JOURNAL OF COAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

(CHINA)
pp 409414

DOI 10.1007s12404-009-0413-1
Vol.15 No.4

Dec. 2009

Nonlinear elastic-perfect plastic constitutive model of soil-structure

interface under high stress
GUO Jia-qi1, LIU Xi-liang2, QIAO Chun-sheng1, HUANG Shan-xiu3
( 1. Institute of Tunnel & Geotechnical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; 2. School of Civil
Engineering, Henan polytechnic University, Jiaozuo

454000, China; 3. School of Materials Science and Engineering,

Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo

454000, China )

Abstract Briefly introduced the simple shear apparatus under high stress that was developed from RMT. A series simple shear tests under high stress show that the relation
curve between shear stress and tangential displacement under high normal stress is different from the hyperbolic curve in direct shear tests, and the complete deformation process of interface under high stress can be described as nonlinear elastic-perfect plastic(NEPP). According to some characteristics of the fitting curve, the deficiency of the
NEPP was pointed out. The mathematic half value index was used to illustrate that
Weibull distribution with three parameters (WNEPP) can overcome the mathematical deficiencies of the NEPP. The advantage of the WNEPP is that the fitting curve of WNEPP
more accurately coincided with the testing data was testified by further comparison.
Keywords

interface, constitutive model, NEPP, Weibull distribution, WNEPP

Introduction
In geotechnical engineering practice, there are
many situations where soils interact with structural
material. These types of problems are known as soilstructure problems. Some examples are buried pipes/
culverts, dam, soil-anchors systems, building foundation system such as footing, piles, retaining structure,
and so forth. The contact zone between the soil and a
structural material is normally referred to as interface. According to theoretical investigation and experimental observation, the interface is a thin layer of
material through which stress is transferred from one
medium to the other. It exhibits localized strains on the
interface, which is mainly due to the contrast in mechanical properties of the soil and the structural material. The response of soil-structure systems subjected
to loading is influenced significantly by the nature of

the mechanical behavior of interface. Due to the complexity of the problem and the great extent of its application, soil-structure interaction analysis has received the attention of many researchers in the last few
years.
In order to solve soil-structure interaction problems, it is important to accurately model the interface
behavior. Many studies have been carried out on the
mechanical characteristics of the soil-structure interface in the past, and several interface models have
been developed. The hyperbolic model for soils developed by Duncan and Chang (1970) was used for
modeling interface (Clough and Duncan, 1971). Desai
et al. (1984) simulated the shear stress versus relative
tangential displacement curve by using a polynomial
function. Boulon (1987) introduced abidimensional
directionally dependent interface model using a different approach from most of the interface model.

Received: 26 June 2008

Supported by the Excellent Youth Foundation of Henan Scientific Committee(084100510004); the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province(0611010600)
Tel: 86-576-8665140, E-mail: nghrf@163.com

410

Journal of Coal Science & Engineering (China)

Constitutive model for interface based on the theory of

elasticity neglect important characteristics or behavior
of interfaces such as plastic deformation and volume
change during shear loading. This is the reason for the
development of plasticity-based constitutive model for
interface. The simplest and most commonly used plasticity-based model for interface is the well known
Coulombs law or liner elastic-perfectly plastic model
(Sengara, 1992). Yin (1994) proposed a rigid-plastic
interface model. Based on the sliding zone concept, Lu
et al. (2000) established a nonlinear constitutive model,
which considered the coupling of normal stiffness and
shear stiffness on the interface. By means of introducing the basic theories of damage mechanics into interface constitutive relations, Hu et al. (2000) presented a
damage model of the interface between coarse, sandy
soil, and structure and an elastic-plastic damage constitutive model of the interface between coarse grained
soil and structure. Based on the nonlinear elastic theory and elastic-plastic theory, Luan et al. put forward a
new model for nonlinear elastic-plastic model (NEPP)
in consideration of the constructive model in the direction of the tangent of the interface between soil and
structure, for the purpose of modeling the tangent deformation and failure mechanism of the interaction
between soil and structure (Luan and Wu, 2004).
All of the above listed models of interface between soil and structure were largely built up under
relatively low normal stress or developed by analyzing
the experimental result of direct shear test. With the
rapid development of economy, more and more deep
underground engineering such as deep mining in coal
mine and large-scale urban underground works at
depths exceeding 50 m. There is an urgent need for
special mechanical properties of deep soil utilizing
more advanced apparatus. A series simple shear tests
under high stress of interface between saturated gravelly sand, saturated coarse sand, saturated medium
sand, saturated fine sand and steel/concrete were carried out on the modified and developed simple shear
system, and then, Guo summarized and discussed the
shearing characteristics of the interface between saturated sand and steel/concrete under high normal stress.
Based on the experimental data of document (Guo,
2007), a nonlinear elastic-perfect plastic model of the
soil-structure interface under high stress is presented.

