Soil Mechanics I

1 Basic characteristics for soils

Introduction
Description
State
Classification

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 Introduction

GEOTECHNICAL STRUCTURES

[1]

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 Introduction

Geotechnical (Engineering Geology) Site Investigation

Input data for design (geotechnical, structural)

Engineering Geology - maps, cross sections,

rocks, soils, mineralogy, origin....

Mechanical properties
Strength
Compressibility
Permeability
Technology – compaction...

Ground Water

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 Introduction

GEOMECHANICS

Mechanics of Rocks

Mechanics of Soils

Mechanics of Snow and Ice

+ Mechanics of Powders

= MECHANICS OF PARTICULATE MATERIALS

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 Introduction

PARTICULATE MATERIALS

Influence of water on
mechanical behaviour

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 Introduction

Role of pore volume, pore liquid

The pore liquid – water – exhibits the primary role in the soil (particulate
materials) mechanical behaviour

„principle of effective pressure“ σ' = σ - u

σ' controls the mechanical behaviour of soils (strength, deformation)

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 Introduction

Rock bolts

[3]

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 Introduction

Rock bolts

[3]

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 Introduction

Rock bolts

[3]

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 Introduction

DILATANCY

A further energy necessary for shearing dense particulate materials (below a

limiting porosity)

(Casagrande, 1936)

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 Introduction

STRUCTURE, SENSITIVITY

Leda Clay (Can)

[2]

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 Introduction

SUBSIDENCE

Mexico Basin – lowering of

GWL

(Legget and Karrow, 1982,

Geology in civil
engineering, McGraw Hill)

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 Introduction

Influence of water – pore pressures

[1]

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 Introduction

HISTORY of SM

1775 Coulomb (France) – friction in soils - fortifications

ca 1911 Atterberg (Sweden) – clay plasticity

1925 Terzaghi – (Austria, USA) - his book „Erdbaumechanik...“ „Theoretical

soil mechanics (1943) = foundation of the new discipline; principle of
effective stress (±1936); one-dimensional consolidation...

Casagrande, Hvorslev (USA) – strength, dilatancy, „critical void ratio“,

plasticity, soil classification...

Roscoe, Schofield, Wroth (UK – Cambridge) – the first theory combining

deformations and strength based „critical state soil mechanics“

Skempton (UK) colloid activity of clays, residual strength

Fellenius, Petterson, Bishop, Janbu - ...slope stability...1930's to 1960's

from 1970 FEM, BEM ... DEM... in geomechanics

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 Soil Description

GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTION (= description, not state)

sieving and/or sedimentation → grading curve

[2]
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 POPIS ZEMIN

Sieving

[4]

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 Soil Description

Sedimentation
using hydrometer

Stokes' law

v=f(D2;density, viscosity)

[4]
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 POPIS ZEMIN

Combination of sieving
and sedimentation

[4]

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 Soil Description

Quantification of the grading curves:

Effective diameter: Def = D10 to D20

Uniformity coefficient: CU = D60 / D10

CU< ca 5 uniform soil = poorly graded

CU>15 non-uniform soil (well graded)

Coefficient of curvature: CC = (D30)2 / (D60 × D10)

CC = 1 to 3 (and CU> 4 to 6) well graded

CC = <1 or >3 gap-graded

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 Soil Description

Particle size Fractions EN 14688-1

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 Soil Description - Classification

Composite soil:

Principal fractions

Secondary fractions

saGr = sandy gravel

grCl = gravelly clay

Interlayered soil

e.g.: gravelly clay interbedded with sand: grClsa

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 Soil Description × State

WATER CONTENT – STATE

w = Mw / Md = Mw / Ms

Volumetric water content θ = Vw / Vt ( = S × n)

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 Soil Description

CONSISTENCY LIMITS
(„Atterberg limits“)

Liquid limit wL (the water content at which the soil changes from liquid to solid
material with plastic behaviour)

Plastic limit wP (with further decrease of the water content the soil stops being
plastic)

Shrinkage limit wS

Determination on a paste, D < 0.4 mm

Plasticity index IP= wL-wP

DESCRIPTION (= constants for a given soil!)

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 Soil Description

Liquid limit wL

[4]

Looking for water content at which an arbitrary penetration is reached

(10mm with 60º/60g cone (20mm with 30º/80g))
'foundation' failure – undrained strength of about 2-3 kPa

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 Soil Description

Liquid limit wL

[2]

Casagrande method

Looking for the water content at which the groove closes at 10 mm (slope
failure – undrained strength of about 2-3 kPa)

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 Soil Description

Casagrande apparatus

[2]

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 Soil Description

Plastic limit wP

[2]

Looking for the water content at which the soil crumbles as shown – undrained
strength of about 200 - 300 kPa

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 Soil Description - Classification

PLASTICITY

Casagrande plasticity chart

PLASTICITY (L, I, H...) determined by wL only

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 Soil Description

[2]

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 Soil Description

ACTIVITY A (of clay minerals)

A (= IA) = IP / (% of clay fraction by mass)

(Skempton, 1953)

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 State properties

CONSISTENCY (STATE) - fine-grained soils

Consistency Index IC = (wL-w) / (wL-wP)

Liquidity Index IL=(w-wP) / (wL-wP)

Consistency:
liquid IC<0
soft, firm (plastic) IC = 0 to 1
stiff IC >1

EN 14688-2
very soft IC<0,25
soft IC = 0,25 to 0,50
firm IC = 0,50 až 0,75
stiff IC = 0,75 až 1,0
very stiff IC > 1,0

