The application of principles of soil mechanics to the modelling of pastes

This paper presents a simple model of the stress-strain behaviour of pastes made from non-damaging particles. It is based on an earlier model by Chandler and Macphee (Cem Concr Res 33:265–270, 2003) and Sands and Chandler (accepted for publication in Géotechnique) which is de-dimensionalised to reduce the number of model parameters and facilitate their establishment. The model is first tested against the results of experimental work on sands by Oka et al. (Géotechnique 49(5):661–680, 1999) and very successful simulations of torsion tests on hollow cylinders are obtained by finding the most suitable values of two adjustable parameters. The model is also checked against mechanical tests performed on a number of simple pastes. An experimental procedure used for the tests on various compositions of pastes is presented, together with the results of the tests and simulations using the model. Good agreement is achieved with the model, showing that some recent developments in soil models might provide a guide to developing and improving models for dense granular pastes operating in the frictional regime.