101401 Soil Mechanics Question Bank 1. A soil sample has a porosity of 30%. Specific gravity of solids in soil is 2.70.

0. Calculate its (a) Void Ratio, (b) Dry Density and (c) Unit Weight if the soil sample is fully saturated. 2. Discharge and seepage velocities of a soil portion is 1.5 x 10-3 and 2.5 x 10-3 cm/s. Find the void ratio of the soil. 3. If uniformity coefficient of a soil is twice its coefficient of curvature, find the ratio between D60 and D30. 4. A soil sample has a bulk unit weight of 20 kN/m3 and water content is 15%. Calculate the water content of the soil when its dried partially to a unit weight of 19.30 kN/m 3 while the voids ratio remains unchanged. 5. Depth of water in a river is 10m, 15m and 8m during months of February, July and December. Average saturated unit weight of soil is 19.81 kN/m3. Assuming that the level of river bed does not change, find the effective stress at a depth of 10m below the river bed during these months. 6. Determine the effective stress at 3m, 6m, 9m, 12m and 15m in a soil mass having s = 20kN/m3. Water table is 3m below ground surface. There is a capillary rise from water table level up to the ground level. Draw a total stress diagram up to 15m. 7. Unconfined compressive strength of a saturated clay is 200 kPa. If a cell pressure of 100 kPa is maintained on a similar specimen of clay in unconsolidated undrained test, find the deviator stress at which the sample will fail. 8. What is tghe max depth of temporary vertical cut that can be made in a purely cohesive soil of unconfined compressive strength 32 kPa and unit weight 16 kN/m3. Taylors stability number for this case can be taken as 0.261. 9. Mass of soil specimen coated with thin layer of paraffin wax is 690.6 g and the mass of soil alone is 683 g. When immersed in water, specimen displaces 350 cc of water. Specific gravity of solids in soil is 2.70 and that of wax is 0.89. Find the void ratio and the degree of saturation if it has got water content of 17%. 10. A partially saturated sample of soil has a volume of 60 cc and mass of 92 g. Sample is dried in an oven and its dried mass is 73.8 g. If the sp. Gravity of solids is 2.70, find the degree of saturation, water content and the void ratio. 11. A soils LL is 45%, PL is 20% and FI is 50%. Determine its toughness index. If the natural water content is 25%, find its consistency index and comment on its consistency. Classify the soil if fraction passing through sieve # 40 is 60%. 12. Calculate the coefficient of permeability of soil of 60 mm high and 5000 m 2 in crosssectional area. 450 cc water is seeped through in 10 minutes under an effective constant head of 400 mm. On oven drying, test specimen had a mass of 495 g. Taking the specific gravity of solids as 2.65, calculate the seepage velocity of water during test. 13. A bed of sand consists 3 horizontal layers of equal thickness. Coefficient of permeability of the upper and lower layers are 1 x 10-3 mm/s and that of middle layer is 0.5 x 10-3 mm/s. What is the ratio of effective permeability of the bed in the horizontal direction to that in vertical direction. 14. A stratum of clay with LL of 45% at a depth of 8m below ground level. Its natural water content id 40% and specific gravity of solids is 2.7. Above clay, there is a layer of sand and the water table is at 4m below ground level. Submerged unit weight of

