Collapse of soils: Experimental and numerical investigations

The aim of this study is to detect the collapse point of soil when submitted to given loading program. An extensive series of tests is performed on loose sand under conventional drained and undrained triaxial compression tests and also under constant shear drained tests. It is found that a non-associated elastoplastic multimechanism model can accurately reproduce not only the global stress strain behaviour of the loose sand but also the collapse point. This analysis is based on the second order work criterion.