The Hardening Soil model is such a model that captures several features of real soil behaviour; both for sandy soils as well as for clays and silts. In this article I will further explain some practical details of the Hardening Soil model with the purpose to take away some fear and encourage you to use this model in your next geotechnical application.
Numerical modelling of geotechnical applications requires appropriate soil models to obtain realistic and accurate results. In this respect, a simplified model like the linear elastic perfectly plastic Mohr-Coulomb model can be regarded as inappropriate, since it lacks important features of real soil behaviour. If you are still addicted to Mohr-Coulomb, it’s time to move on. In this blog I will explain why, and what are the better alternatives.
Bentley PLAXIS includes many advanced material models besides Hooke’s law of isotropic elasticity and Mohr-Coulomb. This blog discusses the material models in PLAXIS 2D, PLAXIS 3D.