Shear Strength of Soils

- soil resistance to sliding on an internal surface

- load per unit area on a plane parallel to the direction of shear force

Attributed to three components:
1) Frictional resistance to sliding between solid particles
2) Cohesion and adhesion between particles
3) Interlocking and bridging of solid particles

Mohr Coulomb Failure Criterion
- From the combined principles:
a) Mohr
Failure in materials occur with critical combination of normal and
shear stresses, and not by maximum normal and shear stress on the
failure plane.

= () failure envelope
b) Coulomb
Shear stress on failure plane can be expressed as a linear function of
normal stress

- Combining,

= + tan

Where c = cohesion
= angle of friction (internal shearing resistance)

= shear strength or shearing resistance

= normal stress on shear plane

Applying in soil mechanics,

+( ) tan = + tan

where:
u = pore water pressure on shear plane
= effective normal stress on shear plane
c = cohesion intercept in terms of effective stress
= angle of shearing resistance or friction angle in terms of effective stress
















Figure 1. Inclination of failure plane in soil with major principal plane (Das,
2013)













Figure 2. Mohrs circle and failure envelope (Das, 2013)


Note:
1) Tangent to circle defines the Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope
2) Angle of Failure Plane
- From the figure,
2 = 90
o
+
= 45
o
+ (/2)



Significance of Failure Envelope













Figure 3. Mohrs failure envelope and Mohr-Coulombs failure law (Das,
2013)

Case 1: If normal stress and shear stress on a plane plot as point A, shear
failure does not occur.

Case 2: If normal stresses and shear stress plot as point B or any point on the
failure envelope, shear failure occurs.

Case 3: Normal stress and shear stress plot as point C cannot exist since
failure would have occurred before such condition is reached


Table 1. Relationship between Relative Density and Angle of Friction of
Cohesionless Soils
State of Packing Relative density
(%)
Angle of friction,
(deg)
Very loose <20 <30
Loose 20-40 30-35
Compact 40-60 35-40
Dense 60-80 40-45
Very dense >80 >45
Source: Das, 2013


Cohesion
resulting from bonding between particles, or a dense state of packing of
particles

Table 2. Typical values of cohesion
Soil Type Cohesion Intercept, c (KPa)
Soft normally consolidated clays Normally close to 0 Kpa, but could
reach 10 KPa
Firm to stiff clays 10-25 KPa
Compacted clays 12-25 KPa
Stiff to hard clays
Heavily consolidated clays
25-100 KPa
Source: Wesley, 2010

Direct Shear Stress (Shear Box Stress)
- earliest form of shear test (first used by Coulomb in 1776)
- series of tests is done at varying normal stresses then test result is
plotted:
1)
stress vs displacement and
2)
peak shear stress (failure value) vs normal stress
a line through the points defines c and
- simple and easy to perform
- From the figure below,
tan

if c = 0

tan

if c > 0











Figure 4. Graph of vs from Direct shear Test

Triaxial test
- most popular and most common method




















= additional pressure
= deviator stress
1 = maximum principal stress
= axial stress
3 = minimum principal stress
= confining pressure
= lateral pressure
= radial stress
= cell pressure
= chamber pressure
= angle of internal friction
c = cohesion of soil






Three Types of Tri-axial Test

1) Undrained Test or Unconsolidated Undrained Test
- To determine udrained shear strength of soil available on the plane
when it is sheared to failure under undrained conditions
- for cohesive soils (clays and silts) and not for coarse-grained soils
- No drainage is permitted during consolidation stage and loading stage.
Hence, Pore pressure is not normally measured
- implies analysis of total stress only since undrained soil behavior is
directly related to total stress
- results are plotted using total stress since only total stresses are known
- soil behaves as though it has no frictional component of shear (friction
angle, = 0) since soil is saturated and undrained
- the value of c is the undrained shear strength, qu
- each increase in confining stress, 3 is accompanied by an identical
increase in pore water pressure. Hence, no change in effective stress
- if pore pressure in each test is measured then effective stress is
calculated and plotted, circles will just coincide, hence, effective stress
parameters are still unable to be determined since a single circle is
insufficient to determine the failure line











