Predictions of footing and pressuremeter response in sand using a hardening soil model

Abstract

The paper presents the results and interpretation of triaxial compression tests for a uniformly graded fine to medium siliceous sand. These results are used together with data obtained from boundary value problems to provide an objective assessment of the predictive capabilities of a widely accessible and popular constitutive model, referred to as the HSS (hardening soil small) or hardening soil model with a small strain overlay. The triaxial compression tests, which involved a range of relative densities and stress levels, are used to derive model parameters providing the optimal fit to the triaxial experiments. Measurements obtained in pressuremeter and footing experiments performed in a laboratory testing chamber with the same reconstituted sand are then compared with finite-element analyses of these experiments using the selected model parameters These comparisons combined with a review of simulations for the triaxial tests are used to draw conclusions related to the application of the HSS model in sand.