RockMechantcs

tn theNattonalInterest,Elsworth,Ttnucct& Heasley(eds),
2001

Swets & ZetthngerDsse, ISBN 90 2651 827 7

Modelling of elastoplastic
damagein unsaturated
hardrocksandconcrete
EBourgeois,N.Burlion & J.EShao
Laboratoryof Mechanicsof Lille, USTL-EUDIL, Villeneuved'Ascq,France

ABSTRACT: The objectiveof thisworkis to proposea constitutive

modelin orderto describecoupledplastic damagebehaviourof partiallysaturated
concreteandhardrocks.Plasticbehaviouris characterised
by using two yield surfaces
respectively
for stresscontrolledandsuctioncontrolledplasticdeformations.
Effectof
capillarypressure
on stresscontrolled
plasticdeformation
is takenintoaccountthroughdefinitionof a plastic
effectivemeanstress.Only isotropicdamageis considered
in thiswork,whichis controlledby tensilestrains.
Theproposed
modelis implemented
in a finiteelementcodeby usinga fully coupledandimplicitalgorithm.
One typicalapplicationcaseis finally studiedconcerning
bendingof a concretebeam.The resultsobtained
seemto be relevantto showthe importance
of dryingeffectin studyof strengthandfailureof suchstructures
(applications
to hardrocksarenotpresented
heredueto limitationof paperlength).
1 INTRODUCTION

damageof material is characterisedby extensionof

the damagemodel proposedby Mazars (1984). The
Hard rocks and concreteare widely concernedin
proposed
modelis implementedinto a FEM codeby
various civil engineeringconstructions.
There are usingfully coupledand implicit algorithm.Simulaseveralcommonfeaturesin mechanicalpropertiesof
tionsof laboratorytestsare providedto showoverall
these two classesof materials, for instance,induced
quality of numerical predictions.One application
damageby nucleationand growth of microcracks, exampleis finallypresented.
volumetricdilatation,asymmetricresponses
under
compressive
and tensilestresses.
Further,in many
MODELLING
structures,thesematerialsare submittedto drying 2 CONSTITUTIVE
and wetting processes.
As their mechanicalproperties are usually very sensitiveto moisturecontent, This section is devoted to the formulation of the
reliable modelling of material behavioursin satu- constitutive model for hard rocks and concrete in
partially saturatedcondition.The model is formuratedandunsaturated
conditionsbecomesoneof key
of open
issuesin durabilityand failureanalysis.Duringthe lated in the frameworkof thermodynamics
systems.The porousmediumis assumedto be satulast thirty years, many advanceshave been performed for unsaturatedsoils and clays both in exratedby a liquidphase(notedby index w) anda gas
perimentalinvestigation
andconstitutive
modelling, mixturephase(notedby index g ). The gasmixture
for instanceAlonso et al. (1987, 1990). However, is composedof dry air and water vapour.The state
significanteffortsarestill necessary
for modellingof
variables to be used are the strain tensor of skeleton
unsaturatedhard rocksand concrete.This is probaframesO.,thevolumetric
change
of watercontent
bly relatedto technicaldifficultiesin experimental
(4, - 4,0) andgascontent
(q3g
- q3g
o), thedamtestingfor thesematerials.This paper addressesa
numericalmodellingby usingan elastoplastic
dam- age variable d, the intemal statevariablesfor plasage model. However, only isotropicdamageis contic hardeningZk and the temperatureT. In this
sideredin this stage.The model is formulatedin the
work, the behaviour of material will be assumedto
framework of plasticity for unsaturatedmedia and be isotropicin nature.This assumption
may be concontinuumdamagemechanics.Two yield surfaces straintwith respectto induceddamagewhich is usuare used for the descriptionof plasticdeformation ally orientationdependent.However, it makes the
respectivelycontrolledby stressand suction.The
formulation
of modelmuchsimplerandremainsrea-

1503

sonably
asthefirstapproximation
whentheemphasisis put on studyof dryingandwettingeffectson
mechanical
behaviours
of material.Under the hypothesisof smallstrains.The followingpartition

this equationhas been discussed

by Chfiteau&
Dormieux(1998) by usinghomogenisation
approach.The complementary
laws for plasticdefor-

rules are assumed:

The particular form of such functions should be

co= +,,Y,

=< +

identifiedfrom relevantexperimental
data.This is

g--gO=; +gP

mationand damageevolutionhave to be defined.

discussedin the next sections.

