持共轴,而拟弹性弹塑性模型（非共轴模型）的模拟结果则能够合理地描述主应力轴旋转过程中的非共轴特性,结果更符合实际,从而为解决土的非共轴特性问题提供了一种有效的方法。     

砂土的物态本构模型

基于砂土的压缩回胀性、剪切非线性及剪缩剪胀性的系统分析和包括循环荷载、主应力轴旋转及应力路径偏转等复杂应力条件下的复杂变形反应,得到了三类应力-应变基本关系。在剪缩剪胀应力-应变关系中,引入了由偏应变分量确定的应变路径长度变量,揭示了应力主轴旋转、应力路径偏转引起的剪缩剪胀性。将这些基本关系与循环荷载下砂土的物态变化相联系,建立了砂土的物态动本构关系。     

偏应力比和应力主轴偏转角同时变化下饱和砂土变形特性研究

利用空心圆柱扭剪仪对饱和砂土进行了应力主轴固定和偏应力比增大（即定向剪切）、偏应力比不变和应力主轴单调旋转（即纯应力主轴单调旋转）、偏应力比和应力主轴偏转角同时增加、偏应力比和应力主轴偏转角分段增加4个系列的排水剪切试验,着重分析不同应力路径下饱和砂土的变形特性及主应力和主应变增量方向变化规律。试验结果表明,纯应力主轴单调旋转下,主应力增量方向在45°～135°范围内变化,主应变增量方向逐渐偏向主应力方向;偏应力比和应力主轴偏转角同时增加下,砂土变形不断增大,当主应力增量方向 45°时,主应变增量方向与主应力增量方向基本一致,但当 45°时,主应变增量方向逐渐偏离主应力增量方向。当应力状态在偏应力比 0.75、应力主轴偏转角 45°范围内时,体应变、最大剪应变与应力路径无关,且后期纯应力主轴旋转下砂土变形不受前期加载历史的影响。