The capability of a bounding surface plasticity model with a vanishing elastic region to capture the multi-axial dynamic hysteretic responses of soil deposits under broadband (earthquake) excitations is explored by using data from centrifuge tests. This model was originally proposed by Borja and Amies (1994), and is theoretically capable of representing nonlinear soil behavior in a multi-axial setting. This is an important capability that is required for exploring and quantifying site topography, soil stratigraphy, and kinematic effects in ground motion and soil-structure interaction analyses. Results obtained herein indicate that this model is capable of reproducing behavior obtained from a veritable one-dimensional nonlinear site response analysis toolbox. More importantly, it is also shown to accurately predict key response data recorded during centrifuge tests on embedded specimens—including soil pressures and bending strains for structural walls, structures’ racking displacements, as well as surface settlements—under both low- and high-amplitude seismic input motions, which was achieved after carrying out only a basic material parameter calibration procedure. To facilitate broader use by researchers and practicing engineers alike, the model is implemented for plane strain, axisymmetric, and general three-dimensional problems in ABAQUS Standard (UMAT) for implicit time-stepping. A Matlab script is also provided to calibrate material properties from the shear modulus reductions curves. Please contact me if you are interested in using this soil model.

1. W. Zhang, E. Esmaeilzadeh Seylabi, E. Taciroglu (2017), Validation of a three-dimensional constitutive model for nonlinear site response and soil-structure interaction analyses using centrifuge test data, International Journal of Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, Vol. 41, 1828–1847

2. E. Esmaeilzadeh Seylabi, H. Ebrahimian, W. Zhang, D. Asimaki, E. Taciroglu (2018), Bayesian estimation of nonlinear soil model parameters using centrifuge experimental data, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics V, Austin, Texas, June 10-13