TCS 6102

Advanced Soil Mechanics

STRESSES IN SOILS
1. Introduction
The safety of any geotechnical structure is dependent on the strength of the soil.
The strength of soils is therefore of paramount importance to geotechnical
engineers.
The word strength is used loosely to mean shear strength, which is the internal
frictional resistance of a soil to shearing forces.

In mechanics the stresses are imposed on homogeneous, elastic, rigid bodies by

external forces. Soils do not have these properties.
Why do we have to study elastic methods of analysis?
• An elastic analysis of an isotropic material involves only two constants—
Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio
• To calculate the elastic settlement
• To determine the stresses and strains that are imposed on a soil mass by
external loads.
• To know how the surface stresses are distributed within the soil mass and the
resulting deformations.
1.1 Some definitions
 Shear strength is required to make estimates of the load-bearing capacity of
soils and the stability of geotechnical structures, and in analyzing the stress-
strain characteristics of soils.
 Stress, or intensity of loading, is the load per unit area. The fundamental
definition of stress is the ratio of the force ΔP acting on a plane ΔS to the area
of the plane ΔS when ΔS tends to zero; Δ denotes a small quantity.
 Effective stress (s') is the stress carried by the soil particles.
 Total stress (s) is the stress carried by the soil particles and the liquids and
gases in the voids.
 Strain, or intensity of deformation, is the ratio of the change in a dimension to
the original dimension or the ratio of change in length to the original length.
 Stress (strain) state at a point is a set of stress (strain) vectors corresponding
to all planes passing through that point. Mohr’s circle is used to graphically
represent stress (strain) state for two-dimensional bodies.
1.1 Some definitions continued ……..
 Porewater pressure, u, is the pressure of the water held in the soil pores.

 Isotropic means the material properties are the same in all directions, and also
the loadings are the same in all directions.

 Anisotropic means the material properties are different in different directions,

and also the loadings are different in different directions.

 Elastic materials are materials that return to their original configuration on

unloading and obey Hooke’s law.

 Plastic materials do not return to their original configuration on unloading.

2.0 Stresses and Strains

Stresses and displacements due to applied loads.

Normal stresses,

Strains,

Volumetric Strain,
2.1 Shear stresses and Shear strains

Shear stresses and shear strains.

Shear stress,

Simple shear strain,

For small strains, tan gzx = gzx, and therefore,

2.2 Summary
A normal stress is the load per unit area on a plane normal to the direction of
the load.
A shear stress is the load per unit area on a plane parallel to the direction of the
shear force.
Normal stresses compress or elongate a material; shear stresses distort a
material.
A normal strain is the change in length divided by the original length in the
direction of the original length.
Principal stresses are normal stresses on planes of zero shear stress.
Soils can only sustain compressive stresses.
3.0 Idealized stress–strain response and yielding

3.1 Material Responses to Normal Loading and Unloading

If an incremental vertical load, ΔP, is applied to a
deformable cylinder of cross-sectional area A,
the cylinder will compress by, say, Δz and the radius
will increase by Δr. The loading condition applied here
is called uniaxial loading.

The change in vertical stress is

The vertical and radial strains are and respectively

where Ho is the original length and ro is the original radius

The ratio of the radial (or lateral) strain to the vertical strain is called Poisson’s
ratio, n, defined as
Typical values of Poisson’s ratio for soil are listed in the table below

Linear and nonlinear stress–strain Idealized stress–strain curves of

curves of an elastic material. an elastoplastic material
The elastic modulus or initial tangent elastic modulus (E) is the slope of
the stress–strain line for linear isotropic material. For a nonlinear elastic
material, either the tangent modulus (Et) or the secant modulus (Es) or both
is determined from the stress–strain relationship.

The tangent elastic modulus is the slope of the tangent to the stress–strain
point under consideration.

The secant elastic modulus is the slope of the line joining the origin (0, 0)
to some desired stress–strain point. The tangent elastic modulus and the
secant elastic modulus are not constants. These moduli tend to decrease as
shear strains increase.

