Poromechanics V © ASCE 2013 1669

Origin of Cohesion and Its Dependence on Saturation for Granular Media

Ning Lu1 and William J. Likos2

1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines,
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Golden, CO 80401; PH (303) 273-3654; FAX (303) 273-3413; email:

ninglu@mines.edu
2
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin,
Madison, WI, 53706; PH (608) 890-2662; FAX (608) 262-5199; email:
likos@wisc.edu

ABSTRACT

By definition, cohesion is the stress (act) of sticking together. Yet, in

engineering mechanics, particularly in soil mechanics, cohesion refers to shear
strength under zero normal stress, or the intercept of a material’s failure envelope
with shear stress axis in the shear stress-normal stress space. Cohesion under
saturated drained conditions is called drained cohesion and under variably saturated
conditions is called apparent cohesion. This paper summarizes and extends recent
work showing that there exists a unique functional relation between drained cohesion
and apparent cohesion as they share common sources of physical origin, namely, van
der Waals attraction, double layer repulsion, cementation, and capillary attraction. All
of these forces depend on saturation and material (soil) type. Cohesion and apparent
cohesion can be unified by a unified effective stress called suction stress under
variably saturated conditions. Cohesion can be unambiguously de-composed into the
product of tangent frictional angle and suction stress or tensile stress, and thus can be
physically interpreted as the mobilized suction stress to internal frictional stress.
Under such conceptualization, suction stress is the true cohesion as it is the stress of
sticking granular particles together. Together with the internal friction angle, it can be
used to mathematically describe cohesion of all granular materials under variably
saturated conditions.

INTRODUCTION

In solid mechanics and continuum mechanics, cohesion refers to shear

resistance or strength under zero normal stress, or the intercept of a material’s failure
envelope with the shear stress axis in shear stress-normal stress space. On the other
hand, by word definition, cohesion is the stress (act) of sticking together. The latter
refers to the stress bonding granular particles together in directions normal to particle
contacts [1]. Mechanically, this stress provides resistance to externally applied stress
that is manifest in the form of either tensile or shear stress. In the form of shear stress,
it is the cohesion referred to in solid/continuum mechanics. In such regard, we will
retain this terminology of cohesion in the form of shear resistance. Normal resistance

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will be referred to as isotropic tensile stress. It is interesting to note that in the

literature when referring soils as cohesive or cohesionless, the meaning of cohesion
refers to the tensile resistance, not shear resistance. For instance, we often refer clay
as cohesive soil whereas sand as cohesionless soil.
What is the relation between cohesion and isotropic tensile stress or strength?
Cohesion is the mobilized shear resistance of isotropic tensile stress mechanically
through the internal friction angle. As illustrated graphically in Fig. 1, the relation
among cohesion c, isotropic tensile stress σ s, and friction angle φ is [2-3]:
s
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c = !! ss tan " (1)

The shear strength parameters, namely cohesion c and friction angle φ, define the
Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion:

( )
! = " ! " ss tan # = " ' tan # (2)

where τ is shear strength, σ is the total stress, and the difference between the total and
isotropic tensile stress is the unified effective stress σ ’.

! #=#!$#" %&'! #=#"( %&'!

#

!#)#*"" "#%&'!
-" ""##

! "!"#!"$!
-" ""##

Figure 1. Relation between cohesion c and isotropic tensile stress (or strength),
σ ss, in saturated granular media.

In saturated granular media, there are two mechanisms or origins for cohesion:
inter-particle physicochemical forces and interlocking [3]. Physico-chemical forces
refer to van der Waals attraction at the particle contacts, electric double layer
repulsion near the particle contacts, and cementation from chemical compounds [2].
All these interparticle forces can be mobilized by friction angle to become cohesion.
Interlocking shear resistance is due to uneven particle surface morphology and thus
does not necessarily involve normal stresses at the particle contacts [5]. Consequently,
interlocking resistance is not accounted for in Eq. (1).
For dry or saturated sand or cohesionless granular media, the terminology
“apparent cohesion” is often used to distinguish interlocking shear resistance from
cohesion due to the normal interparticle stress expressed in Eq. (1). For variably
saturated (unsaturated) granular media, in addition to the afore-mentioned
mechanisms for cohesion, capillary forces also cause cohesion. Capillary forces arise
due to the existence of gas-liquid interfaces and generally contribute to interparticle

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tensile stress and cohesion (shear resistance). A unique characteristic of porous

materials in the unsaturated state is the dependence of all the physico-chemical
stresses, capillary stress, and in some cases cementation, on degree of saturation. This
dependency will be described further in the next section.
The isotropic tensile stress due to all these physico-chemical stresses,
capillary stress, and cementation is conceptualized as suction stress [2]. This stress is
tensile in nature, thus by convention in soil mechanics, it is negative in value. The
characteristic dependency of suction stress on saturation is defined by the suction
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stress characteristic curve (SSCC) [2]. Suction stress unifies the origin of cohesion
for both saturated and unsaturated granular media and provides a unified way to treat
cohesion in the variably saturated state, as described further below.

