Monday-6

Stress paths, State

Paths and Use of Voids
Ratio
This section deals with the stress
paths under different type of
conditions. The state parameters
and the state paths and the use of
voids ratio or water content as a
state variable in addition to the
two stresses q, and p.
Also, specific volume v can be
used instead of voids ratio or
water content.

v=1+e
Only the behaviour of saturated clay
will be discussed in this Course of
lectures. The concepts are also
eextended to partially saturated soils
by other authors. Initially, the applied
stress path is defined as applied on a
soil element and this stress path
becomes the drained path in the case of
high permeability soils where the
drainage of water is instantaneous.
However for low permeability soil such
as clays, the undrained stress path
deviates from the applied stress path
depending on the magnitude of the
pore pressure that is developed. In the
case of normally consolidated clays,
which have the loosest packing, the
maximum pore pressure develops and
the sample tends to decrease in volume
due to shear.
That is the same as for very
loose sand. However in the case
of heavily over consolidated clay
and very dense sand, negative
pore pressures develop with a
tendency for the soil to expand
in volume under drained
condition.
Isotropic
Consolidation
When all the three principal
stresses are equal in magnitude
then the stress system is said to be
isotropic.

' ' '

1   2  3
The application of a cell pressure of 20
kPa or 20 KN/m2 to a specimen of clay
in the triaxial apparatus causes the
sample to be subjected to an isotropic
stress of 20 kN/m2. If the sample is now
allowed to consolidate and when the
consolidation is 100 pc complete we
say that the triaxial specimen is under
an isotropic consolidation pressure of
20 kN/m2.
   2   3  p0
1
1 ' '

= 20 kN/m2
   2   3  p0
1
1 ' '

The deviator stress q is zero during

isotropic consolidation.
Thus the effective stress path during
isotropic consolidation lie along the p-
axis in the (q,p) plot. If the behaviour
of soils is isotropic, then isotropic
stress increments cause isotropic strain
increments.
Thus all the strain increments are
equal. For isotropic consolidation

q=0 and p = p0 =  con

'

Thus the effective stress path during

isotropic consolidation lie along the p
axis as shown in Fig. 2.1
The strain increments are such that

 v  3 1  3 3

and the shear strain increment is zero.

 s  0
For re-sedimented clay in the
normally consolidated state, the voids
ratio- mean normal stress
relationship during isotropic
consolidation is linear. Some time
there can be a small concavity, but a
linear assumption is often justified.
In the early days, a logarithm to the
base ten is used.
log10 (10) = 1
However when we deal
with differential algebra it
become useful to use
Napier logarithm and thus
lne (10) = 2.303. In using the
logarithm to the base ten log is
used as abbreviation and
for logarithm to the base e, ln
is used as abbreviation.
Fig. 2.2 illustrates the consolidation
and swelling under isotropic stress
with linear mean normal stress
scale. In Fig. 2.2, a number of
swelling curves are shown as the
swelling is done from isotropic
stresses of 50, 100, 250, 500 and
1000 kN/m2.
The relationships shown in Fig. 2
and 3 can be expressed as

e0  e  Cc log( p / p0 

e0 is the initial voids ratio under an

isotropic stress p0 and e, and p are
the current voids ratio and mean
normal stress respectively.
In terms of the natural logarithm,
this relation becomes

e0  e   ln( p / p0 

Then,   2.303C c
Similarly, the swelling relations can
be expressed as
e0  e  C s log( p / p0 
and
e0  e  ln(p  p0 

  2.303C s
Anisotropic consolidation
We have already defined
consolidation as a phenomenon
during which the stress ratio is
maintained a constant.On the
compression side, the major
principal stress is the axial stress
and the minor principal stress is
the radial stress.
 '
1
If we denote,
'
k
3
Then,
q  3(k  1) 
    
p  (k  2) 
The k values also include the at rest
K0 conditions. .
  1
Such that K0   
 k   3 0

During anisotropic consolidation

d 1
the ratio is found to be a
d 3
constant.
 d 1
When is a constant
d 3
d v
is also a constant
d s
  d1 
  2  

d v 3   d 3  
Thus,   

d s 2   d1 
  1
 d 
 3 
During constant stress ratio paths,
the strain ratios are also
constant as stated before. These
values are given in Table 2.2.