Brief introduction of simple shear test

under high stress and result

A simple shear apparatus for soil-structure interaction has been developed on the basis of RMT at
Henan Polytechnic University. The tangential and

normal load can be respectively up to 500 kN and

1 000 kN; so, the testing apparatus can meet the need
for high stress. The simple shearing system includes
the main part, the measurement system, the control
system, and the data acquisition/processing system.
Researchers can realize the autoloading, the automatic
control, real time data acquisition, dynamic plotting
graph, etc. in this testing system. The upper shearing
box consists of 12 steel laminar circles, each of which
is 3 mm thick. The total height of the stack of laminar
circle is 60 mm. The shearing area inside the laminar
circle is 17 662.5 mm2. The normal load is applied on
the upper box, and the maximum normal stress can be
applied is 50 MPa. The steel/concrete is placed in the
lower shearing box, and the dimensions of steel/concrete block are 320 mm by 240 mm by 74 mm. The
shearing area remains constant during the test even if
failure occurs. During interface shearing, the tangential displacement is given to the lower box by the hydraulic cylinder, and the shear load can be obtained via
the load transducer.
During the shear tests, the soil inside the upper
box is loaded with constant normal stress by means of
servo control. The laminar circle itself receives little
normal load and the circles can move tangentially
during shearing. The soil mass inside the laminar circle can deform freely in horizontal direction. Unlike
with the direct shear test where the failure plain is
predetermined, the failure can occur along the weakest
plane during shearing. Therefore, the strength and
failure characteristics of the interface between deep
soil and structure as well as soils on either side can be
well simulated by the simple shear system under high
stress. For more concrete experiment information,
please refer to the document (Guo, 2007).
In order to simulate the actual construction condition, the sand specimen was saturated. The tests to
simulate interface interaction between saturated gravelly sand (G.S), saturated medium sand (M.S), saturated fine sand (F.S), and the rough steel(S)/concrete(C) block were carried out under four normal
stresses (=4, 6, 8, and 10 MPa, these stresses level is
determined by the formula of horizontal pressure in
deep alluvium). The simple shear tests for saturated
sand and different rough base were performed, respectively, and the test results are showed in Fig.1. More
test results on other materials and under other normal
stresses level can be found in document (Guo,2007).
According to the experimental results, we can draw a
conclusion that the relation curves between shear
stress and tangential displacement almost show the
same trend under different normal stresses.

GUO Jiaqi, et al. Nonlinear elastic-perfect plastic constitutive model

411

Fig.1 The curves of shear stress versus shear displacement for some interface

As seen in Fig.1, the relation curves between

shear stress and tangential displacement under high
normal stress are different from the testing curves of
direct shear tests. The curve of direct shear tests under
high stress is in accordance with the hyperbolic model
(Liu et al., 2004; Zhou et al., 2007), however, that of
simple shear under high stress is special and distinguishable. Before the peak shear stress, the relation
between shear stress and tangential displacement is
nonlinearly elastic; subsequently, it is perfectly plastic.
Therefore, the complete process can be described as
nonlinear elasticity-perfect plasticity.

Deficiency of NEPP

At present, there are many plasticity-based constitutive models for interface. The simplest and most
commonly used plasticity-based model for interface is
a well-known liner elastic-perfectly plastic model and
nonlinear elastic-perfect plastic model (NEPP). In
NEPP, before yielding, the hyperbolic model is
adopted to describe the nonlinear deformation. Afterward, the interface deformation enters the perfectly
plastic flow stage.
According to Fig.1, the fitting curves must have
some characteristics as fallows (Wang, 2006):
(1) Through coordinate origin.
(2) First-order derivative of the fitting curve exists; the initial first-order derivative is variable.
(3) The fitting curve is increasing monotonically
by degree; the convex pitch has upper bound.
According to these rules, test the NEPP model.
Assuming that shear stress and tangential displace-

ment are respectively u and ws0, when the fitting

curves of NEPP model reaches the peak shear stress.
The left derivate of the fitting curve at (ws0, u ) is:

( ws0 )

left

= b /(aws0 + b)2 0.

