10/2/2012

1. Main Issues in Geotechnical Engineering

In geotechnical design, the engineer is often
confronted with two main requirements, viz

(a) Stability i.e. soil structure does not collapse.

Collapse of soil structures is usually caused by the
shear failure of the soil skeleton: caused by the
slippage of soil particles over one another. Soil failure
is usually NOT due to crushing of the soil particles.
(b) Serviceability
S i bili requirement
i i
i.e. ground d
movements and deformations are not so large as to
render the soil structure unserviceable or cause
damage to buildings and infrastructures in the
vicinity.

 Stability: ensured by keeping loading

intensity within the soil mass, i.e.
stresses, within certain limits.
 Serviceability: ground deformations
which
hi h are evaluated
l t d from
f th strains
the t i
and the stresses within the soil mass.
 In the following sections, we will
expand on the concepts of stresses,
strains and modulus of a soil. Effects of
pore water:
t i
ignored
d to
t make k things
thi
simple. Normal stress quantities can be
regarded either as effective stresses or
stresses in a dry soil.

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BASIC CONCEPTS IN STRESSES AND STRAINS

Fy

A Fx

Need way of quantifying the “loading effect” of the

forces on each point within the body and the changes
in shape at each point that results => stresses and
strains.
Stresses: loading intensity at a point.
Strains: “normalized” deformation at a point.

Stress
Stress quantifies the intensity of loading by
dividing the loading by the area, e.g.
 = F/A
Oblique forces: The force F can be
resolved into a component N acting F
N
normally to the surface at end of the A
rod and another S acting parallel to F

the surface S

The first is a normal stress 

defined as
 = N/A
and the second is a shear stress
defined as  = S/A

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STRAIN
• Strains: response to a material to stresses.
• In the case of the cylindrical body:
F = k L
where k = stiffness.

•For a cylinder of length 2L: can be considered as two cylinders F

each of length L joined end to end. Each cylinder is subjected to A
same force F and therefore compressed by the same amount L.
•Thus, the total compression of the long cylinder (length 2L) is
2L. L
•Stiffness k is not constant for a given material, it depends also on
geometry, in this case, the length of the cylinder.
•Loading effect or stress is the same.
•Material
Material is the same,
same the response of the material to this same
loading effect must be the same.
•Hence, compression L does not specifically describe the
response of the material to the stress.
•Divide compression by the length of the body, i.e. L/L
normalizes out the effect of the length on the compression. Strain
 given by
•  = L/L

Modulus
o Hooke’s Law F = k L
o Since k is inversely proportional to L,
o k = k’/L where k’ is another constant.
o Also, the bigger the cross-sectional area A of the specimen, the stiffer the
rod and the smaller is the compression L, therefore k (and thus k’)
proportional to A.
o i.e. k = AE/L
o where E is another constant, the modulus. So
o F = AEL/L
o F/A = E L/L
o =E
o Hence, E relates stress to strain.
o The modulus quantifies the material response in a way that is
independent of the geometry of the specimen.
o Classical approach to stress analysis:
 given a set of loads
 localise the loading effect through analysis into stresses, thereby
eliminating the effect of geometry,
 by testing or other means, determine the response of the material to
the stresses, in the forms of strains,
 by re-introducing the geometry of the body via analysis, globalize the
strains into deformations of the body.

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4.2 Saturated soils

 In saturated soils, the interaction
between pore water and soil skeleton
gives rise to a variety of interesting
behaviours.

Soil skeleton: can take both normal and

shear stresses.
Pore water can carry normal but not shear
stresses.
Shear behaviour of soils depends on the
interparticle friction and interlocking (see
above). Both are related to the
macroscopic normal stress on the soil
skeleton. To characterize shear behaviour,
we need to determine the macroscopic
normal stress acting on the soil skeleton.

Considering figure above, vertical equilibrium ->

 F1 + u(A-Ac ) = P
F1 = vertical components of interparticle contact forces,
u = pore water pressure,
Ac = total interparticle contact area.
Let  F1 = " Ac
" = average stress acting across the interparticle contacts.
"" Ac + u(A-A
u(A Ac ) = P =  A
 = average external stress acting across area A.
Generally Ac << A, so that
" Ac + u A =  A
" Ac /A + u = 
Let ' = " Ac /A, then
' + u = 
' = effective stress much better for
quantifying soil behaviour because it
directly addresses the interparticle contact
forces and discounts the pore water pressure.
pressure.

