Elastic-plastic Micromechanics Modeling of Cross-anisotropic Granular Soils: II. Micromechanics Analysis

In the companion paper, we provided the novel elastic-plastic constitutive model based on the micromechanics theory. Herein, the elastic and elastic-plastic deformation of granular soils is meticulously analyzed. To guarantee high accuracy of the microscopic parameter, the systematic procedure to evaluate the parameters is provided. The analysis of the elastic response during the isotropic and triaxial compression shows that the stress-level dependency of cross-anisotropic elastic moduli is induced by the power relationship of the contact force in the normal contact stiffness, while the evolution of fabric anisotropy is more pronounced during triaxial compression. The micromechanical analysis indicates that the plastic strains are likely to occur at very small strains. The plastic deformation of tangential contacts has an important role in the reduction of soil stiffness during axial loading.