(1)

Correspondingly, the right derivate at (ws0, u ) is:

( ws0 )

right

= 0.

(2)

The left derivate is not equal to the right derivate

a result; so, the first-order derivative of the fitting
curve does not exist. Because the fitting curve of
NEPP model does not accord with rule (2), the fitting
curve is not smooth and cannot be fit for testing data.
The comparison between the testing curve and the fitting is illustrated in Fig.2.
Fig.2 shows there is scissor error between the
testing curve and the fitting. Further research demonstrates that the testing data before yielding is not in a
straight line in ws/-ws rectangular coordinates but a
smooth concave curve. Before yielding, the hyperbola
in NEPP fits nonlinear elasticity; so, the NEPP model
is inevitable to have error. On the basis of the above
analysis, the NEPP model cannot accurately express
nonlinear-perfect plastic constitutive model of interface under high stress.

3 Weibull distribution
Weibull distribution is more flexible and adaptable, which has many forms, including one parameter,
two parameters, three parameters, or mixed Weibull.
In this paper, a Weibull distribution with three parameters is adopted to describe the relation curves bet-

412

Journal of Coal Science & Engineering (China)

Fig.2 The comparison between the testing curves and the fitting curves

ween shear stress and tangential displacement of interface under high normal stress. The relationship can
be expressed as:

ws c
,
b

= aws exp

(3)

where, and ws are the shear stress and tangential displacement, respectively; a, b, and c are the regression
parameters of the testing data, here a is the initial
shearing stiffness; b is a parameter concerned with
tangential displacement; and c, known as the homogeneous index, is the parameter of curve shape, whose
physical meaning is a measure of partial intensity
change. The influence of c on the Weibull distribution
shape is shown in Fig.3.

Fig.3

WeibuIl distribution model of interface for

different values of c (a=3, b=1)

In Fig.3, we know that Weibull distribution with

three parameters can describe strain hardening, strain
softening, and perfect plasticity under different c.

As perreference (Wang, 2006), the reason why

there is a fitting error of the hyperbolic model or
other models with hyperbola is that these models
have mathematical deficiencies, so to speak, under
condition that the initial shearing stiffness and the
peak shear stress of interface are constant, and the
rate of convergence of curve between shear stress and
tangential displacement in these models is invariable.
In an ideal constitutive mode of interface, the rate of
convergence of curve should be completely independent or relatively independent of the initial
shearing stiffness and the peak shear stress. The half
value is defined as that for the function that is increasing monotonically by degree and has limits,
when the value of the function gets to 1/2u, the corresponding value of the independent variable is
named as the half value.
Fig.3 shows that Weibull distribution with three
parameters can describe the complete process from
nonlinear elastic stage to perfect plastic stage under
proper c. At this time, Weibull distribution meets the
precondition of definition of the half value. When
first-order derivative of Weibull distribution the fitting
curve is equal to zero, we can obtain:

u = ab(ce) 1/ c .

(4)

when the value of shear stress reaches 1/2u, the

half value is expressed as:
ws [1/ 2] = be1/ c ln b(ce)1/ c / 2.

(5)

GUO Jiaqi, et al. Nonlinear elastic-perfect plastic constitutive model

Differentiating Eq.3 with ws and denoting ws0,

if the initial shearing stiffness and the peak shear stress,
obtain:
d
ksi =
(6)
w = 0 = a.
dws s

Therefore, the mathematical property sets of

weibull distribution with three parameters, which can
describe a perfectly plastic flow, are:

= ab(ce) 1/ c ,
u
1/ c
1/ c
(7)
2,
ws [1/ 2] = be ln b(ce)

d
ksi =
w = 0 = a.
dws s

There are three unknown parameters in the above

mathematical property sets of Weibull distribution. If
the initial shearing stiffness and the peak shear stress
of interface are constant, but as long as b, c ensure that
the peak shear stress (u=ab(ce) 1/c) is constant, b, c are
still relatively free, that is to say, the half value is still
variable under these conditions. The half value of the
fitting curve of Weibull distribution is not completely
determined by the initial shearing stiffness and the
peak shear stress, to a large extent, and the half value
reflects the rate of convergence of curve freely. Even if

413

interface are constant, the rate of convergence of the

curve and the shape of fitting curve of Weibull distribution are still optional, and the fitting curve of the
Weibull distribution approximated the testing data
more accurately.
As a result, in accordance with the above
analysis, if weibull distribution with three parameters is substituted for the hyperbola of the NEPP
model to describe nonlinear elastic stage of interface, not only is the nonsmooth continuity of fitting
curve of the NEPP model solved but also is the fitting precision improved.

Validation of Weibull distribution with

three parameters

Weibull distribution with three parameters is substituted for the hyperbola of the NEPP model to form
new constitutive model of soil-structure interface under high stress (WNEPP). In WNEPP, before yielding,
the weibull distribution with three parameters is
adopted to describe the nonlinear elastic stage. Afterward, the interface deformation enters the perfectly
plastic flow stage. The fitting curve of the different
model is compared with the testing curve, which is
presented and illustrated in Fig.4.

Fig.4 The comparison between the NEPP curves and WNEPP curves

Compared with the fitting curves of the NEPP

model, it is proved in Fig.4 that the fitting curves of
WNEPP more accurately coincide with the testing data
and describe the shear mechanical properties of soilstructure interfaces under high stresses. In order to

reflect the nonsmooth continuity of the fitting curve of

NEPP from another view, it is noted that the relation
curves between shear stress and tangential displacement after the peak shear stress is also described by
the hyperbola model in Fig.4.

414

Journal of Coal Science & Engineering (China)

Conclusions

The relation curves between shear stress and tangential displacement under high normal stress are different from the testing curves of direct shear tests.
Before the peak shear stress, the relation between
shear stress and tangential displacement is nonlinear
elastic; subsequently, it is perfectly plastic. Therefore,
the complete process can be described as nonlinear
elastic-perfect plastic.
Through pure mathematic proof conclusion that
the fitting curve of the weibull distribution approximated the testing data more accurately than that of a
hyperbola is drawn. Compared with the fitting curve
of NEPP model, it is proved that the fitting curve of
WNEPP more accurately coincide with the testing data
and more precisely describe shearing mechanical
properties of soil-structure interface under high normal
stress.
References
Clough G W, Duncan J M, 1971. Finite element analysis of
retaining wall behavior. Journal of Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering Division, ASCE, 97(12): 1 6571 673.
Desai C S, Faruque M O, 1984. Constitutive model for (geological) material. Journal of Engineering Mechanics Division, ASCE, 110(9): 1 391-1 408.
Guo J Q, 2007. The study on the simple shear test and constitu-

tive law of interface between soil and structure under high

stress. Jiaozuo: Henan Polytechnic University.
Hu L M, 2000. The mechanical characteristics of soil and
structure interface and its engineering application. Beijing:
Tsinghua University.
Liu X L, Zhu W S, Li S C, 2004. Testing study on interface
shear properties under high pressure. Chinese Journal of
Rock Mechanics Engineering, 23(3): 408-414.
Lu T H, Bao F B, 2000. A coupled constitutive model for interface thin-layer element. Hydraulic Engineering, (2): 7175.
Luan M T, Wu Y J, 2004. A nonlinear elasto-perfectly plastic
model of interface element for soil-structure interaction
and its applications. Rock and Mechanics, 25(4): 507513.
Sengara I Wayyan, 1992. Finite element and experimental study
of soil-structure interfaces. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wang W, 2006. Study on soil-structure interface model based
on potential energy dissipating principle and its application. Nanjing: Hohai University.
Ying Z Z, 1994. Numerical simulation of the deformation in the
interface between soil and structural material. Chinese
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 16(3): 87-95.
Zhou G Q, Xia H C, Zhao G S, 2007. Nonlinear elastic constitutive model of soil-structure interfaces under relatively
high normal stress. Journal of China University of Mining
& Technology, 17(3): 301-305.