MAGNITUDE OF COHESION COMPONENTS

Because suction stress is the source of cohesion, understanding the mechanisms for
suction stress provide the key to understanding cohesion. Lu and Likos [2]
conceptualized suction stress arising from three distinct physical origins at the
interparticle scale: physico-chemical stress due to van der Waals and electrical double
layer forces, cementation, and capillarity. Each of these three stresses is highly
dependent on material type (e.g., grain sizes, mineralogy) and degree of saturation
(ratio of liquid volume to pore volume), as illustrated in Fig. 2.

1000 1000

clay size silt sand !d s capillary attraction

Series1
Interparticle stress (kPa)

100 100
Interparticle stress (kPa)

!ss
capillary attraction van der Waals attraction

10 10

double-layer repulsion
double-layer repulsion

1 1

van der Waals attraction

0.1 0.1
1.E-03 1.E-02 1.E-01 1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 0 Sr 20 40 60 80 100

Particle size (µm) Saturation S (%)

Figure 2. Conceptual illustration of dependence of suction stress components on:

(left) particle size, and (right) saturation in variably saturated granular media.

Cementation due to mineral precipitation can cause up to several hundreds of

kPa interparticle stress or tensile strength, but is not explicitly illustrated in Fig. 2 for
simplicity. Interparticle stresses by all other mechanisms follow power decay
functions with increasing particle sizes (Fig. 2, left), and have magnitudes up to
several hundreds of kPa for sub-micron particles. Capillary and van der Waals forces
generally act to pull particles together causing tensile interparticle stress, whereas
electrical double layer forces generally tend to push particles apart causing

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compressive interparticle stress. The dependencies of these interparticle stresses on

saturation (Fig. 2, right) follow more complicated patterns. Capillary attractive stress
shows a minimum (negative or tensile) at some intermediate saturation and is zero at
the dry and fully saturated condition. Double layer repulsive stress follows a power
increasing law with saturation. The combined effects on suction stress or cohesion
lead to somewhat complicated and highly nonlinear variations with saturation, as
described below.
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MAGNITUDE OF COHESION FOR VARIABLY SATURATED GRANULAR

MEDIA

As illustrated in Fig. 3, suction stress characteristically varies with saturation (left) or

matric suction (right), and follows quite different patterns and with different
magnitudes for different soil types. The minus sign in kPa indicates tensile stress.
Matric suction is defined as the difference between pore air and pore water pressure,
i.e., ua – uw. For sandy soil, suction stress or cohesion is zero for dry conditions
(matric suction > 100 kPa) and fully saturated conditions (matric suction = 0), but
could reach several –kPa in minimum. For silty soil, suction stress or cohesion is non-
zero at zero saturation (matric suction → several hundreds of kPa) and at full
saturation (matric suction = 0), and can reach several tens of –kPa at intermediate
saturation. For clayey soil, suction stress or cohesion is at its maximum value at full
saturation (cohesion = drained cohesion), but decreases as saturation decreases, and
could reach several hundreds of –kPa at zero saturation (matric suction → several
tens of thousands of kPa).

1000.0 1000.0
1 1
Se & n n
!1
)s =' Se 1' n ' 1#! ! s = ! (ua ! uw ) { 1+ "#" (ua ! uw )$% n } n
( $% "
(-kPa)!
stresss,(-kPa)!

100.0 100.0
(kPa)

s , (kPa)

!ds!
stress

!ds!
suction stress

stress

10.0 10.0
suction
suction

!ss!
suction

!ss!
1.0 1.0 Sand:
Sand:alpha
" = 0.3= 0.3
kPakPa-1,
-1, n = n = 3.0
3.0
Sand:
Sand:alpha = 0.3
" = 0.3 kPakPa-1,
-1, n =n3.0
= 3.0 Silt:
Silt:alpha
" = =0.05
0.05kPa
kPa-1,
-1, n n
= =2.5
2.5
Silt:alpha
Silt: " ==0.05
0.05kPa -1, n = 2.5
kPa-1, n = 2.5 Clay:alpha
Clay: " = 0.01 kPa
= 0.01 -1, n =n1.8
kPa-1, = 1.8
Clay:alpha
Clay: " = 0.01 kPa
= 0.01 -1, n = 1.8
kPa-1, n = 1.8
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 100 200 300 400 500
effective saturation, unitless matric suction, (kPa)

Figure 3. Illustration of SSCC for various soil types: (left) dependence on saturation,
and (right) dependence on matric suction. Suction stress under dry conditions (σ ds) is
mainly due to van der Waal’s attraction whereas under full saturation conditions (σ ss)
double layer repulsion is also in action (Fig. 2).

