A constitutive model for soil-rockfill mixtures

Abstract

Soil-rockfill mixtures (SRMs) are economical and environmentally friendly materials. Due to the absence in the literature of constitutive models specifically developed and tested for SRMs, a new constitutive model, the Subloading Surface Rockfill Model, is presented. This model allows the occurrence of plastic strains inside the yield surface, inducing a smooth elastic/plastic transition. The results of experimental tests for different coarse fractions (CF) of several SRMs performed on samples from Odelouca Dam are compared with those obtained with this model. The model was able to reproduce reasonably well the response of SRMs considering the intrinsic variability of the tested specimens.