Principle of Effective Stress: one of the fundamental

equations in soil mechanics. First proposed by Karl Terzaghi.

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Examples of effective stress principle applications:

(1) GWT at ground surface:
A = gAd = Ad
Area A u = wgd = wd
 = unit weight of soil
 = d
=0
 ‘ =  - u = ( - w)d
d = ‘d
d
where ‘ = buoyant unit weight

A
A = Ad + wAdw
(2) Submarine conditions  = d + wdw
u = w (d + dw)
= wd + wdw
‘ =  - u = ( - w)d
dw
= ‘ d
seabed
Higher effective stress => higher intergranular
d friction and interlocking => higher strength and
stiffness. Lower effective stress => the reverse. In
the limiting case of zero effective stress =>
A liquefaction eg. Niigata earthquake.

More General Definitions of

Stresses and Strains
 Definitions of stresses and strain ok
only for restricted set of scenarios.
 We need more general definitions
that can deal with all classes of
situations.

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 While this example is physical and easy to

comprehend, it needs to be generalised to be
useful. The implicit assumption of the cylindrical
soilil sample
l example
l is
i that
th t the
th stress
t i uniform
is if
across the cross-section. In most circumstances,
stresses within the soil body is non-uniform.
Thus the concept of stress needs to be
generalised to stresses at a point by examining
the forces acting on the surface of an imaginary
cut through the soil body at the point in
question, say point A.

 stresses at a point: obtained by considering forces acting

on the surface of an imaginary cut through the soil body at
the point in question, say point A.
 - Fy   -  Fz 
 y  Limit   yz  Limit  
A  0   A  A  0  A 
 - Fx 
Other components of stresses x, z and xz by  yx  Limit  
taking cuts along appropriate vertical planes.
A  0  A 

Fy

A Fx

Fz

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Complementarity between Shear Stresses

 Consider an element in the xy-plane:
 Since the element is in rotational equilibrium, clockwise
moment = counter-clockwise moment,
xy dy dx = yx dx dy
 xy = yx
By considering similar rectangular sections in the YZ and ZX
planes, we can also show that
y
yz = zy yx
zx = xz
Thus six independent stress xy dy xy
x x
components i.e. x, y , z, xy, yz
dx
and xz are sufficient to completely
define the state of stress at a point
in 3-dimensional space.

3. Strains
 Externally, the effects of loads on a continuum are
manifested in its deformations and displacements.
Internally, these effects are expressed in terms of
strains.

vx vx + dvx

dx

x = dvx/dx

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 In soils, positive signs for compressive stresses

and strains. Soil can only withstand compressive
stresses and strains.
 In a general situation, the deformation can change
in many direction (not just the X-direction), thus
x = - vx/x
 The partial derivatives indicating that we only take
into account the change of length with respect to
the X-coordinates only (and not Y- and Z-co-
ordinates).
 Similarly, the normal strains in the Y- and Z-
di ti y and
direction d z are given
i b
by
y = - vy/y
z = - vz/z

 Shear strains are defined by the change of shape or

distortional of the body. Consider a rectangular section
being distorted:
-dvx

dy 
dx

 -dvy

The shear strain is given by the total angle of distortion, 

+ ,
 +  ≈ -vx/y - vy/x ( and  in radians)
or
xy ≈ -vx/y - vy/x

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 Similarly:
xz = -vx/z - vz/x
yz = -vy/z - vz/y

Young’s modulus E: the modulus manifested by a

specimen subjected to a normal stress on one plane, while the
other two orthogonal planes are unconstrained.
 If an elastic body is stressed in
the x-direction by a normal
stress x then it experiences the
following strains
x = x/E x
The other two normal strains y
Cross-sectional area
 A
and z are then given by
y = -x/E
z = -x/E
 where  is the Poisson’s ratio.

