research

projects

constitutive model for anisotropic and destructuration of natural clays

Dr Mohamed Rouainia
EPSRC GR/S84897/01
2004-2007, £124,492

Soil constitutive modelling has emerged strongly over the past few decades as a fruitful area of research. It provides a greater understanding of the complex mechanical behaviour of virtually all soils. This research proposal deals with the development and implementation of an effective constitutive model for the mechanical behaviour of natural clays in the presence of both anisotropy and in situ structure. The model will be developed within the framework of kinematic hardening and bounding surface plasticity. Detailed comparisons with laboratory test data will be carried out prior to the application of the model in numerical analyses of boundary value problems. These will allow us to establish the predictive capabilities and limitations of the proposed model at the element level. Building creatively on the experience gained in previous projects, effective explicit algorithms with automatic substepping for the integration of the proposed model will be developed in such a way that it can be implemented into a finite element description for the analysis of geotechnical problems. Validation of some benchmark problems, for example, foundation, deep excavation, tunnel or embankment loading analyses, will be carried out.