Calibrating and validating a soil constitutive model through conventional triaxial tests: an in-depth study on CSUH model

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for calibrating and validating a constitutive model via conventional triaxial tests. First, the consolidated drained triaxial compression test results are used for model calibration. The particle swarm optimization algorithm based on multiple adaptive strategies is then adopted to calibrate the best fitting parameters. Subsequently, the constitutive model is validated by considering its performance in modeling the consolidated undrained triaxial tests. The unified hardening model for clays and sands (CSUH model) proposed by Yao et al. (Comput Geotech 110:326–343, 2019. 10.1016/j.compgeo.2019.02.024) is considered. The results demonstrate that the CSUH model can well describe the dilatancy of clays and sands with different densities in both drained and undrained triaxial tests.