College of Engineering

Civil Engineering Department

CE353
Geotechnical Engineering

Stresses In a Soil Mass

 Normal and Shear Stresses on a Plane

If , Then Plane EF is called Principal Plane

 Principal Stresses and Principal Planes
A principal plane is any surface that does not have a shear ( ) and only has a normal
stress ( )

Then:

Then, The Principal Stresses are:

The normal stresses that act on the principal planes are referred to as principal stresses.

Mohr’s Circle

•It is a graphical method to determine the normal and shear

stresses acting on any plane (e.g. Plane EF shown before).
•It has the following sign conventions:

 Compressive Normal Stress is taken as: + ve

 Tension Normal Stress is taken as: – ve
 Counter Clockwise Shear Stress is taken as: + ve
 Clockwise Shear is taken as: – ve
 Mohr’s Circle σy
On Plane AD:
Normal Stress = + σx

Shear Stress = + τxy

On Plane AB:

Normal Stress = + σy

Shear Stress = - τxy

The Radius of Mohr’s Circle is =

Mohr’s Circle

• The Stresses on Plane EF are determined

by:
Moving an angle 2θ (which is twice the angle that the
plane EF makes in a counterclockwise direction
with plane AB) in a counterclockwise direction
from point M along the circumference of the
Mohr’s circle to reach point Q.
The coordinates of the resulted point Q
represents the Normal and Shear Stresses on
Plane EF, σn τn
 Mohr’s Circle
If we assume that Planes AB and AD
are the Major and Minor Principal
Stresses, Then τxy = 0 and

Then the Stresses σn and τn

will be as follows:

Example
Mohr’s Circle

31.22
θ
Example
Rewriting the equation results in:

Using this equation, we can

calculate the variation of
with x/z.

Example