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Soft-Soil Const Model

The soft-soil model describes the behavior of soft soils like clays and silts. It has pressure-dependent moduli, distinct unloading/reloading behavior from virgin loading, and expands the volumetric yield surface. The model uses equations to describe virgin and unloading compression relationships between volumetric strain and mean pressure. It assumes a Mohr-Coulomb shear failure criterion and tension failure criterion, with the yield surface defined as an ellipse in the p-q plane.

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101 views

Soft-Soil Const Model

The soft-soil model describes the behavior of soft soils like clays and silts. It has pressure-dependent moduli, distinct unloading/reloading behavior from virgin loading, and expands the volumetric yield surface. The model uses equations to describe virgin and unloading compression relationships between volumetric strain and mean pressure. It assumes a Mohr-Coulomb shear failure criterion and tension failure criterion, with the yield surface defined as an ellipse in the p-q plane.

Uploaded by

icabullanguero
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Soft-Soil Model

Soft soils generally refer to normally consolidated or slightly over-consolidated clays,


silty-clays, clayey silts, and peats. Significant compression (e.g., ) is
one of the main engineering characteristics of the soft soils. The soft-soil (SS) model
has the following features: (a) pressure-dependent moduli; (b) unloading-reloading
distinct from the virgin loading; (c) expansion of the volumetric yield ellipse-shaped
cap; and (d) conventional Mohr-Coulomb shear failure and tension failure criteria.

In the SS model, the virgin compression assumes the relation

(1)

where is the increment of the volumetric strain, is the increment of the mean
pressure, and material parameters and are the cohesion and friction angle of the
soil, respectively. The material parameter is the modified compression index.

The unloading and reloading compression assumes

(2)

where is the increment of the elastic volumetric strain, and the material parameter
is the modified swelling index. Equation (2) implies that the elastic bulk modulus is
pressure-dependent and with the form

(3)

It is noted that the material parameters and (using the superscript asterisk to
denote “modified”) are based on the increment of volumetric strains (Figure 1); they
are different from the material parameters and used in the modified Cam-Clay
model which are based on the increment of void ratios.
Figure 1: Relation between the volumetric strain and the effective mean
pressure .

The model assumes a constant Poisson’s ratio , so the elastic shear modulus is

(4)

The pre-consolidation pressure, or cap pressure, , is the largest pressure level


experienced by the soil. During the virgin (primary) loading, increases with the
stress level and causes the plastic (irreversible) volumetric strains. By Equations (1)
and (2) together with , it can be derived that

(5)

The yield surface of the SS model is an ellipse in the plane (Figure 1) expressed
as

(6)

where the equivalent pressure is defined as

(7)
and , , where , , and
are effective principal stress with the order ,
, and determines the ratio of the radius of the ellipse
defined by the yield function as Equation (6). Here is different from the value of
in the modified Cam-Clay model. Instead, is not an input
material parameter but internally determined by other material parameters by the
relation (Brinkgreve, 1994)

(8)

where is the coefficient of lateral earth pressure in a normally consolidated


condition, and the user can input a value or its default value is if not
assigned.

Figure 2: Yield and failure surfaces of the Soft-Soil model in the plane.

The SS model uses the associated flow rule for the volumetric evolution, so the
potential function for volumetric plasticity is the same as the yield function in
Equation (6)

The conventional Mohr-Coulomb shear failure and tension failure criteria are also
adopted in the SS model. The elastic region is defined by the volumetric yield ellipse,
the Mohr-Coulomb shear failure line, and the tension failure line in the plane.

If the creep effect of the secondary compression would be taken into account, the
Soft-Soil-Creep model is recommended.
References
Brinkgreve, R.B.J. Geomaterial models and numerical analysis of softening. Ph.D.
Thesis. Univ., Delft, Netherlands (1994).

soft-soil Model Properties


Use the following keywords with the zone property command to set these
properties of the Soft-Soil model.

friction f

friction angle, , The default value is 30 [in degrees]. The


recommended input value is the critical-state friction angle
rather than a higher value at small strains. Input of a zero
value is not allowed.

kappa-modified f

modified swelling index, or slope of elastic swelling line,


, where is the swelling index in the Cam-
Clay model, and can be approximately the initial or
average void ratio during a swelling path; or
,
where is the 1-D swelling index, is the Poisson’s ratio
and is the at-rest earth pressure coefficient. Typical
value of is . A good estimation
is .

lambda-modified f

modified compression index, or slope of elastic


compression line, , where is the
compression index in the Cam-Clay model, and can be
approximately the initial or average void ratio during a
compression path; or , where
is the 1-D compression index. Typical value of can be
estimated (Terzaphi & Peck 1967) as
for normally consolidated clay
where is the liquid limit. Based on the modified Cam-
Clay model, it can estimated that , where
is the plastic index.

poisson f

Poisson’s ratio, , The default value is 0.15.

stress-1-effective f
initial minimum effective principal stress, . Only for
calculation of the initial moduli, will not be update once
assigned.

stress-2-effective f

initial median effective principal stress, . Only for


calculation of the initial moduli, will not be update once
assigned.

stress-3-effective f

initial maximum effective principal stress, . Only for


calculation of the initial moduli, will not be update once
assigned.

coefficient-normally-consolidation f [a]

normal consolidation coefficient, . It is not allowed to


be less than , a range 0.5 to 0.7 is common. The
default is .

cohesion f [a]

effective cohesion, . The default value is 0. Remember


that this model is mainly for normally consolidated or
slightly over-consolidated soft soils, so should be zero or
a small value, and a large value may be not realistic.

dilation f [a]

dilation angle, . The default value is 0 [in degrees]. The


zero dilation angle is the standard setting in the SS model.

over-consolidation-ratio f [a]

over consolidation ratio, . The default is 1.0, which


corresponds to the normally consolidated soils. The input
will be used to determine the initial cap pressure so
that . will be updated during
calculation.

pressure-cutoff f [a]

cut-off pressure for cap pressure, . The default value is


1.0 (of the stress unit used in the model). This is the lower-
bound of the cap pressure. The actual minimum cap
pressure used in the model is .

tension f [a]

tensile strength, . The default value is 0, which is for


most cases.

void-initial f [a]

initial void ratio, . The default is 1.0.

bulk f [r]

current elastic bulk modulus,

pressure-cap f [r]

current cap (apparent pre-consolidation) pressure,

pressure-effective f [r]

current effective pressure,

pressure-equivalent f [r]

current equivalent pressure,

ratio-radius f [r]

current elastic shear modulus, , which will be calculated


internally.

shear f [r]

current elastic shear modulus,

strain-volume-plastic f [r]

accumulated plastic volumetric strain,

stress-deviatoric-equivalent f [r]

current equivalent deviatoric stress,

void f [r]

current void ratio,

Footnotes

[a] Advanced property. It should have a default value and should


not be necessary to specify for simpler applications of the
model.

[r] Read-only property. It should not be allowed to be set by the


user. Instead, it can be listed, plotted, or accessed through
FISH.

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