CE F243
Soil Mechanics
BITS Pilani Sayantan Chakraborty, Ph.D., AM ASCE, MIE
[email protected] Pilani|Dubai|Goa|Hyderabad
February 20, 2024 1
BITS Pilani
Pilani|Dubai|Goa|Hyderabad
Lecture 15
Principle of Effective Stress,
Capillarity and Permeability
Feb 19, 2024 2
Learning Outcome
➢ Understand the concept of effective stress
➢ Compute total stress, pore water pressure and effective
stress
➢ Capillarity in soils, capillary rise and capillary pressure
➢ Permeability of soils and Darcy’s law
➢ Measurement of permeability in laboratory and in field
➢ Seepage forces and quicksand condition
➢ Interpretation of flow net 3
Introduction
➢ Soil is a multi-phase system with solid phase (soil mineral skeleton)
and fluid phase (air and water)
➢ The water phase influences engineering behavior of the soil
➢ Water may influence the mineral surface chemically – chemical
interaction is important for fine-grained soil
➢ Physical interaction between soil particles and water also influences
engineering behavior
▪ No flow condition and nature of stresses in the soil mass
▪ Flow of water through soil mass and its effect on the magnitude
of forces between soil particles
4
Principle of Effective Stress
➢ Karl von Terzaghi first proposed the effective
stress principle in 1920s
➢ Shear strength, compressibility, lateral earth
pressure, etc. are directly dependent on the
principle of effective stress
➢ Effective stress (a fictitious quantity) is the
difference between total stress (a measurable
quantity) and pore water pressure (a measurable
quantity) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Terzaghi
➢ Effective stress can only be calculated mathematically and not measured
physically using any sensors
➢ Why is this fictitious quantity used?? “The concept works, and that is why 5
we use it.” – Holtz and Kovacs
Total Stress
➢ Total stress (σ), aka body stress
➢ Weight of all materials (water + solids) per unit area above the point
where total stress needs to be computed
Ranjan, G. and Rao, A.S.R., 2007. Basic and applied soil mechanics. New Age International.
Pore Water Pressure
➢ Pore water pressure (u or pwp), aka neutral stress
➢ For static water, u can be calculated using hydrostatic law
Ranjan, G. and Rao, A.S.R., 2007. Basic and applied soil mechanics. New Age International.
Effective Stress
➢ Effective stress (σ’), aka intergranular stress (is a misnomer – an
inaccurate name/term)
➢ Difference of total stress and pore water pressure
Ranjan, G. and Rao, A.S.R., 2007. Basic and applied soil mechanics. New Age International.
Effective Stress
P = Σ N’ + u Aw
A = As + Aw P/A = Σ N’/A + u Aw/A
9
A ≈ Aw σ = σ’ + u ⇒ σ’ = σ - u
Ranjan, G. and Rao, A.S.R., 2007. Basic and applied soil mechanics. New Age International.
Why Effective Stress is a Fictitious Quantity?
➢ Stress is defined for a continuous media
➢ Soil is not a continuous media – lim area→ 0; some area will pass
through soil grains, and some would pass through voids.
➢ If area is selected in the void spaces, contact stress will be zero
➢ If area is selected at the grain-to-grain contact – the contact stress
will be very high
10
Biswas, G., 2003. Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Machines, 2e. Tata McGraw-Hill
Education.
Why Effective Stress is a Fictitious Quantity?
➢ Effective stress = sum of inter-particle contact forces divided by
total area (and not the contact area) – hence a fictitious quantity
Holtz, R.D., Kovacs, W.D. and Sheahan, T.C., 1981. An introduction to geotechnical
➢ Actual contact stress should have been inter-particle force divided
by grain contact area (which is >> Effective stress)
➢
engineering (Vol. 733). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Grain contact area is impossible to estimate for engineering
purposes – hence actual contact stress cannot be estimated
11
Effective Stress for Clay Minerals
➢ In case of clay minerals, the mineral crystals are not actually in
contact with each other
➢ Most often the clay crystals will be surrounded by layer of adsorbed
water
➢ It is assumed that inter-particle forces can be transmitted through
adsorbed water
➢ Experimental evidence as well as a careful analysis by Skempton
(1960) has shown that for saturated sands and clays the principle of
effective stress is an excellent approximation to study real
engineering problems.
➢ The concept works, and that is why we use it. 12
Capillarity
➢ Capillarity arises from a fluid property known as surface tension, which
occurs at the interface between different materials.
Holtz, R.D., Kovacs, W.D. and Sheahan, T.C., 1981. An introduction to geotechnical
engineering (Vol. 733). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
13
Capillarity in Soils
➢ Capillarity arises from a fluid property known as surface tension, which
occurs at the interface between different materials. For soils and rocks, it
Holtz, R.D., Kovacs, W.D. and Sheahan, T.C., 1981. An introduction to geotechnical
occurs between surfaces of water, mineral grains, and air.
engineering (Vol. 733). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvT5SV95NFM&t=132s
hc (m) depends on the D10
(mm) and void ratio e
Empirical coefficient C
varies between 0.01 and
0.05
14
Capillarity in Soils
➢ Capillarity arises from a fluid property known as surface tension, which
occurs at the interface between different materials. For soils and rocks, it
occurs between surfaces of water, mineral grains, and air.
hc = height of capillary rise in m
For soils, put d = 20% of the
effective grain size (in mm)
15
Capillarity in Soils
Holtz, R.D., Kovacs, W.D. and Sheahan, T.C., 1981. An introduction to geotechnical
16
engineering (Vol. 733). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Capillarity in Soils
Holtz, R.D., Kovacs, W.D. and Sheahan, T.C., 1981. An introduction to geotechnical
17
engineering (Vol. 733). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Capillarity in Soils
Ground water can exist in either of the two forms, namely (i) phreatic
or gravitational water and (ii) capillary water, occurring in two distinct
zones demarcated by the water table or ‘phreatic surface’
18
Ranjan, G. and Rao, A.S.R., 2007. Basic and applied soil mechanics. New Age International.
Capillarity in Soils
https://www.preene.com/uploads/preene/files/Wesley_Preene_-
_Historical_Perspective_on_Unconfined_Seepage.pdf
u = 0 kPa (gauge) on
phreatic surface;
i.e., at atmospheric
pressure
19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lYnf1bYDRs
BITS Pilani
Pilani|Dubai|Goa|Hyderabad
THANK YOU
20
