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SOME PROBLEMS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SOIL MECHANICS* (Shear in Soils) By D. P. Kryninc, Research Associate in Soil Mechanics, Yale University 1. GENERAL The scope of Soil Mechanics is rapidly growing, and it is quite im- possible even to enumerate all its problems in a short report. In the following pages those points which have been in some way concerned with the writer's activities during the last year, will be discussed. Special attention will be given to shear phenomena in soils. Soil Mechanics may be defined as a science dealing with the behavior of different soils as connected with engineering structures. It follows from this definition that soil mechanics is concerned with practically all kinds of engineering structures since all of them are constructed on the earth’s surface or close to it. The variety of soil types suggests the idea, however, that a single general law controlling such a behavior cannot be formulated once for all the soils. Actually this is the case. Moreover, the behavior of a soil mass depends on its state at the given moment. In this connection the moisture content is to be mentioned especially. En- gineers of all times and of all nationalities have always felt it. A British technical journal} even formulated this statement in a rather poetical form by periphrasing a well known nursery rhyme: “When the clay is good it is very good, But when it is bad it is horrid.” This quotation makes a true statement that a soil material may possess variable properties according to circumstances under which it works. The natural conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing fact would be the necessity for a detailed study of the physical properties of soils. This study, however, has been practically neglected by engineers until Dr. Terzaghi expressed the idea in question in a very clear scientific form.? Owing to his work and to that of many more investigators a solid basis for an engineering soil physics has been laid. Another notable idea of Dr. Terzaghi’s is concerned with soils under the level of ground water. He stated that the squeezing of water from the voids of such a soil upon loading it, obeys certain laws. This squeezing depends both on the value of the load and the nature of the soil. Thus, a theory of “hydrodynamic * Presented at 49th Annual Meeting, Hartford, Connecticut, February 22, 1933. tEngineering, November 7, 1924. 1“Erdbaumechanik”, 1925, and some previous papers. 92 ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SOIL MECHANICS 93 stresses” was created which led to many fruitful conclusions dealing with both the consolidation of natural deposits and the settlement of buildings. Obviously, soils under ground water have all their voids filled with water. In this report those soils which have their voids but partially filled with moisture, are meant. 2. STRESSES IN A Sort Mass; ComprEsSION AND SHEAR. ADJUSTMENT to THE Loap Suppose a homogeneous elastic body is loaded and strained. The body reassumes its initial shape upon the removal of the load provided the stress caused by that load be under the elastic limit. In order to determine the pressure intensity S caused by a load P at a certain depth z and at a certain distance x from the line of action of the load, the Boussinesq formula? may be used : 3P So ee eee (1), 2n rag where Se (2). For instance, let us determine the pressure intensity caused by a load P = 200 tons at a depth z = 12’ and x = 9’ away from the line of the load action. In this case r = W12® + 9 = 15’ and 3x200 128 S= x = 0.22 t/ sq. ft. 2x3,14 155 It should be stated also that the size, the shape, and the rigidity of the slab through which the load P is acting, have a certain bearing on the results. It may be seen from the above example that the pressure dis- tribution does not depend on the material of the loaded elastic body. In other words, the pressure intensity under a given load and at a given point is the same, be the elastic body made of steel, iron, or rubber. A question arises whether or not the Boussinesq formula may be applied to soils. Some engineers claim that the formula is good for soils; others consider soil as a semi-elastic body. Some investigators (for instance, Koegler and Scheidig#) found discrepancies between the theoretical computations and their own laboratory measurements. The writer’s opinion on the subject is as follows. A soil mass represents an assemblage of very small bodies (particles) and each of them undoubtedly obeys the laws of mechanics. 2Boussinesq. Application des potentiels, 1885. 8 In a series of articles published in “Bautechnik”, 1927-1929. 