Continuous Surface Cap Model for Geomaterial Modeling: A New LS-DYNA Material Type

The Continuous Surface Cap Model is a new addition to the LS-DYNA geomaterial modeling library of constitutive models (Material Type 145). This new model should replace the use of the Geological Cap Model (Material Type 25) for most applications. The Continuous Surface Cap Model maintains all the functionality of the Geological Cap Model with the addition of the third stress invariant, strain rate effects, and damage modeling. The Continuous Surface Cap Model has also been reported to be about three times faster than the Geological Cap Model in a large scale application. This article briefly describes some of the model features and illustrates its application.