Advance Soil Mechanics

Contact Hours -2+2

Dr Hassan Mujtaba
 Course Content
• Introduction

– Phase Relations
– Soil Mineralogy
– Index Properties
– Soil Classification
– Interparticle Forces
 Course Content
• Ground Water and Seepage:
– Effective stress concept
– Principal Stresses
– Stress Path
– Stress Distribution
– Stress Strain Behaviour of Sands
– Strength of sands
– Mohr Coulomb Theory
– 1 & 2 Dimensional Flow
 Course Content
• Ground Water and Seepage (cont’d):
– Permeability & Flow Nets
– Drained Stress-Strain and Strength Behaviour
– Stability of drained slopes
– Pore Pressure during undrained loading
• Settlement and Consolidation
• Settlement due to exceptional causes
• Frozen Soils
 Reference Books
• Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering
– Holtz and Kovacs
• Geotechnical Engineering Principals and Practices
– Donald. P. Coduto
• Advance Soil Mechanics
– Braja M Das
• Principal of Geotechnical Engineering
– Braja M Das
 Reference Books
• Soil Mechanics
– Lambe and Witman
 What is soil
• The word 'soil' is derived from the Latin
word solium which, means the upper layer
of the earth that may be dug or plowed;
specifically, the loose surface material of
the earth in which plants grow. (In
Agriculture)
 What is soil (cont’d)
• In geology, earth’s crust is assumed to
consist of unconsolidated sediments which
is called mantle.

• The upper layer of mantle which can

support plants is called soil.
 What is soil (cont’d)
• The term ‘soil’ in Soil Engineering is
defined as an unconsolidated material,
composed of solid particles, produced by
the disintegration of rocks.
• The void space between the particles may
contain air, water or both. The solid
particles may contain organic matter.
Nomenclature in Soil Engineering/ Geology
 Soil Mechanics
• According to Dr. Karl Terzaghi (Father of
Soil Mechanics),
– Soil mechanics is the application of the laws
of mechanics and hydraulics to engineering
problems dealing with sediments and other
unconsolidated accumulations of solid
particles produced by the mechanical and
chemical disintegration of rock, regardless of
whether or not they contain an admixture of
organic constituents.
 Soil Mechanics (cont’d)
• Branch of mechanics which deals with the
action of forces on soil and with the flow of
water in soil.
• The soil consists of discrete solid particles
which are neither strongly bonded as in
solids nor they are as free as particles of
fluids. Consequently, the behavior of soil is
somewhat intermediate between that of a
solid and a fluid.
 SCOPE OF SOIL ENGINEERING

• Foundations
• Retaining Structures
• Stability of Slopes
• Underground Structures
• Pavement Design
• Earthen Dam and Embankments
• Miscellaneous Soil Problems
SCOPE OF SOIL ENGINEERING
 USES OF SOIL
• As supporting material to bear the load of
structures resting on earth.
• Raw construction material for earthern
structures like dams, leeves, raods,
airfields
• Processed material in the form of burnt
bricks
• In Pottery industry china clay (kaolinite) is
used as raw material
 Uses of Soil
• Kaolinite is used in paper, paint and
pharmaceutical industry
• Bentonite (clay) is used in drilling industry
for stabilization of boring and in slurry
trench construction for stabilizing
foundation excavation
• In medicines (kaoline mixture)
 Why soils are important for Civil Engineers

• Soil is the most common, oldest but the

complex material.

• Unlike other material like steel it is not

homogenous so its behaviour under load
cannot be predicted with reasonable
accuracy.
• Properties highly variable function of
stress type and history
 Why soils are important for Civil Engineers

• Properties change with time, stress,

environment
• For design of dams, highways, tower,
retaining walls we have to deal with the
situations where parameters are not well
defined, hence no single solution.
• In such situation one has to apply his
judgement/ experience in addition to the
knowledge of the subject.
Role of Soil in Civil Engineering
• Settlement of a structure is predicted from
the behaviour of a small sample of soil
subjected to consolidation test.
• But the question arises up to what extent
these test data are representative of the
overall behaviour of the actual soil
stratum. Also other factors need to be
considered are as follows
Role of Soil in Civil Engineering
– Up to what extent was the sample disturbed
during excavation/ extraction, preparation.