94 FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT The load acting on a particle should be in equilibrium with the reactions of the supports (Fig. 1), whatever these supports may be (neighboring particles; moisture films; air bubbles); otherwise the particle would move. Let us call such a movement adjustment of the soil to the load. It is evident that: (a) the adjustment is less considerable in compact soils and more considerable in the loose ones; (b) the adjustment is not reversible, i.e. it does not disappear upon the removal of the load; and (c) only, when the whole mass is adjusted to the load, it may be con- sidered as acting as a single elastic body, under condition, however, that the soil mass remains homogeneous. It is easy to demonstrate that the latter condition is not satisfied. The greater the unit load, the greater is the amount of adjustment (for the same soil). Therefore, since the unit compression stress is evidently greater in the sections closer to the point of action of the concentrated load, the amount of adjustment de- load Fic. 1. Soil particle in equilibrium creases in the direction away from the load. In other words, when a possibility appears for the soil to start working as a single body, elastic and homogeneous, it cannot do so because it has already lost its homo- geneity owing to differential adjustment. Since this is so, the applications of the Boussinesq formula to soils should be subject to restrictions. By no means can it be applied: (a) in the cases of possible excessive adjust- ment, that is in the cases of soils with unstable structure such as loose sands and similar soils; (b) for those sections of a soil mass where the lack of homogeneity is excessive, in other words, close to the load. Thus the Boussinesq formula may furnish more or less satisfactory results only when applied to sections at a certain distance from the load. This state- ment may be proved experimentally. Adjustment may cause soil motion in any direction and may last longer or shorter time. During the period of adjustment a particle is ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SOIL MECHANICS 95 compressed by the variable resultant of the support reactions (partial elastic action). When the adjustment is over and stresses do not exceed the elastic limit, the full elastic action takes place. This term is con- -L__> Fic. 2. Action of a plastic mass under punch (according to Prandtl and Hencky). Fic, 3, Slip lines in soil under pressure (silty sand from a Connecticut River meadow). ventional since it is not exactly known whether or not, during this period, all the laws of the elastic theory may be applied to the soil. If they could, the slip lines in Fig. 3 would intersect at right angles, which, however, is 96 FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT not the case as it may be seen from the figure. Hence, the doubt as to the perfect elastic behavior of the soil at any time. If the load exceeds the elastic limit and approaches the ultimate strength of the material of the grains, one could expect their destruction. But, as a rule, before this happens the soil yields along the shearing surfaces and failure occurs by shear. The shape of shearing surfaces may be determined either theoretically or experimentally. Both Dr. Prandtl* and Dr. Hencky® analyzed the phe- nomenon of pressing a metallic punch into a plastic mass and obtained such surfaces. (Fig. 2). The writer obtained slip lines along which shear takes place by pressing a vertical metallic punch, somewhat less than one inch square, against a horizontal soil layer also about one inch thick, located on a laboratory table. Fig. 3 shows such slip lines as obtained on a layer of fine silty sand from a Connecticut River meadow. The disintegration of the soil mass along the shearing surfaces takes place if the soil is not plastic. Otherwise plastic flow may happen: the soil moves as a very dense liquid practically following the direction of slip lines. Very little is known about the plastic flow of soils under load; and the study of this phenomenon is one of the vital problems of Soil Mechanics. “The questions of stress distribution along a shearing surface and of the shape of shearing surfaces themselves, need further study, since our knowledge along the lines cannot yet be considered as definite. Judging from his laboratory and field observations, the writer believes that the shearing crack is a progressive failure starting close to the point of appli- cation of the load. But since this statement has not yet been fully’ proved, a simultaneous action of stresses along the whole shearing surface is to be assumed. 3. Compressep Zone Unper A STRUCTURE Using the Boussinesq formula the location of points with equal vertical pressure intensity may be established. Lines or surfaces joining such points are called “isobars.” The shape of isobars was also determined experimentally. In this connection, the experiments of Professor Enger, of the University of Illinois (1915), of Koegler and Scheidig, of Germany (1927) and many others should be mentioned. The pressures in such experiments were usually measured at the bottom of the experimental box by using either a manometer or a scale. The diagram thus obtained 4 Zeitschrift der angew. Mathematik und Mechanik, Volume 1 (1921), page 15. 5 Loc. cit, volume 3 (1923), page 241; see also page 401. ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SOIL MECHANICS 97 is often called “bulb of pressures.” (Fig. 4). Intersect the bulb of pressures by a horizontal line and plot the percentages at the points of intersection against distances from the central line of the load. The curve thus obtained is similar to the probability curve. It shows the stress distribution at a given depth, but at variable distances from the center of the load. Since it is so, the deflection curves (strain lines) at the same depth should be approximately similar to an inverse proba- obable aisturbed zoe eo» () SELL section x-x 4 S @rdeprs 4) Fic. 4. (a) Bulb of pressures (experiments of Prof. Enger). (b) Stress distribution curve (at the depth d). (c) Strain lines in East Hartford test. bility curve. Actually this is the case as is shown by a field loading test made by the writer last summer in East Hartford. An area of four square feet (1’ x 4’) was loaded with twelve tons of pig iron, through a wooden platform. The soil was moist, fine, silty sand. After three weeks of loading, an excavation was made and the bent strata were marked with paper slips fixed with pins to the vertical surface of the soil. The bent strata were found to follow very 98 FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT closely inverse probability curves. This was the first time that such results were obtained under field conditions and not in a laboratory.® The principal value of the experiment does not consist, however, in the determination of the shape of the strain lines. It was shown that all the earth pressed out by the loaded platform remained in a semi- circular zone under the loaded platform, and that the settlement con- sisted in a progressive pushing of that zone by the loaded platform. The moisture content of the semi-circular zone was only about a half of that of the surrounding soil. Thus it became clear that moisture was being pressed out from beneath the loaded platform, and that the soil in that section was changing its physical properties during the settlement. The results of the experiment described above permit us to formulate the following hypothesis. There is a compressed zone under a building shaped probably like a bulb of pressures, There is also a heavily stressed disturbed zone within that bulb (close to the load, Fig. 4) including all the material displaced by the building during the settlement. This zone moves with the building constituting something like its satellite, and finally has to separate from the rest of the soil which separation is nothing else than a shear phenomenon. This is especially true of loose (very compressible) soils. If the local soil is not compressible, that disturbed zone cannot move downward very far and will be squeezed out laterally. Hence the possibility of the bulging around a building. The squeezing in question may be vizualized as happening according to Fig. 2 or 3. In other words the bulging around a building is a phenomenon due to excessive shear stresses. Thus it is easy to understand why a settlement in the case of a non-plastic soil accompanied by bulging may be stopped by loading the bulged area around the building. Obviously, in such a way the shearing resistance of the soil is increased, and the disintegration of the earth mass along the shearing surfaces stopped. 4, Surar FamLures According to the preceding discussion, the soil action under a narrow building in many cases is as follows: (a) first the soil is compressed (adjustment and elastic compression); (b) afterward, if the load is. excessive, the shear stress which acts simultaneously with the steadily increasing compressive stress, exceeds the shearing resistance of the ® The writer is indebted to the Conn. State Highway Department and to Messrs. C. Henry Olmsted and George F. Zajicek, Members, Connecticut Society Civil Engineers, for their kind cooperation in making this test described with more details in “Eng, News-Record”, December 29, 1932. ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SOIL MECHANICS 99 soil, and the soil mass in question fails by shear. The writer believes that the same trend is true in the majority of similar cases some of which are to be discussed below. Fic. 5. Two steps of action of a pile pulled horizontally: (1) Initial position of the pile; (2) Bent pile during the adjustment; O, is the initial center of rotation; (3) Final position before shear takes place; O, is the final center of rotation, (a) VerticaL Pires Loapep Horizonratty; BuLKHEADS A vertical pile or a sufficiently long rigid stake driven to a certain depth into the ground and pulled by a horizontal force first rotates about a “zero-point” 0; (Fig. 5). This rotation is due to the compression of the soil before the pile and to its lateral displacement. When the pile 100 FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT reaches a certain angle, it pushes out an earth cone, provided the acting force is great enough and the pile itself strong enough not to be broken. The horizontal pulling force is thus transformed into shearing stresses along the surface of a cone. The writer took advantage of this property in proposing a method for determining the shearing resistance of the highway subgrade.” The above case is very characteristic of the successive steps of the soil action previous to failure. A free bulkhead (i.e. one without tie or after a tie failure) acts in a similar way. The single difference consists in the absence of the lateral displacement of the soil (except at the ends of the wall). According to the experiments made by the writer at Yale University ® the failure of a sandy soil mass in the case of a Fic. 6. Sketch showing shear action (in sand) of a free sheet piling wall: (a) and (c) are shear cracks; (b) is a bursting crack. Distances: (a) (p) = d to 15d; (b) (p) = % of (a) (p). free wall takes place according to Fig. 6. The superelevation of the ground on one side of the bulkhead does not influence very much the location of the cracks. This is due probably to the curved shape of the shearing surfaces. Observations of an actual failure gave the following results: full depth of driving, 32’; crack (a) located at 30’ 8”; crack (b) at 18”3” from the final position of the pile. This should be con- sidered close enough to the experimental data as shown in Fig. 6. These results led the writer to the conclusion that in designing bulk- heads or isolated piles, shearing stresses in the adjacent soil mass should be taken into consideration which generally speaking is not done in the 7 Report presented to the Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board, Wash- ington, D. C., December, 1931. 8In cooperation with Mr. Robert W. Abbett, Department of Civil Engineering. ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SOIL MECHANICS 101 designing practice. The American Wood Preservers’ Association ar- rived at similar conclusions in regard to wooden poles.® (b) ANcCHORAGES Extensive research along these lines was recently made in the laboratory of Professor Franzius, of Germany.1° It is quite evident that all kinds of anchorages work owing to the shearing resistance of the soil. Ob- viously, in the majority of cases the weight of the soil wedge to be moved in the case of a failure contributes to the increase of the safety factor. Anchorages are generally provided with tightening devices (turn- buckles). A good tightening of the anchor tie after its installation contributes to a quick “adjustment” of the soil. In this case there is no exterior force such as the considerable force of gravity in the case of buildings which could provoke the “adjustment.” Hence the neces- sity of man’s intervention. (c) EmBaNKMENTS A fresh fill, even unloaded, settles, and this settlement is to be con- sidered as an adjustment of the soil mass to its own weight. At the same time the base of the embankment adjusts itself to the same weight. When the adjustment is completed, full compressive and shearing stresses similar to those in an elastic body, should develop both within and beneath the embankment. Shear failure may happen either by the sliding of a slope or by the lateral flow of the base. Little is known, however, about the stress distribution in embankments and their bases. (d) Lanpstipes Landslides represent a typical shear failure which generally occurs in apparently adjusted soils. This should mean that the phenomenon is to be attributed, not to an increase of stress, but rather to a decrease of shear resistance (owing to change in moisture content or other local condi- tion). In this connection, the writer has to repeat his belief that in many cases the shearing crack should penetrate into the soil mass but gradually. Thus the actual overcoming of the shear resistance would not happen on the whole shearing surface at once, but only on a part there- of. Though the shape of sliding surfaces is assumed to he an arc of circle, no theoretical proof of this statement exists, ® Article of J. F. Seiler, “Wood Preserving News”, November, 1932. 20 Dr. Wilhelm Buchholz. Erdwiderstand auf Ankerplatten, 1931. 