PERIOD OF EARLY DEVELOPMENT IN SOIL ENGINEERING

Introduction

For engineering purposes, soil can be defined as the uncemented

aggregate of mineral grains and decayed organic matter (solid particles) with
liquid and gas in the empty spaces between the solid particles.

Soil is used as a construction material in various construction projects,

and it supports structural foundations. Thus, As builders we must study the
properties of soil, such as its origin, grain compressibility, shear strength,
and loadbearing capacity, Size distribution, ability to drain water .

Soil mechanics is the branch of science that deals with the study of
the physical properties of soil and the behavior of soil masses subjected to
various types of forces.

Soil engineering is an applied science dealing with the application of

principles of soil mechanics to solve practical problems. It has a much wider scope
than soil mechanics as it deals with all engineering problems related to soil. This
includes site investigation, design and construction of foundations earth-retaining
structures and earth structures.

DEVELOPMENTS IN SOIL ENGINEERING

1. THE EARTH PRESSURE THEORY

The eighteenth century can be considered as the real beginning of

developments in soil engineering, and these developments by different
contributors on of which is a French scientist by the name Charles Augustin
Coulomb. He gave a theory on earth pressure on retaining walls. In this analysis,
Coulomb used the laws of friction and cohesion for solid bodies. In
geotechnical engineering, Coulomb’s earth pressure theory has been widely used
to estimate the earth pressure against retaining structures.

Coulomb’s earth pressure theory, proposed in 1776, assumes a planar

failure surface developed within cohesion-less backfill. Namely, the possible
failure shape is regarded as a geometric invariable wedge. The earth pressure
against the retaining wall can then be handily analyzed and approximated.

The classical Coulomb’s earth pressure theory considers the influence of

self-weight of backfill on the earth pressure acting on the retaining structures.
Practically, however, surcharges (in form of static loading, dynamic loading, and
cyclic loading) are commonly present on the surface of backfill and tend to
influence the earth pressure.

Besides, due to the effect of surcharge, the corresponding reinforcement

treatment also has a great influence on the lateral distribution of earth pressure.
Therefore, it is necessary to extend classical Coulomb’s earth pressure theory by

considering the influence of various surcharges.

Fig 1. Earth Pressure On Retaining Wall.

Moreover, some researchers improved Coulomb’s earth pressure models

under the global surcharge condition based on the theoretical method and a few
attempted to improve Coulomb’s earth pressure model for the global surcharge
using experimental tests. Numerical methods have also been used to modify the
traditional Coulomb’s earth pressure model with a uniformly distributed
surcharge.

In 1790, the distinguished French civil engineer, Gaspard Clair Marie Riche
de Prony included Coulomb’s theory in his leading textbook, Nouvelle
Architecture Hydraulique (Vol.1).

In 1820, special cases of Coulomb’s work were studied by French engineer

Jacques Frederic Francais and by a French applied mechanics professor Claude
Louis Marie Henri Navier . These special cases related to inclined backfills and
backfills supporting surcharge.

In 1840, Jean Victor Poncelet (1788-1867), an army engineer and

professor of mechanics, extended Coulomb’s theory by providing a graphical
method for determining the magnitude of surface earth pressure on vertical
and inclined retaining walls with arbitrarily broken polygonal ground
surfaces. Poncelet was also the first to use the symbol friction angle. He also
provided the first ultimate bearing capacity theory for shallow foundations.

The first publication by William John Macquorn Rankine (1820 – 1872),

a professor of civil engineering at the University of Glasgow, provided a
notable theory on earth pressure and equilibrium of earth masses. Rankine’s
theory is a simplification of Coulomb’s theory.
 In practice, the surcharges acting on the top surface of backfill also include
non uniform local surcharges, such as concentrated loading, strip loading, double
concentrated loading, and triangular loading. The earth pressures under these
conditions may be overestimated using previous methods based on uniformly
distributed loading. However, the earth pressure analyses in presence of the local
loading have rarely been studied.

Ke et al. and Faraneh investigated the active earth pressure’s variation

regularity aiming at different distribution patterns of strip loadings in virtue of the
closed vector polygon of force methods. Zhao, Georgiads, and Anagnostopoulos
et al. carried out a series of hydraulic loading tests to analyze the active earth
pressure’s variation regularity by adjusting the patterns of strip loading value and
its force position. Despite these research outcomes, some significant defects still
exist. Firstly, the derived formulas are too complex to apply in practice directly. It
is difficult to achieve the accurate evaluation results of active earth pressure.

Secondly, the consideration behavior of surcharge loading forms seems to

be relatively single. In the previous works, the strip loading was just discussed to
establish the evolution system. Some special non uniformly distributed loading
such as double strip loading, triangular loading, double triangular loading have
been rarely studied. In cold regions engineering, the backfill is always in a
negative temperature state and forms frozen backfill with shorter thawed period
and longer frozen period [28]. E frozen backfill in permafrost is different from
common backfill because it is composed of solid particles, plastic ice crystals,
unfrozen water, and gaseous components. Therefore, You and Guo et al. found
that the mechanical properties of frozen backfill are susceptible to the soil
temperature and moisture based on permafrost engineering monitoring in the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Zhang, Teng, and Xu et al. conducted a series of tests to study the

relationship between mechanical parameters of frozen soil and temperature and
established the strength criterion for frozen soil, which is different from the
traditional strength criterion. It is necessary for studying the behavior of frozen
backfill subject to local surcharge to consider the influence of ambient
temperature.

2. DARCY’S LAW

Another contribution to the development of soil engineering was made by

a French engineer Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy (1803–1858). In 1856, he
published a study on the permeability of sand filters. Based on those tests, Darcy
defined the term coefficient of permeability (or hydraulic conductivity) of soil, a
very useful parameter in geotechnical engineering to this day.

Darcy’s law states the principle which governs the movement of fluid in the
given substance. Darcy’s law equation that describes the capability of the liquid to
flow via any porous media like a rock. The law is based on the fact according to
which, the flow between two points is directly proportional to the pressure
differences between the points, the distance, and the connectivity of flow within
rocks between the points. Measuring The inter-connectivity is known as
permeability.

Darcy’s Law Application

 One application of Darcy’s law is to flow water through an aquifer. Darcy’s
law with the conservation of mass equation is equivalent to the groundwater flow
equation, being one of the basic relationships of hydrogeology. Darcy’s law is also
applied to describe oil, gas, and water flows through petroleum reservoirs.

The liquid flow within the rock is governed by the permeability of the rock.
Permeability has to be determined in horizontal and vertical directions. For
instance, shale consists of improbabilities which are less vertically. This indicates
that it is not easy for liquid to flow up and down via shale bed but easier to flow
side to side.

Darcy’s Law Equation

To understand the mathematical aspect behind liquid flow in the substance,

Darcy’s law can be described as:

Darcy’s law describes the relationship among the instantaneous rate of discharge
through porous medium and pressure drop at a distance.

Using the specific sign convention, Darcy’s law is expressed as:

Q = -KA dh/dl

Wherein:

Q is the rate of water flow

K is the hydraulic conductivity
A is the column cross-section area
Dh/dl indicates a hydraulic gradient.
Darcy’s Law diagram is as shown below:

Fig 2. Darcy’s Law Diagram

Darcy’s refers to many unit systems. A medium that has a permeability of 1

Darcy allows a flow of 1 cm3/s of a liquid with viscosity 1 cP under 1 atm/cm
pressure gradient acting across an area of 1 cm2.

Darcy’s law is critical when it comes to determining the possibility of flow

from a hydraulically fractured to a freshwater zone because it creates a condition
where the fluid flow from one zone to the other determines whether hydraulic
fluids can reach freshwater zone or not.

Limitations of Darcy’s Law

Darcy’s law can be applied to many situations but do not correspond to these
assumptions.

 Unsaturated and Saturated flow.

 Flow in fractured rocks and granular media.
 Transient flow and steady-state flow.
  Flow in aquitards and aquifers.
 Flow in Homogeneous and heterogeneous systems.

3. BOUSSINESQ THEORY

Another noteworthy contribution, which was published in 1885 by Joseph

Valentin Boussinesq (1842–1929), was the development of the theory of stress
distribution under loaded bearing areas in a homogeneous, semi-infinite, elastic,
and isotropic medium. In soil engineering this theory is used for determination
of stress in soil due to load.

In geotechnical engineering, this solution is generally used together with

semi - empirical constitutive relations for the determination of the soil
settlement due to the application of surface loads such as foundations and
embankments. Conventional approaches in road pavement design are also based
on linear elasticity.

