Formulation of a three-dimensional constitutive model for unsaturated soils incorporating mechanical-water retention couplings

Wheeler, Sharma and Buisson proposed an elasto-plastic constitutive model for unsaturated soils that couples the mechanical and water retention behaviours. The model was formulated for isotropic stress states and adopts the mean Bishop's stress and modified suction as stress state variables. This paper deals with the extension of this constitutive model to general three-dimensional stress conditions, proposing the generalized stress-strain relationships required for the numerical integration of the constitutive model. A characteristic of the original model is the consideration of a number of elasto-plastic mechanisms to describe the complex behaviour of unsaturated soils. This work presents the three-dimensional formulation of these coupled irreversible mechanisms in a generalized way including anisotropic loading. The paper also compares the results from the model with published experiments performed under different loading conditions. The response of the model is very satisfactory in terms of both mechanical and water retention behaviours. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.