NUMERICAL APPROACH TO THE SOLUTION OF ELASTOPLASTIC SOIL PROBLEMS.

Abstract

A numerical approach to solving soil problems of plane strain elastoplasticity is presented. The initial stress variant of the finite element method by O. C. Zienkiewicz et al is adapted for Tresca and Mohr-Coulomb yield surfaces and their associated flow rules. The mesh generation and solution procedure adopted has an entirely physical basis which is readily visualised. The state of collapse is accurately defined by free flow of the plastic enclave to free surface combined with linear increase of deformation with iteration.