AGEN 304 Lecture 8:

Review of previous lecture 7:

Effectives stress:
• no flow, downward and upward conditions

Shear strength:
– Definition
– Components
– Coloumb’s law
– Mohr theory
– Mohr-Coulomb theory
– Mohr-coulomb failure criterion & Mohr circle
 Lecture 8: Shear strength and failure theories

• Narrative summary of the Mohr-Coulomb theory

• Relationship between angle of failure of soil plane and angle of internal

friction

• Methods of measuring shear strength

• Relationship between major and minor principal stresses

• Application of Mohr-Coulomb Failure theory i.e.

– Rankine equation for active pressure on retaining structures
 Failure theories

How can we make the earth material with the Mohr circle above fail?
 Failure theories: Mohr-Coulomb criterion
• When the circle touches the Mohr-Coulomb failure
criterion/envelope (the straight line) shear failure occurs.

• There are three ways for the circle reach the straight line
to reach failure:

• 1)Increase σ1;

• 2)Decrease σ3;

• 3)Decrease both σ1 and σ3 by the same amount

(equivalent to increase the pore pressure discussed
before)
 Failure theories
• The angles on Mohr’s circle are twice the true angles in
physical space.

• Circle centre C= 0.5(1+3 )

• Circle Radius CD= 0.5(1-3 )

 Lecture 8: Failure theories
The Mohr-Coulomb theory of failure

• The previous lecture essentially dealt with Mohr’s circle of stresses for a
material in equilibrium.

• If at any point within a soil mass the shear stress becomes equal to the
shear strength of the soil failure will occur at that point.

• Failure thus occurs at a point where a critical combination of shear stress

and normal stress develops.

• The Mohr-Coulomb failure theory is a combination of Coulomb’s law and

Mohr’s circle of stress in a soil mass at failure.
 Failure theories
The theory is based on the following assumptions:

• That the material fails essentially by shear

• That the critical shear stress causing failure depends

on the properties of the material as well as normal
stress on the failure plane

• That the ultimate strength of the material is

determined by the stresses on the potential failure
plane i.e. the plane of shear.
 Failure theories
• As long as the soil remains in equilibrium, while in a state of sliding failure
then the stress combination on some plane in the material meets the
failure criterion according to Coulomb’s law:

 = c + n tan 

• It can therefore be said that the maximum shear strength exhibited by a

soil is represented by Coulomb’s linear function.

• The plot of normal and shear stresses corresponding to failure will give
what is termed a strength envelope or the failure criterion straight line.
This line of failure shear and normal stress combinations intersects the
shear axis (n = 0) at the value of cohesion c and has a slope  to the
horizontal axis
 Failure theories

• The strength limit (strength envelope) forms two straight lines in the
graph above making angles of  with the n axis and intersecting the -
axis at c.

• It is therefore possible for the soil to obey Coulomb’s law and Mohr’s
description of equilibrium stresses simultaneously.
 Failure theories
Relationship between f and the angle of internal friction :

It can be shown that:

• 2f = (180 –angle FAO’) but angle FAO = 180 –(90+ )

• 2f = 900 +

• And therefore => f = 450 + /2

 Failure theories
f = 450 + /2
Where
f: angle of soil failure plane
 : internal angle of friction

• Note:
• (1) That f the angle of the soil failure plane to the principal
stress 1 is independent of cohesion.

• (2) That the angle of internal friction  controls the attitude f

of the sliding plane.
 Failure theories
Relationship between major and minor principal stresses
• Recall that:
• Circle centre = 0.5(1+3)
• Circle Radius = 0.5(1-3)
•
• A relationship between the major and minor principal stresses at the
failure state can be established that;

• OO’= c/ tan  = c cot 

and
• Sin  = AF/AO’
 Failure theories
Relationship between major and minor principal
stresses

Given the above, then;

1-3= (1+3) sin  + 2c Cos 

• Writing the explicit equation in terms of the minor principal

stress 3 yields;

Which, in turn reduces to:

 Failure theories

• This equation is known as the Rankine Active earth pressure

case.

• Ka is the coefficient of active earth pressure.

• It is used to find the pressure acting on smooth vertical soil

retaining walls.
Failure theories & retaining structures:

Rankine earth pressure eqn

Coulomb earth pressure eqn

Shear strength: measurement
 Shear strength: measurement
Tests of shear strength
• In order to measure the soil shear strength, stress-strain behaviour is tested in the
laboratory using representative samples of the in-situ soil.

(1) Direct shear test:

• The soil specimen is enclosed in a box consisting of upper and lower halves with
porous plates to allow drainage of water from the specimen as load is applied.

• A normal stress is applied on a plane of potential failure (shear zone) through a

loading head

• The shear stress is increased until the specimen fails along that plane.

• Loading is done slowly to maintain the drained condition.

