SHEAR STRENGTH OF SOİLS

Asst. Prof. Dr. Şevket Bostancı

• All civil engineering works are constructed on or in soils
and/or rocks.

• It is, thus, essential for engineers to have an

understanding of how much load can be placed on a
foundation material or how high or steep a soil/rock
structure can be built without failure.

• The knowledge is required on how a soil or rock mass

behaves when loaded in order to satisfactorily design of
civil engineering works.
 3

Typical geotechnical engineering problems

Decoding Eurocode 7 ©2005-8 Geocentrix Ltd. All rights reserved

Introduction
• The behaviour of soils and rocks under load and produced
models (constitutive laws) have been investigated to
assist in predicting behaviour.

• However, none of the theoretical models proposed to date

are fully satisfying, but reasonable engineering decisions
may be based on analysis using the most widely accepted
theories.
 Introduction
• The main thing is to acknowledge what happens from the
moment of loading takes place on the soil until any potential
failure condition. (for ex: engineers are keen on to know
more about stress/strain behaviour as well as ultimate
strength).

• The study behind the complete stress/strain behaviour up

to and post failure is mostly complex and extremely difficult
to predict.
Introduction
• For these reasons, engineers have mainly concentrated
on the failure condition and applied factors of safety to the
calculated loads to ensure that failure does not occur and
that deformations are tolerable.
Shear Strength
• Soil consists of soil particles, pore fluid and air. It is the interaction
of these components that will govern the available soil strength in
order to resist the loads/shear forces or stresses induced in it.

• The soil particles are relatively strong and unlikely to breakdown

under the range of stresses usually imposed by civil engineering
applications.

• The inter-particle contacts are of the most significance in

controlling the strength of the soil.

• The soil’s resistance to shear stresses is the most important

leading development of soil shear strength models.
Block on a plane

Tmob
W sina

W cosa
a
W
Block on plane 2
• The block will slide when the angle of the plane is just
greater than the angle of friction between the plane and
the block i.e.

• T = W.sinα = W.cosα tanφ

• Where φ is the angle of friction between the block and the plane
Block on plane 3
• If the plane is tilted more than φ then "failure" can only be
prevented if there is some component of force introduced
up the slope and/or the normal force on block is raised 
Block on a plane 4

+C

W sina
Tmob

W cosa
a
W
Block on plane 5
• In general, considering forces on the block:
T = (W cosα + N) tan φ
no additional force up slope
T = C + (W cosα + N) tan φ
additional force up slope

• T is the available shear FORCE which must be greater

than the force down the slope, Wsinα, if sliding is to be
prevented.
Block on a plane

+C

W sina
Tmob

W cosa
a
W
Basic shear strength model
• In terms of stress (Force divided by the area over which
it acts)
t = σn tanφ
for increased normal stress, no stress up slope 
t = c + σn tanφ
for increased normal stress and a stress up slope.
Basic shear strength model
• Where:

“t” is the available shear strength

“σn“ is the normal stress to the plane under consideration

“c” is the cohesive stress between the block and the plane

“φ” is the angle of friction between the block and the

plane.
Shear Strength
• The shear strength of a soil, defined in terms of effective
stress, is
• For most day-to-day work, the shear strength parameters
of a soil (i.e., and ) are determined by two standard
laboratory tests:

- the direct shear test and;

- the triaxial test.

Direct Shear Test
• Dry sand can be conveniently tested by direct shear tests.
The sand is placed in a shear box that is split into two
halves. First a normal load is applied to the specimen.
Then a shear force is applied to the top half of the shear
box to cause failure in the sand. The normal and shear
stresses at failure are;
Direct Shear Test
Direct Shear Test
• Several tests of this type can be conducted by varying the
normal load. The angle of friction of the sand can be
determined by plotting a graph of s against ( ( for dry
sand), as shown in Figure (b) in previous slide, or
Direct Shear Test
Direct Shear Test
Direct Shear Test
Triaxial Test
Mohr Coulomb model
• This simple linear model based on the idea of a block on a
plane was taken up by Coulomb in 18th to predict the
available shear resistance of soils at failure.

• Soil is made up of particles and pore fluid and thus there

is not strictly a “block on a plane”, however in most
foundation problems failure occurs when one mass of soil
moves over another, akin to the block on a plane idea.
Mohr Coulomb model
• The frictional resistance to movement is a function of the
properties of the contacts between soil particles.

