Elastoplastic solution for cylindrical cavity contraction in unsaturated soils

Abstract

This paper develops an elastoplastic solution for cylindrical cavity contraction in unsaturated soils under constant suction conditions. The elastoplastic cavity contraction problem is formulated into a set of first-order ordinary differential equations by introducing a new auxiliary variable, which is solved as an initial value problem. The new solution is validated by comparison with numerical simulation results. Finally, parametric studies show that, as soil suction increases, the internal support pressure decreases faster with cavity contraction, the unloading-induced plastic zone becomes narrower, and the changes in effective stresses are smaller for a given tunnel convergence.