Shear Strength of Soil

Shear Strength
of Soils
Duration: 17 min: 04 sec
N. Sivakugan 1
Shear failure
Soils generally fail in shear
embankment
strip footing
failure surface mobilised shear

resistance
At failure, shear stress along the failure surface

reaches the shear strength.
Shear failure
failure surface
The soil grains slide over
each other along the
failure surface.
No crushing of
individual grains.
3
SIVA Copyright©2001
Shear failure


At failure, shear stress along the failure surface

() reaches the shear strength (f).
4
Mohr-Coulomb Failure Criterion
 f  c   tan 
e lo p e 
re env
failu
friction angle
cohesion
f
c


f is the maximum shear stress the soil can take
without failure, under normal stress of . 5
Mohr-Coulomb Failure Criterion
Shear strength consists of two components:
cohesive and frictional.

f
 f  c   f tan 
f tan 
 onen t frictional
comp component
e
c esiv
c coh
f 
6
c and  are measures of shear strength.
Higher the values, higher the shear strength.

Mohr Circles & Failure Envelope
Y
X X
Y Soil elements at

different locations
X ~ failure
Y ~ stable
The soil element does not fail if
the Mohr circle is contained
within the envelope
GL

c
Y c
c c+
Initially, Mohr circle is a point

As loading progresses, Mohr
circle becomes larger…
GL

c
Y c
c
.. and finally failure occurs

when Mohr circle touches the
envelope
Orientation of Failure Plane
Failure plane
Y oriented at 45 + /2
to horizontal
45 + /2
GL
45 + /2

c 
Y c 90+
c c+
Mohr circles in terms of  & ’
v v’ u
h h ’
X
= X
+ X u
effective stresses
total stresses
h ’ v’ h v
u
Envelopes in terms of  & ’
Identical specimens
initially subjected to
different isotropic
f
stresses (c) and then
c c
loaded axially to failure
c c
uf
Initially… Failure
c, 
At failure,
in terms of 
3 = c; 1 = c+f
c’, ’
3’ = 3 – uf ; 1’ = 1 - uf in terms of ’
Triaxial Test Apparatus
piston (to apply deviatoric stress)
failure plane
O-ring
impervious
membrane
soil sample at
failure
porous
stone
perspex cell
water
cell pressure
pore pressure or
back pressure
pedestal volume change
14
Types of Triaxial Tests
deviatoric stress ()
Under all-around Shearing (loading)

cell pressure c
Is the drainage valve open? Is the drainage valve open?
yes no yes no
Consolidated Unconsolidated Drained Undrained

sample sample loading loading
15
Types of Triaxial Tests
Depending on whether drainage is allowed
or not during
 initial isotropic cell pressure application, and
 shearing,
there are three special types of triaxial tests
that have practical significances. They are:
Consolidated Drained (CD) test

Consolidated Undrained (CU) test
Unconsolidated Undrained (UU) test
16
For unconsolidated
undrained test, in
terms of total
stresses, u = 0
Granular soils have For normally consolidated

no cohesion. clays, c’ = 0 & c = 0.
c = 0 & c’= 0
CD, CU and UU Triaxial Tests
Consolidated Drained (CD) Test
 no excess pore pressure throughout the test
 very slow shearing to avoid build-up of pore
pressure
Can be days!
 not desirable
 gives c’ and ’
Use c’ and ’ for analysing fully drained

situations (e.g., long term stability,
very slow loading)
18
Consolidated Undrained (CU) Test
 pore pressure develops during shear
Measure  ’
 gives c’ and ’
 faster than CD (preferred way to find c’ and ’)
19
Unconsolidated Undrained (UU) Test
 pore pressure develops during shear
Not measured = 0; i.e., failure envelope
’ unknown is horizontal
 analyse in terms of   gives cu and u
 very quick test
Use cu and u for analysing undrained

situations (e.g., short term stability,
quick loading)
20
1- 3 Relation at Failure
1
X 3
soil element at failure
3 1
 1   3 tan (45   / 2)  2c tan(45   / 2)

2
 3   1 tan ( 45   / 2)  2c tan(45   / 2)
2
v Stress Point
h X
 t stress point
stress point
(v-h)/2
h v  s
(v+h)/2
v h
t
2
v h
s
2 22
Stress Path
During loading…
Stress path
is the locus
 t of stress
points
Stress path
 s
Stress path is a convenient way to keep track of the

progress in loading with respect to failure envelope.
23
Failure Envelopes
 t failur
e
 tan-1 (sin )
c c cos  stress path
 s
During loading (shearing)….
24
Pore Pressure Parameters
A simple way to estimate the pore

pressure change in undrained
loading, in terms of total stress
changes ~ after Skempton (1954)
1
u  B  3  A(  1   3 )
Y 3
u = ? Skempton’s pore pressure

parameters A and B
Pore Pressure Parameters
B-parameter
B = f (saturation,..)
For saturated soils, B  1.
A-parameter at failure (Af)

Af = f(OCR)
For normally consolidated clays Af  1.
For heavily overconsolidated clays Af is negative.

Shear Strength of Soil

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Shear Strength of Soil

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Shear Strength

Duration: 17 min: 04 sec

failure surface mobilised shear

At failure, shear stress along the failure surface

At failure, shear stress along the failure surface

Higher the values, higher the shear strength.

.. and finally failure occurs

Under all-around Shearing (loading)

Is the drainage valve open? Is the drainage valve open?

Consolidated Unconsolidated Drained Undrained

Consolidated Drained (CD) test

Granular soils have For normally consolidated

Use c’ and ’ for analysing fully drained

 faster than CD (preferred way to find c’ and ’)

Use cu and u for analysing undrained

soil element at failure

 1   3 tan (45   / 2)  2c tan(45   / 2)

Stress path is a convenient way to keep track of the

c c cos  stress path

During loading (shearing)….

A simple way to estimate the pore

u = ? Skempton’s pore pressure

A-parameter at failure (Af)

For normally consolidated clays Af  1.

For heavily overconsolidated clays Af is negative.

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