They use the Boussinesq solution, which was extended by Burminster for
two-layered and three-layered systems, then by Schiffman for multilayered
systems. Several pavement tests were carried out to evaluate the pertinence of
the linear elasticity in pavements design. While some authors reported acceptable
agreement between experimental results and the elastic theory (Siddharthan et
al., Nilsson et al., Ullidtz), and others observed significant differences between
the elastic theory and field measurements, which attained in some cases 200%
(Ullidtz et al., Zhang et al.).

The disparity between the experimental results and the elastic theory could
be attributed to several factors such as the nonlinear behavior of the soil and the
efficiency of the experimental system. Vrettos examined the influence of the soil
non-homogeneity on the stress distribution in an elastic soil. The non-
homogeneity was modelled using depth-dependent soil stiffness.

Analyses showed that the variation of the soil stiffness with depth did not
significantly affect the distribution of the vertical stress, consequently the
Boussinesq solution could be used for soils with depth-dependent stiffness. It is
well known that the soil material exhibits a nonlinear and irreversible behavior,
even at low deformations.

This behavior is generally considered using elastoplastic constitutive

relations. Since this behavior largely influences the soil deformations and
displacement resulting from the application of surface loads such as those due to
foundations, traffic and embankments, it is of major interest to analyze its
influence on the stress distribution.

Methodology

The Boussinesq solution for a soil mass subjected to a uniformly distributed

load is compared to elastoplastic finite element analyses conducted for both
cohesive and frictional soils. Finite element analyses were carried out using the
finite element program ABAQUS.

The soil behavior is described using an elastoplastic constitutive relation

based on the non-associated Mohr–Coulomb criterion. Computations were
carried out up to an advanced plasticity state. The first part of the paper is
devoted to a purely cohesive soil, while the second concerns frictional soil.
Numerical simulations were conducted under plane strain conditions with a
loading width B = 0.4m.
 Purely cohesive soil Analyses on a purely cohesive soil were conducted
with the following soil characteristics: cohesion C = 50 kPa, a Young’s modulus E
=20 MPa, and a Poisson’s ratio ν =0.3. The ultimate bearing capacity in this case is
equal to qmax =257 kPa (qmax =5.14 C). It shows that plasticity induces a strong
nonlinearity in the variation of the soil settlement at the loading center(s) with
the applied load (q). Figs. 1(b) and (c) illustrate a comparison of the vertical stress
distribution between the elastic and elastoplastic solutions at the loading level q
=240 kPa which corresponds to an important development of the plasticity in the
soil mass (q/qmax = 0.93).

It can be observed that plasticity leads to an important change in the

vertical stress distribution under the loading area, characterized by a better
transmission of the vertical stress in this area. This result is illustrated in Fig. 1(d)
which shows the influence of plasticity on the variation of the vertical stress along
the vertical axis. It can be observed that the increase in the loading level, leads to
a significant diminution in the stress attenuation under the loading up to depth
Z/B=2. In this area (Z/B ⩽2), the stress ratio σv/q exceeds 0.2 which means that
this area largely contributes to the soil settlement.

4. OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS

In 1846 Alexandre Collin (18081890), an engineer, provided the details

for deep slips in clay slopes, cutting, and embankments. Collin theorized that
in all cases the failure takes place when the mobilized cohesion exceeds the
existing cohesion of the soil. He also observed that the actual failure
surfaces could be approximated as arcs of cycloids.
 Osborne Reynolds (1842–1912) demonstrated the phenomenon of
dilatancy in sand. Other notable studies during this period are those by John
Clibborn (1847–1938) and John Stuart Beresford (1845–1925) relating to the flow
of water through sand bed and uplift pressure. Clibborn’s study was published in
the Treatise on Civil Engineering, Vol. 2: Irrigation Work in India, Roorkee, 1901
and also in Technical Paper No. 97, Government of India, 1902. Beresford’s 1898
study on uplift pressure on the Narora Weir on the Ganges River has been
documented in Technical Paper.

Conclusion
The modern soil engineering we have today came to be what it is by the scientific
contributions many has made over the years from the Ancient Medieval Period to
the Early developments period and down to the Modern era of which are in right
now. It’s still experiencing an ingoing process growth to the future as new
research finding, methods and practices are evolving for the betterment of it’s
importance to the globe. This text was mainly focused on the growth of soil
engineering during the period of early development. From Coulomb’s theory to
that of Darcy and the rest. These contributions have made their way the common
practice of soil engineering and geotechnical engineering today.