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Flownets: Effective Stress and Capillarity: Hydrostatic Conditions

This document discusses flownets, which are used to estimate water flow through soils. Flownets represent flow lines showing the direction of water flow and equipotential lines showing areas of equal total head. They can estimate seepage under dams and sheet piling. Upward seepage can cause erosion if the velocity is high enough. Seepage pressures reduce effective stress in soils, which can lead to failures in structures like levees. The concept of effective stress, introduced by Terzaghi, states that effective stress between soil particles is total stress minus pore water pressure. Pore water pressure is hydrostatic if not flowing, increasing linearly with depth below the water table. Capillary action causes water to rise above the

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Maan Miralles
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36 views4 pages

Flownets: Effective Stress and Capillarity: Hydrostatic Conditions

This document discusses flownets, which are used to estimate water flow through soils. Flownets represent flow lines showing the direction of water flow and equipotential lines showing areas of equal total head. They can estimate seepage under dams and sheet piling. Upward seepage can cause erosion if the velocity is high enough. Seepage pressures reduce effective stress in soils, which can lead to failures in structures like levees. The concept of effective stress, introduced by Terzaghi, states that effective stress between soil particles is total stress minus pore water pressure. Pore water pressure is hydrostatic if not flowing, increasing linearly with depth below the water table. Capillary action causes water to rise above the

Uploaded by

Maan Miralles
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Flownets[edit]

Main article: Flownet

A plan flow net to estimate flow of water from a stream to a discharging well

Darcy's Law applies in one, two or three dimensions. [3] In two or three dimensions, steady state
seepage is described by Laplace's equation. Computer programs are available to solve this
equation. But traditionally two-dimensional seepage problems were solved using a graphical
procedure known as flownet.[3][14][15] One set of lines in the flownet are in the direction of the water flow
(flow lines), and the other set of lines are in the direction of constant total head (equipotential lines).
Flownets may be used to estimate the quantity of seepage under dams and sheet piling.

Seepage forces and erosion[edit]


When the seepage velocity is great enough, erosion can occur because of the frictional drag exerted
on the soil particles. Vertically upwards seepage is a source of danger on the downstream side of
sheet piling and beneath the toe of a dam or levee. Erosion of the soil, known as "soil piping", can
lead to failure of the structure and to sinkhole formation. Seeping water removes soil, starting from
the exit point of the seepage, and erosion advances upgradient. [16] The term "sand boil" is used to
describe the appearance of the discharging end of an active soil pipe. [17]

Seepage pressures[edit]
Seepage in an upward direction reduces the effective stress within the soil. When the water pressure
at a point in the soil is equal to the total vertical stress at that point, the effective stress is zero and
the soil has no frictional resistance to deformation. For a surface layer, the vertical effective stress
becomes zero within the layer when the upward hydraulic gradient is equal to the critical gradient.
[14]
 At zero effective stress soil has very little strength and layers of relatively impermeable soil may
heave up due to the underlying water pressures. The loss in strength due to upward seepage is a
common contributor to levee failures. The condition of zero effective stress associated with upward
seepage is also called liquefaction, quicksand, or a boiling condition. Quicksand was so named
because the soil particles move around and appear to be 'alive' (the biblical meaning of 'quick' – as
opposed to 'dead'). (Note that it is not possible to be 'sucked down' into quicksand. On the contrary,
you would float with about half your body out of the water.) [18]

Effective stress and capillarity: hydrostatic conditions [edit]


Spheres immersed in water, reducing effective stress.

Main article: Effective stress


To understand the mechanics of soils it is necessary to understand how normal stresses and shear
stresses are shared by the different phases. Neither gas nor liquid provide significant resistance
to shear stress. The shear resistance of soil is provided by friction and interlocking of the particles.
The friction depends on the intergranular contact stresses between solid particles. The normal
stresses, on the other hand, are shared by the fluid and the particles. Although the pore air is
relatively compressible, and hence takes little normal stress in most geotechnical problems, liquid
water is relatively incompressible and if the voids are saturated with water, the pore water must be
squeezed out in order to pack the particles closer together.
The principle of effective stress, introduced by Karl Terzaghi, states that the effective stress σ' (i.e.,
the average intergranular stress between solid particles) may be calculated by a simple subtraction
of the pore pressure from the total stress:
where σ is the total stress and u is the pore pressure. It is not practical to measure σ' directly, so
in practice the vertical effective stress is calculated from the pore pressure and vertical total
stress. The distinction between the terms pressure and stress is also important. By
definition, pressure at a point is equal in all directions but stresses at a point can be different in
different directions. In soil mechanics, compressive stresses and pressures are considered to be
positive and tensile stresses are considered to be negative, which is different from the solid
mechanics sign convention for stress.

Total stress[edit]
For level ground conditions, the total vertical stress at a point, , on average, is the weight of
everything above that point per unit area. The vertical stress beneath a uniform surface layer
with density , and thickness  is for example:
where  is the acceleration due to gravity, and  is the unit weight of the overlying layer. If
there are multiple layers of soil or water above the point of interest, the vertical stress may
be calculated by summing the product of the unit weight and thickness of all of the overlying
layers. Total stress increases with increasing depth in proportion to the density of the
overlying soil.
It is not possible to calculate the horizontal total stress in this way. Lateral earth
pressures are addressed elsewhere.

Pore water pressure[edit]


Main article: Pore water pressure
Hydrostatic conditions[edit]
Water is drawn into a small tube by surface tension. Water pressure, u, is negative above and
positive below the free water surface

If there is no pore water flow occurring in the soil, the pore water pressures will
be hydrostatic. The water table is located at the depth where the water pressure is equal to
the atmospheric pressure. For hydrostatic conditions, the water pressure increases linearly
with depth below the water table:
where  is the density of water, and  is the depth below the water table.
Capillary action[edit]
Due to surface tension, water will rise up in a small capillary tube above a free surface
of water. Likewise, water will rise up above the water table into the small pore spaces
around the soil particles. In fact the soil may be completely saturated for some distance
above the water table. Above the height of capillary saturation, the soil may be wet but
the water content will decrease with elevation. If the water in the capillary zone is not
moving, the water pressure obeys the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium, , but note
that , is negative above the water table. Hence, hydrostatic water pressures are
negative above the water table. The thickness of the zone of capillary saturation
depends on the pore size, but typically, the heights vary between a centimeter or so for
coarse sand to tens of meters for a silt or clay.[3] In fact the pore space of soil is a
uniform fractal e.g. a set of uniformly distributed D-dimensional fractals of average linear
size L. For the clay soil it has been found that L=0.15 mm and D=2.7.[19]
The surface tension of water explains why the water does not drain out of a wet sand
castle or a moist ball of clay. Negative water pressures make the water stick to the
particles and pull the particles to each other, friction at the particle contacts make a sand
castle stable. But as soon as a wet sand castle is submerged below a free water
surface, the negative pressures are lost and the castle collapses. Considering the
effective stress equation, , if the water pressure is negative, the effective stress may be
positive, even on a free surface (a surface where the total normal stress is zero). The
negative pore pressure pulls the particles together and causes compressive particle to
particle contact forces. Negative pore pressures in clayey soil can be much more
powerful than those in sand. Negative pore pressures explain why clay soils shrink
when they dry and swell as they are wetted. The swelling and shrinkage can cause
major distress, especially to light structures and roads. [14]
Later sections of this article address the pore water pressures
for seepage and consolidation problems.

Water at particle contacts


 

intergranular contact force due to surface tension


 

Shrinkage caused by drying

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