The dilatancy ratio is plotted in Fig.

2.5. It also contained a point
corresponding to the K0 condition
when the dilatancy ratio is 1.5.
This dilatancy ratio was used in the
prediction of strains in Drained tests
by Roscoe & Poorooshasb in an
empirical manner.
Subsequently various stress strain
theories have appeared with elasto-
plastic concepts to model the dilatancy
behavior. These aspects will be
discussed in later Chapters.
Drained stress paths with

d  0

Conventional drained triaxial test

carried out in the laboratory is such
that the cell pressure is maintained
constant after the consolidation.
If we do not involve the back
pressure in our discussion, then
the consolidation pressure is
the same as the cell pressure
and remains constant during
the conventional drained test.
 ' '
q 1  3

1 '

p  1  23
3
'

Differentiating for
increments
' 1
dq  d1
'
and dp  d1
3

' '
Since  2  3 = constant
Thus a conventional drained
triaxial compression test from
isotropic or anisotropic conditions
can be described by
dq
3 and dp  0
dp
This stress path is shown in Fig.
2.6
If we now want to carry our a
drained triaxial compression test
with
dq
2
dp

Then the deviator stress and the

cell pressure be adjusted.
dq  d1
'
 d3
' 1
 '
dp  d1  2d 3
3
'

dq Solving these equations,
2
dp we have
dq  6d 3
' '
d1'  7d 3
Therefore in this test if the deviator
stress is increased by 1 kN/m2, then the
cell pressure must also be increased by
a sixth of a kN/m2.
If we want to follow a K0 consolidation
path with a K0 value of 0.7 say, then
the
dq  1 K 0  dq
 3  and  0.375
dp  1  2K 0  dp
The dq and the d3 values be now
adjusted appropriately such that
dq
 0.375
dp
The common triaxial
tests carried out are

i. Compression loading test

for which d3' = 0, d1' = 0

dq
Then,  3 and dp > 0
dp
ii.Compression unloading test

' '
d1 = 0, d3 < 0

dq 3
 and dp < 0
dp 2
iii. Extension loading test

d1' = 0, d3' > 0

dq 3
Then, 
dp 2
and dp > 0
iv. Extension unloading test

d1' < 0, d3' < 0

dq
Then, 3
dp

and dp < 0
In the case of drained test the
applied stress path and the
drained stress path are
coincident as the excess pore
pressure due to shear is fully
dissipated and is assumed to be
zero.
Undrained behavior
Unlike metals granular materials when
subjected to shear change in volume.
The normally consolidated clay and
lose sand tend to reduce in volume
and the heavily over-consolidated and
dense sand tend to dilates in volume.
In the drained case such change in
volume tales place.
However, in the undrained case
when the tendency is to reduce
in volume, positive excess pore
pressures develop. That is in the
case of normally consolidated clays
and loose sand positive pore
pressure develops under undrained
shear.
On the other hand, if the samples
tend to expand in volume during
shear and this expansion is
prevented then the samples tend to
develop negative pore pressures.
Thus the heavily over consolidated
clays and dense sand tend to
develop negative pore pressures
during undrained shear.
Fig. 2.7 illustrates the undrained
and applied stress path for a
constant cell pressure condition
when a sample is sheared from
the isotropic stress in
compression.
The undrained stress path shown
in Fig. 2.7 illustrates
that the sample develop positive
pore pressure and the state path
in (v, p) plot move from A'' to B'' as
the positive pore pressure is
developed.
 Normally Consolidated and
Overconsolidated States
The definition of normally
consolidated and overconsolidated
clays should be applicable for both the
consolidation mode and shear with
increasing stress ratios on the
compression and extension sides.
Almost all the natural deposits of clays
are at least lightly over consolidated.
Normally consolidated state without
shear under isotropic condition
correspond to the loosest packing of
the clay particles with the highest voids
ratio for a given value of the mean
normal stress.
In Fig. 2.8 the line ABC correspond to
the loosest packing in the normally
consolidated state. In this figure all the
possible states and impossible states
are also shown. Except for B (Fig. 2.9)
all other states on the line BD
correspond to the overconsolidated
state.
The x-axis in Fig. 2.9 correspond to
exponential logarithm and as such
the slopes of consolidation and
swelling lines are denoted as  and
. The specific volume is defined as

