ABSTRACT
Soils in arid regions are frequently unsaturated and cemented. Water content changes lead to volumetric instability. In order to describe the complex behaviour of these soils a conceptual framework has been developed. Suction is considered as an independent variable and strain hardening plasticity has been used as a basic theory. The derived models have been organized in increasing order of complexity although all of them share a few common basic hypotheses rooted in observed experimental behaviour. A qualitative comparison between model predictions and observed laboratory soil behaviour has been carried out to demonstrate the capabilities of the approach developed.
