A State-Dependent Constitutive Model for Unsaturated Rockfill Materials

Abstract

This chapter presents a state-dependent elastoplastic constitutive model for both saturated and unsaturated rockfill materials. The model, which is developed within an extended critical-state framework, uses two independent stress state variables: total stress and total suction. The loading-collapse (LC) curve proposed by Oldecop and Alonso for unsaturated rockfills is used herein. A unified hardening parameter, which could consider the effects of stress level, internal state (density) and relative humidity, is introduced to describe the state-dependent dilatancy of saturated and unsaturated rockfill materials. The details of the model formulation and parameters determination are described and reported. Numerical simulations on the triaxial tests, such as the drained shear tests on the saturated specimens with different initial dry densities, shear tests on the specimens with different relative humidity and wetting deformation tests under constant vertical strain rate, have been carried out using the proposed model. The numerical results show that the stress-strain relationships at both loose and dense, saturated and unsaturated states can be properly modelled with a single set of parameters. Additionally, the proposed model can also capture some other key features such as the strain-softening behaviour at the dense state and low confining stress, the sudden stress relaxing subjected to the flooding under a constant vertical strain.