Constitutive modelling of rate-dependent shearing in combination with creep of frozen granular soils

1. Home
2. Publications
3. Online Library
4. Constitutive modelling of rate-dependent shearing in combination with creep of frozen granular soils

This study tests two versions of a novel constitutive model for frozen granular soils. The original model, initially proposed by Cudmani et al. in 2022, enables the combined description of shear and creep strength for predominantly monotonic loading. In 2023, Schindler et al. enhanced the original version to take account of stepwise loading and creep by coupling creep time with stress-strain history. While the rate-dependent shear and creep responses have been separately evaluated for both models, the present study uses both model approaches to compare and validate their ability to predict rate-dependent shearing in combination with single-stage and multi-stage creep conditions. For this purpose, uniaxial compression tests, coupled uniaxial single-stage creep tests with different load application speeds and uniaxial multi-stage creep tests with stepwise loading or unloading were conducted. The experiments were recalculated with the two constitutive model versions and compared. For predominantly monotonic loading, both model predictions are similar and satisfactorily agree with the experimental data. However, and as expected, for non-monotonic loading (e.g. multi-stage loading and unloading) the model version by Schindler et al. can more precisely reproduce the observed experimental behaviour. This finding highlights the potential of the enhanced model version to increase efficiency and safety in artificial ground freezing applications under general loading conditions.

10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023)

1. Constitutive modelling for saturated and unsaturated soils