Enhanced viscoplastic modelling of soft soils

Geotechnical experimental observations of the influence of strain rate on the mechanical behaviour of soft soils express fundamental microscopic processes. The main macroscopical displays are creep, relaxation and strain-rate effect on strength. With these considerations in mind, an innovative constitutive formulation accounting for the time-dependency of the mechanical behaviour of soft soils is developed based on the unique effective stress-strain-strain rate concept. The performance of the proposed model is presented with numerical examples and comparisons with experimental data.