An elastoplastic damage model of soil

A typical structural material is, at each stage of loading, characterised by a certain arrangement of dislocations, microcracks, voids and other flaws and defects. The distributed defects in materials and structures not only lead to crack initiation and final fracture, they also induce progressive material deterioration, which can be modelled through the decrease of strength, stiffness, toughness, stability and residual life (e.g. Kachanov, 1980; Chaboche, 1981; Krajcinovic, 1985; Shen, 1993). Such deterioration is referred to as material damage.

Soft soil has been studied as a structural material by Schmertmann (1991), Zhang et al. (1995) and others....