Effective Stress

Effective Stress
• For the range of stresses usually encountered in practice
the individual solid particles and water can be considered
incompressible; air, on the other hand, is highly
compressible
• The volume of the soil skeleton as a whole can change due
to rearrangement of the soil particles into new positions,
mainly by rolling and sliding,
• In a fully saturated soil, since water is considered to be
incompressible, a reduction in volume is possible only if
some of the water can escape from the voids.
• In a dry or a partially saturated soil a reduction in volume
is always possible due to compression of the air in the
voids, provided there is scope for particle rearrangement
 Effective Stress
• Shear stress can be resisted only by the skeleton of
solid particles, by means of forces developed at the
interparticle contacts
• Normal stress may be resisted by the soil skeleton
through an increase in the interparticle forces
• If the soil is fully saturated, the water filling the
voids can also withstand normal stress by an
increase in pressure.
 Effective Stress (Terzaghi, 1923 )
• the total normal stress (σ) on a plane within the soil
mass, being the force per unit area transmitted in a
normal direction across the plane, imagining the soil to
be a solid (single-phase) material;
• the pore water pressure (u), being the pressure of the
water filling the void space between the solid particles;
• the effective normal stress (σ’) on the plane, representing
the stress transmitted through the soil skeleton only
The relationship is:
 Effective Stress (Terzaghi, 1923
• Terzaghi, (1923) showed that when an undrained
saturated soil is subjected to an increase in applied
• normal stress, ∆σ, the pore water pressure within the
soil increases by ∆u, and the value of ∆u is equal
• to the value of ∆σ. This increase in u caused no
measurable changes in either the volumes or the
strengths of the soils tested, and Terzaghi therefore used
the term neutral stress to describe u, instead of the now
more popular term pore water pressure. This pressure
tries to separate the grains.
• The effect of this pressure is to increase the volume or
decrease the frictional resistance of the soil mass i.e., it
prevents the compression of the soil mass
 Effective Stress
• When a load is applied to such a soil, it will be carried by the water
in the soil voids (causing an increase in the pore water pressure) or
by the soil skeleton (in the form of grain to grain contact stresses),
or else it will be shared between the water and the soil skeleton.
• The portion of the total stress carried by the soil particles is known
as the effective stress ,
• It is known as effective pressure since this pressure is responsible
for the decrease in the void ratio or increase in the frictional
resistance of a soil mass.
 Effective Stress
• At any stage the total pressure Q/A is divided between
water and the points of contact of grains
 Effective Stress
• The load carried by the water gives rise to an increase in
the pore water pressure, u, which, depending on the
permeability, leads to water flowing under pressure out of
the soil mass
• This is called drainage and leads to soils possessing
different strength characteristics before, during and at the
end of the drainage period
• This in turn necessitates the need for us to understand the
behavior of the soil both immediately at the point of
loading (i.e. when the soil is in an undrained state) and at
a point in time long after the load has been applied (i.e.
when the soil is in a drained state
 Stresses in the Soil
• A load acting on a soil mass, whether internal, due to its
self-weight, or external, due to a load applied at the
boundary, creates stresses within the soil
• If we consider an elemental cube of soil at the point
considered, then a solution by elastic theory is possible.
Each plane of the cube is subjected to a stress, σ, acting
normal to the plane, together with a shear stress, Ʈ, acting
parallel to the plane
 Total Stress
• The total vertical stress acting at a point in the soil (e.g.
stress in Figure) is due to the weight of everything
that lies above that point including soil, water and any
load applied to the soil surface.
• Stresses induced by the weight of the soil subject the
elemental cube to vertical stress only and they cannot
create shear stresses under a level surface.
• Total stress increases with depth and with unit weight and
the total vertical stress at depth z in the soil due to the
weight of the soil acting above, as depicted in Figure
below
 Total Stress
If the soil is multi-layered, the total vertical stress is
determined by summing the stresses induced by each
layer of soil
 Pore pressure
• Pore water experiences pressure known as the pore pressure
or pore water pressure, u
• The magnitude of the pore pressure at a point in the soil
depends on the depth below the water table and the flow
conditions
• The magnitude of the pore pressure at the water table is
zero.
• It is clear that pore pressures are positive below the water
table. Above the water table however, the soil is saturated
with capillary water in a state of suction, and here the pore
pressures will be negative.
Effect of capillary rise
 Stresses induced by applied loads
Stresses induced by uniform surface surcharge
In the case of a uniform surcharge spread over a
large area it can be assumed that the increase in
vertical stress resulting from the surcharge is
constant throughout the soil. Here, the vertical total
stress at depth z, is given by
 Stresses induced by point load
• Most loads are applied to soil through foundations of
finite area so that the stresses induced within the soil
directly below a particular foundation are different from
those induced within the soil at the same depth but at
some radial distance away from the centre of the
foundation.
• The basic assumption used in all their analyses is that the
soil mass acts as a continuous, homogeneous and elastic
medium
• The assumption of elasticity obviously introduces errors
but it leads to stress values that are of the right order and
are suitable for most routine design work.
 Stresses induced by point load
• In most foundation problems, however, it is only
necessary to be acquainted with the increase in vertical
stresses (for settlement analysis) and the increase in shear
stresses (for shear strength analysis).
• Boussinesq (1885) evolved equations that can be used to
determine the six stress components that act at a point in a
semi-infinite elastic medium due to the action of a vertical
point load applied on the horizontal surface of the
medium. His expression for the increase in vertical stress
is:
 Stresses induced by uniform
rectangular load
• These can be established following Steinbrenner’s method
(1934). If a foundation of length L and width B exerts a
uniform pressure, p, on the soil then the vertical stress
increment due to the foundation at a depth z below one of
the corners is given by the expression:
 Bulbs of pressure
If points of equal vertical pressure are plotted on a cross-
section through the foundation, diagrams of the form shown
below are obtained.
 Bulbs of pressure
These diagrams are known as bulbs of pressure and
constitute another method of determining vertical stresses at
points below a foundation that is of regular shape, the bulb
of pressure for a square footing being obtainable
approximately by assuming that it has the same effect on the
soil as a circular footing of the same area.
• From a bulb of pressure one has some idea of the
depth of soil affected by a foundation. Significant
stress values go down roughly to 2.0 times the
width of the foundation