Geotechnical Engineering

CIVN4004: Direct Shear Box text (Group 11A)

1716238 – Hintsa Afikile; 1713180- Yehuda Wolovitz;
1742137 - Mokgoadi Ngwato; 1757986 - Mabilu Dumisane

Description of the Problem

Shear box tests were conducted on granular samples from
Namakwa Sands slimes Dams to determine shear strength
parameters, which will also help in assessing the stability of
the dam wall. Dense dry, dense saturated, loose saturated and
loose dry soil samples were analysed by adding normal Figure 1: Shear stress v Normal stress for dense soil
stresses of (50, 100 and 150 kPa) to determine the friction
angle. The friction angle was then used in the Bishop method
to determine factor of safety against sliding.

Approach to the problem:

Testing: Sample masses were weighed out for dense and
loose materials. The shear box was prepared, the samples were
placed the sample heights were recorded, and then the top cap
and ball bearing were placed. The normal load was then
applied by hanging weights. The bath was filled with water for
saturated tests and left for a minute before displacement
readings were taken. Setscrews were carefully removed, and
shear displacement applied until a horizontal displacement of
10mm was reached. The shear stress was applied at a rate of
40.0Hz – 0.5mm/min, and the shear force readings from the
proving ring dial gauge were recorded at 0.5mm horizontal
displacement intervals.
Choice of friction: The peak and residual shear stress were
analysed by plotting shear stress against normal load and best
lines of fit were then obtained. Mohr Coulomb Equation (𝜏 = 𝑐
′
+ 𝜎′tan𝜙′) which correspond to the line of best fit was used.
The effective cohesion(𝑐′) was taken as zero because the
granular soil has no cohesion. The peak and residual frictions
were obtained from the slopes of graphs on figure 1 and 2.
From table 1 below, all peak friction angles are greater than
the corresponding residual friction angles. High friction angles
would result in high shear stresses. Thus, residual friction
angle of 28° and 27° for dense-saturated and dense-dry
respectively were used for analysis, soil was assumed to be
Soil samples Peak(𝜙′) Residual(𝜙′)
Dense-Saturated 30 28
Dense-Dry 29 27
Loose Saturated 31 27
Loose Dry 28 28
dense.
Figure 2 Shear stress v Normal stress for loose soil
Analysis method, Solution and Evaluation: The slope
stability analysis was carried out using the Bishop Routine
Method. This method was chosen because the slip surface was
assumed to be circular and it has been proven to be
computationally reliable with smaller errors compared to other
methods. For a structure like the Namakwa dam, we would
require a dense material to minimize water seepage. Water
seepage through the dam will decrease the shear strength of
the material used to construct the dam and potentially lead to
piping. The material is assumed to be dense dry above the
water table and dense saturated below the water table.
Using the Bishop’s Method Shown in the calculation sheet
below, three circular slip surfaces are displayed in figure 3a,b
and c below were analysed to administer a conservative
design. The circles were divided into 20 m width slices for
analysis. The soil density was calculated from the mass and
dimensions measured during testing. The factors of safety for
the three slip surfaces were found to be 1.42, 1.02, 1.09,
respectively. The factor of safety against sliding is taken to be
the lowest one, in this case, it was B with FoS = 1.02. To
increase the reliability of the dam, factors of safety of ranging
between 1.3 to 1.5 are generally more acceptable. The slip
surface shown in B has a factor of safety of 1.42, which is
relatively high when compared to the other slip surfaces. This
implies that failure of that slip circle is unlikely to occur. A
factor for safety of 1.3 is generally deemed as acceptable and
safe for unmonitored slopes.
FoS =
1.42
 FoS
=1.02

FoS
=1.09

Figure 3: a, b, and c slip surfaces

References
1. Craig, R., 2009. Craigs soil mechanics. London: Spon
Press.
2. Fell, R., 1992. Geotechnical Engineering of dams. 2 ed. s.l.:
s.n.