A non-hysteretic simplification to the Glasgow Coupled Model (GCM)

Mutsvairo, Takudzwa; Lloret-Cabot, Marti; Hughes, Paul; Muguda-Viswanath, Sravan; Dias, Ana Sofia

Abstract

The Glasgow Coupled Model (GCM) is an established elasto-plastic constitutive model developed to capture the coupled hydro-mechanical response of unsaturated soils. This study highlights the unique capabilities of the GCM in modelling the water retention and mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils. Namely, its ability to capture the scanning, main wetting and main drying water retention responses, the mechanical response (including volume change and shear strength), and the coupling between the water retention and mechanical behaviour. However, due to the multiple yielding scenarios that a given stress path can trigger, numerical integration of the model is challenging and adjustments towards a more simplified approach are desirable if the model is to be used in geotechnical practice. For this purpose, the capabilities of a simplified non-hysteretic version of the GCM, designed to streamline its formulation, are investigated in this paper. The non-hysteretic model requires less parameters and simplifies the identification of the elasto-plastic mechanism activated by a stress path, at the expense of limiting some of the original modelling abilities.

Citation

Mutsvairo, T., Lloret-Cabot, M., Hughes, P., Muguda-Viswanath, S., & Dias, A. S. (2024). A non-hysteretic simplification to the Glasgow Coupled Model (GCM). In W. M. Coombs (Ed.), UKACM Proceedings 2024. https://doi.org/10.62512/conf.ukacm2024.060

• Conference Name: 2024 UK Association for Computational Mechanics Conference
• Conference Location: Durham, UK
• Start Date: Apr 10, 2024
• End Date: Apr 12, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Jan 26, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 25, 2024
• Publication Date: Apr 25, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 21, 2024
• Publisher: Durham University
• Book Title: UKACM Proceedings 2024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.62512/conf.ukacm2024.060
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2488150