A Three-Dimensional Elastoplastic Model for Unsaturated Compacted Soils with Hydraulic Hysteresis

Abstract

This paper presents a three-dimensional elastoplastic model for predicting the hydraulic and stress-strain-strength behaviour of unsaturated soils. The model is generalized using the transformed stress method to three-dimensional stress states by assuming that the shapes of the failure surface and the yield surface in the deviatoric plane of the average skeleton stress space are given by the SMP criterion. Hydraulic hysteresis in the water-retention behaviour is modeled as an elastoplastic process with the elastic region of the saturation degree decreasing with increasing suction in the Sr-log s plane. The effect of void ratio on the water-retention behaviour is studied using test data obtained from controlled-suction triaxial tests on unsaturated compacted clay. The effect of change in degree of saturation on the stress-strain-strength behaviour and the effect of change in void ratio on the water-retention behaviour are taken into consideration in the model, in addition to the effect of suction on the hydraulic and mechanical behaviour. Model predictions of the stress-strain and water-retention behaviour are compared with those obtained from triaxial tests on unsaturated soil along isotropic compression, triaxial compression and triaxial extension stress paths with or without variation in suction. The comparisons indicate that the model has well predicting capabilities to reproduce the hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils under three-dimensional stress states.