A constitutive model coupling elastoplasticity and damage for cohesive-frictional materials

In order to model the various phenomena which govern the mechanical response of bonded geomaterials under monotonic loadings, an elastoplastic model coupled with an elastic model with damage was developed, taking into account both the frictional and cohesive aspects of these materials. First, the principles at the base of the model are presented, as well as the physical meaning of the parameters which were used in the elastic model with damage. In order to illustrate the capabilities of the model to reproduce the mechanical behaviour of bonded geomaterials, we simulated triaxial tests on various materials: a deep cemented clay, whose heterogeneity from one specimen to another appeared mainly due to the calcium carbonate content; an assembly of sintered glass balls; and an artificially cemented sand. In this last example, various initial mean stresses allowed us to enlighten the brittle–ductile transition which was modelled by introducing the mean confining pressure in the damage evolution law. We demonstrated that the parameters of each part of the model could be adapted to reproduce the observed general trends. For weak bonds, the elastoplastic part played the predominant role, whereas for strong bonds, the elastic part with damage governed the mechanical behaviour. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.