Simulation of triaxial and true triaxial tests on natural and reconstituted Pisa clay

Abstract

A kinematic hardening/bounding surface plasticity model is used to reproduce the experimental behaviour of the natural soft clay found at Pisa. The model accounts for progressive loss of structure with plastic strains, and can be made to degenerate into a structureless state. Model parameters are calibrated on drained triaxial probing tests on natural Pisa clay, and are subsequently used for predicting behaviour of the soil in one-dimensional loading, in triaxial undrained deformation and under true triaxial shearing. Model predictions for the destructured clay are compared with experimental results from triaxial tests on reconstituted Pisa clay. Comparison with experimental results provides information on the quality of the proposed modelling approach.