A plasticity model for sand-structure interfaces

The predictive capacity of numerical analyses in geotechnical engineering depends strongly on the efficiency of constitutive models used for modeling of interfaces behavior. Interfaces are considered as thin layers of the soil adjacent to structures boundary whose major role is transferring loads from structures to soil masses. An interface model within the bounding surface plasticity framework and the critical state soil mechanics is presented. To this aim, general formulation of the interface model according to the bounding surface plasticity theory is described first. Similar to granular soils, it has been shown that the mechanical behavior of sand-structure interfaces is highly affected by the interface state that is the combined influences of density and applied normal stress. Therefore, several ingredients of the model are directly related to the interface state. As a result of this feature, the model is enabled to distinguish interfaces in dense state from those in loose state and to provide realistic predictions over wide ranges of density and normal stress values. In evaluation of the model, a reasonable correspondence between the model predictions and the experimental data of various research teams is found.