Modeling cyclic behavior of lightly overconsolidated clays in simple shear

Assessment of seismic performance and estimation of permanent displacements for submerged slopes require the accurate description of the soil's stress -strain-strength relationship under irregular cyclic loading. The geologica l profile of submerged slopes on the continental shelf typically consists o f normally to lightly overconsolidated clays with depths ranging from a few meters to a few hundred meters and very low slope angles. This paper descr ibes the formulation of a simplified effective-stress-based model, which is able to capture the key aspects of the cyclic behavior of normally consoli dated clays. The proposed constitutive law incorporates anisotropic hardeni ng and bounding surface principles to allow the user to simulate different shear strain and stress reversal histories as well as provide realistic des criptions of the accumulation of plastic shear strains and excess pore pres sures during successive loading cycles. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Scie nce Ltd.