Fabric dilatancy and the plasticity modeling of granular media

A novel conceptual model of the mechanics of sands is developed within an elastic–plastic framework. Central to this model is the realization that volume changes in anisotropic granular materials occur as a result of two fundamentally different mechanisms. The first is purely kinematic, dilative, and is the result of the changes in anisotropic fabric. There is also a second volume change in granular media that occurs as a direct response to changes in stress as in a standard elastic/plastic continuum. The inclusion of the two sources of volume change results in three important datum states. When subjected to isotropic strains, the resulting stress state in granular materials is not isotropic but lies upon the kinematic normal consolidation line. There exists a state at which the fabric‐induced volumetric strain rate becomes equal to the stress‐induced volumetric strain rate making the total plastic volumetric strain rate equal to zero. Granular response changes from contractive to dilative at this phase transformation line. The third datum state is the one in which the stress‐induced volumetric strain rate is zero. The sand, however, continues to dilate at this state with the difference between stress and dilation ratio a constant as predicted by Taylor's stress–dilatancy rule. These predictions are shown in accordance with experimental data from a series of drained tests and undrained on Ottawa sand. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.