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 State properties

Amount of pores / voids

POROSITY n = Vp / Vt

VOID RATIO e = Vp / Vs

...„phase diagram“

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 State properties

DENSITY (UNIT MASS)

Density of solid particles - Specific density (description not state)

ρs= Ms / Vs = Md / Vs

Density at natural water content (bulk density)

ρ = Mt / Vt = (Mw +Md) / Vt

Saturated density
ρsat= Mt / Vt = (Mw +Md) / Vt

Dried density
ρd= Md / Vt

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 State properties

UNIT WEIGHT

γ = ρg

...unit weight under water table: Archimédes law

→ γ' = γsat – γw

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 State properties

Determination of densities - determination of volume

density of solid particles – density bottle

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 State properties

Determination of densities - determination of volume

Other densities – ρ, ρsat, ρd

- undisturbed sample – cylinder/cube – measuring the dimensions

- undisturbed sample – irregular shape weighing under water / expelled

water

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 State properties

....Determination of densities - determination of volume

- if impossible to take undisturbed sample (sands...) measuring of the

volume of „excavation“ (and weighing the excavated soil)

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 State properties

Using the phase diagram for useful expressions

for example e = n / (1 - n)

→ ρd = ρs / (1 + e) → determination of e from the dry density:

e = (ρs – ρd) / ρd

→ ρd = ρ / (1 + w); ...etc...

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 State properties

Degree of saturation S (≡ Sr)

S = Vw / Vp

Determination from e and w

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 State properties

RELATIVE DENSITY

ID=(emax- e) / (emax- emin)

loose ID= 0 to 0,33

medium ID = 0,33 to 0,67
dense ID = 0,67 to 1

very loose ID= 0 to 0,15

loose ID= 0,15 to 0,35
medium ID= 0,35 to 0,65
dense ID= 0,65 to 0,85
very dense ID = 0,85 to 1,0

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 Role of Fines and of Def

Clayey sand (25% C a 75% S) of e = 0,5.

What is the role of clay fraction in the mechanical behaviour of the soil?

Consider removing of clay fraction:

→ e = 1,0

The loosest sand with its spherical particles in contact: → e<1

→ Sand grains (spheres) at e = 1 cannot be in contact

→ At 25% of C and 75% of S spherical grains 'float' in the clay 'matrix'

→ Clay may be expected to control the behaviour of the above soil having
just 25% of clay fraction

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 Role of Fines and of Def

Change in hydraulic conductivity (permeability) with the amount of fines (in a

mixture of ash and sludge)

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 Role of Fines and of Def

Change in strength with the amount of fines (in a crushed rock)

(Mašín, 2000)

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 Examples of Use of Grading Curve (± Description)

Estimation of emin and emax of a snad

from Cu and shape of grains

(Youd, 1973 in Mitchell and Soga, 2005)

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 Examples of Use of Grading Curve (± Description)

Dependence of emin a emax on amount of silt fraction in a sand

(Polito and Martin, 2001 in Mitchell and Soga, 2005)

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 Examples of Use of Grading Curve (± Description)

Estimation of hydraulic conductivity of a sand

Hazen: k [ms-1] = 0,01D102 [mm]

...fine and medium sand: k = [A / (Cu+B) + C] D102, where A, B a C depend on

density

Estimation of hydraulic conductivity of fine-grained soil

k = f (e, wP, IP)

k = f (e, CF%, IA)

(full correlations in Soos and Boháč (2002), Geotechnical Engineering Handbook, Ernst & Sohn)

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 Examples of Use of Grading Curve (± Description)

Use of soil in filters

(Cedergren, 1988)

D15(of filter) / D85 (of soil) < 4 to 5 < D15(of filter) / D15 (of soil)

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 Examples of Use of Grading Curve (± Description)

Use of soil in fills

Dams – for the impervious core the soil must be from the zone 1 or
2; for the stabilisation part from zone 3 or 4

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 Examples of Use of Grading Curve (± Description)

Use in estimating frost heave – frost susceptibility

(Beskow, 1935 in [2])

[2]

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 Soil
POJMENOVÁNÍ
Classification

Classification according to EN

→Grading only

[5]

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 Soil Classification

USCS classification → grading + plasticity chart

The Czech modification:

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 Literature for the course Soil Mechanics II

http://labmz1.natur.cuni.cz/~bhc/s/sm1/

Atkinson, J.H. (2007) The mechanics of soils and foundations. 2nd ed. Taylor & Francis.

Further reading:
Wood, D.M. (1990) Soil behaviour and critical state soil mechanics. Cambridge
Univ.Press.
Mitchell, J.K. and Soga, K (2005) Fundamentals of soil behaviour. J Wiley.
Atkinson, J.H: and Bransby, P.L. (1978) The mechanics of soils. McGraw-Hill, ISBN
0-07-084077-2.
Bolton, M. (1979) A guide to soil mechanics. Macmillan Press, ISBN 0-33318931-0.
Craig, R.F. (2004) Soil mechanics. Spon Press.
Holtz, R.D. and Kovacs, E.D. (1981) An introduction to geotechnical engineering,
Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-484394-0
Feda, J. (1982) Mechanics of particulate materials, Academia-Elsevier.)

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 References (used figures)

[1] Atkinson, J.H. (2007) The mechanics of soils and foundations. 2nd ed. Taylor & Francis.
[2] Holtz, R.D. and Kovacs, E.D. (1981) An introduction to geotechnical engineering, Prentice-Hall,
ISBN 0-13-484394-0
[3] Hoek, E. (2007) Practical rock engineering (2007 edition).
http://www.rocscience.com/hoek/PracticalRockEngineering.asp (downloaded 2008/02).
[4] TS/ISO 17892
[5] EN ISO 14688

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