Eigendegradation Algorithm Applied to Visco-Plastic Weak Layers

Abstract

In geotechnical engineering, very often, the soil behavior varies with time. This is of particular interest in many cases such as embankments in soft clays, shear band progression in slopes or where the speed of the application of the load affects the bearing capacity of the material. In this paper, we study the extension of non-local failures using algorithms such as eigenerosion and eigensoftening, in order to evaluate the failure of weak layers. In particular, the time dependence of the progression of shear bands is analyzed through the integration of a Perzyna-type visco-plastic model with a degradation algorithm within the Optimal Transportation Meshfree (OTM) framework. The validation of the proposed algorithm is carried out through three different practical cases, showing very good agreement in all of them.