It is customary to determine the initial tangent elastic modulus for an

elastoplastic material by unloading it and calculating the initial slope of the
unloading line as the initial tangent elastic modulus

Strictly speaking, these moduli determined as indicated are not true elastic
moduli. The true elastic moduli are determined by small, incremental
loading and unloading of the soil.
3.2 Material Response to Shear Forces

Shear stress–shear strain response of elastoplastic material.

Shear forces distort materials. A typical response of an elastoplastic material to

simple shear is shown above.
The initial shear modulus (Gi) is the slope of the initial straight portion of the
tzx versus gzx curve.
The secant shear modulus (G) is the slope of a line from the desired shear
stress–shear strain point to the origin of the tzx versus gzx plot
3.3 Yield Surface

Elastic, yield, and elastoplastic stress states.

If we apply increments of vertical and radial stresses, since we are not applying any
shear stresses, the axial stresses and radial stresses are principal stresses: sz = s1 = SDsz
and sr = s3 = SDsr, respectively.

If various combinations of s1 and s3 are applied, a plot of the resulting yield points will
follow curve AB called the yield curve or yield surface

A material subjected to a combination of stresses that lies below this curve will respond
elastically (recoverable deformation). If loading is continued beyond the yield stress, the
material will respond elastoplastically (irrecoverable or permanent deformations occur). If
the material is isotropic, the yield surface will be symmetrical about the s1 and s3 axes.
4.0 General State of Stress
Stresses and strains for a linear, isotropic, elastic soil are
related through Hooke’s law. For a general state
of stress, Hooke’s law is

where E is the elastic (or Young’s) modulus and n is Poisson’s ratio. The above
equation is called the elastic equation or elastic stress–strain constitutive equation.
For example,

where is the shear modulus. We will call E, G, and n the elastic parameters.

The elastic and shear moduli for soils depend on the stress history, the direction of
loading, and the magnitude of the applied strains
Typical Values of E and G

Principal Stresses
If the stresses applied to a soil are principal stresses, then Hooke’s law reduces to

The right-hand side is referred to as the compliance matrix which translates to a

stiffness matrix as below
Displacements from Strains and Forces from Stresses
The displacements and forces are obtained by integration. For example, the vertical
displacement, Dz, is

and the axial force is

where dz is the height or thickness of the element and dA is the elemental area.
5.0 PLANE STRAIN AND AXIAL SYMMETRIC CONDITIONS
Plane strain condition - the strain in one direction is zero

Strip foundation

y
z
Soil element behind a retaining wall. Strip foundation
In the case of the retaining wall, the Y direction (2 direction) is the zero strain direction,
and therefore ε2 = 0 in compliance Equation
Hooke’s law for a plane strain condition is

and

In matrix form

The inverse gives:

 Axisymmetric Condition - where two stresses are equal

Hooke’s law for the axisymmetric condition is

In matrix form

Axisymmetric condition on a soil

element under the center of a tank. The inverse gives:

Plane strain and axisymmetric stress conditions are ideal conditions. In reality, the stress
conditions imposed on soils are much more complicated.
Example (Question 7.4)

A cylindrical soil, 75 mm in diameter and 150 mm long, is axially compressed. The

length decreases to 147 mm and the radius increases by 0.3 mm. Calculate:
(a) The axial and radial strains
(b) The volumetric strains
(c) Poisson’s ratio

(a)

(b)

(c)
STRESS AND STRAIN STATES

The stress experienced by a piece of material at a point in

a body may be fully described by the cube in the figure.

Stress may be determined for any plane that cuts through the
piece. If the part is experiencing plane strain, the orientation
of a plane can be described with a simply an angle.

Normal stress and tangential stress derivations

σy
Consider a plane ABCD
D t A Let σx and σy be the stress in the x and y directions
t respectively

σx σx t - shear or tangential stress on the plane
t
E Consider an oblique section / plane AE forming a right-
C t B
angled triangle ABE
σy
 A Every face has two forces making a total of 6 forces
acting on the triangle ABE
 Let the width of the plane be unity (=1).
σx
Therefore, forces on:
t
AB are: σx .AB and t.AB
E B BE are: σy .BE and t.BE
t AE are: σn .AE and σt .AE
σy

A
Resolving all forces acting on the right-angled
 triangle ABE
σxAB

tBE .sin Using conditions of equilibrium, Sfy = 0
(90-) tAB
E B


tBE
σyBE
tBE .cos
 σnAE = σxABcos + tAB sin + tBE cos + σyBEsin

Dividing through by AE and yields to:

σn = σxcos2 + 2t sin cos + σysin2
Some useful trig. identities (double-angle formulas):
1  cos(2)
cos(2) = cos 2 ()  sin 2 (); cos 2 () = ;
2
1  cos(2) sin(2)
sin 2 () = ; sin() cos() =
2 2

 1  cos(2)   1  cos(2) 
σn = σx   + t sin(2) + σ y   Which finally translates to:
 2   2 
 σ  σy   σx  σ y 
σn =  x +   cos(2)  t sin(2)
 2   2 
Similarly, the tangential stress is given by:
σ -σ 
σ t =  x y  sin(2)  t cos(2)
 2 
Location of the principal plane
Differentiating the normal stress equation with respect to  and setting it to equal to zero
to find the extremes OR equating the tangential stress equation to zero (shear stress = 0).
 σ  σy   σx  σ y  σ -σ 
σn =  x +   cos(2)  t sin(2) σ t =  x y  sin(2)  t cos(2)
 2   2   2 
dσ n  σx  σy  OR  σx - σy

=   .  2sin(2)   t  2 cos(2)  = 0   sin(2)  t cos(2) = 0
d  2   2 
 2t   2t 
tan(2) = 
tan(2) = 
 σ  σ   σ x  σ y 
 x y   

Differentiating the shear stress equation with respect to  and setting it to equal to zero to
find the extremes gives:
Principal stresses, s1 and s2
 σx - σy 
σt =   sin(2)  t cos(2) σ1,2 =Average stress + Resultant stress.
 2  2
dσ t  σ  σy   σx + σy   σx - σy 
 .  2 cos(2)   t  2sin(2)  = 0 =   t
2
=  x σ1,2  
d  2   2   2 
 2t 
tan(2s ) =  
 σ  σ 
 x y 

All the theory of Mohr’s circle comes from here.

 Mohr’s circle
One approach to find the stresses at a point, called the stress state, is to use Mohr’s
circle. The stress state at a point is the set of stress vectors corresponding to all planes
passing through that point.
Consider a two-dimensional element with stresses as below
σ1
σ3 

The principal stresses are related to the

stress components sz, sx, tzx by:
t
M 2
tmax   σ + σx   σz - σx 
P
(σz, tzx) σ1,3 = z      t zx
2

 A  2   2 
Plane on which the
t N
major principal stress
acts
σ 2
The angle between the major principal
3 O 1
σ stress plane and the horizontal plane () is
σ3 σ1
t
tan  = zx
B σz - σx
(σx, -tzx)
Mohr’s circle
The stresses on a plane oriented at an angle :
From the horizontal plane are: From the principal plane are:

 σ  σx   σz  σx   σ  σ3   σ1  σ 3 
σ =  1 +  2  cos(2)
σ =  z +   cos(2)  tzx sin(2)  2   
 2   2 
σ -σ  σ -σ 
t = t cos(2) -  z x  sin(2) t =  1 3  sin(2)
 2   2 
In the above equations,  is positive for counterclockwise orientation.
The maximum (principal) shear stress is at the top of the circle with magnitude
σ -σ
tmax = 1 3
2
Mohr’s Circle for Strain States
The strain state is found in a similar manner to the stress state:

where gzx is called the engineering shear strain or simple shear strain

The maximum simple shear strain is:

Example (Question 7.10)
A soil specimen (100mm x100mm x100mm) is subjected to the forces shown in Figure
below. Determine:
(a) the magnitude of the principal stresses,
(b) the orientation of the principal stress plane to the horizontal,
(c) the maximum shear stress, and
(d) the normal and shear stresses on a plane inclined at 20° clockwise to the horizontal.

Counterclockwise shear positive