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Unidades Geologia Apliacada PDF
Unidades Geologia Apliacada PDF
H o l t z ~
REFERENCE: Holtz, R. D., "SI Units in Geoteehnleal Engineering," tinental European engineers. At least they tried to keep the distinc-
Geotechnical Testing Journal, GTJODJ, Vol. 3, No. 2, June 1980, pp. tion between mass and force by calling the kilogram-force a "kilo-
73-79. pond" (kp).
ABSTRACT: A brief description is presented of the International A modernized version of the metric system has been developing
System of Units (SI) as it might be applied to geotechnical engineering. over the past 30 years. The system is known as SI, which stands for
Base as well as derived SI units that are of interest to geotechnical le Syst~me International d'Unitds (The International System of
engineers are described in detail, and conversion factors for units in Units). It is described in detail in ASTM E 380, the Standard for
common usage are given. A few examples of conversions are also Metric Practice, available in the back of every part of the Annual
presented.
Book of A S T M Standards. The system may soon become the
KEY WORDS: units of measurement, metric system, symbols common system in the United States and the few other countries
still using Imperial or British Engineering units. In fact, Great
Within the scientific and engineering community, there has Britain itself converted completely to SI in 1972, and Australia,
always been some confusion as to the proper system of units for Canada, and New Zealand are presently well along the way to
physical measurements and quantities. Many schemes have been conversion. Most European countries already have de facto
advanced throughout the past few centuries and some, such as the conversion to SI, especially in engineering practice.
Imperial or British Engineering system, the so-called metric
system, and a few hybrids, have achieved moderately wide popular
usage. Recently, with the growth of international cooperation and The SI Metric System
trade, it has become increasingly apparent that one single, com-
monly accepted system of units would be not only convenient but The SI metric system is a fully coherent and rationalized system.
also of tremendous practical value. It is founded on seven basic units: for length (metre, m), mass
Even though geotechnical engineering may not have the greatest (kilogram, kg), time (second, s), electric current (ampere, A),
confusion of units, it undoubtedly ranks near the top of all fields in thermodynamic temperature (kelvin, K), luminous intensity
the number of different systems in common usage. Laboratory (candela, cd), and amount of substance (mole). All of these basic
engineers, following their counterparts in the physical sciences, units have precise definitions, names, and symbols. Units for all
have attempted to use some sort of metric system, usually the cgs other physical quantities can be derived in terms of these basic
(centimetre-gram-second) system for the simpler laboratory tests. units. Sometimes the derived quantities are given specific names,
But they also apply the mks (metre-kilogram-second) system to such as the newton (N) for force and the watt (W) for power. The
measurements of pressure and stress in consolidation and triaxial derived unit of force replaces the kilogram-force (kgf) of the mks
tests and use British Engineering units for compaction tests. As system so that the name of the unit indicates that it is a unit of
any teacher of soil mechanics can testify, the confusion to the force, not mass. A great advantage is that one and only one unit
uninitiated is tremendous. At least practicing geotechnical exists for each physical quantity, and all other mechanical quan-
engineers in North America have been somewhat consistent in the tities such as velocity, force, work, and so on can be derived from
use of the British Engineering system for laboratory and field den- the basic units. In addition, the SI units for force, energy, and
sities, stress measurements, and the like, although they commonly power are independent of the nature of the physical process,
alternate between pounds per square foot, kips per square foot, whether mechanical, electrical, or chemical.
tons per square foot, and pounds per square inch, depending on Another major advantage of SI is that it is a fully coherent system.
how they or their clients feel about the subject. Fortunately, 1 ton- This means that a product or quotient of any two unit quantities is
force per square foot is within 2% of 1 kgf/cm 2, a common a unit of the resulting quantity. For example, unit length squared
laboratory unit for stress and pressure, and the foundation should be unit area, and unit force should be unit mass times unit
engineer using consolidation test data can convert directly with lit- acceleration. Obviously, many of the engineering units in common
tle error. Strictly speaking, the use of force as a basic unit is incor- use (for example, acre, pound-force, or kilogram-force), are not
rect; mass should be the basic unit, with force derived according to coherent units. Also, units that might be related to basic units by
Newton's Second Law of Motion. Use of the kilogram as a unit of powers of ten are not consistent within the SI system. A good ex-
force is one of the difficulties with the so-called metric system, a ample is the litre (L), which is a cubic decimetrc. The equivalent
modified version of the mks system that was common among con- volume of the litre has been defined as exactly 10 - 3 m 3 (1000 cm3).
Additional advantages of SI include the use of unique and well-
IAssociate professor, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, defined symbols and abbreviations and the convenient decimal
W. Lafayette, Ind. 47907. Member of ASTM. relation between multiples and submultiples of the basic units.
© 1980 by the American Society for Testing and Materials 0149-6115180/0006-0073500.40
73
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74 GEOTECHNICAL TESTING JOURNAL
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HOLTZ ON 81 UNITS 75
TABLE 3--Conversion factors for units of length. TABLE 5--Conversion factors for units of force.
