Development and application of a structured clay model in FLAC

FLAC is widely used in rock and geotechnical engineering.Currently FLAC provides only a few constitutive models, which limits its range and accuracy of application.Based on the developing platform provided by FLAC, a bounding surface plasticity model for structured clays is implemented into FLAC under the FISH environment.Firstly, the key techniques and method of implementation are introduced with the basic principles of bounding surface model.In order to evaluate the accuracy of the model implementation under different stress paths, the numerical tests of different conventional laboratory tests on single element are performed and compared to the results obtained by FORTRAN program.Further more, a biaxial shearing test showing the development of shear band is then simulated to show the model ability on simulating a multi-element model, the mesh dependency and loading velocity effect are also analyzed.Finally, a case of cut slope is simulated to examine the application of the implemented model of structured clay in FLAC in geotechnical engineering.