Abstract
The development and implementation of a constitutive model used to predict the behavior of unsaturated sands are described. The model is based on critical state and bounding surface concepts and incorporates parameters to account for sand fabric and suction. The model was implemented into finite-element software using user-defined mechanical material behavior (UMAT) subroutine. The model performance was verified with a wide range of triaxial test data that included different drainage conditions, sample preparation methods, densities, confining stresses, and modes of shear. Simulation results show that saturation level significantly affects sand performance and a modified suction-based state parameter is proposed to describe better such sand behavior. This parameter was found to correlate well with an increase in peak stress caused by a decrease in saturation level.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by U.S. Federal Highway Administration. This support is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 17 • Issue 11 • November 2017
Copyright
© 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 23, 2015
Accepted: May 24, 2017
Published online: Sep 12, 2017
Published in print: Nov 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Feb 12, 2018
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