Lecture 1 : Macroscopic Characterisation of Soils

1.1 Introduction

1.2 General Characteristics of strength and deformation

Stress-Strain Behavior
1.3 Critical State: A Useful Reference Condition
Clays
Sands
1.4 Strength Parameters for Sands

Early Studies
Critical state friction angle

Peak friction angle

1.5 Strength Parameters for clays

Friction angles

Failure envelope for overconsolidated clays

Undrained shear strength
 Secant Peak
Shear Strength Envelope
Stress Shear
Peak Stress Tangent Peak Critical State
or Stress b Strength Envelope
Strength Envelope
Ratio '
Peak Strength peak
c At Large Strains
b',c' critical state
Critical State
b Residual Strength Envelope
d
c
Residual
d'
d
a
Strain a a' Normal Effective Stress '
Dense or Loose or Normally
Overconsolidated Consolidated

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-1
Water Content w

Normally Consolidated
Void Ratio e

Virgin Compression

A' A
eff
Rebound
Overconsolidated

'ff 'e
Peak Strength Envelope
Shear Stress

'crit
Overconsolidated

A' 'e
A
c'e Hvorslev Envelope
Normally Consolidated
0 'ff
Normal Effective Stress '

Fig. 1-2
Deviator Stress q (MPa)

500 4
Critical State Line Critical State Line
Deviator Stress q (kPa)

400 3

300
2
200 From Undrained Test
1
100 From Drained Test

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 1 2 3 4
Mean Pressure p' (kPa) Mean Pressure p' (MPa)
(a-1) p' versus q (b-1) p' versus q

0.7 Critical State Line Critical State Line

Initial State
0.95
Isotropic Normal
0.6 Compression Line
0.90
Void ratio e
Void ratio e

0.5 0.85

0.80
0.4
From Undrained Test
0.75
0.3 From Drained Test

100 200 300 400 500 0.02 0.05 0.1 0.5 1 5

Mean Pressure p' (kPa) Mean Pressure p' (MPa)

(a-2) e versus lnp' (b-2) e versus logp'

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-3
 Fig. 1-4 Fig. 1-5

Fig. 1-6 Fig. 1-7

(a) Typical Strain Ranges in the Field

Retaining Walls
Stiffness G or E

Foundations

Linear Elastic

Non-linear Elastic

Pre-yield Plastic

Fully Plastic

10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101

Strain %
Dynamic Methods

Local Gauges

Conventional Soil Testing

(b) Typical Strain Ranges for Laboratory Tests

Fig. 1-8
 Confining
TC PSC Pressure

Secant Shear Modulus G (MPa)

Secant Shear Modulus G (MPa)
Toyoura Sand 78.4 kPa Confining Pressures
140
120
Ticino Sand 49 kPa c = 400 kPa
120
100
100 c = 200 kPa
80
80
60 = 100 kPa
60 c

40 40 c = 30 kPa

20 20

10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100
Shear Strain (%) Shear Strain (%)

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-9
At each vertical effective stress,
Undisturbed horizontal effective stress h' (kPa)
Remolded was varied between 98 kPa and
104
500
Vertical Young’s Modulus
Remolded with CaCO2 196 kPa
Shear Modulus Gmax (MPa)

nG = 0.13
103 Evmax/FE(e) (MPa) 450

400 nE = 0.49
102 nG = 0.65
nG = 0.63 350
101 300

100 250
100 101 102 103 104 100 150 200 250 300
Confining Pressure p' (kPa) Vertical Effective Stress v' (kPa)

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-10
Yield State
Initial Condition Pre-yield State

MPa Yield State Initial State Surrounded by

MPa Linear Elastic Boundary
Stress Path
0.8 Failure Line 0.6
Yield Envelope
0.6 Yield Envelope
Deviator Stress q = 'a- 'r
Deviator Stress q = 'a- 'r