v=1+e
N corresponds to the specific volume
when the mean normal stress p is unity
on the normally consolidated state. For
a maximum past pressure of pm and a
current stress of unity except for the
value of N all other specific volumes
between N and v correspond to the
overconsolidated state since N is the
loosest specific volume.
It should be noted that while the
consolidation and swelling curves in
1-D consolidation are parallel to the
isotropic consolidation and swelling
lines in the semi-log stress plot, the 1-D
consolidation states correspond to a
sheared mode and is with denser
packing as shown in Fig.2.10. For
isotropic conditions, the normally and
overconsolidated states are quite clear.
For example, consider a sample of clay
subjected to the maximum past
pressure of 100 kN/m2. Then at 100
kN/m2 of mean normal stress the
sample is in a normally consolidated
state. However, if this specimen is
subsequently subjected to a stress
release, such that the current stress is
50 kN/m2, then the specimen is now in
an overconsolidated state.
The degree of overconsolidation,
100
n = 2
50

In the above definition only isotropic

stresses are considered and the
deviator stress is zero (see Fig. 2.11).
In Fig. 12, let the point A corresponds
to a normally consolidated state.
If now the specimen is subjected to a
constant volume stress path (undrained
stress path), it would follow a path of
the form AC. All states of stress to the
left of curve , AC and bounded by the
failure envelope and the p-axis will
correspond to the overconsolidated
state. Those on the curve AC and to the
right outside the curve will be in the
normally consolidated state.
Hence a specimen at state D in the
normally consolidated state can be
brought to the overconsolidated state,
provided it is subjected to a stress path
of the form DE as shown in Fig. 2.12
The specimen at state E in the over
consolidated state, can only be brought
to the normally consolidated state (say
F) by the application of any stress path
EF which crosses the boundary AC or
lie on it.
Hence associated with the
normally consolidated state is
always a boundary (which is the
constant volume path-- undrained
path) separating the over
consolidated states.
 State Paths in (q,p), (v,p), (v,q) Planes
The major contribution made by Roscoe,
Schofield and Wroth is to look at the
consolidation and shear in the (q,p), (v,p)
and v,q) planes. Some time and perhaps
most of the time log(p) and log(q) are used
instead of q and p when the specific volume,
water content or voids ratio variation
is studied. The Napian logarithm is used.
The drained state paths of normally
consolidated clay is shown in Fig. 2.13.
Fig. 2.14 contains the state paths under
undrained condition bounded
by the isotropic states and the critical
state line. The projection of the critical
state line in the (q,p) plane is a straight
line and can be expressed as,
q = Mp. Also the projection in the
(v, lnp) plot can be expressed as

v     lnp
The projection in (v, lnq) plot is also a
straight line for normally
consolidated clays. It can be shown
that the slope M in compression is
given by 6 sin 
Mc 
3  sin 
and
6 sin 
in extension by Me 
3  sin 
These expressions can be used to
determine the angle of internal
friction, . The results of the
undrained test are shown in Fig. 2.14.
In the case of overconsolidated
samples dilation takes place during
drained shear and negative excess pore
pressures develop during undrained
shear.
The overconsolidated samples were
found to fail on a Hvorslev type failure.
Roscoe, Schofield and Wroth made an
idealistic postulate that for a given
specific volume, there is one Hvorslev
failure envelope and the samples are
ideally expected to reach the critical
state line. The normally consolidated
clays are well studied now and the
strains in shear can be calculated from
the Cambridge theories.