sand is 10.5 kN/m3 and the unit weight of sand above water table is 17 kN/m3. Proposed building increases the average over-burden stress on the clay by 40 kPa. Estimate the probable settlement of clay layer. 15. A 10 m thick bed of sand over 6 m clay bed. Water table at ground surface level is lowered by drainage to a depth of 4 m, thereby decreasing the degree of saturation to 20% for the soil above water table. Determine the change in effective vertical pressure at the middle of the clay layer. Saturated unit weights of sand and clay are 20.6 kN/m3 and 17.6 kN/m3 respectively and dry unit weight of sand is 16.6 kN/m3. 16. Sand in a deep deposit has an internal friction of 40; a dry unit weight of 19.5 kN/m3 and saturated unit weight of 21 kN/m3. If the water table is at 1.5 m below ground level, what is the shearing resistance of the soil against sliding along a horizontal plane at a depth of 3 m from ground level. 17. Results of triaxial tests on 3 samples are 100 kPa 280 kPa; 200 kPa-350 kPa; 400 kPa-490 kPa for Cell pressure Deviator stress at failure readings. Find the shear strength of the soil from which the samples were drawn. 18. For the above data, estimate the deviator stress at failure for a cell pressure of 500 kPa. If the same soil is tested under direct shear apparatus, estimate the shear stress at which the sample will fail under a normal stress of 500 kPa. 19. Evaluate that the factor of safety of an infinite slope made of cohesionless soil is independent of height of the embankment. Find the factor of safety of cohesionless soil of internal angle of friction 40 for the slope angle of 30. 20. A proposed cutting in a homogenous and cohesive soil will have slope of 25 and shall be 8 m deep. Using Taylors stability nos., determine the factor of safety with respect to shear failure if the undrained cohesion pressure is 50 kPa, angle of internal friction is 10 and the unit weight of soil is 19 kN/m 3. 21. A soft normally consolidated clay layer is 20 m thick with a moisture content of 45%. Clays saturated unit weight is 20 kN/m3, particle specific gravity of 2.7 and LL 60%. A foundation load will subject the middle of the layer to a vertical stress increase of 10 kPa. Ground water level is at the surface of the clay. Estimate, a. Initial and final effective stress at the middle of the layer. b. Approximate value of the compression index Cc. c. Consolidation settlement of the foundation if the initial effective stress at the middle of the soil is 100 kPa. 22. A sample of sand above water table was found to have a natural moisture content of 15% and a unit weight of 18.84 kN/m3. Lab tests on a dried sample indicated values for emin = 0.5 and emax = 0.85 for the most dense and least dense states respectively. Compute the degree of saturation and the relative density. G = 2.65. 23. A sand deposit is 10m thick and overlies a bed of clay. Ground water table is 3m below the ground surface. If the sand above ground water table has a degree of saturation of 45%, plot the diagram showing the variatio0n of total stress, pore water pressure and the effective stress. Void ratio of sand is 0.70 and G = 2.65. 24. In a formation of cohesionless soil water table is at a depth of 3m. Degree of saturation is 0.5 and the average void ratio is 0.5. Sp. Gravity is 2.7., angle of internal friction is 30. Calculate the potential shear strength of a horizontal plane at a depth of 2.5m below the surface. Calculate the modified value of shear strength if the water table reaches the ground surface.

25. A cylindrical specimen of dry sand was tested in a triaxial test. Failure occurred under cell pressure of 1.2 kg/cm2 and at a deviator stress of 4 kg/cm2. a. What is the angle of shearing resistance of the soil? b. What were the normal and shear stresses on the failure plane? c. What angle did the failure plane make with the minor principle plane? d. What was the max shear stress on any plane in the specimen at the instant of failure and how was the plane in question be oriented with the major principle plane? 26. What will be the factors of safety with respect to average shearing strength, cohesion and internal friction of a soil for which the shear strength parameters obtained in lab tests are c = 32 kN/m2 and = 18. Expected parameters of mobilized shearing resistance are c = 21 kN/m2 and = 13. Average effective pressure on the failure plane is 110 kN/m2. Find a. Factor of safety with respect to height. b. Factor of safety with respect to friction when that with respect to cohesion is unity. c. Factor of safety with respect to strength. 27. Atterberg limits for a clay soil used as filling an earthen dam are LL = 60%, PL = 40% and SL = 25%. If a specimen of soil of volume 10 cc at LL has a volume 6.5 cc when dried, what would be its sp. gravity of the soil and shrinkage ratio? 28. A sample of coarse sand is 15cm high and 5.5cm in diameter. It was tested in constant head permeameter. Water permeated through the soil under a hydrostatic head of 50cm for 6 secs. The water collected was found to be weighing 500gms. Find the permeability of sample at room temperature. 29. A clay layer 3.6m thick is sandwiched between layers of sand. Calculate the time the clay layer will take to reach 5% consolidation. Coefficient of consolidation is 4 x 10 -5 cm2/sec. 30. A clay soil showed a decrease in void ratio from 1.2 to 1.1 when the pressure had increased from 0.25 to 0.5 kg/cm2. Calculate the coeff. of compressibility. Coeff. of consolidation determined in the test for the given stress increment was 10m 2/year. Calculate the coeff. of permeability in cm/sec. 31. Undrained triaxial tests carried out on 4 specimens of clay which gave the following results Cell pressure (kN/m2) Deviator stress (kN/m2) Pore pressure (kN/m2) 50 340 4.8 100 430 9 150 540 11 200 620 17

Determine the value of effective angle of sharing resistance and cohesion intercept by drawing modified failure envelope. 32. Representative LL and PL of saturated normally consolidated clay deposit are 60% and 30% respectively. Saturated unit weight of soil can be taken as 19 kN/m 3. Estimate the undrained shear strength of soil at a depth of 10m from ground surface. Water table is at 7m below ground level. Assume unit weight of soil above water table as 15 kN/m3.

33. A cutting 8m deep is to be made in a saturated clay with = 20kN/m3. Cu = 20kN/m3. = 0. A hard stratum exists at a depth of 12m below ground level. Determine the angle of slope at which failure would occur. 34. Dry density of soil and its specific gravity of solids are 18 kN/m3 and 2.7 respectively. Find the moisture content required to have 100% saturation of soil. 35. If the liquidity index of a soil is 0, find its consistency index. 36. Critical hydraulic gradient of a sandy soil is 1.0. Its sp. gravity is 2.7. Find its porosity.