16-Hardening Soil Model With Small Strain Stiffness - Plaxis

16- Hardening Soil Model with Small Strain Stiffness -
PLAXIS
This model is the Hardening Soil Model with Small Strain Stiffness as presented in PLAXIS. The model is
developed using the user-defined material model option in RS2 and RS3.
This model is an extension of the Hardening Soil Model with the major difference that the elastic properties
are when the strains are very small. The base for this extension is illustrated in Figure 16.1.
Figure 16.1- Characteristic stiffness-strain curve for soils
The S shaped characteristic stiffness-strain shows that the elastic modulus of soil is dependent on the level
of shear strain, and major part of this curve is actually ignored when the material properties are evaluated
from the conventional soil tests. In this graph, 𝐺0 is the maximum/initial shear modulus and 𝐺 is the shear
modulus at a certain level of shear strain 𝛾. Based on Figure 16.1, the elastic modulus that should be used
in a numerical analysis should account for its dependency on the strain level.
16.1- Small Strain Stiffness

The S shape characteristic curve that is commonly used in soil dynamics is based on the Hardin and
Drnevich (1972) equation
𝐺 1 𝜏𝑚𝑎𝑥
= 𝛾 , 𝛾𝑟 = (16.1)
𝐺0 1+|𝛾 | 𝐺0
𝑟
where 𝜏𝑚𝑎𝑥 is the shear stress at failure. This relationship covers the small and large range of strain up to
failure. The use of smaller range for strain has been proposed for example by Santos and Correia (2001).
They suggested to use 𝛾𝑟 = 𝛾0.7 at which the shear modulus is reduced to 70% of its initial value.
𝐺 1
= 𝛾 , 𝑎 = 0.385 (16.2)
𝐺0 1+𝑎|𝛾 |
0.7
On top of the decay function that is applied to the shear modulus in 16.2, it is assumed that the elastic
modulus is dependent on the level of stress similar to the relationships that was presented for Hardening
Soil model. So equation 16.2 is used in combination of equation 16.3.
𝑚
𝑟𝑒𝑓 𝑐 cos 𝜑+𝜎1 sin 𝜑
𝐺0 = 𝐺0 (𝑐 cot 𝜑+𝑝 ) (16.3)
𝑟𝑒𝑓 sin 𝜑
𝑟𝑒𝑓
where 𝐺0 is the reference shear modulus at reference pressure.
Note that the cutoff for the decay function in 16.2 is the value of 𝐸𝑢𝑟 , meaning that the elastic modulus
predicted for the numerical analysis cannot be less than this limit.
To be able to capture the hysteretic behavior of the material in loading-unloading-reloading stress paths the
proposed approach by Masing (1926) is adopted in this model. In this method the initial shear modulus in
unloading path is the same as the initial modulus in the initial loading path, and the shape of unloading and
reloading path is similar to the initial loading but twice its size.
To obtain such a behavior in reloading conditions the Hardening Soil Model with Small Strain Stiffness
uses the following modification
𝛾0.7−𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 = 2𝛾0.7−𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 (16.4)
16.2- History Dependent Shear Strain

The shear strain used in the decay function for the shear modulus is actually dependent on the loading
history. Once the direction of loading is changed the stiffness regains a maximum recoverable value in the
order of its initial value at that stress level. The shear strain used in the decay function is in general
3
𝛾 = 𝜀𝑞 (16.5)
2
To make it history dependent Benz (2006) has proposed a modification
∗
‖𝑒̇ 𝑘𝑚 𝐻𝑚𝑙 ‖
𝛾ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡 = √3 (16.6)
‖𝑒̇ 𝑘𝑙 ‖
The ‖… ‖ denotes the Hilbert-Schmidt norm, ‖𝑎‖ = √𝑎𝑖𝑗 𝑎𝑖𝑗 . The formulation to calculate the history
dependent shear strain, 𝛾ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡 , is as follows.
The deviatoric strain history is stored in a symmetric tensor 𝐻𝑘𝑙 . In an increment of load the increment of
deviatoric strain is 𝑒̇𝑘𝑙 and its eigen values and eigen vectors can be find by solving
(𝑖)
(𝑒̇𝑘𝑙 − 𝜆(𝑖) 𝛿𝑘𝑙 )𝑉𝑙 =0 (16.7)
where pairs of (𝜆, 𝑉𝑙 ) are the eigen value and eigen vectors, and 𝛿𝑘𝑙 is the Kronecker delta.
0 , 𝑖≠𝑗
𝛿𝑖𝑗 = { (16.8)
1 , 𝑖=𝑗
The set of orthogonal eigen vectors forms a coordinate base 𝑉𝑙𝑚 in which the increment of deviatoric strain
is a diagonal tensor with diagonal element being the eigen values. To identify a change in loading direction
the deviatoric strain history and the increment of deviatoric strain are compared in this base.
𝑒̇𝑘𝑙 = 𝑉𝑘𝑚 𝑒̇𝑚𝑛 𝑉𝑙𝑚 (16.9)
𝐻𝑘𝑙 = 𝑉𝑘𝑚 𝐻𝑚𝑛 𝑉𝑙𝑚 (16.10)
In above 𝑒̇𝑘𝑙 is the transformed increment of deviatoric strain and 𝐻𝑘𝑙 is the transformed deviatoric strain
history. 𝑒̇𝑘𝑙 is later used to calculate the 𝛾ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡 .
Each principal direction is checked for a possible change in the loading direction. Reversed loading cases
are detected when the signs of the corresponding diagonal elements in 𝑒̇𝑘𝑙 and 𝐻𝑘𝑙 are different. To calculate
the updated strain history according to the loading direction a diagonal transformation matrix, 𝑇𝑘𝑙 , is
defined as
1
𝑇𝑖𝑖 = (1 + 𝑢(𝜆(𝑖) 𝐻𝑖𝑖 )(√1 + 𝐻𝑖𝑖 − 1)) (16.11)
√1+𝐻𝑖𝑖
where 𝑢(𝑥 ) is the Heaviside step function
0 , 𝑥<0
𝑢(𝑥) = { (16.12)
1 , 𝑥≥0
The updated deviatoric strain history is calculated as
∗
𝐻𝑘𝑙 = 𝑇𝑘𝑚 (𝐻𝑚𝑛 + 𝛿𝑚𝑛 )𝑇𝑙𝑚 − 𝛿𝑘𝑙 (16.13)
The updated deviatoric strain history, 𝐻∗𝑘𝑙 , then is used in equation 16.5 to calculate the 𝛾ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡 .
The updated deviatoric strain then is transformed to the original frame of reference for the calculations of
next increment.
16.3- Other Considerations in the Small Strain Range

