Reflections on the cavity expansion problem and its geotechnical applications

Abstract

A selective review is provided of the methods and solutions used to predict the response of various geomaterials in cavity expansion problems, both cylindrical and spherical cavities. As many authors have recognized, the solutions to these problems have numerous applications in geotechnics, and the more significant of these have been addressed in this paper. Some of the more important solutions already available in the literature are presented in addition to some novel results illustrating the effects of some unique features of soil behaviour, such as softening, rate-dependency, density dependent response and dilation. Some of the solutions are available in closed form, while others have required the use of numerical methods such as the finite element method. It is contended that the relatively simple problem of cavity expansion, be it either a cylindrical or a spherical cavity, is capable of revealing important aspects of the mechanical behaviour captured in both simplified and complex soil constitutive models.