• Adopting the simple block on a plane model indicates that

the available shear strength increases as the normal
stress to the plane under consideration increases.
Shear stress vs normal stress

c
sn
Mohr Coulomb model
• The Coulomb failure criteria has been found to
satisfactorily model the soil shear strength behaviour of
dry granular soils over the stress ranges usually
experienced in civil engineering.

• For dry granular soils the component, "c", is zero. Thus

the most commonly used soil shear strength model for
granular soils (sands, gravels, rocks) is:

‑ t = σn tanφ
Effect of pore pressures
• The above discussion considered that the soil was dry, i.e.
no water in the pore spaces.
•
• The more common situation is when the pore spaces are
filled with pore fluid, usually water. If the pores are
completely filled with water, the soil is termed saturated; if
only partially filled, partially saturated.

• The partially saturated condition is not fully understood

and whilst models are available to predict behaviour under
these conditions, it is more usual to consider the limits
only i.e. the dry and saturated conditions.
Pore water pressures
• When the pore spaces are filled with water, the water will
be at some pressure, "u", known as the pore‑water
pressure.

• This pressure may be hydrostatic or that resulting from

fluid flow through the soil.

• Pore pressure acts to reduce the inter‑particle contact

stresses and therefore reduces the effective normal
stresses, this reduces the soils available shear strength.

• It is effective stresses that control soil strength

Mohr Coulomb failure criterion
• Coulomb's shear strength model should therefore be
re‑written in terms of effective stresses:‑
 
t = c' + σn'tanφ' Mohr‑Coulomb failure criterion
&
σn' = σn - u

Where: c' is the effective cohesion; σn’ is the effective

normal stress to the plane; σn is the total normal stress to
the plane; u is the pore water pressure; φ‘ is the effective
angle of internal friction
Volume change during shear
• As a shear stress is applied to the soil the particles move
relative to each other.

• In a granular soil the nature of this movement depends on

the initial state of packing of the soil particles.

• If the particles are packed in such a way as to reduce the

void spaces to a minimum (densely packed, high relative
density) then, in order for a shear plane to form, the
particles must ride up over each other increasing the soil
volume i.e. DILATE.
Volume change during shear
• Conversely, if the particles are in a loosely packed state
(low relative density) shear will result in movement of the
particles into the void spaces resulting in volume
decrease i.e. CONTRACT.

Dense Packing Dilation

Loose Packing Contraction

Angle of friction of granular soils
• The angle of friction of a granular soil depends on the
initial state of packing or relative density.
•
• Loose soils have a relatively low angle of friction whilst
dense soils have a high angle of friction.
Typical angles of friction
SOIL TYPE Angle of Friction, φ’

LOOSE DENSE

Silt 27 – 30 30 - 34

Silty Sand 28 30 - 35

Uniform Sand 28 34

Well-graded Sand 33 45

Sandy Gravel 35 50
Changes in angle of friction during shear
• During shear the voids ratio (specific volume or relative
density) changes, as a result the angle of friction also
varies.

• For dense soils as shear takes place (strain) a peak shear

stress is reached after which the available shear strength
decreases as the further shear strain takes place and the
voids ratio increases.

• Eventually, the voids ratio reaches a constant value and

the shear strength/angle of friction also becomes
constant.
Phi constant volume
• It is found that for a loose sample of the same soil the
voids ratio decreases with increasing strain and eventually
approaches the same voids ratio recorded for the dense
sample at high strain.

• The angle of friction at this voids ratio or “constant

volume” is known as φ'cv or phi constant volume.
 Peak Shear stress, f

Dense Soil

t Shear Stress,
kN/m2 Loose Soil

e Strain, %
e, Voids Ratio

Loose Soil
Constant voids ratio,
Constant Volume

Dense Soil

e Strain, %
 c‘ = 0
φ = 35

• Estimate the shear strength of the soil at points A and B.

t = c' + σn'tanφ' Mohr‑Coulomb failure criterion

&
σn' = σn - u
Solution
• At point B
σ = 18 x 3 = 54 kN/m2 σ' = 54 – 0 = 54 kN/m2

t = c' + σn‘ tanφ‘ = 0 + 54 (tan 35) = 37.8 kN/m2

• At point A
σ = 54+(20x9) = 234 kN/m2 σ' = 234 – (9x10) = 144 kN/m2

t = c' + σn‘ tanφ‘ = 0 + 144 (tan 35) = 100.8 kN/m2