On the mechanical response of saturated cemented materials—part I: Theoretical considerations

Abstract Terzaghi's ‘effective stress’ principle, though originally developed for soils, has been extensively applied to water saturated cemented materials (such as concrete, rocks, masonry units, etc.). There are, however, serious reservations regarding its validity for this class of materials. In this paper an alternative stress decomposition is proposed. It is based on average stress measures in constitutents, i.e. the solid matrix and water. Constitutive relations governing the undrained response of a cemented aggregate mixture, treated as a brittle‐plastic material, are derived. The framework is illustrated by some numerical examples pertaining to the behaviour of saturated concrete.