An anisotropic semi-micromechanical cyclic constitutive model for sands

Abstract

The anisotropic behaviour of sands, which is associated with their grain-scale microstructural characteristics such as the distribution of voids and the spatial orientation of particles, can lead to significant variations in macro-scale predictions. In this paper, a bounding surface plasticity based anisotropic semi-micromechanical constitutive model is developed, within the multilaminate framework, to describe the effects of fabric on the cyclic behaviour of sands. A novel plastic strain driven semi-micromechanical fabric evolution framework fulfilling the premises of anisotropic critical state theory is proposed. Rather than using a single scalar-valued fabric anisotropic variable, which is the general practise in anisotropic critical state theory based models, independently evolving fabric anisotropic variables are employed at so-called sampling planes. In addition, the semifluidised state concept is utilised at low mean effective stresses to realistically capture post-liquefaction responses, including large shear deformations and accumulative plastic strains during flow liquefaction and cyclic mobility types of behaviour. The procedure for calibrating model parameters is briefly described and the prediction capabilities of the proposed model under drained and undrained monotonic and cyclic loading conditions at different stress states, relative densities and loading orientations are demonstrated by simulating experimental data for Toyoura sand using a single set of parameters.