(1)

Theapplication
of thethermodynamics
lawsleadsto
the following fundamentalinequality (Coussy
1995):

2.1 Characterisation
ofplasticdeforrnation

In thecaseof partiallysaturated
materials,
experimentalresultshave shownthat plasticdeformation

cro.
dcO.+ pgdq)g
+ Pwdq)w
- Ssdr- d5Us
_>0

(2)

whereSs and s arerespectively

the entropyand
free energyof skeletonmaterialper unit initial volume of bulk material. The standarddifferentiation of

the free energyfunctionin (2) yieldsin the following stateequations:

cro'-

, Pg-

, Pw-

can developdue to the variation of suctionunder

constantstresses(Alonso et al. 1987, Alonsoet al.

1990). Therefore,two distinctplasticmechanisms

are usuallyidentified,namelystresscontrolledand
suctioncontrolledplastic deformations.Furthermore, the stresscontrolledplasticdeformation
is

generally
influenced
by watersaturation
degree.
In
thisstudy,
weareinterested
in modelling
ofpartially
saturated
hardrocksandconcrete.
Damageby microcracks
is knownas a principaldeformation
and
failure mechanismin this kind of materials. There-

Ss-

OT

(3)

fore,we propose
to usean elastic-plastic
damage
model. However, in order to make the formulation

of modelassimpleaspossible,classicfunctions
are
of plasticdeformation.
The intrinsicdissipations
due to plasticflow and usedforcharacterisation
Theyieldfunctionfor stress
controlled
plasticdedamageevolutionhave to satisfythe fundamental
formation
isbasedontheDrucker-Prager
criterion:
inequalityas follows:

f =qg(O)+ccp'P-CsP)=o(7)

cro.
dc + pgd{bg
+

0%
dz-d(d)
0% 0
OZ

(4)

The presentstudy will be limited to isotheal

conditions.The generalconstimtiveequationfor
coupled
elastic-plastic
dinagebehaviour
of pially
saturated
materialc be obtnedby extending
the J2= SijSt],
J3.m
detS,S0.=cr/ 3 q
nonline elasticmodelproposed
by Coussyet al.
where
q
is
the
deviatofic
stressand 0 the Lode's
(Coussy1995,Coussyet al. 1998)andtheisotropic
dinage modelby Ms (1984):
angle.Thefunction
g(O) defines
thedependency
of

daq= C.[,(d)dc,

+(1-SOdgo.
Cbr(d)=(l_d)cbO_(cb
0.ee)0a__d
(6)
e

crkk
,..(8)

yieldcondition
onthethirdstress
invariant.
Itsparticularformcan be identifiedfrom experimental
yieldstresses
onthedeviatoric
plane.Variousforms
areavailable
in literature,
for instance
(Pietruszczak
et al. 1988).However,
for thereason
of simplicity,
we havetakenin thiswork g(O) = 1.

Theeffectof capillaryforces(moisture
content)
wherecaT(d) is thetangent
elastic
stiffness
tensor on stresscontrolledplasticmechanismis takeninto
of damagedmaterial,the parameterb denotesthe

account
by definitionof a generalised
effectivemean

Biot'scoefficient
of porousmediumand Sw the

stress
in plastic
field,basedontheBishop
concept
in

water saturationdegree.The micromechanical

interpretationof the effectivestressconceptinvolvedin

elasticfield. It is expressed
asfollows:

1504

and c controlsplastic hardeningrate for suction

controlledplasticflow. Figure1 showsa schematic

=cr,
+(1-Sw)pg]=
P'P
3 +`8[Sp

viewoftheyieldsurfaces
inthe(p,q,Pc)space.
3

Thetotal
plastic
strain
increment
deftisthen
calculated from the contributions of two mechanisms:

Pc= Pg- Pw

(9)

dff
=d+l-dffs
ao.
=

The materialparameter,8 definesthe contribution

of capillarypressurePc to the effectivemeanstress
involvedin theplasticyield criterion.The parameter

Cs
p appears
asmaterialcohesion
in saturated
conditranswhenSw= 1 (or pc = 0).
In coupledplastic damage modelling, induced
damageis considered
as responsibleto materialsoftening of material.The plastic strainhardeningof
materialis thendescribedby the increasingfunction

(14)

- ,% Z8o.

