Shear band inclination and shear modulus of sand in biaxial tests

Abstract The spontaneous shear band formation in the biaxial test on dry sand samples with constant cell pressure is treated as a bifurcation problem. The constitutive response of sand is described in terms of mobilized friction and dilatancy. Dilatancy is looked upon as an internal constraint and the hardening rule is expressed in terms of an adequate dimensionless stress measure. Owing to fail of normality in sand, localization always occurs in the hardening regime. The theoretical solution of the shear band inclination is a geometrical mean of the classical Coulomb and Roscoe solutions and is in good agreement with the experimental data. The incipient shear modulus is proportional to the stress level and can be estimated to be also proportional to these cant modulus.