Soil mechanics

CNST-H-302

Practical sessions

Brussels Faculty of Engineering (Bruface)

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Vrij Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

Building, Architecture and Town Planning (BATir)

Session #2
Groundwater & stress

8 October 2020
 1

Permeameters
Recall

Constant head test Falling head test

 2

Permeameters
Constant head test

𝑄 = 𝐴 .𝑣 .𝑡

𝑣 = 𝑘 .𝑖
∆ℎ
𝑖=
𝐿

𝑣
𝑘=
𝑖
𝑄 𝐿
𝑘= .
𝐴 . 𝑡 ∆ℎ

v2 p
h  z [m]
2 g wg
height
pressure
velocity
 3

Permeameters
Falling head test
−𝑑ℎ 𝑑ℎ
𝑣= 𝑞𝑖𝑛 = −𝑎 𝑞𝑒𝑐ℎ = 𝑘. 𝑖. 𝐴
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

𝑞𝑒𝑐ℎ = 𝑞𝑖𝑛

ℎ1 𝑡2
𝑑ℎ 𝐴
−𝑎 =𝑘 𝑑𝑡
ℎ2 ℎ 𝐿 𝑡1

𝑎𝐿 ℎ1
𝑘= 𝑙𝑛
𝐴∆𝑡 ℎ2
v2 p
h  z [m]
2 g wg
height
pressure
velocity
 4

Effective stress
Recall

Total and effective stress

P  P' A  Ac  u

P P'  A  Ac 
    u
A A  A 

 Ac 
   '1   u
 A

»0

𝐹𝑡𝑜𝑡 𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝜎𝑣 = 𝜎′𝑣 + 𝑢𝑤 Total stress

𝜎= 𝜎′ =
𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡 𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡
𝜎′𝑣 = 𝜎𝑣 − 𝑢𝑤 Effective stress
 5

Stress in the soils

Recall

zw
v uw ’v

Total vertical stress : 𝜎𝑣 = 𝛾𝑖 𝑧𝑖

𝑖
Water pressure : 𝑢𝑤 = 𝛾𝑤 𝑧𝑤
Effective vertical stress : 𝜎′𝑣 = 𝜎𝑣 − 𝑢𝑤
 6

Silty sand

Stress state 4,00 m

gsat = 19 kN/m3

Example
Plastic clay
10,00 m
3,00 m
gsat = 15 kN/m3

Gravel

gsat = 20 kN/m3

Total vertical stress, v [kPa] Water pressure, u [kPa] Effective stress, ' [kPa]
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 0 50 100
0,0 0 0 0
1,0 19 10 9
2,0 38 20 18
Deepness, z [m]

3,0 57 30 27
4,0 76 40 36
5,0 91 50 41
6,0 106 60 46
7,0 121 70 51
8,0 141 80 61
9,0 161 90 71
10,0 181 100 81

𝜎𝑣 = 𝛾𝑖 𝑧𝑖 𝑢𝑤 = 𝛾𝑤 𝑧𝑤 𝜎′𝑣 = 𝜎𝑣 − 𝑢𝑤
𝑖