Implementation of a Thermomechanical Clay Constitutive Model in Finite Element Analysis Framework

Research indicates that heating of soil influences its hydraulic and mechanical response in a coupled manner. While several thermomechanical soil constitutive models are present in the literature, their use in numerical analyses of geotechnical boundary value problems involving thermomechanical loading is rather limited. This paper presents numerical implementation of a thermomechanical soil constitutive model in a finite element analysis (FEA) framework. Building on the basics of the modified cam clay (MCC) model, the discussed constitutive model accounts for thermal influence on soil mechanical behavior through an isotropic hardening mechanism. Upon successful numerical implementation, the constitutive model was calibrated using data from temperature-controlled triaxial compression tests reported in the literature. FE simulations of multiple triaxial tests on different soils and comparison of FEA results with those recorded during laboratory triaxial tests demonstrate successful numerical implementation of the thermomechanical soil constitutive model.