A unique Critical State two-surface hyperplasticity model for fine-grained particulate media

Even mild compression can cause re-arrangement of the internal structure of clay-like geomaterials, whereby clusters of particles rotate and collapse as face-to-face contacts between the constituent mineral platelets increase at the expense of edge-to-face (or edge-to-edge) contacts. The collective action of local particle re-orientation ultimately leads to path-independent isochoric macroscopic deformation under continuous shearing. This asymptotic condition is the governing feature of Critical State elasto-plasticity models. Unlike earlier formulations, the two-surface anisotropic model proposed herein is able to reproduce a unique isotropic Critical State stress envelope which agrees well with test data. Material point predictions are compared against triaxial experimental results and five other existing constitutive models. The hyperplastic formulation is seen to offer a significantly improved descriptor of the anisotropic behaviour of fine-grained particulate materials.