Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Rotational Hardening Model Capturing Undrained Failure in Anisotropic Soft Clays

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Indian Geotechnical Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Induced anisotropy is known to play a major role in the undrained strength of clays, especially in case of weakly consolidated deposits. This paper discusses undrained failure in soft clays in light of material stability principles. For this purpose, a strain-hardening elastoplastic model widely used to study undrained instability in isotropic soils is enhanced to account for stress-induced anisotropy. A versatile yield function able to flexibly control the shape of the elastic domain is augmented through a hardening variable related to the evolving fabric, while rotational hardening is used to replicate the reorientation of the surface as a function of the loading history. Parametric analyses are used to illustrate the model capabilities, and instability indices for undrained failure are derived in analytical form. Finally, the model performance is tested against experimental evidence available for two widely tested soils: soft Chicago clay and Boston blue clay. The analyses illustrate how the proposed model allows an accurate representation of soil responses under extension and compression paths. In addition, it enables the identification of undrained failure resulting from the monotonic growth of shear stresses, as well as from a post-peak strength decay.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schofield AN, Wroth CP (1968) Critical state soil mechanics. McGrow-Hill, London

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wood MD (1990) Soil behaviour and critical state soil mechanics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Oda M (1972) Initial fabrics and their relations to mechanical properties of granular material. Soils Found 12(1):17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Yoshimine M, Ishihara K, Vargas W (1998) Effects of principal stress direction and intermediate principal stress on undrained shear behavior of sand. Soils Found 38(3):179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Oda M, Nemat-Nasser S, Konishi J (1985) Stress-induced anisotropy in granular masses. Soils Found 25(3):85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Ohta H, Hata S (1971) In: Proceedings of the Japan society of civil engineers, vol 1971. Japan Society of Civil Engineers, pp 117–124

  7. Dafalias YF (1986) An anisotropic critical state soil plasticity model. Mech Res Commun 13(6):341

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Pestana JM, Whittle AJ, Gens A (2002) Evaluation of a constitutive model for clays and sands: part II-clay behaviour. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 26(11):1123

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Wheeler SJ, Näätänen A, Karstunen M, Lojander M (2003) An anisotropic elastoplastic model for soft clays. Can Geotech J 40(2):403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Li XS, Dafalias YF (2002) Constitutive modeling of inherently anisotropic sand behavior. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 128(10):868

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Yu H (1998) CASM: a unified state parameter model for clay and sand. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 22(8):621

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Chen Y, Yang Z (2017) A family of improved yield surfaces and their application in modeling of isotropically over-consolidated clays. Comput Geotech 90:133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dafalias YF, Manzari MT, Papadimitriou AG (2006) Saniclay: simple anisotropic clay plasticity model. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 30(12):1231

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Dafalias Y, Taiebat M (2013) Anatomy of rotational hardening in clay plasticity. Géotechnique 63(16):1406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Dafalias Y, Taiebat M (2014) Rotational hardening with and without anisotropic fabric at critical state. Géotechnique 64(6):507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Nova R (1994) Controllability of the incremental response of soil specimen subjected to arbitrary loading programmes. J Mech Behav Mater 5:221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Buscarnera G, Whittle A (2013) Model prediction of static liquefaction: the influence of initial state on potential instabilities. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 139(3):420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Lagioia R, Puzrin A, Potts D (1996) A new versatile expression for yield and plastic potential surfaces. Comput Geotech 19(3):171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Nova R, Castellanza R, Tamagnini C (2003) A constitutive model for bonded geomaterials subject to mechanical and/or chemical degradation. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 27(9):705

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Mihalache C, Buscarnera G (2014) Mathematical identification of diffuse and localized instabilities in fluid-saturated sands. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 38(2):111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Mihalache C, Buscarnera G (2014) Is wetting collapse an unstable compaction process? J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 141(2):04014098

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Buscarnera G, Dattola G, di Prisco C (2011) Controllability, uniqueness and existence of the incremental response: a mathematical criterion for elastoplastic constitutive laws. Int J Solids Struct 48(13):1867

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Roscoe KH, Schofield AN, Wroth CP (1958) On the yielding of soils. Géotechnique 8(1):22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Roscoe K, Burland J (1968) On the generalized stress–strain behaviour of 'wet' clay. Engineering plasticity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 535–609

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Graham J, Noonan M, Lew K (1983) Yield states and stress–strain relationships in a natural plastic clay. Can Geotech J 20(3):502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Ling HI, Yue D, Kaliakin VN, Themelis NJ (2002) Anisotropic elastoplastic bounding surface model for cohesive soils. J Eng Mech 128(7):748

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Yin ZY, Xu Q, Hicher PY (2013) A simple critical-state-based double-yield-surface model for clay behavior under complex loading. Acta Geotech 8(5):509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Borja RI, Tamagnini C, Amorosi A (1997) Coupling plasticity and energy-conserving elasticity models for clays. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 123(10):948

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Imposimato S, Nova R (1998) An investigation on the uniqueness of the incremental response of elastoplastic models for virgin sand. Mech Cohes Frict Mater 3:65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Chung C, Finno R (1992) Influence of depositional processes on the geotechnical parameters of chicago glacial clays. Eng Geol 32(4):225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Sarabia F (2012) Hypoplastic constitutive law adapted to simulate excavations in Chicago glacial clays. Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University

  32. Ladd CC, Varallyay J (1965) The influence of stress system on the behavior of saturated clays during undrained shear. Technical report, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Soil Mechanics Division

  33. Papadimitriou AG, Manzari MT, Dafalias YF (2005) Calibration of a simple anisotropic plasticity model for soft clays. In: Soil constitutive models: evaluation, selection, and calibration, pp 415–424

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grant No. CMMI-1351534 awarded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Yanni Chen, Ferdinando Marinelli & Giuseppe Buscarnera

Authors
  1. Yanni Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ferdinando Marinelli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Giuseppe Buscarnera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giuseppe Buscarnera.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, Y., Marinelli, F. & Buscarnera, G. A Rotational Hardening Model Capturing Undrained Failure in Anisotropic Soft Clays. Indian Geotech J 49, 369–380 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40098-018-0339-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40098-018-0339-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation