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Application of a Hill-Climbing technique to the formulation of a new cyclic nonlinear elastic constitutive model

Hysteretic behaviour of soils under cyclic loading is intrinsically related to the energy they dissipate. Well-characterised experimentally, its simulation has known limited success. The challenge is tackled in this paper using optimisation techniques, establishing a new constitutive relation capable of accurately reproducing behaviour observed in laboratory testing. This novel and general procedure is being adapted to modelling of unsaturated soils. The new constitutive model is pivotal in current research to include cyclic response in new design guidelines for reducing cost of monopile foundations for offshore wind generators (PISA project funded by industrial consortium led by DONG Energy, 2013).