An engineering theory of soil behaviour in unloading and reloading

A constitutive law is proposed for describing the stress-strain characteristic of soils in unloading-reloading. The constitutive equations are valid piecewisely between subsequent, appropriately formulated, stress reversal loci. The stress-strain relationships are formulated in terms of generalized stress and strain differences referred to the last stress reversal point and connected through a variable compliance tensor. The shear compaction effect is modelled by a suitable formulation of the compliance tensor. Specialization to conventional triaxial condition is given. As well as fitting available experimental data in unloading-reloading of normally consolidated and overconsolidated clays, the proposed constitutive relation can model the dependence on OCR of the shape of the undrained effective stress paths, the phenomenon of cyclic mobility of clay in undrained compression and the unloading-reloading stress paths in the oedometer. The theory requires the identification of only three material constants in addition to those pertinent to the usual elastoplastic theory of soil with which it may be easily combined. © 1981 Pitagora Editrice Bologna.