Discussion on Applicability of Rigid Plastic Dynamic Deformation Analysis to Soil Structures

Abstract

This paper proposes a new analysis method to estimate a residual deformation of soil structure for external loads. It employs a rigid plastic constitutive equation for soil which needs a small number of soil constants in comparison with general elasto-plastic constitutive equations. The purpose of this method is to simulate a large amount of deformation caused by failure of soil structure based on finite deformation theory. The features of proposed method are (1) simulation for large deformation of soil structure, (2) no effect of initial stress distribution, and (3) application to dynamic load. This study expresses the formulation of rigid plastic dynamic finite element method based on finite deformation theory. It examines the applicability of proposed method by applying to Prandtl's limit bearing capacity of foundation for static monotonically increasing load. The result clearly shows the applicability of rigid plastic constitutive equation to deformation analysis. Both kinematical effect and time rate dependency on limit bearing capacity were clearly presented by employing Rigid Plastic Dynamic Deformation Analysis Method.