ENCE 340

Strength

Dr. Ahmet Aydilek

Strength

• Maximum load on a foundation?

• Maximum depth of an excavation?
• Maximum slope angle in a cut?

1
Stresses
Gravity generates stresses (force per unit area) in the ground
at different points. Stress on a plane at a given point is
viewed in terms of two components:
• Normal stress ) acts normal to the plane and tends to
compress soil grains towards each other (volume change)
• Shear stress  acts tangential to the plane and tends to
slide grains relative to each other (distortion and ultimately
sliding failure)

normal stress

point
shear stress

2
Effective Stress Concept

• Defined as the difference between total normal

stress and pore water pressure
• Maybe visualized as “net intergranular normal
stress”
’u
’effective stress
 = total stress
u = pore water pressure

Vertical Total Stress

v = vertical total stress = zv

z = geostatic stress due to weight of soil layers

above the point where is the unit weight of soil
and zis the layer thickness

v = change in vertical stress (plus or minus) due

to surface loads

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 Pore water Pressure

u = uo + u
uo = hp w water pressure due to static or flowing
groundwater where hp = pressure head and w =
unit weight of water
u = f(shear and normal stress changes, degree of
saturation, stress history,etc) and it is pore
pressure change (plus or minus) resulting from
stress changes (cut or fill, erosion, etc)

Stress-Strain Characteristics

• Describes rigidity of soil to shear stresses

• Either a “peaked” or “monotonically increasing”
(smooth) curve (Type A or B)
• Failure in peaked curves may be defined either at the
peak (peak strength) or at large strains (residual
strength) (Points a and c)
• Failure in smooth curves may be defined at a certain
strain (typically 15 or 20 %) (Point b)

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Stress-Strain Chracteristics

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Shear Stress
Shear failures occur in a soil when the shear
stresses are large enough to make the particles
roll and slide past each other.

Shear Stress

• A consistent relationship exists between the shear

strength on a plane and the effective normal stress
that acts on that plane
• S = c’ + ’ tan ’ where
• S = shear strength on the plane
’= effective normal stress on the plane
• c’ = effective cohesion
’ = effective friction angle

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Components of Shear Stress

Frictional Strength

V = N  = ’ tan ’

’ = Friction Angle

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’ = f ( Inherent Friction + Interlocking)

• Mineralogy
 Granular vs. clay
 Quartz vs. mica, e.g.
• Shape
 Angularity => Interlocking
• Gradation
 Well graded => Interlocking
• Void Ratio
 Density => Interlocking
• Organic Material

8
Effect of
Void Ratio

Effect of Plasticity

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Example 12.1

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 Drained Srength

• Shear strength defined in terms of effective normal

stresses is referred as “drained” or “effective” strength
• To use drained or effective strength, effective normal
stresses need to be known which, in turn, requires that
pore water pressures are known
• Pore pressures may not be simple to determine in the
field

Drained Strength

• Total stresses are known

• Porewater pressures are known (u=0)
• Can compute effective stresses ’ =  - u
• Analyze strength in terms of effective
stresses

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 Undrained Strength

• In those cases, such as at end of construction in

fine-grained soils, where determination of pore
pressures are difficult “undrained” or “total”
strength is used for convenience
• S = cu +  tan u where cu = undrained cohesion
and u = undrained friction angle (zero for
saturated soils), and  = total normal stress
Typically used in foundation, retaining wall,
embankment slope design.

Shear Strength of Saturated Sands and Gravels

c =0, and shear

strength is solely
dependent on
friction angle

Changes in stresses, with time at Point A in a saturated sand

below a structural foundation (drained conditions).

