Mechanical Behaviour of Soils under Environmentally Induced Cyclic Loads (Mechanical Behaviour)
Venue: CISM, Udine
Event Date/Time: Jun 08, 2009 | End Date/Time: Jun 12, 2009 |
Registration Date: Jun 05, 2009 | |
Early Registration Date: May 12, 2009 |
Description
In standard geotechnical practice, even nowadays the designer often faces many difficulties in evaluating the mechanical effects of this type of loading. This is due to the fact that (i) many aspects concerning the mechanical response of soils under cyclic loading characterised by a huge number of cycles are not yet well known, (ii) constitutive models capable of reproducing such a response are sophisticated and complex for the end user, (iii) the computational time required is often substantial. To clarify and put in order the theoretical framework of reference, by taking into consideration the most recent and novel research results, this course will outline a path starting from micromechanics and arriving at the analysis of boundary value problems. The subject will be approached by discussing experimental, theoretical, numerical and computational aspects. Shake down, ratcheting and progressive failure phenomena will be described through experimental observation and theoretical analysis and also explored from a micro-structural point of view. Both cohesive and frictional materials, both drained and undrained conditions will be taken into consideration.
Coupling effects due to the presence of fluids within pores will be presented and hydro-mechanical aspects discussed. Different classes of constitutive modelling theories will be described including: standard non-associated elasto-plastic constitutive models characterised by anisotropic strain hardening rules; generalised plasticity; bounding surface plasticity. Boundary value problems will be tackled in order to demonstrate and quantify the consequences of the choice of the constitutive model on the numerical analysis results.