Generalized strain probing of constitutive models

Advanced material constitutive models are used to describe complex soil behaviour. These models are often used in the solution of boundary value problems under general loading conditions. Users and developers of constitutive models need to methodically investigate the represented soil response under a wide range of loading conditions. This paper presents a systematic procedure for probing constitutive models. A general incremental strain probe, 6D hyperspherical strain probe (HSP), is introduced to examine rate‐independent model response under all possible strain loading conditions. Two special cases of HSP, the true triaxial strain probe (TTSP) and the plane‐strain strain probe (PSSP), are used to generate 3‐D objects that represent model stress response to probing. The TTSP, PSSP and general HSP procedures are demonstrated using elasto‐plastic models. The objects resulting from the probing procedure readily highlight important model characteristics including anisotropy, yielding, hardening, softening and failure. The PSSP procedure is applied to a Neural Network (NN) based constitutive model. It shows that this probing is especially useful in understanding NN constitutive models, which do not contain explicit functions for yield surface, hardening, or anisotropy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于自平衡力的弹塑性动力反应分析方法

本文给出了一个基于自平衡力的弹塑性结构动力反应分析的新方法，详细叙述了方法的原理和过程，并对用改进的Ｔａｋｅｄａ滞变模型描述的梁单元框架结构给出了具体的分析方法。这个方法与传统的方法不同，在分析中不必修正结构的刚度矩阵，而代之以计算代表塑性铰变形引起的应力重分布的动力自平衡力，因而大大地节省了计算机时，最后通过算例对本文方法进行了验证。     

Limitations of suction‐controlled triaxial tests in the characterization of unsaturated soils

Behavior of unsaturated soils is influenced by many factors, and the influences of these factors are usually coupled together. Suction‐controlled triaxial (SCTX) tests are considered to allow researchers to investigate influences of individual variables on unsaturated soils under specified stress path with controls of stresses, pore water, and air pressures. In the past 50 years, SCTX testing method has been established as a standard approach to characterize constitutive behavior of unsaturated soils. Most important concepts for modern unsaturated soil mechanics were developed upon results from the SCTX tests. Among these, one of the most important contributions in the constitutive modeling of elasto‐plastic behavior for unsaturated soils is the Barcelona basic model (BBM) proposed by Alonso et al. in 1990. The BBM successfully explained many features of unsaturated soils and received extensive acceptance. However, the SCTX tests are designed based upon the divide‐and‐conquer approach in which an implicit assumption is used: soil behavior is stress‐path independent. However, it is well‐established that unsaturated soil behavior is elasto‐plastic and stress‐path dependent. It is found that the SCTX tests in fact cannot control the stress path of an unsaturated soil during loading. This incapability, in combination with complicated loading/collapse behavior of unsaturated soils, makes the SCTX tests for characterizing unsaturated soil questionable. This paper discusses the limitations of the SCTX tests in the characterization of unsaturated soils. A possible solution to the problem was proposed based on a newly developed modified state surface approach. The discussions are limited for isotropic conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical and analytical observations on long and infinite slopes

Interest in the mechanics of landslides has led to renewed evaluation of the infinite slope equations, and the need for a more general framework for estimating the factor of safety of long and infinite slopes involving non‐homogeneous soil profiles. The paper describes finite element methods that demonstrate the potential for predicting failure in long slope profiles where the critical mechanism is not necessarily at the base of the soil layer. The influence of slope angle is also examined in long slopes, leading to some counter‐intuitive conclusions about the impact of slope steepness on the factor of safety. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A bounding surface elasto‐viscoplastic constitutive model for non‐isothermal cyclic analysis of asphaltic materials

An elasto‐viscoplastic constitutive model for asphaltic materials is presented within the context of bounding surface plasticity theory, taking into account the effects of the stress state, void binder degree of saturation, temperature and strain rate on the material behaviour. A stress state dependent non‐linear elasticity model is introduced to represent time‐independent recoverable portion of the deformation. The consistent visco‐plasticity framework is utilised to capture the rate‐dependent, non‐recoverable strain components. The material parameters introduced in the model are identified, and their determination from conventional laboratory tests is discussed. The capability of the model to reproduce experimentally observed response of asphaltic materials is demonstrated through numerical simulations of several laboratory test data from the literature. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Efficient Model for Transient Surface Waves in Both Finite and Infinite Water Depth

A numerical model is developed to simulate fully nonlinear extreme waves in finite and infinite water-depth wave tanks. A semi-mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation is adopted and a higher-order boundary element method in conjunction with an image Green function is used for the fluid domain. The boundary values on the free surface are updated at each time step by a fourth-order Runga-Kutta time-marching scheme at each time step. Input wave characteristics are specified at the upstream boundary by an appropriate wave theory. At the downstream boundary, an artificial damping zone is used to prevent wave reflection back into the computational domain. Using the image Green function in the whole fluid domain, the integrations on the two lateral walls and bottom are excluded. The simulation results on extreme wave elevations in finite and infinite water-depths are compared with experimental results and second-order analytical solutions respectively. The wave kinematics is also discussed in the present study.     

Stress‐dependent hardening and failure surfaces of dry sand

During several triaxial compression experiments on plastic hardening, softening, and failure properties of dense sand specimens, it was found on various stress paths that the size of the failure surface was not constant. Instead, it changed depending on the current state of hydrostatic pressure. This finding is in contrast to the standard opinion consisting of the fact that the failure surface remains constant, once it has been reached during an experiment or in situ. In general, the behaviour of cohesionless granular‐material‐like sand is somehow characterised in between fluid and solid, where the solid behaviour results from the angle of internal friction and the confining pressure. Although the friction angle is an intrinsic material property, the confining pressure varies with the boundary conditions, thus defining different solid properties like plastic hardening, softening, and also failure. Based on our findings, it was the goal of the present contribution to introduce an improved setting for the plastic strain hardening and softening behaviour including the newly found yield properties at the limit state. For the identification of the material parameters, a complete triaxial experimental analysis of the tested sand is given. The overall elasto‐plasticity concept is validated by numerical computations of several laboratory foundation‐ and slope‐failure experiments. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with the standard concept of a constant failure surface, where the corresponding yield surfaces are understood as contours of equivalent plastic work or plastic strain. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Absorbing boundary conditions for dynamic analysis of fluid-saturated porous media

Based on Biot's two-phase mixture theory and the paraxial approximation, the absorbing boundary conditions in the time domain for u-w, u-U and u-p formulations are presented for the dynamic analysis of fluid-saturated porous media. These absorbing boundaries are equivalent to the viscous boundaries in the fundamental mode. The expressions for the energy ratio and reflection coefficient between the reflected and incident waves along the absorbing boundary are given. The numerical results show that the proposed absorbing boundaries can greatly suppress the spuriously reflected wave and model the far field of the system. These results also dynamic analysis of infinite fluid-saturated porous media. for the transient dynamic analysis of infinite fluid-saturated porous media.     

多维地震动各方向相关性对拱坝动应力的影响

本文将随机振动的虚拟激励法与拱坝-地基动力相互作用FE-BE-IBE时域模型结合，发展了一个可以考虑多维随机地震动作用下的拱坝动力响应计算模型，并用Monte Garlo方法对模型进行了验证，计算结果表明，地震动分量的相关性对结构的动力响应存在一定影响，合理考虑地震动各方向分量的相关性可以更好地计算实际地震作用下的拱坝动力响应。