LIQUEFACTION PHENOMENON OF GRANULAR-MATERIALS AND CONSTITUTIVE STABILITY

Liquefaction phenomenon and its catastrophic nature can be analysed as a particular material behaviour of granular media under certain loadi ng paths. Proposes a definition of liquefaction and its modelling by c onstitutive relations. Discusses this modelling in relation to the que stions of stability and uniqueness. Considers the signs of three scala r quantities: the work of second order, the determinant of the symmetr ic part of the tangent constitutive tensor and the determinant of the tensor itself. Concludes that the liquefaction path is situated inside a potentially unstable domain and that in some cases this path reache s some states of loss of uniqueness, which are essentially bifurcation points.