ASSIGNMENT-1

1. The stresses on a failure plane in a drained test form direct shear test on a cohesionless soil
are as shown below.
Normal stress 100 kPa
Shear stress 40 kPa

a) Draw the Mohr’s circle and determine the angle of shearing resistance and the angle
which the failure plane makes with the major principal plane.
b) Find the major and minor principal stresses.
c) The stresses on a plane oriented at 250 clockwise from the major principal stress plane.
2. The results shown in Table 1 were obtained at failure in a series of triaxial tests
on specimens of saturated clay initially 38 mm in diameter by 76 mm long. Determine the
values of the shear strength parameters with respect to (a) total stress and (b) effective
stress. The principal stress difference at failure in each test is obtained by dividing
the axial load by the cross-sectional area of the specimen at failure. The initial values
of length, area and volume for each specimen are:
Table-1:

Type of test Axial Volume

Cell Pressure Axial Load
Deformation change
(kN/m2) (N)
(mm) (ml)
200 222 9.83 -
Undraind (UU) 400 215 10.06 -
600 226 10.28 -
200 403 10.81 6.6
Draind (CD) 400 848 12.26 8.2
600 1265 14.17 9.5

3. The results shown in Table-2 were obtained for peak failure in a series of consolidated
undrained triaxial tests, with pore water pressure measurement, on specimens of saturated
clay. Plot the strength envelope in terms of total stress and effective stresses and determine
the strength parameters.
Table-2:

Cell-Pressure Deviatoric stress Pore-water pressure

Sample-No
(kN/m2) (kN/m2) (kN/m2)
1 250 152 120
2 500 300 250
3 750 455 350