A soil damage model expressed by a double scalar and its applications

Abstract

Poroelasticity refers to the study of the mechanics of porous elastic materials that are saturated with compressible or incompressible fluids. When considering saturated poroelastic geomaterials, their consolidation response can be influenced by the evolution of damage in the porous skeleton. The objective of this paper is to examine the problem of consolidation response of damage-susceptible poroelastic geomaterials. Firstly, a new constitutive model of soft soils expressed by isotropic double scalar damage variables is developed and incorporated into Biot’s consolidation finite element equations via EDAPD program. Then, the EDAPD program is applied to analyze a soft subgrade reinforced by surcharge preloading technology. The comparison between the numerical predictions and the experimental data shows that the isotropic double scalar damage model presented in this paper is effective and feasible in analyzing the consolidation problem of damaged porous media.