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Constitutive modeling of three-dimensional non-coaxial characteristics of clay

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Abstract

A simple critical state-based constitutive model is proposed to represent the non-coaxial plastic deformations of saturated clay subjected to monotonic shearing with fixed principal stress directions. While extensively reported in experimental studies, this particular type of soil response has not been adequately addressed by constitutive modeling. The presented model employs a revised three-dimensional non-coaxial flow rule that relies on introducing a reference stress tensor for decomposing stress rate and consequently defining the non-coaxial flow direction even when stress rate is colinear with the current stress. Undrained hollow cylinder torsional shear tests are performed on undisturbed Shanghai clay specimens. Such experimental observations, combined with complementary test results on Wenzhou clay, validate the proposed model. The comparisons show that the proposed model can reasonably represent the non-coaxial plastic flows of clays under monotonic shearing characterized by different fixed principal stress directions and various intermediate stress levels.

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Some or all data, models or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51908513, 41902278, 41877252 and 51578413) and Key Research & Development and Promotion Project of Henan Province (Grant No. 212102310279).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Zhengzhou University, No. 100, Science Avenue, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Zibo Du & Yuancheng Guo

  2. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Zhenhao Shi, Jiangu Qian & Maosong Huang

  3. Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Zhenhao Shi, Jiangu Qian & Maosong Huang

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  1. Zibo Du
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  2. Zhenhao Shi
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  3. Jiangu Qian
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  4. Maosong Huang
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  5. Yuancheng Guo
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Correspondence to Jiangu Qian.

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Du, Z., Shi, Z., Qian, J. et al. Constitutive modeling of three-dimensional non-coaxial characteristics of clay. Acta Geotech. 17, 2157–2172 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01377-5

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