Three-dimensional elastic-viscoplastic consolidation behavior of transversely isotropic saturated soils

This paper investigates three-dimensional elastic-viscoplastic consolidation behaviors of transversely isotropic saturated soils. The Drucker-Prager yield criterion for isotropic materials is extended for modeling transversely isotropic medium. By coupling Perzyna's viscoplastic theory with a transversely isotropic soil model, the incremental one-dimensional (1D) Nishihara's constitutive model is established and then extended to formulate a three-dimensional (3D) material model. The method to obtaining the material parameters for the proposed model is also provided. The return mapping algorithm and algorithmic tangent matrix are presented to numerically implement the proposed theory into the finite element package-ABAQUS. We have validated the proposed theory by comparing numerical results with the uniaxial compression testing data of Shanghai soft clay and the field observations of soft soil embankments in the Dongting Lake area in China. Then, several numerical examples are conducted to study the influences of elastic-viscoplastic and transversely isotropic parameters on the time-dependent behavior of saturated soils.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the three-dimensional elastic-viscoplastic consolidation behaviors of transversely isotropic saturated soils, establishes relevant material models, provides a method for obtaining parameters, and validates the theory through numerical examples.