A microstructural elastoplastic model for unsaturated granular materials (Q2382571)

A homogenization technique is used to obtain an elastoplastic stress-strain relationship for dry, saturated and unsaturated granular materials. The elastic part is based on Hertz-Mindlin contact formulation, while the plastic part is based on Mohr-Coulomb friction law with an isotropic hardening assumption and non-associated flow rule. Only a limited number of parameters are necessary. For constant water content the results show an increase in mechanical properties whenever the degree of saturation decreases. Also the collapse of an unsaturated specimen could be obtained during wetting. The tensor is isotropic and can be reduced to a capillary pressure. The stress tensor can be obtained by adding the total stress and capillary stress tensor. The comparison with experimental results is good.