Modelling of the elastoplastic behaviour of the bio-cemented soils using an extended Modified Cam Clay model

An elastoplastic constitutive model based on the Modified Cam Clay(MCC)model is developed to describe the mechanical behaviour of soils cemented via microbially induced calcite precipitation(MICP).It considers the increase of the elastic stiffness,the change of the yield surface due to MICP cementation and the degradation of calcium carbonate bonds during shearing.Specifically,to capture the typical contraction-dilation transition in MICP soils,the original volumetric hardening rule in the MCC model is modified to a combined deviatoric and volumetric hardening rule.The model could reproduce a series of drained triaxial tests on MICP-treated soils with different calcium carbonate contents.Further,we carry out a parametric study and observe numerical instability in some cases.In combination with an analytical analysis,our numerical modelling has identified the benefits and limitations of using MCCbased models in the simulation of MICP-cemented soils,leading to suggestions for further model development.

Numerical Modeling of the Behaviour of a Road Structure on Compressible Soil: Case of the Road Section at the Beau-Rivage-Djassin Intersection

This document presents a study of the behaviour of a pavement structure on compressible soil and the evaluation of its durability. The objective of this study is to highlight the impact of taking into account the non-linear elastic behaviour of soils and granular materials in the design process. To this end, a numerical modelling of the pavement of the beau-rivage-Djassin crossroads section in Porto-Novo was carried out, based on a compressible soil whose behaviour will be considered elastoplastic. The subgrade soil on the section is made up of several sub-layers. The layer of soft, highly plastic clay was modelled according to a modified Cam Clay behaviour, a model of swelling clay soils. The fine sand layer and the granular layers of the structure are modelled according to Mohr-Coulomb behaviour. The loading is considered to be uniformly distributed according to the assumptions of the Burmister model in the French standard. A first verification with ALIZE allowed to validate the structure on the basis of the rutting deformation at the head of the platform εz = 359.6*10-6 which remains lower than the admissible deformation εz,adm = 360*10-6. The numerical calculation was carried out using the finite element method, the code of which is implemented under the PLAXIS v21 software. A comparative study with the results of the ALIZE design revealed that the numerically calculated strains εz = 585*10-6 are higher than those of ALIZE. These numerical strains, which are higher than the elastic strains, do not meet the validation criteria that the strains under loading must remain below the allowable strains. An evaluation of the pavement durability was carried out and it was found that the pavement would only last under traffic for 3 years before the first fatigue deformations appeared.