New Constitutive Relation for Granular Soils Based on RecentParticulate Mechanics Findings

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CMS 97-28623 Dobry This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) award is funded to support research on the development of a new constitutive relation for sands and other granular media, based on some recent particulate mechanics findings by the PI. These findings reveal some simple and very powerful connections between behavior at the article contact level and the desired constitutive relation. The new relation is based on the force-deformation model at the contact between two spheres developed by the PI, and it will be implemented through a computer program. A preliminary assessment indicates that the new relation will naturally predict the stress-induced anisotropy, volumetric contraction upon unloading, and densification during cyclic loading observed experimentally. Parametric studies will be performed with the computer program, and the predications will be compared with available experimental results. Finally, ways will be explored to incorporate, also on the basis of fundamental particulate mechanics consideration, other effects currently not included in the relation, like dilation and anelastic behavior during consolidation. The new constitutive relation should have significant impact on the analytical modeling of static and cyclic loading of granular media, given its fundamental particulate mechanics grounding as well as its power and simplicity. ***