CE 335—15: Geotechnical Engineering 2
Module 1: Subsurface Stresses
Example 1. A soil layer consists of 6 meters of clay under-
lain by 4 meters of sand. Due to heavy rain, water level
rose to 4 meters below the ground level. Compute the
effective stresses at the end of the water table, at the
interface of the clay and sand and finally at the bottom
of the soil layer. It can be considered that soil above the
water table is dry.
Pertinent clay properties include:
Void Ratio, eclay = 0.8
Specific Gravity, Gsclay = 2.74
Pertinent sand properties include:
Water content, wsand = 22.85%
Void ratio, esand = 0.61
Figure 1 — Problem visualization
3. Computation of Total Stresses
4. Computation of Pore Water Pressure
Figure 2 — Stress Diagrams
It is hereby noted that the above diagrams represent vertical stresses, do not confuse them with horizontal stress diagrams you might have been used to in Fluid Mechanics.
These diagrams may also serve useful in computing stresses in specific points as laws of geometry apply.
UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS
College of Engineering and Architecture
General solution Outline
1. Visualization, figure representation, "FBD".
2. Computation of unit weights.
3. Computation of total stress at points of interest.
4. Computation of pore water pressures at points of interest.
5. Computation of effective stresses.
6. Plotting of stresses.
1. Visualization
The importance of correctly representing engineering problems cannot be stressed enough. The
student is advised to be very careful and critical with how they visualize problems as computation-
al skills are only useful if the basis of analyses is correct in terms of what is being required by the
problem. In the case of problems dealing with soil strata, students can easily be confused by
statements such as “underlain by”, “overlying” etc. The current problem is hereby represented by
Figure 1. The students is advised to practice solving similar problems to thoroughly familiarize them-
selves with the visualization of problems such as these.
2. Computation of unit weights
Using the general equation:
The above equation must again
be used with the understanding
of the concept of saturation.
Saturation is 0 for when the soil is
dry, 1 for saturated soils and will
have a value 0< but <1 for moist
soils. In line with this the equation:
will prove useful in relating the
variables pertinent to solving unit
weights.
5. Computation of Effective Stresses
It is suggested that starting students not used to solving similar problems follow the pattern of
the solution. It is however better if students develop their own approaches that may serve to
shorten the work required. This is specially useful for review/board problems where require-
ments are very specific to single points. It would be counter intuitive then to solve for several
values when only one is required. I.e. consider a situation where only the effective stress at the
bottom of the clay layer is required, it is desired that students have practiced enough to real-
ize that it can be computed simply:
σ ’ = 14.933 (4) + 19.293 (2) + 19.9856 (4) - 9.81 (6) = 119.4004 kPa
or something similar.