3D zero-thickness interface model for fracture of cement-based materials with chemical degradation

In the framework of the Finite Element Method, zero-thickness interface elements have been widely used to model fracturing processes in quasi-brittle materials in a broad variety of problems. In particular, interface elements equipped with elastoplastic constitutive laws that account for the softening of the material strength parameters due...

Relating cone penetration resistance to sand state using the material point method

Cone penetration tests (CPTs) can quantitatively inform about the mechanical state of a sand. However, relating measured cone resistance values to sand state requires complex back-analysis of the processes occurring in the soil during the test. This paper provides new evidence of the value added in this area by modern large-deformation...

An adaptive mesh refinement algorithm based on element subdivision with application to geomaterials

The implementation of Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) within the geotechnical software package PLAXIS 2D is described in this paper. A recovery-based algorithm is used which aims to reduce the discretisation error by refining the mesh during the solution process. The error is estimated with a Zienkiewicz-Zhu-type error estimator but based on the...