Development of an easy user interface for constitutive modeling of fine-grained soil

The successful performance of any numerical geotechnical simulation depends on the accuracy of the constitutive model used to simulate the stress-strain (constitutive) response of the soil. To date, several constitutive models have been developed for soils. Unfortunately, most of them are comprised of numerous mathematical equations which, in general, are difficult to conceptualize and follow. In this paper a new windows-based constitutive driver, EVER-CD, is presented. The major role of EVER-CD is to bridge between the user and constitutive models and to enable easy assessment to the models. The distinctive features of the driver are: (1) it is easy to use by the non-specialist, (2) loading histories can be easily created and validated, (3) runs are relatively easy compared to traditional command line interfaces, (4) results can be easily visualized utilizing a user-friendly graphical interface, and (5) the accessible features of EVER-CD encourage the user to understand constitutive modeling. The usability of the new tool has been verified by simulating conventional triaxial experimental results. The results show the capabilities of the new interface to sucessfully predict the mechanical behavior of soils.