Critical-State Soil Models

Department of Civil and Envir. Eng., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

April, 2014

Critical-State Soil Mechanics

Is an effective stress framework for describing soil
response
Developed by Roscoe and others at Cambridge in
the fifties
Some Useful Literature:
Schofield, A., & Wroth, P. (1968). Critical state soil mechanics.
Wood, D. (1990). Soil behaviour and critical state soil mechanics.
Cambridge University Press.
Helwany, S. (2007). Applied soil mechanics with ABAQUS applications.
John Wiley & Sons.

Critical-State Soil Mechanics

Introduce concept of critical state of soils:

State at which shear strains occur without further

changes in confining stress, deviatoric stress or
volume.

Critical State models tie together:

1. Behavior of confining pressure (p)
2. Behavior of deviatoric stress (q)
3. Behavior of volume changes (e)

Critical-State Models
Some Critical State Soil Models:

Granta Gravel
Cam Clay

Modified Cam Clay

Prevosts Multi-surface

Prevosts Multi-surface

Modified Cam-Clay

Modified Cam-Clay

Kinematic hardening

Isotropic hardening

Multiple yield surfaces

Yield surface and Critical State

surface

Yield surfaces not capped

Capped yield surfaces

Yield surface size independent of e

Dependency on e

Ignores OCR

Accounts for OCR effect

Kinematic Hardening
xy

xy

xz

xy

xz

Isotropic Hardening

Isotropic Hardening

Normal Consolidation Line and

UnloadingReloading Lines

Normal Consolidation Line and

UnloadingReloading Lines

Normal Consolidation Line and

UnloadingReloading Lines

Critical-State

Critical state: State at

which shear stress
application leads to
no volume change as
the soil is continually
sheared.

Critical-State

CSL

p (kPa)

Critical-State Line

Elastic

Yielding

Critical-State Line in e-p-q space

3D Figure

Parameters for formulation

or

Parameters for formulation

Inside the field surface (Elastic state)

Elastic but
NOT linear

Soil Plasticity
Flow Rule: Describes the direction of the
vector of plastic strain increment
Hardening Law: Relates the magnitude of a
plastic strain to the magnitude of an
increment of stress as the stress traverses the
yield surface and the material hardens

Yield Surface

Preconsolidation Pressure

Yield Surface: Separates states of stress which cause only elastic

strains from states of stress that cause plastic (and elastic) strains

Plastic Strains
Definitions:
des :Deviatoric Elastic strain increment
dps :Deviatoric Plastic strain increment
ds = des + dps
0

dev :Volumetric Elastic strain increment

dpv : Volumetric Plastic strain increment
dv = dev + dpv

Volumetric Strains
Elastic Volumetric
Strains

Derived from isotropic

consolidation test:

Plastic Volumetric
Strains

also:

Differentiating:

Total Volumetric Strains

Deviatoric Plastic Strains

Cam Clay Model assumes an associated flow rule
controlled by the shape of the yield surface:

Stress increment has same direction as strain increment

These increments are perpendicular to the yield surface
(normality rule)

Deviatoric Plastic Strains

Yield surface:
Differentiating (dq/dp), we find normal
of the yield surface (-dp/dq):
Using:

2
2 2
M

Deviatoric Plastic Strains

d S d S d V
P

dp / dq

d S d V

2
2 2
M

Normal of the
yield surface

Plastic Strains (General)

Summary

Volumetric Strains:

Deviatoric Strains:

Critical-State Soil Models

Department of Civil and Envir. Eng., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

April, 2014

Summary

CSL
M

p
(kPa)

Summary

Yield Surface

Preconsolidation Pressure

Yield Surface: Separates states of stress which cause only elastic

strains from states of stress that cause plastic (and elastic) strains

Summary

Volumetric Strains:

Deviatoric Strains:

General Formulation
Borja, R. I., & Lee, S. R. (1990). Cam-clay plasticity, part I:
implicit integration of elasto-plastic constitutive relations.
Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and
Engineering, 78(1), 49-72

General Formulation

Hardening Behavior

Hardening Behavior
q

Critical State
Line
State Boundary
Surface

P
Normal
Consolidation
Line

Hardening Behavior
q

Critical State
Line
State Boundary
Surface

P
Normal
Consolidation
Line

Softening Behavior

Softening Behavior
q

Critical State
Line
State Boundary
Surface

P
Normal
Consolidation
Line

Softening Behavior
q

Critical State
Line
State Boundary
Surface

P
Normal
Consolidation
Line

e
NCL

CSL

Extended Cam Clay

Extended Cam Clay

Effect of shape of Yield Function