Evaluation of a constitutive model for clays and sands: Part II – clay behaviour

Abstract The undrained response of cohesive soils is of paramount importance in geomechanics and it has been modelled extensively for the last 50 years. In comparison, drained behaviour of clays has received only modest attention. Drained and undrained behaviour is significantly affected by past consolidation stress history. This paper evaluates the capabilities of the MIT‐S1 effective stress model, described in a companion paper, for predicting the anisotropic stress–strain–strength behaviour of clays. The paper illustrates the selection of model parameters for Lower Cromer Till, using data from standard types of laboratory tests. Comparison of model simulations with measured response for Lower Cromer Till and Boston Blue Clay illustrate model capabilities. The work focuses initially on comparisons of model predictions with measurements from undrained triaxial and plane strain tests on initially K₀‐consolidated specimens. Comparisons with measured data from undrained shear tests performed in different modes of shearing for LCT and BBC show that the model: (a) gives excellent predictions of maximum shear stress conditions and accurately describes the non‐linear shear stress–strain behaviour; (b) accurately describes the anisotropic shear stress–strain–strength conditions for different consolidation stress histories; and (c) gives realistic description of mobilized friction angles, especially at large OCR's. The paper then focuses on the effects of consolidation stress history for isotropically consolidated specimens of resedimented Lower Cromer Till and Boston Blue Clay. Finally, the paper compares model predictions for drained shear tests on K₀ and isotropically consolidated specimens with overconsolidation ratios, OCR⩽10, used to evaluate particular aspects of the critical state framework of soil behaviour. Overall, the model gives excellent predictions of the effect of initial anisotropy and overconsolidation stress history on the shear stress–strain and volumetric behaviour of clays. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.