– To what extent the physical characteristics of

the soil under consideration vary both in
horizontal/ vertical direction.
 Historical Development of Soil Mechanics

• Remnants of most notable structures built by

Roman, Egyptians, Chinese and other provide
evidence that some knowledge existed during
ancient civilization of interaction of super
structure with the supporting soil underneath
• The great wall of China
• The pyramids of Egypt
• Many buildings and durable roads constructed
by Romans
 Historical Development of Soil Mechanics

• The mastery of Dam building displayed by

Indians.
• Leaning Tower of Pisa
Role of Geotechnical Engineering in various Projects

Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

(extend to bed rock about 100 ft below the
water level, difficult to construct high tidal
Sears Tower in Chicago (one of waves)
the Tallest Building)
Role of Geotechnical Engineering in various Projects

Oroville Dam, California (one of the largest earth

filled dam in world)
Role of Geotechnical Engineering to avoid failure

Niigata Earthquake in Japan (Liquefaction rotating

the apartment buildings)
Role of Geotechnical Engineering to avoid failure

Teton Dam Failure House built near the top

(only few month after the of slope
completion when reservoir
was completely filled)
Role of Geotechnical Engineering to avoid failure
 Case Studies

• Minaret of a Mosque in Walled City was raised to a

height of 200 ft on fill material.
• As a result walls cracked and settlement took place
Petrol Pump near Rawalpindi on Motor way
The contractor erected the whole structure on the
fill material without compaction in layer as a result
settlement took place and cracks appear in walls
 Soil and Rock
• Soil: Unconsolidated agglomerate of minerals
above solid Rock
• Rock: Hard and durable material that can not be
excavated without blasting
Difference between Rock and Soil
• Rocks are generally cemented; soils are rarely
cemented
• Rocks usually have much lower porosity than
soils
 Soil Deposits
• Residual soils
– Soils formed by weathering of rocks in place
• Transported soils
» Alluvial or fluvial or Alluvium
» Aeolian soil deposits
» Glacial soil deposits
» Colluvial or colluvium

• Organic soils
• Marine soils
• Pyroclastic soils
 Some Typical Soil Names
• Clay: finest soil particle wise having grain diameter less
than 0.002 mm. It is quite hard when dry and shrinks
during the process of drying. It possess much cohesion
and shrinks during the process of drying. It undergoes
large settlement when wet. It feels smooth when touched
with fingers.

• Silt: (particle size 0.002-0.075 mm)

