Elasto-plastic constitutive modelling of compacted rockfill materials: a physically based approach

An elasto-plastic constitutive model for rockfill materials considering particle breakage is proposed. Although numerous constitutive models have been proposed for rockfill materials, most of them are mainly based on empirical results, without consideration of the physical meaning of their parameters. In the present work, a yield function is derived based on the evolution of microstructures formed by rockfill particles. The dilatancy equation is derived based on both the theory of breakage mechanics and the energy dissipation equations. The breakage-induced hardening is also formulated to account for both the volumetric and shearing hardening of rockfill materials. It is demonstrated that, without compromising the simplicity of the model, most of the parameters in the proposed constitutive model have concrete physical meanings. Comparison of the model simulation with experimental data shows that the proposed model can describe reasonably the static loading characteristics of rockfill materials within a wide range of confining stresses.