Computers and Geotechnics xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

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Computers and Geotechnics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compgeo

Discussion on ‘‘Numerical study on finite element implementation of

hypoplastic models” by Yutang Ding, Wenxiong Huang, Daichao Sheng,
and Scott W. Sloan [Comput. Geotech. 68 (2015) 78–90]
Chien-Hsun Chen a, Wolfgang Fellin a,⇑, Alexander Ostermann b, Fabian Schranz a
a
Division of Geotechnical and Tunnel Engineering, University of Innsbruck, Austria
b
Department of Mathematics, University of Innsbruck, Austria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In a recent paper [Comput. Geotech. 68 (2015) 78–90] the authors reported considerable problems with a
Available online xxxx particular approximation of the consistent tangent operator in hypoplasticity. In the present note, we
repeated their numerical experiments and came to opposite conclusions. In particular, we did not
encounter any numerical instabilities.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In their recent paper, Ding et al. [1] conducted a comprehensive vertical displacement
numerical study of finite element implementations of hypoplastic d
models. In particular, they compared the practicability and effi-
ciency of various tangent operators for a biaxial compression test
in Section 4.2. Among other approaches, they also tested a method
that was earlier proposed by Fellin and Ostermann in [2]. It pro-
vides a viable numerical approximation to the consistent tangent
operator by integrating some approximate variational equations.
In [1] this method is called Approach C.
Ding et al. report considerable problems with Approach C. To
verify their observations, we implemented precisely the version P H

of the hypoplastic model presented in the appendix of [1] in our

subroutine for Abaqus and recalculated the biaxial experiment,
see Fig. 1. The constitutive parameters listed in Table 1 are the
same as in [1]. We did not find any numerical instabilities of
Approach C.
The force–displacement curves calculated with plane-strain
4-node bilinear elements (CPE4) and plane-strain 6-node quadratic
elements with the three time step sequences of [1] (10, 50, and 100
W
increments) are shown in Fig. 2. Throughout the simulations, no
shear band appeared (Fig. 3), which is a reliable behavior, as
Fig. 1. Biaxial test (width W = 0.04 m, height H = 0.12 m, initial void ratio e = 0.60,
homogenous and symmetric initial and boundary conditions are lateral pressure P = 100 kN/m2, weightless, plane-strain).
prescribed. Such a plane-strain biaxial test is then nothing else
but a simple element test for which the integration of the stress
response to the imposed stretching can be calculated without element test with Matlab and gained a perfect match to the result
using a finite element method. We conducted such a numerical with 100 increments in Fig. 2.
All calculations can be performed to the largest prescribed dis-
placement d/H = 1/6. The total numbers of iterations are 16, 52, and
DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2015.09.002
103 for 10, 50, and 100 load increments, respectively. These values
⇑ Corresponding author. are much smaller than those reported by Ding et al. with their

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2015.09.005
0266-352X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Chen C-H et al. Discussion on ‘‘Numerical study on finite element implementation of hypoplastic models” by Yutang
Ding, Wenxiong Huang, Daichao Sheng, and Scott W. Sloan [Comput. Geotech. 68 (2015) 78–90]. Comput Geotech (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
compgeo.2015.09.005
2 C.-H. Chen et al. / Computers and Geotechnics xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Table 1
Constitutive parameters.

uc hs n ei0 ec0 ed0 a b

30° 190 MPa 0.4 1.20 0.82 0.51 0.14 1.05

4.5

3.5
F/(WP)

2.5

2
10
1.5 50
100
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 (a) 4-node elements (b) 6-node elements
d/H
Fig. 3. Undeformed and deformed mesh of biaxial tests.
(a) 48 4-node bilinear elements

4.5
regime, due to the softening behavior of the material model.
4
However, negative eigenvalues are not an intrinsic problem of
3.5
Approach C, they are a general problem in finite element calcula-
F/(WP)

3 tions with softening.

2.5 Note that the relative tolerance for the adaptive time
2
integration scheme and the tolerance for the residuals of the
10 Newton iteration must be of the same order to avoid potential
1.5 50
100 numerical problems [2]. We set this value to 10 5 in the
1 computations with 6-node elements. However, in the calculations
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
d/H with 4-node elements the value 10 3 chosen in [1] also works in
(b) 96 6-node quadratic elements our simulations.

Fig. 2. Force–displacement curve of biaxial test with 10, 50, and 100 load
References
increments.

Approach A [1, Table 7]: 469, 624, and 779 iterations for 10, 50, and
100 load increments, respectively. Our calculations revealed nega-
tive eigenvalues of the global stiffness tensor in the post peak
[1] Ding Y, Huang W, Sheng D, Sloan SW. Numerical study on finite element
implementation of hypoplastic models. Comput Geotech 2015;68:78–90.
[2] Fellin W, Ostermann A. Consistent tangent operators for constitutive rate-
equations. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 2002;26:1213–33.

Please cite this article in press as: Chen C-H et al. Discussion on ‘‘Numerical study on finite element implementation of hypoplastic models” by Yutang
Ding, Wenxiong Huang, Daichao Sheng, and Scott W. Sloan [Comput. Geotech. 68 (2015) 78–90]. Comput Geotech (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
compgeo.2015.09.005