Two plastic multipliers

and s are obtned tou plasticconsistency
conditions.
mechanicalyield surfacein
the saturated state

ap, whichis chosen

as a function
of the total
--

equivalent
plasticstrainep. Basedon experimental

" p

data,the followingparticularform is used:

Jp=J(dd)

_
P
c 'lry
yield
surf

(10)

Theparameters
aft andarparerespectively
theini-

tial andultimatevalue of the hardeningfunctionand

b controlsthekineticsof plastichardening.
Figure1 : A schematic
view of stressandsuctioncontrolled
Most experimental
resultsobtainedfrom cohesive
yieldsurfaces
in ( p, q,Pc) space.
frictionalgeomaterials
(rocksand concrete)suggest
that a non-associated
plastic flow rule is generally
needed.The following simple potentialis used in
2.2 Characterisation
of induceddamage
this work:

g = qg(O)+ ,spp'P

(11)

Theconstant
parameter
,sp controls
plasticvolumetricdilatancyof material.
The suctioncontrolledplasticdeformationis assumedto be a sphericaltensor.It is usedto describe
plastic compactionand swellingof materialdue to
suctionchangeunder constantstresses.Further,an
associated
flow rule is usuallyadopted.Basedon the
previousworks, for instance(Alonso et al. 1990),
the followingfunctionsareretained:

fs=P-SP(evP)=0 ,

gs ---%

As mentionedabove,only the isotropicdamageis

consideredin this work for the reasonof simplicity.
The characterisation
of damageis basedon the damagemodelproposed
by Mazarsfor concrete
materials (Mazars 1984). However,in orderto take into
accountthe contributionof plastic deformationto
damageevolution,it is assumed
that the damageis
controlledby the total equivalenttensilestrain.The
damagecriterionis thenexpressed
asfollows:

fd = -k(d)<O

,=,e+'p
=iJ(.+)2
+3J(.iP+)2
(15)

(12)

where,[+ ande/+ arerespectively

elastic
and

The corresponding
plastichardeningis a functionof

plastictensileprincipalstrain.As in theinitialmodel
of Mazars,the total damageis composed
of compo-

thetotalplasticvolumetric
strainep

sp = So
p ecy

(13)

nentscausedrespectively
by tensilestressdt and

Theparameter
sff defines
theinitialyieldthreshold
1505

compressive
stressde:

d = crtdt + (1 - crt)dc

Table 2: Representative
valuesof parameters
usedin simula-

(16)

tions

The coefficienta t definesthe ratio betweendamagesinducedby tensileandcompressive

stresses
and
it is calculated
by thefollowingrelation:

=zi "(4 (,*)2+

Plasticparame-

Damagepa-

ters

fl = 0.4

ters

eao= 0.001

a' = 0.5
af =1.4

(17)

Physical
parame-

rameters

b
o = 0.35

At = 0.6
k = 1.10
-19m2
Bt = 10000 Ps= 2500kg/rn
3

b= 1000

A
= 1.1

tick: 1.10
-7rn2/s

whereH(x) is the Heavisidefunctionof principal

strain. ti and ci are respectivelytrial elastic
strainsdue to tensile and compressive
principal
stresso-i undera givendamagestate.The damage
evolutions
dueto tensileand compressive
loading
are described
by the followinglaws proposed
by

Cf = 20MPa
Be= 1000
tip = 0.2
Elastic
parame-

T --294K

ters

s = 10MPa

E = 13000MPa

c = -1000

v = 0.25

Mazars (1984):

dt =l dO
(l - At)

At
M exp[Bt(m
-ao)](18)

-0.012

-0.01

-0,008

-0.006

-0.004

-0.002

o
o

Axial strain

dc=1 a(1-Ac) A
,u

exp[Bc(,u
- ao)]

(19)
-1o

whereaois theinitialdamage
threshold
andm
the maximalvalue of ' reachedduringloading
history(currentdamagethreshold).
Fourparameters
Ac, Bc, At and Bt controldamageevolutionkineticsundertensileandcompressive
loading.

