Geomechanical modelling in engineering practice / Геомеханическое моделирование в инженерной практике

Simply stated, a material model is a mathematical relationship describing the stressstrain behaviour of a small but finite quantity of material, and is often termed a ‘constitutive model’.The formulation of the material model forms an important step in obtaining solutions for practical engineering problems and, once established, it can be employed in a numerical solution code suitable for the analysis of geomechanical structures, with given boundary conditions, material zones and loading. The model should thus be comprehensive enough to represent all important material behaviour occurring within the given structure under the prevailing loading conditions. A representative formulation for geomechanical media is particularly important because highly nonlinear material behaviour is often exhibited. A whole branch of  geomechanical engineering science has thus evolved for the purpose offormulating and calibrating such models, many of which are now of practical usefulness, and some of  which are considered in detail in this text.
Certain general modelling concepts are introduced in this chapter, and the main details of specific models are included in later chapters. In order that the uninformed reader may become acquainted with important experimental findings, this chapter also  includes an overview of the observed behaviour of geomechanical media. The most popular numerical solution method, the finite element method, is also introduced in Chapter 2, in the context of which a number of different types of geomechanical problems may be solved. <...>