A stable mesh-independent approach for numerical modelling of structured soils at large strains

We describe the large strain implementation of an elasto-plastic model for structured soils into G-PFEM, a code developed for geotechnical simulations using the Particle Finite Element Method. The constitutive model is appropriate for naturally structured clays, cement-improved soils and soft rocks. Structure may result in brittle behavior even in contractive paths; as a result, localized failure modes are expected in most applications. To avoid the pathological mesh-dependence that may accompany strain localization, a nonlocal reformulation of the model is employed. The resulting constitutive model is incorporated into a numerical code by means of a local explicit stress integration technique. To ensure computability this is hosted within a more general Implicit-Explicit integration scheme (IMPLEX). The good performance of these techniques is illustrated by means of element tests and boundary value problems.