ECNC353: Geotechnical Engineering

Tutorial Two Wednesday 06 August 2014

In yesterday’s lecture we developed a simple lower bound solution for the bearing capacity of a strip
footing (σf) by assuming that a vertical frictionless discontinuity extended through the soil below each
edge of the footing (refer to your notes for the figure!). The resulting equation for the capacity of the
footing was σf - σ0 = 4cu.

An improved solution can be obtained by assuming two (or more) discontinuities radiate out from
each corner of the footing (see sketch on OHP). In this tutorial we are going to develop the lower
bound solution for the next-most-simple case of two discontinuities at each corner of the foundation.
As before, the principal stresses need to rotate through 90° from the soil beneath the foundation to the
soil at either side – in other words, the changes in stress direction across all of the discontinuities (on
one side of the footing) must total 90°.

We are going to make the assumption that the stress rotations across the discontinuities are equal,
therefore for two discontinuities, the stress rotation across each must be 45°. Note that the
discontinuities are not frictionless (unlike the previous case) – there will be some shear stress acting
on the discontinuities, which must be in equilibrium from one soil zone to the next…

Here are the steps to follow:

σf
1. Sketch the Mohr circle for Zone B, showing the σ0
known stress σ0, and knowing that the soil is at
the point of passive failure (i.e. touching the
failure envelope, with σ0 as the minor principal B C
stress). D

2. Find the pole for planes for Zone B.

3. The angle θ as shown in the figure to the right is

equal to the rotation across the discontinuity (i.e.
from Zone B to Zone D – we will go through the
proof of this in lectures). Use this fact to identify
the stress point N, common to both zones and to θ θ
sketch the Mohr’s circle for Zone D.
N
4. Use the pole for planes for Zone B and the point
N to determine (graphically at this point) the
orientation of the discontinuity between zones B
and D, and the pole for planes for Zone D.

5. Follow the same process to draw the Mohr’s circle for Zone C (recognizing that the angle θ
relates the Mohr’s circles for zones D and C), a common stress point M between zones D and
C and the orientation of the discontinuity, the pole for planes for Zone C, and finally the stress
point σf.

Submission policy – as per last week!

ENCN353 Tutorial Two 2014 1 JJMH