0.4
0.4 Pre-yield Boundary

0.2
0.2 Linear Elastic
Boundary MPa
MPa
0.0 0.0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 Mean Pressure
Mean Pressure p' = ( 'a+2 'r)/3
-0.2 p' = ( 'a+2 'r)/3 -0.2

-0.4
Failure Line

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-11
 Same Initial Confining Pressure Same Initial Confining Pressure

Dense Soil Critical State

Dense Soil
Deviator Metastable Fabric Deviator Cavitation
Stress Stress
Critical State
Loose Soil Loose Soil Critical State
Metastable Fabric

Axial or Deviator Strain Excess Axial or Deviator Strain

Volume Pore
Change Pressure Dense Soil
Dense Soil
+ V/V0 ? u Cavitation

0 0

Loose Soil Loose Soil

? V/V0 + u

Metastable Fabric Metastable Fabric

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-12

3 Heavily Overconsolidated 3 Heavily Overconsolidated

Deviator Deviator
Initial State U3
Stress 2 Lightly Stress
Failure at Critical State Overconsolidated
(D: Drained, U: Undrained) 2 Lightly Overconsolidated
U2
D Critical State
Virgin Compression Line 1 Normally Consolidated
U1
1 Normally Consolidated
U1 1 Normally Consolidated
Axial or Deviatoric Strain
2 Lightly Excess
Overconsolidated
Void Ratio

Volume Pore
U2 Change Pressure
3 Heavily Overconsolidated
D + V/V0 ? u 3 Heavily Overconsolidated
U3
3 Heavily
Overconsolidated
Critical 2 Lightly Overconsolidated 2 Lightly Overconsolidated
State Line ? V/V0 + u

p0' 1 Normally Consolidated

log p'

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 1-13
 Failure Line in
(MPa) Triaxial Compression
0.3

'r/ 'a = 0.54

Deviator Stress q = 'a? 'r

0.2

0.1

0.0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 (MPa)
Mean Pressure
-0.1 p' = ( 'a+2 'r)/3

-0.2
'r/ 'a = 1.84

-0.3 Failure Line in

Triaxial Extension
Initial At Failure
Anisotropically Consolidated 'r/ 'a = 0.54
Isotropically Consolidated
Anisotropically Consolidated 'r/ 'a = 1.84

Fig. 1-14 Fig. 1-15

Specific Compression Lines of

Deviator
Volume v Constant Stress Ratio q/p'
Stress
Critical
q = 'a – 'r M (triaxial
State Line
compression)
'a
cs
'r 'r Isotropic
Compression
Mean Pressure p' Line
Critical
M (triaxial
State Line
Critical
State Line extension)
1 ln p’
(a) (b)

Fig. 1-16
Critical
Deviator Critical Deviator Drained Peak Strength State Line
Stress q State Line M Stress q M
Drained Strength Undrained Strength
C
Drained Strength E
Undrained G F
Strength
3
B 3
1 D'
1
A Mean pressure p' D Mean pressure p'

Specific Specific
Volume v Volume v

B A F

Isotropic E Isotropic
Compression Compression
Line D G Line
D'
C

cs cs

Critical State Line Critical State Line

1 ln p' 1 ln p'

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-17
 Water Liquidity
Critical Isotropic Critical
Content Index
State Line Compression Line State Line
Liquid Limit
wLL LI = 1
(ln(p'), w) (ln(p'), LI)
LI
w
LIeq? 1
wcs LICS
Plastic Limit
wPL LI = 0

ln(p'LL) ln(p') ln(p'PL) Mean ln(p'LL) ln(p') ln(p'PL) Mean

Pressure pressure

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-18
Dilatant Ductile Plastic
Rupture and Contractive
Fracture q Triaxial Compression
Tensile
q/p' Fracture
3

3 MTC
Triaxial Compression
MTC 1

0.5 1.0 LIeq p'

MTE
Triaxial Extension
2
-1.5 MTE
3

Tensile Triaxial Extension

Fracture Dilatant Ductile Plastic
Fracture
Rupture and Contractive

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-19

emax emax
0 0
DR,CS
Relative Density DR
Relative Density DR

0.2 0.2 =(emax? ecs)/(emax? emin)

0.4 0.4 =1/ln( c/p')

DR,CS
0.6 0.6
=(emax? ecs)/(emax? emin)
0.8 =1/ln( c/p') 0.8
emin emin
1 1

1.2 1.2
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
log (p'/ c) p'/ c

(a) (b)

Fig. 1-20
 Shear
shear Strain
strain (%) (%)
00 50000
50,000 100000
100,000 150000
150,000

RS3
RS3

(%)
0

(%)
RS5
RS5

Strain
volumetric strain
RS7
RS7
RS8

Volumetric
RS8
20
20 RS13
RS13
RS15
RS15

(a)
40
40
Luzzani &
Luzzani & Coop,
Coop,805kPa
805 kPa

650-930kPa
650 – 930 kPa
1.0
1.0
248-386kPa
248 - 386 kPa
60-97kPa
60 - 97 kPa
0.8
0.8
RS7
breakage
Breakage

0.6
0.6 RS8
relative

0.4
0.4
Relative

0.2
0.2 ?
800kPa (b)
unsheared
0.0
0.0
10
10 100
100 1000
1,000 10000
10,000 100000
100,000 1000000
1,000,000
shear strain
Shear Strain (%)

50
(degrees)
(degrees)

40
angle

RS3
RS3
Angle

30
RS7
friction

RS5
Friction

20 RS8
RS7
mobilised

RS9
RS8
Mobilized

10
10 RS10
RS13
(c) RS15
RS15
00
11 10 100 1000
1,000 10000
10,000 100000
100,000
shear
Shear strain(%)
Strain (%)

Fig. 1-21
Void 1. State Parameter (Been and Jefferies, 1985)
Ratio e Critical State = e – ec
Line (p'c, ec) Loose
Loose Sand = eL – ecL (>0)
Sand
ecD Dense Sand = eD – ecD (<0)
(p'L, eL)
2. State Index (Ishihara et al., 1998)
<0 Is = (e0 – ec)/(e0 ? e)

>0 Loose Sand Is = (e0 – ecL)/(e0 – e) (>1)

Dense Sand Dense Sand Is = (e0 – ecD)/(e0 – e) (<1)

ecL 3. State Pressure Index (Wang et al., 2002)
(p'D, eD) Ip = p'/p’c
Loose Sand Ip = p’L/p'cL (>1)
p'cL p'cD Dense Sand Ip = p'D/p'cD (<1)
Log (Mean Pressure p')

Fig. 1-22
 46

42 'm

38 Dilation
Interlocking 'crit
34 'f
Rearrangement, Fabric Development
30
Crushing (estimated)

26
Densest True Friction Critical
Packing Void Ratio
To Zero

26 30 34 38 42

Porosity n (%)

Fig. 1-23

Fig. 1-24 Fig. 1-25

Secant Friction Angle at Peak Failure (degree)

50 Uniformly Graded Cambria Sand

Initial Relative Density = 89.5%
45
Triaxial Extension
40

35
Triaxial Compression
30

Dilation at Peak Failure Contraction at Peak Failure

25

20
0.1 0.2 0.5 1 2 5 10 20 50 100

Effective Mean Pressure at Peak Failure (kPa)

Fig. 1-26
 20
Plane Strain Tests Eq.(1.21)
Triaxial Compression Tests
'crit (degrees)
16
Data for p' 300 kPa

12 Eq.(1.20)
'max ?

0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Normalize Dilatancy Index ID

Fig. 1-27 Fig. 1-28

Fig. 1-29

Fig. 1-30
 Fig. 1-31

Fig.1-32 Fig. 1-33

Fig. 1-34