ISOTROPIC WORK SOFTENING MODEL FOR FRICTIONAL GEOMATERIALS: DEVELOPMENT BASED ON LADE AND KIM CONSTITUTIVE SOIL MODEL

Abstract: An isotropic softening model for predicting the post-peak behavior of frictional geomaterials is presented. The proposed softening model is a function of plastic work which can include all possible stress-strain combinations. The development of softening model is based on the Lade and Kim constitutive soil model but improves previous work by characterizing the size of decaying yield surface more realistically by assuming an inverse sigmoid function. Compared to original softening model using the exponential decay function, the benefits of using the inverse sigmoid function are highlighted as: (1) provide a smoother transition from hardening to softening occurring at the peak strength point, and (2) limit the decrease of yield surface at a residual yield surface, which is a minimum size of yield surface during softening. The proposed softening model requires three parameters; each parameter has it own physical meaning and can be easily calibrated by a triaxial compression test. Data from triaxial compression testing on Monterey No. 30 sand is applied to demonstrate the calibration procedure and examine the variation of model parameters with different loading conditions. Results show all parameters are highly correlated to confining pressures. The proposed softening model can provide a useful tool for evaluating those structures on which the post-peak behavior of frictional materials should be emphasized, e.g. earth structures under large loading or deformation conditions or the structures having an intensive soil-structures interaction, etc