102 FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT The apparently simple landslide phenomena have not been yet fully understood and are still under study. A striking example of landslides caused by shearing stresses acting on a large scale, is the failure which occurred in the harbor of Gotenburg, Sweden, in 1916"). The soil was pushed out along a curved surface more than 200 feet from the sunken concrete structure. (e) Brince Piers anp Grain ELeyaTors Practice shows that many narrow, but relatively long structures suffer from shearing stresses and this often happens in the case of a slight though eccentrical overloading. Such are, for instance, bridge piers and bin houses of grain elevators. The failure takes place according to Fig. 2 and 3, either symmetrically or not. Well known is the case of the destruction of the Transcona Elevator, Winnipeg, Canada, which hap- pened in 1913.2 . (f) Reraininc Watts A retaining wall is supposed to be under the action of several forces, including soil pressure. The acting wedge separates from the rest of the soil mass along a shearing surface which often is. assumed to be a plane. As a rule, it is not. 5. Sugar Resistance; Fretp Metuops Proposep By THE WRITER Since many failures take place owing to shearing stresses, a more or less accurate determination of the shearing resistance of the soil is absolutely necessary. It is generally assumed that the shearing stress is resisted by the combined effect of (a) cohesion and (b) internal friction, acting on the shearing surface. Cohesion depends on the stickiness of the soil particles, or on their resistance to being pulled apart. This property of the soil is supposed to be quite, or almost, independent of the outside pressure acting on the soil. Cohesion reaches its maximum at a certain moisture content, and diminishes with both thé increase and decrease thereof. Friction depends on the outside pressure and on the roughness of the shearing surface as expressed by the coefficient of friction. Since the value of the shearing resistance depends not only on the moisture content, but also on the mutual arrangement of the particles, 11. Fellenius, “Erdstatische Berechnungen”, Berlin, 1927, pg. 38. 12 Described in “Eng. News-Record”, same year; also in Transactions, Am. Soe. CE. ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SOIL MECHANICS 103, it is obvious that field measurements thereof should furnish more reliable data than the laboratory tests in general usage. So far as the writer knows, there are no field methods for measuring the shearing resistance except, perhaps, some attempts to rotate discs or similar devices in the interior of a soil mass, and, except his “‘stake-method” mentioned above. An additional attempt was made by the writer last summer and is still under study. It consists in driving a standard wooden pile (for instance, 4” in diameter) to progressively increasing depths (for instance 2’; 2/ 3”; 2’ 6” and so on) and then pulling it horizontally. The pile pushes out earth cones (Fig. 5), but at a certain penetration it breaks. The resisting moment of the pile should be known, for which purpose the standard pile should be tested in a laboratory. From the conditions of equilibrium, the shearing strength of the soil may be determined. This method is very useful in the approximate comparison of two or more soils. Suppose that the standard pile driven to a depth of 3’ into the ground breaks if pulled; in another soil, a similar pile breaks when driven to 2’ only. Evidently from the standpoint of shear re- sistance the latter soil is better than the former. Such tests could be made not only on the surface of the ground, but also in excavations. 6. Some CoNncLusions Soil Mechanics has made enormous progress during the last years and has cleared up many questions on the behavior of the soil in and under engineering structures. There are, however, many branches practically untouched (for instance, plastic flow; mechanics of embank- ments and others) or needing further study (for instance, stress dis- tribution in a loaded soil mass; determination of shearing resistance and others). The writer tried to establish some general features of the behavior of soils with incompletely filled voids. As a rule, a loaded soil mass first adjusts to the load. Such an adjustment is a simple motion of isolated particles deprived of some degrees of freedom. During the period of adjustment, however, an isolated particle is compressed by the resultant of its support reactions—which force gradually increases. By the contrast, the pushing force decreases and becomes zero at the end of the adjustment period. If the stresses at the end of the adjust- ment exceed the elastic limit and are steadily increasing shearing stresses may overcome the shearing resistance and the soil mass would fail by shear. 104 FORTY; SINTH ANNUAL REPORT Failure of the soil mass by shear inevitably provokes the failure of the structure constructed thereon. But the failure of the structure may also happen during the period of adjustment simply owing to its excessive and non-uniform character. Since this is so, measures should be pro- posed tending to relieve the consequences of such an adjustment. In actual practice similar measures are being taken only in the simplest cases, (for instance, adjustment of anchorage). Owing to the fact that a good number of failures happen by shear, the designing engineer should never lose sight of shearing stresses in the soil. His duty is to locate them and if possible, to estimate them numerically, in order to be able to avoid possible fatal consequences of excessive shear in the soil mass close to his structure.

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