Creep deformation and stress relaxation during otherwise monotonic loading drained direct shear (DS) at a fixed shear displacement rate of three types of clean sand and a gravel having different particle shapes and exhibiting different viscous property types are simulated by the non-linear three component model. Elastic body represents the hypo-elastic property, plastic body represents the plastic properties exhibiting a non-linear inviscid stress – irreversible strain relation and viscous body represents the viscous properties as a function of irreversible strain and its rate with or without control of loading history. It is shown that the trends of rate-dependent behavior observed in the DS tests, particularly creep and stress relaxation and their relationship, can be successfully simulated in the consistent manner by the non-linear three-component model.