Geomechanics

CIVL 2122

Soil strength
and
Critical State

Dr Christophe Gaudin
gaudin@civil.uwa.edu.au Lecture 11
 Outline
Critical state concept
NC and OC clay
1-D consolidation
Initial and final su
Staged loading

Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11

 Objectives
You should understand:
The difference between NC and OC clays
The concept and necessity of staged loading for soft soils

You should be able to:

Calculate su from s’v and OCR
Calculate change in su during consolidation and shearing

Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11

 Critical state concept Shear strength of clay

• No fundamental difference with sand

– strength fits a frictional model that incorporates contraction/dilation aspect (and
corresponding pore pressure increase/decrease in undrained loading)
• BUT, there are some important differences
– clays much less permeable (by many orders of magnitude), so it can take a long
time to change the effective stress
undrained shearing much more common –
must apply the load extremely slowly to achieve drained shearing (the opposite is
true for sands)
– clays generally much more compressible than sands
– clays have ‘memory’ of stress history (much more so than sands)
behaviour
dictated by whether soil is normally consolidated, or overconsolidated (and the
degree of overconsolidation: OCR)
• Just as for sands, pore pressure changes in undrained loading depend on:
– initial state (q, p′, v (or e))
– total stress path (compression or extension loading?)
– stress history (N.C. or O.C. and if O.C., what is OCR)
• Normally consolidated (N.C.) and lightly overconsolidated (O.C.) clay behaves like
‘loose’ sand (‘wet of critical’ – initial state above the critical state line)
• Heavily overconsolidated (OCR > ~2) behaves like ‘dense’ sand (‘dry of critical’ – initial
state below the critical state line)

Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11

 Critical state concept Shear strength of NC clay

TSP? CSL
Deviator stress q Μ
1

Bu
Undrained shear
Undrained strength: strength independent
qf
su = qf/2 of TSP

ESP
mean effective stress p'

B
Specific volume v
= 1+e

"Wet of critical"
B
vf = vo
NCLISO

Undrained test
⇒ no volume CSL
change allowed
Mean effective stress p'
Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11
 Critical state concept Shear strength of OC clay

q CSL Initial State: Overconsolidated:

TSP
Μ Consolidate on NC line to p′max and
1 then allow to swell to p′o

NCISO: v = N – λ ln p′
su = qf/2 ∆u - Au
qf Swelling line:
vo = v at p′max + κ ln(p′max/p′o)
ESP = Ν – λ ln p′max+ κ ln(p′max/p′o)
p′max p′ OCR in terms of p′ = OCRp
p′o pf p′f OCRp= p′max/ p′o
B v
v= 1+e
N
1
λ
NCISO
vf = vo 1
κ
A NCLISO vo

CSL Ln p′

p′o p′f p′max p' 1 p′o p′cs p′max

Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11

 Critical state concept Relationships between NC and OC clays

• For both NC and OC soil, undrained shear strength (su) related to

consolidation stress (p′o)
• The ratio of su/ p′o for OC soil compared to the ratio su/ p′o for NC soil
depends on the OCR, and the soil parameters λ and κ
 λ−κ 
 
 su  M  OCR p   λ 
  =   for overconsolidated soil.
 p′o  O.C. 2  r 
But also true for N.C. soil, where OCR p = 1.0 : s = aσ'v OCR b
u
 λ −κ 
 su  M  1   λ  a ≈ 0.18 − 0.25
  =  
′
 p o  N .C . 2  r  b ≈ 0.6 − 0.8
 λ−κ 
 
 su  M  OCR p   λ 
     λ−κ 
′ s  s 
 
 o  O.C.
p 2
= 
r 
⇒  u = u  (OCR p )
 λ 

 su 
 
 λ−κ 
M  1   λ   p′o  O.C.  p′o  N .C.
 p′o  N .C.  
2 r
Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11
 Critical state concept 1-D Consolidation path

•What are (su/p′o) and (su/σ′vo) for NC-1D conditions?

NCISO: v = N – λ ln p′
σ′v and su

NC1-D: v = No – λ ln p′

v CSL: v = Γ – λ ln p′
σ′v = (γγsat – γw).z = 8z
N
1
(for γsat = 18 kN/m3)
No λ
1
λ NCISO
Γ
1 su z 0.2 σ′v
λ NC1-D = 1.6z

CSL

Ln p'
10 m
16 kPa 80 kPa

Depth z (m)
Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11
 Critical state concept Initial and final Su

su for NC soil increases

q
Tank or surcharge → ∆σv
after consolidation
su
su after CSL suo
consolidation NC soil

In situ su

Depth (m)
1
e p'
k
In situ eo
su after
consolidation
e after NCL
consolidation In situ su
su = k.z (k = 1 to 2 kPa/m)
CSL
p' (or su = suo + k.z)

How long for strength

Surcharge → ∆σv → p' increase to occur ???

Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11

 Critical state concept Staged loading

q
CSL
Fully drained sd
6
su after two increments
5
4
In situ su
2
∆q due to total load > in situ su
3
TSP → failure if applied in 1 increment
1
p'
e

2 1
In situ eo Consolidation
between increments
4 3

NCL ESP in
e after two increments 5
6 undrained
loading
CSL

p'
Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11
 Objectives
You should understand:
The difference between NC and OC clays
The concept and necessity of staged loading for soft soils

You should be able to:

Calculate su from s’v and OCR
Calculate change in su during consolidation and shearing

Dr Christophe Gaudin – September 2008 CIVL 2122 – Lecture 11