The Mechanical Yield Stress in Unsaturated and Saturated Soils

Lloret-Cabot, M. and Wheeler, S. J. (2018) The Mechanical Yield Stress in Unsaturated and Saturated Soils. In: The 7th International Conference on Unsaturated Soils (UNSAT2018), Hong Kong, China, 3-5 Aug 2018,

Abstract

This paper discusses how the variation of mechanical yield stress with matric suction is represented in consti-tutive models for unsaturated and saturated soils. Particular emphasis is placed on how the mechanical yield stress is modelled across transitions between saturated and unsaturated conditions, highlighting the role of water retention hysteresis and the influence of mechanical behaviour on the water retention response. When the constitutive model used represents the unsaturated condition of the soil solely through matric suction (ig-noring any influence of degree of saturation) the variation of mechanical yield stress with matric suction is unique and corresponds to the conventional loading-collapse LC yield curve of the Barcelona Basic Model and many other subsequent models. The incorporation of degree of saturation in modelling unsaturated soil behaviour and, more specifically, inclusion of the hysteretic variation of degree of saturation with suction, suggests that a more realistic representation of the evolution of mechanical yield stress with suction should distinguish between decreasing (wetting) and increasing (drying) variations of suction. These and other rele-vant implications of incorporating water retention hysteresis in a coupled constitutive model for unsaturated soils are discussed in the paper in the context of the Glasgow Coupled Model.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Additional Information: This research is funded by the Marie Skłodowska- Curie project “COUPLED” H2020-MSCA-IF-70-67-12 (@Coupled_UofG). The support from the EU project “TERRE” (ETN-GA-2015-675762) is also acknowledged.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wheeler, Professor Simon and Lloret-Cabot, Dr Marti
• Authors: Lloret-Cabot, M., and Wheeler, S. J.
• Subjects: T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 The Authors
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the publisher

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