Abstract
Particulate materials (consisting of solid structural units in mutual contacts) are highly dissipative media. Under some circumstances they display a collapsible behaviour. Two kinds of collapse are distinguished by the author : branching-off collapse (kinking of a constitutive function) and break-down (discontinuity of a constitutive function). They are illustrated via tests with a granulated clay. With every collapse the soil structure is rebuilt, and this is especially true for break-down. It is documented, by some experimental examples, that break-down, is contrast to branchingoff collapse, takes the form of a diffusion process.
