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Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for normal, consolidated soils

Article  in  Mining Science and Technology (China) · May 2010

DOI: 10.1016/S1674-5264(09)60216-7

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 M INING
SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Mining Science and Technology 20 (2010) 0406–0410
www.elsevier.com/locate/jcumt

Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for normal,

consolidated soils
ZHAO Xiaodong1,2,*, ZHOU Guoqing1,2, TIAN Qiuhong3, KUANG Lianfei1,2
1
State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology,
Xuzhou 221008, China
2
School of Architecture & Civil Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou 221008, China
3
Jiuzhou College of Vocation & Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China

Abstract: In this study consecutive consolidated isotropically drained triaxial tests for the coefficient of earth pressure at rest (K0)
were carried out to investigate its rules of evolution as well as its strength characteristics for normal, consolidated saturated silt
under high pressure. The tests results indicate that: 1) for normal, consolidated saturated silt, K0 values increase as the consolidation
stress increases at high pressure levels, while the nonlinear characteristics of K0 are inconspicuous compared to cohesive soils; 2)
the Jaky and Roscoe equations, used to calculate K0, are only suitable for certain soils, but cannot represent these values for normal,
consolidated saturated silt due to the variation in bilinear strength at high pressure; and 3) there are close relations between the
nonlinear characteristics of K0 and the void ratio, measured in the tests. Both share the same functional form while under pressure.
Based on our experimental results, we developed an empirical linear model to interpret the rules of nonlinear variation for the coef-
ficient of earth pressure at rest.
Keywords: normal; consolidated soils; high pressure; coefficient of earth pressure at rest; nonlinear; void ratio

1 Introduction sand[6-12]. In addition, scientists from Japan, i.e., Feda

The coefficient of earth pressure at rest (K0) is one
of the preconditions for estimating this pressure,
which is in the form of a primary load applied to a
freezing wall. At present, little attention is being paid
to this earth pressure coefficient at rest involved in
freezing projects and theories established for shallow
soil mechanics are hard to be validated. Accordingly,
it is necessary to perform tests on the coefficient of
the earth pressure at rest to provide reliable parame-
ters in tests for mechanical properties of deep frozen
soils.
Li, Wang, Xu studied the nonlinear characteristics
of deep and thick clay in detail in laboratory tests[1-3].
Tian and Xu made a comparison between the differ-
ent test methods for this earth pressure coefficient in
their laboratories[4-5]. Leroueil and Vaughan, Coop
and Atkinson and Cotecchia and Chandler investi-
gated the earth pressure at rest for natural clays.
Wanatowski and Chu carried out tests on the factors
and rules of variation affecting the K0 values of
Received 28 October 2009; accepted 16 December 2009
*Corresponding author. Tel: 86 516 83885865
E-mail address: zxdcumt@126.com
doi: 10.1016/S1674-5264(09)60216-7
and Bohac, Watabe and Tanaka and from Taiwan, i.e.,
Huang, Wei and Zhan also studied the earth pressure
at rest with different test methods[13-17]. Hsieh and
Chin investigated, for the first time, the earth pressure
at rest by finite elements and compared numerical
results with their test results[18]. Watabe pointed out
that the nonlinear characteristics of the K0 values be-
come clearer for the effects of cementation[19]. The
Italian scientists Federico and Elia derived equations
according to the theory of critical state soil mechanics
for normal, consolidated soils[20].
These investigations on the coefficient of earth
pressure at rest can be classified as follows: 1) test
methods; 2) factors affecting the coefficient and 3)
rules of variation in K0. Early studies on the coeffi-
cient of the earth pressure at rest have been carried
out for soils without cohesion while tests on cohesive
soils were largely carried out under low pressure.
However, tests carried out on cohesive soils at high
pressure are few and far between and the validity of
these classical prediction equations needs to be veri-
fied. Therefore, in order to investigate the coefficient
of earth pressure at rest and their equations, we car-
ried out K0 tests and consolidated isotropically
drained triaxial tests.
 ZHAO Xiaodong et al Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for normal, consolidated soils
2 Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for
normal, consolidated soils
Fig. 1a shows the rules of variation of the coeffi-
cient K0 for medium sand[21-22]. It can be clearly ob-
served that the K0 values are not constant for the fric-
tion material, but present an increasing trend as the
axial pressure, σ1, increases. Their relationship can be
described as:
σ1
K 0 = K 0′ + k ⋅ ln
10Pa
where K 0′ is the initial coefficient of the earth pres-
sure at rest and k, the increment of K0 values by unit
ln σ 1 (10Pa ) . Pa =0.10133 MPa, i.e., standard at-
mospheric pressure.
The generally accepted equation for calculating the
K0 values is the formula presented by Jaky (1948),
i.e.,
K 0 = 1 − sin ϕ ′ (2)
where ϕ ′ is the effective internal friction angle.
The effective internal angle of the sand decreases
because of particle crushing under high pressure[9-12].
407
consolidation stress increases has been shown earlier
for several clays, e.g., in London Clay, Todi Clay,
Israeli Clay and Deep Clay. However, for various
soils, the critical pressure at which the strength start
to decrease and the pattern of variations show up, are
quite different in form, i.e., they may be a bilinear
model, a trilinear model, an exponential model, or yet
other forms[25]. In other words, the rules of variation
of strength parameters deduced from these models
would be different from the variations in the coeffi-
(1) cient of the earth pressure at rest. As a result, Eq.(2)
or its modifications are only suitable for certain soils.
3 Triaxial compressive strength for nor-
mal, consolidated silt
3.1 Specimen preparation and test equipment
The soils used in our tests were reconstituted with
saturated silt, with a specific gravity of 2.70. The
grain gradation curve is shown in Fig. 2.


3HUFHQWILQHU

In other words, the K0 values and the 1 − sin ϕ ′ rela- 

tion represent similar rules of variation as the con- 

solidation stress increases. Therefore, the rules of

variation for the K0 values can be expressed through
the Jaky equation[9,11]. 
Fig. 1b shows the coefficient of the earth pressure    

at rest for normal, consolidated clay from which we
can conclude that the nonlinear characteristics of K0
for cohesive soils are clearly more evident than for
material without cohesion and the coefficient for co-
hesive soils larger than for soils without cohesion at
different consolidation stress levels[23-26]. In fact, the
strength mechanics for friction geotechnical material
and friction-cohesive geotechnical material are quite
different, but the relationship between K0 at high
pressure and the consolidation stress level can satisfy
Eq.(1).
.
.
σ1 σ1
(a) Medium sand (b) Clay[23]
Fig. 1 Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for normal,
consolidated soils
The phenomenon that strength parameters for nor-
mal, consolidated reconstituted clay, i.e., the effective
internal friction angle, drop gradually as the level of
3DUWLFOHVL]HPP
Fig. 2 Grain gradation curve for silt
The preparation process of the specimens is as fol-
lows: at first, distilled water was added to air dried
soil to make initial amounts of water of 8% by weight.
Then soil with an average dry density of 1.57 g/cm3
was put in a cylindrical rigid mold with a 61.8 mm
diameter and 125 mm height to the desired dry den-
sity. These specimens were then saturated with dis-
tilled water under a vacuum of 73 mm Hg. The aver-
age amount of the specimens was 27.8% by weight
and the degree of saturation was 97%.
Consolidated Isotropically Drained (CID) triaxial
tests were conducted with test equipment TATW-500,
designed at the China University of Mining & Tech-
nology, at a loading rate of 0.08 mm/min.
3.2 Test results
Typical test results are shown in Figs. 3a and 3b,
where p=(σ1+2σ3)/3, i.e., normal stress, q=σ1–σ3
shear stress, εa represents the axial strain and εv is the
volumetric strain.
Fig. 4 shows the peak strength and the CSL (Criti-
cal State Line) for normal, consolidated silt. We see
that both the peak strength and the strength at the
critical state increase almost linearly as the normal
408 Mining Science and Technology Vol.20 No.3

stress, P, increases. The volume of the samples ex- the secant friction angle. In general, ϕ ′ is the effec-
pands at low, normal stress, while it behaves accord- tive internal friction at peak value in triaxial com-
ing to the rules of continuous contraction at higher pressive tests.
pressure. This observation is consistent with what The effective internal peak secant friction angle
was established by Wu[25]. ϕtc′ and the secant friction angle ϕcs′ at the critical
stage for normal, consolidated silt are obtained from
Eqs.(5) and (6):
§ 3η ·
ϕtc′ = arcsin ¨ ¸ (5)
T 03D

© 6 +η ¹
ε v 

§ 3M · (6)
ϕcs′ = arcsin ¨ ¸
© 6+ M ¹
εa εa
where η is the slope of the peak strength line; M the
slope of the SCL. Substituting Eq.(5) into Eq.(2) and
(a) εa~q curves (b) εa~εv curves
making ϕ ′ equal to ϕtc′ , the K0 values listed in Ta-
Fig. 3 Triaxial compression curves for normal,
ble 1 at various consolidation stresses are obtained.
consolidated silt

4 Coefficients of earth pressure at rest for

normal, consolidated silt

Fig. 5a shows the coefficients of earth pressure at

(a) Peak strength (b) CSL
Fig. 4 p~q curves for normal, consolidated silt
In general, the triaxial compressive strength for
soils without cohesion and no obvious crushed parti-
cles consists of two parts: one contribution is the
magnitude of the friction for sliding and rolling parti-
cles and the other part is the magnitude of shear dila-
tation. If we regard 1.4 MPa as the critical stress be-
tween high and low pressure, the slope of the peak
strength and the strength at the critical state are both
steeper at low pressure than at high pressure. There-
rest for normal, consolidated silt. We observe from
Figs. 5a and 5b that the K0 values satisfy Eq.(1). It
can be seen from Fig. 4 and Table 1 as well as from
Fig. 5a that: 1) calculating the strength at high pres-
sure from the equations established at lower pressure
is unsuitable; 2) the rules of variation of strength of
soils without cohesion should not be described by
similar functions, because the bilinear model is more
suitable for normal, consolidated silt without crushed
particles; 3) the variations in ϕcs′ and ϕcs′ are simi-
lar to the variation in strength, as the confining pres-
sure increases, while they are little different from the
K0 variation.
.

fore, it is appropriate to describe the strength varia-

.

tion through the following equations:

With normal pressure p”2.64 MPa
q f = k1 ⋅ p (3)
σ1 σ1
When normal pressure p>2.64 MPa (a) Silt (b) Medium sand
q f = k2 ⋅ p (4) Fig. 5 Coefficients of earth pressure at rest for normal,
consolidated soil without cohesion
where k1 and k2 are the test parameters, with values
respectively of 1.6174 and 1.3116. At the critical state, Eq.(7) was proposed by Roscoe and Burland (1968)
these two parameters have values of 1.736 and 1.375. according to the MCC (Modified Cam Clay)
It is often unclear whether ϕ ′ in Eq.(2) is defined model[27]:
by the Critical State Line (CSL) or the peak strength Λ §Λ· §M ·
2 2

corresponding to undrained shear tests. Moreover, for 1+ − ¨ ¸ +¨ ¸

2 ©2¹ © 3 ¹
some other factors it is often unclear whether ϕ ′ is K0 = (7)
2 2
evaluated by triaxial or by direct shear tests, or §Λ· §M ·
1− Λ + 2 ¨ ¸ + ¨ ¸
whether ϕ ′ is the tangent internal friction angle or ©2¹ © 3 ¹
 ZHAO Xiaodong et al Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for normal, consolidated soils 409

6sin ϕcs′ e ~ ln σ 1 plane, respectively. The value of Λ is 0.97

Substituting M = into Eq.(7), we obtain
3 − sin ϕcs′ for normal, consolidated silt. The K0 values calcu-
lated according to Eq.(8) are presented in Table 1.
2 2 The prediction results from Eqs.(2) and (8) are
§ Λ · § 2 sin ϕcs′ ·
Λ
1+ − ¨ ¸ + ¨ ¸ higher than the test results. This observation agrees
2 © 2 ¹ © 3 − sin ϕcs′ ¹ (8) with what has been established by Wanatowski and
K0 =
2 2 Federico[12,21]. In fact, the soil samples cannot reach
§ Λ · § 2sin ϕcs′ ·
1− Λ + 2 ¨ ¸ + ¨ ¸ the failure stage during K0 consolidation[21]. The
© 2 ¹ © 3 − sin ϕcs′ ¹ methods of predicting the K0 values using ϕtc′ or
where Λ = 1 − κ λ is the plastic volumetric strain ϕcs′ possess obvious errors with their size more evi-
ratio, Ȝ and κ are the gradients of the normal iso- dent at high pressure (Table 1).
tropic consolidation and swelling lines in the

Table 1 Prediction results from Eqs.(2) and (8)

Confining pressure (MPa) 0.2 0.4 0.8 1.4 2 4 6 8 10
ϕtc′ 38.65 39.11 43.12 34.76 33.91 34.74 33.37 33.54 34.38
Eq.(2) 0.408 0.417 0.351 0.469 0.467 0.442 0.468 0.465 0.461
ϕcs′ 36.28 35.69 40.46 32.08 32.19 33.92 32.14 32.35 32.63
Eq.(8) 0.799 0.801 0.750 0.837 0.836 0.819 0.836 0.834 0.831

5 Nonlinear characteristics of the coeffi- or

cient of earth pressure at rest k
K0 = ⋅ (e0 − e) + K 0′ (11)
λ
The void ratios become smaller as the normal where K 0′ , k and λ are the test parameters.
pressure increases in the process of compression. The
relationships between the K0 values and the axial Eq.(11) suggests that the relationship between the
stress are similar to the relationships between the void coefficient of the earth pressure at rest and the void
ratio and the axial stress, which can be clearly seen in ratio satisfies the linear function during the process of
Fig. 6. compression. In other words, the nonlinear character-
istics of K0 are an apparent phenomenon of Eq.(11).
Therefore, Eq.(11) can be used as the empirical equa-
tion for calculating the K0 values for normal, con-
solidated soils. The deduced Eq.(11) agrees well with
what was established by Ting[10]. At the same time,
Ting pointed out that Jaky’s equation is more appli-
cable at low pressure, taking into account the de-
crease in the effective internal friction angle.
σ1 σ1
6 Conclusions
(a) Silt (b) Silty clay
Fig. 6 Compression curves for normal, consolidated soils 1) The coefficient of the earth pressure at rest is not
constant at high pressure, but shows an increasing
Fig. 6a shows the isotropic compression line for trend as the consolidation stress increases. Moreover,
normal, consolidated silt and Fig. 6b for silty the nonlinear characteristics of K0 for cohesive soils
clay[23,26]. The relationship between the void ratios is more evident than for soils without cohesion.
e and ln σ 1 ( σ 1 = σ 3 in the isotropic compression) 2) The methods of predicting K0 values from the
can be expressed as: Jaky and Roscoe equations are not applicable for soils
without cohesion with bilinear strength variations.
σ1
e = e0 − λ ⋅ (9) 3) The nonlinear characteristics of K0 are related to
10Pa the variation in the void ratio during compression. We
where e0 is the initial void ratio and e is the void ratio propose linear functions for the calculation of K0
during compression. values based on test results in order to interpret the
From Eqs.(1) and (9), we obtain rules of nonlinear variation for the coefficient of earth
pressure at rest.
K 0 − K 0′ k 4) The relationship between the void ratio and the
= (10)
e0 − e λ compression stress satisfied Eq.(9) during K0 com-
 410 Mining Science and Technology
pression tests. As a result, given the correct values of
Kƍ0, k and λ during K0 compression, K0 values can be
obtained directly from Eq.(11).
Acknowledgements
Financial support for this work, provided by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No.50534040), the Project of the Science and Tech-
nology Ministry of China (No.2006BAB16B01) and
the Post Graduate Research Project of Jiangsu Prov-
ince (No.CX08B_103Z), is gratefully acknowledged.
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