Formulation and validation of a constitutive model for sands in monotonic shear

A constitutive model for sands in monotonic shear is presented. The model is designed to simulate the behavior of sands in the whole stress and strain range of engineering interest with enough accuracy for practical usage. Material parameters were chosen to be state independent and easy to calibrate using conventional testing procedures. The formulation is based on effective stresses, pressure-dependent hyperelasticity, non-associative elastoplasticity, an isotropic hardening law and Rowe’s stress-dilatancy theory. The implementation of Rowe’s stress-dilatancy theory within the framework of elastoplasticity theory is discussed. It is found that Rowe’s theory produces a volumetric plastic strain rate function that has a discontinuity in its first derivative w.r.t. stress, and a smoothed form is proposed instead. Finally, some experimental tests are simulated and the results are briefly discussed.