Multiscale Modeling of Elasto-Plasticity in Heterogeneous Geomaterials Based on Continuum Micromechanics

In this paper, we investigate some micromechanical aspects of elasto-plasticity in heterogeneous geomaterials. The aim is to upscale the elasto-plastic behavior for a representative volume of the material which is indeed a very challenging task due to the irreversible deformations involved. Considering the plastic strains as eigen-strains allows us to employ the powerful tools offered by Continuum Micromechanics which are mainly developed for upscaling of eigen-stressed elastic media. The validity of such eigen-strain based formulation of multiscale elasto-plasticity is herein examined by comparing its predictions against Finite Element (FE) simulations.