Test and numerical analysis of the constitutive relation of a diatomaceous soft rock

A kind of diatomaceous soft rock and its constitutive model are studied in this article. Based on Yin and Graham's (1999) 3-D elastic viscoplastic constitutive model, the formulation under a triaxial stress state is established, and it is used to simulate the time-dependent stress-strain behavior and effective stress path of consolidated undrained triaxial, tests of both normally consolidated and over-consolidated soft rock. The comparison between the model predictions and measured results shows that their agreement is good. This demonstrates that the constitutive equation established here can be used to simulate the time-dependent stress-strain behavior of the soft rock under triaxial stress condition.