Within the range of small strain the hardening rule for both deviatoric and volumetric mechanisms are
accelerated. For doing the model should keep track of the minimum value of the elastic modulus, 𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑛 that
is calculated based on the decay function in 16.1.
The hardening rule for the deviatoric hardening mechanism then is modified by replacing the plastic
deviatoric strain that is multiplied by a factor as below
𝑝−𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑝−𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑛 1+𝐸𝑢𝑟 /𝐸𝑖

𝜀𝑞 ← 𝜀𝑞 ( ) (16.14)
𝐸𝑢𝑟
Similarly the hardening rule for the cap is modified by
𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑛 1+𝐸𝑢𝑟 /𝐸𝑖

𝑝̇𝑐 ← 𝑝̇𝑐 ( ) (16.15)
𝐸𝑢𝑟
16.4- Examples
Figure 16.4 and 16.5 shows the numerical results of drained triaxial tests on Berlin sand-I. A comparison
is made between the results obtained by Hardening Soil with Small Strain Stiffness model in PLAXIS and
simulation results of the same model in Rocscience products. The model parameters are presented in Table
16.1.
Parameter Values for Berlin Sand III
pref (kPa) 100
E50ref (MPa) 45
Eurref (Ma) 180
ref (MPa) 45
Eoed
m 0.55
 (Poisson’s ratio) 0.2
G0ref (MPa) 168.75
 0.7 0.0002
nc
K 0 0.43
 (degrees) 35
 (degrees) 5
c (kPa) 1.0
Failure ratio 0.9
Tensile strength (kPa) 0
Table 16.1. Hardening Soil with Small Strain Stiffness model parameters
for Berlin sand-I (PLAXIS 2014)
References
Schanz, T., P. A. Vermeer, and P. G. Bonnier. "The hardening soil model: formulation and verification."
Beyond 2000 in computational geotechnics (1999): 281-296.
Plaxis, "User’s manual of PLAXIS." (2014).
Figure 16.4. Stress paths of drained triaxial tests on Berlin sand-I
Figure 16.5. Stress paths of undrained triaxial tests on Berlin sand-I

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16- Hardening Soil Model with Small Strain Stiffness -

Figure 16.1- Characteristic stiffness-strain curve for soils

16.1- Small Strain Stiffness

𝛾0.7−𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 = 2𝛾0.7−𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 (16.4)

16.2- History Dependent Shear Strain

To make it history dependent Benz (2006) has proposed a modification

𝑒̇𝑘𝑙 = 𝑉𝑘𝑚 𝑒̇𝑚𝑛 𝑉𝑙𝑚 (16.9)

𝐻𝑘𝑙 = 𝑉𝑘𝑚 𝐻𝑚𝑛 𝑉𝑙𝑚 (16.10)

where 𝑢(𝑥 ) is the Heaviside step function

The updated deviatoric strain history is calculated as

16.3- Other Considerations in the Small Strain Range

𝑝−𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑝−𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑛 1+𝐸𝑢𝑟 /𝐸𝑖

Similarly the hardening rule for the cap is modified by

𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑛 1+𝐸𝑢𝑟 /𝐸𝑖

Figure 16.5. Stress paths of undrained triaxial tests on Berlin sand-I

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