An elastoplastic constitutive model for rockfills incorporating energy dissipation of nonlinear friction and particle breakage

A new elastoplastic model is developed for rockfills within the general critical state framework incorporating the state parameter. Two state functions are proposed to characterize the evolution of volume dilation and strain softening of rockfills, and a modified breakage index based on the concept of Hardin's relative breakage is defined to describe the progressive crushing of rockfills. The nonassociated plastic flow rule is derived from a state dependent dilatancy equation, and it incorporates energy dissipation due to intrinsic nonlinear friction and particle breakage upon shearing. Thus, their couple effect on the plastic deviatoric and volumetric deformation of rockfills is taken into account in the current model. The numerical analyses are carried out for a series of drained triaxial tests on the modeled rockfills at various consolidation pressures and stress paths. The volume dilation/contraction and strain softening/hardening of rockfills are accurately predicted by the proposed model, and the particle breakage and nonlinear critical state shear strength of rockfills are also well captured. The research findings indicate that the current model is applicable to represent the complex stress-strain-volume change behavior of rockfills in general. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.