A new method for implicit integration of the Mohr-Coulomb non-smooth multisurface plasticity models is presented, and Koiter’s requirements are incorporated exactly within the proposed algorithm. Algorithmic and numerical complexities are identified and introduced by the nonsmooth intersections of the Mohr-Coulomb surfaces; then, a projection contraction algorithm is applied to solve the classical Kuhn–Tucker complementary equations which provide the only characterization of possible active yield surfaces as a special class of variational inequalities, and the actual active yield surface is further determined by iteration. The basic idea is to calculate derivatives of the yield and potential functions with the expressions in the principal stresses and perform the return manipulations in the general stress space. Based on the principal stress characteristic equation, partial derivatives of principal stresses are calculated. The proposed algorithm eliminates the error caused by smoothing the corner of Mohr-Coulomb surfaces, avoids the numerical singularity at the intersections in the general stress space, and does not require the stress transformation needed in the principal stress space method. Lastly, several numerical examples are given to verify the validity of the proposed method.
Over the conventional limit equilibrium method and limit analysis method, the finite element method is advantageous, especially for slopes involving complex failure mechanisms where the critical slip surfaces cannot be represented by log spirals and other similarities. In the presence of tension cracks at slope crests, however, the finite element method encounters difficulties in convergence while handling Mohr–Coulomb’s yielding surfaces with tensile strength cut-off. Meanwhile, the commonly used load-controlled method for the system of nonlinear equilibrium equations is hard to bring the slope into the limit equilibrium state. The two drawbacks drag down the finite element method in more extensive applications. By reducing the constitutive integration of plasticity with non-smooth yielding surfaces to the mixed complementarity problem, the convergence in numerical constitutive integration is established for arbitrarily large incremental strains. In order to bring the slope to the limit equilibrium state, a new displacement-controlled algorithm is designed for the system of nonlinear equilibrium equations, which is far more efficient than the load-controlled method. A procedure is proposed to locate tension cracks. Corresponding to the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion with and without tensile strength cut-off, the failure mechanisms differ significantly, while the difference in the factor of safety might be ignorable.
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