Revised Cam‐Clay Model

Abstract

The Cam‐clay models, or any other plasticity‐based models, do not make distinction between the mode of stress transfer in coarse‐ and fine‐grained soils. An examination of behavior at micro level in fine‐grained soils, from the consideration of load transfer through physico‐chemical interactions, suggests that the plastic compressions result from the grouping of particles into larger clusters and that elastic compressions result from the decrease in the spacing between particles. During shearing, these clusters gradually get dismembered, releasing the locked‐in energy. The effect of such dismembering of clusters can be easily incorporated into the original Cam‐clay model, and better predictions can be obtained with the associated flow rule, itself, for both normally and overconsolidated states. The method essentially defines the hardening of yield surfaces with internal changes in the spacing between particles, instead of changes in externally observed plastic strains. The approach describes the behavior of overconsolidated soils as yielding along successively hardening Roscoe surfaces with gradually varying plastic properties.