 Shear strength: Direct shear test
Compressive load

Figure 1 A typical direct shear box apparatus for measuring soil shear strength

• A stress deformation curve is obtained by plotting the

shear stress against the shear displacement.

• Although the test gives the value of shear stress τxz at

failure after applying a stress бz; Mohr’s circle cannot be constructed
because the thickness of shear zone is not known with precision.
 Shear strength: direct shear test
Advantages
• It is simple and
• In case of sands the specimen is easy to prepare.

Disadvantages
• Drainage conditions cannot be controlled (so only total
normal stress can be determined because pore water
pressure cannot).

• Shear stress on the failure plane is not uniform (failure occurs

progressively from the edges towards the centre of
specimen).

• Vertical load does not remain constant throughout the test.

 Shear strength: triaxial test
(2) The triaxial test
• This is a versatile test where a variety of stresses and drainage conditions can
be applied.

• The cylindrical soil specimen is enclosed within a thin rubber membrane and
placed in a triaxial cell filled with a fluid.

• Pressure is then applied to the fluid in the cell to induce a compressive stress
б3 on the specimen.

• If specimen undergoes volume change, drainage is provided by porous plate at

the bottom which is connected to a burette where change in water level is
measured.

• Therefore volume of compressibility can also be measured

Shear strength: Triaxial test
 Shear strength: Triaxial test
Advantages
• in case of saturated soil specimen the change in volume is
easily determined by measuring volume of pore water
draining from the sample.

• Change in axial length corresponds to movement of dial gauge

Disadvantages:

• Strain conditions in the specimen are not uniform due to

frictional restraints produced by loading cap and pedestal
disk.
 Shear strength: triaxial test

• In a triaxialcompression test, the direction of

the load is called the maximum principal
direction and the direction of the confining
pressure applied is the minimum principal
direction.
• Attention should be exercised to the fact that
the convention for definingthe principal
direction and principal stress may be different
from earth science and physics.
Failure theories: stress-strain behaviour
Triaxial test: typical results
 Shear strength: Triaxial test

Typical averaged drained shear test results for sand at increasing normal stress levels
 Shear stress

Where D = dense soil with void ratio e= 0.65;

M= medium soil with void ratio e= 0.55;
L = loose soil with void ratio=0.45
 Shear strength: failure theories

Triaxial test example:

• In a triaxial test of representative undisturbed samples
of a soil the following data was obtained
Test Cell pressure Additional vertical
(kN/m2) pressure(kN/m2)
1 50 84
2 150 134
3 250 186

Find
• (1) By graphical means the value of apparent cohesion and angle of internal
friction of the soil.
• (2) Check your solutions using the equations relating 1 and 3 above
• (3) Calculate f, the angle of the failure plane to the principal major stress 1
 Shear strength: triaxial test
Solution:
• Calculate the Major and Minor principal stresses from the data
provided

• First the cell pressure is equivalent to the minor stress (σ3) since
it acts horizontally on the sample.

• Second the cell pressure also acts vertically on the sample in

addition to the applied axial load.

• Therefore the major principal stress (σ1) at each failure state and
conditions is the sum of the axial load (additional vertical
pressure) and the cell pressure

• We can tabulate σ1, σ3, σ1+ σ3 and σ1- σ3

 Shear strength: triaxial test
A: Graphical method:

1. Tabulated stresses
Test 3 Cell pressure 1 Total vertical 1+3 1-3
(kN/m2) pressure(kN/m2) (kN/m2)
1 50 134 184 84
2 150 284 434 134
3 250 436 686 186
2. Construct Mohr’s circles:

For each test using the circle radius and circle centre values
calculated from

Circle centre = 0.5(1+3)

Circle Radius = 0.5(1-3)
 Shear strength: triaxial test
3. Determine angle of friction:

3.1 Construct a tangent to the 3 circles and obtain the value of

c from the intersection of this tangent and the y-axis.
3.2 Obtain  from the angle of the tangent to the horizontal.

We are done with question 1

 Shear strength: triaxial test
Question 2: Mathematical solution
1-3 = (1+3) sin  + 2c Cos 

• Using test 1 and 2

• Test 1: 84.4 = 184 sin  + 2c Cos 
• Test 2: 134 = 434 sin  + 2c Cos 
Do you obtain the same answer if you use test 1 and 3, or 2 and 3?

• -49.6 = 434 sin 

• Therefore Sin  =0.1984
• And  = ???? o
•
• By substitution into equation 1 you obtain c:
• 84.4 = 184 sin XXXXX + 2c Cos XXXX or any of the other 3 equations
• Therefore
• c = XXXXXX kN/m2
 Shear strength: Triaxial test

• Compare the graphical and mathematical

solutions. Do they agree?

Question 3: calculation of angle of failure

• Remember: f = 450 + /2

• Insert you angle of friction and compute angle of
failure of the soil plane