Figure 5. Result of an unconsolidated - undrained triaxial stress on a
saturated soil (Wesley, 2010)


Unconfined Compression Test
- special type of unconsolidated undrained test
- confining pressure 3 is 0 and axial load is quickly applied to cause failure
- undrained shear strength is independent of the confining pressure

cu = f

3
+ =
1

3
+ =
1

1
2
=

2
=

where: qu = unconfined compression strength




Figure 6. Unconfined Compression Test (Das, 2013)


Table 3. General Relationship of consistency and unconfined compression
strength of clays (Das, 2013)
Consistency qu (KN/m
2
)
Very soft 0-25
Soft 25-50
Medium 50-100
Stiff 100-200
Very stiff 200-400
Hard >400


2) Consolidated Undrained Test
- Drainage is permitted during the consolidation stage until the sample is
fully consolidated (all pore pressure has dissipated to 0)
- No drainage is permitted during the loading stage
- To determine effective stress strength parameters c and (results are
plotted in terms of effective stress)
- Preferred for clay due to its low permeability
- Pore pressure is measured, hence, effective stresses are calculated and
results are plotted in terms of effective stresses
1 = 1 u and
3 = 3 u hence,
1 - 3 = 1 - 3
- Deviator stress is the same whether expressed as total stress or
effective stress

3) Drained Test
- Full drainage is allowed during consolidation stage and loading stage
- Commonly used on granular material like gravel and sand because of its
high permeability (low permeability in clay presents problems in
conducting drained tests days required for draining)
- To determine effective stress strength parameters c and (results are
plotted in terms of effective stress)
- Pore pressure u=0, hence, effective stress = total stress













Figure 7. Results of a consolidated undrained triaxial test (Wesley, 2010)










Sample Problems

1) A sample of sand is subjected to direct shear testing at its normal water
content. Two tests are performed. For one of the tests, the sample fails
at a shear stress of 3000 psf when the normal stress is 4000 psf. In the
second test, the sample shears at a stress of 400 psf when the normal
stress is 6000 psf. From these, determine the ff.
a) Angle of internal friction
b) Cohesion of soil

2) An unconfined compression test was carried out on a saturated clay
sample. The maximum load the clay sustained was 127 N and the vertical
displacement was 0.8mm. The size of the sample was 38mm diameter x
76mm long. Determine the undrained shear strength.

3) A consolidated-undrained soil test was conducted on a normally
consolidated sample with a chamber pressure of 140 Kpa. The sample
failed when the deviator stress was 124 KPa. The pore water pressure in
the sample at that time was 75 Kpa. Determine:
a) Undrained angle of internal friction
b) Drained angle of internal friction
c) Drained angle of internal friction if soil possess a cohesion of 12 KPa

4) The sample of soil in a tri-axial test have the ff. stresses:
Cell Pressure Deviator Stress Pore Pressure
25 KPa 20 KPa 12 KPa
34 KPa 31 KPa 10 KPa

a) Drained angle of internal friction
b) Cohesion of soil
c) Angle of failure in shear

Practice Problems

1) A cohesive soil with an angle of shearing resistance of 28
o
has a cohesion
of 32 Kpa. The shear stress at failure is 64 KPa. Determine:
a) Normal stress Ans. 60.1832 KPa
b) Confining pressure Ans. 21.7282 KPa
c) Maximum principal stress Ans. 166.6972 KPa

2) In a direct shear test, the soil was determined to have an angle of internal
friction of 31
o
and cohesion of 26 KPa. If the normal stress is 150 KPa,
compute the following:
a) Total shear stress Ans. 116.1291 KPa
b) Force required to cause failure in shear when the sample has a
dimension of 50mm x 50mm and height of 75mm.
Ans. 290.3227 KN

References

Das, Braja M. (2013). Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering, 4th Edition.
Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd.

Wesley, Laurence D. (2010). Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics for Sedimentary
and Residual Soils. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.