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76 GEOTECHNICAL TESTING JOURNAL
If we wanted instead to use a pound-mass system, we would Density and Unit Weight
define a unit of force called the poundal, where 1 poundal = 1 lb-
Density is defined in physics as mass per unit volume. Its units
mass × 1 ft/s 2. Poundals are apparently only found in physics
in the SI system are kilograms per cubic metre (kg/m3). In many
books.
cases in geotechnical engineering, it may be more convenient to ex-
Some examples illustrating conversion between different mass
press density in megagrams per cubic metre. Conversions from the
units are given in the Appendix to this paper.
common laboratory and field densities are:
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HOLTZ ON SI UNITS 77
Similarly, to obtain the effective vertical overburden stress, the ef- Since 1 slug = 14.59 kg, his mass is 68.03 kg. Another way to
fective orbuoyant density p ' for each layer below the ground water calculate his mass is to convert his weight to newtons; then divide
table can be used, or perhaps more simply, O'vo = Ovo -- uo. by g:
Dimensional analysis of these equations for stress shows that if
the densities are expressed in Mg/m 3, then stresses automatically W = 150 lbf(4.448 N/1 lbf) = 667.20 N or 667.2(kg-m)/s 2
come out in kPa. Or
M = W / g = (667.2 kg. m/s2)/(9.807 m/s 2) = 68.03 kg
(Mg/m3)(m/s2)m = 1000(kg.m)/(s2-m 2) = 1000 N/m 2 = 1 kPa
Next, we have to either ask an astronomer or look up in the
An example of geostatic stress computations using SI units can be Handbook of Chemistry and Physics the gravitational acceleration
found in the Appendix. on the surface of the moon. We find that gmoon ~ 1.67 m/s 2.
Thus,
Summary
Wmoon : Mgmoon : 68.03 kg (1.67 m/s 2) = 1t3.62 N
The SI system is a fully coherent and rational system of units,
well suited to the measurements ordinarily made in geotechnical Or, since 4.448 N = 1 lbf,
engineering practice. The basic units in the system have precise
names, definitions, and symbols, and the units for all other physi- Wraoon = 113.62 N (1 1bf/4.448 N) = 25.54 lbf
cal quantities can be derived in terms of these basic units. Products
or quotients of any two unit quantities are also units of the Check: On earth,
resulting quantity. Use of prefixes to indicate multiples and sub-
multiples of units helps to make the numbers more manageable. 667 N(1.67/9.81) = 113.6 N on the moon
One fact of particular interest to geotechnical engineers is that the
SI units of force, stress, and pressure have independent and
precisely defined names and symbols. Use of density instead of Example 2
unit weight is not only more correct physically, but also has the ad-
vantage that the density of water is unity (in Mg/m3). The only Given: The density of water Pw = 1 Mg/m 3.
minor disadvantage to the use of SI units in geotechnical engineer- Required: Calculate the density of water in (a) g/cm 3 and (b)
lb/ft 3.
ing practice is that a constant value for the acceleration of gravity
must be included in the computations of geostatic stresses. Solution: Set up an equation as follows for Part a.
APPENDIX Example 3
Computations and Conversions That Use SI
Given: The density of water Pw = 1 Mg/m 3.
UnRs Required: Convert this density to unit weight in (a) SI and (b)
Example 1 British Engineering units.
Solution: (a) SI units: We know that 3' = Pg; so
Given: Neff Armstrong weighs 150 lb on earth.
Required: How much does he weigh on the surface of the
moon? 3' = 1 Mg/m 3" (103 kg/1 Mg). 9.807 m/s 2
Solution: First, we have to calculate Mr. Armstrong's mass = 9807(kg. m)/(m 3- s2)
on earth. Unless he had health problems during the voyage, his
mass will be the same on the moon.
Since 1 N = 1 kg. m/s 2, then
M = W / g = (1501bf)/(32.17 ft/s 2)
= 4.66(lbf-s2)/ft = 4.66 slugs = 9807 N/m 3 = 9.807 kN/m 3
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78 GEOTECHNICAL TESTING JOURNAL
(b) British Engineering units: From Example 2 we know that 1 For the sand below the water table:
M g / m 3 = 62.43 l b m / f t 3. Therefore,
Psat = (Ps + pwe)/(1 + e)
7 = 62.43 lbm/ft 3. 32.17 f t / s 2 = 2008(lbm-ft)/(s2-ft 3) = (2.65 + 1.0-0.5)/(1 + 0.5) = 2.10 M g / m 3
= 2008 poundals/ft 3
where Psat = saturated density. For the clay:
-2 V
.--4-
Ps = 2.65 Mg/m 3
Example 4
SAND •n = 19%
Given: The soil profile shown in Fig. 1.
e:O.5
Required: Compute and plot the total, neutral, and effective
vertical stresses with depth. -6
Solution: First, calculate the approximate soil densities. For the
sand above the water table:
= 2.7 Mg/m 3
where
Pd : dry density,
Ps = density of soil solids, -I 4//~y/X~X//~)F/
e = void ratio, and
w = water content. FIG. 1--Soil profile for Example 4.
Depth,m Total Vertical Stress, O'vo , kPa Neutral Stress, ¢./-o,RPa Effective Vertical Stress, cr~to, k Pa
0 I00 200 0 I00 0 leO 200
0 I I i I i
-2 37
-4
-6
-8
-I0
-12
FIG. 2--Total neutral, and effective vertical stress profiles for Example 4.
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HOTTZ ON SI UNITS 79
Second, calculate the total vertical stress ovo at a few convenient M g / m 3, vertical stress comes out automatically in kPa. At --6 m:
points in the profile. At --2 m: Ovo = 37 kPa + ( 2 . 1 ) ( 9 . 8 1 ) ( 4 ) = 119 kPa, and so on. Pore water
o ~ = p g z = (1.87 Mg/m3)(9.81 m/s2)2 m = pressures are calculated using u o = p w g h w . For example, at
36.69(Mg • m)/(s 2. m 2) --6 m:
uo = (1 Mg/m3)(9.81 m/s2)(4 m) = 39 kPa
Recall that 1 k g . m / s 2 = 1 N and 1 N / m 2 = 1 Pa. So 1
(Mg-m)/(s2"m 2) --- 1 kPa. Therefore, 36.69(Mg'm)/(s2.m 2) = The complete total, neutral, and effective vertical stress profiles
36.69 kPa or 37 kPa. Note that if densities are expressed in are shown in Fig. 2.
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