Pressure Bulb or Stress Isobar Concept

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Stress Isobar or Pressure Bulb Concept
An isobar or pressure bulb is a stress contour or a line which connects all points below the ground
surface at which the vertical pressure is the same. In fact, an isobar is a spatial curved surface and
resembles a bulb in shape; this is because the vertical pressure at all points in a horizontal plane at
equal radial distances from the load is the same. Thus, the stress isobar is also called the ‘bulb of
pressure’ or simply the ‘pressure bulb’. The vertical pressure at each point on the pressure bulb is the
same. Pressure at points inside the bulb are greater than that at a point on the surface of the bulb; and
pressures at points outside the bulb are smaller than that value. Any number of pressure bulbs may be
drawn for any applied load, since each one corresponds to an arbitrarily chosen value of stress. A
system of isobars indicates the decrease in stress intensity from the inner to the outer ones and
reminds one of an ‘Onion bulb’. Hence the term ‘pressure bulb’. An isobar diagram, consisting of a
system of isobars appears somewhat as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.

Fig.1: Pressure bulb for point loads

 Fig. 2: Pressure isobar for footing

Procedure for plotting pressure bulb

The procedure for plotting an isobar is as follows: 1. Let it be required to plot an isobar for
which per unit area (10% isobar). Stress distribution is given by formula:

where, Thus,

2. Assuming various values for z, the

corresponding KB-values are computed. 3. For the computed values of KB, the corresponding r/z-
values are obtained. 4. For the assumed values of z, r-values can be calculated. It is obvious that, for

the same value of r on any side of the z-axis, or line of action of the point load, the value of is
the same; hence the isobar is symmetrical with respect to this axis. So, the other half can be drawn
from symmetry. When r= 0, KB= 0.4775; the isobar crosses the line of action of the load at a depth of:

The calculations are best performed in the form of a table as given below:
Table 1: Data for isobar of per unit area.

Depth z (units) Influence coefficients KB r/z r (units)

0.5 0.0250 1.501 0.750 0.1Q

1.0 0.1000 0.932 0.932 0.1Q

1.5 0.2550 0.593 0.890 0.1Q

2.0 0.4000 0.271 0.542 0.1Q

2.185 0.4775 0 0 0.1Q