Extension of plasticity theory to debonding, grain dissolution, and chemical damage of calcarenites

Summary The mechanical properties of calcarenites are known to be significantly affected by water saturation: both stiffness and strength decrease for wetting in the short term and for chemical dissolution in the long term. Both processes mainly affect bonds among grains: immediately after inundation depositional bonds fall in suspension, whereas diagenetic bonds dissolve more slowly. In this paper, the authors started from the micro‐structural analysis of the weathering processes to conceive a strain hardening hydro‐chemo‐mechanical coupled elastoplastic constitutive model. The concept of extended hardening rules is here enriched: weathering functions have been determined by employing a micro to macro simplified upscaling procedure. Chemical damage is incorporated into the formulation by means of a scalar damage function. Its evolution is also described by using a multiscale approach. A new term is added to the strain rate tensor in order to incorporate the dissolution induced chemical deformations developing once the soft rock is turned into a granular material. A calibration procedure for the constitutive parameters is suggested, and the model is validated by using both coupled and uncoupled chemo‐mechanical experimental test results.