The subloading isotropic plasticity as a variable modulus model

The subloading concept is an extension of mathematical plasticity which defines an internal surface to the conventional yield surface. It is indeed a versatile approach, especially for the modelling of soils under quasi-static cycles with smooth transitions from pure elastic to elastoplastic behaviour. For the case of isotropic hardening models, this paper demonstrates that the subloading isotropic plasticity is equivalent to a variable modulus approach and therefore a simpler and equivalent methodology can be adopted instead. In addition to demonstrating this equivalence, an alternative formulation that was presented elsewhere and that uses only one surface is briefly discussed. The alternative formulation can then be easily applied to popular models for soils such as the Cam clay model. Finally, some numerical predictions are presented in order to illustrate the capabilities of the subloading isotropic plasticity and the corresponding variable modulus approach.