Example

Stress in soil mass caused by external loadings

The normal stress at a point will have stresses acting in all three directions as shown in the
following figure.

σzz
Y

σyy

σxx

Figure - Normal stress

The shear stress at a point will have stresses acting in all three directions as shown in the
following figure.
X

Figure - Shear stress

Let’s consider the normal stresses acting on a soil mass, especially the vertical stress, σz. The
external stresses/forces acting on the soil may increase/decrease the stress in the soil mass.
Let us see how we can estimate the stress changes due to different type of stress/forces acting
on the soil.

Stress caused by a concentrated force

Consider concentrated force acting on the soil mass as shown in the following figure.

It can be shown that the normal stress change due to the applied concentrated force at a point
as shown in the above diagram can be estimated using the following equations referred as
Boussinesq’s solution:

The vertical stress change is causing the most of the settlement and hence, we will
concentrate more on the vertical stress change, Δσzz.

The equation for the vertical stress change can be rearranged to the following format:
The variation of the I1 with (r/z) values are given in Table below:

Stress caused by a uniformly loaded circular area

Using the Boussinesq’s solution for vertical stress increment due to a point load at a point,
the vertical stress change along the centreline of a circular loaded area having a radius r can
be estimated from the following equation:
Vertical stress increment due to a rectangular loaded area

Boussinesq’s solution can be used to estimate the stress increment under a corner of a
rectangular loaded area as well.

The n/ and m/ may be estimated from the following chart.

Figure – Variation of I5 with m/ and n/

Stress variations at other points within a rectangular loaded area may be estimated by
considering appropriate rectangles with corner points.

Example

Estimate the stress at a point 10m below the loaded area under the centreline of the 20m x
20m rectangular area loaded with 100 kPa