A novel transversely isotropic strength criterion for soils based on a mobilized plane approach

Lu, D., Liang, J., Du, X., Wang, G. and Shire, T. (2019) A novel transversely isotropic strength criterion for soils based on a mobilized plane approach. Geotechnique, 69(3), pp. 234-250. (doi: 10.1680/jgeot.17.p.191)

Abstract

The peak shear strength rules of transversely isotropic soils are stress state dependent and dependent on relative orientation between bedding plane and principal stress. Accordingly, the shear strength of transversely isotropic soils exhibits two primary characteristics: (i) the strength curve on the deviatoric plane is asymmetrical with respect to three principal stress axes; (ii) the shear strength changes with the direction angle of the bedding plane when the intermediate principal stress coefficient is a constant. In this paper, the mobilized plane is introduced and used to reveal the failure mechanism of soils. By projecting the microstructure tensor of transversely isotropic soils onto the normal of the mobilized plane, the directionality of the transversely isotropic soils is introduced into the friction rules on the mobilized plane, and a transversely isotropic strength parameter is proposed. The proposed strength parameter can extend isotropic strength criteria into transversely isotropic strength criteria. This mobilized plane approach is used to establish a novel transversely isotropic nonlinear unified strength criterion (TI-NUSC). The difficulty to establish a unified description of the asymmetrical strength curve and its evolution with direction angle is overcome by the established criterion. Comparisons between available test results and the TI-NUSC shows that the TI-NUSC can successfully describe these two primary peak strength characteristics.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Shire, Dr Thomas
• Authors: Lu, D., Liang, J., Du, X., Wang, G., and Shire, T.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
• Journal Name: Geotechnique
• Publisher: ICE Publishing
• ISSN: 0016-8505
• ISSN (Online): 1751-7656
• Published Online: 23 April 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 ICE Publishing
• First Published: First published in Geotechnique 69(3):234-250
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher