Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Soil Cohesion PDF
Soil Cohesion PDF
Soil Cohesion PDF
Hajime Yokoi
To cite this article: Hajime Yokoi (1968) Relationship between soil cohesion and shear strength,
Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 14:3, 89-93, DOI: 10.1080/00380768.1968.10432750
Hajime YOKOI
National lnsfltute of Agricultural Sciences, Tokyo, Japan
RECEIVED NOVEMBER 6, 1967
1. Kibushi clay is porcelain clay taken from The trimmed soil was wetted sufficiently by
Tajimi city, in Gifu Prefecture. This sample is upward capillary movement of water and the
expected to have rather strong soil cohesion. shear strength was measured. The shear
2. Kashima soil is Ando soil (volcanic ash soil) strengths and the soil moisture contents are
from Ibaragi Prefecture. This sample is expected shown in Table 2 and Figure 2. As a matter of
to have weak soil cohesion, according to YAMANAKA's
studies (10).
Some soil properties are shown in Table 1. The
soil samples were previously air-dried and passed 4
through a 2 mm sieve.
3
~
Table I. Properties of samples
~ 2
~
Samples Mechanical composition Soil Organic VI
p (kg/em')
Kibushi 0.2 7.S 27.6 64.4 HC 0.4
clay Fig. 2. Shear strength lines under saturated
condition.
Kashi· 6.0 31. 4 44.3 IS.3 CL 7.0
rna soil
Table 2. Shear strength under saturated
condition
Experimental methods
Kibushi clay Kashima soil
Compressive
Shear strength: The apparatus used was a one- stress Shear Moisture Shear Moisture
dimentional shear apparatus (direct shear apparatus). kg/em 2 strength content strength content
The trimming case was a cylindrical metal, 5 cm in -~------~
kg/ern' % kg/ern' ~t"
inside diameter, and 1. 2 cm in height. The area of 1 0.59 33.5 0.64 71. 3
shear surface was about 20 cm'. The experimental 2 1.11 32.7 1. 23 68.0
procedure was carried out with reference to Methods 3 l.64 31. 5 l. 75 67.2
of Soil Analysis (7). The compressive stresses ap- 2.14 29.6 2.31 65.4
4
plied were from 1 Kg/cm' to 5 Kg, cm'. The mois-
5 2.65 29.1 2.74 64.2
ture contents of the tested samples were determined
90
SOIL COHESION AND SHEAR STRENGTH
course, soil moisture content decreased with the Table 4. Shear strength of Kashima soil
increase of compressive stress, and bulk density under unsaturated condition
of the sheared soils increased with the increase
Compressive Shear Moisture Shear Moisture
of compressive stress, because excess water stress strength content strength content
was drained through porous plate. As shown kg/cm' kg/em' % kg/cm' %
in Figure 2, the shear strength lines obtained 1 O. 75 62.6 0.86 37.5
are almost straight for both soils, and it is 2 1. 25 59.6 1. 62 35.6
found that the shear strength lines pass through 3 1. 73 61.1 2.39 37.1
very near the point of origin on the abscissa. 4 2.40 58.6 2.99 38.8
This fact shows that initial stresses calculated 5 2.79 58.5 3.51 39.6
from shear experiments under saturated condi-
tion are almost equal to zero, and does support
the assumption mentioned above; that is, shear
5 /
~
strength of sieved soil under saturated condi-
tion is almost the same as that of cohesion less
/~
soil.
4
'"' /~
In connection with this problem, it was found e 3 l' .'
Table 7. Comparison of soil cohesion in has not been the same as that in soil mechanics,
relation to angle of wedge and it is assumed that there is a firm relation-
Soil cohesion
ship between soil cohesion and shear cohesion;
Soil
moisture that is, soil cohesion is equivalent to initial
content 13° wedge 30° wedge 60° wedge stress which acts as a compressive stress to
°0 kg/cm 2 kg/cm 2 kg/cm 2
the corresponding shear cohesion.
5.5 4.2 4.4 6.1 From the experimental results, it is found
20.4 1.8 1.9 2.8 that shear lines under saturated condition pass
30.8 0.5 0.6 0.9 through very near the point of origin, because
sieved soils under saturated condition have lit-
for reference; tan 13°/2=0.114 tle soil cohesion, and that soil which has
tan 30°/2=0.268 tan 60°/2=0.577.
strong soil cohesion has strong shear strength.
of soil cohesion by the use of three kinds of Although the absolute value of soil cohesion
wedges are shown in Table 7. The force deter- can not be measured owing to the effective
mined by the use of 13° wedge is theoretically angle of extreme edge, soil cohesion measured
expected to be two times larger than that meas- by the metal-wedge method is closely related
ured by the use of 30° wedge. As shown in to initial stress. Consequently, it is probable
Table 7, however, the differences between the that soil cohesion acts as a compressive stress
forces measured by the use of 13° wedge and to the corresponding shear cohesion.
those of 30° wedge are very small, but the
forces measured by the use of 60° wedge are Acknowledgment
much larger. From these results and other The auther is indebted to Dr. K. YAMANA-
results described above, it is thought that the KA for his theoretical suggestion, and thanks
effective angle of extreme edge of 13° wedge, Dr. S. MOTOMURA, Mr. Y. AKIYAMA, and
which has been used up to the present time, Mr. S. FUKUZAKURA of the Institute for the
is larger than 13°, and that the corresponding help they rendered in this investigation.
tan 0/2 may be nearly equal to 0.25, at least
for this test. However, it is necessary to note References
that the use of a blunt wedge is not always 1) ATTERBERG, A.: Intern. Mitt. Bodenk., 2, 149
profitable for the measurement of soil cohesion (1912)
because the adhesion of soil to the wedge and 2) BAVER, L. D.: Soil Physics, 3rd ed., John
the compression by a blunt wedge affect the Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1959, p. 99.
3) FISHER, R. A.: j. Agr. Sci., 16, 492 (1926)
measurement of soil cohesion. For the present,
4) HAINES, W. B.: j. Agr. Sci., 15, 529 (1925)
therefore, it is experimentally feasible that 5) JUMIKIS, A. R.: Soil Mechanics, D. Van Nos-
soil cohesion measured by 13° metal-wedge trand Company, Inc., New York, 1962, p. 477.
could be calculated by the following formula: 6) NICHOLS, M. L.: Agr. Eng., 12, 259 (1931)
KW 7) SALLBERG, J. R.: Methods of Soil Analysis,
c=--p; Part 1, Amer. Soc. of Agr., Inc., USA, 1965,
where K is constant owing to the effective p. 431
angle of the used wedge. From these results, 8) TERZAGHI, K.: Theoretical Soil Mechanics,
the soil cohesion values determined by the John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1959, p. 7.
metal-wedge method can not be compared ex- 9) TSCHEBOTARIOFF, G. P.: Soil Mechanics,
actly with the initial stresses. However, it is Foundations, and Earth Structures, Me Graw-
Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1951,
possible to assume that soil cohesion acts as
p. 126
initial stress equivalent to compressive stress. 10) YAMANAKA, K.: Bul. Nat. Inst. Agr. Sci.
For further determinations, detailed studies (Japan) Ser. B. No. 6 (1955)
using many kinds of artifical and natural soils 11) YAMANAKA, K. et a!.: Soil Mechanics and
are being carried out. Foundation Engineering (japan), 12, 40 (1964)
12) YOKOI, H. and FUKUZAKURA, S.: Abstracts of
Summary Annual Meeting, Soc. Sci. Soil and Manui'e,
The definition of cohesion used in soil physics japall., No. 13, 6 (1967)
93