Compression model for cohesionless soils

TLDR: In this article, a simple four-parameter elasto-plastic model was proposed to describe the nonlinear volumetric behavior of freshly deposited cohesionless soils in hydrostatic and one-dimensional compression.

Abstract: A simple four-parameter elasto-plastic model describes the non-linear volumetric behaviour of freshly deposited cohesionless soils in hydrostatic and one-dimensional compression. It expresses the tangent bulk modulus as a separable function of the current void ratio and mean effective stress using natural strains. Specimens compressed from different initial formation densities approach a unique response at high stress levels—the limiting compression curve (LCC)—which is linear in a double logarithmic void ratio-effective stress space. The model describes irrecoverable, plastic strains which develop throughout first loading and represent mechanisms ranging from particle sliding and rolling at low stresses to crushing—the principal component of deformation for LCC states. The three input parameters describing plastic deformation can be readily estimated from a hydrostatic or one-dimensional compression test loaded to high stress levels; the elastic bulk modulus requires accurate small strain measurements in...