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Changes in stresses,
shear strength, and
factor of safety with
time at Point A in a
saturated sand
below a structural
foundation (drained
conditions)

Example 12.5

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Structural fill on clay -
Drained Condition (Long-
(Long-
term)

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Structural fill on clay--
clay--
Undrained Conditions (Short-
(Short-
term)

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Excavation in clay -Drained
Condition (Long-
(Long-term)

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Excavation in clay –Undrained
Condition (Short-
(Short-term)

u  uh  ue ,normal  ue , shear
where:
u   = pore water pressure
uh = hydrostatic pore water pressure
ue,normal = excess pore water pressure due to induced 
mean normal stress
>0 if subjected to increases in σm
<0 if subjected to decreases in σm 
ue,shear = excess pore water pressure due to induced 
deviator stress
>0 if subjected to increases in σd
<0 if subjected to decreases in σd

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Example 12.8

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19
Mohr-Coulomb Failure Criterion

 = c’ + ’ tan ’
 = ’ tan ’

’ = (effective stress) friction angle

c’ = (effective stress) cohesion

NC vs. OC Clay Drained Strength

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Determination of Soil Strength

• Laboratory
 Direct Shear
 Unconfined compression
 Triaxial
 Others (ring shear, simple shear, uniaxial/unconfined)
• In Situ
 Vane Shear
 Standard Penetration Test
 Cone Penetration Test
• Empirical Relations

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Direct Shear Test

Direct Shear Test

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Direct Shear Test

Advantages of Direct Shear Test

• Simple
• Inexpensive
• Rapid results
• It is especially used for obtaining the drained
strength of sandy soils.
• Failure occurs along a single surface, which
approximates observed slips or shear type failures
in natural soils.

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Disadvantages of Direct Shear Test

• For clay it produces less reliable results

because it is difficult to fully saturate the
sample and has no way of controlling the
drainage conditions.

• The area of the sample changes during the

test but the change may not be very
significant, as most samples fail at low
deformations.

Disadvantages of Direct Shear Test

• Failure plane is forced--may not be the

weakest or most critical plane in the field
• Test uses a small sample, sample size
prevents study of pore-water pressure
regime during test.
• Non-uniform stress conditions exist in the
specimen.

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Shear-induced volume change: (a) loose soil tends
to contract during shear; (b) dense soil tends to
dilate during shear.

25
Plots of typical test data from three drained direct shear tests
on identical sand specimens, with σ•z in the test increasing in
the following order: Test 1, Test 2, and Test 3.

Analysis of Shear Test Data

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 Definition of Failure

Peak
Peak = Residual

Residual/Ultimate

Peak vs.
Residual
Strength

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 Mohr-Coulomb Failure Criterion

 = c’ + ’ tan ’
 = ’ tan ’

’ = (effective stress) friction angle

c’ = (effective stress) cohesion

Example 12.2.

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 Ring shear machine---
machine---

Once the soil has

consolidated, a torque is
applied from below, and
this torque is resisted by
the rods shown in the
photograph on the
bottom.

Loading and failure mode in an unconfined compression

test.

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 Mohr circle at failure in an unconfined compression test.

qu = su = f/2

Triaxial Test

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Triaxial
Test

Analysis of Triaxial Test Data

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 Analysis of Triaxial Test Data

Types of Triaxial Tests

Triaxial Test

Unconsolidated Consolidated-
Consolidated-Drained
Undrained Undrained

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Undrained Shear Tests

• Unconsolidated – Undrained Test :

Cell pressure and vertical axial
load are applied. Soil parameters of
and c are heavily dependent on
degree of saturation.

Interpretation of data from a series of

UU triaxial tests.
 1 f   3 f    df 
su      
 2   2 

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Undrained Shear Tests

• Consolidated – Undrained Test : Cell

pressure, back pressure and vertical
load are applied.

• Degree of saturation is important.

(Check B value)

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Example 12.10.
 A  P 
Af     df   f   df   3 f   1 f
1  
 f   Af 

Interpretation of data from a series of CU triaxial tests

with pore pressure measurements.

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  '   ' 
 '   '3 f tan 2  45    2c' tan 45  
 2  2
1f

     
  3f tan 2  45  T   2cT tan 45  T 
 2  2
1f

CD Tests

• Consolidated – Drained Tests are used to

determine the cohesion and friction angle for
various densities and confining pressures
• During CD test , the drainage channel is open and
excess pore water pressure remains at zero.
• The axial load must be applied to slowly dissipate
excess pore water pressure through the drainage
system. The slower strain rate tends to minimize
the amount of excess pore pressure.

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Interpretation of data from a series of CD
triaxial tests.

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The shear strength along this failed landslide surface has
been reduced to the residual value.

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Vane Shear Test

6T f
su 
7d 3
where :
s u  undrained shear strength
Tf  torque at failure
d  diameter of vane

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