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x

y = z = 0

If the same elastic body is stressed in the y-direction by a

normal stress y then it experiences the following strains
y = y/E (16)
x = -y/E (17)
z = -y/E (18)
Similarly, the effects of z can be expressed as
z = z/E (19)
x = -z/E (20)
y = -z/E (21)

 The combined effects of x, y and z on x can be

expressed by superposition of Eqs. 13, 17 and 20, which
leads to
x = x/E-y/E-z/E (22)
 Similarly for the other two normal strain components
y = y/E-
/E x/E-
/E z/E (23)
z = z/E-x/E-y/E (24)
 As is the case for stresses, the normal strains x, y and z
also varies with the directions of the X, Y and Z-axes.
 The effect of a shear stress is to cause a shear strain, ie.
xy = xy/G (25)
yz = yz/G (26)
xz = xz/G (27)
 where G is the shear modulus and is related to the
Young’s modulus E by
 E (28)
G
2(1   )

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 In matrix form :
  x   1/E  / E  / E 0 0   x 
0
     / E 1/E  / E 0 0   y 
0
 y 
  z    / E  / E 1/E 0 0 0   z 
   
 xy   0 0 0 1/G 0 0   xy 
 yz   0 0 0 0 1/G 0   yz 
    
 zx   0 0 0 0 0 1/G   zx 

or:
 x  1 -   0 0 0   x 
    1 -  0 0 0    y 
 y 
 z     1 - 0 0 0  z 
   A  
 xy   0 0 0 0.5- 0 0   xy 
 yz   0 0 0 0 0.5- 0   yz 
    
 zx   0 0 0 0 0 0.5-   zx 
E
in which A 
(1 - 2 )(1   )

 In general, normal strains vary with direction. There are

also “strain invariants” which do not vary with direction. A
simple example of such a strain invariant is the volumetric
strain v, which is defined as the ratio of the change in
volume to the original volume. Using the cubical element
with dimensions dx, dy and dz (as we have used above),
then
original volume = dx dy dz (31)
 Suppose this element undergoes axial elongations dvx, dvy
and dvz, such that the magnitudes of dvx, dvy and dvz are
much smaller than those of dx, dy and dz. This is known
as the “small strain” assumption.
new volume = (dx+dvx)(dy+dvy)(dz+dvz)

=dxdydz+dxdydvz+dydzdvx+dxdzdvy+dxdvydvz+
dydvxdvz+dzdvxdvy+dvxdvydvz

= dxdydz (1+ x + y + z + higher order terms in x, y and z)

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 Neglecting the higher order terms (since  is small) leads to

new volume=old volume(1+x + y + z)
change in volume/old volume = (x + y + z)
 The change in volume/old volume is the volumetric strain
v = (x + y + z) (35)
 Substituting Eqs.
Eqs 22-24
22 24 into Eq.
Eq 35 leads to

x + y + z = (1-2)(x + y + z)/E =v

= (x + y + z)/(3K)
= p/K (37)
E
 where K= and p = (x + y + z)/3
3(1  2  )
 K is known as the bulk modulus & p is the mean normal
stress.

There is another modulus

which is commonly used in
soil mechanics; this is the
constrained modulus D. It
is the ratio between the
stress and strain in one
direction (say X) when the
strains in the other two Cross-sectional area
x
orthogonal directions (say Y A

and Z)) are constrained to

be zero.

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 It can be obtained by setting y = z = 0 in Eqs. 23 and

24, which leads to
z = y =  x/(1-) (39)
 Substituting Eq. 39 into Eq. 22 leads to
x  2  2   x  1    2 2   x  1   1  2  
x  1         
E  1  1   E  1   E  1  

x/x = D = E (1   ) (40)
(1   )( 1  2  )

 The constrained modulus, or rather its inverse (known as

coefficient
ffi i t off volume
l change),
h ) will
ill be
b used d in
i the
th
consolidation equations to be covered in a later part of
the module.

5. Real Stress-Strain Behaviour of Soils

 The above concepts are all discussed in

the context of a linear elastic material.
material In
general, soil behaviour is non-linear and
inelastic. Nonetheless, you will find that
some of the concepts are still applied for
convenience especially in foundation
works.
k I the
In th nextt part, t the
th actualt l
compression behaviour of soil will be dealt
with.

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Main Points
 Stress is load normalized by area.
 Strain is deformation normalized by length.
 Stiffness (force/deformation) is a property of a system,
modulus (stress/strain) is a material property.
property
 6 components of stress (or strain) are needed to fully
characterize a 3-
3-D state of stress (or strain).
 Different moduli can be defined depending upon the loading
configuration and boundary conditions.
 The Young’s modulus is the modulus measured when load is
applied in one direction and the other two directions are
fully unconstrained
unconstrained..
 The constrained modulus is the modulus measured when
load is applied in one direction and the other two directions
are fully constrained
constrained..

THANK YOU

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