– It is partly plastic and partly cohesive. Silt are permeable to
some extent and capillary action is high. It has little value of dry
strength. When taken in hand it feels rough. It also exhibit
dilatency.
 Some Typical Soil Names
• Sand: (particle size 4.75 mm – 0.075 mm)
– It has no plasticity and negligible cohesion (in dry state zero). It
has marked value of internal friction between individual grains.
When sand is present in a confined it can withstand great load.
Fine sand have relatively high value of permeability and
capillarity where as medium and coarse sand have high
permeability and low capillarity. It feels gritty (rough) because of
presence of individual sand grains
• Gravels: (particle size 4.75 mm - 75 mm)
– It is used in road construction, foundation work and concreting.
Gravels when mixed with sand, silt and clay becomes a well
graded mass and it is an excellent load bearing material. The
capillary action in gravels is not very prominent. The rise in water
table is not likely to decrease its strength.
 Some Typical Soil Names
• Organic Matter:
– The main source of organic matter which is found in the top soil
layer is animal or vegetable remains which are left in place
where these organisms die. The organic matter has spongy
structure (having large number of voids). These material
undergo large volume change upon application of loads. It has
large % of moisture content in it.
• Boulder: (particle size > 300 mm)
– They are rock fragment of any shape having size greater than
300 mm.
• Cobbles: (particle size 75 mm - 300 mm)
– They are rock fragment of any shape having size in the range of
75 mm to 300 mm
 Some Typical Soil Names
• Gumbo:
– It is very fine clay deposit. The clay is dark in colour and when
wet it is plastic, sticky and spongy
• Hard Pan:
– It is relatively hard densely cemented soil layer. It does not
soften when wet. It consists of either clay or silt with sand or
gravel in it. Hard pan offers great resistance to the penetration of
drilling tools and is difficult to excavate.
• Humus:
– It is dark brown organic earth of top soil. It is unsuitable as a
foundation or as a construction material because it continues to
decay or shrinks.
 Some Typical Soil Names
• Loess:
– It is uniform, cohesive, wind blown porous deposit of very fine
material. The size of the particles ranges from 0.01 mm to 0.05
mm. these sizes corresponds to silty clays. Its colour is yellowish
light brown.
• Muck:
– It is mixture of fine particled inorganic soils and black
decomposed organic matter. The material is either found in
swamps or is deposited by over flowing rivers.
• Peat:
– It is organic soil formed by vegetable matter. Under conditions of
excessive moisture it is very compressible and is therefore
unsuitable for supporting even the lightest foundation.
 Some Typical Soil Names
• Loam: mixture of sand, silt and clay
• Mud: a pasty mixture of soil and organic matter
• Caliche: cemented clay, sand gravel mixture. The
cementing material is clacium carbonate deposited
through evaporation
• Marl: Caly with calcareous material
• Boulder clay: clays containing wide range of particle
sizes varying from boulder to very fine
• Bentonite: clays with main mineral of montmorrilonite
formed by chemical weathering of volcanic ash
• Black cotton soils: Highly expansive and compressible
clays of dark to black color commonly found in India
 Objectives of Soil Mechanics

• To perform engineering soil survey

• To develop soil sampling devices and sampling
methods.
• To develop suitable soil testing devices and soil testing
method
• To collect and classify information on soils and their
physical properties in the light of fundamental knowledge
of soil mechanics, earth works and foundation
engineering
• To investigate physical properties of soil
• To evaluate and interpret soil test results and their
application to the use of soil as foundation support or as
construction material
 Objectives of Soil Mechanics

• To understand physical processes which actually take

place in soils, subjected to static and dynamic load,
water and temperature.
 Phase Relation and Basic Definition

• Soils are aggregates of mineral particles and together

with air and or water in the void spaces they form three
phase system.
• The sizes of particles that make up soil vary over a wide
range.
• Soils generally are called gravel, sand, silt, or clay,
depending on the predominant size of particles within the
soil.
• To describe soils by their particle size, several
organizations have developed particle-size
classifications.
Soil Particle Size
 Soil Particle Shape

• Angular Particles have sharp

edges and relatively plane
sides with unpolished
surfaces.
• Sub Angular Particles are
similar to angular description,
but have rounded edges.
• Sub Rounded Particles have
nearly plane sides, but have
well-rounded corners and
edges.
• Rounded Particles have
smoothly curved sides and no
edges.
 Physical Properties of Soil

• In general, a soil mass consists of solid particles, water

and air. The three constituents are blended together to
form a complex material.
• However, for convenience, all the solid particles are
segregated and placed in the lower layer of the three-
phase diagram
Actual Soil Mass vs Three Phase Soil System
 Physical Properties of Soil

• When the soil is

fully saturated,
there is no air
phase

• When the soil is

absolutely dry, the
water phase
disappears

• When the soil is

partially saturated
Volumetric Relationship of Soil
 Volumetric Relationship of Soil

• VOID RATIO (e) Vv

e=
– For Sand e- 0.5-0.9 Vs
– For Clay e – 0.7-1.5
– e may exceed 3 to 4 times for some collodial type clays

VV
• POROSITY (n) n= ×100
– (0-100%) V

• DEGREE OF SATURATION (Sr) Vw

Sr = 100
Vv
• For a dry soil, Sr = 0%, and for a fully saturated soil, Sr =
100%.
 Volumetric Relationship of Soil

• AIR CONTENT (ac) is the ratio of the volume of air (Va)

to the volume of voids (Vv).

