Finite element modelling of shear bands in porous media by means of non-local viscoplasticity

Abstract

This work presents a consistent numerical approach in the framework of analyzing the localization process in a slope stability problem. An already existing model, embedded in Mechanics of multiphase porous media, is enhanced with local and non-local elasto-viscoplastic constitutive models to obtain regularized numerical solutions. The initiation and the propagation of the shear band are effectively described by means of FEM analysis, regardless of the mesh size adopted. The strain localization process realistically occurs within the shear band failure mode and its size is governed by the internal length variable, which can be directly estimated by experimental approaches.