CONTROLLABILITY OF THE INCREMENTAL RESPONSE OF SOIL SPECIMENS SUBJECTED TO ARBITRARY LOADING PROGRAMMES

Abstract

The paper shows that the possibility of controlling the incremental response of a soil specimen subjected to an arbitrary loading programme is lost at a stress level which is below the value for which failure occurs in ordinary tests. The relation between this level and other critical values (bifurcation into a shear band, peak of the stress deviator in an undrained test, stability under dead load) is discussed.