Accurate simulation for strength-degrading effects of geomaterials via a decoupling approach to treating tension-compression asymmetry

  • Quanpu LIU ,
  • Haonan HE ,
  • Siyu WANG ,
  • Lin ZHAN ,
  • O. BRUHNS ,
  • Heng XIAO
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  • 1.MOE Key Lab of Future Intelligent Manufacturing Technologies for High-End Equipment, School of Intelligent Manufacturing and Future Technologies, Fuyao University of Science and Technology, Fuzhou 350100, China
    2.School of Mechanics and Construction Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
    3.School of Aerospace and Aeronautics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian Province, China
    4.Institute for Computational Engineering, Ruhr-University, D-44780 Bochum, Germany
Heng XIAO, E-mail: yyhxiao@fyust.edu.cn

Received date: 2025-08-20

  Revised date: 2025-12-01

  Online published: 2026-02-04

Supported by

Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12172149, 12172151, and 12202378), the MOE Key Laboratory of Fututer Intelligent Manufacturing Technologies for High-End Equipment of China (No. FIMFYUST-2025B07), the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology of China (No. SL2023A04J01461), and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. G20221990122)

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2026

Abstract

This study focuses on a new and high-efficiency approach in a unified sense of accurately simulating strength-degrading effects for geomaterials, including non-symmetric hardening-to-softening effects in tension and compression as well as non-symmetric tensile and compressive stiffness-degrading effects during unloading. It is intended to bypass both modeling and numerical complexities involved in existing approaches. To this goal, new elastoplastic equations are established with new numerical techniques. With a decoupling technique of treating tension-compression asymmetry, the foregoing complex effects are automatically incorporated as inherent response features of the new elastoplastic equations, thus bypassing usual modeling complexities. A new numerical technique of renormalizing piecewise spline functions is introduced to resolve the central yet tough issue of obtaining accurate and unified expressions for the tensile and compressive strength functions, thus bypassing usual numerical complexities and uncertainties in treating numerous unknown parameters and multiple ad hoc criteria. As such, the new approach is not only of wide applicability for various geomaterials but also of high computational efficiency with no more than three adjustable parameters. Toward validating the efficacy of the new approach, numerical examples for granite, salt rock, and sandstone-concrete combined body as well as plain concrete, high-performance concrete, and ultrahigh-performance concrete are presented by comparing model predictions with multiple data sets for strength-degrading effects in tension and compression.

Cite this article

Quanpu LIU , Haonan HE , Siyu WANG , Lin ZHAN , O. BRUHNS , Heng XIAO . Accurate simulation for strength-degrading effects of geomaterials via a decoupling approach to treating tension-compression asymmetry[J]. Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, 2026 , 47(2) : 283 -302 . DOI: 10.1007/s10483-026-3348-6

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