ABSTRACT
The mechanical behaviour of natural clays is significantly affected by their in situ or initial structure in the form of cementation or interparticle bonding. This behaviour can differ substantially from the behaviour of reconstituted clays. In this paper, a constitutive model that combines unsaturated and structured behaviour is proposed. The model is capable of accounting for the phenomenon of volumetric collapse upon wetting and the stiffening effect that suction has on the soil skeletal response. Illus-trative numerical results for isotropic consolidated tests on both on saturated and unsaturated compressed samples of São Paolo soil demonstrate the potential of the proposed model.
