FEM simulation of the viscous effects on the stress-strain behaviour of sand in plane strain compression

A stress-strain model called TESRA (Temporary Effects of Strain Rate and Acceleration), described in a non-linear three-component framework, has been proposed to simulate the effects of viscous property on the stress-strain behaviour observed in drained plane strain compression (PSC) tests on clean sands. According to the TESRA model, the current viscous stress component is obtained by integrating for a given history of irreversible strain increments of viscous stress component that developed by respective instantaneous irrecoverable strain increment and its rate and have decayed with an increase in the irreversible strain until the present. The TESRA model was implemented into a generalized elasto-plastic isotropic strain-hardening non-linear FE code. The integration scheme to obtain the viscous and inviscid stress components according to the TESRA model in FEM analysis needs some specific considerations including the relevant choice of the suitable rate parameter. The shear stress-shear (or axial) strain-time relations from five drained PSC tests on saturated Toyoura sand and air-dried Hostun sand were successfully simulated by the FE code embedded with the TESRA model. It is shown that the FE code can simulate the time-dependent stress-strain behaviour of sand accurately without spending any significant extra computational time or storage. The results of simulation using one element and multi-element are essentially the same.