-20

I
x

Experimental data

-25

2.3 Parameteridentificationandtestsimulation
-30

The parametersinvolved in the constitutivemodel

can be determinedfrom experimentaldata obtained
in uniaxialandtriaxialcompression
tests.The table
1 givesthe representative
set of parameters
for a
concrete.

The proposed
modelis implemented
in the finite
elementcode MPPSAT, which is able to solve cou-

pled hydro-mechanical
problemsin partiallysaturated porousmedia. In Figure 2, simulationof an
uniaxialcompression
test is shownwith a good
agreementbetweenexperimentaland numericalresults.Figure 3 showssimulationof an uniaxial ten-

Figure2: Numericalsimulationofuniaxialcompression
test.

watersaturation
degreedecrease.
Suchnumericalresultsare in accordance
with experimental
dataobtained on concreteand hard rocks. However, the
comparison
is ratherqualitativethan quantitative
Indeed,the parametersinvolvedin the suctioncontrolled plasticity are not determinedfrom relevant
experimentaldata,whicharenot available.Further,
an uniform state of desaturation is assumed in nu-

mericalsimulations
while the laboratorytestshave
been performedon sampleswith non uniformde-

siontest followedby an uniaxialcompression

test. saturation states. The numerical simulation have
We canseethatasymmetric
responses
of materialin
beenperformedwith the followingwaterretention
tensionand compression,
as well as deteriorationof
curve(Lassabatre1994):
elasticproperties
arecorrectlydescribed.
Effects of desaturationon mechanicalresponses Sw=[1
+(apc)
bIt, a=2.346x10
-8,b--0.827,
of materialare studiedthroughsimulationof uniaxc
=
-0.5767
(20)
ial compression
testsperformedunderdifferentwater saturationdegrees.This is shownon Figure 4.
The mechanicalstrengthincreasesand the material
behaviour becomes more brittle in nature when the

1506

-0.006

-0.005

-0.004

-0.003

-0.002

-0.001

0.001

Axial strain

0.002

IuY

-2
-4

0.5m

-6

-8

///

-10

-12

2.5m

Figure5: Geometryandloadingconditionsof beam

-14

-16

Figure3: Simulationof anuniaxialtensiontestfollowedby an

uniaxialcompression
test

-2
-0.012

-0.01

-0.008

-0.006

-0.004

-0.002

. --

-1.5
-- a_ ,uuuuUU="'"-'
___

u Sw;100%

Axial
strain / -5

. Sw=80

a Sw=60 %

-0.5

x
--sw=,00%

-20
>

0.15

-25

Figure 6: Vertical displacements

versusforcesat the central
point of beam,obtainedfor threesaturationdegreesby using
elastoplastic
modelwithoutdamage

S70%

-30

S60%

-35

Figure 4: Influencesof water saration degreeon uniaxial

coression test

3 APPLICATION
EXAMPLE
CONCRETE BEAM

,Displacem,
ent
(m)
0.1

S80%

I
0.05

BENDING

OF A

In this section,a typicalexampleconcerning

drying
effect in concretestructureis studiedby usingthe
proposed
model.All calculations
aremadeby using
the finite elementcode MPPSAT. A fully coupled
algorithm
andanimplicittimeincrement
schemeare

toplasticmodelwithoutdamage.The effectof water

saturationon mechanicalstrengthof beamis significant.Suchresultsare in accordance
with typicalexperimentaldataof concrete.
In Figure 7, the samequantitiesare presentedby
using the elastoplasticdamagemodel. We can see
that the mechanicalstrengthof beamis reducedby
several times for all the cases. It means that induced

damageof concreteis the dominant failure mecha-

nismin thiskind of structures.

