ASME 1995 Nadai Lecture—Plasticity of Porous and Particulate Materials

The paper discusses the formulation of constitutive equation for those materials for which the irreversible changes of the volume is also to be taken into account. These are mainly geomaterials, cement, powders of various kinds, ceramics, etc. Experimental evidence is first presented showing that the time effects on irreversible volumetric changes and failure are very important. The concept of compressibility/dilatancy boundary is further introduced. The general constitutive equation able to describe instantaneous response, transient and stationary creep, dilatancy and/or compressibility during creep, failure, creep damage and creep failure, is presented. Examples formulated for various materials are given. Comparison between model prediction and experimental data shows a very good agreement. A few examples of applications of the model to mining engineering problems are mentioned.