Va
ac =
Vv

• PERCENTAGE AIR VOIDS (A or na) is the ratio of the

volume of air (Va) to the total volume (V).

Va
A = na =
V
 Weight Volume Relationships
• BULK UNIT WEIGHT W
γb =
V
Ws
• DRY UNIT WEIGHT γd =
V

Wsat
• SATURATED UNIT WEIGHT γ sat =
V

• SUBMERGED UNIT WEIGHT

W
γ sub = sub γsub = γsat - γw
V Ws
• UNIT WEIGHT OF SOIL SOLID γs =
Vs
 Weight Weight Relationships

Ww
• WATER (MOISTURE) CONTENT w= 100
Ws
– Moisture content varies from 10-30% for sands and 10% to
more than 300% for clays

• SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF SOLIDS

Ws
γs V Ws
Gs =  Gs = s and if Vs =Vw  Gs =
γw Ww Ww
Vw
γb
• MASS / BULK SPECIFIC GRAVITY G m =
γw
• RELATIVE DENSITY (Dr) γ  γ d -γ dmin  emax  e
Dr = dmax Dr 
  emax  emin
γd γ -γ
 dmax dmin 
 Weight-Weight Relationships

 γd 
• RELATIVE COMPACTION Rc =    100
 γ dmax 

emax  e
Dr 
emax  e min

γ dmax  γd -γ dmin 
Dr =  
γd  γ dmax -γ dmin 
 Relative Density
Gs w
• Maximum Void ratio- emax 
 d min
1

Gs  w
• Minimum Void Ratio emin 
 d max
1

γ dmax  γ d -γ dmin 
Dr =  
γd  γ dmax -γ dmin 

• Relative Density
emax  e
Dr 
emax  emin
Problem
Relationships between various parameters
Relationships between various parameters
 TWO BASIC SOIL TYPES

• Particle Size Distribution

Sieve Analysis

Hydrometer Analysis
Using Stoke’s Law
 TWO BASIC SOIL TYPES

• Granular Soil
– Cohesionless visible to naked eye
– Particles are large and equi-dimensional
– They have very low specific surface area
– Only mass forces are acting
– Coefficient of permeability is high
– Capillary pressure is very low
– Engineering properties from in-situ penetration test
– Tests are carried out in drained loading conditions

• Specific surface area is surface area to mass ratio

• Capillary pressure is the pressure experienced by the
water held in pores of soil above the capillary zone is
retained in a state of reduced pressure
Grain Size Distribution Curves
 TWO BASIC SOIL TYPES

• Commercially Ravi Sand Chenab Sand

available
Granular Soil

Lawrencepur Sand Shaki Sarwar Sand

F
 100

90
Cu - 5.79 to 7.33
Cc - 0.86 to 0.97
80
Percent finer by weight, %

D50 - 0.8 mm -0.08 mm

70

60

50

40
.
30
Range of samples
20 medium to fine sand
10

0
100 10 1 0.1 0.01 0.001
Particle size, mm
GRAVEL SILT & CLAY
SAND
 100 Coarse Sand

90 Medium Sand

80
Fine Sand
Percent finer by weight, %

70
Silt
Clay
60

50

40
.
30
Range of samples
20 medium to fine sand
10

0
100 10 1 0.1 0.01 0.001
Particle size, mm
GRAVEL SILT & CLAY
SAND
 TWO BASIC SOIL TYPES

• Cohesive Soil

– Consists of clay minerals

– Particles are small and platy shaped
– They have high specific surface area (> 10m2/g)
– Mass forces and surface forces are acting
– Coefficient of permeability is low
– Capillary pressure is very high
– Engineering properties from in-situ and lab test
– Tests are carried out in undrained loading conditions