As strengthreduction
due to damageis more significantin unsaturated
conditions,the effectsof saturationdegreeon meused in this code.
chanicalstrengthbecomelessimportantthan in the
Bendingof a rectangular
concrete
beamis studied elastoplasticcalculations.Figures 8 illustratedamin beamfor two saturation
degrees.
here.The geometryandloadingconditions
aregiven agedistributions
on Figure5. In orderto showeffectsof water satu- It is clearthat in all cases,damageis very localised
in the zonesunder loadingpoint. The damageobrationdegreeof concreteon mechanical
responses
of
beam,threecomparativecalculations
areperformed tained in unsaturatedbeam is higher than that in
saturated one.
with three different water saturation degrees of
beam.However, in eachcase,it is assumedthat the
saturation
degreein beamis uniform.
Figure6 showsverticaldisplacements
versusap-

pliedforcesat the centralpointof beam,obtained

for threedifferentsaturationdegreesby usingelas1507

-0.6

REFERENCES

AlonsoE.E., GensA. & Hight D.W., 1987, Specialproblem

soils.Generalreport.Proc.9th European
Conf.SoilMech.
And FoundationEngng.Dublin, Vol.3, Balkema, 1087-

-0.5

-0.4

1146.

Alonso,E.E., Gens,A. & Josa,A., 1990,'A constitutive

model

forpartiallysaturated
soils.'G6otechnique
40 (3), 405-430.

-0.3

ChateauX. & Dormieux L., 1998, 'A micromechanicalap-

-0.2

'

[] Sw=iO0%

--

,, Sw=60 %
- Sw=80

proach
to thebehavior
of a non-saturated
porous
medium',
C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris,t326, S6rieII b, 533-538

Coussy,O., 1995, 'Mechanicsof porouscontinua.',J.

Wiley&Sons.
-0.1

Coussy
O., EymardR. & Lassabatre
T., 1998,'Consitutive
modellingof unsaturated
dryingdeformable
materials',J.
of Engineering
mechanics
124(6), 658-667.
Lassabatre
T., 1994, 'Couplages
hydrom6caniques
en milieu
poreuxnonsatur6avecchangement
dephase:Application

Displacement
(m)
I

0.002

0.004

0.006

0.008

0.01

0.012

Figure7: Verticaldisplacements
versusforcesat the central
pointof beam,obtained
for threesaturation
degrees
by using
elastoplastic
damagemodel

au retrait de dessiccation',Thse de doctoratde l'Ecole

Nationale desPontset Chauss6es,Paris.

MazarsJ., 1984, 'Applicationde la m6canique

de l'endommagement
aucomportement
nonlin6aireet fi la rupture
du
b6tonde structure.,Thse de Doctoratd'Etatde rUniversit6
Paris 6.

0.5

Pietruszczak
S., JiangJ. & Mirza F.A., 1998,'an elastoplastic

0.716+
(a)Sw=100%

0.3

0.2

0.537 to 0.716

contitutive model for concrete.', Int J. Solids & Structures

0.358 to 0.537

24 (7), 705-722.

0.179 to 0.358

0.1

0to0.179

0
0

0.5

1.5

i
2

2.5

0.5

0.8+
(b) Sw=60%
0.6 to 0.8

0.3

0.4 to 0.6

''

0.2

0.2 to 0.4
0 to 0.2

0.1

0
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

Figure 8: Distributionof damagein beam for two different

saturation
degrees:
(a) Sw= 100%; (b) Sw= 60%

4. CONCLUSIONS

An elastoplastic
damagemodelis proposedfor modelling of hydro-mechanicalbehaviourof partially
saturatedconcreteand hard rocks(due to limitation
of paperlength,only applicationsto concretematerial are presentedin this paper). Even if only isotropic behaviouris concerned,the model is able to
describeprincipalresponses
of concreteunder mechanical and hydric conditions.Numerical simulation of testsare in qualitativelygoodagreementwith
experimental data. One typical boundary value
problemshas been studiedby using the proposed
model. The resultsobtainedhave clearly shownthat
it is importantto take into accounteffectsof drying
processin analysisof strengthand failure in concrete structures.Modelling of inducedanisotropic
damagewill be takeninto accountin ongoingworks.
1508