Comparison of Mechanical Behaviour of Granular Soils Using Various Plasticity Models

The mechanical behaviour of granular soils is highly complicated due to the highly heterogeneous behaviour of soils. The discrete nature of these particles calls for the use of plastic theories for the understanding of mechanical behaviour of soils. Constitutive relationships for granular soils can be formulated based on micro-mechanical approach or macro-mechanical approach. The various behaviours like hardening, densification and dilation associated with soils as loading progresses control the overall response of the material. Dilation which is related to the increase in volume of soil mass during shearing is an important parameter which controls the response of a deposit. There are different plasticity models which are in use for predicting the behaviour of granular materials. In this paper, a comparative study of the mechanical behaviour of granular materials when different plasticity models are adopted is presented. Finite element software ANSYS is used for the modelling of the drained and undrained stress strain behaviour of the granular soil mass subjected to static loading.