This wide variation of suction stress in magnitude and patterns for different
soils and matric suction or saturation has been theorized and quantified in a unified

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effective stress framework by Lu et al. [1-4]. Under this framework, effective stress
for variably saturated granular media is:

! ' = (! ! ua ) ! ! s (3)

where suction stress is quantified as a sole function of either saturation or matric

suction in the form:
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1
S " n %n
! s = ! e $$ Se1!n !1''
"# & (4)
1!1/n
" %
s $ 1 '
(
! = ! ua ! uw $ ) n'
(5)
{ (
$#1+ ! ua ! uw )}'&

where the parameter α reflects the inverse of the air-entry pressure, parameter n
reflects the pore size spectrum [4,6], and Se is the equivalent degree of saturation
defined as:

S ! Sr
Se =
1! S r
(6)

where Sr is the residual saturation that is mainly due to particle surface hydration
(portion of van der Waals, see Fig. 2) mechanism.
Following the same conceptualization shown in Fig. 1 and Eq. (1), the relation
between total interparticle stress or suction stress σs and total cohesion C becomes:

C = !! s tan " (7)

Thus, cohesion of all variably saturated granular media can be quantified with
Eq. (7) and Eq. (4) if the equivalent degree of saturation is used as the independent
variable, or with Eq. (7) and Eq. (5) if matric suction is used as the independent
variable.

RELATION BETWEEN COHESION AND CAPILLARY PRESSURE

FUNCTION

Lu et al. [4] further established the intrinsic relation between the suction stress
characteristic curve (SSCC) and the capillary pressure function (often called soil
water retention curve-SWRC in the literature), using van Genuchten’s model [6]:

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1!1/n
" %
S ! Sr $ 1 '
=$ n'
(8)
1! S r
{ (
$#1+ ! ua ! uw )} '&

In light of Fig. 4, suction stress can be defined thermodynamically as the

energy (in kPa) stored in pore water per unit soil volume. Graphically, suction stress
represents the hatched area under SWRC. Thus a unique and intrinsic relation
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between SWRC and SSCC has been established [4], and a unique relation between
cohesion and SSCC or SWRC is established through Eq. (7).

100000 100000
S$%!&
S r% $'
!S"e #
= !
10000
$( &
1! S r % $' 10000
Matric suction, (u a - uw) ( kPa)

SWRC

Suction stress, !" (-kPa)

1000 1000

!s
100 100
SSCC

10 S ! Sr 10
!s=s -(ua
!
(
= ! -uuw)Se
!u
a w ) 1! S
r
1 1

0.1 0.1
0 20 Se 40 60 80 100
Effective degree of saturation, S e (%)

Figure 4. Illustration of intrinsic relation between SSCC and SWRC [4].

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Cohesion commonly refers to shear resistance but originates from interparticle

bonding stress or suction stress. It is mobilized suction stress through interparticle
friction angle. For saturated or dry granular media, cohesion is commonly called
drained cohesion and results from interparticle cementation stress and physico-
chemical stress. Cohesion under dry and fully saturated states is different as
cementation and physico-chemical stresses are functions of liquid content or
saturation.
A theory to bridge cohesion between these two limiting states of saturation
has been established by Lu et al. through the concept of suction stress. Suction stress
characteristically depends on saturation or matric suction for different soil types and
is quantified in Eq. (4) as a function of saturation or Eq. (5) as a function of matric
suction. Suction stress is the change in effective stress due to changes in saturation
and provides a unified framework for effective stress Eq. (3) for all variably saturated

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granular media. With the distinction between cohesion and suction stress, cohesion
for all variably saturated granular media is established by Eqs. (7), (4) and (5).
The relation between the suction stress characteristic curve and the soil water
retention curve is established through Eq. (4) and Eq. (8), which can be fully defined
by the same set of parameters. Therefore, cohesion for variably saturated granular
media can be fully accounted for by measuring either the SSCC or the SWRC.

REFERENCES
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[1] W.J. Likos, and N., Lu (2004). “Hysteresis of capillary cohesion in unsaturated
granular soils,” Journal of Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 130(6), 646-455.
[2] N. Lu, and W.J. Likos (2006). “Suction stress characteristic curve for unsaturated
soils,” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol. 132(2),
131-142.
[3] N. Lu, T.H. Kim, S. Sture, and W.J. Likos (2009). “Tensile strength of unsaturated
sand,” Journal of Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 135(12), 1410-1419.
[4] N. Lu, J.W., Godt, and D., Wu, (2010). “A closed-form for effective stress in
variably saturated soil,” Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2009WR008646.
[5] P.W., Rowe (1954). “A stress-strain theory for cohesionless soil with applications
to earth pressures at rest and moving walls,” Géotechnique, Vol. 4(2), 1751-1754.
[6] M.T. van Genuchten (1980). “A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic
conductivity of unsaturated soils,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, Vol.
44, 892-898.

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