A state-dependent hyperelastic-plastic constitutive model considering shear-induced particle breakage in granular soils

An elastic–plastic constitutive model considering particle breakage for simulation of crushable granular soils behavior is proposed. In the model, elastic strain rates are derived from a modified Helmholtz free energy function, and the influence of plastic shear work-induced particle breakage on the elastic properties of sand is taken into account as an elastic–plastic coupling mechanism. A stress ratio-driven mechanism is employed for calculation of the plastic strain rates. The proposed model is capable of tracking the evolution of the grain size distribution (GSD) due to shear-induced particle breakage. The evolving breakage index of Einav (2007) (J Mech Phys Solids 55(6):1274–1297, 2007) is interrelated to the plastic shear work to avoid overestimation of shear-induced particle breakage in loose sands. A direct comparison between the model simulations and laboratory data has been carried out for five series of drained/undrained monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests covering a wide range of initial states. For the sake of comparison, predicted behaviors from a hypoplastic constitutive model specially developed for crushable granular soils are also included. It is shown that the proposed constitutive model can provide reasonable predictions using a single set of parameters for each series of the laboratory data.