Procedure, selection and application of plasticity models for a soil

A five-step procedure involving mathematical formulation, identification and determination of parameters and verification is presented for development and selection of appropriate and reliable constitutive law(s) for geologic media. Comprehensive analyses are performed toward determination of an appropriate law for a (artificial) soil. The most suitable model is obtained by critical evaluation of four different plasticity models; here verification and comparisons of predictions with observations from laboratory tests, and with those from two boundary value problems are used as the basis of the selection. The model thus selected is found to be appropriate for applications to relevant practical problems.(a) (TRRL)