Terzaghi.K._Peck.R.B._Mesri.G.
-Soil_Mechanics_in_E
ngineering_Practice-3Ed
Mesri, G . , T. W. Feng, S.Ali and T. M. Hayat (1994). “Perme-
ability characteristics of soft clays,” Proc. 13th Inr. Con$
on Soil Mech. and Found. Eng., New Delhi, 2, pp.
187-192.
ARTICLE 15 EFFECTIVE STRESS,
POREWATER PRESSURE, AND CRITICAL
HYDRAULIC GRADIENT
15.1 Effective Stress
Figure 1 5 . 1 ~shows a cross-section through a thin layer
of soil that covers the bottom of a container. If a load a
per unit of area is applied to the surface of the sample,
for example by covering it with lead shot, the void ratio
of the soil decreases from eo to e l . The pressure u also
produces a change in all the other mechanical properties
of the soil, such as its shearing resistance. For this reason,
it is known as an effective pressure. It is given the sym-
bol u t .
If, instead, the vessel is filled with water to such a
height h, that h, = u/ywthe normal stress on a horizontal
section through the sample is also increased by u. Never-
theless, the increase in pressure due to the weight of the
water does not have a measurable influence on the void
ratio or on any other mechanical property of the soil
such as the shearing resistance. Therefore, the pressure
produced by the water load is called a neutral pressure.
It is said to be zero if it is equal to atmospheric pressure.
Hence, the neutral pressure is equal to the piezometric
head h, times the unit weight of water yIlnor
/A = ywh, (15.1)
The total normal stress u at any point on a section
through a saturated soil consists, therefore, of two parts.
One part, u, acts in the water and in the solid in every
direction with equal intensity; this part is known as the
neutral stress or the porewater pressure. The remaining
Figure 15.1 Apparatus for demonstrating difference between
effective stress and porewater pressure or neutral stress.
ARTICLE 15 EFFECTIVE STRESS 83
part u t = u - u represents an excess over the neutral
stress u and has its seat exclusively in the solid phase of
the soil. This fraction of the total stress is called the
effective stress.
A change in the neutral stress produces practically no
volume change and has practically no influence on the
stress conditions for failure, whereas all the measurable
effects of a change in stress, such as compression, distor-
tion, and a change in shearing resistance, are due exclu-
sively to changes in the effective stress a’.Hence, every
investigation of the stability or settlement of a saturated
body of soil requires the knowledge of both the total and
neutral stresses, and the equation
U.=Ut+U (15.2)
is one of the most important in soil mechanics (Ter-
zaghi 1936b).
15.2 Mechanism of Effective Stress Transfer
Equation 15.2 defines the effective stress u’ for a satu-
rated soil in terms of the total stress u and the porewater
pressure u, both of which are externally controlled. The
equation makes no assumptions about the interparticle
forces that transmit the effective stress from one particle
to another, and it provides no information about them.
The balance between total stress that pushes the particles
together and porewater pressure that pushes them apart
is in equilibrium with the difference between interparticle
repulsions and attractions. These forces operate at spac-
ings between particles that may range from zero to several
nanometers. Effective stress can be transmitted from one
particle to another through mineral-to-mineral contact at
zero particle spacing, through adsorbed water at up to
about 1-nm spacing, and through double-layer water at
1- to more than 20-nm spacing. In a soil with a wide
range of particle sizes and arrangements, effective stress
may be transmitted from particle to particle through min-
eral-to-mineral contact, through adsorbed water, and
through double-layer water.
In coarse granular soils such as sand and gravel, effec-
tive stress is transmitted from one particle to another
mainly through mineral-to-mineral contacts. Because the
surfaces of large particles are rough at a microscopic
scale (Figs. 4.6-4.8), the force per particle resulting from
u - u may be large. Yet, because the contact area is very
small, the contact stresses are very high, and the adsorbed
water is readily squeezed out: An increase in effective
stress should then result in an increase in mineral-to-
mineral contact area and, therefore, in a substantial
increase in interparticle shearing resistance through pri-
mary valence bonding or microscopic surface to sur-
face interlocking.
On the other hand in fine-grained soils, including clay
minerals, adsorbed water is not readily squeezed out from
between the particles, especially when the particles inter-